In the history of our country, princes and nobles who broke the law in order to keep the whole body would usually ask for hanging themselves to death or be hanged. This punishment is divided into two types: hanging and strangulation, which has a long history, and Lü Bu, the Sui Emperor, Wei Zhongxian and others were all sentenced to death by this punishment. In China's modern history, celebrities who have been hanged include Li Dazhao and others. However, Li Dazhao was not the first person in modern China to be hanged, but a man named Hong Shuzu. His great-grandson is known to many people, that is, Hong Kong's famous martial arts star Hong Jinbao. What crime did Hong Shuzu commit and why was he hanged?
Hong Shuzu, formerly known as Hong Xi, was born in 1859 in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, to a prominent family. His ancestor was Hong Liangji, a famous scholar during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty. His family named him "Shuzu" in the hope that he would inherit the work of his ancestors. But what he did in his life was ultimately to live up to his family's expectations. When Hong Shuzu was just nine months old, the Taiping army captured Changzhou, and his father Hong Yan died in street battles, and his family was forced to throw themselves into the river. Only he and his mother Zhang Shi were rescued, and later turned to their uncle Hong Yanzhe and studied under his disciples.
In the fourth year of Guangxu, the nineteen-year-old Hong Shuzu took the exam to show talent, but in the next eight years, he repeatedly failed to try, so he had to make a living from the curtain. Ten years later, he was sent to England by Liu Mingchuan to inspect two clipper ships ordered by the Taiwan Bureau of Commerce in Britain. Afterwards, he was impeached by Liu Mingchuan, saying that he had embezzled public funds, so he was dismissed from his post and imprisoned for five years. After his release from prison, Hong Shuzu defected to Sheng Xuanhuai, who was then serving as a jin customs road in his hometown. Soon after, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and he was sent to Korea, mainly responsible for telegraph business. During this period, he met Yuan Shikai and Tang Shaoyi, and several of them had a good friendship.
After the war, Hong Shuzu returned to Jiangsu to make a living, and Su Song TaiDao yu Lianyuan of Jiangsu province was the shogunate of Yu Lianyuan. In the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu, he was reinstated by the imperial court as a candidate for Zhi County to distribute Hubei, and served as an official in Hankou for more than two years. Three years later, because of his discord with Jichang of Jianghan Guandao, he resigned his post and went to Shanghai to assist Li Hongzhang's adopted son Li Jingfang in handling the Anhui Railway. In the thirty-third year of Guangxu, he was selected to serve directly under him. Yang Shijun, the governor of Zhili, gave him the following evaluation: "Shrewd and capable, quite knowledgeable, and worthy of excellence." Therefore, Hong Shuzu still has a certain ability, otherwise his official position would not have risen so quickly."
However, after he became the general office of the Shangjing Mining Bureau, he used the assets of the Mining Bureau as collateral, signed a contract with the French Oriental Union Bank, and borrowed 750,000 taels of silver, which was criticized by the people at the time for selling out the national interests because of his greed for kickbacks. In the second year of Xuan reunification, the new governor directly under the governor Chen Kuilong said that he was ridiculous, so he was dismissed from his post. He fished a lot of oil and water during his tenure, and even if he resigned, Hong Shuzu could live a luxurious life in Tianjin.
During the Xinhai Revolution, he and his in-laws Zhao Fengchang were secretly active in an attempt to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and personally wrote a draft abdication edict for Puyi, but it was not adopted. Therefore, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Shuzu often regarded himself as the "founder of the revolution" and "the hero of the republic". Later, Yuan Shikai became the president and Tang Shaoyi became the premier of the state. At the recommendation of the latter, he became secretary of the Ministry of the Interior. Hong Shuzu used his official position to accept bribes, and his reputation was very bad, but he did not care at all.
In 1913, Hong Shuzu and others noticed the threat of the Kuomintang to Yuan Shikai's regime, and in order to solve the political enemies, they tried to first collect black materials and negative news from the enemy leaders Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren, and then spread them, but finally failed. Hong Shuzu was not satisfied, so he joined forces with Ying Guixin, a member of the Green Gang, and others to murder Song Jiaoren, who was the most active in political activities, advocated the cabinet of political parties, and was known as the "father of Chinese constitutionalism".
Ying Guixin hired a warrior-born warrior Ying as a killer, who shot Song Jiaoren on March 20. Two days later, Song Jiaoren died. This incident caused great repercussions in society, and people from all walks of life demanded that the murderer be severely punished. Hong Shuzu and others were arrested in the concession, but under the protection of Yuan Shikai, he fled Beijing and hid in Qingdao, a German lease, where he remained at large.
It was not until April 1917 that Hong Shuzu's whereabouts were exposed and he was arrested by the Shanghai Public Office. In April of the following year, he was escorted to a Beijing court, but he refused to plead guilty. In the end, Hong Shuzu was sentenced to hanging, which was also the first time that the Republic of China used a hanging machine.
At the time of his execution on April 5, Hong Shuzu was too heavy and his muscles and bones were weak, resulting in a different head. After his death, the concubine found the hospital in Beijing that was best at connecting corpses and sewed his head to be buried, and the executioner finally surrendered.