萬三

While our country leader was having a private meeting with the billionaire, I could not help thinking of Shen Manzo (沈萬三).

For those who are not familiar with the history, Shen was supposed to be the richest man in China at the turn of Yuan and Ming dynasty.

During the campaign against Mongolians, he was a supporter of Zhang Shicheng (張士誠). As a result, when Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) seized the reign and forced him - together with tens of thousands of other rich families - to move to Nanjing, he was more than willing to support all government activities in order to win the heart of the new emperor.

Shen and Zhu enjoyed an excellent honeymoon period, until Shen volunteered to paid for the building of one-third of the city wall around Nanjing, and reward the Ming army - one silver coin for each soldier, and there were over a million of them.

Zhu was not amused, and planned to find an excuse to kill Shen. The queen, who was well known for her kind heart and wisdom, said to Zhu, "You do not have to kill him; a man who owns the fortune of a country is ominous to himself."

原文: 民富俟國，民自不祥焉。《明史: 高皇后馬氏傳》

PS. Shen was soon exiled to Yunnan (雲南); half of his property was confiscated.