It was Hunan under the partition of a great power,
The national economy was devastated.
Seeking wealth and striving to be strong, where to go?
He was a merchant who was buried in Yuelu Mountain,
Introduce light industry for Sanxiang.
Tu Minzhi, Tu Minfu, can sing and cry.
Why were a generation of Xiangshang leaders secretly executed?
Why are they buried after death?
A Hundred Years of XiangShang Ups and Downs,
Tell you the legendary life of a Xiang businessman...
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, a heavenly dynasty faced the fate of disintegration, the country was weak and the people were poor, external and internal troubles, the great powers were around, and the tide of reform and revolution sprang up.
In the midst of such chaos and turmoil, a peculiar phenomenon has emerged in Hunan, and a large number of peculiar businessmen have emerged, and this group of businessmen has made money, and they have done charity, engaged in education, and are enthusiastic about public welfare, or many people make money not for the sake of making money at all, but for the sake of revolution.
Why did such a group appear, and why did it appear in Hunan? To understand this historical truth, you may wish to lock in one of the most typical characters, Yu Zhimo, and see how he inscribed a merchant legend.
The founder of Hunan Normal University Affiliated High School, Yu Zhimo Martyr
The majestic foothills are a natural barrier to the ancient city of Changsha and a beautiful natural landscape. In this landscape, there are many allusions and stories that make people linger, such as the Millennium Yuelu Academy, the Love Evening Pavilion, the Monument to the Soldiers of the War of Resistance and so on. Among them, the most proud of the Xiang people is the condensation of many national souls and Xiang Luo in this spiritual land.
Yu Zhimo is a heroic spirit in this land of spiritual beauty. Yu Zhimo's cemetery, halfway up the mountainside of Yuelu Mountain.
In 1912, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China posthumously awarded Yu Zhimo the title of "Left General of the Army" at the suggestion of Army Chief Huang Xing, and the Hunan Military Government held a grand memorial service for him, burying Yu Zhimo on Yuelu Mountain on the scale of a state funeral.
Dramatically, six years ago, in June 1906, Yu Zhimo, wearing a Napoleon hat and carrying a Japanese samurai sword, led the people of Changsha to bury Chen Tianhua and Yao Hongye, two national heroes, here. Six years later, in 1918, Huang Xing, who had proposed a state funeral for Yu Zhimo, was also buried here.
Yao Hongye, a revolutionary hero of the Xinhai Revolution, threw himself into the river and killed himself
Today, after watching and hearing about it, many tourists only understand that Yu Zhimo is a very famous fighter for the democratic revolution, and few people know that Yu Zhimo was actually a businessman, a very famous businessman at that time.
What kind of businessman was Yu Zhimo, and why did he receive such a high courtesy and be buried here?
Yu Zhi mo
This is the only remaining photograph of Yu Zhimo, and from the appearance and clothing, he does not look like an orthodox businessman or a literati with an elegant temperament, but there are three points similar to mr. private school in that era. In any case, it is difficult to associate him with the Leaders of Xiang Shang in the late Qing Dynasty.
Yu Jianbai, the grandson of Yu Zhimo, still lives in Changsha today. The eldest dream in yu jianbai's heart is to use the time in his old age to edit and publish his grandfather's life deeds again.
In Yu Jianbai's heart, his grandfather was not only a businessman, but also a heroic businessman. Perhaps it is the inheritance of the family bloodline, when he was admitted to the university, Yu Jianbai did not hesitate to choose the Department of Economics. However, in 2007, Yu Jianbai's family glory was cast a shadow by an unexpected incident, and the old man was very angry about it.
It turned out that in 2009, a film and television company pitched a feature film reflecting the suppression of bandits in Guangxi after liberation, called "Hero Tiger Guts". In order to make the work more realistic, the staff selected some historical pictures to interpret the special characters in the play, among which there is a photo of Yu Zhimo, which is actually used as a bandit character.
Yu Jianbai knew that it was no accident that such ignorant behavior was now occurring. Thinking back to that era, nearly a hundred years ago, the grandfather who was once a prominent figure has now been forgotten. In addition to the old man's anger, there is indeed some sentimentality.
This incident, in the end, after coordination between the two sides, the producers of "Hero Tiger Guts" promised to delete the clips of yu zhimo's photos used in the play, give financial compensation to Yu Zhimo's descendants, and expressed their willingness to build a bronze statue of Yu Zhimo on Yuelu Mountain.
