Picture 丨 Xu Shiyou
preface
Xu Shiyou was born in an era when the gentry plundered and mourned, and his family had an acre and three parts of land, and also caught up with the famine.
Hungry since childhood, it is this experience that makes Xu Shiyou deeply aware of folk suffering.
Later, he was promoted to an official position, his status was high, and he never forgot his original intention, caring about whether the people were full of food and whether they were no longer hungry.
Hungry childhood
Xu Shiyou's mother, Xu Lishi, is a gentle, kind, and simple woman, after she married into the Xu family, although the family is poor and poor, her husband is thick and honest, and he also knows that it hurts people, so he is happy.
On February 28, 1905, four years after marriage, there was a cry in the family, and Xu Shiyou was born.
At that time, there was not a literate gentleman in the hundreds of miles, so many children's breast names were particularly arbitrary, what chickens and puppies, kittens and rabbits, what to see.
Although Xu Shiyou's grandmother had never read a book,
But she gave Xu Shiyou the nickname of "Youde".
The locals are not used to seeing Xu Shiyou look ugly, so they always call him "Ugly Boy", and later, people forgot the name Youde.
Picture 丨 Xu Shiyou's mother Xu Lishi
When he was a child, Xu Shiyou looked exactly like his father, and his three younger sisters looked like his mother, beautiful and white, Xu Shiyou also wondered, how can a mother and a compatriot have such a big difference in appearance?
Xu Shiyou is the third eldest among the brothers, and there are four boys and three girls in his family, and the children are all of the "Shi" generation.
Regarding the name Xu Shiyou (later renamed Xu Shiyou), there are two interpretations, one is that the surname plus the character plus the grandmother obtained the "friendly virtue" of the friends, the other is that Xu Shiyou's parents are really poor and afraid.
Therefore, I hope that Xu Shiyou will be able to make some friends who are officials when he grows up, find some "backers", and change the fate of poverty, so he is called "Shiyou".
However, after Xu Shiyou grew up, he became the sworn enemy of these "patrons", he became a communist fighter, bent on changing the fate of the poor, he changed the "Shiguan" in his name to the "warrior" shi, and later met Mao Zedong, under the suggestion of Mao Zedong, changed "Xu Shiyou" to "Xu Shiyou", meaning a friend of the world.
At that time, the gentry plundered and mourned everywhere, their family only had one acre and three points of land, and there were famines every year, and they basically did not eat enough.
Xu Shiyou as the middle child, there are older brothers and sisters, there are younger brothers and sisters, in Xu Shiyou's own view, he is a dispensable person, his birth will only add more burden to this family that lacks food and clothing.
Picture 丨 Youth Xu Shiyou
When he was two or three years old, the little Xu Shiyou was yellow-skinned and thin, and he was too hungry to stand up in the ventilated room.
The mother looked at the family struggling on the death line and discussed with her father, "Let's sell him."
On a snowy day, the trafficker came to Xu Shiyou's house, and his father took two buckets of rice handed by the trafficker and handed Xu Shiyou out.
The mother rushed out of the house and snatched back Xu Shiyou in the arms of the trafficker, and the mother looked at Xu Shiyou in her arms with tears, and Xu Shiyou sweetly called "Mother".
"Oh daddy, my child is my meat, and I can't sell it."
Xu Shiyou's father couldn't do anything, "Then what do we eat?" ”
The mother was fierce, and took off the silver bracelet on her wrist, "Take it seriously."
"No, this is your family's belongings, if you sell your belongings, the family property will be lost in our hands, I am sorry for the ancestors, sorry for the descendants, what kind of man am I?"
The mother held the child tightly, she did not compromise, she did not want to sell her child, the father squatted on the ground with his head sadly and cried,
In the end, Xu Shiyou was left behind, and the silver bracelet was not sold at the insistence of his father.
In order to survive, Xu Shiyou has been begging for food with his mother since he was a child.
In the cold winter moon, the mother wrapped Xu Shiyou in a torn cotton jacket, held it warm in her arms, begged for something delicious, some cold, and put it in her mouth to take it, and only fed it to him when it was warm.
In the process of begging, the mother and son eat everything, grass roots, wild vegetables, leaves, and when they are very hungry, they can stuff anything into their mouths.
Xu Shiyou was so hungry that he fainted several times, and later his mother recalled,
"Xu Shiyou died many times when he was a child, and it was Prince Yan who took pity on him and confiscated him, and every time he fed some cold water, he came back to life."
