introduction:
In 1985, a strange old man in rags came to the door of the Shanxi provincial government.
He walked around the government gate with a dignified face.
This scene attracted the attention of the duty officer, who immediately asked the old man if there was any difficulty and needed help?
Who knew that the old farmer opened his mouth and said:
The government owes him 11 million!
The duty officer looked at the old man in front of him with a strange look, suspecting that he had come to defraud him.
Then the old farmer trembled and took out the yellowed IOU in his pocket and said:
“
Leader, you see, this IOU is written on it, is it still counted
？”
After receiving the crumpled note, the duty officer immediately realized that things were not simple.
Because the note reads:
The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army now borrowed Guo Mingyang's 11 million French currency, which was returned after the war.
And the IOU is stamped with the government's red seal.
What's going on? Why did the government owe the old farmer 11 million?
Origin of IOUs
It turned out that the old man's name was Guo Jianying, and this IOU belonged to his grandfather Guo Mingyang.
Guo Mingyang lived in the war years, different from the poor life of his descendants, his life at that time was still very rich.
Counting up, Guo Mingyang was also a landlord and a well-known "coal boss" at that time.
However, although he is a landlord, Guo Mingyang can also do it without staining the mud, and he never oppresses the people.
At that time, people were willing to plant his family's land and work in his factory.
Whenever the harvest is not good, Guo Mingyang will always take the initiative to reduce the rent of the land and distribute the grain stored in his family to everyone, so that the tenants do not have to work so hard.
When he heard which family needed help, he always took the initiative to help.
Such a great benevolent person, the most hated thing in his life is the reactionaries who oppress the people, and the little devils who invade our territory.
Guo Mingyang greatly appreciated our army, which wholeheartedly did things for the people, and often took the initiative to help our army.
At that time, our army held a very high position in the hearts of the people, and the people were willing to take the initiative to help our army in doing things.
Seeing that our army is very popular and the momentum is getting higher and higher, the Kuomintang reactionaries cannot sit still, and they know that what our army is most short of is grain, so they take it into account.
That's a policy of sucking money:
The people are not allowed to send food to our army free of charge, and if they are discovered, they are immediately arrested.
However, under his policy, there was no way to stop the people's respect for our army, and there were still people who secretly delivered food to our army.
Seeing this phenomenon, we were touched by the help of the people to us, and in addition, the people's lives are not easy, and our army does not want to accept gifts from the people free of charge, and has clearly formulated eight regulations, and we must not take the people with a needle and a thread.
Under strict discipline, the troops of our army no longer accepted the people's food.
But then another phenomenon appeared, the troops were uncertain all year round, often had to face enemy fire, which was a huge physical exertion for the soldiers.
Many young warriors often did not have enough to eat, were hungry and dizzy, and simply did not have the strength to fight.
Seeing this phenomenon, our army put forward a new policy, that is, everyone can borrow grain from the people, but we must leave an IOU and agree on a return date.
In fact, at that time, the people who lent grain to our army did not want them to pay back the grain, and this IOU was often treated as an heirloom and treasured.
Guo Mingyang's IOU was obtained at such a time.
It was at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and our army was in a state of flux.
The Japanese have long seen their imminent defeat, but they are still unwilling to tie their hands and want to fight the beasts.
They plan to make a desperate bet, collect a large amount of grain in the local area, and even burn and loot in order to obtain food.
Countless innocent people have lost their lives to the enemy, and a unit of our army tracks down this group of enemies, ready to cut the grass and remove the roots.
However, under the long journey, the food of our army troops was in short supply, and the logistics of food could not be supplied at all.
In order to fill their stomachs, the warriors ate the belt, but the belt also had a day when they ate it, and they could only nibble on the bark and eat the grass roots.
Even so, the warriors were starving to Venus.
There is only one way for our army to face this, and that is:
Borrow food locally!
However, the local people have just been looted by the little devils, and where is the grain?
Just as the thousand guns were about, Guo Mingyang heard about the shortage of grain in our army, and he didn't even think about it, so he wanted to help our army buy grain.
