Chapter 18 Chapter 10 1924: The Business Breakdown

At ten o'clock in the morning on April 12, 1924, a ship slowly sailed along the Huangpu River into Shanghai Huishan Wharf.On the boat, a fairy-like old man wearing a red hat, silver beard and white robe waved to the welcoming crowd. He was the first Asian writer and Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.In the following two months, Tagore created a wave of cultural exchanges between China and India full of sweetness. A group of young Chinese poets who were proficient in English surrounded him, as if rekindling the Eastern Lightness Cultural bonfire.Among them, the most fanatical admirer is Xu Zhimo, a poet who returned from studying abroad at Cambridge University. He accompanied Tagore to give speeches everywhere every day, and he also went to Japan with him. There, he wrote a series of gentle and shy new poems. In the end, he all ended with "Sayan Nala".Xu Zhimo's new poems are obviously much more refined than Hu Shi's saliva poems a few years ago, but they do not have the aggressive atmosphere of the times.

Sayanara, "goodbye" in Japanese.Ironically, 1924 was not as sweet as Poet Xu described, but it was really a year of "goodbye". The short-lived peace was broken this year, and the warlords went to war again.What is even worse is that the war has reached the area of ​​Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where business has flourished and there have been no major wars in the past few decades. On September 3, 1924, Qi Xieyuan, the direct governor of Jiangsu, attacked the Anhui Province, which was divided between Shanghai and Zhejiang, in order to seize Shanghai. Warlords Lu Yongxiang and He Fenglin went to war, and the two sides were at a stalemate in Jiading, Taicang, and Liuhe, and the industry and commerce in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were suddenly in turmoil.Immediately afterwards, Zhang Zuolin, a warlord of the Northeast Feng faction, used the excuse of aiding the Anhui faction to fight against the direct line Wu Peifu in Shanhaiguan. The two sides invested 300,000 people, which was the largest war in recent years.Wu Peifu was defeated because of Feng Yuxiang's defection, and Feng and Anhui joined forces to form a provisional government.After Zhang Zuolin entered the customs, he brutally treated intellectuals and dissidents, and the political situation has been turbulent.People finally completely lost confidence in the Beiyang warlords. The Kuomintang, which had ruled in the south for many years, once again became the expected force. In November 1924, Sun Yat-sen was invited to go north to discuss state affairs. Unexpectedly, his physical condition suddenly deteriorated. Died of liver cancer in Beijing on March 12 at the age of 59.In his last words, he warned the whole party that "the revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still have to work hard."

Natural disasters continued that year, the Yangtze River and the Han River rose simultaneously, many embankments in the three towns of Wuhan collapsed, and the Beijing-Han Railway was washed away by floods. According to local chronicles, "all kinds of commerce stopped without interruption, and the depression was unprecedented. ".In the Central Plains and Northwest China, affected by the climate, the harvest of agricultural products has been poor for many years, and famine has also occurred in Henan and other provinces. In terms of industrial economy, European countries have entered post-war recovery, China has once again become a market to be contested, and Japan's power is still strong. Coupled with successive years of poor harvests of agricultural products, various raw materials have soared, and fragile national industries have been severely impacted.Among them, the worst scene is the cotton spinning industry, which developed the fastest in the past few years. From October 1922 to June 1924, the average price of cotton on the Shanghai Exchange rose by 73%. , By the beginning of 1924, one-third of the Shanghai spinning mills had ceased production.When the economic cold wave comes, the national industry's ability to resist risks is fully revealed. Compared with British and Japanese-funded enterprises in Shanghai, the management level of the local spinning mills is obviously backward, the production efficiency is low, and the working capital is too little. However, the support of the financial system is also very insufficient. Therefore, when the economy is booming, all boats will rise, and when the crisis comes, it will be the first to be out.Judging from the data, even during the mill crisis, the British-owned Jardine Spinning Mill still had 30% of dividends to distribute, and the annual profit margin of Nippon Textile Co., Ltd. was as high as 25%.Huafeng, Baocheng and other large Chinese-funded factories were successively merged by Japanese companies.

In this crisis, the most sensational event was the bankruptcy of Zhang Jian, the spiritual leader of the business community and the "number one entrepreneur". In his later years, Zhang Jian devoted a lot of energy to political affairs and the construction of Nantong Model City. It is not known how much time he spent on production and management.In 1919, the Dasheng Group set a record profit of more than 3.8 million taels. By 1922, it suffered a loss due to the increase in cotton prices. It lost 700,000 taels that year, and then it went into decline.By 1924, Dasheng had owed a huge debt of 4 million taels. After the outbreak of the Zhifeng War, the Northeast and North China markets were in dire straits. What was even worse was that Qi Xieyuan and Lu Yongxiang were still firing at their door. As soon as the Jiangsu and Zhejiang markets were shaken, Dasheng’s Days can't go on.By 1925, the Dasheng Group was already insolvent, and the debt of the Dasheng No. 1 Factory alone had reached 9.06 million taels. Zhang Jian was forced to hand over all the enterprises that he had painstakingly managed for nearly 30 years to the creditors. Under the arrangement of Chen Guangfu, China , Communications, Jincheng, Shanghai four banks and Yongfeng, Yongju Bank formed a group of creditors to take over Dasheng Enterprises in an all-round way.Zhang Jian, who was over 72 years old, unexpectedly encountered such a catastrophe in his later years. He couldn't help but sigh, "It's unfortunate that I was born in China, and it's unfortunate that I was born in this era."