Figure丨The people of the old society
In order to supplement the nutrition of the child, every New Year's Festival, the family will fry one or two eggs under their own chickens, Xu Shiyou is relatively small, eat a piece and want to eat a piece, when the third piece is clipped, the father uses chopsticks to knock on the plate, "Everyone eats separately, brothers and sisters are also thin and sick, can not just take care of you alone." ”
Xu Shiyou retracted the chopsticks, and his mother looked at the tears of pain, but there was nothing she could do.
When Xu Shiyou grew up, he began to work with his father and brother, herding cattle and chopping firewood.
As soon as the Qingming Festival passed, poor families began to pick wild vegetables, and their parents stipulated that in addition to herding cattle and cutting firewood, everyone should pick a basket of wild vegetables every day.
Although Xu Shiyou is small, he and his brothers have the same quota, because his father said, "If you collect less, you have to tire others", so Xu Shiyou tried to do as much as possible to reduce the burden on his parents and brothers.
Parents seem to be very strict, in fact, they are not iron hearted, they watch their skinny children climbing between the cliffs, digging wild vegetables, collecting firewood, they will not be able to bear it, but what can be done, they can only swallow the heartache and tears back into their stomachs.
Once,
Xu Shiyou touched the fish in the river, and his small hand was frozen red, and finally he touched a four-finger-long crucian carp slice
Xu Shiyou was particularly happy and jumped home, he thought he could get his mother's praise, but he did not expect that his mother directly slapped him.
Xu Shiyou was particularly aggrieved, and tears came out of his eyes.
The mother hurriedly took Xu Shiyou into her arms, and she also shed tears,
"Good boy, the mother should not beat you, the mother is well-intentioned, the mother is afraid that you drowned in the river, then she will not see you for the rest of her life."
Xu Shiyou stretched out his little red hand and helped his mother wipe away her tears,
"Mother, I see that you are sick and have not eaten for several days, and this is specially for you to catch."
After hearing this, my mother cried loudly...
Picture 丨 Famine peasant family
1919 was the driest year in the village
Even if it doesn't rain, even if people use water trucks to water the rice fields in the vegetable field, they will be dried up in a short time, and people will watch the seedlings die, and even people will run out of water to drink.
The croppers took out the statues of the Dragon King and the Bodhisattva from the temple, offered live pigs and live sheep, burned incense and prostrated their heads, and prayed that the heavens could rain a little and give people a way to live, but the drought was even more severe, and when it was time to harvest the crops, Xu Shiyou's family only cut back a few bundles of crops to make firewood.
Merchants took advantage of the fire to loot, transport rice to the countryside, gouged up prices, people sold their family land, livestock in order to survive, and even some had to start selling their children and daughters, in order to get a little grain.
After this famine, many cultivators lost their land and became hired workers or beggars, and the Xu family changed from self-cultivators to tenants of landlords' families.
The picture shows a tenant working as a landlord
Chinese New Year's Eve, the rich people's homes are lit up with lights and laughter, while the poor families live like years. Xu Shiyou's family guarded the brazier, they were speechless, and everyone was worried about how to repay their debts.
Suddenly, there was a piercing gunshot in the village, and a voice shouted,
"The red and white gun team has entered the village to grab the New Year goods!"
People rioted.
The red and white gun brigade originally belonged to the subordinates of the reactionary warlords, and after the team dispersed, the defeated remnants of the army went into the mountains, killed the ancient monks, occupied the temple, and engaged in banditry.
The father hurriedly instructed the members of the family to hide the chickens, ducks, cows and sheep, and everyone acted quickly according to the deployment. Xu Shiyou and his brother led the cattle and sheep into the pine forest in the back mountain, and just happened to encounter a few bandits holding guns.
The two brothers wanted to resist, bullets flew through them, the two children did not dare to move again, the bandits snatched the cattle and sheep by force, leaving nothing behind.
Xu Shiyou and his brother walked home empty-handed, and the village was already in a mess, with the cries of various livestock and the cries of children and women mixed together.
Pushing open the door, the mother crawled on her knees on the ground and shouted to the heavens, it turned out that the chickens and ducks in the family were also robbed, and the father sat on the threshold smoking a cigarette, saw Xu Shiyou's brothers, and asked, "Are the cattle and sheep hidden?" ”
"Robbed."
Picture 丨 Wandering people
"What a world! Simply don't let the poor live! ”
Xu Shiyou's father punched him in the thigh, his legs trembled, he couldn't stand up, this year has not passed,
Xu Shiyou's father suffered from tuberculosis and was bedridden for three months
。
Helplessly, the mother went to be her own silver bracelet, took the money to the medicine store to buy medicine, the father asked her where the money came from to catch the medicine, the mother who never lied for the first time lied, "borrowed".