In the war years, food was so precious.
Although Guo Mingyang was a landlord with a lot of money, he could not support the grain of a troop.
In desperation, he gritted his teeth, sold his family property, scraped together enough 1,100 French dollars, and sent 10 truckloads of grain to our army.
When he saw the grain, the commander of our regiment burst into tears.
For such a long time, seeing that the warriors were listless every day because they did not have enough to eat, his heart was also very uncomfortable, and Guo Mingyang's grain was like rain in time.
The regimental commander tightly held Guo Mingyang's hand, and he was unable to speak for a long time in excitement, and a thousand words turned into one sentence:
You wait for me here, and I'll write you an IOU to go.
”
Guo Mingyang's face suddenly changed, he grabbed the regimental commander and said angrily:
What do you mean? I'll bring you grain and IOU, so what do you think I am?"
Seeing Guo Mingyang's anger, the regimental commander quickly explained that this was a unit regulation, and Guo Mingyang could not stand the regimental commander, so he could only write an IOU.
But what he thought in his heart was that this IOU must be passed down in the future, left to the children as a souvenir, and told them never to come and ask for money.
Guo Jianying's words ended here, and only then did the staff know the origin of this IOU and could not help but respect his grandfather.
At this point, the identification experts were also nearing the end of their work, and they were sure that the IOU was genuine.
Hearing the professional appraisal results, Guo Jianying burst into tears and said in his mouth:
"My wife's illness has finally been saved! Finally saved!
The staff was attracted by his strange words and rushed to ask him what difficulties were encountered in his home?
Change is frequent
It turned out that after Guo Mingyang sold his property to support our army, there was only one ancestral house and one shop left in his home.
With these industries, Guo Mingyang plans to continue to work hard and re-accumulate the family business.
Because of his feats during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many people are known, everyone is willing to come to his shop to buy things, and business can be described as thriving.
On the street at that time, Guo Mingyang could be described as a monopoly.
His family business is booming, which naturally affects other family businesses, which causes great dissatisfaction among these bosses.
They know that only when Guo Mingyang's shop closes, they can have a glimmer of life.
So several shopkeepers got together and plotted the matter, and eventually they made a plan that was extremely sinister.
They buy goods in large quantities that are inexpensive but of unsurpassed quality, and even have expired goods.
Because the purchase price is low, they sell at a very low price.
Where do you know how to distinguish the schemes, coupled with the fact that people's incomes were not high at that time, they only knew whose price was low, so they went to whose house to buy things.
Guo Mingyang naturally knew that the things sold in these stores were shoddy, but he did not care to be with this group of people at all, and still maintained the quality of the goods.
However, after a long time, people went to the low-priced shop to buy things, and Guo Mingyang's shop was no longer patronized.
Soon, he could only sell the shop, leaving only an ancestral house to live.
The dissatisfaction of the business made Guo Mingyang depressed, and after selling it in the store,
Not really
How long it took him to fall seriously ill
Ridden
finish.
On the occasion of his death, he called Guo Jianying's father to his bedside, solemnly took out the IOU, handed it to him, and instructed him:
Don't worry about our army asking for money, they are the troops who really make decisions for the people
。 ”
And he died.
After Guo Mingyang's death, his father also worked hard to earn money and wanted to fill the family, but he still couldn't make ends meet.
Looking at the luxurious ancestral home in the family, my father could only bear to sell it.
With the rest of the money, my father returned to the countryside and lived a life of sunrise and sunset.
Although life is not as rich as it once was, the family is still very happy to live together.
In such a time, Guo Jianying was born.
When Guo Jianying grew up, he also became a farmer, and under the control of his father, he married his current wife, and the two lived happily after marriage.
Seeing that his son was living happily, Guo Jianying's father also left satisfied.
While he was lying on the hospital bed, following the example of his father, he solemnly summoned Guo Jianying, handed him the IOU, and instructed him:
This is your grandfather's IOU, his grandfather left a last wish, and posterity is not allowed to take the IOU to our army for money.