Apart from the crisis in the cotton yarn industry, there were three important reasons for the sudden decline of Zhang Jian's commercial kingdom.One is the heavy burden of idealism. For the public utilities in Nantong, Dasheng Cotton Mill has provided free blood transfusions all year round, which has exceeded the normal burden of the enterprise. By around 1924, Dasheng No. 1 Factory had only advanced more than 700,000 taels for enterprises and public welfare undertakings. , the borrowings from other enterprises exceeded 1.12 million taels, and those that were nominally occupied by other enterprises in the past were also close to this number. The total of the three items exceeded 45% of the total working capital.Enterprises run the society, and finally drag down the students.The second is that diversified operations are out of control. When Zhang Jian reflected on his mistakes in his later years, he admitted that "a small matter is a big deal" and "advancing quickly and doing a lot." Among them, the investment that made the biggest mistake was the farming and animal husbandry industry. The farming and farming industry has a strong social welfare, and the investment is large. The cycle is long, and affected by natural conditions such as sea tides and climate, Zhang Jian successively founded nearly 20 farming and animal husbandry enterprises, enclosing 4 million mu of sea, and invested a total of 21.19 million yuan. It was destroyed by severe typhoons three times, all the farming and animal husbandry projects failed successively, and the spinning mill funds were forced to fill the big black hole.The third is that the management of the enterprise is chaotic. Although Dasheng is one of the earliest joint-stock enterprises in China, for a long time, Zhang Jian's aura was too great, and in the later period he was close to a "god". The industrial companies in the group have no grassroots responsible It is stipulated that, on the surface, he must be consulted for every detail, and most of his energy is outside the enterprise, and he does not fully understand the actual operation.

In his later years, Zhang Jian fell from the clouds and suffered a lot in his last years.Since the loss of the company, various rumors have spread, and he has to face accusations every time he holds a shareholders' meeting. Several meetings broke up unhappy. In a letter to shareholders, Zhang Jian said helplessly that he was seventy He is many years old, and he has been a great man for thirty years, and it can be over. The debt he owes to Dasheng can be repaid annually from dividends and retirement fees.He also chose a cemetery for himself on the bank of Wolf Mountain, and drew up a couplet: "That is to say, after this rough life, I will be accompanied by the five mountain spirits."There are no inscriptions or ambitions on the tomb, only "Mr. Zhang's Tomb in Nantong" is simply engraved, without titles or decorations.In the last month of his life, he also went to inspect the river embankment to make a final effort for the cause of salt reclamation. Due to overwork, he developed a high fever. On July 17, 1926, a generation of "top entrepreneurs" lived in infinite loneliness and loneliness Zhong died sadly, and his funeral objects are: a top hat, a pair of glasses, a folding fan, and a pair of small metal boxes, each containing a tooth and a bundle of fetal hair. (Zhang Jian was buried quite lonely, and there is no record of his funeral objects. The "Cultural Revolution" broke out in 1966. On August 24, Zhang Jian's tomb was smashed by the Red Guards as "Four Olds". Granddaughter Zhang Rouwu witnessed the tomb burial.)

Spring is old with people, and flowers are empty with dreams.The bankruptcy and death of Zhang Jian means that the era of scholars and businessmen is gone forever. Since then, there has been no all-rounder figure with great public influence like him in the Chinese business circle.Hu Shi prefaced his biography, calling him "a great failed hero in the history of modern China." Mao Zedong said, "There are four people in China's national industry who cannot forget...the light industry cannot forget Zhang Jian." In fact, Zhang Jianzhi It should be remembered, not just "light industry". (Mao Zedong said that the other three people who should not be forgotten are, "The heavy industry cannot forget Zhang Zhidong, the chemical industry cannot forget Fan Xudong, and the transportation and shipping industry cannot forget Lu Zuofu.")

In Chinese society around 1924, the entanglement and complexity of social contradictions made people uneasy. At the end of 1923, the writer Lu Xun expressed his pessimism in his speech to Beijing students, "Unfortunately, China is too difficult to change. Even if you move a table or transform a stove, you will almost need blood; and even with blood , and may not necessarily be able to be moved or refitted. It is not a big whip that is hit on the back, and China does not move. I think this whip will always come, whether it is good or bad is another question, and it will always be hit. But Where did it come from, and how did it come from, I don’t know exactly.” In this passage, we can read some intellectuals’ desire for a “blood revolution” out of despair.At that time in China, a very delicate scene was emerging: the increasingly large labor class and the equally emerging entrepreneurial class had conflicts in terms of interests and values. With the outbreak of the economic crisis, this contradiction gradually became acute.

Before the Westernization Movement, there was no working class in China. With the growth of modern industry, the number of workers increased rapidly. In 1913, there were about 600,000 industrial workers in China. By 1919, the number had reached more than 2 million. More than 5 million people.Like all countries that entered the early industrial society, the living conditions of Chinese workers are miserable. Shi Jingqian described in the book "In Search of Modern China", "Meager wages, long working hours, rare or even non-existent vacations .Medical assistance or insurance is always delayed. Workers usually live in disgusting dormitories provided by factories or mining areas. The housing conditions are disgusting. Workers are called by numbers instead of names. Inside the factory, managers bully workers Evil situations are commonplace. Wages are always deducted without reason, and kickbacks are often heard. There are more female workers than male workers. In some textile factories, the proportion of female workers is as high as 65%, but their wages are even much lower than those of the same factories. Male workers. Child labor is very common, especially in textile factories. Women workers as young as twelve years old pick silk in large near-boiling vats with bare hands, and this kind of work often exposes them to terrible skin diseases and injuries."

