Little is known: The long-established Liubiju was once an underground secret contact point

From: Frontline Client

Liubiju is a sauce garden founded by the Zhao brothers in Linfen Xidu Village in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and initially monopolized the first six of the "seven things" that opened the door, so it was called Liubiju, and pickles were only one of them. Later, pickles became famous, the shop specialized in selling pickles, and the meaning of the three words of Liu Biju also changed, that is, the straw rice biqi, using the grain of rice with neat particles and uniform color as raw materials; the tillers must be timed, and the fermentation of koji should be mastered; Zhan blanching must be clean, and the cooking tools must be cleaned with boiling water or roasted; the pottery must be good, and the ceramic utensils used in production must be of excellent quality; the fire must be obtained, and the production operation process must be strictly mastered; the water spring must be fragrant to ensure that the production water is clear and sweet.

Liubiju is not only a prestigious Chinese time-honored brand, but also a red stronghold during the underground party period; it inherits both the six hundred years of commercial handicraft civilization and the century-old red gene.

In 1945, Liubiju established an underground party branch. This time coincided with the establishment of the Pingping Committee (Peking Underground Party Civilian Working Committee) in September 1945. After the establishment of the Liubiju underground party branch, under the leadership of the beiping underground party organization, a lot of work was done.

Liubiju is the secret contact point for underground party activities in Peiping. According to Zhao Fan, who worked in the Beiping Ping Committee in April 1946 and was the secretary of the Pingping Committee, recalled: "I first went to the city to meet Liu Zhi, who was in charge of the oil and salt shop industry of the underground party, and in order to facilitate my work, Liu Zhi found a place to connect with me, in a pickle garden on the west side of Niujie South Head Road, where Zhang Xizeng, an underground party member, worked as a foreman. This is a pickle workshop, the yard is quite large, full of large tanks, in the autumn when the cylinder is loaded, hire temporary workers to work for a while, usually only two people to watch over, turn over the tank, no one comes and goes, very secluded. As a place of activity for the underground party, in order to avoid exposure, there were important things to come here to discuss, and I appeared as a trader again, and did not attract attention. ”

In the early days of Liubiju, a group of shop assistants received education in revolutionary ideals, joined the party organization, and contributed to the party's cause. The reason for the formation of a long history, Beiping handicraft workers and shop assistants have a very obvious feature, that is, the workers in an industry are almost all from the same village, and most of their hometowns are in the rural areas of certain counties in Hebei Province. The workers in the bath, haircut, and laundry industries are almost all from Xushui, Dingxing, Yixian, Tangxian, and Laishui; most of the workers in the briquette factory are from Wanping, Fangshan, and other counties; the weavers are from Gaoyang and Lixian counties; and the carpenters and masons are mostly from Wuqiang and Shenxian counties. Most of the clerks of Liubiju are from Tang County, Hebei Province, Wanxian County (now renamed Shunping County) and other liberated areas, and the local county party committee has taken advantage of the opportunity for them to go home to visit their relatives and gather them together to run training courses, carry out education and training, explain the situation, explain policies, issue tasks, and find activists and develop party members. At that time, many places adopted this model of "open study classes and secretly recruit party members". The clerks of Liubiju went home to visit their relatives, received an early education in revolutionary ideals, understood the revolutionary principles, and some even joined the Communist Party. After returning to the shop, they propagated and united the masses at their respective posts and actively carried out revolutionary struggles.

Liubiju actively participated in the revolutionary struggle of the oil and salt shop industry. Before liberation, there were more than 1,650 large and small oil and salt shops in Beiping, with about 20,000 shop staff, and the workers in this industry were exploited and oppressed by the management and extorted by guilds and foremen, and the labor and living conditions were extremely difficult. In order to survive, workers waged a larger struggle for wages in kind.

There was a guild organization in the oil, salt, sauce and vinegar industry called the Oil, Salt, Sauce and Vinegar Guild, which was recognized by the Kuomintang authorities and filed a case at the police station. This guild is nominally a workers' organization, but in fact all its activities are manipulated by the capitalists. Every year, March 24 of the lunar calendar is the day of the guild, which is a day off for all the employees of the industry stores, and the guild holds dinners, performances, etc. Before the 1946 guild, the Commission decided to use this legal organization to wage a legal struggle, demanding that the capitalists pay workers wages in kind. The Equality Commission proposed that the struggle should be rational, beneficial and disciplined. After the underground party organization had done its work to the head of the meeting in advance, the head of the meeting read out three conditions put forward to the capitalists in the name of the guild: First, the wage in kind should be implemented, with 150 catties of corn as the standard for the wage in kind; second, the workers should not be dismissed at will on the cabinet, and the dismissal or employment of workers must obtain the consent of the head of the meeting; and the third was that the two months' wages paid to each worker at the end of the year were paid as dividends. As soon as the conditions were read, the crowd in the venue boiled over and everyone applauded. After the meeting, the capitalists of the Liubiju Oil and Salt Shop and the Dasheng Oil and Salt Shop did not agree to the workers' conditions, and the Party members and workers of Liubiju slacked off and went on strike. At this time, it is the peak season of pickled vegetables, and it is also the backbone of making vinegar "hair cellar yeast", and the capital is afraid of messing up the business and agrees to the workers' requirements. Liubiju is a famous big brand in the oil and salt shop industry, driven by the influence of Liubiju, all oil and salt stores have also launched a struggle and achieved the victory of capital increase.

