introduction
*The original author of this article, Chen Shiru, was originally titled "The Cao Kun Family's Economic Plunder and Oppression of the People".
Cao Feng (December 12, 1862 – May 17, 1938)
Cao Kun (December 12, 1862 – May 17, 1938), also known as Zhongshan, called himself the old man of Leshou in his later years. Born in Dagukou, Tianjin (today Jintanggu). A modern Chinese military and political figure, he was the head of the direct warlords of the Republic of China, and the fifth president of the Republic of China (October 10, 1923 – November 2, 1924). Because of the garrison in Baoding, it is also known as the "King of Baoding".
Cao Kun made a living selling cloth since he was a child, and in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), he joined the Huai Army, entered the Tianjin Wubei Academy to study, and became a sentry officer of the Yi Army after graduation. Later, he defected to Yuan Shikai, and served as the commander of the Third Division of the Beiyang Army, the direct overseer and governor of the province, and supported Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system. After Yuan Shikai's death, he was placed between Duan Qirui, Li Yuanhong, and Feng Guozhang. In the eighth year of the Republic of China (1919), he was promoted as the direct leader, organized the anti-Duan alliance of eight provinces, defeated the Anhui army in the Zhiwan War, and forced Duan Qirui to leave the field. In the eleventh year of the Republic of China (1922), Zhang Zuolin of the Fengjian family was defeated through the First Zhifeng War, and welcomed back Li Yuanhong as the president under the banner of "legal system and heavy light", and temporarily controlled the political situation in the north. The following year, he forced Le Yuen Hong to step down and was elected president by buying off parliamentarians and speakers with heavy money. After the Second Zhifeng War in the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924), he was imprisoned by Feng Yuxiang, and after his release, he went to Kaifeng, and then transferred to Tianjin to work as an apartment, operating industry and real estate.
After the "18 September" incident broke out, he refused Japan's request to form a new government. In the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938), Cao Kun died of illness in Tianjin at the age of 76. The Chongqing Nationalist Government posthumously promoted him to a first-class general of the National Revolutionary Army.
Cao Kun was known as a "bribery of the president" and was considered in traditional historical perception to be an illiterate, ignorant, and murderous warlord. However, when he was in charge of the Beijing government, he ordered the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China, supported Gu Weijun's handling of the "Lincheng carjacking case" and completed the negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union, and also had merits in safeguarding national sovereignty.
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The Cao Kun family, headed by Cao Kun, is a mixture of warlords, bureaucrats, local tycoons, bullies, landlords, tycoons, and bitches. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Dynasty, after Cao Kun started as a rogue, he became president. His brothers and nephews, relying on Cao's power, all soared to the top, rampaging through the people, and gradually formed a family group full of evil.
I am Cao Kun's brother-in-law, and I have served under him as a regiment commander, brigade commander, tax chief, and general manager of Northern Aviation Company. I know a little about Cao Kun's family history and his economic plunder, and I will write this article in memory today for the reference of relevant parties.
(1) Introduction to the Cao Kun family system
Cao Kun's father, Cao Bunsheng, was a native of Tianjin, and made a career in platoon boats (i.e. water-making boats). He gave birth to five boys and two daughters, the eldest son Cao Zhen, the second is the female Cao Aunt, the third is Cao Kun, the fourth Cao Rui, the fifth Cao Jun, the sixth is the female Cao Second Aunt, and the seventh is Cao Wei.
Cao Kun Zi Zhongshan, who had been in private school for several years as a child, pushed a cart to the countryside to retail cloth at the age of sixteen. Cao Hao practiced martial arts, combined with Liu Desheng, the leader of the hooligans in the Jiagu area, and others, who were unwilling to work in agriculture, and refused to follow his father to learn to arrange work. At the age of twenty, Shi Yuan Shikai recruited new soldiers at the small station and was recruited into the army. Cao Yi is burly and coarse in words.