Statue of Mr. Yu Zhimo
The storm clouds can fade out, but the historical truth cannot be tarnished.
Returning to the theme of the story, what kind of contribution did Yu Zhimo make to China in that era? As a businessman, why can he enjoy such a high standard of state funeral rites? To answer these questions, we must begin with Yu Zhimo's childhood.
Yu Zhimo was born in Qingshuping Town, Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province, to a small, dilapidated family of merchants. He has been dismissive of the Eight Strands article since childhood, loves arithmetic, and has a natural sensitivity to numbers. His grandfather was in business in his early years and had seen some of the world.
Once, Yu Zhimo found an English translation of "Mathematical Research" in the suitcase where his grandfather was running a business, and if he had obtained the most precious treasure, he could not go out for a few days and study the book. In the end, we don't know what the results he came up with. But there is a Chinese saying that tells three years old to see the old, and Yu Zhimo showed his talent for business very early.
In 1864, two years before Yu Zhimo was born, the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan attacked Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Most of the huge wealth accumulated by the Xiangjun clique was used to buy land in their hometowns, thus accelerating the land annexation in this area.
By the time Yu Zhimo was born, his family had been annexed from small and medium-sized landowners to ordinary tenants.
When he was young, Yu Zhimo was a maverick and a good fight. Born in an ordinary peasant family, he has a personal understanding of the suffering of farmers. However, he was more irritated than the numbness of many, and was more willing to resist.
One year, when there was a drought, the landlord hoarded grain there and raised the price. Yu Zhimo's uncle, who was also a large local landlord, was very dissatisfied with his landlord uncle and scolded him as a jackal. The rich man and the jackal are one sound, which is actually to call him a pig, a jackal.
Yu Zhimo organized many peasants to surround his uncle's granary, and the landlord was afraid that the peasants would rob him, so he had to pick out the grain and distribute it to everyone. From then on, his landlord uncle hated him to death, and the two families could not communicate with each other again.
Because of his good fighting, Yu Zhimo often offended the rural magnates. In order not to let him cause trouble at home, 15-year-old Yu Zhimo was sent by his mother to a cloth shop in Shaoyang as an apprentice.
Here, Yu Zhimo first came into contact with business, but this contact did not make him spark with business. On the contrary, he left a very poor impression on the merchants.
The owner of the shop where Yu Zhimo was located had already traded good cloth, and when it was delivered, it was replaced by cheap cloth. Yu Zhimo believes that the people who are engaged in business are all deceitful, and he is very unaccustomed to it, so he is not interested in this industry. Less than a year later, the owner dismissed him.
This time the experience was not pleasant, but Yu Zhimo did not distance himself from business.
Zeng Guofan
Soon the opportunity came again, but this time it was much larger than the previous small business, and he was engaged in the arms transportation business of Zeng Guo's Xiang Army at that time.
After the sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out, an acquaintance introduced Yu Zhimo to the subordinate department of Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, to engage in ordnance transportation. Liu Kunyi gave him a county alternate master book such an official.
In Liu Kun's army, Yu Zhimo was responsible for the arms transfer from Shandong through Hebei to The Liaoning Theater. Once, while loading ordnance in Texas, a box of shells accidentally fell into the water. Yu Zhimo saw this and quickly sent someone to jump into the water and pick up the gun box that had sunk into the water.
What happened next surprised Yu Zhimo, and when he pried open the sinking cargo box, he found that it contained a box of dirt. At this time, on the front line, the Daishimizu Army and the Japanese Water Army were fighting fiercely, and the shells transported from the rear were boxes of yellow mud, how could this battle be won?
Sure enough, as Yu Zhimo expected, the next battle, the Great Qing Shui Army was gradually defeated. The Qing government operated for decades, and the Beiyang Water Division, known as the first water division in Asia, was completely destroyed.
In the First Opium War and the Second Opium War, it was Britain, France, and the United States that defeated China in the developed countries of Europe and the United States. The Sino-Japanese War was different, Japan was originally a small country, but it was such a small country that was not looked up to by Chinese, and it actually defeated our big country. This was a great shock to the people of the country at that time.
Many Chinese, especially intellectuals, feel extremely sad, and the sense of national crisis has never been so urgent. The fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War made the Chinese at that time realize that if we did not save the country and survive and develop the national industry, we would perish the country and the species!
