In 1962, Hu Shi died, and his close friend and former president of Peking University, Jiang Menglin, was particularly sad.
Old friends and colleagues saw him in a trance, once the most quiet, do not love to socialize, he often walked around with colleagues, used to invite him to dinner to find various reasons to push, and now as soon as he is invited, he will arrive.
Friends cared about the old principal, and his thoughts were written on his face, but whenever he asked, he always wanted to talk and stopped, and sighed long and short.
Who could have imagined that Jiang Menglin's change was because he wanted to "eat food in his mouth", and Xu Xianle, a bride who had just married home for a year, gave him only a pitiful amount of money for his meals every day, and three meals a day was not as good as the hard workers on the street.
Figure | March 1920, from left to right: Jiang Menglin, Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao
Last year, when Hu Shi was seriously ill, Jiang Menglin secretly married Xu Xianle without all his relatives and friends who opposed him. Hu Shi's bitter exhortations to him are still in his ears, and now he is in a dilemma, and he cherishes his face and is reluctant to mention it to others.
But if he had listened to Hu Shi at that time, he would not have fallen into such a situation...
In 1932, Jiang Menglin, then president of Peking University, chose to divorce his wife for the sake of Tao Zenggu, the widow of Gao Renshan.
Gao Renshan, the founder of the Department of Education at Peking University, was arrested by Zhang Zuolin in 1927 and killed in Beijing in early 1928.
Gao Renshan and Tao Zenggu have a very good relationship with each other, and at the memorial service, Jiang Menglin saw that Tao Zenggu was grief-stricken and unbearable in his heart, and he took care of her a lot and cared for her.
Soon, Jiang Menglin served as the first minister of education of the Nationalist government and hired Tao Zenggu as his secretary. The two see each other every day, and soon after, both fall in love and decide to get married.
Jiang Menglin divorced his original partner in order to marry his sweetheart, and understood tremendous pressure from public opinion. In order to show support, Hu Shi promised Jiang Menglin to be a witness to the marriage.
Hu Shi is famous for his "fear of the inside", his little foot wife Jiang Dongxiu is good at hugging unevenly, and he is most unaccustomed to men abandoning his wife of chaff and locking Hu Shi at home on the same day. In order to participate on time, Hu Shi had to jump out of the window and escape from home, achieving this "beautiful thing".
Pictured| Hu Shi and his wife Jiang Dongxiu
At the wedding, Hu Shi praised Jiang Menglin's bravery, saying that the wedding "can represent a symbol of the change of the times." Jiang Menglin said excitedly: "I love Brother Gao Renshan the most in my life, so I am willing to continue his volunteer to engage in education." Because I love my brother, I love the person he loved more, and I love her more, so that I can be worthy of my deceased friend. ”
The wedding was a big deal, with some people praising it and others feeling that they were acting in a bad mood. Fortunately, Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu's relationship has always been very good after marriage, and the "Declaration" has also specifically reported on their happy life after marriage, and this twist and turn has gradually been forgotten.
Tao Zenggu, who worked as a rescue worker in the field and as a standing director of the Women's Federation after coming to Taiwan, is almost inseparable from Jiang Menglin.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Jiang Menglin resigned as the president of Peking University and began to enter the official arena.
In the summer of 1949, after some difficult competition, Jiang Menglin was finally promoted to the director of the "Peasant Restoration Association", and he did not expect to soon usher in the collapse of the Jiang family dynasty when he officially entered the golden period. In September 1949, Jiang Menglin led the Peasant Restoration Association and returned to Taipei with a large amount of US dollar bills.
In 1958, Jiang Menglin became the chairman of the Shimen Reservoir Construction Committee, and he traveled back and forth between his Taipei apartment and the Shimen Reservoir construction site, sometimes sleeping at the site.
At this time, Tao Zenggu fell seriously ill and was about to die soon.
Before Tao Zenggu left, he asked his cousin who took care of her at the bedside: "Meng Lin's body (Jiang Menglin's word) is very good, and it is too emotional, after I die, he will definitely be unable to stand it, and I can't bear his long-term loneliness." So, I hope you can help him find a suitable partner to accompany him..."
After Tao Zenggu left, Jiang Menglin was depressed for a long time, and the family has always maintained the decorations of his wife's life. Relatives and friends introduced him to more than a dozen excellent women, and he couldn't look at them.
It was not until the autumn of 1960 that Jiang Menglin met Xu Xianle at the Yuanshan Hotel.