Soon after, he was selected to be sent to the second phase of the Armed Forces Academy, and after graduation, he filled the Sentinel Palace. Cao Kun was good at drilling camps, and learned that Cao Kezhong of Yixingbu, Tianjin (original note: Cao Kezhong was the Jie Governor and Military Governor of the Qing Ji Water Division, who had accompanied the Zuo Zong's case to Xinjiang to suppress the Hui Chaoyi, and lived in the north gate of Tianjin after leaving his post, known as "Cao Dashuai", and Yuan Shikai's grandfather Jia San was a brother. He had a family relationship with Yuan Shikai, and the two inspections often exchanged contacts. Cao thought that there was an opportunity, that is, he bought a generous gift and went to Tianjin in the name of the same sect to ask for a meeting, but it was expected that Cao Kezhong would consider him a grandson. After Cao Kezhong's aunt asked Yuan Shikai to be affectionate, he was promoted to the third town commander of the army in 1906. and the establishment of the Republic of China (1912), the third town was changed to the third division, and Cao Kun succeeded him as the division commander, and from then on became Yuan's right-hand man. In 1915, Yuan Shikai conspired to claim the emperor and named Cao Kun the title of "General Huwei". Cai Wei and others rebelled against Yuan in Yunnan, and Yuan sent Cao to lead troops into Sichuan to suppress the rebellious armies. Saying that the emperor was lost, Cao led his troops back to Hubei and garrisoned Wuhan. In 1916, he sent his brother Cao Tie to Beijing with a large amount of money to bribe Jin Yunpeng and others to suggest to Duan Qirui that Cao be appointed as the overseer of the province directly under him, which laid the foundation for Cao Kun to dominate and fight for hegemony in the later warlord chaotic years. In 1917, Zhang Zhu was restored, and Duan Rencao was the commander-in-chief of the Western Road Rebel Army. Zhang Xun failed, Duan planned to unify China by force, appointed Cao and the two lakes to be the envoy, led his troops south to capture Hunan, and promoted the four provinces to the envoy with battle merit. After the Zhiwan War and the First Zhifeng War, Cao became the head of the Beiyang warlords, rose to the top, and in 1919 he was appointed as a parade envoy to the three provinces of Zhilu and Yu, and in 1923 he was elected president. From the Second Zhifeng War in 1924, Feng Yuyan staged a coup d'état in Beijing and imprisoned Cao in Yanqinglou. A year later, the Nationalist Army withdrew from Beijing, regained its freedom, fled to the British Concession in Tianjin, worked as a super-official and died, and died in 1938.
Cao Kun has four wives, two sons and three daughters. The original Zheng did not come out. Later, he married Gao's daughter and married Tianjin's "Li Shanren", a descendant. He also married Chen Hanrui, the so-called Lady Chen, the first daughter of the husband, married the son of a large landowner in Fengrun County and a minister of Yin Zhangga (gǔ, Fu) of Yantai Province, and when Cao Kun captured Yuezhou, Chen Sheng had a son, who was named Yue or Cao Shiyue, and married Shikai's younger daughter. Cao Kun finally accepted Liu Fengwei as a concubine, that is, Kun Ling was nine years old Hong, gave birth to a daughter named Shiying, and through Zhang Jinghui, Jin Yunpeng and other intermediaries, he was engaged to Zhang Xuesi, the fourth son of Zhang Zuoyu, when Cao Shiying was only seven years old, this political arranged marriage contract was finally dissolved; When Cao Kun moved to the Central Plains, Liu Sheng had a son, because of his name, that is, Cao Shisong.
Cao Kun's brother Cao Zhen, Zifuting, followed his father to work as a platoon in the shipping industry when he was young, and after Cao Kun started his family in the army, he specialized in plundering land and running business, and became a large landowner who did everything evil. Cao Zhen originally had two sons, Chang Shikui and Zi Xingge, who served as the commander of the army and the captain of the transport team of the Lianghu Xuanfu Embassy, and the second son, Shiyan, Zi Shaoting, served as the chief of the anti-private government. Cao Zhen took a concubine in old age and gave birth to two sons. Name unknown.
The fourth old Cao Rui character Jianting, a young student in the Dahuo Yusheng number Mizhuang Yi. After Cao Kun started his family, he abandoned business and first served as the director of Qingxiang in Tianjin County, and donated funds to alternate county Cheng, and then served as Zhixian County in Qian'an County; He also donated funds to supplement the road, and Yi Tong served as a direct subordinate to the domain once every three years. In 1917, Cao Kun was appointed as the overseer of the directly subordinate army, and on the opportunity to fight Zhang Xun, he recommended Cao Rui to Duan Qirui as the governor of the province, and the brothers divided the military and political power of a province. After serving for several years, he was greedy and discredited, causing accusations from all sides, and then he was removed from office. From the Second Zhifeng War, he served as the direct quartermaster general, and Feng Yuxiang was arrested after launching a coup d'état. It is reported that Feng's purpose is only to get him to spit out part of the embezzled money, and there is no intention to kill him. Cao Rui regarded wealth as his life, and with the purpose of sacrificing his life and not giving up his wealth, he committed suicide by swallowing the pre-prepared opium cigarette.
