Chapter 64 Spending money like water does not feel bad

Li Lianying accumulated countless money in her life, which is difficult to calculate.Especially since the twelfth year of Guangxu (1886), Li Lianying's power has become increasingly prominent, extortion has lost a lot of fetters, and his behavior has become bolder.The princes of the capital, the great officials of the frontiers, and the governors of the provinces all made friends with him.During festivals, weddings and funerals, generous gifts are given to Li's residence. Li Lianying herself was barren, so she took great care of the Li family's children, nieces and girls, and they all naturally became the children of noble families with a bad taste in wine and meat.Relying on the power of the chief executive of the Qing imperial palace, they think they are superior to others, and do nothing all day long.Everyone in the Li family also relied on Li Lianying's protection to enjoy the happiness.However, this kind of parasite-like life is not obtained through their own efforts after all, so they often feel empty and boring.In order to fill the spiritual emptiness, some people will seek pleasure everywhere and spend a lot of money on consumption.

Among them, Li Lianying has a nephew who often spends a lot of money without hesitation.Although Li Lianying had heard about this, she never cared about it, and was very happy to praise them for spending money and finding a place for her money.Li Lianying loves them so much, no one can do anything about them. The days have been empty for a long time, and almost everyone in the Li Manor has become an addict known for smoking (white flour) and taking (morphine).Regarding the situation in Li's house, the local people once made up many songs, which gradually spread.For example, in Lijia Village, the Husband (Eunuch) Courtyard, although there is no Jinluan Palace, big tile-roofed houses, courtyard houses, West Flower Hall, East Courtyard, silver money, there is no edge.During the whole day, they set up three feasts, dared to spend money, went to Tianjin, went to a brothel, and it cost hundreds of thousands (two), took morphine, sucked white noodles, men and women could do it, and vividly exposed the corruption of the Li Manor scene of life.

Li Lianying's fourth brother, Li Shengtai, is the host of the Li Manor.He has five sons in total. The third son, Li Fuwang, can speak well and is quite favored by Li Lianying. He has had two wives in his life.Even so, when the life in the manor did not meet the indulgence he needed, he lived in a brothel in Tianjin for a long time.According to "Li Fujian Wenwen" records: Not long after Li Fuwang and Yuan Shikai's eldest son Yuan Keding became brothers, they escorted 300,000 taels of silver from Beijing and wanted to transport it back to Dacheng through Tongzhou to Tianjin Ziyahe. Tianjin.Li Fuwang came up with an idea and made a bet with Yuan Keding to see who would be the best at spending money and who would dare to spend it the most.Of course, Yuan Keding completely lost to him in terms of momentum, because Yuan Keding neither had the guts nor the money.

At that time, brothels and private houses were not mixed together, and there were generally no private houses in places where brothels were located.When they arrived in the Nanshi area, they had just entered a team (first-class brothel), Li Fuwang first ordered the whole courtyard to light up, and then ordered the whole alley to light up.The brothel lights down, indicating that it is full and no longer accepts visitors.When he said this, he meant that he wanted to reserve the venue and that he was not allowed to receive other clients.Although this required a considerable amount of expenses, he thought that not doing so would not be enough to show his grandeur as Mr. Li's nephew and young master.

After staying for three or four days in a row, the madam was afraid that he would spend too much money in the end and it would be difficult to settle the account, so she deliberately asked him to settle the money for the previous three days.Li Fuwang knew that the other party was suspicious of him, so he ordered someone to take all three hundred thousand taels of silver into the brothel.Seeing that this person was very powerful and could not afford to offend, the old bustard was surprised and frightened, so she quickly sent someone to inquire, only then did she find out that he was the nephew of the chief manager of the palace, Li, so she asked someone to intercede, set up a banquet, and made an apology.

But Li Fuwang didn't take it seriously at all, thinking that this just provided him with a good opportunity to show his prestige, so he spent a lot of money every day.As a result, in less than half a month, all three hundred thousand taels of silver were spent.It didn't take long for this incident to spread to Beijing. Although the Li family has countless fortunes and everyone is rich, this kind of waste of money is still rare.Li Fuwang's elder brothers thought that this was going too far, so they told Li Lianying about it and asked him to be restrained and controlled.Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Li Lianying praised him for daring to spend money to make money, and then ordered Li Chengwu to write a letter asking Li Fu to come to Beijing as soon as possible.