Similar descriptions can be seen from time to time in newspapers and literary works of that year.Objectively speaking, they were not the most miserable people in Chinese society at that time—compared with peasants, they had a relatively stable income and did not have to fear bandits and wars, but the inhumane experience was an indisputable fact.Therefore, rebellious strikes are not uncommon. According to available data, from 1914 to 1919 before the "May 4th Movement", there were 108 strikes by workers across the country, especially after 1916, and the number of strikes increased year by year.From January to May 1919 alone, there were 19 strikes.Especially in the boycott of foreign goods in the past ten years, the workers who live in the cities and are most likely to be concentrated and mobilized are the main force of protest.

However, it is an important fact that before 1920 the working class was never seen as an integral and independent force.Public intellectuals who are obsessed with European, American or Japanese constitutional experience or culture are very unfamiliar with it, and they can even be said to be completely insulated. It has nothing to do with her livelihood, and it seems very hypocritical.The entrepreneurial class also pays little attention to workers. At most, it is a consideration of using or improving labor efficiency, such as Yu Qiaqing and his "short-term friends", or Rong Desheng's establishment of the "Workers' Autonomous Region".Since the late Qing Dynasty allowed merchants to form associations, thousands of large and small chambers of commerce have emerged across the country, and their influence is very strong. The chambers of commerce in cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan even have their own armed groups. Bend down and have an equal conversation with the ragged laborers.Even Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang members were mainly active among gentry, officials, intellectuals, soldiers and even overseas Chinese. It was the newly established Communist Party of China that really relied heavily on the workers as an independent force. In August 1921, just one month after the founding of the Party, the CCP quickly established an organ leading the labor movement in Shanghai—the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Organization.Zhang Guotao, a student leader of Peking University who participated in leading the May 4th Movement, served as the director. The secretariat set up five branches, of which Mao Zedong was the director of the Hunan branch, and Li Lisan, who had participated in the labor movement in France, became Zhang's right-hand man.Immediately after the establishment of this special agency, the official publication "Labor Weekly" was established, with the purpose of "speaking for the laborers and advocating labor combinationism".The maximum number of copies per issue is 5,000.At the same time, the first workers' cram school was opened in Xiaoshadu, Huxi, where the largest concentration of textile workers in Shanghai was.Through publications and workers' schools to awaken workers' self-awareness, Zhang Guotao wrote an article entitled "Is China Freed from the Threat of International Aggression?" "The article wrote: "We only know that half of the tax we pay every year is taken away by foreign governments and bankers. As a result, our children cannot receive education, and our soldiers cannot receive military pay. Under the urging of foreign capitalists, more than one million of our hard-working brothers made sacrifices, and foreign goods went deep into the backcountry, so that the handicraftsmen had no business...Shanghai and other parks are 'forbidden to enter Chinese and dogs'. These pains and shame have caused We've had enough." Such articles are full of simple and clear logic, and like a scalpel, they cut the working class out of numerous social groups. Then, Zhang Guotao and Li Lisan went deep among the workers.The company they chose was Anyuan Road Coal Mine, which belongs to the famous Hanyeping Company and is composed of Pingxiang Anyuan Coal Mine and Zhuping Railway Bureau.The reason why this place was chosen is mainly because of the concentration of labor in the coal mine, the harsh production conditions, and the easy arousal of rebellious emotions. Another reason should be that Zhang Guotao is from Pingxiang, and Li Lisan's family is in nearby Liling County, Hunan Province.Zhang and Li's work in Anyuan was fruitful. They founded civilian schools and workers' cram schools, developed party members, and established the Anyuan branch of the Communist Party of China. On May 1, 1922, the Anyuan Road and Mine Workers' Club was established. In July, the Anyuan Road and Mine Workers' Consumer Cooperative was established. Yu Jianrong vividly described Li Lisan's mobilization of workers and business owners in his book "Investigation of the Chinese Working Class" The scene of the confrontation: Li Lisan told the workers at that time, you are very miserable, you are very poor.Those workers said, we are fine, much better than at home.Li Lisan said, no, you are suffering so much, you shouldn't live like this.Li Lisan said that there is a Marx in the West, who said that the wealth you created was taken away by capitalists.The workers said, we can't get so much money at home, and it's better here than at home.Li Lisan said, we