In 1818, that is, in the 23rd year of Jiaqing, a merchant family in Qi County, Shanxi Province gave birth to a baby boy, and his cry was very loud. After hearing the "sound", the midwife smiled: "Children with such a loud voice are really rare, and they are so good!" ”
This loud-voiced child is Qiao Zhiyong, who was later at the helm of the Qiao family's compound.
乔致庸画像
The midwife apparently didn't know that the child was not only good, but also extremely hard-working. Children with hard lives usually have a bit of "gram" attributes, and when Qiao Zhiyong was a child, his parents both passed away.
Fortunately, Qiao Zhiyong has a brother named Qiao Zhiguang, who is 20 years older than Qiao Zhiyong. After the death of his parents, he has been raising Qiao Zhiyong wholeheartedly and providing him with a good education.
The young Qiao Zhiyong wanted to study and gain fame, and his ideal was to become a scholar like Li Bai and Du Fu. In order to realize this ideal, he studied hard since he was a child, and began to read every day before dawn with a book.
Qiao Zhiyong obviously didn't open his eyes, he didn't see his "hard" attribute, so when the 17-year-old learned that his eldest brother died suddenly on the way to the exam, he was in a state of disbelief.
also from the day the eldest brother died, his fate was completely rewritten: he had to give up the scientific expedition and return to the Qiao family to take charge of the Qiao family's business.
After returning home, Qiao Zhiyong learned that his brother was in a hurry because of the failure of Baotou's business, and then he couldn't afford to fall ill, so that he died.
After taking over the mess of Qiao's family, Qiao Zhiyong was at a loss, you know: he doesn't know how to do business at all. For more than ten years, he had not learned anything about business, and had only focused on cultural knowledge.
Qiao Zhiyong, who took over the business head-on, had a blank mind. The housekeeper told him to be shrewd and calculating in business. Qiao Zhiyong almost "hummed" from his nose: A person who has pretended to be the world in his heart and is full of the chivalrous pride of a poet, will he be shrewd and calculating?
But if you don't calculate, how do you clean up the mess? Qiao Zhiyong had to play with his monopoly opponents, and tried his best to turn the situation around for the Qiao family's business.
Since then, Qiao Zhiyong has been pondering: Do business, you have to calculate like this in order to make money? No wonder people in the world say that "no treacherous business", and they look down on the business industry, isn't it because of these?
"How do you make money by not counting"? Qiao Zhiyong pondered this question repeatedly, he didn't believe that making money had to be calculated. After pondering and pondering, he thought of the opposite: all businessmen in the world make money by calculation, but he doesn't, he wants to make money by making profits.
Most of the time, perception can be the difference between success and failure. After Qiao Zhiyong's cognition of "making money by making profits" was confirmed, he repeatedly created miracles like a hanging.
He came up with the "top body shares" system to motivate employees, which is equivalent to the shareholding system: a young man enters the store as an apprentice, and can be promoted to a regular employee in three years, and can get one or two percent of his body shares in ten years, that is, "dry shares".
This system made all employees become bosses, and the employees in the store had shares and worked hard, while the employees of other stores also jumped ship to join the "Qiao's Group", and the Qiao's Group instantly became bigger.
Qiao Zhiyong and his friends in the film and television drama
After turning the store into a joint-stock system, he also solved a big problem through the thinking of "making profits": dredging the tea road.
It turned out that when the Qiao family and all the tea merchants were doing tea business, they all faced a big problem: carrying silver on the road and being easily robbed by bandits. At that time, the Qing Dynasty fought for many years, there were the Twist Army in the north, and the Taiping Army in the south, which was extremely chaotic, and many tea merchants died on the tea road because they carried a lot of silver.
The risks on the tea road are getting bigger and bigger, and the tea merchants dare not accept the tea, and the tea farmers can only watch. No one dared to dredge the tea road, everyone guarded their own interests, and tried to figure out how to get more money from their opponents.
Qiao Zhiyong's eyes saw farther, and he thought more. After his on-the-spot visit, he saw the embarrassment of the tea farmers and the terrible consequences of the cutting off of the tea road. He was determined to dredge the tea road by himself, carrying the silver to dredge the impossible, and he might be robbed by bandits as soon as he got on the road.
Qiao Zhiyong, who has always kept this question in his heart, had an answer when he drove a carriage to Pingyao to exchange silver: Since it is not safe for silver to go on the road, then turn silver into silver tickets!
Is this possible? Qiao Zhiyong used his actual situation to prove: this thing is feasible.
He did what he said, set off from the Qiao family compound, crossed the Yangtze River, walked the Han River, and transported the tea back to Qi County, Shanxi from the south, and it took three months to walk down the way. After that, he went all the way to the Sino-Russian border and signed long-term trade contracts with Russian merchants.
