Le Cong Phuoc "Bach Cong Tu": The best player in the South, burned money for Ba Tra until the end of life tragedy

Living in the lua with the famous splashing of money, Le Cong Phuoc is known by the folk with the nickname "Bach Cong Tu". But the glorious life of Le Cong Phuoc soon faded and ended in tragedy.

"White Duke" Le Cong Phuoc was born in Dieu Hoa village, Thuan Tri canton, Chau Thanh district, My Tho province (in ward 3, My Tho city, Tien Giang province today). He is the fourth son of Governor Le Cong Sung, governor of Sung is not rich but has many wives, including Mrs. Dao Thi Linh of French nationality, who is a rich person in the region. Ms. Linh lived with the governor of Sung for a while and had a common child, Le Cong Phuoc, who contracted tuberculosis. This disease at that time was an incurable disease so it could not be cured and she died early leaving a huge fortune.

Thanks to the influence and capital inherited, the governor of Sung went into business, so soon, his wife's huge fortune was left even more massive. The wealth of the governor of Sung government was among the first and second in the My Tho - Go Cong area at that time. In 1909, Governor Sung was represented in My Tho province at a fair in France. In the capital of light, the governor Sung tried everything to later send his son Le Cong Phuoc to France to study.

The house of Bach Cong Tu in the past is now on the campus of the Cultural Center of My Tho City (Tien Giang province).

Governor Le Cong Sung took Bach to France to study abroad with the hope that his son would learn new things from Western civilization, study well and help glorify his family. However, not only could not respond to the wishes of his father - Governor Le Cong Sung, Bach Gongzi also made him more sad.

The first time I set foot in France, to the West, everything made "Uncle Phuoc" feel very surprised. And then life alone in the West with Le Cong Phuoc is like a bird in a cage. Because there is no father next to him to warn and remind him, "Mr. Phuoc" does not worry about studying all day, but only concentrates on eating and drinking.

With the surplus property sent from his father, Le Cong Phuoc spent without regret and thanks to that, he quickly made friends with the young girls in France. Even the name George Phuoc also came from this time (about the years 1931 - 1932) when "Uncle Phuoc" was worshiped as a "prince" by French soldiers and called him by a "nickname" "So Western.

Many anecdotes tell that, despite being known as the capital of light to study abroad, Le Cong Phuoc often stayed long-term in the most expensive hotels in the center of Paris at that time. Instead of studying, Bach was associated with luxurious parties with many Western pink shadows gathered at famous nightclubs in Paris and other major cities in France.

The main hall of the White Prince's house.

After a few years in a foreign country, Le Cong Phuoc returned with an empty hand, making the governor of Sung very disappointed... His punishment for his son was to work as an assistant, carry bricks and carry stones with a group of workers. building a house. Knowing his fault and accepting his father's punishment, George Phuoc worked hard for many months until the house was built. Thanks to that, his father calmed down.

The governor of Sung then unfortunately passed away when his uncle Phuoc was too young. The age of less than 20 years with a large fortune, ready blood to play in person made George Phuoc plunge into the morning games, the laughter all night.

Referring to the play scenes that became anecdotes of Bach Cong Tu, it is necessary to mention the competition of burning money to compete for the beauty of Ba Tra between him and Hac Cong Tu. Saigon 100 years ago, Ba Tra was crowned beauty queen, but without a crown, the beauty power overwhelms Cochinchina.

Ba Tra's lover's "collection" is full of great landowners, the first great prince in Cochinchina, including Bach. Tran Ngoc Tra's beauty is also said to have caused the confrontation between Hac and Bach at that time. The story goes that, without Miss Ba's opening words, whenever Bach heard that Miss Ba was given a precious gift by Hac Duke, he would ask the price and find a more expensive gift to give to the beautiful woman. Therefore, she owns countless precious things from jewelry, branded clothes to houses and cars.

Tran Ngoc Tra, who was known as "The Queen of the South" in the early 20th century.

In it, a famous anecdote recounts that, in order to please the beauty, these two princes organized a competition to cook eggs (or tea) with paper money. According to calculations, to boil a pot of tea with a kilogram of green beans, in nearly an hour, each son burned nearly 100 banknotes. If Mr. Hac had burned all 50 dong or more of paper, he would have to at least burn 5,000 Indochinese dong. The money could buy 3,000 bushels of rice at that time.

The fire of paper money is very low heat, only burning small, so cooking tea takes a long time under the stress of many witnesses. In the end, when Bach's tea pot boiled first, Bac Lieu's son had to lose.

Hac - Bach Duc, two famous lovers of Ms. Ba Tra.

In addition to Ba Tra, Bach is also mentioned with his love affair with the pianist Phung Ha (People's Artist Phung Ha), he founded the Huynh Ky theater troupe and assigned his wife to be elected. With abundant financial potential and the guidance of the singer Phung Ha, Huynh Ky's troupe quickly became famous and became the largest-scale theater in the Southern Province at that time.

With the success of the troupe, the love of Bach Gongzi and her seven-year-old wife Phung Ha was quite peaceful and passionate with the birth of two children. However, the love affair was only happy for 7 years, Bach Duc, who was naturally rich, returned to gambling, drinking ... not caring about the troupe anymore. Seven, Phung Ha, one armpit and two children, alone took care of the whole singing troupe, so Huynh Ky became more and more depressed.

The image of Huynh Ky singing troupe is kept in the house.

Two small children are sick, money is no longer available, but her husband is busy living in a wealthy place and adding a "fat cat" game... so she decided to divorce Bach Duc after 7 years of living together. Two children later also died due to illness, seven-year-old Phung Ha strongly rose to rebuild her career from scratch and achieved impressive success.

With such a thoughtless way of spending money, soon the life-saving property of his father - Governor Le Cong Sung - quickly "put on his hat and left". After successive "plots" of land were transferred to others, soon Bach Duke had nothing in his hand and nothing left to sell.

From an illustrious "king" in the West, in the last years of his life, Bach had to live alone and languish in an inn. Bach Cong Tu died in 1950 in his hometown in Cho Gao district, Tien Giang province. Many anecdotes tell that, when he was popular during his lifetime, when he closed his eyes, he was so melancholy and melancholy. His grave is now nestled among the vast, lonely coconut groves - very contrasting with the image of a person who used to be a popular entertainer throughout the West.