can get the money back.So how do you get it back?Li Lisan mobilized the workers to unite. If you create ten yuan a day but only get fifty cents, you can get more money through struggle.Through such education, on September 14, Anyuan road and mine workers held their first strike.Anyuan soon became the earliest "cradle of party members" of the Communist Party of China. By 1924, there were 977 members of the Communist Party of China, of which there were more than 270 in Anyuan Road Mine, accounting for nearly one-third. In addition to taking root in Anyuan, a national coalition and action program for the labor movement gradually took shape. In May 1922, the Labor Organization Secretariat initiated the holding of the first "National Labor Conference" in Guangzhou. There were 173 delegates present, representing 12 cities, more than 110 trade unions, and 340,000 organized workers.The Congress accepted the political slogans of "Down with Imperialism" and "Down with Feudal Warlords" proposed by the Communist Party of China.The representatives unanimously agreed that before the establishment of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Organization was the general communications organ of the country. In August, the China Labor Organization Secretariat issued the "Outline of Labor Law", which proposed four principles of labor legislation: guaranteeing political freedom, improving economic life, participating in labor management and labor remedial education.The document also proposes specific requirements such as recognizing the rights of workers to assemble and form associations, to strike in alliances, to conclude group contracts, and to join forces internationally, to implement an eight-hour working day, to protect female workers and child workers, and to guarantee workers’ minimum wages.The formation of these strict organizations and programs raised the Chinese labor movement to a rational level. Under the leadership of Zhang, Li Lisan, and Liu Shaoqi who returned from Moscow, various mines, cotton mills, printing factories, and railway companies emerged. hundreds of unions. The symbolic event of the breakup between industry and commerce occurred in the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway strike in 1923. In 1923, at the instigation of the Communists, the workers of the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway decided to establish a trade union, and Lin Xiangqian, a Communist Party member of the Wuhan Branch of the Labor Organization Secretariat, was elected as the chairman of the trade union.The right of way of the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway was controlled by the warlord Wu Peifu at that time, and it was one of his most important sources of income. On February 1, the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway Federation of Trade Unions held an inaugural meeting in Zhengzhou. Wu Peifu sent military police to the scene to disperse the workers at the assembly. Three days later, the Federation of Trade Unions announced a general strike along the entire route, and all trains on the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway line were suspended. On May 7, Wu Peifu arrested Lin Xiangqian, tied him to the platform of Jiangan Station in Hankou, and asked him to order the workers to resume work. Lin Xiangqian flatly refused, and the army beheaded him in public. His head was hung on the wire beside the station. on the pole.In this conflict, 35 workers were killed and countless more were injured. On May 9, workers were forced to return to work. When Lin Xiangqian's head was hung on the telephone pole, the fact that the industry and commerce broke up was extremely bloody. On February 7, 1924, railway workers secretly held the National Railway Workers Congress in Beijing, formally established the National Railway Federation, and issued the "Declaration of Founding". In May 1925, the Second National Labor Conference was held in Guangzhou, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions was formally established.The working class emerged as a separate class. Faced with this rise of the working class, the reaction of the entrepreneurial class has been overwhelmed. In 1924, businessmen in Shanghai were still keen on internal power struggles.At the beginning of this year, the fifth chairman of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce was re-elected, and Yu Qiaqing, who had not been included in the pre-selection before, was "accidentally" elected. At the time of the primary election, the opposing sides were Song Hanzhang, the current chairman and general manager of the Bank of China in Shanghai, and Fu Zongyao, the president of China Commercial Bank and the general office of China Merchants.The Song family is a man of righteousness and deep roots, and is supported by many old-school people. The Fu family is a new leader. He is the adopted son of the former business tycoon Sheng Xuanhuai, and he has a fierce fight with He Fenglin, the Anhui warlord who controlled the political situation in Shanghai at that time.The two sides were evenly matched, and each side refused to give in. The newspapers refuted each other, exposed each other's faults, lawyers appeared on the court, and the court met, causing a lot of trouble in the city. In the turbulent situation, Yu Qiaqing once again demonstrated his unique skill of