Qiao Zhiyong dredged the tea road
Under Qiao Zhiyong's dredging, the tea road that had been blocked for many years from Wuyi Mountain in the south to Kyakhta in the north was opened. His adventure saved tens of millions of tea farmers, and the key is to prove that it is safe to replace silver with silver tickets.
But at this point, the tea road has not been completely dredged, because: ordinary merchants on the road, how to turn silver into silver tickets? What Rishengchang does is the business of turning silver into silver tickets, and silver tickets into silver. But Rishengchang does not have a big pattern, they just want to "be rich and secure", and do not mean to be big, their boss most often says: I only need to do business with a few businesses, it is enough to eat.
At this point, the tea road, which had been almost dredged, was blocked again: since most merchants can't turn silver into silver tickets, how can they get on the road?
After thinking about it, Qiao Zhiyong made a bold decision: let the Qiao family, like Rishengchang, do the business of turning silver into silver tickets, and silver tickets into silver, completely solving the embarrassment of tea merchants doing business with silver.
This idea is of course good, but when Qiao Zhiyong put it forward, it was opposed by everyone, and everyone said: How much does it cost to turn all the silver tickets of the world into silver tickets, and all silver tickets into silver? Someone else said, "The weapon of the state must not be shown." Someone else simply poked and said to Qiao Zhiyong:
"It takes a mountain of gold to make a national ticket number, and now the Qiao family's money is simply not enough."
Qiao Zhiyong decided that ten cows could never pull it back, and there was only one reason why he wanted to do one thing, that is: this thing must be done. Qiao Zhiyong decided that if he didn't do it, no one would be willing to do it. Since it can only be done, then there is no hesitation, no matter what the result of doing it is, and then we will talk about it.
After getting his heart moved, Qiao Zhiyong opened two ticket numbers of Dadetong and Dadefeng at a very fast speed. The slogan of these two ticket numbers is: let all merchants realize the dream of "remittance in other places", as long as they carry a small bill of exchange, they can go south and north.
In order to avoid everyone's worries, Qiao Zhiyong also set a password on the silver ticket. In this way, if the bandits loot the bill of exchange, they will not be able to exchange it for silver in the ticket number.
In order to avoid mistakes, Qiao Zhiyong conducted strict training for the personnel of the ticket number, and later generations verified that in the history of Qiao's ticket number, there has never been any case of misredemption or misexchange. It can be said that they have done the business of ticket numbers to the extreme.
Whoever can make the money flow is the king, this is an almost unchangeable law. The Qiaojia Group, which allowed the rapid circulation of coins, quickly developed and expanded, and overnight, the "Qiao's Group" ticket number business in more than 20 cities across the country was in full swing.
For a while, the capital ranking of the Qiao family went up like a rocket, and Qiao Zhiyong finally realized "connecting the world and goods to the world".
Later, Qiao Zhiyong donated 100,000 taels of silver to support Li Hongzhang's Westernization Movement, and when Cixi fled, he generously donated his Dade Pass number to be used as Cixi's temporary palace. He also got two plaques from Li Hongzhang and Cixi, one is written by Li Hongzhang "The descendants are virtuous, the clan will be big, and the family is fat"; One piece is the "Blessing Lang Huan" written by Cixi.
Qiao Zhiyong's business is thriving, he has become a giant businessman in such a short period of time, and even became a "red-top businessman", which confirms his "hard" attributes, and what happened to his wife and children also seems to confirm his "hard" attributes in the dark.
People with hard attributes of life, no matter how big the problem is, can always solve it easily, to a certain extent, they don't believe in fate in their bones. People with hard life attributes, because their lives are "hard", the people around them will inevitably experience "grams", that is, they will be suppressed.
This is metaphysics, but everything that happened to Qiao Zhiyong has almost always confirmed his "hard" attribute, so that people have to believe it.
Qiao Zhiyong had a total of six wives and nine sons in his life, and he never took concubines, so every wife was a wife, and he only had one wife in a period. Judging from the number of wives he had, all of the six wives he married in his life preceded him, and almost every one of them died at a relatively young age. Among his nine sons, by the time of his death, only the third son Qiao Jingyan, who was in charge of the Qiao family, was still alive.
Qiao's compound
In other words: Qiao Zhiyong lost his wife six times and experienced the pain of losing his son eight times.
Qiao Zhiyong's first wife was Ma, Ma was a beautiful woman, and the two were very affectionate after marriage. Ma accompanied Qiao Zhiyong through the most difficult moment of his life, and she gave birth to two sons for Qiao Zhiyong. Ma contracted the disease at a young age and died. After Ma's death, Qiao Zhiyong continued to marry his second wife, Gao.
Compared to Ma's, Gao's appearance is not as beautiful as Ma's, but she looks physically strong. What Qiao Zhiyong didn't expect was that the sturdy Gao gave birth to two sons one after another, both of whom unfortunately died.
Gao was unable to extricate himself from the grief of losing his sons one after another, and soon his health became worse and worse, and it was not long before he followed his two sons.
