The ancient Greek physicist Archimedes once said, "Give me a fulcrum and I can pry up the whole earth." To this day, the phrase seems to have become a derogatory term for arrogant and incompetent people. However, if this sentence is placed on Mu Zhong, it seems appropriate.
Mou among them
In the wave of China's reform and opening up, Mou Zhongzhong is definitely a well-known figure. In his body, he once shouldered the contradictory labels of China's "richest man" and China's "first fraud". In fact, the label on Mou's body is far more than these two. He once exchanged 500 wagons of cans from the Soviet Union for four aircraft, successfully launched an international satellite in cooperation with Russia, planned to invest 10 billion yuan in Manzhouli to "turn Manchuria into northern Hong Kong", envisioned blowing up a gap in the Himalayas to introduce the Indian Ocean warm current, three times in his life and three times early out of prison, his sister-in-law, who was 28 years younger than him, waited for him for eighteen years...
Those who refuse to accept defeat in the college entrance examination
Mou Was born in 1941 in Wanxian County, Sichuan Province. When he was in elementary school, Mou Showed a unique trait, everyone said he was smart and very active in class. At that time, there was a teacher who looked at people very accurately, and his evaluation of Mou Zhong was: If this child can change his exaggerated personality, there will be a future success.
In hindsight, "rhetoric" has become an indelible label on Mu Zhong's body. Therefore, we cannot judge whether the teacher was optimistic about Mou Zhong or not at that time.
When he was in middle school, a seed of dreams began to sprout in Mu Zhong's heart, and he wanted to become a journalist. Indeed, in those days, journalism was an enviable profession. However, in 1959, when the 18-year-old Mou Zhong took the college entrance examination, he suffered the first blow in his life, and his original dream was shattered.
After his release from prison, Mu Zhong
Although the failure of the college entrance examination made the young and vigorous Mou Zhong suffer a blow, he soon showed his tenacity and persistence that was different from ordinary people. Mu Zhong, who refused to accept defeat, took his college entrance examination results and took a train to Wuhan, because he heard that there was an institution there that was recruiting spring college classes.
"Whoever has the will, it will happen!" Mou's efforts were not in vain, and he successfully passed the entrance examination and entered the university campus as he wished. However, the world is unpredictable, and only half a year later, Mou Zhong was forced to withdraw from school because of the household registration problem.
Mu Zhong, whose heart was extinguished, had to return to his hometown. Not long after returning to Wanxian County, Mu Zhong learned that there was an institution in Xinjiang that was still enrolling students. Although the full name of the institution was not even known, Mou Zhong took a train to Xinjiang. When he arrived in Xinjiang, Mu Zhong, after further inquiring, learned that the institution had long been closed.
First imprisonment: Sentenced to death by internal condemnation
Life is so dramatic, and reality is so helpless. Sometimes hard work doesn't necessarily lead to gains. Returning to his hometown of Wanxian again, Mou became a boiler worker at a local glass factory.
Ancient Yun: "There is a house of gold in the book, and there is a yan ruyu in the book." Outside of work, Mu Zhongzhong did not release his hands and read a lot of books, and in the ocean of books, he once again found the enthusiasm of going to school. Not only that, Mu Zhongzhong also found his own "Yan Ruyu". In the glass factory, Mu Zhong met his wife Du Zonglian.
Perhaps because of the excessive reading of books, or perhaps by nature, boiler workers often have bold and amazing ideas. And he is extremely talented in speaking, and he is not afraid to speak in front of everyone. On the contrary, he always attracted a large and loyal audience.
After losing the college entrance examination, Mu Zhong returned to Wanxian and became a boiler worker
It is precisely for this reason that after 10 years as a boiler worker, Mu Went to Prison for the first time.
I thought I had fallen into the trough of my life, but I didn't expect that Mu Zhongzhong found like-minded people in prison, such as Liu Zhongzhi. While eating prison meals, they discuss problems and cooperate in publishing articles without scruples, even hype.
Mu Zhong, who reveled in his "masterpiece", did not know that he had been sentenced to death by Neiding.
Four years later, a spring breeze blew through, and Mou was released from prison. By this time, it was the end of 1979.
The "10,000-dollar household" of the 1980s
After a spring rain, the bamboo shoots buried in the ground break through the ground, which is the law of nature and the mystery of life. After his release from prison, Mu Zhong, like mushrooms after the rain, ushered in the highlight moment of his life.