After the fiasco of Jia Wu, Yu Zhimo, as a quartermaster, was also implicated, and the Qing government removed his five-pin top wear. At this time, in the city of Beijing, a man named Kang Youwei was uniting thousands of candidates who had gone to Beijing to take the exam and wrote to the Guangxu Emperor at that time, asking for reform and change of the law. In Kang Youwei's proposal, there was one thing that attracted Yu Zhimo very much, that is, the establishment of a national industry.
Sino-Japanese War
During his tenure as a quartermaster, Yu zhimo recognized the importance of industry to a country, and he began to try to contact some reformists.
He believes that in order to save the country, we must avoid empty talk and must run a business. In 1898, during the Penghu Restoration Movement, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao proposed to run schools, newspapers, mines, and factories, and Yu Zhimo was very interested in this. Therefore, he actively participated in the Penghu Restoration Movement.
However, the Restoration soon ended with the murder of the Six Gentlemen. This incident made Yu Zhimo realize that relying on the Qing government to reform and develop industry was tantamount to conspiring with the tiger.
In 1900, the Gengzi Self-Reliance Army Rebellion led by Tang Caichang, a native of Liuyang, Hunan, and other reformers broke out. Yu Zhimo was also involved in this armed uprising to support the Guangxu Emperor and establish a constitutional monarchy, and he was still responsible for the transportation of military supplies.
This uprising, however, soon failed.
In August of that year, Tang Caichang and more than 20 other people were killed in Wuchang. At that time, Yu Zhimo was transporting ordnance to Wuhan, and when he saw that Tang Caichang's house was in a mess, he quickly fled.
In the summer of that year, he went into exile in Japan. On the one hand he studied some of the works of the bourgeois democratic revolution, and on the other hand he began to study some books on textile technology. He also went to Chiyoda, Tokyo, to learn textile technology and mechanical maintenance technology, and to Osaka to learn applied chemistry and art design.
Tang Cai, the leader of the Self-Reliant Army, was often beheaded, and since then China has begun to make a revolution!
From business to business, the chaotic situation is involved in the torrent of revolution
Crossing east to Japan, whether the industry can save the country and Yu Zhimo's wish can be fulfilled
In that era, China was rich in unequal treaties, but also rich in reformers and revolutionaries.
The reformists advocated cooperation with the Qing government and the implementation of a constitutional monarchy; the revolutionaries advocated the overthrow of the Qing government and the establishment of a bourgeois democratic republic. Whatever their means, the aim is to follow the capitalist road.
They also have in common that if they fail, they like to run to Japan.
The reason is very simple, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan went to the road of capitalism, which is worth learning. And it is relatively close to us, from Shanghai by boat to Tokyo, Yokohama, the road is close to save money. Again, Chinese and Japanese are of the same language, both yellow people, and the characters are similar, so it is more convenient to learn.
In 1900, Yu took refuge in Japan, where he was given a valuable opportunity to learn about modern industrial civilization. It was also during this period that Yu Zhimo established one of his life ambitions: industry to save the country.
In 1902, Yu Zhimo returned to China. At this time, the domestic national industry gradually developed, and the national capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, headed by Zhang Xiao, advocated industry to save the country, develop light industry, and open schools, so that the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions gradually became the center of China's light industry. At this time, in his hometown of Hunan, light industry is still blank.
Before the Sino-Japanese War, there were more enterprises run by officials, supervisors, and commerce, fewer private enterprises, and fewer national capital. Before the Sino-Japanese War, national capital enterprises were like small oases in the middle of the desert and small islands in the sea, very few.
However, after the Sino-Japanese War, it was different, and the Sino-Japanese War was fought, and the Treaty of Maguan was concluded. The Treaty of Maguan stipulated that Japanese subjects could open factories in China. Since foreigners can set up factories in China, it is not easy to restrict Chinese to open factories, so there are gradually more factories run by private people.
Li Hongzhang signs the Treaty of Maguan
During his asylum in Japan, Yu studied printing and dyeing and textile techniques. When he returned to China, he brought back four sets of ironwood hybrid looms from Japan and opened a textile factory in Anqing, named "Xiangfu". But soon. His friend persuaded him to move the textile factory to Hunan.
Hunan's economy at that time, national capitalism was mainly heavy industry, because Hunan is characterized by more non-ferrous metals, gold, tin ore, antimony ore, these things are more, so roads, mines, shipping is also more developed, Guangdong-Han railway across the center of Hunan, so Hunan industry is mainly roads, mines, heavy industry is more, but applied to the people's livelihood of light industry is not no development.
