In the spring of 1910, Zhou Enlai left Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, and did not return to his hometown for 66 years. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Huai'an County twice sent people to Beijing to meet Zhou Enlai, and twice invited Zhou Enlai to return to his hometown to see, but they were all politely rejected.
Zhou Enlai has always refused to return to his hometown, while his younger brother Zhou Enshou has always had the idea of "returning to the roots of the leaves", especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enshou more than once proposed to return to his hometown to see, but was stopped by Zhou Enlai.
Once, when Zhou Enshou pleaded with Zhou Enlai to let him return to his hometown, he whimpered and said, "Brother, then you don't plan to go home to see?" ”
Zhou Enlai said emphatically, "No plan! ”
Zhou Enshou could only speak helplessly and somewhat desolately: "Alas, it seems that only after I die, I will send the ashes back and bury them in the place where I planted vegetables when I was a child in the backyard of our hometown, so that I can feel homesick..."
Why didn't Zhou Enlai go back to his hometown and didn't allow his brother to go back? Is there a reason for this?
Let's uncover the reasons why Zhou Enlai didn't return home for 66 years!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Zhou Enlai have homesickness? </h1>
At that time, Zhou Enlai, who was only 12 years old, left his hometown and went to the northeast with his three cousins who went home to visit his relatives, and entered the school under the arrangement of his uncle. After graduating from university, he traveled across the ocean to study abroad, and after returning from studying abroad, he devoted himself to the revolutionary cause and has been following the organization to make revolutions. After the founding of new China, he has been working and living in Beijing.
His younger brother Zhou Enshou also went out to study after Zhou Enlai left home for 8 years, and later became a revolutionary under the influence of his older brother. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enshou's family also set up a home in Beijing with his brother.
It is said that the homeland is difficult to leave, especially when people who are far away from the homeland reach their old age, the homesickness will be particularly strong, and they will always find ways to return to their hometown to see, just like Zhou Enshou.
But Zhou Enlai has always refused to return to his hometown, does he really not miss his hometown? Is he really such a "stone heart"?
In 1958, the deputy county magistrate of Huai'an County was entrusted by the county party committee to go to Beijing to meet Zhou Enlai. When chatting with Zhou Enlai, he took the opportunity to invite Zhou Enlai to go back to his hometown to see, but Zhou Enlai said with great feelings: "I don't want to go back to see, once, I dreamed that I was rowing in Wenqu in Nanjing Meiyuan New Village, and when I woke up, I thought, In the future, when the whole country is liberated, I must go back to see." But how many things are waiting for us to do over the years.
Sometimes I am busy at work, encounter special things, difficult troubles, nervous Enough to even eat, feel that I can't sleep, I really want to go back immediately to meet a few childhood friends, climb the drum tower, fly kites..."
As he spoke, Zhou Enlai's eyes had tears...
Soon, Zhou Enlai finished his work and flew back to Beijing from Guangzhou. When he learned that the plane would pass through Huai'an, he asked the captain: "When you are about to reach the sky over Huai'an, can you pull down some heights for me to see my hometown?" ”
When the plane arrived over Huai'an, Zhou Enlai looked down at his hometown through the window, his excited expression, worried like a child who had not returned home for a long time, and saw his mother who had long been missing. That scene moved everyone present.
The captain asked, "Prime Minister, do you want to circle around another week and let you take a closer look?" ”
Zhou Enlai shook his head and said, "No, it will cost more gasoline, let's rush back to Beijing." ”
In the spring of 1960, Huai'an County once again commissioned someone to visit Zhou Enlai in Beijing, and the visitors again invited Zhou Enlai to return to his hometown to have a look. And Zhou Enlai still said with great emotion: "Yes, I also want to go back to see it!" Leaving Huai'an at the age of 12, it has been a full 50 years this year, but there are many things to do, only when there is time to talk about it! ”
Therefore, Zhou Enlai did not want to miss his hometown, did not want to go back, he missed his hometown very, very much, he always wanted to go back to see, to see his relatives at home and friends when he was young!