The || the wedding of Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu, with Hu Shi (second from the right) as the witness
Xu Xianle is a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, his great-grandfather was a famous industrialist and shipbuilding engineer in the late Qing Dynasty, and his father Xu Jiabao was the general office of the Guangdong Shijing Machinery Bureau and a technician of the War Department of the Beiyang Government.
Xu Xianle was born in Shuxiangmendi, and is the youngest daughter in the family, loved by her parents and brothers. She has a beautiful appearance, when she was studying, she was the school flower of the school, and after graduating from college, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the National Government of Chongqing, and was called "Ministry Flower", which is an eye-catching role everywhere.
There are many men who pursue Xu Xianle, Xu Xianle is not in a hurry to marry, among them to choose left and right, after thoroughly understanding the financial resources of the other party, he chose General Yang Jie, who is nearly half a hundred years old, to marry him.
Xu Xianle's purpose was not pure, and after marriage, he only cared about spending money and enjoying himself, and the marriage was over after 7 months. After Yang Jie was assassinated by Kuomintang agents, Xu Xianle also used this to recover a sum of money and take part of her ex-husband's property for himself.
Since then, Xu Xianle has lost interest in marriage, squandered the money left by her ex-husband, and made many boyfriends, but has never been married.
Jiang Menglin was 75 years old when she first met Xu Xianle, Xu Xianle was 53 years old, and the charm still existed, and she could not see the vicissitudes from the war years in her body.
Jiang Menglin could no longer forget Xu Xianle, and immediately after returning to the Shimen construction site, he wrote a love letter to Xu Xianle, and he told Xu Xianle affectionately: "Among some of the ladies I have seen, you are the one who makes my heart move the most."
Xu Xianle pushed back, saying that because the age gap was too large to be suitable for communication, he was already secretly inquiring about Jiang Menglin's family property.
Xu Xianle half pushed and half interacted with Jiang Menglin for three or four months, she asked Jiang Menglin for 200,000 yuan, and let Jiang Menglin buy her a lot of clothes and jewelry.
After finding out Jiang Menglin's family background, this announced the love relationship. Jiang Menglin spent his days thinking about how to please Xu Xianle, while Xu Xianle pondered every day how to quickly promote the marriage between the two so as not to have too many dreams at night.
At that time, there were many people who advised Jiang Menglin and Xu Xianle to break off their love relationship, Song Meiling and Chen Cheng explicitly opposed it many times, and the attitude of the Peking University Alumni Association, daughter Jiang Yanhua and the Peasant Restoration Conference was even more fierce.
The photo | magazine report when Jiang Menglin and Tao Zenggu got married
At this time, Jiang Menglin faced greater pressure than when he married Tao Zenggu, and he naturally thought of Hu Shi, who praised himself for "bravely pursuing love", and felt that at least Hu Shi could understand him.
And Hu Shi directly released the words this time: "Don't invite me this time, it is best to notarize." ”
Many old alumni of Peking University found Hu Shi and hoped that he would come forward to persuade Jiang Menglin. Hu Shi was hospitalized because of illness at the time, he first found someone to bring a conversation, and then consulted with Chen Cheng and Zhang Qun, and then wrote a long letter to Jiang Menglin as a close friend for more than 50 years, hoping that she could see Xu Xianle's intentions and break up with her immediately.
In order to persuade Jiang Menglin, Hu Shi took great pains to list various reasons and examine Xu Xianle's insidiousness and hypocrisy. He hoped that Jiang Menglin could give up the 200,000 yuan he had given xu Xianle, dispel the idea of remarriage, and not have any contact with her again.
Of course, Hu Shi also expected that at this time, Jiang Menglin had been overwhelmed by love, no longer willing to listen to their persuasion, only hoping that he could retain a trace of rationality, he advised Jiang Menglin to find a good lawyer before marriage to handle the will, leave some property to the children, and then consider giving Xu Xianle money. Of course, the most important thing is to leave yourself a pension - "Jiang Menglin Trust Fund", which Xu Xianle can never interfere.
Finally, Hu Shi moved out of the "great righteousness of the country" and solemnly said: "The elder brother is a public family." "Hopefully, he will be aware of his social responsibility."
Jiang Menglin was bent on hoping that Hu Shi would help him speak, but Hu Shi sent a long letter advising him to break up. Jiang Menglin did not even dismantle it, and even in order to express his loyalty to Xu Xianle, in front of Xu Xianle, he tore the letter and threw it directly into the trash can, and the secretary re-pasted the letter for preservation afterwards.
