"The Father of Chinese Apples" Li Shanxiang and his raw orchard

In the "apple town" - southeast of Jinzhou City, there is an apple orchard 10 kilometers from the city center, with more than 100,000 apple trees in the park. This place is beautiful, surrounded by mountains on three sides, the Xiaoling River water around the garden, mountaineering overlook, clear can view the sea, spring can see flowers, summer can appreciate the garden, autumn can taste fruit, winter can step on the snow, is China's earliest development, the largest area, the highest reputation of the orchard, known as "Asia's first garden", now has become one of the important attractions of red tourism in Jinzhou City. Many of us in Ningbo do not know that this orchard was actually developed and founded by Li Shanxiang, a patriotic, progressive and revolutionary industrialist in our city. He spent nearly 30 years in Jinzhou in the most abundant period of life and career, and has pioneering contributions to modern agriculture, modern industry and commerce, and modern education in Jinzhou, and has created several firsts in Jinzhou, among which he and his raw orchard have a little-known story.

One

On August 25, 1880, the former Qing Guangxu Bingzi Nian jinshi and the household department Li Lianshui's family was full of joy, and the people rushed to tell them that the old man was happy with his son again, which was the sixth prince Li Shanxiang. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, the Li family was a well-known and prestigious family in Xiaogang, Ningbo, Zhejiang, and the Li family had a great influence in the political, economic and cultural circles and had a great status in society. Li Shanxiang is the third generation of the "Xiaogang Li Family".

When Li Shanxiang was 3 years old, his 21-year-old mother died of illness. He entered school at the age of 5. Li Lianshui's household department is the official office in charge of finance, and Li Shanxiang, who grew up next to his father, has heard about it and knows a little about finance from an early age. As a teenager, Li Shanxiang went to Shanghai Li's Shenyu Qianzhuang as an apprentice for three years.

Li Shanxiang's adolescence coincided with social change. Returning from Beijing to Zhenhai for mourning, he found that his father had a library containing many revolutionary books and periodicals that had been banned by the imperial court and correspondence between his father and the restoration figures. Sixteen-year-old Li Shanxiang was rewarded with a treasure, and he seized the opportunity to read a wide range of books. The principle of saving the country and saving the people in the book and the spirit of the reformers who spared no effort to change the law and make him strong were deeply educated and inspired, and he was determined to be a person worthy of the country and the nation.

Li Shanxiang wants to run an industry is as easy as a palm, the Li family has money banks and banks throughout the country, and there are real estate in Shanghai, there are more than a dozen sea ships, docks, chemical and other enterprises, as long as he is willing, which door is open for him. But the young Li Shanxiang had great ambitions and was reluctant to share the existing achievements, and in the winter of 1912, the young Li Shanxiang resolutely abandoned the comfortable life of Kuo Shao, left the warm Jiangnan, and came thousands of miles to the cold Jinzhou acting cousin Li Houyou to run the "Tianyi Reclamation Company". At that time, in Jinzhou, in addition to some tree desolation, there were still vast white saline areas extending far to the seashore. He soon discovered that Jinzhou was a vast world, and as long as he was willing to work hard, he could make great achievements, so he decided to break out of his own world there. In 1915, he and his brother Li Yongsheng bought land there, set up Hengkang Farm, and later founded Wansheng Sauce Garden, which laid down roots in Jinzhou.

Two

According to Li Shanxiang's younger son-in-law Liu Zhengchang, when Li Shanxiang was running Hengkang Farm, he often traveled to the Qianzhuang run by the Li family in Dalian, and saw that on the South Manchuria Railway Line, the Apples grown by the Japanese were sold everywhere, which triggered his idea of growing apples. He believes that operating orchards can not only make a lot of profits, but also resist the Japanese fruit sales, so as not to spill the power of profit, which is also in line with his ambition to save the country. In 1923, In Miaogou, Nanshan, Jinzhou, Li Shanxiang invested in the establishment of Jinxian "Shengsheng Fruit Tree Co., Ltd." (later renamed "Shengsheng Orchard"), purchased 800 acres of land with cheap land price, large slope, thin soil layer, lack of water, and was called "hanging painting land" by the local people, plus the hills and steep slopes connected to it, the total area of Shengsheng Orchard was quite considerable at that time.