Qiao Zhiyong's third wife is Yang, Yang's virtuous and virtuous lady, she is very gentle to Qiao Zhiyong, but Yang is a little superstitious, she inevitably has some shadows in her heart when she learned that Qiao Zhiyong's first two wives died a little strangely. After giving birth to two sons for her husband, she died early because she had always had hidden worries in her heart and did not take care of the postpartum period.
The third son born to the Yang family, Qiao Jingyan, is the only one of Qiao Zhiyong's nine sons who did not die in front of Qiao Zhiyong. This son was born to the Yang family.
Group photo of Qiao Zhiyong's descendants
Qiao Zhiyong's fourth wife, Zhou, is the most miserable of Qiao Zhiyong's six wives, her two sons died young, and she herself also died early, and the death was quite tragic.
The fact that all four wives died early once made Qiao Zhiyong suspect that there was something wrong with his life. But he has never found anyone to calculate, let alone thought of the so-called "solution". You must know that Qiao Zhiyong is a person who does not accept his fate, and if he does not accept his fate, how can he believe in his fate?
But he also had a very bad feeling after the death of his fourth wife, if it was a coincidence that all three wives died early, then when it came to the fourth or died young, who could not have an idea?
But soon, the people of the Qiao family comforted him, and they quickly helped Qiao Zhiyong marry his fifth wife, who was still surnamed Yang, and she was called "Yang" by later generations like Qiao Zhiyong's third and sixth wives.
Yang's fate was also quite tragic, and her son died not long after he was born. The death of her son cast a big shadow on the Yang family, and the early death of her husband's four wives inevitably caused her to fall into cranky thoughts. Not long after, she also died young.
When Yang died, Qiao Zhiyong had entered his old age, and he didn't want to marry again, but when he thought that there was no one around him to take care of him, he had to marry another Yang who was more than 30 years younger.
Qiao Zhiyong and his wife in the film and television drama
At first glance, Yang is a woman with good spirits, and she gave birth to Qiao Zhiyong's youngest son Qiao Jingxi. This Qiao Jingxi has been weak since he was a child, and both the Yang family and Qiao Zhiyong are worried that he will not be able to be raised.
Because he is an old man and Qiao Jingxi's body is weak, Qiao Zhiyong and the Yang family have given him a lot of love and attention. Children who grow up under excessive doting often don't have much interest, and Qiao Jingxi is no exception.
Of Qiao Zhiyong's nine sons, only six sons survived to adulthood, and among the six sons, except for the third son Qiao Jingyan, the remaining five sons died in front of Qiao Zhiyong.
Among them, the eldest son Qiao Dai was irritable and intolerant, and was later defeated in a dispute with the Jin merchant Da Shengkui and was sent to the Qing court on charges of hoarding strange goods.
The second son, Qiao Jingyi, was just as irascible as the eldest son, and his fatal character flaw eventually killed him: he was beaten to death during a conflict with a Mongol prince during an outing.
The third son, Qiao Jingyan, is honest and kind, but he also has the disadvantage of being timid. Like his father Qiao Zhiyong, he only loves to read and is not interested in business, and Qiao Zhiyong once described him as a "nerd".
"Nerd" has a big advantage, that is, he loves charity, he has done a lot of good things for the villagers in his hometown, not only building roads and bridges, but also devoting himself to the development of education, and founded a number of schools. At the time of Joe's death, he was the only surviving son.
The fourth son, Qiao Jingkan, is introverted and has mediocre abilities in all aspects, whether he is studying or doing business, he has no talent. Among Qiao Zhiyong's many sons, he was the most nonexistent, and he died of illness when he was only 40 years old.
The fifth son, Qiao Jingyan, is talented and intelligent, and he is the most talented in reading, and he has always been the most appreciated by Qiao Zhiyong. Qiao Zhiyong once had high hopes for him, and he desperately hoped that his fifth son could gain fame and glory on the lintel of Qiao's house. However, perhaps because of God's jealousy of talents, Qiao Jingyan passed away at a young age.
Interior view of Qiao's compound: Qiao Zhiyong's children's bedroom
Qiao Zhiyong's sixth son, Qiao Jingxi, who was very spoiled, was also a reading material, but it was a pity that because of his weak body and opium smoking, he died of illness when he was only in his 20s.
The death of his youngest son Qiao Jingxi became another fatal blow to Qiao Zhiyong in his later years. Two years later, 89-year-old Qiao Zhiyong also passed away.
Before he died, when he looked back on his life, he was not full of pride, but full of regret, he said: "If I hadn't taken over the Qiao family's business, I would have been Li Bai, Du Fu and others, fate would make people!" ”
Qiao Zhiyong in his later years in film and television dramas
However, Qiao Zhiyong's regret is all because he didn't become a reader? From the perspective of human nature, his regret in life actually comes more from the helplessness of "no confidant to accompany him to old age" and "white-haired people send black-haired people......