No. 181 Fuxi Road, Shanghai, during the Republic of China, was the intersection of the French Concession and the public concession, and it is also known as the first gold cave in Shanghai Beach.
The casino was originally an exclusive membership system, just like the current high-end clubs, issuing membership cards, as a gimmick to attract the top figures in Shanghai at that time, such as military and political dignitaries, young ladies and wives of famous families, and so on.
After the reputation is released, the lower route is opened, as long as you pay 200 yuan of ocean, buy chips, and enjoy the service of eating, drinking and sitting in the casino.
Various restaurants in the casino, all kinds of dishes to eat casually, all kinds of drinks to drink casually, good cigarettes to smoke casually, driving cars and horses to pay for reimbursement.
At the same time, I bought chips and could gamble money.
The gambling nature of the casino is relatively high, believing that eating and drinking are losses, only gambling has a back-and-forth life motto, and they all firmly believe that they can kill all sides at the table, and the winner swallows and earns a lot of money.
Doesn't sound very much like the current clubhouse system, the service of 90 years ago, even compared to today, is not bad.
Under such a model, all kinds of high-ranking officials and dignitaries, military and political dignitaries, rich wives, young masters, etc., lingered in this casino No. 181 every day, among which the most diligent and quick to come were several princesses who were Sheng Xuanhuai.
Rich family business
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in 1844 in Shengjiawan, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he was once appreciated by Li Hongzhang, and was awarded the title of Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, Shaobao of The Prince of Rewards, Zuo Shilang of the Erpin Ministry of Works, and Minister of the Ministry of Posts and Shipping.
In 1875, he handled the iron ore mining affairs in Hubei. From this point on, he co-organized foreign affairs. Develop shipping, railways, telegraphs, textiles, invest in coal mines, and establish universities.
It has successively established the first civil joint-stock enterprise steamship investment bureau, the first telegraph bureau China Telegraph General Bureau, the first higher normal school Nanyang Public School, which is today's Jiaotong University, the first railway trunk line Jinghan Road, etc., a total of 11 China's first.
Develop shipping, railways, telegraphs, textiles, invest in coal mines, and establish universities.
He has been called "the father of Chinese industry" and the "father of Chinese education." ”
He is enthusiastic about public welfare, active in disaster relief, and is a well-known philanthropist.
Decades of official career, comprador status, brought him a rich family business, after Hu Xueyan, Sheng Xuanhuai was known as the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty.
In 1916, Sheng Xuanhuai's posthumous inheritance could purchase more than 20,000 sets of background courtyards, although the real estate value during the Republic of China period could not be compared with the present, but it was also an immeasurable huge wealth.
Sheng Xuan is pregnant with 7 wives, 8 sons and 8 daughters, and has more than 200 servants in the family, including Ni Guizhen, the mother of Song Qingling, who worked as a maid in his home.
After his death, as many as 64 men carrying coffins were rented and sent troops to maintain order at the scene, and the whole of Shanghai was shaken.
Bet on 100 bungalows
However, just tonight, the foundation that the old man had painstakingly laid was placed on the gambling table by his most beloved son, Sheng Enyi, on more than 100 sets of bungalows and villas around Beijing Road and Yellow River Road in Shanghai.
The one who bet with him was Lu Xiaojia, whose father, Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Zhejiang, and Duan Qirui, was friends with Him.
Because of this, Lu Xiaojia is also a famous playboy on the beach, and the two are tit-for-tat, this time in a showdown at the casino.
They called the casino owner, directly found the map, and drew out their respective properties as a bet.
Casino people, although often hear the word "throw thousands of dollars", but usually no one has seen such a pomp, for a time the whole casino is like being ignited by gunpowder, the atmosphere is completely exploded,
People rushed to this gambling table to witness this amazing scene.
