Chinese ship king Lu Zuofu

On April 14, 1893, Lu Zuofu was born in a poor family in the ancestral hall of the Zeng family in Yangliu Street, Yangliu Street, North Gate, Hechuan County, Sichuan Province. In order to support his family, his father, Lu Maolin, sold sackcloth outside for many years, which was called "Lu Mabu" by the locals. Despite the hard work of the parents, life at home is still very difficult.

　　Lu Zuofu has loved to learn since he was a child and wants to go to school to study. Because his father had eaten enough of the illiterate people,he gritted his teeth, and the family cut back on food and clothing, and sent Lu Zuofu and his brother Lu Zhilin to the school. Xiao Zuofu was very happy and studied very hard. Unfortunately, not long after, Xiao Zuofu suddenly developed a strange disease, with a fever all over his body and weakness in his limbs. The family did not have money to ask a doctor, the mother had to pick her own herbs to treat her son, who knew that the medicine was not right, the medicine was imported, and Xiao Zuofu became dumb! The cruel blow of fate made Lu Zuofu understand the bitterness of life at a young age. The older brother was very distressed about this younger brother who spoke with his eyes, and every day when he came home from school, he had to tell Xiao Zuofu about the knowledge he had learned that day.

　　Two years later, on a bright spring day, lovely swallows flew into the Lu family to build a nest. Xiao Zuofu happily chased after the swallow to play, and accidentally fell heavily, but he did not expect that this fall actually fell out of a miracle, and Xiao Zuofu was actually able to speak! He returned to his long-lost school and graduated with honors at the age of 14. However, due to the poverty of his family, he had to leave the school again.

　　The following year, the family's financial situation improved slightly. Lu Zuofu made a request to his father to continue his studies, and his father agreed. The 15-year-old Lu Zuofu came to the provincial capital alone and entered the Chengdu Tuition School for self-study. With amazing perseverance, he completed the Chinese version of mathematics in just a few months; In order to learn the English version of mathematics, he also struggled to study English, and since then stepped into the door of advanced mathematics, and has edited the learning experience and problem solving methods into books, such as "Algebra", "Triangle", "Analytical Geometry", "Mathematical Difficult Problems" and so on.

　　More importantly, while reading extensively ancient texts, history, geography, physics, chemistry and other books, Lu Zuofu also intensively read important books and periodicals at home and abroad in the school library, such as Rousseau's "Social Contract", Darwin's "Theory of Evolution", Huxley's "Heavenly Speech", and Dr. Sun Yat-sen's lectures. He was able to recite Dr. Sun Yat-sen's "Industrial Plan" and "Outline of the Founding of the People's Republic" almost verbatim, and he also copied a passage from the "Outline of the Founding of the People's Republic" and pasted it on his desk as a motto. He believed that only Dr. Sun Yat-sen's ideas could save China, so at the age of 18, he joined the League led by Sun Yat-sen and took the salvation of the people and the revitalization of China as his ambition.

　　The fruits of victory in the Xinhai Revolution were finally usurped by Yuan Shikai. The young Lu Zuofu found it difficult to carry out political reforms in China and traveled to Shanghai in 1914 to find a new way to save the country. He became acquainted with the patriotic educator Huang Yanpei, and under the influence of Mr. Huang, Lu Zuofu came to a new conclusion: to free the motherland from political corruption and the plunder of the great powers, and to become truly rich and strong, the only way to arouse the people; And to awaken the people, it is necessary to start with the development of education. In the autumn of the following year, Lu Zuofu returned to his hometown and worked as a teacher, journalist and editor in Hechuan and Chengdu. After the Outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, he, Together with Hua Daiying, Xiao Chunu, and others, participated in the Junior China Society, and also took advantage of his convenience as the editor-in-chief of Chuan Bao to publish a number of articles propagating anti-imperialist patriotism, which had a great impact on the public opinion circles.