taking chestnuts out of the fire.He first approached Zhu Baosan, a 76-year-old fellow from his hometown who was also the chairman of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, and tried his best to provoke the relationship between him and Song Hanzhang.Zhu published a letter and telegram in the newspaper, with thousands of words, scolding Song Hanzhang bloody.The latter's reputation plummeted.Immediately afterwards, Yu Qiaqing, as a "transferr", convened a "tea talk" with Ningbo members of the General Chamber of Commerce in the auditorium of the Ningbo Association, which fully magnified Fu Zongyao's close relationship with the warlords, causing many people who were unwilling to go too far with military figures. The dissatisfaction of close colleagues.Members from Ningbo accounted for 40% of the members of the General Chamber of Commerce, and Fu Zongyao was seriously injured by his defection. Song Dao Fu Xiang, Yu Qiaqing who was hiding behind the scenes unexpectedly came to light, and was "supported" by everyone, and he was a candidate for election. On the day of the election on August 21, there were 35 directors present at the meeting, and Yu Qiaqing won 19 votes.The most hypocritical thing is that Yu Qiaqing deliberately traveled to Tianjin before, and after learning that she was elected, she sent back a "resignation message" on purpose, saying, "Before the mutual election, I have repeatedly stated that no one should be selected for transfer, and I also As one of the transferees, you should abide by the foreword." After repeated persuasion and pleas from the directors, Yu Cai reluctantly agreed.Its contrived style is very similar to the scene where Yuan Shikai "persuaded Jin" to proclaim himself emperor. The Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce had the strongest strength, the most members, and the greatest influence in the Chinese business community at that time, and hundreds of chambers of commerce across the country followed suit.Yu Qiaqing climbed to the top, as if he was already a national business leader. Just over 10 days after he was elected as the chairman, on September 3, a warlord war broke out in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Lu Yongxiang and He Fenglin who occupied Shanghai were driven away by Sun Chuanfang. The administrative system of Shanghai was completely paralyzed. Tens of thousands of defeated soldiers fled to Shanghai and surrounding areas , Houses were robbed, merchants and people panicked, and the situation was extremely turbulent for a while.Yu Qiaqing, who had just become the head of the merchants, acted in danger. As the chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce, he sent letters and telegrams to the Zhili and Anhui warlords on behalf of all the merchants in Shanghai, urging them to stop attacking and not to break into the concession to make trouble.At the same time, he launched a large-scale fundraising campaign to support the military supplies of the rebels. The citizens were afraid of being burned by the war and responded positively. They raised more than one million yuan in a few days. When it comes to the entanglement of dismissal, the military disaster is slightly resolved. Due to the spread of the war, the water and land transportation to Shanghai from various places was frequently blocked, and the food in the urban area was in short supply, and a terrible famine was imminent.In the past few days, Yu Qiaqing's eyes were red and swollen, and his tongue was sore. He learned that a large amount of rice re-exported in Shanghai was stranded in Shanghai.He also convened a meeting with the bosses of the rice world, saying, "Whoever dares to drive up the price of rice at this time, don't say that I, Yu, is not enough friends, don't say that I didn't predict it, remember, remember." . After the military disaster and rice shortage were resolved, Yu Qiaqing put forward a new initiative to establish the Shanghai Demilitarized Zone, declaring that "Shanghai is the commercial center of the country. In order to protect the interests of Shanghai's merchants and people, the military should not invade." Based on this, he clearly and boldly proposed " The three propositions of abolishing envoys, withdrawing troops, and moving factories.These three propositions can be described as daring. The so-called "abolition of the envoy" refers to the fact that there were two permanent military institutions in Shanghai at that time, one was the guard envoy and the other was the guard envoy. "Envoy" is like smashing the "golden rice bowl" of the two warlords at the same time, "withdrawal of troops" and "relocation of factories" are to require all troops and arsenals to withdraw from Shanghai, making it a non-military neutral area.As soon as Yu's proposal came out, there were voices of response everywhere. He also solemnly sent a power generation to Duan Qirui's government in Beijing, urging "everyone to submit to public opinion." In order to show her determination, Yu Qiaqing even dared to take advantage of the conflicts between the warlords to tease the tiger's whiskers.At the end of this year, he learned that Sun Chuanfang's direct subordinate Sun Chuanfang had transported a batch of ordnance and ammunition from the Hanyang Arsenal to berth in Shanghai Port. He immediately reported to the Shanghai Taxation Department and demanded that