Du was soon introduced by a friend to Huang Jinrong, the highest-ranked Chinese detective in the French Concession Police (FCP) and one of Shanghai's most notorious gangsters.

A stickler for fine clothing and women, Du was now cemented; he wore only Chinese silks, surrounded himself with White Russian bodyguards, and frequented the city's best nightclubs and sing-song houses.

Du's prestige led him to purchase a four-storey, Western-style mansion in the French Concession and have dozens of concubines, four legal wives and six sons, but his meteoric rise as Shanghai's best known mobster only came after Huang Jinrong's arrest in 1924 by the Shanghai Garrison police[3] for his public beating of Lu Xiaojia, son of the then Shanghai-ruling tuchun Lu Yongxiang.

Du's gang members, wearing armbands marked "Labor" (工), then set upon the city's workers and left-wing activists, leading up to Chiang's Shanghai massacre.

Chiang established the Nanjing Nationalist Government after the coup, rewarding Du with a title of major general and advisory positions to the military headquarters and the Executive Yuan.

However, within months, the temple's private wings were converted into a heroin manufacturing facility, making it one of East Asia's largest drug factories.

When the Second World War broke out in 1937, Du, unlike his sworn brother Zhang Xiaolin, refused to cooperate with the Japanese and eventually fled to Hong Kong.

Green Gang operatives cooperating with Dai Li, Chiang's intelligence chief, continued to smuggle weapons and goods to the Nationalist forces throughout the war.

Du served as a board member of the Chinese Red Cross, and also established several companies and factories in the free area of China.

After the war, Du returned to Shanghai, founded the newspaper Shang Pao, with the intention to be the mayor but eventually gave up to Wu Shaoshu under Chiang's pressure.

[1] Du Yuesheng had five wives during his lifetime: Shen Yueying, Chen Yuying, Sun Peihao, Yao Yulan and Meng Xiaodong (wed 1950; divorced 1951).