　　At that time, Yang Sen, commander of the Ninth Division of the Sichuan Army, admired Lu Zuofu's talent and invited him to Huzhou as the director of education. Lu Zuofu took the opportunity to promote his idea of educating and saving the country, founded the Popular Education Association, and invited Hui Daiying, Wang Dexi, and other progressive figures to serve as the principal of the Chuannan Normal School, and implemented educational reform, which was welcomed by teachers and students. In 1924, Lu Zuofu was hired by Yang Sen as the director of the Chengdu Popular Education Museum. He actively carried out the work of mass education, held night schools, gave lectures, and engaged in propaganda, and was very busy.

　　However, at that time, Sichuan was still a situation in which warlords were divided and fighting with each other. Soon after, Yang Sen was defeated by another warlord, Liu Xiang, and Sichuan became the domain of the Liu family. Taking over Chengdu was Liu Xiang's subordinate Wang Miaojie, who believed that the popular education center was a business run by Yang Sen, so he destroyed it by any means. Lu Zuofu had no choice but to give up this work and return to his hometown of Hechuan.

　　At this time, Lu Zuofu was no longer the teenager who did not understand the world when he left his hometown. Nearly 20 years of ups and downs have enabled him to have a deeper understanding of Chinese society and to calmly think about the road he has traveled. He finally understood that there was no way out by associating his cause with warlords. He often said to people: "Chaotic politics is unreliable, relying on military personnel to run education, and it is impossible to build a solid foundation." "He believes that Sichuan's political, economic and cultural backwardness is mainly caused by inconvenient transportation." Shu Road is difficult, it is difficult to go to Qingtian", so the top priority is to develop the transportation industry in the province. After a comprehensive analysis of local natural conditions, social needs and objective possibilities, he believes that engaging in inland waterway shipping will be more effective than building roads and railways, and investment will be relatively small.

　　He decided to start a joint-stock company that mainly operated shipping.

　　In October 1925, with the help of friends, Minsheng Company was born. The first difficulty a new company faces is a lack of funding. Lu Zuofu held the first meeting of promoters in Hechuan, and it was agreed that the promoters would separately recruit 20,000 silver yuan of shares. However, most of the people who supportEd Lu Zuofu were poor talents with two sleeves and a clean wind, while those businessmen and gentry with strong funds were all watching from the sidelines. In the end, it was the governor of Hechuan County who took the lead and raised 8,000 silver dollars. Lu Zuofu took the money to Shanghai, intending to order a small passenger ship with a load of 70 tons, but when he inquired, such a passenger ship cost 35,000 silver dollars! Lu Zuofu was so anxious that he didn't think about tea for several days. But after all, he is a knowledgeable and courageous person, after calm consideration, he boldly decided to first use 5,000 silver dollars to buy power generation equipment to benefit Hechuan and make shareholders see the benefits; The remaining 3,000 silver dollars were used as a deposit to sign a shipbuilding contract with the shipyard. After Lu Zuofu returned to Hechuan, he began to build a power plant, and soon the power plant began to generate electricity, and the era of oil lamps in Hechuan County ended. The success of this undertaking has earned Lu Zuofu credibility.

　　In May of the following year, a new ship was built in Shanghai. Lu Zuofu raised enough funds to pay for the ship, and the new ship went through trial sailing, traced up the Yangtze River, and passed through countless rapids and dangerous shoals, and arrived in Chongqing safely. Lu Zuofu named the new ship "People's Livelihood", expressing his belief in working hard to realize the Three People's Principles advocated by Sun Yat-sen. July 23 is a historic day for Minsheng Company and for the future Chinese ship king Lu Zuofu. On this day, the red-clad Minsheng Ferry, full of passengers, set sail from Chongqing amid the deafening sound of firecrackers, and successfully arrived in Hechuan in the afternoon of the same day, completing the 65-kilometer maiden voyage. The Chongqing-Hechuan route painstakingly planned by Lu Zuofu was officially opened.

　　Minsheng Company takes "safety, speed, comfort and cleanliness" as its service tenet, which is very popular with passengers. The company's business is booming, and people see that investing in the shipping industry is profitable, so they have invested in shares. At the beginning of 1927, Minsheng Company increased its investment by 50,000 silver yuan, purchased 2 more ships, and opened a new route from Chongqing to Fuling. Minsheng Company, which started from the Jialing River branch line, has since entered the main route of the Jialing River.