why <h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > has refused to return to his hometown? </h1>
Zhou Enlai has always been worried about his hometown, but he has never taken the step home, in addition to busy work, there are three reasons:
When Zhou Enshou proposed to Zhou Enlai that he wanted to return to his hometown, he asked: "Brother, you are the premier, and you are suspected of honoring your ancestors when you go back. ”
Zhou Enlai said very affirmatively: "Just because you are Zhou Enlai's younger brother!" If you think about it, if you go back, can the county party committee not send someone to receive you and accompany you? Why would you want to do something that would obviously increase the burden and trouble for the local comrades?! ”
Not engaging in specialness is a principle that Zhou Enlai has always emphasized, and he has set strict demands on himself, but also does not allow his relatives to make exceptions. Therefore, knowing that returning to his hometown will inevitably cause specialization, he chose to bury his thoughts deep in his heart. While not going back to the local government added trouble and burden, he also did not allow his brother to go back. Here's a reason!
In July 1963, when Zhou Enlai gave a report to graduates of beijing colleges and universities, he said of how to pass the "five passes" well: "When I joined the revolution, not a single relative came to me. After liberation, I came to Beijing, became the premier, and all came, and there were 100 people. ”
Of course, the people who came to zhou Enlai when he was "flying yellow and tengda" were nothing more than people who wanted to get special care, and Zhou Enlai was quite helpless about this. In particular, the Zhou family was once a large feudal family, with many relatives, and the ideas of the older generation were more or less passed down in their thinking.
If Zhou Enlai returned to his hometown, it is conceivable how those who wanted to build relations would brag and how they would use their relationship with Zhou Enlai to ask for a special relationship with the local government for themselves. It is precisely because of this that Zhou Enlai later said this when talking about the "five passes" again at the forum:
I often say that reform does not exclude the Communist Party, but places ourselves in it. Everyone has to be transformed until he is old, until he dies, and this is a complete revolutionary. ...... On the issue of relatives, I made up my mind after the founding of the country. I said, don't go back to my house for a while..."
Therefore, Zhou Enlai did not want to go back, he was afraid that if he went back, he would cause unnecessary trouble and make the local government stressed. In order to avoid the above situation, he simply did not go back. This is the second reason.
Because he had suffered from feudal etiquette since he was a child, Zhou Enlai hated feudalism the most in his life, and he also said: As long as I am alive, I am not allowed to engage in those so-called forms of returning to my hometown and honoring my ancestors.
And once he returns, such a ritual is unavoidable. This is also the third reason why he does not return to his hometown!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > not being able to return to my hometown has become the biggest regret! </h1>
When Zhou Enlai was alive, Zhou Enshou did not have the opportunity to return to his hometown in Huai'an, and after Zhou Enlai's death, Zhou Enshou was damaged by being imprisoned for eight years in the great movement, and he could not go back, which became one of his biggest regrets.
Before his death, he said emotionally to his wife Wang Shiqin: "After I die, you will send my ashes back to Huai'an, and the place where I planted vegetables when I was a child in the backyard of my hometown will be deeply rational, so that I can return to my hometown to see..."
"Returning to his hometown" was Zhou Enshou's greatest wish in his later years, but until his death, he could not return to the homeland where his soul had been haunted. This is also some of the sacrifices he is destined to make as Zhou Enlai's younger brother!
Although Zhou Enlai did not express regret that he had not been able to return to his hometown when he was alive, it can be seen from what he said that this regret has always remained in his heart.
When the younger brother's voice trembled, he asked him: "Brother, it has been nearly fifty years since I returned to my homeland, don't you miss home at all?" ”
He said to his brother: "The homeland is difficult to leave, I am also a person, I also have feelings, how can I not want to be home!" There are still our grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers and aunts buried there, and they haven't returned for decades, and I don't know how tall the tree at the head of the grave has grown! ”
His hometown had his grandfather and grandmother, his biological mother and the adoptive mother who raised him, and he always missed these relatives. He is very grateful to the two mothers for their love and careful teaching from childhood.
It has been decades since I left home, but in my lifetime, I have not been able to go to the grave of my dearest relatives, and what a guilt it is for a person who values filial piety more than anything else!
However, he is a leader, the interests of the people are the first factors he has to consider, and at the same time he is a selfless man, and when his own interests conflict with the interests of the people, he does not hesitate to choose to protect the interests of the people.
For the sake of his beloved people, he did not even realize his simple wish to "go home and see"! Zhou Enlai's life has always been contributing and embarrassing!