Cao Rui only had one son, Cao Shizao, and before Cao Kun had a son, he was known because of the character Shaoshan. After Cao Kun gave birth to a son, he immediately ordered Cao Shizao to return to his sect. Zeng Chong Hengyuan Mill Xietong. He was a heavy opium addict and died at the age of thirty-nine. Cao Shizao's son Cao Jiji Bureau, character Yuwen, is a standard list disciple, relying on the power of the Cao family, once served as the manager of Hengyuan yarn factory, and after the victory, he befriended Bai Shiwei, the chief of the inspection department of the Tianjin Garrison Headquarters of the Kuomintang, and did all kinds of evil. On the eve of liberation, he fled to Hong Kong with most of his soft parts.
When Cao Kun was directly subordinate to the overseer, he was elected as a member of the Anfu Congress, and served as the chairman of the Tianjin Securities Exchange and the chairman of Tongfu Biscuit Company and Northern Aviation Company. Cao Hook had four sons, and Chang Shijie accompanied Pu Kun as the commander of the guards, and Yu was not heard.
Lao Qi Cao led Zi Zizhen, a late Qing dynasty Xiucai, a descendant of the Army Surveying School, who served as the director of the Army Surveying Bureau and the commander of the 26th Division. Only one son, Shiqiao, the character is less Zhen.
(2) The plundering methods of Cao Kun and his family
Of course, the sudden wealth of the Cao Kun family was the result of Cao Kun commanding the army for many years, being powerful, withholding military salaries, indiscriminately reporting military expenses, embezzling and accepting bribes, selling officials and knights, and wanton conquest. And Cao Rui's greed and lawlessness and cruel exploitation of the ill-gotten wealth obtained by the people of Zhizhi Province were even more than Cao Kun. Others, such as Cao Zhen, Cao Hook, Cao Mei, etc., who relied on the power of their brothers and did whatever they wanted, also became millionaires. They use vile and despicable means to plunder the gains and move on to business. Its main things are as follows:
The first was Cao Kun, whose means of plunder were:
(1) Deduction of military salaries. For example, when Cao Kun used Li Yanqing (original note: Li Yanqing, originally from Liangping County, Shandong Province, came to Changchun at the age of 19, worked as a friend in a bathhouse, and when Cao Wei was stationed in Changchun, he often went to the gym to take a bath. At that time, together with Lu Jin, chief of the military department under Cao, Wu Yulin, chief of communications, Wang Yuzhi, secretary general, and Zhou Mengxian, director of the drama department, Li was called the "Five Rabbits." In 1924, when Yuxiang staged a coup d'état in Beijing, Li was killed. When he was the patrol envoy and president of the three provinces of Zhilu and Yu, there were 25 divisions of the regular army directly under the army, and Li Yiqing deducted 20,000 yuan per division commander every time he paid salaries, indicating that he was a reward for the master (referring to Cao Kun), which alone amounted to 500,000 yuan per month. In fact, there is more than that, because there are many other motley armies, dependent on the direct line, and even more so in the dunk.
(2) Excessive reporting of military expenditures. This was Cao Kun's usual method, for example, in 1917, Zhang Cai was restored, Duan Qirui appointed Cao as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army on the western road, and led his third division from Baozhi to march to Beijing, and there was no war along the way, and in less than one week, he was reimbursed 600,000 yuan, and Duan was reimbursed, so that the Ministry of Finance paid it in full. The battles of Houxiang, Zhiwan, and Zhifeng all became great opportunities for Cao Kun to become a rising official and making a fortune.
(3) Corruption and bribery. For example, in the 1920 Zhiwan War, when the Anhui system failed, Xu Shuzheng set up the Northwest Border Bank, and Cao Kun took it for himself, of which the Anfu dignitaries such as Wang Zhilong, Wang Yitang, Zhu Shen, and others had more than 1 million yuan in share capital, which were confiscated by Cao Kun as his own. For example, after Cao became president in 1923, he announced that Wang (forgetting his name) was the supervisor of the Tianjin Mint, on the condition that he would pay Cao 100,000 yuan a month, and so on.