However, the end of the gambling game was shorter than everyone expected, sheng en yi was bent on crushing Lu Xiaojia, but the gamble was gradually defeated, there was no ability to fight back, and directly lost to the end, this earth-shattering gamble, in the end, ended with the defeat of Sheng Enyi.
Losing 100 bungalows in one night, to this day, people still marvel at the defeated behavior of these rich men.
But for Sheng Enyi, these have long been accustomed to, the casino can lose anything, do not care about anything.
Born in the lap of luxury
Sheng Enyi, who has been loved by thousands of people since childhood, and his name is even more personally given by his father when he requested Lafayette at that time.
In the old days, superstitions said that the royal family had the protection of the dragon vein, and if the courtiers could get the name given by the royal family, they could be contaminated by the imperial qi and live a life of wealth and health.
Of course, this statement has no scientific basis and is nonsense.
But you must know that in that era of imperial power, a courtier, asking the royal family to give him a name, said that it was not good to say that it was too much. If it weren't for the extreme love for this child in his heart, where would he have done such a thankless thing?
When Sheng Enyi was a little older, he gave him the Suzhou Lingering Garden as a private residence.
Every day, there are many slaves, and it is not too much to say that it is necessary to wind and rain.
At the same time, for the sake of his son's marriage, Sheng Xuanhuai also chose Sun Yonghui, the daughter of the premier of the Republic of China, as his wife, and Sun Yonghui knew Dali. Proficient in four foreign languages and once a translator for Cixi, Sheng Xuanhuai was a bitter and lonely person for his son.
In order for him to receive the best education. He has studied at the top universities in the United Kingdom and the United States, the University of London and Columbia University.
However, what Sheng Xuanhuai did not expect was that his years of studying abroad career not only did not make his son who had high hopes become full of experience, but in the process he learned countless vices.
Returning home, Sheng Enyi's aunts and wives around him are as many as a dozen, which is still famous, the nameless dew marriage is not much, the aunts and wives are also competing with him, and the villa car maid is a huge expense.
Sheng Enyi's car license plate number is 4444 because he is the fourth oldest. The car was plated with a layer of real silver on the outside, just to make the car stand out.
Sheng Enyi was proficient in eating, drinking, gambling, and after his father's death, he was even more unfettered and focused on the inheritance left by his father.
In order to get this money, he did not hesitate to persecute his siblings, and in the end, the brothers and sisters confronted the court, and Sheng Enyi got the property that he had in mind.
However, Sheng Enyi only cares about eating, drinking and having fun all day long, the company never operates, and no matter how rich the family business, there is no income, it is only passive water, and it will be exhausted one day.
Decades have passed, Sheng En yi sold good land, and finally when the clothes were removed, the family was finally destroyed, and the fourth master of the Sheng family, who once went to the beach, and those who hugged around him have long disappeared.
In the end, he starved to death in the gatehouse of the Lingering Garden. Before dying, there was only a bowl of thin porridge.
Looking at this bowl of porridge, full of regrets, sighing if only there was a piece of meat.
If this sentence had been placed decades ago, I am afraid that no one would believe it, and the fourth master of the Sheng family would have wanted to eat a piece of meat, but could not eat it? He had enough horses to buy as many meat factories as he could.
When Sheng Xuanhuai died, the funeral procession of 2500 meters in Shanghai was not so much The funeral of Sheng Xuanhuai as the beautiful funeral of the Sheng family in the future.
The most beloved son of his family had ruined the foundation he had worked hard for decades, and he had starved to death in the concierge, afraid that he could not imagine it.
People always say that they lost 100 bungalows in one night, marveling at his family's luxury and his loser, but they did not think, how many people's blood and tears are there?
The comprador of the Republic of China has plundered how many people's fat and people's anointing are in one body, and hundreds of people are hungry in life, but the upper echelons are drunk and gold-obsessed. As the saying goes, the people are easy to abuse the heavens and are difficult to deceive, and Sheng Enyi's last step can also be regarded as self-inflicted.