"Of all the women he met, I probably loved him the most," Zhang Youyi, China's first female banker, said in an interview in her later years. And this "he" refers to Xu Zhimo, a great talent of the Republic of China, but "he" has another title - the first scumbag of the Republic of China!
To say Xu Zhimo, he is undoubtedly an amorous and romantic person, and he has loved many people in his life. He can give up his life for Lu Xiaoman, or he can give up his life for Lin Huiyin, but he is ruthless and ruthless to Zhang Youyi, who loves him the most...
A woman under feudal education
In 1900, the Zhang family in Baoshan, Jiangsu Province, had a small life that fell to the ground, that is, Miss ZhangJia'er. Zhang's father named her "Young Yi", which means friendly and upright.
The era when Zhang Youyi grew up was still the era of male domination, and the educational concept adopted by the Zhang family for their children was also a feudal etiquette based on Confucian culture.
Father Zhang was a serious and stereotypical person, and he demanded that the children of the Zhang family should abide by filial piety and be careful in words and deeds.
Mother Zhang is a gentle traditional woman, she is always obedient to Zhang Father, rebellious and obedient. Under the influence of her mother, Zhang Youyi also learned to be patient and tenacious, and learned to live a life of perfection.
In such a depressing atmosphere, she became a "good woman" who would only obey the three virtues and four virtues and the three principles and five constants. The first half of her life was not so much "uneventful" as it was "pale and tasteless". This also laid a deep hidden danger for her later marriage.
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When she was three years old, the young Zhang Youyi was in pain because it hurt to wrap her little feet, and the twelve-year-old second brother could not see her sister suffering, so she begged her mother not to wrap her sister's feet.
But at that time, a pair of big feet meant that he could not find his in-laws, so the second brother promised his mother that if his sister could not marry because of big feet in the future, he would take care of her for the rest of his life. As a result, Xiao Youyi was spared the pain of foot binding. No one expected that years later she would have two completely different lives because of these big feet.
I thought that after breaking free from the bad habit of wrapping her little feet, she would be able to run to a happy and bright future. But I never thought that I could break free from the confinement of my body, but I could not break free from the confinement of my thoughts. The ideas of traditional feudal dogma have penetrated deep into her marrow. What is the difference between her wooden, feudal and wrapped feet?
Wrap your feet
The times make the tide xu Zhimo, dislike the fengshen qianjin Zhang Youyi "rustic"
In 1913, Zhang Youyi's fourth brother, Zhang Jiazhang, was then the secretary of the Governor of Zhejiang. During a visit to a local school, he read an otherworldly essay in a large collection of essays.
This article is not only of excellent literary quality and outstanding, but also has a bit of Liang Qichao's temperament and lofty style. This made him very happy, so he immediately sent someone to inquire who the author of this article was.
When he learned that the author of this article was Xu Zhimo, the only son of a wealthy local merchant, he immediately repaired a letter and sent it to Xu Mansion to propose to his sister Zhang Youyi.
Xu Zhimo
Because Zhang Jiaxuan had a high reputation in the local area, Xu's father immediately agreed, and even said that "it is fortunate that my Xu family can marry Youyi as a daughter-in-law.". Thus, the marriage was thus settled.
That year, the woman was thirteen years old and the man was fifteen, and two people who did not know each other were thus engaged. They had only seen each other's pictures before they were married.
Zhang Youyi saw Zhang Youyi in Xu Zhimo's photo, but she just felt that the man in the photo looked Sven and handsome, and the eyes under the gold wire glasses were full of aura. At the thought that this man was about to become her husband, she blushed unconsciously.
Xu Zhimo, on the other hand, was just the opposite, when he first saw Zhang Youyi's photo, he only felt that her appearance and temperament were rustic. He even said with disgust: "Which country's soil 'bun'".
Indeed, compared with Xu Zhimo, who is uninhibited outside, Zhang Youyi, who does not go out of the door all day, is indeed a dirt "bun".
Xu Zhimo's love relationship diagram
It's just that this soil "bun", the family lives in Shanghai, the ancestors are high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty, and the father is a scarce golden doctor in that era.
The second brother did nothing all day and was fooling around with a group of people, but the leader of the group was called "Huang Yanpei" and the organization was called "China Democratic League".
Huang Yanpei
The fourth brother also did not have any interest, that is, he worked in a bank, but the position was the general manager, and the bank was called "Bank of China".
Inside the Bank of China during the Republic of China
The younger sister is even less famous, after getting married as a full-time wife, the neighborhood relationship is still good, but the in-laws company is "Shanghai Nanyang Enterprise,", and the neighbor is Du Yuesheng.
Du Yuesheng (left)
In this way, it is indeed the rustic Zhang Youyi who "climbed high" Xu Zhimo, after all, people's culture is high.
In 1915, under the control of their families, the two held a grand wedding. After marriage, Zhang Youyi was very obedient, filial piety to her in-laws and some family affairs, which made her mother-in-law very satisfied and treated her as her own daughter.
