In 1997, the Bank of China accidentally discovered a foreign exchange deposit of unknown origin during an audit.
The principal of this amount, which was £12,000, was deposited in 1967 and has not been withdrawn for 30 years, plus 30 years of interest of nearly £20,000.
After some investigation, the staff was surprised to find that the deposit was deposited in the name of Premier Zhou Enlai.
If calculated according to the exchange rate at that time, 12,000 pounds was converted into 82,308 yuan, while premier Zhou's monthly salary at that time was 400 yuan, which was undoubtedly a huge amount of money at that time.
Premier Zhou
Premier Zhou has always been honest and honest, with clean sleeves, and his family's savings have hardly exceeded 10,000 yuan in decades, and as long as the savings exceed 5,000 yuan, he will immediately pay the extra money to the party.
Even if the savings do not exceed 5,000 yuan, Premier Zhou will sometimes spend thousands of yuan to help relatives in his hometown, leaving behind only enough money for daily living expenses.
So why did Premier Zhou have such a huge amount of money? The staff conducted an investigation according to the regulations, which accidentally opened up a past from decades ago, and the results of the investigation also moved everyone to tears.
British clerk of the Bank of China
Traveling more than half a century, we returned to London, England during World War II.
In 1940, German troops, already sweeping across Europe, began to look at British territory across the English Channel.
In order to combat the British will to resist, the Luftwaffe carried out a ten-month-long bombing of British territory, and the British capital London was not spared.
Many local companies went out of business, and the London branch of the Bank of China, set up in London, continued to struggle under bomber fire to raise funds for the war at home.
One day, a 22-year-old British girl Dolly came to the branch office and wanted to apply for a job, and the staff learned that the company where the girl had worked before was in the same building, the company was closed due to bombing, and the girl had to find another job in order to make a living.
After a professional examination, the girl was successfully hired by the bank and became a counter cashier.
At that time, many Chinese seafarers worked in clubs founded by the Kuomintang, and their salaries were allocated and paid at the London branch of the Bank of China.
These seafarers' families in China are not very wealthy, and coupled with the social unrest caused by the War of Resistance Against Japan, many seafarers' families are living beyond their means and are extremely difficult.
When some seafarers first came to London to work, they also sent their wages home every month, and then over time they became infected with the bad habit of eating, drinking and gambling in Britain, and their monthly wages were squandered.
All this is seen by dolly, a kind and righteous English girl.
She told the seafarers that if they were willing to send their wages back to their homes in China, she could help them reduce the corresponding handling fees, which really reduced the bad habit of seafarers to spend lavishly.
In the past few years of work, Dolly has become more and more skilled in business, and at the same time, she has also deepened her understanding of Chinese culture and China's War of Resistance Against Japan.
When she learned about the crimes committed by the Japanese on the land of China, she felt indignant, deeply sympathetic to the suffering of the Chinese people, and also sincerely admired the indomitable resistance spirit of the Chinese nation.
In 1944, after suffering many huge defeats in the Pacific Theater, in order to consolidate its aggressive rule in China, it began to increase its troops on a large scale to the Chinese battlefield in an attempt to eliminate China's anti-Japanese forces in one fell swoop.
The Chinese army tried its best to resist, the battle was extremely fierce, and the War of Resistance Against Japan entered an extremely difficult period.
In order to raise more funds for China's anti-war cause, the Bank of China set up a special donation box at its London branch, hoping that the descendants of Huaxia in Britain would be able to help China's anti-war cause.
Once the donation box was set up, many Chinese and overseas Chinese in London were generous, and Dolly, who worked at the London branch of the Bank of China, also resolutely took out her one-month salary and invested in the donation box.
Seeing that many people have donated money to China's anti-war cause, Dolly is very happy in her heart, and she believes that with the support of so many people, China's anti-war cause will surely achieve the final victory in the near future.
However, what she never expected and was quite angry was that the Kuomintang officials in charge of managing the donation box at that time secretly stuffed some donations into their own pockets and took the patriotic money of the Chinese and overseas Chinese to enrich their own pockets.
