Mr. Chu is like a role model, an elder brother, and a best friend to me. A life of hustle and bustle, hardness and vicissitudes of life will eventually lead to purity, but those who die but do not die will live longer. ——Wang Shi

One afternoon in 2003, on Ailao Mountain in Yuxi, Yunnan, an old man wearing a straw hat and a T-shirt was haggling with a vendor for 20 yuan.

At this time, orange seedlings have been planted, and the orange seedlings all over the mountains and plains are like groups of soldiers waiting for review. "In another six years, the oranges will be able to bear fruit." Chu Shijian took off his straw hat, wiped his sweat, and confidently said to Wang Shi, the founder of Vanke, who came to see him.

The mountain wind blew and scattered his silver hair. As everyone knows, he was once the boss of the "Hongta Group" and China's "Tobacco King", generating 96.6 billion yuan in profits for the country. How did such an outstanding person stand on the land of Ailao Mountain?

If life is full of ups and downs, then Chu Shijian’s life was full of twists and turns, ups and downs.

Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers

The Nanpan River in Yunnan is covered with large and small lakes. It was extremely hot at noon that day, and the blazing sun seemed to scatter handfuls of broken silver on the water.

There were waves of children cheering from the riverside. It was a group of children competing to catch fish. One of the boys, a dark-skinned boy, was swimming hard in the splashing water. In order to catch bigger fish, he dived into the depths of the river. Suddenly, he found a big fish weighing about ten kilograms and plunged into the water.

However, how could the big fish be caught without restraint? The boy was taken to the deep water area by the big fish. Seeing that he was exhausted, he drank several mouthfuls of river water. At this time, fortunately, there were adults who caught him in time. arrived and rescued him ashore.

Unexpectedly, the boy who landed on the shore was not afraid at all. He was still thinking about the big fish. He grabbed it and happily held it and got the first place as he wished.

This dark and sturdy boy is the young Chu Shijian.

Chu Shijian lived a carefree childhood. He loved swimming and fighting. But he has a strong nature and never admits defeat. Even if he is beaten, he will not shed tears.

However, all this came to an abrupt end with the early death of his father. Sensible, he and his mother shouldered the burden of the family.

At that time, roasting wine was the family’s only source of income. Every time you roast wine, you need 700 kilograms of corn and nearly 1,000 kilograms of firewood. It still takes 18 hours of cooking, and firewood needs to be added every 2 hours. In the oven-like workshop, Chu Shijian was so tired that he sweated profusely every day.

After the corn is steamed, it is mixed with distiller’s yeast and sealed for fermentation. This step is a key step in winemaking, which determines the alcohol content and wine yield.

The winemaker of Sanbo’s family just told him to close the door during fermentation. Chu Shijian seriously considered the role of closing the door and realized that temperature plays a vital role in fermentation. Therefore, Chu Shijian tried every means to increase the temperature of the fermentation box away from the stove fire.

He liked to use his brain and thought of collecting the burned ashes and placing them next to the fermentation box far away from the fire. This would increase the temperature of the entire fermentation environment. This method allows his family to produce one catty of wine with two and a half catties of corn, while other people's family can produce one catty of wine with at least three catties.

Tasting the clear and sweet wine, Chu Shijian was very happy. At this time, the young man is still a young man by the river. The difference is that the difficult life has tempered his will, making his eyes firm and his steps more calm.

This stubborn "calf" has grown up.

Be willing to be a slave

Time flies, more than ten years have passed, and the former young brewer has grown into a mature and stable middle-aged man.

In 1958, he spent a year reviving a sugar factory that had been losing money for years. After seeing his ability, the state gave him another factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy. This was the Yuxi Cigarette Factory at that time.

After taking office, Chu Shijian couldn’t wait to walk around the factory, but the scene in front of him really worried him:

At that time, the salary of workers in the Yuxi Cigarette Factory was less than 30 yuan. , and the working and living environment is very poor. The soot in the production workshop can make people suffocate, and many employees have three generations of their families crowded into a small house of more than 20 square meters. The public toilet was huddled in a corner of the courtyard...

Seeing these chaos, Chu Shijian felt tight and made a major decision.

More than four months later, the dormitory building was built from the ground, and the workers were delighted. For the first time in decades, they felt that they had hope in life, and they all expressed their willingness to cooperate with this parachute leader and do a good job.

From then on, Chu Shijian lived and ate in the factory and began drastic reforms. He rectified factory management, improved equipment level, actively learned foreign advanced technology, and finally found that "raw material quality" was the most critical issue.

One day, at the team meeting, Chu Shijian said to all the members seriously: "A pot must be equipped with good ingredients, otherwise the fried food will not be delicious." So, he made a bold decision - —Build your own tobacco base.

Faced with the planned economy at that time, Chu Shijian defied public opinion and signed contracts with more than 400 tobacco farmers to establish a tobacco raw material base. During Chu Shijian's 18 years at the helm of Yuxi Cigarette Factory, he created 99.1 billion yuan in profits and taxes for the country.

