The founder of the Yuan Shang of Tianchong (Cheng) in Linxi County, which was very popular at that time, was named Yu Xinghai. Yu Xinghai Hui, originally from Chifeng Xitun people, has real estate and camels in Chifeng Street, and life belongs to the level of moderate prosperity. In the early years, due to eating, drinking, gambling and smoking five poisons, the family's situation gradually declined, and it was mixed up in Chifeng to the point where it was impossible to maintain a living, so during the Guangxu years, the family moved to keqi jingsha. At that time, there were only five members in the Yu family, their eldest son Yu Ting, the second son Yu Yao, and the third son Yu Jun, and later gave birth to a fourth son, Yu Qing, and a girl in Keqi.
When Yu Xinghai first arrived in Keqi, he made a living by running horse bridges (brokers) and selling cattle and sheep into the water, and later made a living in running grassland (traveling Mongolian merchants). Because of the high profit margin of the running grassland business (the profit doubled or several times), so only seven or eight years later, I bought a house in Keqi, tied a camel, and the days became moist, at this time, the eldest son Yu Ting, the second son Yu Yao, also grew up, can be independent, and become Yu Xinghai's right-hand man.
In the first year of the Republic of China (1911), the seat of the county seat of Linxi County was reclaimed (the county seat had not yet been established), and Yu Xinghai hung (purchased) a piece of land here, a total of six acres. He asked his eldest son Yu Ting and second son Yu Yaoda to stand in front of Linxi to develop his career. When he first arrived in Linxi, Yu Ting sold furs and furs, yu Yao ran the horse bridge, and the two brothers performed their duties and were very dedicated. In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), the family moved from Keqi to Linxi, began to build more than a dozen earthen houses in Linxi, and opened a camel shop called "Tianchongyuan". From the first year of the Republic of China to Linxi, the Yu family developed from Keqi to Linxi in the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920) into a large merchant with 30 or 40 camels, 45 hectares of land, and 40 or 50 houses. At the same time, a bakery named Tongheshun was also plated, and in the fifteenth year of the Republic of China (1926), it was transformed into a grocery store, where department stores, rice noodles and pastries were all sold. In addition, Yu Jia also expanded his influence in Keqi, Beizi Temple (now Xilinhot), Chifeng, Tongliao and other places, and opened shop outlets.
Old photo of the linxi county mosque
In September of the fifteenth year of the Republic of China (1926), the Russians set up a branch of the Wally Foreign Bank in Tongliao, and through the introduction of Yu Yao's son Yu Xiangyun (Yu's family in Tongliao,madian Tianzeng Dong Caidong), who sold livestock in Tongliao, came to Linxi to set up a branch in the Tianchongyuan Temple. The Translation of The Zhang translator of the Wally Foreign Firm died less than a year after coming to Linxi, and after that, the Russian translation of the Foreign Firm was replaced by Yao Lai, so Yu Yao became the spokesperson of the Wally Foreign Firm in Linxi, and the Yu family was correspondingly transformed into a comprador merchant.
Wally & Co.'s business is mainly through Tian Chongyuan's large-scale acquisition of fur in Linxi and the surrounding area of Linxi. Every year, Wally & Co. buys 90,000 catties of fluff sheets, and the profit is more than 70,000 silver dollars. The annual commission earned by The Yu family from Wally & Associates is no less than 20,000 silver dollars. Coupled with other incomes, Yu Jia's strength was unmatched in the entire Linxi region.
After the Yu family had money, in order to find a backer, he began to make purposeful friends with government officials. In the sixteenth year of the Republic of China (1927), Lin Xi came to a county magistrate named Ma Baoshan, who was a Hui nationality, and Yu Yao became an adulterer with him and married Jinlan. In the same year, a Fengjun army unit came from the northeast and stationed in Linxi, and Yu Xinghai's third son Yu Jun and cui Xingwu, the commander of this unit, became brothers in exchange. In the eighteenth year of the Republic of China (1929), the county magistrate (who was also the governor of Linxi County from 1933 to 1939 in the puppet Manchu period) was replaced by Su Shaoquan, and Yu Yao married him as a "brother" by sending money and horses.
In March 1933, Japanese imperialism invaded and occupied Linxi, and Yujia turned to the Japanese invaders. At that time, the Japanese imperialists' business in Linxi was called the "East Mongolia Company". In the four years of pseudo-Manchu Kangde, Lin Xi established the Manchukuo Livestock Production Company, and Yu Yao served as the "combination leader" of the cattle and horses "combination", and there were small groups under the large combination, and the small combination obeyed the leadership of the large group, and obeyed its distribution and instructions, and the combination leaders of the small group were Yu Qing, Wu Yongquan, Yu Jiangyun, Yu Wenjun, Yu Qingyun, Ding Changde and others of Tianchongyuan. The cattle and horses of the puppet Manchu period ruled the trade of cattle and horses, and others were not allowed to get involved in this kind of trade. The large groups are directly led by the Japanese, and their capital is provided by the pseudo-Manchu livestock production companies, that is, the Japanese will give as much capital as the combination needs, and their scope of activity is in the East and West Wuqi, Abaga and other places. It is said that the big combination went to the above places to buy cattle and horses, not cash money, because at that time to buy the Mongolian horses, it was on the fat, every three months, the big combination did not use the cost to make money. Japan gave them capital, they speculated, bought cheaply and sold expensively, so they all became rich and became rich.
Yu Xinghai, the head of the Yu family, died in August of the ninth year of the puppet Manchu Kant. At the end of the year, the Yu family split up and divided into four shares, but its power did not weaken.
In May 1946, the Lin Xinong Association detained Yiu, his son and others. In the autumn of that year, Yu Yao died. In the winter of 1947, Linxi carried out land reform and fought against landlord bullies, and the Farmers' Association of North Street in Linxi County arrested Yu Yao's old son Yu Xiuyun and died in prison within a few days. In this way, the once famous Lin Xitian Chongyuan Business Has since completely withdrawn from the stage of history.