Filled with righteous indignation, Dolly could not sit idly by, so she took advantage of the fact that kuomintang officials were not in the bank, she secretly changed a lock for the donation box and placed the key on the desk in the manager's office.
Soon the Kuomintang officials found out that the lock had been replaced, so they strictly ordered the bank manager to investigate the matter thoroughly, and finally the bank found out that the matter was Dolly's doing, and the official immediately put pressure on the manager to fire Dolly.
Dolly told the manager the reason for changing the lock, and scolded the Kuomintang official for his corruption and selfishness, and the bank manager expressed understanding of Dolly's good motives and admired her good work performance, but under pressure from the Kuomintang officials, he still planned to dismiss Dolly.
At this time, a righteous Chinese boy working in the bank, Liu Benkun (kūn), stood up and righteously defended Dolly in front of the manager, pointing out how immoral the manager's dismissal of Dolly was and difficult to serve the public in the bank.
With liu Benkun's help, Dolly was eventually able to stay at the bank and continue working.
Dolly and Liu Benkun
Dolly is very grateful for the help that Liu Benkun gave her, and at the same time she is also a little curious about the Chinese guy himself.
In the days that followed, the two not only enthusiastically helped each other at work, but also got closer and closer after work, often meeting to eat, read and walk together.
Over time, Liu Benkun was attracted by the british girl's industriousness, kindness and sense of justice, and Dolly gradually became fond of the honest and considerate Chinese boy in front of her.
The two fell in love and sparked love in their day-to-day relationship, and eventually the two married in London in 1949 and gave birth to a son after marriage.
Although Dolly has not been to China, but after learning about China from her husband's mouth, she has become more and more yearning for Chinese culture, and at her request, Liu Benkun gave her a Chinese named Liu Daorui.
Renounce british citizenship for China
In 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army led the people to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang dictatorship, and on October 1, New China and the Central People's Government were proclaimed.
At this time, after a long period of war and chaos in China, the society was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt, and it was in urgent need of social construction, and social construction was inseparable from a large amount of funds as support.
Therefore, the Central People's Government set up a general management office at the Bank of China and issued a circular to the overseas branches, ordering the freezing of all assets of the Kuomintang reactionary government and waiting for the new China to take over.
Liu Benkun had long learned from his relatives at home that the Communist Party was truly a party for the people and a completely different existence from the corrupt and incompetent Kuomintang.
However, he was indignant that the president of the London branch refused to carry out the orders of the head office, wanted to transfer all the bank's assets to the Kuomintang in Taiwan, and in order to hide his eyes, he also dismissed most of the employees, leaving less than ten people to remain.
For the patriotic Liu Benkun, he resolutely disagreed with the president's approach and refused to carry out all the governor's orders.
In addition, he secretly contacted four other patriotic employees in the bank, and the five of them formed an uprising group in the bank.
After a struggle with the governor, the rebel group eventually managed to protect the assets and hand over its management to the new Chinese government.
To this end, Liu Benkun was appointed by the head office of the Bank of China as the assistant manager of the London branch, at this time Liu Benkun, who had been abroad for many years, was eager to return to the embrace of the motherland, so he wrote to the leaders of the head office many times, expressing his hope to return to China, and his wife was willing to return with him.
Although Liu Daorui knows that the conditions in China are far inferior to those in London, England, and their children have already started schooling in London, the psychology of loving the house and Wu has already made Liu Daorui yearn for Chinese culture, so he also hopes to be able to go to China with her husband to live.
In order to show her determination, Liu Daorui made a decision that surprised her relatives and friends, and she resolutely gave up her British citizenship and took the initiative to apply for Chinese nationality.
In the end, Liu Daorui finally overcame many difficulties and officially became a Chinese citizen in 1957.
However, at this time, New China still needed financial talents like Liu Benkun to maintain the financial cause of the motherland overseas, and the head office hoped that Liu Benkun would temporarily stay in London to work.
Although the couple felt some regret, they also understood this, so they continued to contribute to the London branch.