Hu Shi's letter he could tear, but Chen Cheng and Song Meiling's face, he had to give. Chen Cheng met with Jiang Menglin twice for this matter, and he directly told Jiang Menglin that Song Meiling did not agree, and he and his wife also objected, if he insisted on it, then the two families would completely break up in the future, and they would not see each other again in the future.
Jiang Menglin was under pressure and had to say "think again" in front of Chen Cheng, and later simply said that he had planned not to get married.
Lying on his hospital bed, Hu Shi got the news and was excited about his old friend's "lost way back". On July 11, 1961, Jiang Menglin came to the hospital to visit Hu Shi and personally promised that he did not intend to get married, hoping that Hu Shi would recover from his illness.
Just a week later, Jiang Menglin and Xu Xianle secretly married at a friend's house on Linyi Street in Taipei. Jiang Menglin's only daughter in Taiwan, Jiang Yanhua, refused to attend her father's wedding, and the total number of relatives and friends who came to the scene was less than ten.
Pictured| Xu Xianle
Jiang Menglin was very excited at the wedding, and happily said to the guests: "I went to the hospital for a physical examination, everything is normal, absolutely will not harm people!" ”
Although Jiang Menglin did a good job of secrecy, this news was still discovered by reporters, and the next day various tabloids were full of news of Jiang Menglin's marriage.
Soon after, Jiang Menglin was interviewed by the Central Daily with a red face, and the 70-year-old groom official smiled: "Since the death of Ms. Tao Zenggu, my feelings have no sustenance, so I have to ask for a partner to maintain the spirit of my years of struggle." I believe Ms. Xu is my proper object. ”
In an interview, Xu Xianle also said it very appropriately, explaining why she chose Jiang Menglin as "feeling Jiang Menglin's affection and reveling in the spirit of this old educator."
At this point, the wood has become a boat, and Jiang Menglin only hopes that as long as the couple lives a good life, all the storms before marriage will become "happy memories" under the baptism of time.
Hu Shi was finally discharged from the hospital, and he still had a heart disease.
After jiang menglin and Xu Xianle got married, they first came to Shimen Reservoir for a formality, and then went to Sun Moon Lake to spend their honeymoon happily. The Dahua Evening News and Lianhe Bao followed them to report, and my colleagues were talking about it, and it was difficult for Hu Shi to pretend not to see the news.
Hu Shi once stressed in his letter that Jiang Menglin should watch alone and should not share it with anyone. He originally thought that Jiang Menglin would at most give Xu Xianle a look, but he did not expect that Jiang Menglin actually mentioned this matter to reporters, which made him very embarrassed.
Jiang Menglin Xu finally realized that he was overwhelmed by the joy of the new marriage, his wife was a wife, and he still had to value his friends. Returning to Taipei from Sun Moon Lake, he immediately went to visit Hu Shi.
On the surface, Hu Shi was naturally welcoming and congratulatory, and originally wanted to quickly fool this embarrassing scene with haha. Jiang Menglin also wanted to give Hu Shi facts and reasoning: "Xianle is very beautiful, her temper is also very good, people say that she looks at my money, in fact, her money is more than mine." ”
Picture | Jiang Menglin and Xu Xianle took a group photo with guests at the wedding
Hu Shi barely kept smiling and looked at Jiang Menglin talking to himself.
Hu Shi understands very well that he has heard people say more than once that Xu Xianle treats many ex-boyfriends in the same way - "first ask for a large amount of money, first ask for all the property management rights, make the man's family penniless, and the six relatives do not come to the door."
Jiang Menglin had already entered the set, letting him see that Xu Xianle was only a matter of time. But perhaps Hu Shi himself could not have imagined that Jiang Menglin's remorse would come so quickly.
Before getting married, Xu Xianle asked Jiang Menglin for valuable jewelry, and Jiang Menglin did not refuse to show his sincerity. On the day of the wedding, Xu Xianle proposed to let Jiang Menglin make a list of private funds at home and abroad and hand it to her, but Jiang Menglin did not think much about it. After the honeymoon after marriage, Xu Xianle asked Jiang Menglin's property situation several times, and the number of times was more, and Jiang Menglin could feel it to some extent.
Where did he expect that Xu Xianle had compiled his property and his daughter's property into notes.