　　However, Lu Zuofu soon discovered that it was impossible to rely on warlords to set up an industry in Sichuan, where warlords were divided, but it was also impossible to completely get rid of warlords. You don't go to the warlord, the warlord is going to come to your trouble!

　　The Minsheng Company's route from Chongqing to Hechuan, although only a few tens of kilometers, crossed the defense zone of two warlords, Hechuan was the defense zone of Chen Shunong, commander of the 28th Army, and Chongqing was the defense zone of Liu Xiang of the 21st Army. In beibei town, at the junction of the two defense zones, bandits are rampant, but no one cares. The waterway is open, the "humanitarian" is not passed, and the minsheng company cannot develop smoothly. Therefore, Lu Zuofu had to start to open up the warlord's joint.

　　Hechuan was still easy to manage, and Chen Shunong was willing to support Lu Zuohan for the prosperity of the local defense area and the increase of local taxes; In addition, Lu Zuofu also sent money and gifts to Chen Shunong from time to time, so Chen Shunong even did not hesitate to send troops to escort the people's livelihood wheel. But Liu Xiang was in trouble over there. Liu Xiang and Yang Sen are sworn enemies, because Lu Zuojun once served as the director of Yang Sen's People's Education Museum, so Liu Xiang regarded Lu Zuofu as Yang Sen's minions and embarrassed him everywhere.

　　However, among the Sichuan warlords at that time, Liu Xiang was the most powerful. Lu Zuofu could not avoid this dilemma. He first asked his friends to coordinate from it, but Liu Xiang did not buy it at all, and said: "Yang Sen's people are unreliable!" Lu Zuofu thought twice and decided to talk to Liu Xiang personally. His friends all advised him not to go, saying that Liu Xiang did not recognize his six relatives and had deep prejudices against Lu Zuofu, and that he was afraid that he would be more fierce and less fortunate.

　　Lu Zuofu said firmly: "For the development of 'people's livelihood', there is only one way. "

　　Liu Xiang was living in the Liziba Mansion in Chongqing. Lu Zuofu came to the door to ask for a meeting, and Liu Xiang deliberately let him sit on the cold bench in the living room for an hour, before he arrogantly stepped out and looked at Lu Zuofu for a long time without making a sound. Lu Zuofu took the initiative to say a few words of greeting, and then cut straight to the point. He said solemnly: "Since the establishment of minsheng company, entering and leaving guifang areas has often affected the development of the shipping industry because of the unsafe waterways. When I came to visit today, I hoped that Commander Liu Junjun would help him to set up a gorge defense bureau between Chongqing and Hechuan to protect local tranquility. "

　　Liu Xiang said contemptuously: "Is it worth setting up a gorge defense bureau for the sake of two broken ships?" "

　　Lu Zuofu said tit-for-tat: "Commander Liu is a native of Sichuan, so he naturally understands the actual situation in Sichuan. Sichuan's political isolation, economic backwardness, and underdeveloped science and culture are all caused by inconvenient transportation. If you want to prosper your hometown, the top priority is to develop transportation, and the investment in roads and railways is too large, it is difficult to achieve results for a while, and only by vigorously developing shipping transportation is the future of Sichuan! "

　　Liu Xiang said coldly: "I am a Native of Sichuan, so I want to unify Sichuan." To develop Sichuan, we must first develop indigenous products. I have the gilded teapot of the Rongchang Shochu Room, the white pig of Longchang and the precious medicinal herbs of Kawauchi, which can be developed without relying on science, and the retreat can also be self-preserving! "

　　Lu Zuofu was helpless against Liu Xiang's ignorance for a while.

　　Later, Lu Zuofu heard that Liu Xiang did not believe in science, but believed in superstition, and worshiped the fortune teller Liu Congyun as a god, worshiped Liu Congyun as a "military master", and obeyed his words. Lu Zuofu made a clever move and decided to attack the poison with poison. He bribed Liu Congyun with a lot of money and asked him to try to get Liu Xiang to change his attitude.

