On the morning of September 27, 2016, Mou Zhong, then 76, was released from prison. On that day, a woman named Xia Zongwei drove to pick him up at the gate of Hongshan Prison in Hubei Province. Xia Zongwei also has three identities: the former secretary of the chairman of the Nande Group, Mou Zhong, the only litigation agent appointed by Mou Zhongzhong after he was imprisoned, and the sister of his ex-wife.
Xia Zongwei said that at the moment when he was released from prison at about 7 o'clock in the morning of the 27th, Mu Zhong's expression was calm. Since he was imprisoned in 1999, Mou Zhongzhong has spent seventeen years in prison, his once proud "Nande Group" has also fallen and scattered, his wife has gone to foreign countries with her children, and there is only one person left beside him, and this sister-in-law, who is 28 years younger than him, has never left.
Mou Zhongzhong is a legendary figure among Chinese private entrepreneurs, and Mou has an indissoluble relationship with the number "three" in the first half of his life: his father's name is Mou Pinsan; he has been imprisoned three times; he started with 300 yuan; and he has done three major things: aircraft barter, satellite launch, and the development of Manzhouli. Xia Zongwei, who served as the litigation agent of the Nande Group, lamented, "The ups and downs of Mou's personal fate are strikingly similar to the economic development of China in the past 30 years, the only difference is that China's economy has taken off, but Lao Mu has been locked up." ”
On June 19, 1940, Mou Was born in Wanxian County, Sichuan Province, in present-day Wanzhou District, Chongqing. He came from a family of moderately economically advanced merchants. In Mu Zhong's memory, his father Mou Pin San was a smart, hard-working, upright, and public-oriented businessman, who was very impressed, and Mou's childhood was a little more commercially edified than that of ordinary children. Mou Zhong once summed up his childhood, saying, "This kind of edification laid the groundwork for my growth the day after tomorrow." ”
On February 13, 1980, Mou Zhongzhong registered and established the "Wanxian Jiangbei Trade Trust Service Department" in wanxian city at that time, and all the company's belongings included 300 yuan borrowed by Mou from relatives and a dinner table borrowed from others. An economics professor at the Central Party School once conducted a special study on nande group, and he believes that "the 'Wanxian City Jiangbei Trade Trust Service Department' can be regarded as one of the earliest private enterprises established in China since the reform and opening up." The "Wanxian City Jiangbei Trade Trust Service Department" has also become the first test field for Mou To carry out commercial and overseas combat.
Later, this entity underwent the evolution of "Sino-German Stores" and "Sino-German Companies", and in 1988, the company was officially named "South German Economic Group", which has been used ever since. After that, Mu Zhong, carrying 300 yuan of money, was ready to go to other places to develop a career, and he put the first stop of his career development in Chongqing. There, Mou Began his grandfather clock business. Today, it seems that he used the time difference between different financial products such as bank settlement and exchange at that time to solve the problem of liquidity of enterprises and dig out the first bucket of gold, which is the famous "karate" theory of Mou.
Mou Zhongzhong once expressed his business operation model theory more systematically in an article, that is, "with very little investment, using the modern information system and a series of financial derivatives to disperse risks, it is possible to complete huge investment projects, borrowing a term from competitive sports, called 'karate'." ”
However, fate made a small joke with Mou Zhong, who at that time was once again imprisoned for making too much money because he made too much money, and Was accused by the relevant departments of "speculation and upside down". The economics professor at the Central Party School analyzed the reasons for Mou Zhong's arrest and imprisonment again, saying: "The operation methods and operation methods of the enterprises established by Mou Zhong in accordance with the laws of the market economy have formed a serious conflict with the planned economic system at that time. ”
With the process of reform and opening up, in August 1984, Mou Zhong was rehabilitated, and then he used his "karate" theory to make a refrigerator business. This business has accumulated two conditions for the internationalization of the SÜD Group: one is the capital, which prepares the start-up capital for the future aircraft trade; the other is the experience, which has accumulated valuable experience for the expansion of the international business.
In 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited China, Sino-Soviet relations were further improved, and economic and trade exchanges between the two countries became more and more frequent. Before and after this, Mou Zhongzhong had already conducted relatively systematic commercial investigations and studies on domestic, former Soviet Union, Eastern European and other countries: at that time, the Soviet Union was extremely short of light industry, food and other daily necessities, and China's economy was overheated, resulting in a large number of light industrial products surplus and backlog;
The domestic and Soviet Union implemented a fragmented economic system, and the state administrative departments and government-run enterprises lacked enthusiasm and initiative in cross-industry and cross-departmental business, and there was a "power vacuum" in it. "Because the level of commodity economic development is so far apart, it is much more difficult for the Soviet Union to deal with the West than with China, and the common ideological pursuit has made the Soviet Union more willing to cooperate with China; both countries lack hard currency, making the other more active than any other country in bartering."