Xu Xianle soon took control of the family's finances, and Jiang Menglin had no control over his salary. Jiang Menglin has protested many times and quarreled with her, but Xu Xianle has a strong desire to control money and will not let go no matter what.
Because nutrition could not keep up, Jiang Menglin cheekily rubbed rice everywhere. Nine months after Hu Shi's death, Jiang Menglin attended the "Four Health Clubs" in Taichung, and in a trance, he suddenly fell down the stairs without standing still, fractured his legs and feet, and was urgently sent to a hospital in Taipei for treatment.
Xu Xianle was reluctant to come forward to take care of the injured Jiang Menglin, but he often appeared at high-society dinners and dances. For medical expenses, she was also calculating and forced Jiang Menglin to move from the original large ward to the small ward.
She obviously controlled almost all of the Jiang family's property, but she cried that she could not afford to pay for the medical expenses, and borrowed 10,000 yuan from the Shimen Reservoir in the name of her husband.
Immediately after, Jiang Menglin found that Xu Xianle had begun to slowly transfer assets, she moved out of her household registration, packed up her luggage and moved back to the dormitory before marriage, and transferred the passbook stock to her own name, even Jiang Menglin's daughter's savings were not spared, and the seal was also hidden.
The Peasant Restoration Association, which Jiang Menglin once prided herself on, has now become Xu Xianle's territory, and she has taken matters into her own hands and forced Mrs. Shen Chonghan, a close colleague of Jiang Menglin and the elder of the Peasant Restoration Association, to move out of the dormitory.
Photo| In 1961, while Hu Shi was hospitalized, Jiang Menglin and his daughter came to visit
This incident became the last straw that overwhelmed Jiang Menglin, and Jiang Menglin could still endure all kinds of encounters after marriage for the sake of face, but this time Xu Xianle had touched the bottom line, so that he no longer had the face to face his best friend, and he was sorry for the love in his heart.
Jiang Menglin, who was lying on the bed, hammered the bed and cried bitterly, fainting because of shame and embarrassment.
He had to admit that what Hu Shi said in his letter had been fulfilled one by one, and the only way to stop the loss was in time. He found his old friend and told him what he was thinking, and everyone advised him, secretly discussing how to get rid of Xu Xianle at the least cost.
On January 23, 1963, Chinese New Year's Eve the lunar calendar, Jiang Menglin was discharged from the hospital with his leg still wearing a plaster cast, and according to the plan agreed with his friends, he found a secret place to live. Xu Xianle did not come to the hospital with lunch until noon, and learned that Jiang Menglin had been discharged.
Xu Xianle knew that Jiang Menglin was now deliberately avoiding her, and he was so angry that he scolded at home. Soon after, Jiang Menglin sent a text recounting Xu Xianle's greed, domineering, selfishness and indifference during this short marriage.
He said that he had already made his relatives and friends dislike him when he married Xu Xianle last year, and his children were estranged, and Xu Xianle showed his true face in the marriage, which made him completely chill and could not raise his head in front of his relatives and friends. Jiang Menglin offered to give Xu Xianle 3,000 yuan a month as a "youth loss fee", only to never see her again, and cut it off in the future.
Pictured| Jiang Menglin and Xu Xianle
Xu Xianle is a person who is easy to compromise, she immediately held a press conference and published the love letters written to her by Jiang Menglin in the past to prove that they are truly in love with each other and are very happy after marriage. Xu Xianle bit back, saying that now Jiang Menglin's daughter and son-in-law had hidden Jiang Menglin and forced him to break off relations with Xu Xianle.
Xu Xianle burst into tears, saying that he would never compromise, would never divorce, and would fight with the Jiang family to the end to maintain his love and marriage.
Jiang Menglin and Xu Xianle began to fight each other in newspapers again, and those private affairs in the marriage were used as weapons to attack each other.
After two rounds, Jiang Menglin was exhausted and did not want to have anything to do with Xu Xianle at all, so he entrusted a lawyer to talk about divorce with Xu Xianle.
Xu Xian was happy to see that Jiang Menglin had made up his mind, and he was so angry that he opened a press conference again, repeatedly stressing that he did not marry Jiang Menglin for his money, so he absolutely did not agree to divorce now. She asked Jiang Menglin to solve the problem face to face and not to be provoked, and said that she was "born as a member of the Jiang family and died as a ghost of the Jiang family."