Because he had been in prison for four years, Mou Zhong found that he was not looking for a job after he was released from prison. In his view, the best choice is to start your own business, do a small business, and do a small business. When Mu Zhongzhong told his wife Du Zonglian his thoughts, Du Zonglian did not say a word, and on the same day, he sold the only sewing machine worth a little money in the family and exchanged it for 150 yuan.
Taking the money from his wife's hand, Mu Zhong stared at this woman who had not read much, and a wave of respect suddenly appeared! He did not expect his wife to be so enlightened and decisive.
Carrying 150 yuan, Mu Zhong had some confidence in his heart. He also cobbled together 150 yuan from his relatives and friends, a total of 300 yuan, and Mou Founded the "Wanxian City Zhongde Store".
The business logic of Mou is very simple, that is, to buy at a low price and sell at a high price. But in that era, once the operation was not good, it was easy to be characterized as "upside down" - a title with mixed reputations.
Mou's Zhongde stores mainly sell household appliances, such as televisions and radios, to surrounding customers. He creatively launched the "card replacement" and "four generations" service. The service provided by the "replacement card" is that all goods purchased from Sino-German stores can be exchanged free of charge within 3 days for customers in urban areas; customers in rural areas can exchange them free of charge within 7 days considering the long distance.
The so-called "four generations" refers to purchasing, sales, organization and consignment services.
In the 1980s, the "ten thousand yuan household" Mou was among them
At that time, what others could not think of and did not dare to do, Mu Zhong thought of and did it, he was the tide maker of that era, there is no doubt about it. From its opening in April of that year to the end of the year, Mu Zhongzhong earned 80,000 yuan in only eight months, becoming a rare "10,000 yuan household" at that time.
After the end of the New Year, Mu Zhong learned that there was a factory in Chongqing selling a batch of copper clocks in stock, and Mou Zhong immediately contacted the other party, pressed the price to the lowest price, and then sold it to some watch shops in Shanghai at a high price. In this alone, Mou Made a Staggering Profit.
Second imprisonment: Misfortune and blessing
In the autumn of 1983, just as Mu Zhong was feeling proud of the spring breeze and preparing to do a big job, he suddenly encountered a thunderbolt on a sunny day: Because of "speculation, buying short and selling short", Mu Zhong was imprisoned again.
The second time he was imprisoned, Mu Zhong seemed to have found the feeling he had when he first went to prison a few years ago, and he quickly regained his enthusiasm for writing, writing the bold and forward-thinking ideas hidden in his heart into black and white and sending them to his superiors.
What is amazing is that the article written by an ordinary prisoner in a prison was successfully sent to Chengdu and then to the Forbidden City.
Soon, there was a response from the superior. After sitting in his cell for 11 months, Mou was released intact. In fact, when the relevant departments investigated The crime of speculation and misconduct, they found that he not only did not evade taxes and evade taxes, but also paid thousands of yuan more.
After his release from prison, although Mu Zhong was over forty years old, he was still enthusiastic about that year. He immediately called a meeting of employees and upgraded the Sino-German store to the Sino-German Industrial Development Corporation. Soon after, Sino-German received a huge loan of 2.5 million yuan from the bank. This loan of 2.5 million yuan became the capital of Mou Zhong's real start.
For speculation, Mou was imprisoned for the second time
No one knows how Mu Zhong obtained this huge loan in that era of lack of funds, and why the bank dared to lend such a large amount of money to an unknown Mou Zhong. Some people say that this is related to Mou's second release from prison.
In any case, Mou Had enough commercial capital for him to toss. He began to expand rapidly, growing his business and growing his business empire.
However, Mou's business journey has not always been smooth, and he has suffered many failures and setbacks. He once cooperated with a trading company in the United States to import 20,000 tons of white sugar, and finally sold it to a domestic company at a jumping price.
He had traveled to the coast to buy jellyfish skins and paid a large deposit, hoping to sell them abroad. However, it backfired. Somehow, the foreign businessman who had agreed before defaulted halfway, and the Nande company suddenly lost millions of yuan.
Because he was optimistic about the prospects of the refrigerator market, he once imported 3,000 refrigerators from South Korea in one go, but later because of the sudden change in the market, resulting in a large backlog of refrigerators in his hands.
500 wagon cans for airplanes
One of the most ostentatious and credible myths of Mu's life was the big deal in 1989. At that time, the huge northern neighbor was in turmoil, and the building would fall.