In his article "Historic Opportunities and Our Choices", Mou further pointed out the feasibility of barter trade. In October of that year, the South German Group and the former Soviet Union reached an agreement to purchase T-154 passenger aircraft and aviation equipment in the form of barter trade; at the end of the year, the two sides finally signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" in Beijing, and then there was the classic of exchanging more than 1,000 wagons for four T-154 passenger aircraft mentioned above.
Mou Zhong, a senior media person who has interviewed Mou Zhong in depth, commented on this, "Mou Zhong, with his unique business sensitivity, seized an opportunity that only existed at a specific stage in history, and Nande has since ascended to the heavens. The success of "aircraft barter" has enabled Mou Zhong and Nande Group to accumulate fame and profit while further accumulating courage and confidence in doing things.
"There is nothing that cannot be done, only the unthinkable." This is not Mou's first, but it is a mantra he often hangs on his lips, and he believes that he must constantly create new miracles in order to live up to this era. After a period of painful choice, Mou Decided: To be a satellite.
This decision makes people full of expectations for this personality entrepreneur who dares to say and dare to do, but also there are questions: can he do it? It turned out that Mu Zhong had done a satellite business, and if it were not for a change, he would have done a good job. On December 28, 1993, South Germany, in cooperation with Russia, successfully launched the "Heading One" live television satellite.
Therefore, since 1994, SÜD Group has begun to do the navigation series of satellites. In 1995, the state implemented a tightening economic policy, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to the South German Group, which carried out satellite business and needed a lot of money. An executive at Nande Recalls the scene, "Without money, you are struggling. ”
In the spring of that year, Mou Zhongzhong convened meetings of middle-level managers almost every day, and there was only one theme: raising money. Soon, the construction of the Voyage III satellite is about to be completed and ready to be launched, and for the SÜD group, the satellite project is imperative, and they must pay millions of dollars in launch fees to foreign launch agencies.
This launch fee was a huge amount of money for Southern Germany at that time, and Mou Zhong, who was in urgent need of money, had reached the point of exhaustion. At this time, a man named He Jun appeared in front of Mu Zhong's eyes, and the other party expressed his willingness to provide funds to help Nande tide over the difficulties. However, this money dragged Mu Zhong and Nande to the bottomless abyss.
In August 1996, the public security organs investigated the problem of Hubei Light Industry's "fraudulent opening of letters of credit and arbitrage" and found that the funds used by Nande were inextricably linked to this problem, and it was inevitable that they would be implicated, but Mu Did not think that he would be trapped in prison for the third time. In early 1999, China's "richest man," Mou Zhong, was arrested by the authorities on suspicion of credit card fraud and sentenced to life imprisonment after a first-instance judgment. While Mu Zhong's sentence was serving, his Nande clique was gradually dissolved, and his wife and children went abroad, leaving only one person to stay by his side.
According to the regulations of Hongshan Prison at that time, prisoners could apply for a family number to call their families. In China, Mu Zhong had no other relatives, so he reported Xia Zongwei's phone. Xia Zongwei is Mou Zhong's former secretary, the only litigation agent appointed by Mou Zhong after he was imprisoned, and the sister of his ex-wife. They have 10 5-minute calls per month.
Xia Zongwei had never seen such a stubborn person as Mu. She recalled Mou Zhong, "He used to have meetings at the company, and sometimes I would remind him that a number he just said was wrong. He said 'Oh' every time, and the second and third time he did it again. His brain makes you feel like a burner, and the imprint that is engraved cannot be erased for a moment and a half. "As long as Mou insists that he is right, he will insist on it without fail." It was the coldest day I had in Beijing. This was the last words Mu Zhongzhong said to Xia Zongwei before he was arrested.
What made Mu feel ashamed of Xia Zongwei was that he put her on a more icy 13-year appeal path. No money, no income, no security, alone. Many people did not understand Xia Zongwei's choice, and even her dearest sisters said to her, "Leave him alone, you do some of your own things." You should have your own life. ”
The Xia family has a total of 7 daughters and 1 son, and the 7 sisters are all attractive. Xia Zongwei was the eighth oldest, and the fourth sister, Xia Zongqiong, was Mou's second wife. But Xia Zongwei said, "I don't care about him, what about an old man?" Mou zhongzhong called Xia Zongwei "Weiwei" and regarded her as the only person close to her. He also became a concern in Xia Zongwei's life, but he rarely asked about her living conditions.
"Although he said that he didn't need to use it, he still wanted someone to see him in his heart." Xia Zongwei said that there are many strangers who want to visit Mu, well-known and unknown, mainly entrepreneurs, and occasionally old friends. But only a few relatives have visited, and even the two sons have never returned home.