Li Fuwang thought he would be reprimanded by his second uncle Li Lianying, but after meeting him, Li Lianying joked with him and said: "The boy who spreads money is here. People call you big belly. This time I will test you to see if you have a belly." How big, how much money can be spent on a meal.After hearing this, Li Fuwang felt relieved. Li Fuwang didn't wait for a meal of scolding, instead, he and his brothers went to the biggest restaurant in the capital for dinner, and ordered Li Fuwang to order food to see how capable he was.He thought to himself, since I want to test my ability to spend money, of course the more I spend, the better.But how much can a meal actually cost?I don't know what to do, and I am very worried.When the brothers entered the restaurant, Li Fu looked around, looked around, and happened to see a thrush cage hanging on the porch, thinking there was one.Entering the private seat, he looked at the menu, picked the most expensive dishes, ordered a few dishes, and opened the menu. The brothers were very surprised when they read it. He moved the tip of his pen, and then added a braised thrush tongue.

The waiter handed the menu to the chef behind, who shook his head, saying that he had never seen this dish before.The waiter showed it to the accountant, but the accountant grinned, but he hadn't seen it either. Seeing that these masters behaved extraordinaryly and differently, they were not ordinary visitors, so they thought they were looking for faults, and for fear of causing trouble, they had no choice but to ask the shopkeeper how to answer.The shopkeeper had never seen such a situation before, so he had no choice but to come to see these young masters in person, and said that this dish has never been served in this shop, and please find another place.

As soon as the words were finished, Li Fuwang said, if there is nothing to buy in the market, the money will not be less than a penny. You can send someone to run errands, and it will be done.It's not easy for the shopkeeper to refuse when a customer says this.However, to fry a large plate of thrush tongues, I am afraid that hundreds or thousands of thrushes will be needed. The price is too expensive, and I am afraid it is difficult to calculate the price with a few people. When Li Fuwang heard this, he finally got to the issue of money. He immediately took out a piece of paper, handed it to the shopkeeper, and told him to find a way quickly.The shopkeeper opened the business card with trembling hands and looked at it. He broke out in a cold sweat, nodded and bowed, apologized and prepared to go.In order to dispel his worries, Li Fuwang reminded him: Don't be afraid of spending money, as long as you can buy it, you don't care how much it costs for a thrush.

In order to entertain these young masters, the shopkeeper of the restaurant immediately sent a few staff to the bird market to buy them.A few guys came to the bird market and offered a high price of ten taels of silver for each, and soon bought more than two hundred of them, snapping up all the thrushes in the bird market.Many people were stunned, not knowing why, and the price of the bird market rose sharply for a while.The next day, more than 2,000 thrushes were suddenly listed in the bird market, and no one was willing to pay ten taels of silver to buy them. This momentum of theirs really overwhelmed many diners.In fact, Li Fuwang had never eaten a dish like braised thrush tongue, and he didn't know what it tasted like. The purpose was to spend more money and show himself in front of Li Lianying.As a result, the meal cost more than two thousand taels of silver.