Xu Xianle moved out of her hukou and transferred her assets to fully show that she never regarded her husband and stepdaughter as family. This time Jiang Menglin just broke her leg, not some incurable disease, she was already so impatient, if when Jiang Menglin really reached the time when she was seriously ill and wanted someone to take care of her and ask for money to treat her illness, she would have forgotten the joke that "she was born into the Jiang family".
As for how to explain her transfer of property to the outside world, Xu Xianle began to coddle: "It was you who said it at the beginning, and all your things belonged to me, so what I did today was nothing more than according to your wishes." ”
Jiang Menglin was no longer able to argue with Xu Xianle, and simply disappeared completely, ignoring it. Xu Xianle was determined to provoke Jiang Menglin out to confront her. She searched everywhere for Jiang Menglin's whereabouts, but she could not find Jiang Menglin's residence, and then she simply ran to the Peasant Restoration Association to block Jiang Menglin.
This was the first time Jiang Menglin had seen Xu Xianle after escaping from home, and he had hurriedly escaped from the back door like a ghost.
"Lianhe Bao" published an article entitled "Xu Xianle broke into the Peasant Restoration Association at night, Jiang Menglin escaped in the tunnel", and the news was accompanied by a photo of the people of the Peasant Restoration Association twisting her wrist in order to stop Xu Xianle.
Originally, most people were on jiang Menglin's side, or held a wait-and-see attitude, and this photo reversed public opinion, and people thought that Jiang Menglin's "wisdom group" was bullying a weak woman.
Picture | Jiang Menglin
Xu Xianle had the support of public opinion, and even more the lion opened his mouth and asked Jiang Menglin for a huge amount of alimony.
After a year of coordination, Jiang Menglin was anxious to seek relief and finally chose to compromise.
In January 1964, the two formally divorced. Jiang Menglin gave Xu Xianle 500,000 yuan in alimony. Although Xu Xianle returned the house of the Peasant Restoration Association and handed over the stocks and deposits she controlled, she was unwilling to return the 200,000 yuan she asked for before marriage.
That is to say, from the time the two fell in love and married in 1961 to the beginning of 1963 when Jiang Menglin decided to separate from Xu Xianle, in just two years, Xu Xianle took away Jiang Menglin's 700,000 yuan property, not including the clothes and jewelry that Jiang Menglin bought for Xu Xianle in the past two years. You must know that in Taiwan, people with millions of assets were already rich.
Even after the divorce, Xu Xianle still stood on the moral high ground, condemning Jiang Menglin's ruthlessness and injustice, and condemning the inhumanity of the relatives and friends who "manipulated" Jiang Menglin.
Jiang Menglin, who is nearly 80 years old, can bear such slander, and he still decided to accept an interview with reporters when he was late in the festival. The old man, who was called a "negative man", sat in a wheelchair, and when the reporter asked him if he was provoked, he was emotional, tearful, and his voice trembled to clarify the truth.
No matter how remorseful and desolate Jiang Menglin is now, this matter has become the talk of people after tea and dinner, and even Hu Shi, who has passed away, has been taken out to joke: Mr. Hu Shi is like a god, such as a word stand, and his business will surely prosper.
The letter of Hu Shi that he had torn up was cherished by him at this moment. It's a pity that his best friend is no longer there, and I can't see him so depressed and remorseful. Jiang Menglin finally decided to publish Hu Shi's letter to express his courage to admit his mistake to Hu Shi.
Jiang Menglin's leg injury has not yet healed, and the boredom in his heart has made his body less than a day, and even detected liver cancer.
In the last period of his life, Jiang Menglin was mentally negative, and only when the Shimen Reservoir was completed and cut on June 14, 1964, did he feel that he had found himself and showed a rare smile.
Five days later, Jiang Menglin, who had fulfilled his last wish, died of illness in Taipei.
Xu Xianle lived another 40 years with great wealth and health, until he died in 2006 at the age of 98.
Jiang Menglin tasted the sweetness from his marriage to Tao Zenggu and tried to find the happiness that had been lost in Xu Xianle. And he has never investigated deeply, Tao Zenggu is because of the death of her ex-husband and Jiang Menglin came together, he and Gao Renshan are happily married, the reason why Hu Shi supported them to get married, is precisely because the woman has a good character, Virtuous and Good family; and Xu Xianle and her ex-husband divorced less than a year ago, Yang Jie, a famous anti-Japanese general who galloped on the battlefield, was played by her, where did Jiang Menglin have the confidence to control Xu Xianle and ensure that she would be a virtuous wife for the rest of her life?