During the Guangxu period, Li Lianying amassed a fortune of 300,000 taels of silver and ordered people to send him to his hometown of Dacheng County. However, her nephew Li Fuwang withheld the silver and squandered it in the land of wind and moon. Although Li Lianying was not angry when she knew about this, she praised: "It will cost money, it's really amazing!" ”
Li Fuwang was one of the three sons of Li Lianying's fourth brother, Li Shengtai. Although he was only in his early 20s, he was very eloquent and filial to Li Lianying, so he was favored by Li Lianying.
Although Li Fuwang has married two wives, he still finds life boring, so he often goes to Tianjin's Fengyue places to spend time.
Yuan Shikai's eldest son, Yuan Keding, was also a frequent visitor to the Fengyue Place. Because Li Fuwang was the nephew of the great eunuch Li Lianying, and spent very much money, the two met and became brothers with different surnames, and they had a close relationship.
At that time, 300,000 taels of silver escorted back to Tianjin from Beijing passed here. In order to show off his wealth, Li Fuwang withheld the silver and made a bet with Yuan Keding to see who dared to spend more boldly.
Since Yuan Keding did not have so much money, he claimed to be the eldest brother or elder brother, and followed Li Fuwang closely and began to squander it wantonly.
Li Fuwang and Yuan Keding didn't know how to spend so much money, so he came up with an idea: to wrap all the wind and moon places in the Nanshi area, so that the lights of the place were all extinguished, indicating that someone had reserved the venue and would no longer receive other guests.
So, Li Fuwang and Yuan Keding lived here for five or six days. But because the boss was worried that Li Fuwang would not be able to settle the bill, he asked him to settle the bill within the first five days.
Li Fuwang felt that his boss looked down on him, so he ordered people to hand over all 300,000 taels of silver to the boss. When the boss saw the situation, he was stunned, and quickly apologized to Li Fuwang and set up a banquet to entertain them.
Li Fuwang became more and more triumphant, squandering money like flowing water. As a result, in less than half a month, they spent all 300,000 taels of silver.
Although the Li family is rich, it is still relatively rare for Li Fuwang to squander and waste. Therefore, several of his older brothers reported the matter to their uncle Li Lianying.
However, Li Lianying did not reproach Li Fuwang after hearing this, but praised him for spending money, and said that only by daring to spend money can he have the opportunity to make money. After that, he asked Li Fuwang to immediately go to Beijing to meet him.
Li Fuwang came to Li Lianying trembling, expecting to be reprimanded. Who knew that Li Lianying joked: "The boy of scattered wealth is here!" People call you three bellies, so I want to test you, see how big your belly is, how much can a meal cost? ”
So Li Lianying asked Li Fuwang's brothers to take him to the largest restaurant in Beijing to eat, and asked him to order food by name to test his ability to spend money.
Li Fuwang and a few brothers entered a restaurant and saw a cage of thrush hanging under the porch, so they came up with an idea to spend money.
He ordered a few of the most expensive dishes and added a braised thrush tongue. When the guy handed the name of the dish to the chef, the chef shook his head to indicate that he had not heard of the dish. The account room and the treasurer were also very puzzled, thinking that Li Fuwang was looking for fault.
However, Li Fuwang is not looking for fault, but really wants to eat this dish. He told the treasurer that this dish has nothing to do with it, you can go to the market to buy thrushes, the money will never be less, and then let the treasurer send people all over Beijing to search for thrushes.
The treasurer told Li Fuwang that to stir-fry a large plate of braised thrush tongues, hundreds of thrush tongues were needed, which was very expensive and difficult to calculate money. However, Li Fuwang did not care, and immediately took out a large silver ticket to indicate that money was not a problem.
The treasurer had to send the guys to the bird market to buy thrush. A few guys bought more than 200 of them for 10 taels of silver each, and also snapped up thrushes from other bird markets, making the value of these birds skyrocket.
The next day, thousands of thrushes popped up in the bird market, but no one paid a high price.
Under Li Fuwang's arrangement, he and several brothers ate the braised thrush tongue dish they tasted for the first time in their lives, which cost a total of more than 2,000 taels of silver.
After returning home, Li Lianying learned about this and laughed and praised: "Lafayette only costs more than 60 taels of silver a day's meal, you will enjoy it more than Lafayette!" ”
Li Fuwang was not ashamed of his squandering, but considered it an honor. After returning home, Li Lianying gave him another cart of silver and asked him to take it back to his hometown of Dacheng County.
After returning to Tianjin, Li Fuwang still lived a luxurious life and was known as "Dacheng Li". He befriended people from all social strata in Tianjin, including political and military leaders, such as Yuan Shikai, Cao Kun, and Yang Yide, the head of the department. Even Yuan Shikai's son Yuan Kewen followed him to have fun in the Hualou gambling house.
Li Fuwang likes to gamble lavishly, and he can be seen in all major gambling houses in Tianjin. He doesn't care how much money he loses, as long as he is in a good mood.
In addition, Li Fuwang also had a close personal relationship with Pan Xizhi, the county prince of Jinghai County, and the two often met in the county office. Pan Xizhi regarded him as a distinguished guest and poured him tea and cigarettes.
In 1911, after Li Lianying's death, Li Fuwang was still unrepentant and profligate. It didn't take long for him to sell off his possessions, including gold and silver jewelry and his hometown's 70 hectares of fertile land.
However, Li Fuwang's living conditions did not improve as a result. Later, he remembered that Li Lianying had given him more than 100,000 taels of silver before his death, stored in a cotton hutong in Beijing. So he went to ask for it, but the people of the Li family refused to admit it.
Li Fuwang had to file a lawsuit and returned to Dacheng County to produce two genealogies to testify. But it happened that the July Seven Incident broke out and the evidence was lost.
By the spring of 1939, Li Fuwang was reduced to a lonely old man who was impoverished and could not afford his funeral. His son could not find his bones.
Li Fuwang once relied on Li Lianying's power to sit and enjoy blessings, but he lived a parasitic life with nothing to do. However, such a life is not obtained by one's own efforts, but only emptiness and boredom.
Time passes, life is short, let us cherish every day and do not waste time.