But her husband and wife relationship with Xu Zhimo was extremely cold. Zhang Youyi's appearance and temperament are not in line with Xu Zhimo's wishes, coupled with the fact that this marriage is oppressed by his parents, he is even more unhappy to the extreme, always looking at his wife coldly.
Under the pressure of his parents, Xu Zhimo would only touch Zhang Youyi when fulfilling his husband and wife obligations, and even let the servants do it when he scratched the itch at other times.
For her husband's deliberate snub and dislike, Zhang Youyi knew it but had no choice. The education she received from an early age did not teach her how to ease the atmosphere and regulate the relationship between husband and wife. As a result, she could only be silent, silent and silent, which also made Xu Zhimo feel that she was boring to the extreme.
Soon, Zhang Youyi became pregnant and successfully gave birth to the eldest grandson of the Xu family. This made the Xu family very happy, and she also thought that the arrival of the child could change her husband's attitude towards her. However, Xu Zhimo only felt relieved, and finally fulfilled his parents' wish to hold their grandchildren, so he adhered to the attitude of "the family has money and hunger will not kill their mother and son", and decisively went abroad to find his own world.
Zhang Youyi and the eldest son Xu Jikai
During his study abroad, Xu Zhimo would often write letters home to tell his parents about the interesting things he had encountered in his hometown, and would also greet his parents' well-being, but he did not mention anything to Zhang Youyi.
At that time, the love affair between Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin was widely spread at home and abroad. After Xu Zhimo's eldest brother learned of this incident, he believed that the separation of husband and wife had caused Xu Zhimo's train to derail, so he ordered Xu Zhimo to take Zhang Youyi to accompany him to study.
In order to save her marriage, Zhang Youyi embarked on a cruise ship to Britain. This is the first time she has abandoned the old concept of "women staying at home" in order to reunite with Xu Zhimo.
Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo
In order to save the marriage, he went abroad alone and was abandoned by his husband
Among all the people on the shore who looked at the waiting to pick up the ship, Zhang Youyi saw Xu Zhimo at a glance, because among the many people who picked up the boat, the only person who showed an expression of "not wanting to be there" was the one who showed his face.
Perhaps it was Xu Zhimo's reluctance on his face that made Zhang Youyi's expectations disappointed, but she still expected to improve her relationship with Xu Zhimo.
UK Docks
Life in england is not as sweet and happy as imagined, Zhang Youyi came from afar for the purpose of one is to reunite with her husband, and the other is to learn more Western knowledge so that she can have a common topic with her husband.
But unexpectedly, after coming to the UK, Zhang Youyi's daily life in addition to cleaning is to buy vegetables and cook. She had no chance to improve herself or get her husband to know her.
Not to mention that Xu Zhimo at that time was already madly in love with Lin Huiyin, and he only did one thing every day, that is, to wait for Lin Huiyin's letter. In the face of her husband's infidelity, Zhang Youyi was so scared.
It wasn't until the spring of the following year that Xu Zhimo told her to take her girlfriend home as a guest. (If you don't love, please let her go with divorce instead of splitting legs under the pretext of pursuing a new era)
This was the first time Zhang Youyi had seen Lin Huiyin, with short hair, dark red lipstick, and a navy dress made of wool.
This is her love enemy, the woman who sabotaged her marriage. Watching Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo talk and laugh and agree with each other, Zhang Youyi was only left with secret wounds.
Lin Huiyin and Zhang Youyi
But it is under the cold relationship between husband and wife, Zhang Youyi is still pregnant with the second child of the two.
She excitedly told her husband the news. But Xu Zhimo was not as happy as she imagined, but had a dignified expression: "Knock the child off"
Zhang Youyi was stunned, she did not expect her husband to say these words, she said timidly: "Beating the fetus will kill people." ”
And Xu Zhimo only replied to her indifferently: "Then there will be dead people by taking the train, is there no one taking the train?" ”
Xu Zhimo has said many clever things in his life, but this is the most unsympathetic and inhuman.
Originally, in order to save her husband's heart, Zhang Youyi still decided to risk her life to beat up the child, but as a mother, she still couldn't bear it.
Seeing that the negotiation failed, Xu Zhimo played the disappearance, leaving Zhang Youyi alone in the empty room with a big belly. Disheartened, Zhang Youyi thought of death, but when she thought of her parents and children, she restrained herself.
A few days later, Xu Zhimo sent a lobbyist to persuade Zhang Youyi to sign a divorce agreement. In that era, there was never a precedent for divorce, and Zhang Youyi, who was conservative in her thinking, naturally disagreed.
With the help of her second brother, Zhang Youyi went to the French countryside to give birth. During this period of time in the countryside waiting for childbirth, she made a deep reflection, perhaps her conservative, rigid thinking and behavior and Xu Zhimo's pursuit of freedom are really inappropriate.
Mid-20th century French countryside
Half a year later, Zhang Youyi gave birth in Germany smoothly, and Xu Zhimo sent lobbyists to find her. This time, at the strong request of Zhang Youyi, Xu Zhimo appeared with a divorce agreement. But he did not care at all about the health of his children and the condition of his wife, and only had an iron heart to divorce.