Great changes have taken place
Guo Jianying naturally listened to his father's words and solemnly locked the IOU inside the box and never opened it.
Although he and his wife lived in poverty, their lives were also prosperous, and soon after, they had a continuation of their lives.
But I didn't expect that God was not used to this happy family, but to let them experience many tribulations.
In the 1980s, Guo Jianying's wife suddenly fell ill!
Guo Jianying rushed to the hospital with his wife, but even if he spent all the family's savings, it was still to no avail.
The money needed for his wife's medical treatment is like an astronomical amount for Guo Jianying.
His wife advised Guo Jianying countless times not to use the money on himself and to leave the money for them to live in the future.
But after years of marital love, Guo Jianying was not willing to give up at all, so he began to borrow money everywhere.
Just then, he suddenly remembered the IOU at home.
He came to the Shanxi Provincial Government with the mood to try it out.
The staff inside the gate saw this strange old man and rushed forward to invite the old man into the house.
Unexpectedly, after entering the house, Guo Jianying still wanted to stop talking.
Under the patient inquiry of the staff, the old man finally said his purpose.
Trembling, he took a cloth pocket from his pocket, carefully opened it, a piece of yellowed paper, he unfolded the paper, and asked:
I just wanted to ask, does this still work?
The crowd hurriedly looked at the piece of paper and was surprised to find that it was actually an IOU, and the place where the IOU had landed was actually the old leader of our party.
After the staff saw the IOU, they did not know how to be good, and they quickly called the leader.
The leader saw that the IOU read:
Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army borrowed Guo Mingyang's 11 million French currency and promised to repay it after the war.
The bottom of the IOU is also stamped with the government's red seal, and this IOU looks a lot like the real thing.
The staff looked at the old man in front of him, his eyes were pure, but he still had a nervous face, the staff knew that he was afraid that his side would not recognize the account, and then comforted him:
Rest assured, we will check the authenticity of this IOU first, and if it is true, we will definitely pay you back in full.
Hearing the words of the staff, Guo Jianying's face suddenly changed, and he said:
I don't want to cause trouble for the country, but now that I can't live anymore, I remember this IOU and want to take the money back to live.
Guo Jianying's simple words greatly touched the staff, and the superior leaders also attached great importance to this matter, and quickly called experts to identify the authenticity of this IOU.
At the time of expert appraisal, the staff talked to him in order to ease the tension of the elderly.
After listening to the story of the elderly Guo Jianying, the staff was full of tears, touched by the deep affection between the two elderly people, and touched by the persistence of the three generations of the Guo family.
However, at that time, the IOU was calculated according to the legal tender, and now it is rmb, how should it be converted?
The staff could only let the elderly Guo Jianying return home to wait for the news.
Government officials discussed the conversion of fiat currency to renminbi.
At that time, the legal tender was issued by the National Government, and later, because of the large number of legal tender issued, which led to inflation, the legal tender depreciated quite quickly.
The so-called legal tender: it is legal tender and legal tender.
If you look at the value of the legal tender at that time, it can be said to be unreasonable.
In the end, everyone decided not to look at the currency, but to convert the existing renminbi into the grain sent by Guo Mingyang at that time.
In the end, Guo Jianying got 80,000 yuan.
At that time, eighty thousand yuan was not a small amount, and in that era, most people's wages were double digits.
When Guo Jianying got the money, he burst into tears of excitement and shouted incessantly:
My wife's illness was saved
However, after the excitement, his heart was full of guilt.
He had promised his father that he would keep the IOU, but he had given it away with his own hands, and he felt ashamed of his father.
In fact, how can we forget those who have helped us in times of crisis?
The local government stepped in to properly settle Guo Jianying's wife and sent her to the best local hospital.
The condition was quickly brought under control, and the smile on Guo Jianying's face grew.
After that, the government has not forgotten Guo Jianying, and often arranges for special people to visit him to help him solve his problems in life.
A small IOU carries the love of fish and water between our army and the people, and the persistence of the three generations of the Guo family has touched everyone.