The father saw his mother's empty wrist and asked, "What about the bracelet?" ”
No way, mother told the truth.
The father said angrily,
"Three spring is still long, now take the bracelet as a pawn, how will your mother and children live after a few years, you are really confused, go and return the medicine, redeem the bracelet."
The mother could not help her father, so she could only redeem the bracelet
The father looked at the bracelet and smiled, but the mother cried.
Picture Shu Arm Strength Amazing Xu Shiyou
One evening, my father, who was often in a coma, woke up and hurriedly told his mother, "Call the children!" ”
He understood that he was returning to the light, and that the days were running out.
The mother brought the children over, and the father said intermittently,
"I can't do it, I didn't raise you, I'm sorry for you, you have to listen to your mother's words and take good care of her."
The children were crying, and the father turned to his mother and said,
"Children and mothers, no matter how difficult it is, pull the children into adults, even if there is great suffering, grit your teeth and persevere, if you can't hold on, you will take the bracelet."
After saying that, I shoved the bracelet into my mother's hand, and then I closed my eyes, and that's it.
Having lost her father in the already miserable family, Xu Shiyou's mother could only grit her teeth and insist, pulling several children up.
Encounter a beggar
Childhood experience, let Xu Shiyou deeply understand the suffering of folk,
Even if he later became a great general, his status was high, and his official position was promoted, he still would not just take care of himself to eat.
After serving as the director of the Jiangsu Provincial Revolutionary Committee, Xu Shiyou often went to the countryside to inspect.
The villagers in the surrounding villages all remembered Xu Shiyou's license plate number, and every time the car passed by the village, there were children who clapped their hands at the car and shouted happily, "Commander Xu is coming!" Commander Xu is good! ”
Xu Shiyou sometimes takes his daughter Huashan out with him to inspect. once
Hua Shan grabbed a few handfuls of candy in his bag and when he arrived at the village, he distributed it to the cheering children
Xu Shiyou saw it and praised Hua shan happily, "I think very thoughtfully, I am very sensible!" ”
However, since then, bringing candy has become a common practice, and every time he goes to the countryside, Xu Shiyou has to remind Huashan, "Have you brought candy?" Bring more! "Huashan often has to go to department stores to buy candy. This became a considerable expense for Huashan, who was not very old at the time.
Pictured by Xu Shiyou and his daughter Huashan
Xu Shiyou also especially likes to sit at his hometown, especially for the elderly, which is very intimate.
At that time, the rural conditions were not good, the elders of the hometown family sat on a chair, Xu Shiyou sat on a chair, others could only squat or stand, even so, Xu Shiyou went to whose home, whose home was surrounded by three layers outside the inside, everyone you said a word, chatted happily.
Once, during the driving process, I met two beggars, xu Shiyou immediately asked the driver to stop, got out of the car and asked where they were from and why they came out to beg for food.
The two beggars were both from the Huaiyin area, and the next day, Xu Shiyou arranged to visit Huaiyin.
When he arrived in Huaiyin, Xu Shiyou told the local leaders,
"You must arrange the livelihood of the masses well, starting with production, and you cannot let people be so poor that they have no food to eat, or even drag their children and daughters out to beg for food."
Unexpectedly, the leader not only did not make a review, but also explained that the people in northern Jiangsu have always had the habit of going out to beg for food.
When Xu Shiyou heard this, he directly became angry,
"How come you don't have this habit?" You go beg for food and I'll see! Then he gave the other party a fierce approval.
And finally he said,
"Full of warmth and flesh and bones, hunger and cold, thieves, the people will make trouble without food, and it will affect social order."
Along the way, xu Shiyou inspected local governments from top to bottom, including various villages and brigades, and he warned the leading cadres again and again.
Don't waste a grain of grain, there is no money to do with grain, and it is not okay to have money without grain! If agriculture is not good and people have no food to eat, sooner or later they will have to dig your ancestral grave with a hoe. ”
Xu Shiyou's idea is very simple, he did not see grain as a commodity,
He just wanted the people to have enough to eat
During the inspection, Xu Shiyou found that the rural areas in northern Jiangsu had long relied on government supply, and the peasants' enthusiasm for production was not high.
Xu Shiyou felt that allowing farmers to plant some land for themselves, raise some chickens and ducks, and engage in some family side businesses would not affect the regulations, but also improve the enthusiasm for production and enable people to eat enough.