In the summer of 1903, Yu Zhimo rented the Jiangxi Guild Hall in Xiangtan and set up a textile factory called "Xiangli Qian weaving layout". "Qian" means Qianshou, which means ordinary civilians, taking the meaning of benefiting the people of Hunan. This is the first weaving factory with enlightening significance in modern Hunan.
At this time, Yu Zhimo did not have much money, and only 10 artists were recruited. Yu Zhimo poured a lot of energy into this budding small factory.
He and his employees "sleep and eat together, sit together, work together, discuss together, talk and laugh together, like the closeness of a father and a son, without any distinction between labor and capital." "Monthly income and expenditure are open, and income is within reach. He pays the same salary as his employees, without selfishness.
The small "Xiangli Qian weaving layout" weaves linen cloth wrapped with ironwood mixed looms, blue strip cloth, jacquard quilt noodles, and hand-pulled woven towels. Every process required to make towels, such as bleaching, printing, ironing, packaging, etc., yu Zhimo has personally experienced it. In this small workshop-style factory management, Yu Zhimo is also responsible for everywhere, although the factory is his own, but Yu Zhimo never easily takes one of the needles and a thread.
Drawing on the new technology that Yu Zhimo learned from Japan, the new products manufactured by the "Xiangli Qian weaving layout" soon opened up sales channels. The small "Xiangli Qian weaving layout" ended the history of Hunan people washing their faces without towels, or only imported towels, and also ended the history that Hunan people can only use Oriental cloth in addition to native cloth.
Xiangtan Rain Lake Park
Today's Xiangtan Yuhu Park, which is the back garden of the Jiangxi Guild Hall, was born here, and the first factory in the modern sense of Hunan light industry was born, although it was only a small workshop at that time.
During the operation period of Xiangtan, the "Xiangli Qian weaving layout" not only enjoyed a high reputation for its low price and material, but also won praise from its neighbors for its purpose of benefiting the people and practical actions. In order to help change people's lives, Yu Zhimo often sent technicians from his own factories to the nearby countryside to teach people new textile techniques, which is quite valuable even today.
Although the commercial atmosphere of Xiangtan at that time was getting stronger and stronger, and the weaving layout business of Yu Zhimo was getting better and better every day, Yu Zhimo at that time was not satisfied with the development of Xiangtan. Because during this period, he also secretly had frequent contacts with Huang Xing and other revolutionaries, and in order to more easily contact the revolutionaries, Yu Zhimo quickly made a decision to move to Changsha.
It was the best of times and the worst of times. It is said to be good because national industry has sprouted up; it is bad because the turmoil of the times and internal troubles have caused the newly emerging national capitalists to either be strangled or forced to take risks, and eventually many of them have embarked on another path, violent revolution.
The first batch of national capitalists like Yu Zhimo almost all drank some foreign ink, and most of them drank Oriental ink. Influenced by new ideas abroad, they dared to try new things and dared to break some feudal shackles. It is precisely because of this spirit that the new national industry, even if it is born in the cracks, still shows amazing vitality.
In 1904, the Xiangli Qian weaving layout was moved to Changsha. In order to open up a larger market, Yu Zhimo decided to expand the scale of production. One morning in August 1904, a notice for recruiting workers was posted on the gate of the Xiangli Qian weaving layout, on which were written five large characters, "Recruit female weavers.". The advertisement was also posted in Tianxin Pavilion and other places in Changsha City.
Tianxin Pavilion
This move of Yu Zhimo soon became the topic of street discussion at that time. In that era, it was a very new thing for women to get out of the family and into the factory.
When the female workers entered Yu Zhimo's factory, he was surprised to find that the production efficiency of female workers was much higher than that of male workers. As a result, everyone began to imitate the Xiangli Qian weaving layout and recruit female workers. After all, female workers are more attentive than male workers, and the textile industry is still more suitable for female workers.
Yu Zhimo's use of female workers not only increased the output of the factory, but also improved the status of these female workers in the family. It was just that in those days, women had just tried to get out of the family and were somewhat uncomfortable with the management system of the factory. In order to enable these newly entered workers to enter the state as soon as possible, Yu Zhimo set up a training class in the weaving layout, serving as a teacher himself and teaching the workers hand in hand.
