During the Republic of China, there was such a saying: The Jiang family's world, the Chen family's party, and the Song family's sister Kong family's wealth.
The decadent late Qing Dynasty was followed by the Republic of China, and in this era when people in the world generally did not have enough to eat, the four major families were able to use the power in their hands to "suck blood", especially the Kong and Song families, because the representatives of their two families had been in charge of finances for a long time, so how much money they had has has always been a mystery.
The first "tiger" of the Republic of China
Judging from Kong Xiangxi's family, his family did have a glorious past, and his ancestor Kong Hong served in Shanxi during the Ming Dynasty in the early years, and his descendants stayed in the local business area.
Kong Xiangxi's grandfather, Kong Qingxian, was the first small peak of the Kong family's wealth, and he gradually brought the family rich by relying on the ticket number; And Kong Xiangxi's father, Kong Fanci, is a tribute student, and he can rely on the ticket number to eat and drink without worrying, but he just contracted the vice of opium, which led to the gradual decline of his family.
Of course, Kong Xiangxi not only called Kong Fanci his father, he also had a father named Song Jiashu.
As early as 1894, Song Jiashu met Sun Yat-sen, and after hearing about Mr. Sun Yat-sen's idea of saving the country, he expressed his willingness to fully support his revolutionary cause.
Song Ailing returned to China after graduating in 1910, and began to serve as Sun Yat-sen's secretary two years later, Sun Yat-sen was accompanied by Song Ailing when he went to survey all parts of the country, and she also participated in the formulation of the 200,000-li railway plan, and later the "Second Revolution" failed, and Song Ailing still followed Sun Yat-sen to Japan.
During the work contact, the eldest sister of the Song family also had feelings for Sun Yat-sen beyond work, but Sun Yat-sen was not interested in her.
Seeing that her daughter was getting deeper and deeper, Song Jiashu hurriedly found a suitable partner for her daughter to help her cut off the love thread, and Kong Xiangxi became a suitable candidate.
In 1914, the wedding of Kong Xiangxi and Song Ailing was held in Yokohama, Japan, and the scene was very simple, no one expected at that time, which also meant that the prototype of the four major families of the Republic of China had appeared.
In the second year, Song Qingling married Sun Yat-sen, and Song Jiashu also said to Sun Yat-sen: "My daughter who doesn't understand the rules will get rid of you, please take care of me." ”
Because this wedding was not initially agreed by Song Jiashu, the old gentleman was very angry at that time, but later he gave his daughter furniture and quilts as a dowry, and from that time on, the Song family officially accepted Sun Yat-sen.
The union of Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching Ling is also a rare revolutionary story, and the couple walked through the most difficult revolutionary period together, and also influenced the development of Chinese history.
Chiang Kai-shek, who later gained power, also married Song Meiling, the third daughter of Song Jiashu, and with this relationship, the four major families were also completely revealed.
Kong Xiangxi is a very smart person, he knows when to seize the opportunity, and besides, he didn't expect this situation when he first combined with Song Ailing, so he can only say that luck is really extraordinary.
After Chiang Kai-shek's betrayal of the revolution in 1927, Kong Xiangxi was appointed as the Minister of Industry of the Wuhan Nationalist Government.
In addition to the relationship within the family, Kong Xiangxi did a lot of things for Chiang Kai-shek.
In August of that year, there were great contradictions within the Nanjing government, and Chiang Kai-shek could not bear the pressure and was forced to resign from the opposition, which Kong Xiangxi did not want to see, in order to bring Chiang Kai-shek to power, he went to various places to win over all parties, and also contributed to Chiang Kai-shek's restoration of the post of "commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army" in early 1928.
After this incident, Chiang Kai-shek's trust in Kong Xiangxi reached its peak, and he also made him the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Nanjing government.
As Chiang Kai-shek's power became more and more solid, the whole world knew that Kong Xiangxi was Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, and offending Kong Xiangxi was tantamount to offending Chiang Kai-shek.