Xu Shiyou's driver told Xu Shiyou that when he went home to visit his relatives, he found that the Dongtai Revolutionary Committee in his hometown was only allowed to keep one chicken per family, and if there was more than one, it would be confiscated.
Xu Shiyou was very angry when he heard this,
"There is no writing in the Marxist-Leninist book that farmers are not allowed to raise chickens, nor is it written that people are not allowed to plant their own land and engage in family side businesses! The party's policy is to let the people live a good life, how can we raise a chicken, don't engage in dogmatism! ”
Tu 丨 Xu Shiyou's Lunan Eighth Arsenal
Soon, Xu Shiyou held a meeting of cadres at and above the county level in the province to discuss the development of rural production and unify the cognition of leaders at all levels.
This time, he also specifically criticized the practice of the Eastern Taiwan Revolutionary Committee and talked about the necessity and importance of rural family side business.
"If rural families can't even eat an egg for the New Year, will there still be eggs in the city?" What a socialist superiority! I don't believe that raising a few chickens can turn into capitalism! ”
The meeting dispelled the rules and regulations in the minds of cadres at all levels, and the family side business in rural Jiangsu was quickly developed, and it was not only self-sufficient, but even supplied to all parts of the country.
and the story of "Good Eight Company"
In addition to caring about whether the people can eat enough, Xu Shiyou is also particularly concerned about the diet of the soldiers.
Xu Shiyou has been a soldier all his life, and the last thing he wants is to let the soldiers go hungry to train to fight and defend the country.
Picture 丨 Xu Shiyou and Hao Balian group photo
One morning in the winter of 1962, Xu Shiyou took a jeep to the "Good Eight Company on Nanjing Road".
After getting out of the car, he did not go to the company headquarters nor to the dormitory, but went straight to the dormitory, he wanted to see what the soldiers ate.
At that time, the cooking class was preparing lunch, the staple food was pumpkin porridge, Xu Shiyou took the spatula from the cooking class leader's hand, stirred it in the pot a few times and asked, "Eat porridge, can the soldiers eat enough?" ”
The company commander next to him replied, "Report chief, you can eat enough." ”
Xu Shiyou said angrily,
"Fart! Talk nonsense! Can I eat pumpkin porridge? How to stand guard when eating pumpkin porridge? ”
The company commander said hesitantly, "The grain ration is not enough, and the vegetable money is also small..."
Xu Shiyou left a word,
"Even if you smash pots and sell iron, let the warriors eat!" After saying that, he left.
The company blew a whistle, and Xu Shiyou walked into the canteen and asked the soldiers, "Are you full?" ”
The warriors replied in a loud voice, "Eat enough!" ”
Xu Shiyou shook his head,
"No! You don't have enough to eat!" Can you fool me and fool your own stomach? ”
Then, Xu Shiyou sat down and had lunch with the soldiers of the Eighth Company, and this meal brought many soldiers to tears.
Tu 丨 Xu Shiyou gave the good eight consecutive flags
After leaving the Good Eighth Company, Xu Shiyou has been worried about the food problems of the soldiers, and he asked the logistics department to supplement the Good Eighth Company with 2,000 kilograms of rice.
However, at that time, the economic difficulties could not be made up for a while, and it could not be made up for a lifetime.
Xu Shiyou thought of a way,
He instructed the local leaders to set aside a vegetable field for the Eighth Company in the suburbs and build a pig farm so that the soldiers of the Eighth Company could rely on themselves and solve the problem of food subsidies.
This method really increased the company's food level by a large margin.
In 1985, Xu Shiyou went to Shanghai to see a doctor, and specially returned to Haobalian, which was six months before his death, Xu Shiyou, who was found to have an incurable disease, came back with the intention of saying goodbye on his deathbed.
After arriving at the Eighth Company, Xu Shiyou looked particularly happy to see the new generation of cadres and soldiers, and he excitedly explained the glorious traditions to all the officers and men, and also cordially greeted everyone to take a group photo.
Xu Shiyou offered to let the cadres' families also come out to take a photo together, "Call your wife and children, this is like a family." ”
He walked around, looked around, touched the soldiers' mats and quilts when he came to the dormitory, asked if it was cold to sleep, came to the cooking class, looked at the food, and asked the soldiers if they could eat now.
When he left the Good Eight Lian, Xu Shiyou left a word,
"Good eight consecutive, the future will definitely be better!"
Picture 丨 Xu Shiyou's family
Xu Shiyou came out from the bottom step by step, so he was more concerned about the national economy and people's livelihood, and his wish was not only that he could eat enough and no longer be hungry, but that the people and warriors of all China could get better and better.