Liu Biju supports the Communist Party, supports the revolutionary cause, and plays an exemplary and leading role in socialist transformation and construction. Zhao Zhizhong, the old man, had been the principal of a primary school in his hometown, was a cultural man, and was very enlightened; he supported Liu Biju through two emperors, three regimes, ten presidents, and seven regents, experienced the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, the Boxer Rebellion, the Xinhai Revolution, the Beiyang warlord scuffle, and later the Northern Expedition War, experienced the ups and downs of Liu Biju from prosperity to decline, and from decline to prosperity, and his performance in handling the Gengzi Incident liubiju was even more rumored to be a good story.

Zhao Zhizhong had four sons. In the nineteenth year of the Republic of China (1930), the third son, Zhao Lin, took over the position of Liubiju Pudong (equivalent chairman) from him. Zhao Lin was 15 years old (1889) and went to Beijing with his father to apprentice in Liubiju, and at the age of 27 (1901), he was hired as the "QuanDechang" Shop East and Lingdong (manager). "Quan Dechang" is a business name that deals in dried fruits, snacks and other goods, and its address is under the East Fourth Arch. Zhao Lin is also the owner of Liuzhen Shop, and has set up a joint venture with a friend in Tianjin to open a "Wanxingkui" business mainly engaged in paper stationery and other stationery, each accounting for half of the shares. Zhao Lin's management ability can be seen from this.

After Zhao Lin took over as Pudong, he attended two gatherings of all employees in Liubiju every year, once on the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in the summer, and once on the twelfth day of the lunar month after the Winter Spring Festival. Zhao Lin also served as the president of the Beiping Linfen Chamber of Commerce, promoting the culture of Jinshang, adhering to the concept of integrity, and struggling to support Liu bi in the chaotic world in the midst of turmoil.

Zhao Lin took over the position of Liubiju Pudong from his father Zhao Zhizhong, and also inherited his father's values of enlightenment, honesty, and hardship, as well as his strong will and tenacious perseverance. Unlike the enlightenment of his ancestors, Zhao Lin's enlightenment has a clear political stance. Zhao Lin likes to read books, read newspapers and listen to radio, see clearly the general trend of social and historical development and the situation of revolutionary struggle, support the Communist Party, and support the revolutionary struggle. Before the peaceful liberation of Peiping on January 31, 1949, he donated his family's two two-entry quadrangle properties near Dongsi Santiao and Beihai to the underground COMMUNIST Party organization.

In January 1949, Zhao Lin was seriously ill and sent to the North North Hospital on Fuyou Street for treatment, and died on the 18th. When the two sons were not around because they joined the revolution, the underground party organization of the CCP came forward to take care of Zhao Lin's aftermath, and assisted the daughter who came from her hometown with her son to transport the body back to her hometown linfen Xidu village for burial.

After Zhao Lin's death, because both sons joined the revolution, he was succeeded by his nephew Zhao Yu (the grandson of Zhao Lin's second brother). Zhao Yu took over the post of Pudong and also took over Zhao Lin's ideas and positions of supporting the Communist Party and supporting socialist revolution and construction. In December 1954, in the process of socialist transformation of industry and commerce and public-private partnership, Liubiju, as one of the 10 pilot public-private partnership enterprises in Beijing, took the lead in public-private partnership, and signed the "Liubiju Joint Venture Agreement" on January 1, 1955. Driven by Liubiju and Zhao Yu, in January 1956, the pickle industry in Beijing realized an industry-wide public-private partnership, which promoted the rise of the upsurge of socialist transformation nationwide.

Liu biju has trained and transported backbone talents for the party and the revolution. Like his ancestors, Zhao Lin attaches special importance to the education of his children. In 1939, Zhao Lin took his two sons who dropped out of school in Linfen due to the Japanese occupation to Beijing to continue their studies, and the eldest son, Zhao Ruiji, and the second son, Zhao Guoji, after graduating from primary school, were successively admitted to Beiping Men's No. 4 Middle School (now Beijing No. 4 Middle School). During his time at school, Zhao Lin supported two children to participate in the school's progress club activities. Under the influence of the reds of their families, schools, and Liubiju, they all later embarked on the revolutionary road and contributed to the cause of revolution and construction, especially at different times and in different places and at different jobs for different matters, they were all received by Chairman Mao Zedong.

Author: Yu Wengang, member of Beijing Enterprise Cultural And Expo Association

Editor: Tan Ding