Yu Zhimo's attempt to open a training course for workers soon paid off. By 1905, the Xiangli Qian weaving layout had been able to produce 80,000 meters of various colors of flower cloth and 2,500 dozen towels per year. After that, Yu Zhimo hired technical personnel who returned from studying abroad with high salaries, so that the flower cloth produced by Xiangliqian was more colorful and durable than the imported flower cloth, and became a sought-after commodity in the market for a while.
In Changsha City, when the bride gets married, if there is a Xiangliqian flower cloth in the dowry, the mother's family will deliberately expose its label. Because there was Xiang Liqian's flower cloth dowry, it was a very decent thing in that era.
Before the birth of the Xiangli qian weaving layout, the annual import volume of a single cloth in Hunan was about 15 million meters, and the light industry was backward, resulting in a large outflow of silver from Hunan folk, which directly affected the stability of Hunan economy. The annual output of 80,000 meters of flower cloth in xiangli qian weaving layout is far from filling the demand for foreign cloth in the Hunan market.
Evening sunny Changsha City
Yu Zhimo realized this, so he tried to persuade some of the progressive gentry with capital in the province to join them in investing in light industry.
However, how easy is it to move those gentry with strong capital into the light industry? In traditional Chinese thinking, buying land and buying a property is the safest and most reliable way to invest. Spending money on investment and setting up factories was indeed too risky in that era.
The more realistic problem is that the factory needs to have technical personnel, and at that time, Hunan was extremely short of such talents, and the cost of hiring foreign technicians was too high. Yu Zhimo cannot solve these problems, and the development of Hunan light industry can only be empty talk.
In March 1905, the Xiangli Qian weaving layout ushered in the first batch of expeditions, which were composed of gentry from all over Hunan. They looked at the factory carefully, and Yu Zhimo followed them, answering all kinds of strange questions from these people.
Yu Zhimo promised that if anyone was willing to invest in the factory, he could train workers for them free of charge in the factory, and Yu Zhimo even promised that if there was an urgent need, the mature artists of the Xiangli Qian weaving layout could ask for it at will.
Soon after, textile factories were set up in Hengshan, Ningxiang, Changning and Xiangxiang in Hunan. Many of these factories were set up with the assistance of artists exported by Xiangli Qian weaving layout.
Yu Zhimo not only conducts technical and cultural education for employees, personally teaches a number of technical and cultural knowledge to improve the quality of employees, but also sets up craft training institutes attached to his own factories to cultivate technical strength, and apprentices are all over the province.
At this time, although the scale of xiangli qian weaving layout is not huge, Yu Zhimo is already a well-known Yidao industrialist in Hunan, and has considerable appeal in the industrial and business circles in the province. Even the Qing government at that time was moved by Yu Zhimo's righteous deeds, and at that time, The Governor of Hunan, Zhao Erzhuo (who did not have a handle), also specially allocated the official Silver Thousand and Two to encourage and advocate Yu Zhimo's move to build a work.
In the same year, China abolished the imperial examination and built schools. For the Chinese at that time, this was a great event that shook the ages. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yu Zhimo, whose career was beginning to bear fruit, decided to start a school. To this end, he made a special trip back to his hometown twin peaks Qingshuping.
A few days later, a sailing team appeared on Lianshui, and a group of more than 50 people on the sailboat was the team that Yu Zhimo had brought from his hometown of Shuangfeng to Changsha. Among them, in addition to their families, there were also students or workers mobilized by Yu Zhimo, including Chen Meiqing, who later became a female worker.
The Affiliated Middle School of Hunan Normal University, formerly known as the Only School, was founded in 1905 by Yu Zhimo. It was later renamed Guangyi Middle School. Now under the library of shida affiliated high school, the statue that stands is her founder Yu Zhimo.
In order to mobilize rural youth to go to Changsha to enter schools, learn science and culture, and learn crafts, Yu Zhimo often lobbied alone in various places. Even if he can't study, he encourages not to sit and eat, but to go out and do things for the benefit of society. Yu Zhimo's philosophy was also implemented in his own family.
In 1905, it was an unusually busy year for Yu Zhimo, at this time, the scope of his busyness had begun to exceed the mission of an industrialist - organizing opposition to the British demand in the summer, boycotting American goods in the autumn, and jointly sending electricity in the winter to prevent the cutting of Fujian and the replacement of Liao. By the end of the year, he had become the director, president and secretary general of the Changsha Chamber of Commerce, the Hunan Education Society, and the Student Self-Government Association.