Li Shanxiang purchased apple saplings such as Guoguang, Hongyu, Marshal, Wujin and other apple saplings and roses from the orchards run by Rimuren in Liaoning Province at a high price and cultivated them. In order to test a variety of fruit trees, we also bought saplings such as Nagashiro Higi pear, eggplant pear, and American cherry. This is the earliest foreign fine fruit sapling introduced in western Liaoning. In the past, the fruits of Western Liaoning, only Qiuzi pear, Huagai pear, duck pear, white pear, hawthorn, peach, apricot, plum, etc., also brought from Guannei to Feicheng, Tianjin, Obtained, Wuxi and other places of valuable peach varieties, as well as Shatian plums, apricots, etc., a total of more than 9,000 fruit trees, of which 80% are apples.

The fruit tree horticulture of the old Chinese society was very backward, and only simple measures such as grafting and scraping of tree bark and rare fruits could not solve the important problems of improving the varieties of fruit trees, increasing production, and introducing excellent varieties and controlling pests and diseases. Li Shanxiang knows that in order to solve these problems, we can only learn from the United States, Japan and other countries with advanced science and technology. He first encountered the problem of human resources, and could not invite Chinese with scientific fruit art technology, so he had to hire Japanese fruit art technicians to cultivate fruit trees with a high salary of 300 yuan per month. This Japanese technician copied the equidistant triangle planting method of planting fruit trees on the plain, which looks like a vertical and horizontal row, neat and beautiful, and can be more reasonable and lighted, which is of course more advanced than the unscientific planting method of old Chinese fruit trees, but it cannot solve important problems such as serious soil erosion and irrigation in mountain orchards, which is not in line with objective reality and is not completely scientific. Japanese technicians taught science and technology such as seedling raising, various grafting, pruning, spraying to control pests and diseases, and rational fertilization, laying the foundation for scientific management. Later, Li Shanxiang dismissed the Japanese technician, and hired Liu Xiongfei, a graduate of the Fruit Art Department of Yenching University, and others with a monthly salary of 80 yuan (the same salary as the manager) to use scientific fruit art technology to run the orchard. We purchased a large number of English and Japanese fruit art books, periodicals, etc. for research. At the same time, 200 acres of slope land were purchased in the south of Miaogou and 2,000 various fruit trees were planted as a test site in order to improve the level of fruit art science and technology, taking confucius's meaning of "Benevolent Leshan, Wise Leshui" and named "Erletang". In order to prevent soil erosion in the orchard and change the ecological environment, Li Shanxiang took measures to close the mountains and cultivate forests, and widely planted drought-tolerant pine trees. After the closure of the mountain, the mountain is full of flowers and grasses, pine trees, vegetation thickens, the groundwater level increases, improves the microclimate, alleviates the drought phenomenon of the orchard, and the temple ditch presents a beautiful scene of vitality and prosperity. Spring is full of flowers, summer is shady, autumn is full of bright apple smiles, and the orchard has become a popular spot for Jinzhou people to go out at that time.

Li Shanxiang took advantage of the favorable conditions of the orchard to engage in a variety of aquaculture industries, which could not only make profits, but also increase the yield of fruit trees. For example, the best bee breed from the United States - the Italian golden bee, the best breed of the time - the Dutch breeding pig from abroad, the Purchase of the Leckhen breeder from the United States, the establishment of chicken files, the purchase of spawning nests that can be automatically closed from the United States, as well as the aluminum number plate fastened on the legs of the breeder, the construction of a sunny coop for easy disinfection and heating, the purchase of an incubator from the United States that can incubate 200 eggs at a time with kerosene as a heat source, and the experimental cultivation of mulberry silkworms. These are all pioneering works in Western Liaoning. In order to run the orchard well, Li Shanxiang also personally practiced and made himself an expert as soon as possible. He studied with agronomists and horticultural workers, humbly sought advice everywhere, working with them every day, learning while doing and studying technical improvements. He has great respect for the horticulturist and treats him as a guest of honor. Horticulturists also poured their talents into helping Li Shanxiang run the orchard well. Li Shanxiang also became a veritable horticulturist with high professional knowledge and proficiency in horticultural technology because he was willing to learn and drill, had a good understanding, and was willing to endure hardships, not for a long time.

Li Shanxiang also attaches great importance to the improvement of apple varieties. He introduced excellent seedlings from Japan and the United States, set up fruit tree improvement farms, personally grafted and bred, and cultivated sweet and delicious apples with high yields such as Marshal Huang, Red Marshal, and Guoguang; and rose grapes, which were rare and excellent varieties at that time, with an annual output of about two or three million catties. A variety of fruits are delicious and sweet, occupying the Jinzhou fresh fruit market at that time, and the shop merchants who operated fresh fruits competed to buy.

The raw orchards carefully managed by Li Shanxiang are also like apple trees, with strong branches and leaves. The apples produced were soon famous for their good color and fragrance, and many places in the northeast and even in Kannai came to buy them, which greatly overwhelmed the Nissan apples.

