(The Woman Who Told History – Issue 1475)
In the modern history of the Republic of China, Cao Kun is a figure that cannot be bypassed. Looking at Cao Kun's life, you will find a rather interesting phenomenon, that is, Cao Kun's marriage and concubines are almost closely related to his career and life.
As the saying goes: a successful man must have a woman standing behind him. For the great warlord Cao Kun, the situation changed slightly, that is, every time he made his fortune, or at every key stage of ascension, he would marry a concubine as some kind of secret support. Therefore, some historians joked that women's luck is Cao Kun's best feng shui.
First of all, we all know that Cao Kun's origin is very low, the family is surrounded by disciples, and he is the poor among the poor, because he is the third oldest at home, and the villagers see him as a fool, so they give him the nickname Cao San fool.
His father was a small worker in the shipyard, and the treatment was meager, and it was particularly difficult to get his family to eat. At the age of marriage, Cao Kun's parents also have to do their duty and find a way to marry their children to a daughter-in-law.
However, Chinese tradition always says that marriage should be the right door, so the son of the poor family cannot marry the rich family's thousands of gold, so Cao Kun's father and mother found him a so-called door-to-door daughter-in-law - Zheng.
Like the Cao Kun family, the Zheng family is very poor! However, the daughter of a poor family has a great advantage, that is, she is industrious and does not have all kinds of rich diseases of rich women. For Cao Kun at that time, being able to get a wife and live a prosperous life was a kind of success and happiness.
In this way, Cao Kun, who became a family, with the help of the Zheng family, began to go out to do small business, leaving early and returning late every day, although the small business could not be developed, it was also enriched. But fast forward three years, Cao Kun became suspicious of this small business, because he did not want to swing like this for a lifetime.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, social turmoil, he had the idea of joining the army. However, in the social concept at that time, the soldiers were very despised, so the whole family opposed it, but at this critical moment, Zheng agreed, and also promised that he would take good care of his in-laws' family and reassure him. Cao Kun was so grateful that as soon as the boy burst into tears, he left home without hesitation and defected to Li Hongzhang's Huai army.
This choice, for Cao Kun himself, is the first important opportunity for his rise in life.
After joining the army, Cao Kun was really a fish in the water, outstanding performance, deeply appreciated by his superiors, and constantly obtained opportunities for promotion. Later, he was even sent to Tianjin Wubei Academy for further study.
Cao Kun's old boss Gao Mou at the beginning of the army, seeing that this boy's future is unlimited, wants to establish a deep relationship. Therefore, he learned the style of the Han and Tang Dynasties and engaged in marriage. He roughly inquired that Cao Kun was unmarried, but in fact, it was only because Cao Kun was focused on his career and basically did not have contact with his family, so he created the illusion of being single. Of course, this illusion, Gao Mou may not pretend not to see through, anyway, Cao Kun does not say, he does not say broken, he made the decision to marry his sister Gao to Cao Kun.
Gao's family is the scholarly home of Tianjin Wei, with a rich family, and Gao's pampering and sociability. It just so happened that at this time, Cao Kun had already entered the military attaché sequence, and it was inevitable that he would be sent to the army, and as a result, Gao Shi just became Cao Kun's right-hand man. The following year, Gao gave birth to a daughter, Cao Shixi, for Cao Kun.
However, the husband and wife relationship between Cao Kun and Gao Clan did not go too long, because the news that Cao Kun had the original Match zheng clan did not know how to run into Gao's ears, in fact, it is not surprising, after all, there is no impermeable wall in the world, not to mention that after Cao Kun married Gao Shi, the love field and the official field were proud, and the rise was also very fast, the official did a big job, and there were naturally many people who paid attention to the land.
The Gao family was originally a big family bridesmaid, born rich, and naturally high in heart. The wife who thought she was the wife of the officer's wife has now become a second room, and the wife is still a country woman she despises. This contrast, Gao's heart can not stand. She gave birth to a body of Lin Daiyu again, and after a few strokes of breath, she became sick with her own qi, and by 1908, she was even more ill and went away from the world forever.
Cao Kun was emotionally depressed for a long time. However, as mentioned earlier, Cao Kun's fate, women's luck is relatively strong. Three years after Gao's departure, someone gave him a kiss again.
The person who mentioned the relatives was his fifth brother Cao Jun, and the woman was Chen Hanrui, a wealthy merchant in Tianjin Wei.
However, this time Cao Kun repeatedly explained to the fifth brother Cao Jun, we must learn from the past and explain the situation of our family clearly, one is to have the original match, and the other is to have a deceased wife Gao.
