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Wang Chi, a native of Hongxi, Mile County, was born in 1836. When he was young, he fought and killed his cousin and fled to Chongqing. He has a joint venture with businessmen in Chongqing and Yunnan to do business with them. Later, he and Xi Maozhi jointly established the "Tongfengfeng" company in Kunming.

Unlike Hu Xueyan and Sheng Xuanhuai, Wang Chi started from trade. In his early days, his so-called business was actually to follow the caravan across the street, climb mountains and make meager profits by selling goods. However, as a big businessman in feudal times, Wang Chi was different from ordinary small traders, and he soon understood the essence of the times-what officials wanted, business never backed down. If you want to develop, you must find political backing.

And his road to success is similar to that of Hu Xueyan. In the Qing Dynasty, Tang, the political envoy of Yunnan Province, visited the Governor of Salt and estimated that he would lend 100,000 yuan. All local merchants avoided it. Only Wang Chi ventured to undertake it exclusively within a limited time in the name of "Tianshunxiang". Wang Chi's Tian Shun Xiang was not only very popular, but also won Tang Tong his political support. Tang Tong suggested that Wang Chi set up a foreign exchange to handle salt transportation on his behalf. Wang and Mao Zhi set up another camp and set up semicolons in major ports in southwest and southeast to specialize in foreign exchange business. 1872, Wang Chi hosted the "Tongfengfeng" firm in Kunming, established "Xingwen Gongdang" to manage real estate, built Tongren Street in Kunming, and bought land in Maitreya and Yiliang, with an annual rent of more than 1,000 stones.

With the transfer of Tang Tong to the Minister of Mining Supervision of Yunnan Province, he appointed Wang Chi as the general manager of the mining company. In order to build Yunnan copper-tin mine industry, Wang Chi has successively contributed 654.38+2 million yuan to the Development Fund. Wang Chi made huge profits by operating the mining industry, and became an entrepreneur "as rich as an enemy, all in Yunnan".

It is precisely because of his insight into the mystery of power that Wang Chi befriended Cen, the governor of Yunnan, and became related to Fang Suya, the French consul in Yunnan. More than that, in 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing, and Cixi fled to xi 'an in panic, and her silver was not enough for the entourage of the brigade. Wang Chi believed that patriotism must be loyal to the monarch, so he gave a desperate order: No matter where Cixi's people passed, Wang Chi's "Tongfengfeng" branch must make every effort to help. After Cixi returned to Beijing, the national treasury was empty and there was a shortage of funds. Wang Chi launched overseas and domestic branches to raise funds to help. The drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces cut off the Yellow River. Wang Chi is generous in helping the poor. Donated a million taels of silver to the Ministry of Industry to build water conservancy, which was called by Li Hongzhang as "the library of the Qing court".

According to Wang Chi's righteous act, the Qing court successively awarded him the title of four-product Taoist priest, rewarded Dr. Rong Lu with the title of two-product high hat, and sealed the seal of "three generations and one product", becoming the only one-product red-topped businessman in the feudal society of China, surpassing Hu Xueyan's title of "two-product" businessman and Sheng Xuanhuai's title of Minister of Commerce, Prince Shao Bao and Zuo Shilang's official rank.

To some extent, Wang Chi is in trouble, which is his lucky place. Both he and Hu Xueyan belong to the "red-topped businessman" who donated officials and won the top prize with huge sums of money, which is different from Sheng Xuanhuai, who wears a red-topped official hat but travels all over the shopping mall. But almost only because of geographical reasons, he was able to avoid the fierce whirlpool of political disputes in the fierce political struggle of the imperial court and prolong his business life in a relatively stable political environment. On the other hand, Hu Sheng is both a beneficiary and a victim of the officialdom struggle.

Behind the fate of Hu, Sheng and Wang, we can also see the emptiness of the decadent imperial treasury in the late Qing Dynasty. Under totalitarian rule, the combination of officials and businessmen is not only an opportunity for officials to get rich, but also the only choice for the court to maintain. Sadly, however, businessmen only exist as extensions and vassals of political power. There is almost a vacuum between the huge bureaucracy and scattered individuals and families.

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