they be detained. passport.Yu Qiaqing, as the president of the General Chamber of Commerce, led his members of the gymnastics club to board the ammunition ship in person, and prevented the ship from leaving the port.The person escorting the arms showed the passport of the Ministry of War, and Yu Qiaqing quickly discovered that the passport was issued by the overthrown Cao Kun government.Overjoyed, he immediately went straight to the Telegraph Bureau to report to Duan Qirui, who was the leader of the Anhui Clique, and quickly called back to agree to the request.Because of this, Sun Chuanfang regarded Yu Qiaqing as his mortal enemy, but there was nothing he could do. In January 1925, Duan Qirui appointed Sun Baoqi, who had served as the prime minister of the state, as the supervisor of Songhu Commercial Port, and Yu Qiaqing as the office. Sun stayed in Beijing for a long time. At this time, he has reached the highest level that a businessman can reach.Under his mediation, Sun Chuanfang of the direct line and Zhang Zongchang of the Feng line signed the second Jiangsu-Zhejiang peace treaty. The direct army retreated from the Songjiang River, and the Feng army retreated from Kunshan. If the merchants in Shanghai temporarily won the contest with the warlords, then in Guangzhou in the south, the merchants suffered a serious setback in the contest with the Kuomintang regime. In January 1923, Sun Yat-sen fell out with Chen Jiongming, a local warlord in Guangdong. He instigated local warlords from Yunnan and Guangxi to enter Guangdong, defeated Chen and expelled him from Guangdong. Regions, forming a "military disaster" that is difficult to control.In order to distribute military expenses to these troops, Sun Yat-sen's Grand Marshal's Mansion had to apportion continuously to Guangdong businessmen. In April 1923, the Guangzhou City Hall required chambers of commerce and charitable organizations to raise 500,000 yuan in military expenses within 5 days; silk and pawnbrokers were required to donate 200,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan in emergency military expenses respectively; Guangzhou Electric Power Company was required to hand in 200,000 yuan in military expenses , and approved the company to charge users an additional 2% of the electricity bill. In the following year, in order to find ways to increase tax sources, the Generalissimo's Mansion adopted the following policies as a last resort, one was to relax the ban on gambling and smoking, and collect "opium monopoly donations"; the other was to clean up "unqualified" Enterprises, the government stipulates that all industries that fail to submit qualified contracts will be confiscated and auctioned, and whistleblowers will be rewarded.Due to successive years of wars, not everyone can provide "qualified" contracts.As soon as this method came out, in the society, "the property owners in the city were all running around and sweating, panicked, not knowing when their houses would be shoveled, and fell into a wave of terror."The third is for businessmen to undertake tax collection, that is, to "contract" some tax types that are difficult for the government to collect to local forces. This is a bad government in the late Qing Dynasty. It has been abolished for many years before. All kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes suddenly appeared, and ordinary businessmen suffered unspeakably.The fourth is to expand the collection of housing rent and donations. For example, Guangzhou is 15% of the rent price and Foshan is 20%. A one-time 1% business license tax is collected to pay for the military.Sixth, in the name of "protecting businessmen", "business protection agencies" of various names were set up on the water and land roads, and "protection fees" must be levied once business travelers pass by.There are more than 20 such checkpoints on the way from Shaoguan to Guangzhou alone.In addition to these newly added taxes, the Generalissimo's Office issued "Military Hand Tickets", "Treasury Bills", and "Local Short-term Credit Notes" without any mortgage or credit guarantee on the grounds of "emergency military needs" from time to time. ", "Guangdong Provincial Treasury Bonds" and other apportioned funds to enterprises and merchants, and often have to turn them in within a few days, otherwise they will be severely fined or seized and closed. Such a tyrannical government naturally caused strong dissatisfaction among the people and businessmen, the government lost its credibility, resistance to taxes, and strikes followed one after another. In June 1923, Guangzhou rice merchants gathered to protest against the government’s borrowing of military rations from rice merchants without collateral. In September, when the Generalissimo's Office announced the implementation of the "Provisional Regulations on the Collection of Stamp Duty on Firecrackers in Guangdong Province", many fireworks and firecracker factories either stopped production or moved their factories out of Guangdong. In October, many directors of the Guangzhou General Chamber of Commerce went into hiding because they were overwhelmed by various demands for money.During the six months from January to June 1924 alone, many political and business conflicts erupted, including: Fishmongers’ firms went on strike against the authorities for imposing fresh fish tax; Businessmen from all walks