Huang xing
In August of that year, Yu Zhimo suddenly received a secret letter from Tokyo, Japan. This secret letter was sent from Yu Zhimo's close friend Huang Xing.
According to common sense, Yu Zhimo, who was already worried about food and clothing at this time, should not worry about his livelihood, should cherish his hard-won family property, and should not be easily involved in the revolution.
However, some of the things Yu Zhimo did next stunned his family and the Qing government.
In the evening of June 1906, Yu Zhimo led a dozen students from the only academy, disguised as prostitutes and gamblers, and secretly infiltrated Bixiang Street, the fireworks place in Changsha at that time.
At that time, Yu Yuqing, the superintendent of changsha, also returned from studying in Japan, and he openly went to prostitute prostitutes with the lantern of the school supervision office.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the corruption of the empire was deeply rooted, and it was not uncommon for officials to prostitute themselves. Why did Yu Zhimo not get along with Yu Yuqing? The story begins with another major event a dozen days ago.
On May 23, 1906, the coffin of national hero Chen Tianhua was transported back to his hometown of Hunan. On the 29th, Hunan business and academic circles proposed to hold a public funeral for Chen Tianhua to comfort yingling, but the Hunan authorities banned public burial in order to suppress the revolution.
On this day, Yu Zhimo, wearing a Napoleon hat, carrying an Oriental samurai sword at his waist, and wearing white clothes and white pants, led the workers of the Xiangli Qian weaving layout and the students of the only academy to rush to the front of the demonstration.
National hero Chen Tianhua
At that time, they were all white clothes and white pants, and the momentum was huge. Later a few students, staying behind to clean the tombstones, didn't come down the hill until later. Yu Yuqing led the people in the School Supervision Office and beat them up fiercely, and some of the students were arrested.
In order to rescue the arrested students, Yu Zhimo planned this secret operation against Yu Yuqing. It was at the Xiangfei Hall on Bixiang Street that they found the lantern of the school supervisor.
After Yu Zhimo captured Yu Yuqing, he tied him up to the photo studio and tied up the prostitute again. Then on Yu Yuqing's forehead, he wrote a good big prostitute, let the prostitute sit on his body, and took a picture of them.
The next day, a photo of a prostitute by the superintendent of students, Yu Yuqing, was published on the front pages of major newspapers in Hunan. The Office of The Superintendent of Education was thus disgraced.
At that time, zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, heard about this incident and wrote an approval: "Yu Yuqing is shameful, but Yu Zhimo is also too bold and arrogant."
It was this incident that buried the fatal bane for Yu Zhimo. But the only student in the academy was finally rescued.
Hunan, where the wind is surging, is already boiling.
Shortly after the public burial of Chen Tianhua and the arrest of prostitutes, in June 1906, local government officials in Xiangxiang openly levied a salt surcharge for their own selfish interests.
After hearing this, Yu Zhimo, together with some 60 or 70 staff and students stationed in xiangxiang middle school in xiangxiang province, rushed to Xiangxiang and sternly reprimanded the county magistrate Tao Fuzeng, saying: Instead of being greedy, you should invest this money in education and charge the funds for the Xiangxiang Middle School.
The county magistrate Tao Fu once complained to the provincial governor, saying that Yu Zhimo had "coaxed the tang to plug the office."
Xiangchun Gate at the end of the Qing Dynasty
On August 10, 1906, hundreds of Qing soldiers, after closing the gates of Changsha, suddenly surrounded the XiangliQian Weaving Factory, which had just moved to The North Zhengxiang Street of Changsha.
Yu Zhimo had realized that something was wrong, so he handed over the confidential documents to his mother and handed them to the female worker Chen Meiqing. Chen Meiqing hid in her suitcase and burned the documents in the middle of the night.
Early that morning, a church pastor had advised him to run. He said, our generation does things, death is righteousness, which country reform does not shed bloodshed? Finally, some affairs in the factory were arranged calmly.
After Yu Zhimo was arrested, Changsha industry and commerce and all walks of life tried to rescue him, and some people even made a special pamphlet for him- "The History of Yu Zhimo and the Reasons for His Arrest".
