Usually, the house we live in is about 100 square meters, or between 100 and 200 square meters. Even high-end villas, the kind where celebrities live, rarely exceed 1,000 square meters. So, have you ever seen a mansion of more than 5,000 square meters?
There is a place in the south of The city of Qinzhou City, Guangxi Province, to be precise, this is a building complex, with a total area of more than 22,000 square meters and a construction area of more than 5,600 square meters. It was founded during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 100 years.
Whether from then, later, or even from the present point of view, this is definitely a mansion. There are 119 large and small houses, including the master's room, the maid's room, the gang room, the horse house, as well as the warehouse, the stage, the garden, the vegetable garden, the fish pond and so on. The building is gorgeous, the workmanship is exquisite, the dragon is carved and painted, and the palatial is magnificent, which can be called the first mansion in Qinzhou.
(National Hero Liu Yongfu)
According to our general view, everyone is both envious and jealous of the so-called mansion, and more perhaps hate, why does he live in such a good house? However, the people of Qinzhou, from ancient times to the present, do not hate the owner of the mansion, but still love him very much and respect him.
Why?
Because the owner of the mansion is called Liu Yongfu.
Liu Yongfu was born in Qinzhou, and now his birthplace has been assigned to Fangchenggang City, and the mansion he built in his later years is in the downtown area of Qinzhou, which is the treasure of the town and city of qinzhou people.
(Statue of Liu Yongfu)
Liu Yongfu's mansion was built with such grandeur, why didn't the people hate the rich? First of all, because Liu Yongfu is a national hero written into history textbooks. The four words of national hero are not worthy of anyone? In the five thousand years of China, there are only a few people.
Liu Yongfu has beaten the French and the Japanese in his life, and with these two points, he is worthy of the glorious title of national hero. In the late Qing Dynasty, the French army entered Vietnam and captured the capital Hanoi, in a vain attempt to use Vietnam as a springboard to attack the Qing Dynasty, just like the Korean War after the founding of New China.
(A sample of Li Willy's hair in Liu Yongfu's old center)
Defending Vietnam is to defend the country, Liu Yongfu led more than 2,000 black flag soldiers he founded, tenaciously resisting the French army. In 1873, Liu Yongfu won a victory and killed the French general An Ye, forcing the French army to retreat to Hanoi.
In 1883, Liu Yongfu commanded 3,000 Black Flag Troops, rose up and achieved a great victory in Paper Bridge. In this battle, the Black Flag Army killed the French commander-in-chief Li Weili, and Liu Yongfu deliberately cut off a lock of Li Weili's hair, and there are still samples of hair in Liu Yongfu's former residence. It is said that later, the French wanted to buy back this lock of hair with heavy money, but Liu Yongfu sternly refused.
Liu Yongfu also participated in the Zhennanguan Victory. Many people know about the Fight of the French, but few people know that Liu Yongfu also beat the Japanese. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out and the Japanese attacked Taiwan, the Qing government ordered Liu Yongfu to lead troops to defend Taiwan.
At that time, Liu Yongfu was nearly sixty years old, but he personally went into battle and won the Battle of Dajiaxi. The Japanese army was determined to win taiwan, but Liu Yongfu vowed to "coexist and die with Taiwan." The people of Taiwan want to honor him as the president of the Democratic Republic of China, but Liu Yongfu insists on not accepting him.
According to later historians, there were nearly 50,000 Japanese troops attacking Taiwan, commanded by a prince, while the Black Flag Army under the command of Liu Yongfu had only eight battalions of troops, and the enemy was outnumbered, not to mention the advanced weapons of the Japanese army. The Japanese army persuaded Liu Yongfu to surrender.
Liu Yongfu appealed to the Qing Dynasty for help, but the Qing government had already signed the Treaty of Maguan and left Taiwan alone. Liu Yongfu said bitterly:
"The princes of the interior have misled me, and I have misled the people!"
Isolated and helpless, he held the determination that "he will be outside, and the king's life will not be spared", and fought to the death with the Japanese army.
After five months of bitter fighting, although Liu Yongfu killed the prince of the Japanese army, 30,000 of the 50,000 Japanese troops were wounded and sent back to Japan, however, his Black Flag Army was basically destroyed. The situation was no longer feasible, and Liu Yongfu had to withdraw from Taiwan with more than a dozen people.
(Barn in Liu Yongfu's former residence)
Liu Yongfu returned to Qinzhou in his later years to settle down, and it took more than two years to build his mansion. Because Liu Yongfu once served as a Vietnamese official and the viceroy of San xuan, his mansion is also known as "Three Xuan Tang", which is the former residence of Liu Yongfu that has been preserved to this day.
Although he became a great official, Liu Yongfu was not the kind of person who was unkind to the rich. He was born into poverty, suffered from hunger when he was a child, and had a natural love for the people. Their family's warehouse for storing grain is 1500 square meters, which is enough to feed their family for a year.
Anyone from a poor family who could not eat and came to the door to ask for food, Liu Yongfu responded to every request and tried his best to help. During the New Year's Festival, Liu Yongfu also took the initiative to open the granary and distribute the grain to the surrounding people, who called his granary "Jimin Warehouse". There are still some sayings circulating in Qinzhou:
"The loss of the harvest in winter made me panic, and I was hungry to find the Three Xuantang", "Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, and close neighbors are not as good as Lord Liu".
The rich are so grounded, of course, the people will not hate the rich.
(Liu Yongfu and his old wife and old dog)
In ancient China, it was normal for high-ranking officials to have three wives and four concubines, but Liu Yongfu, a high-ranking imperial court official, had only one wife in his life, that is, Huang Meilan. Why? Because Liu Yongfu was very poor in his early years, Huang Meilan was willing to marry him, and Liu Yongfu was grateful for his life, so later although Liu Yongfu became a high official, he insisted on not taking concubines and only marrying Huang Meilan.
Liu Yongfu also set a family rule for his sons, unless the wife could not have children, she was never allowed to take concubines. In the muddy late Qing dynasty officialdom, Liu Yongfu can be called a clear stream. According to the current people's vision, Liu Yongfu is simply a perfect man, a warm man.
Liu Yongfu was not highly educated, but he left a very philosophical "Book of Commandments":
In life, if we encounter extremely difficult things, why should we not be difficult to see; that is, when we encounter extremely difficult things, we should not be difficult to see.
In this way, is there no more difficulty in the world? Isn't that philosophical? For people today, there is still a great deal of educational significance. Liu Yongfu left a famous sentence called:
"When facing the battlefield, we are not afraid of death, and the officials do not want money."
This is the best portrayal of his life, and it is also the best advice to the world.
(The photo in the article is taken from the actual scene of Liu Yongfu's former residence in Qinzhou, Guangxi) #北部湾之星钦州 #