Huang Huangrong's life was a life of taking advantage of loopholes. As early as 1892, before he worked as a patrol officer in the patrol house of the French Concession, he worshiped Chen Shichang as his master. It was 1885, and Huang Jinrong was only 17 years old. We all know that Du Yuesheng later became a disciple of Chen Shichang, but that happened later. At that time, in Shanghai, in addition to the Qinggang and Honggang, there were many people who formed gangs and established their own businesses. Chen Shichang was such a person.
When Huang Huangrong became a disciple of Chen Shichang, Chen had not yet joined the Qinggang, so Huang Huangrong did not belong to the Qinggang at this time. Even though Chen Shichang later joined the Green Gang, Huang Huangrong's master-disciple status with him was already in name only, which was one of the loopholes. In 1901, after Huang Jinrong became prosperous, with the help of his wife Lin Guisheng, he began to set up an incense hall and recruit disciples. But at first no one came to the door. People around him advised him: "You should first become a disciple of a senior member of the Youth Gang, and then take on a disciple." ?But Huang Huangrong flatly refused: ?I am a Tianzi generation, one more horizontal than a Dazi generation, I won’t bow! ?
We know that since the Republic of China, the ranking of the Youth Gang was mainly based on the "Da Tong Wu Xue", and those with seniority were the highest in the Youth Gang. Huang Huangrong calls himself "Tianzi Generation", this title is quite deceiving. At that time, many people wanted to join the Youth Gang but could not find the way. After seeing Huang Huangrong's sign, many joined it. Therefore, Huang Huangrong spent his whole life taking advantage of loopholes, and he was not a member of the Youth Gang at all before 1927.
1927 was a watershed year. For Huang Huangrong, this was his most important year. His apprentice Chiang Kai-shek's sudden rise in wealth caught him by surprise. After the Northern Expedition entered Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek used the Youth Gang to massacre revolutionaries in order to protect his own interests. When Du Yuesheng's son Du Weishan was interviewed in his later years, he said: "Chiang Kai-shek was not a member of the Qing Gang. He wanted to join the Qing Gang mainly because he wanted to use the Qing Gang."
So Huang Huangrong was not a member of the Green Gang at this time, how did he use the power of the Green Gang? Chiang Kai-shek was very smart. He appointed Huang Jinrong as a special agent and registered the Green Gang to expand his strength. However, because Huang Huangrong was pretending to be a Green Gang, he had no actual status among the Green Gang. Seeing that his apprentice Chiang Kai-shek was in trouble, he spent 100,000 yuan on banquets with guests, and made great fanfare to accept the great master Zhang Renkui as his disciple. From then on, Huang Huangrong began to completely become a member of the Youth Gang. Although Huang Huangrong was powerful before, the real leaders of Shanghai Beach were still the old men from the Qing Gang. After Huang Huangrong joined the Youth Gang, his life truly reached its peak. But he never thought that if he had become a disciple of Zhang Renkui earlier and met another person, he would have risen to prominence earlier, and that person would be Zhang Jian.
We have all seen the character Zhang Jian in history textbooks. As the famous number one industrialist in modern China, Zhang Jian had a very high social status. At his peak, Huang Huangrong was the leader in Shanghai, but Zhang Jian's reputation had spread across the country, and his social status and influence were not comparable to Huang Huangrong's.
Many people will ask, what is the relationship between Zhang Jian and Huang Huangrong? The answer is that it doesn't matter. If the two were related, Huang Huangrong would have become the number one hegemon in Shanghai long ago. How could it be that he didn't join the Youth Gang until 1927 to achieve hegemony? If there is any connection, Zhang Jian is Huang Jinrong's master. In other words, Zhang Jian is actually Zhang Renkui's master.
In his early years, Zhang Renkui made a living buying steamed buns in Yangzhou, but how could he be content with the ordinary life in troubled times? Later, he followed the hero Xu Baoshan and began to conquer the world. After the Revolution of 1911, a situation in which "all heroes came together" appeared in China. Xu Baoshan began to recruit troops and gradually formed a separate force. As the saying goes, a big tree attracts wind, so Xu Baoshan's rise aroused Yuan Shikai's jealousy. Everyone knows who Yuan Shikai is, and they never see anyone better than him. So I prepared to get rid of him.
It happened that someone told him that Xu Baoshan had no other hobbies in his life, except for antiques. So Yuan Shikai secretly sent his men to contact Xu Baoshan in the name of delivering treasures, and then hid explosives in the gift boxes. When Xu Baoshan opened the box, it exploded and he died on the spot. After Xu Baoshan's death, many of his subordinates had to live without a leader. So Zhang Renkui stepped forward and integrated Xu Baoshan's resources to develop his own power.
After the Second Revolution, Feng Guozhang attacked Nanjing, drove Huang Xing away, and then recruited Zhang Renkui and promoted him to the brigade commander of his mixed brigade to guard Nantong.
At this time, Zhang Renkui came into contact with Zhang Jian and worshiped him as his teacher. He went to Zhang Jian's home every day to greet him and express his friendship as a disciple. Huang Jinrong was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. In fact, he has a very high possibility of contacting Zhang Renkui. A friend even specially introduced him to Zhang Renkui. The two were fellow villagers and should have cooperated better, but Huang Huangrong's mind was not on this at all at the time, but he wanted to make a career in Shanghai.
In this way, Huang Huangrong missed his first cooperation with Zhang Renkui, and also missed his cooperation with Zhang Jian. Zhang Jian's low profile made Huang Jinrong never expect that this person would have such great energy. If Huang Huangrong had met Zhang Jian earlier, it would have taken ten years less to dominate Shanghai. Of course, this is just a postscript. We know that even if Zhang Jian met Huang Huangrong, the two might not be able to talk together. Huang Jinrong wanted to achieve great things and was more utilitarian, but as a scholar, Zhang Jian naturally had national justice in mind. One is for everyone, and the other is for the small family. The powerful alliance between the two can only exist in the imagination.