A generation of chivalrous prostitutes Xiao Fengxian, the wisdom rescue hero Cai Yi fled. This is a legend of "beautiful women saving heroes" that has been widely circulated for a century, and the legend says: Cai Yi in Beijing fell in love with the famous prostitute Xiao Fengxian, the two were like-minded, Cai Yi wanted to escape from Beijing and go south to overthrow Yuan Shikai, Xiao Fengxian understood the great righteousness, helped Cai Yi deal with all kinds of surveillance and obstruction of Yuan Shikai, got rid of all kinds of dangers, and successfully fled Beijing. The two have a deep affection, Cai Yi went to the sea for a long trip, Xiao Fengxian's liver and intestines were broken, and the love story of the two people continued until after Cai Yi's death.
Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian in the film and television drama
But the legend is only a legend after all, and the real Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian in history are far less beautiful than the legend. The story of Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian was originally just a famous lie. In fact, Cai Yi, one of the famous leaders of the Republic of China at that time, did not get any female help in the process of leaving the capital and successfully escaping from the clutches of Yuan Shikai. If there is, it is also Cai Yi who cleverly uses Xiao Fengxian, not Xiao Fengxian who intends to help Cai Yi.
In September 1913, Yuan Shikai, who intended to woo Cai Yi, invited the Cai family, including his mother, the eldest wife Liu Xiazhen, the second wife Pan Huiying, and a son and three daughters to Beijing. At this time, although Yuan Shikai admired Cai E, he did not dare to let Cai E hold important military positions, and only deliberately arranged for him to serve as a member of the political conference and a member of the Senate.
After Cai E moved into Beijing, Yuan Shikai took great care of Cai E, and in life, Cai E's eating and wearing was to do his best to satisfy. Yuan Shikai even asked his eldest son Yuan Keding to marry Cai Yiyi, the son of Cai Yi. Cai Yi's birthday, Yuan Shikai also sent 10,000 ocean birthday gifts.
Cai Yi
At this time, Xiao Fengxian was only 13 years old, and although he had already joined the brothel as a prostitute, Cai Yi had no contact with Xiao Fengxian, and Cai E's subordinate Zhou Zhongyue had described this matter.
Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian came and went after Yuan Shikai sent people to forcibly search Cai Yi's temporary residence in Beijing.
At this time, Cai Yi realized that Yuan Shikai had a strong guard against himself, and Yuan Shikai did not really trust himself. After realizing Yuan Shikai's distrust of himself, Cai Yi pretended to be addicted to the mellow beauty, and it was also during this period that Cai Yi began to have frequent contact with Xiao Fengxian.
Subsequently, Cai Yi also redeemed Xiao Fengxian.com. However, according to the corroboration of Cai Yi's subordinates, Xiao Fengxian still insisted on "doing business" after redemption, and Cai Yi only came to sit occasionally, and the two did not seem to have an intimate relationship. Xiao Fengxian later repeatedly said that Cai Yi had redeemed herself for her and was a witness to love, but I think that the possibility of Cai Yi having love for Xiao Fengxian is very small.
First of all, Xiao Fengxian was "fourteenth and fifteen years old" and his appearance was not outstanding. "The upper jaw is exposed, the left and right teeth are exposed, and the opening is quite aesthetically pleasing" This is a specific description of Xiao Fengxian's appearance in the history books, and this translation into the vernacular text is two words: tooth decay. The "History of the Early People" also said that she: "Her appearance is lacking in posture, her temperament is very arrogant, and her skills are rough and inky, and she likes to embellish lyrics." ”
In fact, we can also see from the photos of Xiao Fengxian's youth that Xiao Fengxian never opened his mouth when taking photos, and the reason is probably related to his teeth. Moreover, these photos show that although Xiao Fengxian is not ugly, she is definitely not a "beautiful woman".
Little Phoenix Fairy picture
This is also corroborated by relevant historical sources:
In late February 1913, according to the old practice of "spring every year" in the eight hutongs, the Beijing Democracy Daily conducted a prostitute selection and selected 4 "doctors" and 33 "bachelors", and Hong Hongbao of Yunjiban was listed as a "bachelor" in the color department, but Xiao Fengxian was not in the list.