(4) Extortion. After Cao Kun became president, in order to scrape money, he sent his cronies and minions from time to time to secretly go to various provinces to extort money from the governor of the overseer. For example, in the spring of 1924, Cao Shaoshan, the son of Cao Rui, was sent to Hubei to demand 100,000 yuan from Xiao Yaonan, the overseer of Hubei, in the name of inspecting military and political affairs.
The second is Cao Rui. Cao Rui was violent and unscrupulous. After he relied on Cao Yin's power to become the governor of the province, he set prices according to special, large, medium, and small counties in the province. Because there are many elders in Diaoying County, the county lacks the city at any time, until the large county is 10,000 yuan, the medium is 9,000, and the small county is 8,000, as for the special shortage such as Tianlu, Luan County, Qingyuan and other counties temporary negotiation, non-30,000 or 40,000 yuan can not be obtained, the regular is one year. He served as governor for four years, from 1918 to 1922, and sold the county alone to several million yuan in revenue. Another way for Cao Rui to make a fortune was to arrange military materials directly related to the army, such as grain, clothing, and military biscuits. He ran his own Li & Fung Rice Farm, Quilt Factory, and Tongfu Biscuit Company, procuring raw materials for noodles and bedding from all over the world, without paying freight or taxes, and selling them to various armies at high prices, making huge profits from them. As for the use of power to seize the rich, it is even more innumerable. For example, Cao Rui, relying on the power of the governor, merged it into the Hengyuan Mill he operated, and except for part of the original assets set at 510,000 yuan as official shares, the rest appreciated to 390,000 yuan, and all of them were swallowed up and transferred to his own name as private shares. When he became governor, he appropriated most of the official property directly under the province.
In 1923, Cao Kun bribed the election of the president, and Cao Rui used the excuse to raise funds and blacklisted the "Jindan sellers" in the southern Hebei area, causing the daimyo town guard Sun Yue to be arrested and punished by name, and there were many innocent people inside. For example, Feng Huayuan, vice president of the Daimyo Chamber of Commerce, was not a "golden pill seller", but because he was a wealthy family in Yongnian County, he was forced to pay a fine of 100,000 yuan after being arrested, bankrupt and paid, and Feng died of a mental illness in shock. Tianjin Securities and Goods Exchange (original note: Tianjin Securities Exchange, established in 1921, address in the south entrance of Hebei Dahutong, businessmen in order to take advantage of the power of the Cao family, publicly elected Cao Hook as the chairman, Bian Guqing and Zhang Ru as the vice chairman, after the collapse. Dumping two or three hundred merchants and citizens. At the same time, he also raised military expenses for Cao Rui under the pretext of proposing 830,000 yuan, which was delayed and eventually collapsed.
In addition, the Cao Kun family also has two ways to make money: one is to dominate the land and the other is to traffic tobacco soil. The former, such as Cao Zhen, forcibly seized the river beach land of Gaojiagang in Dagu, which was originally operated by Gao Mingjing, a large household in Gaojiagang, and used the depression in the port to build water storage to produce fish and shrimp, which can make a profit of more than 100,000 yuan per year. Cao Zhen saw that his eyes were red, and the surname Gao belonged to the Hetan official land, and used Cao Rui to instruct Yang Yide, the chief of the Tianjin Police Department, to detain Gao Mingjing into the detective team for several days. Behind the scenes, Kochi did not dare to resist and gave up the land, and Cao Zhen took the purchase note from Tianjin County at a low price. The activities of trafficking tobacco soil were mainly carried out by Cao Kun's seventh brother, Cao Wei, commander of the 26th Division, and Cao Shaoting, the second son of Cao Zhen; from time to time, in the name of procuring military supplies, they forcibly demanded chartered buses from the railway bureau to go to Hankou to sell large quantities of tobacco soil.
Cao Kun's fifth brother, Cao Jun, ran industry and commerce, and exploited it wisely. He has served as chairman of the Securities Exchange and chairman of Tongfu Biscuit Company and Northern Aviation Company. In addition, there are other ways to profit. For example, the Hengyuan Mill was organized, whether it was expanding the plant or installing machinery, it was all arranged by Cao Hook, and profited from it, and with its proceeds, three Western-style buildings were purchased next to the telephone south bureau of the old British Concession. He also opened a Baoquan jewelry store in Beijing's Langfang Toutiao, and anyone who went on errands to Cao Kun and Cao Rui was willing to pay a heavy price to buy expensive gifts from the Baoquan jewelry store, and Cao Jun sat and enjoyed huge profits.