Under pressure from all walks of life, the government transferred Yu Zhimo out of Changsha overnight, traveled to Changde, and finally arrived in Jingzhou, Xiangxi, where he handed over to Jin Rongjing, the governor of Jingzhou, a famous official at that time.
Yu Zhimo suffered a lot of torture. Kneeling red chains, burning his chest with burning incense, using chili smoke to smoke Yu Zhimu's mouth and nose, and using hemp rope to tie the thumbs of his hands and feet together and hang them, all to the extreme.
Yu Zhimo was tortured to death and came back to life, and his body was scaled and wounded.
After the local people knew about this matter, they admired his hardness, so they made chicken soup, put poison, and sent it to Yu Zhimo to eat, so that they could get rid of this torture of life is worse than death.
Ke Yuzhimo said: We revolutionaries are upright and upright, and we will die in a dignified and upright manner.
Yu Zhimo, who was trapped in prison, had made preparations for death. But at this time, he was still worried about his relatives and the Xiangli Qian weaving layout that he had painstakingly managed.
In a letter to his mother and six younger brothers, Yu Zhimo asked his mother to preside over the factory, and proposed to open a special factory for female workers the following year, warning the family that both men and women are profitable, and not profit-sharing.
During this period, Yu Zhimo heard in prison that the Jingxiu Paper Factory run by Zhu Huitang, a native of Xiangxiang, had been successfully tested, and he excitedly asked the Jingxiu Paper Factory to bring some sample paper to Jingzhou Prison for a quick look.
Because he had studied this in Japan, and because it was not easy for the national industry to emerge, he was very concerned. He also came up with a method of making paper, and he even commissioned people to buy materials to experiment with papermaking in prison.
In 1906, the Pingliu Li Uprising occurred.
During Yu Zhimo's imprisonment, on December 10, 1906, in the area of Pingxiang, Liuyang, and Liling on the border between Hunan and Jiangxi, the League mobilized more than 30,000 people and launched the PingliuLi Uprising.
This was the largest revolution in southern China since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Qing government mobilized the forces of the four provinces of Xiang'e, Gansu, and Fujian to suppress the uprising.
After this, the local officials in Hunan, who were terrified and terrified, pointed the butcher's knife at Yu Zhimo.
Yu Zhimo asked Jin Rongjing, I want to bleed, why hang it, and live up to my heart.
Jin Rongjing said insidiously: You revolutionaries like to talk about bloody revolution the most, but today I will not let you shed blood, can you help?
Yu Zhimo laughed and said, "Be well!" Lest my red blood be stained.
In 1907, Yu Zhimo was hanged outside the west gate of Jingzhou City, and the layout of Xiangli Qian weaving was changed to XiangliQian, and the factory site was moved to Gongyuan East Street.
In 1912, when the Republic of China was founded, Huang Xing petitioned the Provisional President to posthumously award Yu Zhimo the title of "Left General of the Army" and bury Yuelu Mountain.
In 1921, Xiang Liqian was sold again and renamed Xiang Liyuan.
In 1924, Xiang Liyuan was closed due to poor management.
Tomb of Yu Zhimu
As a rising national capitalist, Yu Zhimo fulfilled his promise that he would seek profit for the people, and even ask for death for the people.
In the history books, Yu Zhimo is characterized as a revolutionary, an enlightener of the youth movement during the old democratic revolution.
But here, @Fenghua Peerless Xiao'er first returned his businessman body. Why? The reason is simple, because there are no born revolutionaries.
Although Yu Zhimo was frivolous and unruly when he was young, and even said that Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, the Xiang people, were not good at reading, this personality was not revolutionary, and only after he chose industry to save the country and deeply realized the truth that if he did not revolutionize, industry could not succeed, he gave up everything so completely and calmly went to difficulties.
In the course of the interrogation, Jin Rongjing once asked Yu Zhimo what you revolutionaries were doing.
Yu Zhimo replied, save the country and protect the seed.
Jin Rongjing asked how to save the Fa.
Yu Zhimu replied, killing people and setting fires.
Jin Rongjing asked Yu Zhimo which one you were going to kill.
Yu Zhimu replied that whoever should be killed must be killed.
Yu Zhimo was only 41 years old when he was brutally killed by Jin Rongjing outside the West Gate of Jingzhou on February 6, 1907.
In the year of Yu Zhimo's sacrifice, there were more than 50 textile factories of various types in Hunan, with an annual output of 6 million meters of cloth, and Hunan's own national textile products accounted for one-third of the local market.