The Foreign Affairs Movement has left a strong mark in the modern history of the mainland. This top-down self-improvement and salvation movement made its representative figure Zhang Zhidong well known to future generations.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the feudal government was corrupt and incompetent, and the dynasty building would be in danger. But there is no shortage of loyal ministers and good generals who will do their best to serve the country they have defended all their lives. Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, as a famous courtier of the late Qing Dynasty, was one of them.
Zhang Zhidong's life has made indelible contributions to national politics, economy, education, and foreign government. In the foreign affairs movement, "industry saved the country" was his most remarkable achievement.
Such a person who has played the role of "central and important minister" and "a generation of famous ministers" in history probably would not have even imagined that his son would later become a "well-known" traitor spurned by the whole country and killed by everyone. This is Zhang Renli.
He lost his father at an early age and was influenced by his elder brother and went astray
Zhang Zhidong had a total of 13 sons, and Zhang Renli was the youngest son born at the age of 63 in Zhang Zhidong. The old man made Zhang Zhidong happy, and when he was older, he did not like to see children crying, and Zhang Zhidong was not as harsh as other sons to this youngest son.
Although Zhang Zhidong also wants to accompany his children to grow up, it is a common sentiment for people to live, grow old, sick and die, and the elderly Zhang Zhidong only accompanied his younger son for eight years. When Zhang Renli was nine years old, his father died.
After the death of his father, Zhang Renli was able to enter Peking University by relying on family connections, but without his father's shadow, he could not study abroad like his brothers. After graduation, he could only rely on the strength of his brothers to arrange his work.
His father died prematurely, and Zhang Renli did not have much impression of him, but his brothers grew up with him. Among the brothers, the fifth brother Zhang Renle had the deepest influence on him, and the reason why he embarked on the road of "traitor" can be said that Zhang Renle has an unshirkable responsibility.
Zhang Renle went to Japan to study in his youth, when there was still a gap between the mainland and Japan, and all the new things about Japan's modernization during the study period impacted Zhang Renle's vision.
After returning from studying abroad in 1920, Zhang Renle felt that he was a big person who had seen the world, and had a strong admiration and admiration for Japan, becoming a typical "Japanese-loving element".
Subsequently, Zhang Renle, who was an official in various places, often colluded with eunuchs in the name of official duties and wantonly plundered the people's fat and people's anointing, which aroused the people's hatred for him to the extreme. After the North China Incident, Zhang Renle directly defected to the Japanese and served as the "foreign minister" of the puppet Manchukuo regime, and at that time he still felt that he had unlimited scenery.
Zhang Renli was recommended to the Japanese under Zhang Renle's arrangement to serve as mayor of the Japanese puppet government established in Wuhan. Since then, his "traitor" road has begun.
During his tenure as mayor, Zhang Renli set up a police station, but not to protect the safety of people's lives and property, but to be specially dispatched by the Japanese side; he also set up a tax bureau, taking advantage of his position to not only plunder people's wealth, but also to indiscriminately collect taxes and fees to please the Japanese.
In just a few years, under the "careful guidance" of his brother Zhang Renle and the promotion of the Japanese, the official position rose again and again, and the role of "traitor" was played to the fullest.
The most reviled thing is that in order to comply with Tokyo time, he actually adjusted the bell tower of Wuhan Jianghan Guanzhong to an hour. It also stipulates that after five o'clock in the afternoon, the whole city will be martial law, and those who violate the order will be arrested and killed.
Hypocrisy is extreme, and the image of a "hypocrite" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people
Zhang Renli didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with him being a traitor, and he enjoyed his privilege of being high. He was not ashamed to be pro-Japanese, and set up various pro-Japanese schools in Wuhan, and the Japanese were very satisfied with what he had done, and he was also very proud of it.
However, over time, Zhang Renli's ambitions have become more and more ambitious, and he feels that wuhan can no longer fully exert his ambitions, and the Japanese praise only honorary titles, but do not give him real power.
Seeing that the Japanese side was no longer suitable for relying on it, Zhang Renli used all kinds of means to flatter Wang Jingwei and successfully completed the "job hopping". Later, relying on Wang Jingwei, he successively served as the mayor of Tianjin and a member of the North China Administrative Affairs Committee.
Zhang Renli, who was in a high position, completely became "another Zhang Renle". Enjoy it recklessly, squander it, fill your pockets, and collect money everywhere.
When Zhang Renli was in the government, he was very strict with his subordinates. He was even more "deeply disgusted" with opium smokers, and ordered that as soon as it was found that there were people who smoked "big smoke" among the government officials, they were ordered to quit smoking and still did not repent, and all of them were removed from their posts and issued a notice.
At this point, people thought that he himself hated and never smoked opium, but this was just an illusion that Zhang Renli deliberately wanted to confuse everyone.
In fact, he himself not only smoked opium at an early age, but also the addiction to smoking has reached the point of being irrepressible, in order to prevent others from discovering, he usually uses cigars instead as a cover, so that he will not have too heavy smoke residue of smoking.
Even the people around him, even the secretary in the office, were unaware of his vice. As you can imagine, his camouflage skills. Even ordinary people understand the harm of opium to the body, and how can Zhang Renli, as the son of the minister, not understand. However, to seek advantage and avoid harm is to have a strong will, and he knows its reasoning but does not restrain it.
Like many profit seekers, Zhang Renli bought a large number of houses after being expensive, making plans for his own retreat. On the road to becoming an official for decades, he has long become the number one "traitor" hated by the people, standing against the country and the people, and the so-called retreat is nowhere to be found.
The final outcome
After Japan surrendered, the two brothers surnamed Zhang were sentenced to prison for treason.
Zhang Renle escaped the death penalty by relying on the connections of his wife Gong Anhui and later went to Japan, never to return until his death. Zhang Renle's own difficult situation to survive is barely enough, Zhang Renli's life and death he can't care about.
In 1951, Zhang Renli was sentenced to death, and his sinful life came to an end.
epilogue
If Zhang Zhidong is alive and sees that his youngest son's life is like this, he must also "hate iron not steel" and feel ashamed.
"Young people should buckle the first button of life."
Zhang Renli lost his father at an early age, and in the important stage of life education, he was not well guided and eventually went astray. This shows how important it is for a person to establish a correct outlook on life and values in their growth.
The more the country is in crisis, it is really undesirable to show the true colors of a person, and it is really undesirable to give up the great righteousness of the country for the sake of the immediate personal interests.