In this way, Yuxi Cigarette Factory not only came back from the dead, but also became the number one business giant in Asia and the fifth in the world.

At that time, the annual profit and tax of one Yuxi cigarette factory was equivalent to the total fiscal revenue of 400 agricultural counties. When a national leader came to inspect the cigarette factory, he said with emotion, "This is not a cigarette factory, it is simply a money printing machine."

Then, the "Hongta Group" was established, and Chu Shijian became China's "Tobacco King."

Faced with the admiration of others, he said: "I never thought I was a genius, but I have always been a down-to-earth person who works hard. As long as you work hard to grasp the rules of things and take things seriously I think the attitude of truly striving for excellence can be learned."

At this time, the Yuxi Cigarette Factory had a new look, but Chu Shijian was already gray-haired.

Don’t say that Lao Niu will suffer too much

As time went by, in 1995, a letter reporting him for corruption and bribery landed him in jail. Chu Shijian was accused of "setting up a small treasury privately and accepting bribes of more than 10 million yuan."

In court, Chu Shijian admitted: He was indeed unwilling. Because Chu Shijian's salary level at that time was only equivalent to that of an ordinary worker in a cigarette factory. Later, after his case, the country carried out institutional reforms, and the subsequent cigarette factory leaders earned more in one year than he did in more than ten years.

During his trial, hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition to vouch for him. For a time, his case became the most controversial case in China at the time. However, in the end, a verdict of nearly 8,000 words pronounced him sentenced to life imprisonment.

As misfortunes never come singly, he received the news that his only daughter had committed suicide in prison. Facing the white-haired man giving away the black-haired man, Chu Shijian burst into tears and cried, "I'm sorry, girl..." His inner strength was completely knocked down, and he also suffered from severe diabetes.

In 2001, Chu Shijian was approved for medical parole and returned home to live and recuperate. The scope of his activities was limited to his hometown, and his life was only supported by his wife's pension of two to three thousand yuan. That year, he was 71 years old.

Everyone says that a generation of smoke kings has perished.

Yes, you know destiny at fifty. When a person is sixty and his ears are attuned, when a person reaches seventy, he should follow his heart's desires and not go beyond the rules. However, at this time, Chu Shijian's family was ruined and he had nothing.

If most people suffer such a blow at this age, they are likely to fall into silence. But Chu Shijian refused to accept his fate. After only a few months of recuperation, with the support of his wife, he stood on Ailao Mountain again, which earned him mixed reputations.

Just like Lu You said in "The Song of Drinking Cows": Don't say that the old cow has been suffering for a long time, I am still able to work hard at eighty years.

Chu Shijian, with an unyielding spirit, is ready to "do things" again and move forward.

That year, he was 74 years old.

The old man has his ambitions thousands of miles away

Although we are separated by mountains, but where there is a will, there is a way.

After he started planting, Chu Shijian bought books, put on glasses, and continued to learn about orange planting. He studied deeply, pondered carefully, and studied the growth habits of each orange tree.

In 2009, "Chu Cheng" began to seek innovation in sales channels. By 2011, the orchard's profit had exceeded 30 million yuan and fixed assets were 80 million yuan.

Ailao Mountain, which used to be muddy, showed its most beautiful appearance. Chu Cheng became popular all over the country, and Chu Shijian finally broke through.

This old man rewrote his life with oranges.

Nowadays, every time there is a big exam, parents have to let their children eat a Chucheng. Chucheng has become not only a fruit to be eaten, but also an inspirational spirit.

There are always ups and downs in life. The spirit can eventually be passed on. Chu Shijian turned around brilliantly. At the age of 85, he changed from the "Chinese Cigarette King" to the "Orange King of the Generation".

? Brave Matador

In 2018, when the 90-year-old Chu Shijian was asked what he wanted to write on his epitaph, he said word by word "Chu Shijian" , belongs to the Ox”. Born in 1928, he was originally born in the year of Dragon, and the word "ox" is probably his summary of his life.

Yes, Chu Shijian has three business experiences, each of which can be called a legend. He can be called a heroic bullfighter, unyielding and never giving up in the darkness of the halo's fall.

In 2018, Chu Shijian officially resigned on his 90th birthday, and his only son Chu Yibin took over the important responsibility. This "old cow" who has been carrying a heavy burden all his life can finally take a break.

In 2019, Mr. Chu passed away suddenly at the age of 91. This young man by the riverside who was so happy holding a big fish ended his legendary life with a spirit of never admitting defeat.

General Patton once said: The measure of a person's success is not when he stands at the top, but when he falls from the top to the bottom.

For Chu Shijian, his real success is not the "Smoke King" or the "Orange King", but the "cow" spirit of standing up after falling.

Because , the long river of time will drown all achievements, only the spirit can last forever!