Think about it, the 33 prostitutes who selected did not see Xiao Fengxian, which shows how general their appearance qualifications are. Cai Yi frequently interacted with Xiao Fengxian in order to paralyze Yuan Shikai and "create a liquor-addicted" appearance. The reason for choosing Xiao Fengxian is that Xiao Fengxian does not have a high level of education, has average qualifications in all aspects, and does not like to talk, which can be summarized in one sentence: it is convenient to use.
As for the cultural level of Xiao Fengxian, we can see it from her letter to Mei Lanfang in the later period, the total number of words in the whole letter is more than 200 words, and there are typos, which shows that although Xiao Fengxian can read, she is definitely not knowledgeable enough.
Secondly, during this period, Cai Yi had a wife and a concubine as a companion, and his feelings were very good. How the relationship between Cai Yi and his wife is unknown, but cai e's relationship with the concubine Pan Huiying is sincere, and during the period of exchanges with Xiao Fengxian, because Pan Huiying returned to her hometown to give birth, Cai Yi wrote her many letters, the content is extremely tender and sweet. It is said that Cai Yi' concubine Pan Huiying is not only young and good-looking, but also highly educated, proficient in poetry and songs, and she is also from a famous family. In such a comparison, it is probably unlikely that a man will choose a small phoenix immortal who is a few ranks away from the concubine.
Little Phoenix Fairy
To sum up the above two points, I think that the possibility that Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian have love is very small. As for Cai Yi's redemption for Xiao Fengxian, I think it is purely related to Cai Yi's heroic nature. Cai Yi has always spent money quickly and rarely left it in his hands. In addition, at that time, he was also working as an errand under Yuan Shikai, plus the semi-division of Yunnan Province, the tax was also in his hands, and it was likely that he had done human affection casually.
Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian knew each other until their final death, and from beginning to end, Cai Yi did not confide more than half of his admiration for Xiao Fengxian in his words and letters, which also confirmed from the side that the two did not have the possibility of "love" as Xiao Fengxian said.
After talking about the so-called "love" of the two people, let's look at the correlation between Cai E's escape at that time, in fact, this part is enough to prove that Xiao Fengxian saved Cai E is pure nonsense. First, to review the specifics:
Before Cai Yi fled Beijing, thinking that the mother of his classmate Ha Hanzhang (who was also an official under Yuan Shikai at the time) was celebrating her birthday, he went to Ha's house to play mahjong for a night, and went to Zhongnanhai in the early morning to meet Yuan Shikai, the doorman said that Yuan was sleeping, and Cai Yi called Xiao Fengxian at the noon gate and said loudly that they would eat and play cards together at noon. Then he told the doorman that he had come early, so he would go out for a walk and come back to see Yuan Shikai later. Then, Cai Yi went directly to the Qianmen Railway Station and took the train to Tianjin.
From this historical fact, it can be seen that Cai Yi said that going to Xiao Fengxian, including deliberately going to see Yuan Shikai early, was a suspicious tactic. Afterwards, Ha Hanzhang and others were censored, and in order to shirk their responsibilities, Ha and others insisted that Xiao Fengxian had secretly crossed Chen Cang, and that Cai Yi and Xiao Fengxian had been connected in tandem.
Only the poor, innocent little Phoenix Immortal was tried for this, but nothing was tried. From this, nothing was judged, and it is not difficult for us to infer that Xiao Fengxian really did not know anything, but was only "borrowed" by Cai Yi. Otherwise, with Yuan Shikai's shrewdness, can he hide it, and can he let Xiao Fengxian live easily?
In 1916, Cai Yi died of illness. Three days after Cai Yi's death, in order to cater to the audience's "beauty saves heroes" style of hunting, some Shanghai tea house theaters put the play of "Xiao Fengxian Saves Cai Yi" on the stage. In fact, as early as before, through the addition of oil and vinegar by some good deeds, the legend of the famous prostitute Xiao Fengxian saving the hero Cai Yi has been widely circulated.
At the same time, Xiao Fengxian also took the opportunity to hype up and came to the scene to offer sacrifices when Cai Yi was out of mourning. After Cai Yi's death, Xiao Fengxian publicly revealed that he once had suicidal thoughts. Therefore, many dramas in the Republic of China also ended with Xiao Fengxian committing suicide to report Cai Yi, but in fact, Xiao Fengxian not only did not commit suicide, but also continued to be a prostitute, but only changed the owner.