That year, Mu Zhong, as usual, went east and west, buying and reselling commodities and materials in the north and south of the world, and was a veritable "upside-down master". However, at this time, his reputation was still limited to a small range of spread.
Once, Mu Zhong took a train to the north to sell bamboo weaving and rattan ware produced locally in Wanxian County. On the train, he met a Henan native, and the two bragged to each other. Mou learned from this population that the Soviet Union was preparing to sell several Tu-154 aircraft in exchange for much-needed food and light industrial consumer goods at home.
Tu-154 airliner
The keen Mou Zhong immediately realized that this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a fortune. The Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range airliner developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau of the former Soviet Union, with a maximum cruising speed of 950 km / h and a maximum load range of 3700 km, and was officially put into operation in the early 1970s. It was targeting the American Boeing 727. More importantly, Mu Zhongzhong heard that the unit price of the Tu-154 passenger plane was only 50 or 60 million yuan, while the unit price of the same Boeing 727 passenger plane was as high as more than 200 million yuan.
Buy low, sell high. No one understands the essence of this sentence better than Mu Zhong. Because the average person only understands the literal meaning, but does not know how to operate, and dare not boldly try.
Mu Zhong used his textbook classic operation to teach a lesson to all the "fallen masters" at that time. Mou first approached the Soviet side and expressed his intention to buy a few Tu-154 passenger planes, and then used his three-inch tongue to keep the price to a minimum. However, the Soviet side put forward two conditions: one is not to cash, but to barter, with aircraft in exchange for canned goods, leather and other urgently needed domestic daily necessities; the other is that both sides must ship at the same time.
Mou Zhongzhong talked business with the Russians
Mu Was not intimidated by the other party's two conditions. On the contrary, he thought that these two conditions were very favorable to him. It can even be said that without these two conditions, he could not do this transaction at all.
Back in China, Mou went around asking about the airline's business news. After many inquiries, Mou Zhongzhong finally obtained a crucial piece of information: the newly established Sichuan Airlines is ready to buy several medium-range airliners.
Mu Zhongzhong immediately rushed to Chengdu to discuss with Sichuan Airlines. At the negotiating table, the attractive price given by Mou Zhong made it impossible for Sichuan Airlines to refuse the deal. However, they did not seem to trust the middle-aged man in front of them, who did not look amazing, and made a demand that Mu Zhong was quite embarrassed: the goods must be inspected before payment can be paid.
In this three-way transaction, only one of the mou people knows his hole card: the principal is zero.
Usually, no matter what kind of business you do, you need principal. Although Mu Zhongzhong tossed and turned for so many years, he also earned some money. But for the big deal, the little money he made was negligible. Therefore, if Mu Zhong wants to successfully make this big international deal, he must use a trick of "empty glove white wolf".
Without any capital, The bold Mou Zhong, a bold artist, signed contracts with the Soviet Union and Sichuan Airlines for the purchase and sale of four Tu-154 passenger aircraft.
Since the Planes of the Soviet Side were flown directly by pilots, they arrived at Mu Zhong's hands on the same day. The 500 wagons of canned leather were transported by rail and usually took a week to reach Moscow. The clever Mou Zhong took advantage of the valuable time difference of this week or so.
Mou was delivered by rail transport
On the day of the plane's arrival, Mou Zhong immediately mortgaged the plane to the bank, exchanged a large cash loan from the bank, and then used the cash to urgently purchase canned goods, leather and other daily necessities from seven provinces, including Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Chongqing and Sichuan. After 500 wagons of supplies were assembled, Mu Zhongzhong immediately sent them to the Soviet Union. Although the final arrival time in Moscow may be a day or two later, Mou Zhongzhong can find a reason to prevaricate at this time.
After the plane was handed over to Sichuan Airlines for inspection, Sichuan Airlines was very satisfied and immediately paid For It.
In the end, Mu Zhong, without using his own penny cost, earned back one hundred million yuan between one upside down and one sale, becoming the only "billion yuan household" at that time!
Under the publicity of others and his own packaging, Mu Zhong soon became the "first fallen master" who was unknown to everyone in the jianghu and everyone.
Launch satellites, develop Manchuria, blow up the Himalayas
After the can-for-plane deal was completed, Mu Zhong's ambitions became even greater and his speech became more unrealistic. He once proudly said: "There is nothing in the world that cannot be done, only things that cannot be imagined." ”
In the 1990s, Mou Zhongzhong's Sino-German company had long since transformed into the Nande Group, and his personal business vision had long been not limited to the earth.