Different from Song Ziwen, who also belongs to the "family" camp, Kong Xiangxi is not as shrewd as him, but he has the most valuable quality in the eyes of Chiang Kai-shek: obedience.
As long as Chiang Kai-shek puts forward any requirements in terms of finance, Kong Xiangxi belongs to the kind of person who agrees immediately without thinking about it, and Chiang Kai-shek also likes to use this kind of person the most, so whenever the news about "Kong Xiangxi's corruption" reaches his ears, he has an indifferent attitude, and it feels like: He has done so many things for me, what's wrong with being greedy for money?
Under Chiang Kai-shek's "acquiescence", Kong Xiangxi's appetite also grew.
With the "golden signboard", the Kong family's business has never suffered a loss, and only once has a loss-making transaction.
When he went to Germany, he gave Hitler, the then head of Germany, exquisite specialties as gifts, and Hitler also understood the principle of "courtesy exchanges", and gave Kong Xiangxi a signed photo of himself in return, and Kong Xiangxi's eyes darkened when he saw this gift.
At that time, Hitler was invincible, and he thought that he was "the strongest man on earth", but Kong Xiangxi didn't buy it, and secretly muttered: "This thing is also a gift?" ”
During the Anti-Japanese War, the people of the whole country were suffering, and only he Kong Xiangxi saw the opportunity.
Because Soong Ziwen was too shrewd, Kong Xiangxi also succeeded him as Minister of Finance, and his main business was to use various means to raise funds for Chiang Kai-shek.
The variety of ways to make money can be regarded as ensuring the huge expenses of the Kuomintang, but the way he fills his own pockets is even more smack-staggering.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States sold $100 million in public bonds to the national government, and the exchange ratio between the dollar and the legal tender was 1:20 at the exchange rate at the time.
Due to the particularity of the wartime, 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 100 fiat currency on the black market, Song Ailing saw the clue first, and ordered Kong Xiangxi to take advantage of the loophole.
He sold half of the public bonds to the society, said that all of them were sold, and he took home about 40 million US dollars of public bonds.
If calculated according to fiat currency, he embezzled 3 billion fiat currency.
However, this incident is only the tip of the iceberg of Kong Xiangxi's series of major corruption cases.
A typical money-making official
In 1942, Kong Xiangxi, who was the finance minister of the Kuomintang, began to buy various supplies for the Nationalist government, this time with $200 million in funds.
Obviously, the materials during the war were very scarce, but Kong Xiangxi and his wife couldn't care so much, they hoarded a large number of goods, and then put the money back into their hands through layers of processes through the method of "buying".
All the people in the know of the national government were gagged by Kong Xiangxi, of course, the way of "gagging" is still money.
At that time, the whole army was embezzling, that is, greedy for more and less, and those who got the money were naturally unwilling to poke this matter out, otherwise they would have to bear joint and several responsibility.
It was the United States intelligence services that discovered this incident, and they were shocked but also summarized a material, according to the speculation of relevant documents, Kong Xiangxi embezzled at least another $100 million this time.
For a rich man like Kong Xiangxi, the banknotes in his hand have long since become numbers, but he still doesn't like too much money.
Correspondingly, many of the officers and soldiers who fought fiercely against the murderous Japanese invaders on the front line could not even eat their stomachs, and the ammunition in their hands could not compete with the Japanese invaders; During the war, a large number of refugees fled in all directions, some of them running around to drink an extra bowl of porridge, and finally starved to death on the way.
On the gold route in Kunming in the south, a large amount of smuggling business is also related to Kong Xiangxi, and the amount is shocking.
After embezzling so much and for so long, Kong Xiangxi has not encountered confrontation.
His methods are usually hidden, and he is especially adept at manipulating financial turmoil.
Du Yuesheng is a gangster in Shanghai, who is also a figure who can call the wind and rain, and once, he encountered Kong Xiangxi in his speculation and suffered huge losses.
You must know that these people have news channels for engaging in finance, and Du Yuesheng soon discovered that the initiator was Kong Xiangxi.