Li Shanyan knew that a person's power was limited, so he took the initiative to introduce cultivation techniques to people who aspired to run orchards free of charge and encourage others to grow apples. Li Shanxiang said: "I did not grow apples to make money, but to fight against the Japanese and resist their economic aggression. At the same time, it is also a way for the Chinese people to cultivate apples in large quantities. With the promotion and help of Li Shanxiang, many orchards were later set up around the Shengsheng Orchard. Soon, a number of orchards appeared in the western Liaoning region, the yield gradually expanded, the variety was constantly updated, and finally the apple spread throughout the western Liaoning region, and the Jinzhou apple was also famous and became one of the favorite fruits of the people at that time.

On the eve of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Shanxiang also set up an apple testing ground in The Outer Port Town of Jiading, Shanghai, and when the Anti-Japanese War broke out when the fruits were about to be hung, the test had to be interrupted. This is also a precedent for planting apples in Jiangnan.

Three

In March 1927, Tao Xingzhi founded the famous Xiaozhuang Normal School in Nanjing. Li Shanxiang, who has been suffering from the lack of scientific and technological talents, learned of this news from the newspaper, and the gods were immediately inspired, and they were enlightened on how to cultivate fruit art talents. He immediately wrote a letter to Tao Xingzhi and asked him for advice. In the spring of 1928, Li Shanxiang came to Xiaozhuang Normal School again and met with Mr. Tao. When he learned that Tao Xingzhi, an American student and university professor, had only taken 13 students, barefoot, in a wilderness, and set up a tent as a classroom when he founded Xiaozhuang Normal School. Tao Xingzhi used poetry to express his educational ideas: "Two treasures of life, hands and brain." With your brain without hands, you are about to be knocked down. You don't have to use your hands and brains, and you can't eat enough. The hands and brains are all used, and the party is a great old man who has opened up the world. This brilliant educational idea of using both hands and brains, combining reality, and attaching importance to reality has enlightened Li Shanxiang.

After returning from Xiaozhuang Normal School, Li Shanxiang founded The Harvest College in Nanshan, Jinzhou, with Xiaozhuang as the lanben, and appointed himself as its dean. The original primary school was expanded, 300 acres of land was purchased, teaching buildings, auditoriums, libraries, biophysical laboratories were built, 3,000 fruit trees were planted around, sports fields were built, dormitories for teachers and students and canteens were built. The college is divided into three parts: primary school, work-study and research, with the purpose of cultivating national art talents with practical talents. The Primary School has also set up branches in the two villages of Baolongling and Sailor Camp, which are not far away. Absorb the children of poor peasants to school, no tuition fees, and provide free books, paper and ink and other school supplies. The Ministry of Work and Studies is recruited by poor male students aged 10 to 20 from Shanghai and Beiping and orphans from orphanages. There are about 40 students in each class, and the clothes, food, shelter and pocket money are all wrapped up by Li Shanxiang. Half a day to take cultural classes and fruit art technology classes, half a day to learn the culture and technical knowledge to the orchard to practice, to verify, to improve. Most of the teachers who teach culture here are recommended by The Xiaozhuang Normal School in Nanjing, including Communist Party members. The purpose of the research department is to study the cultivation of fruit trees and how to adapt to the environment of western Liaoning to improve the scientific management level of fruit art. The method is to melt teaching, scientific research and production in one furnace. The members are senior talents recruited by Li Shanxiang who are interested in fruit art research, such as Liu Xiongfei and Wu Yinghua, who graduated from the Department of Fruit Art of Yenching University, Zhang Maoen, who graduated from the Department of Fruit Art of Jinling University in Nanjing, and Song Xiangyuan, who is quite famous in the fruit art research institute run by Xiong Yue Japanese. They are both the technical backbone of the production of raw orchards, as well as the teachers and researchers of the Cultivated Fruit College. Students also cultivate and read, teaching, learning and doing one. In addition to learning formal historical texts, mathematics, physics and chemistry, everyone learned horticultural techniques and engaged in orchard labor. In order to enable students to train themselves to become self-reliant laborers with moral, intellectual, and physical excellence, Li Shanxiang put forward a series of requirements for them: they were required to eat standing up; they advocated wearing "Shanxiang" clothes and opposed wearing horse coats; they advocated gymnastics, boxing, and drama; and they opposed playing mahjong and gambling.