In 1992, Mou Zhong proposed to launch dozens of satellites to cover the earth. You know, this is what Musk is trying to do decades later.
In 1995, the South German Group-invested Heading 2 satellite was successfully launched at the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. After overwhelming media reports, the news of the launch of the satellite by the "fallen master" Mou Zhong spread throughout the north and south of the river. Suddenly, many countries came to the door and asked Mu Zhongzhong to help them launch satellites.
However, there is a word called "prosperity and decline". Beginning around 1996, Mou Began to suffer a series of bad luck. This year, Mu Zhong's grand plan to launch satellites collapsed into the sand and came to an hasty end.
In 1997, Mou Zhong publicly declared: "In Manchuria, we have 15 square kilometers of land, of which 5 square kilometers are in Russia." In fact, according to the survey, Mu Zhongzhong's propaganda of "turning Manzhouli into a northern Hong Kong" and investing 10 billion yuan were only reduced to castles in the air in the end. The data shows that the actual investment of Nande Group in Manchuria is far less than 100 million yuan.
Mu had envisioned blowing up the Himalayas
In fact, Mou's whimsical business plans are much more than that. For example, he had a grand business plan: to blow the Himalayas into a gap, let the Indian Ocean warm current blow into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and turn the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau into the home of fish and rice in Jiangnan.
The third time in prison: the sister-in-law waited for 18 years
In 1999, Mou Waszhong was arrested and imprisoned for the third time in his life on suspicion of letter of credit fraud. After Mu Zhong was imprisoned, the building of the Nande Group also collapsed, and the former subordinates also went their separate ways.
However, what Mu did not expect was that Xia Zongwei, a sister-in-law who was exactly 28 years younger than himself, did not abandon himself.
In 1988, Mou Zhong, divorced Du Zonglian and married his former employee Xia Zongqiong. In 1991, Xia Zongqiong arranged for his sister Xia Zongwei to go to the Nande Group and serve as a secretary to Mou Zhong. This year, Xia Zongwei was just in his early 20s.
Xia Zongwei, who has just entered the society
In 1996, Xia Zongqiong and Mu Zhongzhong parted ways and took their children abroad.
In 1999, when Mu Zhongzhong was imprisoned for the third time, Xia Zongwei, an employee of the Nande Group, was also imprisoned. A year and a half later, Xia Zongwei was released from prison. Mou Zhong, on the other hand, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
After his release from prison, Xia Zongwei was the only one who often went to visit Mu Zhong in prison. Mu Zhongzhong also grasped a life-saving straw, relying on Xia Zongwei to understand the outside information and help him collect and sort out the appeal materials.
In prison, Mu Zhong never succumbed to the established fate, he ran 4,000 meters every day, insisting on taking a cold shower in order to stay up until the day he was released from prison. You know, at this time, Mu Zhong was already an old man of sixty or seventy years old!
After his release from prison, Xia Zongwei was busy collecting materials and appealing for Mu Zhong
Xia Zongwei outside the prison seemed to be tougher than Mu Zhong. For more than ten years, in order to get Mu Zhong out of prison, she ran alone and kept submitting appeal materials. Not only that, but she also had to endure the gossip and sneers of the world. Some people say that a sister-in-law who is 28 years younger than Mu Zhongzhong is so desperate to pay, must be trying to get his money. However, Xia Zongwei never responded to such claims, she would only silently move towards her goal.
Xia Zongwei's efforts were not in vain, and after sending tens of millions of words of appeal materials, Mou's sentence was shortened to 18 years.
In 2016, when the 75-year-old Mu Zhong walked out of the prison gate, it was still Xia Zongwei who was waiting for him at the door.
Write at the end
When Xu Zhiyuan interviewed Mou Zhong, Mou Zhong once proudly said: "I think it is not difficult to make money, and making money is the simplest!" "Indeed, if you don't know mu zhong's deeds, you will think that this person is bragging, and it is blowing on the margins. And if you know his legendary past, then you will definitely believe in this sentence.
There is a passage circulating on the Internet about Mou Zhong: after being released from prison, he was penniless and found that he only had 264 houses in Beijing.
"The First Fallen Master" Mou among them
In fact, this is not a fictional paragraph, but a real thing. In the 1990s, when the Nande Group was in its glory, Mou Zhong did buy 264 properties in Mentougou and prepare them as family houses for employees. However, the employee care plan was only halfway through, and the Nande Group collapsed, and the 264 properties originally purchased were left behind.