The facts cited above are only very obvious and unambiguous (luò luò dà zhě). As for their families, they all directly or indirectly cruelly exploit the broad masses of the people.
(3) The economic activities and accumulated wealth of the Cao Kun family
The Cao family used Cao Kun's power to loot the people's wealth and even became rich, so they bought real estate and ran various enterprises to further pursue profits. Their economic activities are roughly divided into the following three types:
(1) Enterprises: The Cao family's investment in enterprises includes:
(1) Hengyuan Mill. Hengyuan was formed in 1919 when Cao Rui was directly under the governor of the province, and he was promoted to chairman and general manager, with a capital of four million. The Cao family invested in the name of Cao Rui as the most, with 7,000 shares (100 yuan per share), 1,000 shares of Cao Jun, and 200 shares of Wujutang. In total, the Cao family has a total of 8,200 shares, or 820,000 yuan, accounting for more than one-fifth of the total capital. By 1946, when Cao Rui's grandson Cao Yuwen was the manager of Hengyuan, he owned 11,214 shares; Yan Shujun, wife of Cao Rui, had 2,394 shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Hengyuan Mill.
(2) Tongfu Biscuit Company. This biscuit company for military purposes was established in 1917, operated by the Cao family alone, and the share capital is unknown; The company's address is in Dagu, with more than 80 factory buildings and more than 200 workers; Cao Jun is the chairman, but the real power is in the hands of Cao Rui.
(3) Northern Aviation Company. The company was founded in 1920 and raised a total of 1 million yuan, and Cao Yu invested 100,000 yuan and was elected as the chairman. In addition, the Cao Kun family has a deposit of more than 700,000 yuan in the company, of which Chen Hanrui and Cao Hook's wife each have 100,000 yuan. After the failure of the Second Zhifeng War, Cao Jun was forced to resign as chairman of the board of directors because he was suspected of using northern shipping ships to supply military transportation, but the real power remained in the hands of the Cao family.
(4) Li & Fung Rice Farm. Lifeng rice farms and grain stores are not normal store sales, but in fact, Cao Rui used the military supplies of his direct army to supply military grain under the pretext of purchasing rice from various places, and then speculated in the name of the Zhuang in an attempt to make huge profits.
(5) Baoding Electric Light Company. Cao Kun has 100,000 yuan in shares and has Cao Jun's son Cao Shijie as a director.
(6) Kuixing rice noodle village and three star rice noodle village. These two rice noodle villages were opened by Cao Shikui, the eldest son of Cao Zhen, in Hedong, Tianjin.
(7) Izumi Cheng Buzhuang. This cloth village was opened by Cao Kun's aunt Liu Fengwei at the instigation of Qiu (forgetting his name), a salesman of the Yuanlong Silk Cloth Village, and opened it on Tianjin North Road within two years.
(8) Tianjin Dahua Thermal Oil Company. Chen Hanrui invested 100,000 yuan, Chen was 30,000 yuan in name, and the other 70,000 yuan was made famous by Cao Wei's quartermaster general, Zhu Xilun, who served as a director in Dahua.
(9) Baoquan jewelry store and Daxincheng hardware store. Both businesses were solely owned by Cao Hook, with Baoquan in Beijing and Daxincheng in Tianjin.
(10) Tianjin Yunbao antique shop. This was opened by Cao Rui's grandson, Cao Yuwen, who packed more than 100 boxes of valuable jade in the store on the eve of the liberation of Tianjin in 1949 and fled Hong Kong with him.
Pawnshop. The Cao family has nine pawnshops, with Cao Kun as the most, Ji Gong Maodang No. 3, Wan Chengdang No. 3, with an investment of 60,000 yuan each; After Cao Kun's death, his youngest daughter, Cao Shiying, took over a Yongjudang in Hedong for 20,000 yuan. Cao Rui opened Tongjudang in the East Gate, and Cao Zhen opened Tongdang in Dahuo.
(2) Tian Real Estate. The Cao family has the most real estate, including:
(1) West of the Dahuo Wannian Bridge, to the new city, it is about 18 li long and covers an area of about 1,000 acres. A small part of it consists of cultivated rice paddies, while the rest is uncultivated wasteland. This land was originally owned by Zhang Xun, but after Zhang Xun's restoration failed, it was sold to the Cao family, and it was handled by Cao Rui.