of life in Guangzhou resisted the military’s forcible use of military hand tickets and clashed with the soldiers; fishermen in Wanqingsha, Dongguan, clashed with the military and police over the harsh taxation of fishing tax contractors; The authorities started to levy "silver market donations" and all banks went on strike, Dongguan pawnbrokers went on strike because of the garrison's forced collection of commercial license fees, the Guangzhou General Chamber of Commerce petitioned because the authorities raised local taxes, 20% and 50% of likin each, and Guangzhou drug store merchants Strike the market because of the "special drug donation" imposed by the authorities, the Xiaobeijiang Chamber of Commerce petitioned because the military in the area set up checkpoints privately, Foshan merchants stopped the market because the army imposed 20% military expenses and 40% stamp duty surcharges, and the Guangdong Inland River Ship Merchants Association because the authorities imposed "plus two "Military Expenditures" general strike, Nanxiong paper merchants went on strike because the Yunnan Army imposed a 2.5% surcharge on local products in northern Guangdong, Guangzhou and Shunde silk merchants went on strike because tax-paying contractors colluded with the military to oppress merchants, Guangzhou tobacco and alcohol merchants went on strike because the authorities imposed a 20% levy Strike against surcharges, Foshan restaurant and tea shop merchants strike because the authorities imposed a "banquet donation", Guangzhou sugar noodle merchants strike a 2.5% "sales donation" by the authorities, northern Guangdong quarry merchants strike because the authorities imposed an additional military fee of 3.5 yuan per load of ore strike.There are too many incidents of this kind to mention one by one. The local newspaper recorded: "The city strikes in Guangzhou have become commonplace." In such a severe situation, Guangdong businessmen sought to protect themselves.As early as the late Qing Dynasty, there was an armed self-defense organization of merchants in Guangzhou, the "Guangdong Merchants Maintenance of Public Security Association", referred to as the Merchant Group, which was similar in nature to the "Chinese Entrepreneurs Gymnastics Association" in Shanghai.Since 1923, the scale of business groups has expanded rapidly. The Foshan business group alone has expanded from more than 300 people a year ago to more than 1,600, and the number of Guangzhou business groups has reached 13,000.Local chambers of commerce in Guangdong competed to follow suit. By June 1924, the province’s business groups had united and organized the Guangdong Provincial Business Group, with a total number of nearly 50,000 people. On June 21, the English "Miller's Review" published a reporter's interview with him, Chen said, "What annoys us deeply is that business is facing decline, raw materials cannot be shipped to the market, and our investment has been damaged for no reason. The purpose of the Guangdong business group is to become a military force that relies heavily on local self-protection without any political prejudice." The business group has become a paramilitary force that cannot be ignored. It openly resists the government's public bond issuance and various taxes.Sun Yat-sen once appointed Liao Zhongkai to have a long talk with Chen Lianbo all night, hoping that he would join the Kuomintang, but Chen declined on the grounds that he was "inappropriate to get involved in party and political disputes". On August 15, 1924, the Guangdong government established the "Central Bank", announced the issuance of 10 million yuan of public bonds, and "has the privilege of issuing currency."Two days later, the Guangdong Banking Association convened a general meeting of the same industry. The government not only did not make any effort to restore the Guangdong Branch of the Bank of China and the Guangdong Provincial Bank, which had been at a standstill for many years, but caused great losses to those who held the banknotes of these two banks. Instead, they opened a new bank. 1. He was very dissatisfied with the issuance of new banknotes. He did not support the 10 million yuan bond issued by the "Central Bank", and unanimously rejected "the issuance of this uncashable banknote".In protest, the guild decided to strike the city's banking industry from the next day. As a result, the contradiction intensified.Just in mid-August, a batch of firearms and ammunition worth about 1 million yuan ordered from abroad by the Guangdong business group was shipped to Guangzhou through channels such as the British Consulate and HSBC.The Military and Political Department of the Generalissimo's Mansion seized them on the grounds of smuggling weapons.In the case of ineffective mediation, the business group decided to mobilize the provincial capital and various merchants to strike, as a "passive resistance". On August 22, Foshan started a strike. On the 25th, Guangzhou and nearby counties and towns went on strike and refused to pay all taxes.For a time, all businesses in Guangdong were suspended. On September 1, Sun Yat-sen issued the "Foreign Declaration on the Incident of the Business Group", affirming that the arms order and strike were a conspiracy by the British imperialists to interfere in China's internal affairs, and severely condemned them.With the support of Soviet advisers, Sun Yat-sen was determined to solve the business group problem by force.At that time, there were differences of opinion within the Kuomintang. Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin, and Liao Zhongkai all opposed the idea of ​​a solution by force. Therefore, Liao resigned from the post of governor of Guangdong Province to Sun Yat-sen, and insisted on suppressing the Soviet Union. On October 10, the Guangdong government mobilized thousands of people to hold a meeting to commemorate the Revolution of 1911, and strongly demanded to crack down on "counter-revolutionary business groups".When the parade passed Taiping South Road, the demonstrators clashed fiercely with a business group that was unloading guns. The two sides opened fire, killing 6 people and injuring dozens of others. On October 12, Sun Yat-sen established a "revolutionary committee" to lead the solution to the problem of business associations. On the 13th, Guangzhou declared martial law. On the 14th, the Revolutionary Committee ordered the disbandment of the merchant group, and Chiang Kai-shek and others commanded the Whampoa student army, guards, industrial regiment army, and agricultural regiment army to dispatch at the same time to suppress the merchant group, capture key members, and confiscate the merchant group's guns. On the 15th, the two sides fought in Xiguan in the west of Guangzhou. After several hours of fierce fighting, the merchant group was defeated. Chen Lianbo fled to Hong Kong, and the merchant residential area in Xiguan was looted. On the 17th, all stores in Guangzhou will open. In the textbooks of modern Chinese history, this period of history is called "the business group rebellion incident", and the right and wrong of it are quite controversial.However, it is an undeniable fact that as the trend of violent revolution gradually became the mainstream, the relationship between the entrepreneurial class and the revolutionary party, as well as between the haves and the have-nots, became very tense and delicate, and they were no longer able to maintain neutrality.In this conflict, the trade unions formed an alliance with the military government of the Kuomintang and stood on the opposite side of the business group. The isolation of the business class seemed very sad. Just half a year after the Guangdong business group rebellion subsided, an even more astonishing incident occurred in Shanghai.In this event, which was later named the "May 30th Movement", Yu Qiaqing finally realized that the class split was inevitable. 1925年5月30日，上海2千多名学生在租界的各马路上散发传单，发表演说，抗议半个月前日本纱厂资本家镇压工人罢工、打死工人顾正红，并号召收回租界，英国巡捕逮捕100余人。下午，万余群众聚集在英租界南京路老闸巡捕房门首，要求释放被捕学生，高呼“打倒帝国主义”等口号。英国巡捕开枪射击，当场死11人，被捕者、受伤者无数，造成震惊中外的“五卅惨案”。 6月1日，上海总工会成立，36岁的李立三出任委员长，比他大一岁的刘少奇为总务主任。总工会决定联合学界、商界，发动全市规模的“罢工、罢课、罢市”。其后数日，万人上街游行，租界宣布戒严，租界内禁止三人以上结队行走，装甲车上架着机关枪日日巡街，恐怖笼罩上海滩。风暴迅速席卷全国，6月2日，广州数万工人学生举行示威大游行，3日，北京学生在天安门前举行集会游行，4日，南京亦出现大罢工和示威游行。民众及知识阶层对日本侵略主义和军阀政府的不满被彻底引爆。 惨案爆发时，虞洽卿正在北京与段祺瑞政府磋商事宜，6月3日他匆匆返沪，随即召开总商会的对策会。前一日，总商会已被1万多人包围示威，各会董寒若惊蝉。唯虞洽卿看上去很是处之泰然，过去十多年里，他一直在各种风波中滚打斡旋，此次不过是又一处险滩而已。他定下策略“大事化小，小事化无，缩小事态，平息风波”，并向同僚承诺，“凭我在上海滩的脸面，将尽力劝导各商号早日开市。” 第二天一大清晨，他就上街说劝。往南京路上一站，迎面冲来一队接一队激昂悲愤地喊着“打倒帝国主义”、“打倒军阀”口号的抗议者。他看到一个工人模样的人正指挥着一群人学唱歌曲，他们唱道，“工友和农友，并肩向前走，打倒土豪资本家，打倒列强和走狗”，不远处的另一群人则在唱，“富人坐在家中吃鱼肉，农工劳苦做工喝薄粥，富人哈哈笑，农工个个哭，不分东西和南北，我们要当家，我们要做主。”突然，虞洽卿有了一种巨大的陌生感和无力感。在一个商号前，虞洽卿被一群店员和学生围住，当他自报名号后，不但没有平息愤怒，而是引起了更大的骚动，“帝国主义的走狗”、“万恶的大资本家”、“作威作福的阔佬”，一顶接一顶的“帽子”压得他喘息不得，在部属的掩护下，他好不容易才脱身，长衫在推搡中被撕破。当夜，虞宅再次被炸弹袭击，后门的一角和一段院墙被轰然震塌。 惊魂甫定，虞洽卿环视局势，终于发觉这一次的事态衍变已经超出了以往的“经验值”，一股庞大的意识形态力量正在快速而清晰地“切割”着各个阶层，他的那些“短档朋友”现在已经完全地站到了对立面，这种对立，事涉“阶级”分野，而与“交情”无关。这似乎已经不是用过去“掏浆糊”的方式能够拂平的。更让他感到惊心的是，这种残酷的、不由分说的阶级切割还拥有了理论上的支持，就在“五卅惨案”后的数日内，几份由左翼文人和共产党人主办的报刊纷纷创办，瞿秋白主编《热血日报》，沈雁冰、郑振铎、叶圣陶等人办起《公理日报》，上海学联则创办《血潮日刊》，这些报刊对事态的进一步激化显然起到了推波助澜的作用。 6月7日，由上海总工会、上海学联和各马路商界联合会联合发起，成立上海工商学联合会，宣布将统一领导这次群众运动，以往显赫无比的总商会被彻底排斥在外。联合会明确提出17项交涉条件，其中包括：取消戒严令，永远撤退驻沪之英日海陆军，取消领事裁判权，华人在租界有言论、集会、出版的绝对自由，制定工人保护法，惩凶，赔偿等。四天后，联合会召集了有20多万人参加的、规模空前的市民大会。上海的抗议活动得到全国公众的响应，6月19日，广州、香港25万工人在中国共产党中华全国总工会领导下举行“省港大罢工”，6月23日，英法军警对游行工人开枪射击，死亡五十二人，重伤一百七十余人，制造了“沙基惨案”，中华全国总工会建立省港罢工委员会，组成工人武装纠察队，封锁香港和沙面租界。6月30日，北京五百多个团体在天安门广场举行“全世界被压迫民族国民大会”，邀请德国、朝鲜、印度、日本和土耳其代表参加，孙中山遗孀宋庆龄扶病出席，南京、天津、济南、武汉等大城市都举行了类似活动，前后参与人数达1300万。 身处暴风眼的虞洽卿此时已是尴尬无比，他当然不甘心自己所代表的商人阶层在这次社会大风暴中被边缘化，甚至被反动化。就在上海工商学联合会提出“17条”之后，总商会迅速组建“五卅事件委员会”，提出13条，其中删掉了取消领事裁判权、撤退英日驻军、承认工人有组织工会及罢工的自由等项内容。6月11日晚，虞洽卿邀李立三到总商会对话洽商，李表示无法接受条款修改，以“事前不知，不能代表本会”为由愤然退出。 总工会的“17条”与总商会的“13条”，成为中方内部争论的焦点，左翼人士认定虞洽卿代表了资本家的投降立场，是可耻的背叛和反革命行动，瞿秋白主编的《热血日报》连续发表四篇社论，分别题为《上海总商会究竟要的是什么？》、《全中国都要受外人屠杀了，上海总商会却要反对民众的团结》、《警告总商会》和《商阀的勾当》。虞洽卿在文中被点名指责为“走狗”和“商贼”，仅仅半年前，他还被看成是上海市民的“救星”，而翻转之间却又成了人人喊打的“商贼”，善恶瞬息，数十年后仍让人莫名唏嘘。而另一些人士则表示认同，梁启超在北京《晨报》撰文《我们该怎么样应付上海惨杀事件》，称：“所提17条，有些漫天要价，不买拉倒的态度……与其卖不成，宁可吃亏卖。”温和的自由派知识分子丁文江也撰文呼吁，“双方应慎用感情，研究利害，放下理想，讨论办法，少谈主义，专讲问题，外交才可以有成功的希望。”北京政府最终采纳总商会方案，电令外交部次长曾宗鉴、江苏省省长郑谦和虞洽卿等五人组成中国方面的谈判委员，与租界领事团谈判。 6月19日，总商会与总工会继续紧急磋商，李立三提出“继续实行对美日经济绝交、提倡国货、抵制洋货和抽款援助罢工工人”三个条件，虞洽卿一口答应。双方议定于6月26日全面复市，持续近一个月的五卅风波告一段落。在善后活动中，总商会发出《劝商界资助工人通函》，虞洽卿带头捐3万元，总募得款项300多万元。在中方坚持下，租界工部局偿付了死伤者的抚恤金，肇事的日本纱厂则同意，以上海总商会做担保，给工人增加百分之十的工资。 在激荡多变的五卅运动中，虞洽卿看上去再次扮演了“调人”的角色，不过，他显然已经有些有点力所不逮了。在这场空前的民众怒潮中，商会与工会的分歧与斗争具有分水岭般的意义，在意识形态的强烈引导下，非常脆弱和不成熟的中国市民社会内部出现了分裂，商人阶层与劳工阶层突然形成了对立的局面，在知识阶层内部也出现了左派与右派的分野。这是中国商业史上非常值得关注的一个事件。虞洽卿以及他所代表的阶层扮演了一个摇摆、尴尬而可疑的角色，阶级裂痕赫然生成，并已难以弥合。 就是在这样的时刻，虞洽卿们开始思考下述问题：企业家与革命的关系到底是什么？他们将怎样与已经被组织和发动起来、并拥有明确的行动纲领的工人阶层共处？是理性沟通，还是感性排斥，是和平妥协，还是暴力对立，他们的选择，在两年后改变了中国政局的走向。