Four

He vigorously advocated simple group marriage in orchards and farms in Jinzhou, and he personally officiated for three couples. In 1920, when his first wife, Ma Wenshu, the niece of the famous master of traditional Chinese studies Ma Heng, died, he held a cremation for her and publicly stated that he would be cremated after his death. This caused quite a stir at the time.

None of his six daughters had pierced ears, earrings, or foot bindings, and they, like the students at the Academy, got up on the bell, went out to exercise, attended classes, engaged in gardening, and grew up eating sorghum rice like local farmers. Fine white rice is a special offer of teachers and agronomists, and even Li Shanxiang and his wife never share it. Li Shanxiang stipulated that students were not allowed to pick apples privately, and even those that fell on the ground were not allowed to pick and eat, and his children never took the lead in doing so.

In 1930, Li Shanxiang returned to Shanghai from the northeast, coinciding with his 50th birthday. His second brother Li Yongsheng wished him a happy birthday. Li Yongsheng is a well-known tycoon in the real estate, shipping and financial circles of Shanghai Beach, and the birthday banquet is naturally of high standard. The golden and brilliant Shou Hall was illuminated with red candles, cigarettes were swirling, and all kinds of greeting halls were dazzling, and a group of Tsing Yi drums and music were also invited to help entertain. The VIPs have arrived one after another, and the shadow of the birthday star is not seen.

At this time, two middle-aged people came in from outside. One of the people who walked in front wore a short coat that did not resemble a short coat, and a windbreaker that did not resemble a windbreaker—a coarse cloth chinese-style zigzag button coat. There were four large pockets under the façade, and inside they were bulging with things, plus he looked rough and dark, and he looked like a countryman. He was followed by a suit and leather, personable, white face with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and a gentlemanly demeanor. The doorman put in the back one, while blocking the front one in the gatehouse. It wasn't until Boss Li Yongsheng came out in person that he led him in. It turned out that this "rough man" was the birthday star of that day, and the white-faced bookkeeper was only his secretary attaché Liu Yunfei. It turned out that Li Shanxiang often designed such a "good and auspicious suit" for himself according to the characteristics of gardening labor. Sewn by Mrs. Qiu Tianxiang. The four large pockets on the clothes are used to contain the necessary knives, saws, scissors, forks and other fruit repair tools for gardening. He wears it every day and is reluctant to change it, so that he wears it in a big city like Shanghai.

After the "9.18" incident, the Japanese Kou immediately occupied Jinzhou. Soon, two young Japanese who had been sent to graduate from agricultural universities claimed to have come to study fruit tree gardening, but in fact they were spying on Li Shanxiang. In order to serve the people of Jinzhou, the Japanese army proposed to urge Li Shanxiang to be the president of the Jinxian Peasant Association. After the Lugou Bridge incident, he used the excuse of going to Beijing for office work, and in order to cover people's eyes and ears, he did not bring anything, and went to Beiping to buy a train ticket to the south. In this way, he avoided the surveillance of the Japanese, returned to Xiaogang in Ningbo, and joined the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Movement. The management of the orchard and all the property were entrusted to others.

In 1937, when the war spread to eastern Zhejiang, he resolutely sent his children to join the New Fourth Army.

Five　　

In the summer of 1946, under the care of Chen Yi and other comrades, Li Shanxiang, who was nearly ancient, returned to the Jinzhou Shengsheng Orchard, which had been away for 9 years, and resumed his old business. Later, his Jinzhou orchard became an important secret contact point, reconnaissance intelligence station, and tunbing place for our Northeast Field Army to launch the famous Liaoshen Campaign, helping the liberation of Jinzhou and even the whole northeast.

After the liberation of Jinzhou, Li Shanxiang repeatedly earnestly demanded that hundreds of houses, such as nanshan shengsheng orchard, gengyu college and its private house, which he had worked hard to start, be donated to the people's government free of charge. In view of the policy at that time, the people's government of Liaoxi Province politely refused his request. However, Li Shanxiang's determination to offer the garden had been decided, and in order to show his sincere attitude, he asked his second son-in-law, General Zhang Aiping, to write a letter to Yu Ping, secretary of the Liaoxi Provincial Party Committee, and the government had no choice but to accept his good intentions and appoint Li Shanxiang as an orchard consultant.

In the 1949 financial and economic ledger of Jinzhou Fruit Tree Farm, the property handed over by Li Shanxiang to the state was recorded: the entire fruit tree farm, hundreds of houses and school buildings, all the machinery, countless livestock and fruit trees.

In 1952, Li Shanxiang returned to Shanghai to settle down. Since then, he has lived in simplicity and spent the rest of his life in silence. He died in Shanghai on May 19, 1959, at the age of 80 due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.