In anger, he didn't care what Kong Xiangxi's identity was, and directly took someone to Kong's house to ask for compensation, and by the way, he also put a black coffin: If you don't take responsibility for this matter and compensate me, then I will die with you.
It is indeed rare to see Du Yuesheng like this, Kong Xiangxi is one.
According to the power in his hands, Du Yuesheng belongs to the mixed rivers and lakes, Kong Xiangxi is the orthodoxy of the Kuomintang, no matter how powerful Du Yuesheng is, he does not dare to compete with the army, so Kong Xiangxi is not afraid of him.
The reason why Du Yuesheng dared to make a big deal was that he held the "truth", because Kong Xiangxi had a ghost in his heart, if he really did something to Du Yuesheng, it would not be easy for this matter to end in Shanghai.
Kong Xiangxi is willing to deal with this matter, but he is unwilling to pay out of his own pocket, and the money in his pocket will not be able to get out safely.
Therefore, he used the power in his hands to arrange a fat gap for Du Yuesheng and let him undertake the construction project, and the matter finally passed.
If Kong Xiangxi really gave Du Yuesheng cash directly, then other people who lost money would also come to the door, didn't this mean that he Kong Xiangxi's life?
On weekdays, he cares about his image very much, for fear that others will say that he doesn't say a word.
At the annual conference of Chinese economics, he attended the meeting as a finance minister, and Ma Yinchu, who presided over the conference, was a fearless scholar, and he embarrassed Kong Xiangxi with a few words.
As he spoke, Ma Yinchu directly threw a question to Kong Xiangxi: "In order to maintain financial continuity and the country's reputation, we must not use our identity to speculate and disrupt the market. ”
The family had already named him, and Kong Xiangxi had no choice but to reply: "I am a descendant of a saint, and I will not be corrupt." ”
This sentence made the hall burst into laughter, Kong Xiangxi had no choice but to leave in disgrace, according to his character, naturally he would not let go of Ma Yinchu, he found a reason to kidnap and destroy Ma Yinchu for 21 months.
When Chiang Kai-shek was still there, no one could sanction Kong Xiangxi, and the place where the most voices were spoken out was United States.
After the United States investigation learned that a large number of loans to China had been taken by the four major families, it was very angry, and various newspapers were exposing the problem of corruption in China, and some newspapers even directly wrote: China under the rule of the Kuomintang is a barbaric country with corrupt officials and no hope.
Many banknotes to aid China were brought to the United States by corrupt officials to be spent, and the typical one was Kong Xiangxi.
Truman was even more contemptuous of the four major families, and Roosevelt even suggested that Chiang Kai-shek replace Kong Xiangxi.
Whether internally or externally, the pressure of public opinion brought by Kong Xiangxi was too great, and Chiang Kai-shek had to make a new choice.
As a result, Kong Xiangxi resigned from the post of Minister of Finance, but Chiang Kai-shek only said that "since he has returned all the money he has handled in accordance with the formalities, he will be given a lenient punishment."
Obviously, there are so many and such big corruption cases, but in the end, they can still be turned into a big deal by Chiang Kai-shek.
In order to save people's hearts, Chiang Ching-kuo also deliberately went to Shanghai to carry out a "tiger fight" operation, and was finally dissuaded by Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling, mainly because he found Kong Xiangxi's company, which means that these problems are even beyond the scope of Chiang Kai-shek's management, if Chiang Kai-shek insists on taking care of it, then the Kuomintang will inevitably face a big change, and who will do things for him?
It can be said that the reason why Chiang Kai-shek was defeated and retreated to Taiwan Island was due to Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen and others; Kong Xiangxi dares to call himself the second in corruption, and no one dares to call him the first.
Resources
- Why the Law of the Republic of China Can't Cure the "Disease of Confucius" Shangguan News
- The beginning and end of the "billion huge money" embezzlement case of the Republic of China, Xiao Ronghua, literature and history, Spring and Autumn