Zhang Youyi told him that marriage is a major event in life and must be signed with the consent of his parents.
At this time, Xu Zhimo said hesitantly, "HuiYin... Huiyin is going to return to China, and I must leave this marriage. ”
Hearing this answer, Zhang Youyi completely disintegrated, and she signed without hesitation and said to Xu Zhimo: "You go find a better wife."
As a result, they became the first case of divorce in the Republic of China. Xu Zhimo was very happy, and even publicized the news of his divorce with great fanfare. Zhang Youyi also became a joke after dinner at that time, and was jokingly called "the first abandoned woman of the Republic of China".
Let go of the scumbag and fight back against life
After the divorce, the penniless Zhang Youyi could only ask her family for help, and then she came to Berlin, Germany, and lived alone in Berlin with her young son.
Although Zhang Youyi herself is not short of money, the Xu family's parents think that they Are Xu Family ashamed of her, even if Zhang Youyi and Xu Zhimo have divorced, they still give her living expenses every month.
During her stay in Germany, she worked hard to learn German and applied to study at a university in Germany, becoming increasingly independent and strong. However, the next blow left her in pain, and her youngest son, Peter, died because the parasite could not be treated.
Zhang Youyi and young son
Disheartened, Zhang Youyi chose to return to China, and after returning to China, with her solid foundation in German, she took up the position of a German teacher at a university.
Originally, she thought that her life would go on like this. Unexpectedly, she had never been exposed to bank management, and was invited to take over a women's bank.
In fact, at that time, the bank was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the reason why she was made the vice president of the bank was to use her second brother's relationship to help the bank tide over the difficulties. In order to challenge herself, Zhang Youyi accepted the invitation.
Zhang Junjie (right)
After arriving at the bank, Zhang Youyi found that the bank's debts were too high, and many of the money could not be recovered, which was also an important reason for the difficulties in the bank's operation.
Therefore, she personally intervened to make a deal out of it, using her connections to mortgage the bank building to the bank with strong funds, which made herself the normal operation of the women's bank. Subsequently, she led by example to drive the enthusiasm of bank staff, attracting more and more people to choose their bank for savings.
After some efforts by her to turn the tide, the bank finally turned a profit and became one of the most prosperous banks in Shanghai Beach.
However, Zhang Youyi was not satisfied, and was forced to abandon her life, which made Zhang Youyi deeply feel the importance of self-improvement. As early as the moment she signed the divorce agreement, she had already abandoned the weakness and imprisonment left in her bones.
In order to improve herself, she humbly asked her fourth brother for advice, met various characters, and became a hot female banker in Shanghai.
Zhang Jiaxuan
But even Xu Zhimo was shocked by this ex-wife who had once scorned: "She is really different from before!" ”
After becoming a bank manager, Zhang Youyi turned her attention to women's clothing, and after several careful market investigations, she and her friends jointly opened a women's clothing store "Yunsheng", and personally served as the general manager.
Due to her perennial experience in Europe, Zhang Youyi has a keen sense of the market, and she introduces the most popular european clothing elements into the design of her own brand. There is both the luxury of European clothing and the embellishment of Chinese elements.
The main customer base of "Yunsheng" is the circle of rich people in Shanghai Beach, so Zhang Youyi invited Lu Xiaoman and Tang Ying of the "Southern Tang and Northern Land" to try on their clothes.
This immediately brought an advertising effect to "Yunsheng", and immediately hit the reputation of "Yunsheng". The high-end positioning coupled with the combination of Chinese and Western fashion styles has suddenly attracted the rich and famous ladies on the beach to buy first. In this way, with Zhang Youyi's marketing talent, the business of Yunsheng clothing has been doing well.
In this way, Zhang Youyi's counterattack journey from a cousin to an independent strong woman has been perfectly successful.
Lu Xiaoman
If the story ends here, it's actually the standard big heroine script, but the truth is far darker than we think.
At that time, in the era of constant war and chaos, many people were making national hardships and wealth, what is called "national disaster wealth"?
Let's see how Zhang Youyi did it?
Zhang Youyi is indeed a commercial talent, on the eve of the war, she used her background and resources to acquire and hoard a large number of necessary dyes for military uniforms. When the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, the demand for this fuel surged, but neither domestic nor foreign countries could buy this dye.
At this time, Zhang Youyi immediately seized the opportunity to sell the fuel she had hoarded at a hundred times the original price, and then earned a golden bowl. Subsequently, she used the money she earned to invest in cotton and gold, making a large amount of money.
After dafa country was difficult to make money, Zhang Youyi moved to the United States to remarry.
The first half of Zhang Youyi's life is undoubtedly tragic, but after understanding the whole truth, it is difficult to make people sympathetic, and in the face of the suffering of the family and country, love and love are indeed not worth mentioning.
In that era, not to mention the pain of love, some people could not even control their qualifications to survive, no matter how zhang Youyi was hurt, she also had a well-connected mother's family to rely on, and powerful brothers and sisters to help.
However, her story also tells us that attachment to others will one day be abandoned, and only when you are strong can you save yourself. But don't forget one thing, you can't forget your roots.