(2) There are about 200 hectares of dry rice land near the Xiaoma Factory near the left of the military grain city, which is rented out by Cao Kun's original manager Zheng Dagan, the brother of the Zheng clan.
(3) The west of Dagu is adjacent to Daliangzi and Xiaoliangzi, commonly known as Daliangzhuang. There are more than 400 hectares of reed land, Zhou Guoguang planted reed sheep, and the middle is a fruit water garden, which was bought by Cao Zhen from Li Jiaqiang, a wealthy family in Xiaoliangzi, and operated by Cao Shaoting, the second son of Cao Zhen, collecting more than 20,000 yuan in rent every year. After the intermediate lessee is fully leased, it is subleased with the tenants at a high rent.
(4) In the name of the Cao Family General Hall "Deshan Hall", the village has 50 hectares of rice land, which is run by Cao Rui's son Cao Shaoshan.
(5) The section of embankment from Tianjin Gate to Fazheng Bridge is more than 60 acres. When Cao Kun was directly subordinate to the overseer, he was retained at a low price, and this place was called Wai Di, which was actually a housing base. During the fall period, it was sold by Cao Shiqiang, the son of Cao Wei, to the Japanese "Yamahakuya" store, and obtained a pseudo-joint currency of 200,000 yuan.
(6) The beach land of Gaojiagang in Dagu, with a radius of more than ten miles, produces a large number of aquatic products, which was seized by Cao Zhen by high-pressure means.
(7) Dagu Tianjia Circle, there is a large area of reed land, the number of acres is unknown.
(8) In the area of Dagu Fort and Caotougu, there is salt flats, the number of acres is unknown. It was originally purchased by Cao Rui, and when it fell, it was sold by his grandson Cao Yuwen to the Japanese North China Salt Company.
(9) In Fancheng, Hubei, Cao Kun had 800 mu of arable land, and the land deed was under the control of Liu Fengwei
(3) Real estate. The Cao family's real estate is also mostly Cao Kun, including:
(1) Tianjin Caojia Garden, the address is near Xiaowangzhuang on Huangwei Road, covering an area of more than 200 acres. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Cao Kun was the commander of the third town, he bought the surname Sun, and around 1919, he built a lot of civil engineering and built many bungalows. During the warlord chaos, several military meetings were held here. In 1936, it was sold to the Jicha Administrative Committee chaired by Song Zheyuan for 250,000 yuan.
(2) There are many bungalows in the old British Concession, covering an area of five acres, and the construction cost is 60,000 yuan.
(3) Nine buildings in the old British Concession in Xinzhonghouli, managed by Liu Fengwei.
(4) At the corner of Nanhai Road in Luoyang Road in the old British Concession, there is a building, where Cao Kun lived after going to the wilderness. There are seven buildings in the Spring Mountain, which have been sold by Liu Fengwei.
(5) The old British Concession is now a building on Hebei Road, covering an area of more than seven acres and more than 100 buildings.
(6) A building on Sanma Road in the old Italian concession was originally purchased by Li Yanqing, and Cao Kun collected it after Li's death.
(7) A large mansion in Beijing's Tan'er Hutong, originally a state mansion, was purchased by Cao Kun for 30,000 yuan, where Chen Hanrui lived, and sold after Cao died.
(8) When Cao Kun was in Baoding, he purchased a lot of real estate and built a large-scale Cao Family Garden outside Nanguan, also known as the "Old Clothes Villa", which is now Baoding People's Park.
(9) The Cao Family Building was built by Cao Rui in the Special Second District, which is now the First Municipal Hospital.
(10) There are two buildings on the second road of the old Italian concession, which are shared by Cao Rui in Cao Town.
(11) Cao Jun has three buildings next to the telephone south bureau of the old British Concession, and there are hundreds of bungalows on Wuma Road in Hebei.
(12) Cao Wei had two buildings in the old British Concession in present-day Yantai Road.
(13) Cao Shikui, the son of Cao Zhen, had a building next to the electric lamp house in the old British Concession, which was purchased from Lü Haiwan for 40,000 yuan. West of Xinhua Bridge in Huangjia Garden, there are hundreds of bungalows.