The first person to request a visit was Mou's first wife, Du Zonglian. Mu Zhongzhong said, "To this day, I have always thought that I was ashamed of Du Zonglian. Because he was sentenced to death for the first time in prison, Du Zonglian never abandoned, taking his two young sons and Mu Mu to live together. Later, Mou chose to break up peacefully with Du Zonglian because of his choice to start a private enterprise, but Mou never stopped caring for Du Zonglian.
Unfortunately, Du Zonglian's visit request was not approved. In desperation, she left behind a few hundred yuan in living expenses. Mu later asked Xia Zongwei to send living expenses to Du Zonglian, but Du refused. She said she lived well and didn't need anything. Mou's second wife, Xia Zongqiong, Xia Zongwei's fourth sister, wanted a lot from Mou.
Xia Zongqiong followed her second sister Xia Zongzhen to join the "Sino-German Store" when Mou first started her business, and experienced the second prison disaster with Mou. Later, Xia Zongqiong followed Mou from Wanxian to Chongqing, passing through Chengdu, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Langfang, Henan, Yantai, Tianjin, and then to Beijing. After the divorce, Xia Zongqiong took her son Xia Nan and came together with Mou, but she finally chose to leave.
She said because she was scared. She thought that after years of hard work and wealth, she "should sit down and make good arrangements for how to live at home and how to educate children." But Mou put all his energy into Nande, desperate to do something bigger. In the end, their marriage ended in secret with Mou agreeing to two conditions: sending Xia Zongqiong a suite; sending Xia Nan to Germany.
In 1996, Xia Zongqiong also went to Germany and started his own business.
"Xia Zongqiong often returns to China now, and occasionally asks me to eat, but never mentions Mr. Mou." Xia Zongwei also never took the initiative to mention Mou in front of Xia Zongqiong. However, Xia Nan made a special trip to visit Mu at the beginning of his imprisonment. After a long time, Mu realized that wealth and values were fundamental differences between him and Xia Zongqiong.
Mou can be regarded as the richest of the "poorest". In addition to work, reading books is to summarize the business experience, "never went to the song hall, nor played cards, sauna, smoked, only occasionally drink some wine when there is socializing." In his spare time, in addition to finding people to chat, he is climbing the mountain, and he often plays tennis, and he has never even touched the club of golf." His life was extremely frugal. Around 1993, in order not to look too shabby in the business talks, Xia Zongwei spent more than two hundred yuan to buy a golden belt for Mu.
Mu Shun took it and looked at it and asked how much it cost. Afraid of being scolded, Xia Zongwei lied to him about "20 pieces." "So expensive! If you buy seven or eight pieces, you won't get it! He was puzzled. What puzzled him even more was that Xia Zongqiong bought back a fur coat and actually asked for 40,000 pieces. After the devastation of Southern Germany, Mu had almost nothing. Wealth was just a few numbers in his mind. He became the richest man in South Germany, but he himself never touched the "big money" he earned.
"It's all in the company, and what you want to buy is the bookkeeping expense in the company." What do I want money for? A few days before his arrest, the old father of the Xia family died, and Xia Zongwei returned to Wanxian County to mourn. Considering that Mu might go to the book market to buy books, Xia Zongwei left 500 yuan in cash for Mou. This was also the only amount of cash that Mu had recovered from him since his arrest.
"Time is irreparable, and no amount of money is useful." Mou often said that because of his own struggles, his family and many people who had pinned their hopes on him were treated unfairly. They have lost a lot of fun in life, and even changed the trajectory of life, and there is a "deep sense of guilt": "What cannot be paid off and cannot be repaid is the debt of human feelings." ”
What about Xia Zongwei? "My spirit has not collapsed in 14 years, and it has not collapsed because of her, a rear that can be trusted and relied on, and she is my biggest spiritual pillar." Many people asked Mou, "Have you ever regretted it?" He said: "The first half of my life is not hesitant, the second half of my life is not regretted." Many people asked Xia Zongwei, "Have you ever regretted it?" "Experience is also a kind of wealth." Regret doesn't change the status quo either. Xia Zongwei said.
To this day, she is still grateful for all that Mou has brought her. On September 27, 2016, Mou Zhongzhong was released from prison, and the only person who came to pick him up was Xia Zongwei. An economist who has long studied the development of the private economy is more willing to express his views from the background of the times. He believes that the sitcom tragedy that happened to Mou Zhongzhong is both an accidental case and an inevitable result.
References: Jiang Xin, Xiao Fang, "Mu Zhong, Trapped in place"
Southern People Weekly "Mou Zhong, Alive"