On April 22, 1874, Wu Kecheng, a small merchant in Shandong, had a son, Wu Kecheng inherited a small grocery store inherited by the Wu family, which made good profits and supported the expenses of the entire Wu Kecheng family, and by the way, Wu Kecheng's son received a complete private education, which was completely different from Zhang Zuolin, who dropped out of school. Wu Kecheng named this son Wu Peifu, that is, with jade, which also shows that the Wu family has expectations for this son, and there is some culture in the family.
Wu Peifu also competed, entered private school at the age of 6, and immediately got the love of the old gentleman, 6 years later, Wu Peifu has completed the old-style education, if it is smooth sailing, he will enter Beijing to catch up with the exam. Become a high official of the Qing Dynasty. But if nothing else, Wu Kecheng died soon after falling ill, leaving Wu Peifu and his mother to rely on each other, Wu Peifu relied on the ancestral grocery store and his mother to live hard, but it was a turbulent era, Shandong was the focus of imperialist contention, and the Qing government was seriously corrupt and exploited the people at the bottom. Wu Peifu saw the people starving to death on the street, and saw the Qing government's advertisement for recruiting sailors, and his heart was crossed, and he joined the sailors for the salary of two taels of silver in the month of the sailors. At that time, the conditions of the sailors were quite difficult, and they could be life-threatening at any time. Wu's mother felt sorry for her son and persuaded her son to leave the sailors, and finally in 1891, Wu Peifu left the army and continued his studies.
Qing Dynasty sailors
Wu Peifu came to Dengzhou to worship Li Pisen as a teacher, and then the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Shandong was occupied by the Japanese army, and the Japanese army burned, killed and looted, which deeply shocked the young Wu Peifu, but the old concept of reading to become a human still affects him.
Japanese army base camp during the Sino-Japanese War
In 1896, Wu Peifu took the imperial examination and became the third place in Bingshenke, and he is now a show talent. But where did the Qing Dynasty still take care of these poor talents? More unfortunately, Wu Peifu's married wife died of illness. Wu Peifu wavered in what he had learned. Why did I already have a reputation but no money or status, and my wife died in this chaos? He didn't know how to deal with his emotions and went into the abyss of opium. After smoking opium for a long time, he suddenly woke up and smashed the tobacco hall with someone, which made the owner of the tobacco hall very annoyed, and the government then removed his name as a show talent, and he completely had no way to succeed in the imperial examination.
Wu Peifu has felt more than once that his studies are useless, and poor Xiucai can't live a good life, but the local soldiers have a smooth life. He had nothing to do in Beijing, and the money he brought had been spent, and there were many troops stationed in Beijing at this time, among which Nie Shicheng from Tianjin happened to come to Beijing to recruit troops, and Wu Peifu really couldn't survive so he had to join the army again.
Most of the other soldiers were former workers with full physical strength, while Wu Peifu was just a scholar, who often could not keep up with during training, and his movements were not standard, and he was excluded. Many times he regretted reading. But the truth that reading changed one's destiny was fulfilled in him.
By chance, Wu Peifu discovered that his boss Guo Xudong had used the wrong allusion in his documents, so he boldly changed the allusion privately, and Guo Xudong was surprised that there were such literate people in the army. When he learned that the other party was a show talent, he was even more surprised, the relationship between the two gradually became close, and soon Wu Peifu transferred from an ordinary soldier to clerical work, Wu Peifu's life improved, but his experience in the army and the fact that he was bullied by soldiers and bandits in Shandong made him awaken, reading is not useless, but when to read what books, so in the clerical office he in addition to work is study. In 1902, Wu Peifu was admitted to the Kaiping Wubei School, which was where Yuan Shikai trained officers, and Wu Peifu who caught up with Yuan Shikai's reign met a good time, and after his graduation, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and went to the Beiyang Supervision and Training Office to take up his post.
Kaiping Wubei Academy
This job may not be a big official, but in the political center of Beiyang, and has a certain military power, trusted by Yuan Shikai, these are all factors in Wu Peifu's rise. While working, he learned about his boss, Cao Kun. He felt that he might never know Cao Kun in his life, but fate was impermanent, and a few years later, he not only knew Cao Kun, but also inherited Cao Kun's position, really letting all of China know about this Xiucai general.
Time magazine, famous all over the world
(To be continued, follow me to update the next episode, Wu Peifu straightened his waist)