Many years later, after Xiao Fengxian grew older, he had to marry a brigade commander of the Northeast Army surnamed Liang, and the two accompanied each other for decades before Brigadier Liang passed away. In 1949, on the eve of the founding of New China, 50-year-old Xiao Fengxian married again, married to Li Zhenhai, a boilermaker who was five years older than her. After that, Xiao Fengxian became the stepmother of Li Zhenhai's four children. During this time, the Li family has been living on the meager income of Li Zhenhai's boiler repair.
In 1951, Mei Lanfang went to Shenyang to perform, and Xiao Fengxian, who had written to Mei Lanfang earlier to ask for help, learned the news and decided to visit. Mei Lanfang's secretary Xu Jichuan recorded the conversation between the two, and from the dialogue records, Xiao Fengxian still lied continuously, saying how she helped Cai Yi escape, and the details are very detailed.
Xiao Fengxian said this, the purpose is to borrow Mei Lanfang for financial help. Xiao Fengxian wanted to ask Mei Lanfang to publish her past with Cai Yi in writing, but Mei Lanfang never published it, and he did not reply to Xiao Fengxian's letter. But when she left, Mei Lanfang still entrusted someone to solve the problem of Xiao Fengxian's work, and Xiao Fengxian was arranged to work in the provincial government kindergarten.
In 1952, after the death of her third husband Li Zhenhai, Xiao Fengxian suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and her physical condition deteriorated, and Xiao Fengxian died in 1954.
With the death of Xiao Fengxian, this legend of "famous prostitutes and heroes" finally came to an end. In this legend, Xiao Fengxian is undoubtedly the beneficiary, she used this legend to become famous, and in her later years she took the opportunity to earn herself a job.
But for the leader of the Republic of China, Cai Yi, this "legend" brought him only negative effects, this great hero who led the new army uprising that overthrew the Qing Dynasty rule in Yunnan during the Xinhai Revolution, and later participated in the overthrow of Yuan and organized the uprising of the National Guard Army, because of Xiao Fengxian, he was labeled as a "general of the wind". Even Cai Yi's final death is somewhat related to this deliberately hyped "affair".
At the end of the war, Cai Yi's illness also worsened, and Cai Yi led his army into Luzhou to prepare to occupy Chengdu. The German doctor Asmi rushed to treat Cai E, because Asmi had heard the legend of Cai E and the prostitute Xiao Fengxian, plus the Chinese officials at that time were mostly infected with syphilis because of entering and leaving brothels, Asmi saw that Cai E's condition was similar to syphilis, so Asmi subjectively judged that Cai E was suffering from syphilis, and immediately injected Cai E with a new drug 606. This drug was only invented in Germany at that time, it is a very rare drug, and it is the best nemesis of syphilis that is popular all over the world. However, this drug is very toxic, and when it is used incorrectly, the consequences are extremely serious, almost fatal.
When Cai Yi's warship sailed to Shanghai, Cai Yi, who could still walk, talk, and read, could only lie on the stretcher and could not get up. At that time, domestic doctors said that Cai Yi did not suffer from syphilis, but only throat tuberculosis. But the sound was quickly drowned out by the crowd.
After arriving in Shanghai, Cai Yi was admitted to Baolong Hospital, which Liang Qichao had contacted and arranged in advance. When Cai Yi lived in, in the news-rich Shanghai, the story of him and Xiao Fengxian had been spread very widely, perhaps out of narrow maintenance of the reputation of his fellow doctors, the German attending doctor Kerry still insisted that Cai Yi suffered from syphilis, although the treatment also began to treat laryngeal tuberculosis, but also continued to give Cai Yi "plum exorcism".
Treating syphilis for Cai Yi, who did not have syphilis, it would be difficult for Cai Yi not to die. On November 8, 1918, Cai Yi, who originally had only laryngeal tuberculosis, died at the age of 34 due to misdiagnosis.
But sigh Cai Yi, in the end, died because of Xiao Fengxian, I don't know, if he can imagine his final ending, whether he will easily redeem himself for Xiao Fengxian ...
Text: Li Man