The above is an overview of the movable and immovable property owned by the Cao Kun family, and other jewelry stones, curiosities, and precious leather goods are beyond the reach of outsiders. Cao Kun has a turquoise jade daffodil pond, about eight inches long and four inches wide, with an emerald toad, as big as a walnut, poured with water, lifelike, and is said to be a treasure of the Qing Dynasty. Another example is Cao Wei, who claimed to be the poorest among the Cao Kun brothers, when there was a flood in Tianjin in 1939, the mansion where Chen Peizhen and Su Pinzhen, the two aunts of Cao Tai Road in the old British Concession, lived, were flooded, and there were 50 boxes of fine fur clothes and leather goods alone.
Most of Cao Kun's cash is managed by Cao Rui, and most of Cao Rui's own private savings are deposited with Citibank, followed by HSBC and Crédit Agricole Bank. All these deposits were made under false names and were personally handled by Cao Rui. After Cao Rui was arrested by Feng Yuxiang and committed suicide by taking poison, there was no proof of death, and the people's fat and people's ointment they squeezed were all cheap for foreign devils.
In general, it is impossible to know exactly how much wealth the Cao Kun family has accumulated by plundering. In the Spring Festival of 1924, Cao Wei complained to Cao Rui's brother-in-law Yan Taisun because of the family's economic contradictions, saying: "Our Cao family is now the fourth brother (referring to Cao Rui) who has the most money in his hands, although the third brother (Cao Kun) is the president, he is not as good as him, and the eldest brother (Cao Zhen) and the fifth brother (Cao Jun) also have 18 million each. From Cao Wei's conversation, it can be seen that the Cao Kun family has been violent and violent.
(4) The ugly appearance of the Cao Kun family
The Cao Kun family became nouveau riche, living a life of poverty and luxury, and their families and children all acted arbitrarily, absurdly and shamelessly, fighting with each other, in the same room, and wiping out the money from exploitation. Now the ugly appearance of the Cao Kun family is summarized as far as those who know it are as follows:
Cao Kun's four wives, Chen Hanrui and Liu Fengwei are the most favored, and they compete for favors and wealth, and they do not give in to each other. After Cao Xiaye, he lived with Chen Hanrui in the mansion on No. 19 Road in the old British Concession, and then moved to the Luoyang Road mansion where Liu Fengwei lived. Finally, before Chinese New Year's Eve in 1929, Chen Hanyan was injured in Liu Fengwei's house and was angry, so he paid off the staff and patrols of the British Concession Works Bureau, hired a group of hooligan thugs, and hired an American rogue lawyer Fax as legal adviser for 10,000 yuan, preparing to retaliate by force. When Liu Fengwei heard the news, he also bought off another part of the personnel and patrols of the British Ministry of Industry, and also hired a group of hooligans as escorts, patrolling around the house day and night, holding guns on guard, like a great enemy. This stalemate lasted for many days, and the two sides spent no money, adding a lot of material to the yellow news column of the Beijing and Tianjin newspapers at that time. In the end, Cao Kun's fifth brother Cao Jun came forward and tried his best to dredge up the two sides to end this ugly scene.
The Cao Kun family all lived a life of absurdity and shamelessness, profligate and threw a lot of money. Once Liu Fengweixing arrived, changed clothes with the maid, and went to the Tianxiang Market to find the great acolyte "Wu Fezi" to meet. Her trick could not hide the eyes of the charlatans, and "Wu Qizi" pretended to point at Liu Fengwei and said: "Although this is a maid, she has the noble appearance of Mrs. Yipin." This sentence won Liu Fengwei's favor, and he was given a hundred yuan honorarium at that time. When one of Liu Fengwei's nine-year-old sons died, she actually used a high-quality coffin to make a funeral, and she was mourned like an adult, and she was worried that no one would be present, and specially invited dozens of people in the bank and pawnshop to send the funeral, in order to demonstrate the style, and afterwards set up his honorary name in Gongmao, and threw it as dry gold.
Liu Fengwei's son Cao Shisong, after the deaths of Cao Kun and Liu Fengwei, was given five buildings and three pawnshops. Cao Shisong was a gambling addict, and overnight, the "Nine Presses" lost all five buildings, and the three pawnshops also transferred owners one after another, which can be said to be an out-and-out loser.
Cao Rui is greedy and stingy, and he is even more accommodating to betraying the county. Once there was a Wang who took the path of Zhang Zhaoxiang, the chief steward of Cao Rui, and offered a pair of jade bonsai worth 10,000 gold to Cao Rui with his family treasures, and Xitude was a first-class county. Cao Rui saw this pair of bonsai and liked it very much, but proposed that the price that was lacking in the first-class county at that time was 10,000 yuan, and in addition to accepting this pair of bonsai, he had to make up another 2,000 yuan in cash. Zhang Zhaoxiang was embarrassed, and as a result, he sneaked the bonsai back to Wang and went to another way. This little thing is also enough to show that Cao Rui is hungry for money.