　　At that time, liu xiang and his uncle Liu Wenhui competed for territory, and the contradiction became more and more acute. Liu Congyun took the opportunity to say in a mysterious way: "The ancients said, 'One forest does not hide two tigers, and one river does not tolerate second-rate (alluding to Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui, two people surnamed Liu)'. According to the five elements of yin and yang, xiangsheng xiang ke, Xiang character is next to water, Hui character is next to fire, water and fire are compatible, and water must be prosperous to extinguish the fire! Therefore, for all things related to water characters, you should pay more attention to the auxiliary. "

　　Liu Xiang listened intently and asked in a confused manner, "Ask the military master to make it clear, what is something related to water?" "

　　Liu Congyun seemed to be indifferent and said: "For example, Lu Zuofu's shipping is not a matter of water!" "

　　When Liu Xiang woke up from a dream, he immediately summoned Lu Zuofu and Chen Shunong to discuss important matters, and decided to implement joint defense in Hechuan, Ba County, Jiangbei, and Bishan counties, and to set up a gorge defense bureau in Hechuan, with Lu Zuofu as the director. With this position, Lu Zuofu first obtained the franchise rights for routes from Chongqing to Hechuan, Chongqing to Changshou, and Chongqing to Fuling in the name of opening up routes; Then, it was stipulated that bulk goods such as salt, mountain goods, medicinal materials, etc. were uniformly shipped by Minsheng Company. These measures have made minsheng company have achieved great advantages in operation, and profitability has also been greatly increased.

　　Opening up routes is only one aspect of developing shipping. At that time, the competition among peers was also very fierce. In addition to the Minsheng Shipping Company, there are also warlord ships and foreigners' ships. Foreign ships have strong capital and military ships have backstage support, which is difficult to deal with.

Lu Zuofu analyzed the situation at that time and decided to adopt the method of breaking down one by one, and the first step was to solve the problem of military ships. Although there are many warlords in Sichuan, the biggest is the Liu family, that is, Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui. Liu Xiang has adopted a cooperative attitude, and the rest is Liu Wenhui. Liu Wenhui's fifth brother, Liu Wencai, was the commander of Qingxiang and the general tax office of southern Sichuan stationed in Yibin, who was overbearing and rich, and he had three ships, Shutong, Nantong, and Zhaotong, and monopolized the route from Chongqing to Huzhou and Yibin, and did not allow other ships to sail. Lu Zuofu personally came to Liu's Manor in Yibin, gave generous gifts, and "borrowed the road" from Liu Wencai, hoping to get the right to navigation from Chongqing to Yibin. Liu Wencai accepted the gift, but he did not budge, and said slyly: "My ship sails on the first line from Yibin to Chongqing, and never intends to sail to Hechuan, you Lu Zuofu are sailing on the first line from Hechuan to Chongqing, isn't it also very good!" "

　　Lu Zuofu couldn't talk to him, so he had to go to Chengdu to find Liu Xiang again. This time it was an unexpected bonus. It turned out that just a few days ago, Liu Xiang had caught an assassin in his mansion and interrogated him for sending liu Wencai. Liu Xiang originally wanted to find an opportunity to swallow Liu Wenhui, and just caught this assassin incident to make a big fuss. Liu Wenhui did not want to turn his face to Liu Xiang at this time, so he swallowed his anger and defended himself. Knowing that Lu Zuofu had a cooperative relationship with Liu Xiang, he wanted to ask Lu Zuofu to mediate between them, so he scolded Liu Wencai for not understanding things and asked Liu Wencai to sell the steamship to the Minsheng Company unconditionally. Liu Wencai agreed with his lips, but dragged on. Unexpectedly, Liu Xiang's army had already fought, and Liu Wenhui's brothers suffered defeat and withdrew from Yibin, and the steamship also fell into Liu Xiang's hands. Lu Zuofu took the opportunity to consult with Liu Xiang and merged the three ships into the Minsheng Company. When the other warlords saw this, they were willing to sell their personal feelings in front of Liu Xiang and sell their ships to Lu Zuofu.

　　In 1929, Lu Zuofu became the director of the Chuanjiang Navigation Management Office. He took advantage of his work to gain advantages and privileges that other steamship companies did not have. Then, he used more favorable conditions to attract other companies to merge with Minsheng Company. Due to the proper measures, by 1935, minsheng company had merged and bought a total of 39 ships, basically unifying the shipping industry in Sichuan, China.

