Since ancient times, Macao has played an intermediate role between the East and the West. In 1557, the Portuguese landed in Macao for the first time, bringing Western culture and the Catholic faith to the land.
For many years, the country has been in turmoil and turmoil, and government regulations have been relaxed, providing space for the growth of various underground industries. Gambling is such a business, which secretly and slowly takes root among the small people in the market.
In the beginning, Macau was just a small city of peace and tranquility. All industries are depressed, and most people are in peace with themselves, and they have no special gambling habits. Although there are dozens of casinos large and small in the city, they are not at all in the climate, and can only barely maintain their operations.
Until the 30s of the 20th century, a gambler named Fu Deyong rose up, armed with a financial armed force composed of two Guangxi tobacco, and captured this chaotic city in one fell swoop. The dark side of the two gentry provided a ladder for him to make a career when he was penniless.
Soon, he became the new king of the old casino.
The most wonderful stories in life often come from serendipity. The loopholes and vacancies brought about by the collusion between politics and business allowed Fu Laorong, who had encountered ups and downs, to seize the opportunity to take the position and open up the legend of this gambling city.
In 1913, at the age of 19, Fu Deyong followed his father to Hong Kong and became an apprentice mechanic in a shipyard. 9 to 5, working overtime. The meager salary does not match the sweaty labor, and he feels deeply uncomfortable.
Occasionally, during holidays, he would always wander alone in front of a small gambling stall on the street, staring intently at the brightly colored cards and dice, fantasizing about the day when this scene would not reappear, and finally he would have a complete understanding.
It was in this year that Fu Deyong got into an argument with several community riffraff. He has a straight personality and never suffers. The two sides quickly escalated into a group fight, and Fu Deyong was broken with two ribs and broke out a front tooth.
The court sentenced him to 10 months in prison on charges of fighting. The prison life is not as bleak as imagined← but it opens the door to a new world for Fu Deyong.
The three cell bosses in the prison are all underworld figures, well-informed and insightful. They quickly admired Fu Deyong's strong personality and courage, and taught him all the ways he played in the mall.
"Deep curiosity, superficial deference" is the motto that Fu Deyong has benefited the most. After being released from prison, he set his sights on business opportunities in Guangzhou, and soon found a way out of the underground tobacco business and accumulated his first pot of gold.
A few years later, Fu Deyong returned to Hong Kong and was already a wealthy man with a golden phoenix. In 1930, he officially changed his name to "Fu Lao Rong" and cooperated with the business celebrity Gao Kening to establish the Macau Entertainment Company, which was the prelude to his reign.
The three cell bosses in prison can be described as Fu Laorong's "enlightenment instructors", and they have passed on their insights from many years of ups and downs in the shopping mall to Fu Laorong without reservation. Among them, the business methods of the mysterious warlord especially benefited Fu Laorong.
"Deep curiosity, superficial deference" has become his motto.
The warlords have long since firmly controlled all aspects of the government's monopoly on cigarettes. They secretly control the cigarette factory, but they never show up to participate in the operation on the surface, and only make profits behind the scenes.
Fu Laorong took advantage of the right time and place to gain a foothold in the gray industry of tobacco smuggling. He traveled far and wide to open up sales outlets, and quietly wooed officials to build his own network.
However, in a few years, everyone in Liangguang has not known Fu Laorong's prestige.
Gradually, Fu Laorong had more and more money in his hand, even surpassing the boss on the surface. The warlords are eyeing him, but there is nothing they can do. Because Fu Laorong himself has never been involved in transportation, all tobacco smuggling activities are done by others, and he is just behind the scenes.
In order to avoid setting fire to himself, the warlord turned a blind eye and left him. Finally, Fu Laorong's power and money accumulated in Liangguang were enough to make him equal.
In 1930, he returned to Hong Kong with great swagger, intending to pursue greater interests.
Fu Laorong, who returned to Hong Kong in 1930, was no longer a gambler who had nothing. He is heroic, full of ambition, and ready to march to new heights in life.
By chance, Fu Laorong met Huo Zhiting, the soda king and Guangdong gambling king. The two hit it off and became iron buddies in the business world.
In 1937, Fu Laorong successfully obtained the license of Macau Entertainment Company by virtue of the connections and wealth accumulated in Liangguang. With Huo Zhiting's powerful backer, Fu Laorong quickly gained a firm foothold in Macau and became the second generation of Macau gambling kings after Lu Jiu.
Under Huo's covert operation, Macau's gambling rights and interests were gradually concentrated in Fu Laorong. By the 50s, as an advisor to the Chamber of Commerce and the president of the Fellow Townspeople's Association, he was already the most powerful man on the island.
If Liangguang Tobacco laid the commercial foundation for Fu Laorong, then Huo Zhiting is his super backer in the political circles. With this solid backing, Fu Laorong was able to show his strength in Macao, a city where the legal system is not yet perfect, and it is almost endless.
His casino is surrounded by a restaurant song and dance troupe, which can be said to have given this ancient city a new look. Of course, we cannot deny that it is the loopholes brought about by the collusion between politics and business that have made it possible for this ambitious speculator to soar.
One day in 1945, Fu Laorong was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly kidnapped by a group of gangsters armed with kitchen knives. "Obediently hand over the nine million huge sums of money and spare your life!" The kidnappers made sky-high demands.
Mrs. Fu on the side couldn't cry. Fu Laorong was calm and unmoved. not only ordered his family not to pay the money, but also looked like he wanted to die with the kidnappers.
The kidnapper was angry and took out the medicine bottle to force Fu Laorong to take poison. Unexpectedly, Fu Laorong didn't say a word, but he was fine. It turns out that the so-called "poison" is just herbal tea.
The kidnapper was so angry that he cut off one of Fu Laorong's ears to vent his anger. 57 days later, Fu Laorong's henchman He Xian personally brought someone to solve the problem and ransomed him back with 40,000 yuan.
The kidnapping made Fu Laorong famous. His connections in black and white are even stronger, which is both admirable and fearful. This Macau gambling king used his own experience and handling to establish a majestic, resolute, and aggressive image of a business elite, so that his prestige reached an unprecedented peak.
Fu Laorong has three wives and sixteen sons, and is full of children and grandchildren. The eldest son, Fu Yinzhao, inherited his father's business and established a real estate company in Hong Kong. Fu Jiexian, the granddaughter of the second son Fu Mengxing, married actor Ouyang Zhenhua.
Design master Fu Houmin also had an affair with the singer Li Yuchun back then. The Fu family has been passed down for three generations, and it is a wealthy family with the right family. However, it is interesting that almost no one of the descendants of the Fu family has inherited the ancestral industry and set foot in the entertainment and gambling industry.
The most important reason for this may lie in Fu Laorong's own family motto and philosophy of life. When he was alive, he did not want his children and grandchildren to engage in gambling. "If the government bans it in the future, there will be no work.
This was his instruction before he died. Casino is an illusory industry like a fantasy, and Fu Laorong has personally experienced the life insights. Therefore, he hopes that his bloodline can take the right way to make a living, have fewer twists and turns, and live a long and peaceful life.
As a result, we saw the wonder that the descendants of the Fu family did not set foot in the gaming and entertainment industry again in their lives. They chose real estate, medicine, design and other well-connected industries, and lived a happy and rich life.
This is undoubtedly the best inheritance and practice of the life ideal of the older generation of "willing to gamble and lose".