It can be seen that Cao Kun, as a person, is still more ate the lesson. However, this time it was good, Cao Kun confessed his wife-concubine relationship, but the other party did not care, preferring to marry his 20-year-old Huanghua eldest daughter to 50-year-old Cao Kun as his aunt. In fact, it is not that the Chen family does not care, but because at that time, the Chen family was in chaos, the Chen family had been doing business for generations, accumulating wealth, it was not easy, in order to preserve the foundation, there must be warlord protection, so they looked at Cao Kun, who was in the rising stage.
Soon after marrying Chen Hanrui, in 1916, Cao Kun's career made another breakthrough, and he was promoted to directly subordinate to the governor and governor of Baoding. For Cao Kun, the official title is very important, but the territory is more important, and he finally has a piece of his own territory Baoding, which is the key. Cao Kun built his own mansion in Baoding and named it "Guangyuan". Here, Chen Hanrui bore Cao Kun a son!
Up to now, we look back at Cao Kun's personal development history, which is quite interesting. From selling bulang and Cao Tidu to Cao Dashuai, at each stage, there is a woman, namely the original Zheng family, the Tianjin WeiGao family, and the rich merchant Chen family.
Therefore, after Cao Kun became the president, someone immediately said to Cao Kun that he should marry another daughter, and the town was "the rich and noble spirit of the president". Cao Kun looked back at his life and felt that it was true, every time he rose, he would marry a woman, indicating that the woman had good luck with him. Therefore, he acquiesced to the people around him to do this. In the end, the people below found a woman for Cao Kun, named Liu Fengwei - although she was born in a cold and cold background, and was a drama, she was incomparably beautiful.
Of course, don't underestimate this lowly actor Liu Fengwei, it is she who let Cao Kun keep the late festival and keep a good name. It is said that after 1931, the Japanese who coveted north China wanted to find a person with prestige and establish autonomy in north China, but in fact it was just to establish a puppet regime controlled by the Japanese. The Japanese saw the political brilliance of President Cao Kunda, so they sent several groups of people to lobby.
But these lobbyists didn't even enter the door. The reason is that at the door of Cao Kun's mansion, there is a beautiful woman blocked, that is, Liu Fengwei. A wave of lobbyists came, and she scolded the other party away. After scolding the lobbyists, he came back to educate Cao Kun, and finally, Cao Kun did not become a traitor at the suggestion of Liu Fengwei.
Although marrying his new aunt Liu Fengwei did not keep Cao Kun's great presidential throne, he did preserve Cao Kun's reputation! In fact, these four aunts and wives have greater credit, that is, they also saved Cao Kun's old life and let him live for ten more years.
For the great warlord Cao Kun, every time he starts, he must marry a wife, which seems to have unlimited scenery and a double harvest of career beauty, but at the age of 66, he understands that the blessing of life is not that there are many wives with high official positions and a lot of money, but simple companionship! Why? The reason is that with the continuous change of the situation, after Feng Yuxiang launched a coup d'état in 1924, Cao Kun's peak period began to pass. By 1926, when he wanted to go to Wu Peifu, even Wu Peifu, whom he valued most, was reluctant to take him in. Finally, he had no choice but to return to the old residence in Tianjin.
There is no career, there is no home. However, the family was also scattered, the chickens and dogs were restless, Liu Fengwei moved out with his children to live in another place, the third wife Chen Hanrui suffered from mental illness, and the financial expenditure of the Cao Mansion was controlled by Cao Shaoshan--this boy was the adopted son from Cao Rui, the fourth brother of Cao Kun, but this adopted son was extremely filial, and he did not care whether Cao Kun was dead or alive, and he did not give medical treatment when he was ill. At this moment of despair, Cao Kun wrote a text message to the fourth aunt Liu Fengwei:
"Qing's heart and liver are broken, they don't care about me, I may die soon, for Shiying and Shisong, I have less management, I feel sorry for you, you have to take care of them."
A 66-year-old man, who once had a storm and a storm, and now that the general trend has gone, his body is decaying, and he is full of despair and sorrow, he sends out such a letter, although it is only a few dozen words, but it also shows the surging feelings in his heart.
At this time, when he was abandoned, it was Liu Fengwei who stood up and took the initiative to propose that Cao Kun be brought here to live. Under the care of Liu Fengwei, Cao Kun's sick body was restored, and his desperate heart finally ignited his confidence and hope for life. In this way, Cao Kun, accompanied and cared for by Liu Fengwei, actually lived happily for ten years.
It was only then that Cao Kun understood that no matter how big the official was, no matter how much money there was, no matter how many children and grandchildren there were, no matter how beautiful the wives and concubines were, it was not as good as having the warmest companionship given by a caring person in old age. Because, only when you reach old age, you find that the career, wealth, and beauty you have pursued all your life are all over the place, and only the person who accompanies you in a wheelchair and lies on the sickbed is the last and most important sustenance and resting place of your heart in life!