　　The struggle against foreign steamship companies is an uphill battle. Britain's Swire and Jardine Matheson and Japan's Nissin are all established shipping companies, and they collude to squeeze out minsheng company with a large price reduction. Foreign passenger ships have reduced the price of ferry tickets to less than half, even allowing passengers to take the boat for free and giving them a foreign umbrella. The foreigners wanted to use this method to rob the business of the past, so that the Minsheng Company had no customers to carry and no goods to load, so they had to close their doors.

　　However, the wishful thinking of foreign bosses did not succeed. Because foreign crew members have always taken Chinese inappropriate people, and randomly beat and bully. Lu Zuofu saw this and educated the crew of the Minsheng Company to respect passengers, be equal and harmonious, and conduct special training on the quality of service of the crew. In order to ensure the quality of service, Lu Zuofu often personally gets on the ship, wears the same clothes with the crew, does the same work, leads by example, has a kind attitude towards passengers, greets the cold and warms, helps the old and the young, brings tea and water, even carries luggage for passengers, covers, and enthusiastically introduces to passengers the scenic spots, customs and customs along the way. When people knew that this enthusiastic person before and after running was the general manager of Minsheng Company, they were very moved. Passengers feel that riding a Chinese ship is not only convenient for life, but more importantly, respected in personality. Therefore, everyone is willing to take the ship of Minsheng Company. There are many passengers who would rather stay in a hotel for a few days than wait until the minsheng company's shuttle ship.

　　At the same time, Minsheng Company also tries to reduce the ticket price as much as possible. This will inevitably affect the company's profits. But all the employees of the company held their breath and must beat down the arrogance of the foreigners! Everyone has said that it is better to receive less salary, do not want year-end bonuses, and cannot let the company collapse! This made Lu Zuofu even more determined to fight against foreign steamship companies to the end. He often went unpaid for months. He repeatedly said to the company's employees: "We must summon up courage and improve confidence." Whatever the Caucasians can do, the Yellows can certainly do! Whatever the Japanese can do, Chinese can do! "

　　Lu Zuofu also used the name of the Navigation Administration To recover the right of navigation management stolen by the Customs Patrol Company, which was originally controlled by foreigners, and adopted restrictive measures for foreign ships to sail on the Sichuan River, stipulating that all foreign ships entering Sichuan must declare to the Navigation Administration Office, accept inspection by Chinese soldiers, slow down when encountering wooden ships, and if they overturn Chinese ships, they should compensate for all losses. At first, foreign ships also wanted to show the prestige of the foreign lords and refused to accept these conditions. However, Lu Zuofu strongly stated that all foreign ships that were not declared to the Navigation Administration office would not be allowed to be loaded or unloaded. Because the dock workers are all Chinese and enforce the regulations, foreign ships have to submit to the management of the Navigation Administration. Because of the lack of profit, foreign ships finally gradually withdrew from the Sichuan River shipping.

　　In this struggle, minsheng company not only did not collapse, but also achieved great development. In just 10 years, Minsheng Company has grown to more than 40 ships, opened up 9 routes, west to Yibin, east to Shanghai, and set up branches and offices in major and medium-sized cities along the Yangtze River.

　　After the September 18 Incident, the anti-Japanese sentiment throughout the country was high, and Lu Zuodan wasted no time in putting forward the slogan of "Chinese do not take foreign ships, and Chinese ships do not carry foreign goods", so that China's shipping industry can be further developed. Minsheng Company more clearly put forward the enterprise spirit of "serving the society, facilitating the crowd, developing the industry, and enriching and strengthening the country". It is precisely under the support of this spiritual force that Minsheng Company made significant contributions to the country and the nation in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and rescued a large number of national wealth; As a result, Minsheng Company also made great sacrifices: more than 100 employees died heroically, more than 60 employees were wounded honorably, and 16 ships were sunk by the Japanese army.

　　By the end of the 1940s, Minsheng Company had 140 ships, 3 subsidiaries and 95 investment enterprises, becoming the largest national capital group in modern China.

　　Lu Zuofu also became a veritable "Chinese ship king".