After returning, Li Lianying asked him how much he spent in the end.When Li Chengwu, who went with him, told him that he spent more than two thousand taels of silver, Li Lianying laughed: Lafayette only spent sixty taels of silver a day for meals, and you enjoy more happiness than Lafayette.Even if more than two thousand taels of silver were spent on the Empress Dowager Cixi's board, it would take more than forty days. No wonder Li Lianying would say that.When Li Fuwang returned home, Li Lianying gave him another load of money to bring home. Li Fuwang relied on Li Lianying's influence. At that time, no one dared to provoke Li Fuwang in Tianjin. When Li Fuwang mentioned Dacheng Li in Tianjin, everyone knew about it, and they were all very afraid.In Tianjin, he can be said to have come into contact with people from all walks of life.It is said that Yuan Shikai's son Yuan Kewen has been fooling around with Li Fuwang in brothels and casinos since he was fifteen or sixteen years old. After the Republic of China, Li Fuwang not only had private rooms in the Jiaotong Hotel and Huizhong Hotel for a long time, but also often went to the casinos in the Japanese Concession to gamble heavily.At that time, all the big casinos in Tianjin were within the Japanese Concession.Li Fuwang didn't care how much money he lost, in his own words, as long as he had fun.In Tianjin, he also made friends with leading figures in the political and military circles. Except for Yuan Shikai's family, Cao Kun and others had close contacts with him.He is also good friends with Yang Yide (nicknamed Yang Bangzi).Even the appointment of Yang Yide as the head of the Tianjin Police Department was negotiated between Li Fuwang and Cao Kun at the dinner table.Therefore, Yang Yide often invited Li Fuwang to eat and drink at his mansion on Erma Road in Tianjin. In addition, Pan Xizhi, the magistrate of Jinghai County, also had a deep friendship with him. Li Fuwang often lived in the county government office of Jinghai County to eat and drink. Treat him with fine wine and banquets.Although Li Lianying had passed away long ago, due to his relationship with Yuan Shikai and the fact that Yuan Shikai's direct descendants were in charge of the political power in China, these people could serve as his backer, so Li Fuwang was naturally fearless. Around 1935 (the 24th year of the Republic of China), Li Fuwang finally sold out all his silver in Tianjin, and the 70 hectares of fertile land in Liuzhuang, Jinghai County also sold out one after another, but this still could not stop his downfall. He quickly began to sell gold, silver and jewelry, and a snuff bottle could sell for hundreds of dollars. In the end, it was really hard for him to continue in Tianjin, so he remembered that the more than 100,000 taels of silver that Li Lianying had distributed to him before his death was still kept in Beijing Huamian Hutong, and wanted to take the silver back for emergency.But when Li Fu saw Beijing mentioning this matter, the people in Mianmian Hutong beat him to death and refused to accept the account, so he filed a lawsuit.At that time, the Beijing government was unable to resolve the case, and the lawsuit went on for several years without getting to the bottom of it.The people in Mianmian Hutong even said that Li Fuwang was a scoundrel. In order to win the lawsuit, Li Fuwang had no choice but to return to Dacheng County and produce two genealogies to testify in order to claim back his money.But just as the July 7th Incident broke out, all evidence was lost.Not only did Li Fuwang not get the money, but he lost two family trees, and in a fit of anger he severed ties with the Li family in Beijing. In the spring of 1939, Li Fuwang finally became impoverished and his life was unsustainable. He died in the pharmacy of Brother Wang Er, run by a Japanese friend of his who was named Yang Zejing in Tianjin.At the same time, his son also exhausted the property in the manor, and was unable to transport his body back to the big city for burial, so that his bones could not be found. Li Fuwang's experience is just a microcosm. During the heyday of the Li family, the men, women and children of the Li family showed their abilities in eating, drinking and having fun. When Li Lianying's power was at its peak, the Li Manor held a large-scale falcon shooting event every year.Usually, the manor employs six or seven masters who raise hawks and feed dogs, and train hawks and dogs for them.Every year after the autumn harvest, the ground is cleared until February of the following year, when a grand falconry shooting event is held, and then there are temple fairs everywhere. The reason why the Li family held falcon hunting activities was not to hunt food or increase income, but to find an opportunity to have fun and show off their prestige in front of their hometown from time to time. Every year at this time, the young masters of the Li family in Beijing will look for opportunities to go home to participate in this grand event, and take the opportunity to experience the recreational life of a picnic.The day before the hunting activity, the Li family will also offer sacrifices to the gods, burn incense and place offerings, and pray for God's blessing to turn bad luck into good luck.On the day of the shooting, all the people in the Li Mansion, old and young, each had a goshawk on the left, a yellow on the right, wearing a hood (also known as a general's helmet), and riding a horse. More than a dozen horses lined up in a very spectacular manner. After all, falconry is a solemn activity, and it is taken seriously.Generally, the hawk-handler drives the hawk in front, and the master who leads the dog follows on both sides.In addition, dozens of people have to be hired to line up on both sides to release the rabbits.In addition to taking care of food and drink, these people also gave each of them two taels of silver as wages every day.At that time, some poor people had nothing to do. In order to earn two taels of silver and have a few meals, many people still did this kind of work. Whenever the rabbits are released, two flower hawks and one harrier hawk will be released, and the three hawks will fly up and down, playing with the rabbits on their palms. This kind of scene makes the people of Li family very happy, as if they are eagles, It's like playing with others in your hands.In addition, this kind of scene is very exciting and exciting. The people of the Li family spend two to thirty thousand taels of silver every year for this alone. This kind of huge expenditure has lasted for decades without interruption. One winter, when Li Lianying came back to the manor, it happened to be such an event. Unfortunately, Li Lianying couldn't ride a horse, so she couldn't enjoy it to the fullest.In order to make him happy, the family specially hired people to catch a few live hares, and brought them to the Dawa in the south of the village for a performance.Li Lianying was fascinated by it, praised it greatly, and said meaningfully: This kind of situation where the weak prey on the strong pervades the whole society. Hunting gradually ceases in mid-February.The owners of the Li Manor took a short break to prepare for the upcoming temple fair.Long-term workers and servants began to engage in farming.The masters began to tidy up the sets, paint and paint the car, and prepare for the upcoming annual temple fair. When the young masters and ladies of Li's mansion set off to go to the famous temple fairs nearby, there would always be the banner of Dacheng Li clearing the way in front of them, showing off their might, accompanied by dozens of servants.The young masters of Li's mansion are all tall horses, while the ladies and young wives are all sedan chairs, with boxes full of gold, silver and expenses behind them.Sightseeing and enjoying the scenery along the way is very pleasant.Young ladies and young wives also go to worship Buddha, while young masters donate silver and cloth to the abbot and abbot of the temple.In this regard, they have never been stingy, on the one hand, they have maintained their consistent style of playing tricks, and on the other hand, they can also give themselves a psychological comfort. In any case, because money comes so easily, they never worry about making a living, and when it comes to doing things, they spend money like water when talking about ostentation, and they never frown.