Cao Zhen relied on the forces of Cao Kun and Cao Rui to run amok in the Tianjin Sea area, and the facts of the crime are difficult to describe in writing. For example, in the small river channel of Dafa in the hometown of the Cao family, the original bridge was unable to pass due to disrepair, and in 1918, Cao Zhen took tens of thousands of yuan through Cao Kun to repair the bridge, and pedestrians called it convenient for a while. Who knew that Cao Zhen actually declared that the bridge repair fee could not be paid in vain, and from the day the bridge was opened, except for the exemption of special care for pedestrians, all vehicles crossing the bridge were charged a dime of the bridge toll per vehicle, and this fee has been extorted for several years. The villagers all hated Cao Zhen's bullying behavior for the sake of the rich, and some vehicles would rather detour a few miles more than add this dime to his family. In order to build a family shrine for his ancestors and expand the foundation, Cao Zhen forcibly demolished the houses of others and dug up the ancestral graves of others. Dagu residents were not allowed to build houses higher than the Cao family's house, and if they did not abide by this system, Cao Zhen thought that he intended to overwhelm his family's feng shui, either forcibly buying it or ordering it to be demolished. Cao Zhen also occupied several women as outer chambers in his hometown of Dagu, and at the age of seventy, he took a certain Kun Ling in Tianjin as a concubine.
Cao Wei was originally an unpopular brother to Cao Kun, but since he became a concubine at the age of nine (i.e. Liu Fengwei), he gradually gained Cao Kun's trust and was soon promoted to commander of the 26th Division. Cao Wei fooled around in brothel casinos every day, gambling wildly, and many brothel servants (commonly known as "teapots" in the old days), through the relationship between prostitutes and Cao Wei, became his officers, battalion, company, platoon commanders, staff officers, and adjutants of the 26th Division, more than half of which were filled by this group. These hooligans and blackmails against the common people were even more ferocious, and at that time, the people of Tianjin called the 26th Division the "teapot team" and spread it as a laughing stock.
Cao Rui's grandson, Cao Yuwen, was a young man, and at the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Chen Xianzhou, a special agent of the Kuomintang military commander, often hid in the residence of Cao Yuwen in the West Garden of Wenquan, No. 17 Road in the old British Concession, when he was lurking in Tianjin for secret activities. After the surrender of Japan, Chen Xianzhou served as the first chief inspector of the Tianjin Garrison Headquarters, and Cao Yuwen regarded himself as a hero, and used the power of the inspection department to take over the organization of Hengyuan and other spinning mills by the Chengfu Company (Chengfu Company, which is organized by four banks, including Zhongnan, Yanye, Jincheng, and Donglai, from the standpoint of creditors. Hengyuan Mill, which had been taken over for many years, forcibly repossessed it, and he served as a manager as managing director. During the anti-hunger struggle, the workers of Hengyuan Mill went on strike, and Cao Yuwen asked Chen Xianzhou to send troops from the garrison headquarters to suppress it. When the military commander Dai Li came to Tianjin, Cao Yuwen gave Dai Li a small pistol with beaded diamonds through Chen Xianzhou to win him over. After Chen Xianzhou resigned, Bai Shiwei succeeded him as the head of the Investigation Department, and Cao Yuwen was introduced by Chen Xianzhou and became very close to Bai, marrying his sister to Bai Shiwei. Cao Yuwen intended to occupy a certain Kunling in the drama, when a certain Kun Ling was already in the possession of Tong Wu (that is, Tong Haishan), the leader of the Black Flag Team, and Cao could not get his hands on it, so he colluded with Bai Shiwei to arrest Tong Wu on the charge of "fornicating eight roads" and shot him without a court trial. On the eve of liberation, Cao Yuwen knew that he had committed many evils, and under the protection of Bai Shiwei, he fled to Hong Kong with more than 100 boxes of belongings.
From the above sections, it can be clearly seen that the oppression and harassment of the broad masses of the people by the five brothers of the Cao family and their families, especially the fathers and elders in their hometowns, were rare among the major warlords of the Beiyang period.
(Written in 1965)
Source:
Tianjin Selected Cultural and Historical Materials, First Series