Later, in 1967, the head office finally agreed to Liu Benkun's return to China, and the overjoyed couple immediately prepared for returning to China.
At this time, they already had their own property and car in London, in order to be able to return to China as soon as possible, Liu Benkun and his wife sold all kinds of household appliances and furniture, and if they could not sell, they directly gave them away.
Eager to return home, the two sold a high-end apartment worth more than 40,000 pounds in the center of London for more than 10,000 pounds, and then embarked on the journey back home with all the money.
After returning to China, the head office immediately arranged a new job for the couple, Liu Benkun was arranged in the international department, and Liu Daorui participated in the production of documents in the European and American groups.
Although in a new cultural environment, Liu Daorui quickly adapted, because of her excellent work performance, she was quickly promoted to a team leader, in the work, she has always asked her subordinates to be meticulous, even if someone writes a wrong word on the document, she will make a harsh criticism.
This was extremely harsh in the eyes of many employees at the time, but for herself, she was always strict, and whenever she encountered an urgent matter that required overnight overtime, Liu Daorui alone could top the workload of two people, which made the team members extremely admired.
A huge amount of £12,000
At that time, the cause of social construction in the motherland was in full swing, and all places needed the support of the state's financial resources, so Liu Benkun and Liu Daorui and their husband and wife decided to donate the 12,000 pounds of foreign exchange savings brought back from the United Kingdom to the state for social construction.
Liu Daorui
However, at that time, the mainland did not have this type of official donation channel, so after consideration, the two directly sent the passbook anonymously to Premier Zhou, and attached an anonymous letter.
After Premier Zhou, who received the email, opened the envelope, he saw a simple sentence written on the letter in neat handwriting: Support the national economy and use it for social construction.
Premier Zhou was both touched and surprised by this, according to the exchange rate at the time, 12,000 pounds converted into more than 80,000 yuan, and Premier Zhou's monthly salary at that time was only 400 yuan, which was undoubtedly a huge amount of 12,000 pounds at that time.
Premier Zhou
Premier Zhou handed the passbook to the staff around him and said: "The patriotism is commendable, but the individual's deposit cannot be collected by the state, and the sender will be found as soon as possible and the money and goods will be returned to the original owner." ”
Liu Benkun and his wife had long anticipated that Premier Zhou Enlai might refuse to accept the donation, so they used a pseudonym when sending the mail, and the address was only filled in the post office address of the mail, and the staff still did not have any clue after trying to find it.
Unable to find the owner of the huge amount of money for the time being, Premier Zhou decided to keep the money on his behalf first, and then return it to the original owner after finding the owner of the money in the future.
But later, because of the delay in finding the source of the funds, the money was gradually forgotten in the years.
Premier Zhou
In 1976, Premier Zhou Enlai died of illness with concern for the motherland and the people, and the £12,000 donation from Liu And his wife that the premier had staff store in the Bank of China remained untouched in the bank of China.12 million pounds.
It was not until 1997, when the Bank of China checked the accounts, that it discovered this deposit of unknown origin, and later when it was figured out that the money was an anonymous donation received by Premier Zhou that year, the bank traced the source and continued to inquire about the origin of the money.
After some investigation, the bank finally learned that the owners of this huge amount of money were Liu Benkun and his wife, and when the staff found the couple and wanted to return the money to the original owner, they said that they would not accept anything.
Although the couple held important positions in the bank before retirement, they lived simply, were not rich for many years, and in their later years they were even more sick and weak, but they firmly stated that the money had been donated to the state and had no reason to take it back, hoping that the state could use it for social construction.
After much deliberation, the couple and the bank came up with a way to get the best of both worlds, and they used the money to set up a foundation within the Bank of China in the name of Liu Daorui to reward employees who had made outstanding contributions to the bank, and this foundation has still played an important role to this day.
Liu Benkun and Liu Daorui
Liu Daorui lived in China with her husband for the rest of her life, and after some efforts and many applications, she eventually joined the Chinese Communist Party and gloriously became a member of the Chinese Communist Party who fought for the cause of communism.