Huai'an is a city of outstanding spirit in the Northern Jiangsu Plain, and has successively produced Han Xin, Wu Cheng'en, and Liu Hu.
Today's Huai'an scenery
On March 5, 1898, in the town's horse alley, the cries of babies broke the silence of the morning.
This baby, Zhou Enlai, will be the first premier of New China in fifty-one years.
Premier Zhou Enlai
First, family and childhood
Zhou Enlai's ancestral home was Shaoxing, and his grandfather Zhou Qikui became a Master of Shaoxing in order to make a living, and once traveled to Andong, Funing, Taoyuan, and Haizhou, and finally settled in Huai'an, living for more than fifty years.
He left behind four sons, the second son, Shao Gang, who was the father of Zhou Enlai.
His father, Zhou Shaogang, was kind and humble, and he found an errand with a monthly salary of less than 30 yuan. Her mother, Wan Dong'er, was born into a famous family, and was not only cheerful, shrewd and decisive, but also very capable of doing things.
Zhou Enlai was not yet one year old, and his fourth uncle was critically ill.
In order to let the younger brother have a queen, the father passed Enlai to the fourth uncle. Since then, he has been raised by the fourth uncle, Chen Shi.
Chen's quiet personality, benevolence and courtesy played an important role in the formation of Zhou Enlai's personality.
When he was six years old, Zhou Enlai's family moved to Qingjiangpu, his birth mother's hometown.
There are many families and contradictions, and Wan often goes to mediation personally. Zhou Enlai, who was an observer, subtly learned the method of reconciling interpersonal conflicts.
Young Zhou Enlai
At the same time, the family's financial situation is more strained, and they often rely on borrowing money to survive.
The poor life destroyed Wan's health, and Zhou Enlai, who was less than ten years old, often went to the pawnshop to store the goods in the house and tasted the heat and cold of the world. In exchange for money, I quickly went to the drug store to grab the medicine. Back at home, the medicine was fried and spoonfuls were fed to my mother.
But his efforts did not save his birth mother's life.
In 1907, Wan was gone.
In July of the following year, his heir apparent, Chen Shi, was killed by tuberculosis. Zhou Enlai became a child without a wife.
In order to pay off the debt and take care of the funeral, the biological father went to Hubei to seek an errand. Zhou Enlai took the two brothers, Enpu and Enshou, back to their hometown in Huai'an.
At that time, the third uncle Yikui was paralyzed, and the ten-year-old Zhou Enlai took care of the family's chai rice oil and salt.
The Zhou family is a typical feudal bureaucratic family, even if the inside is broken, it is still unable to put down its face. He "wanted to write down the birthdays and death dates of his relatives." When the time comes, you will also borrow money to give gifts.
The east and west families all have to go, and they have to kowtow everywhere (Zhou Enlai's conversation with his niece Zhou Bingde and other records in 1964).
Such a life, he gritted his teeth and held on for two years.
His uncle Zhou Yigeng became a clerk in the Fengtian Du Branch division, and his life was stabilized. He often received letters from his nephew En, who had no children, so he wrote to his nephew asking him to come to the northeast to live and study.
So, 12-year-old Zhou Enlai embarked on the road north.
2. For the rise of China
In the spring of 1910, The Three Cousins Zhou Yiqian arrived in the northeast. This year, Japan annexed Korea and was equally eyeing The Northeast.
This undoubtedly affected the young Zhou Enlai, who cared about current affairs and subscribed to the Shengjing Times, which was a must-read every day.
Shengjing Times
During the summer vacation, he visited the home of his classmate He Luzhen. His grandfather, He Dianjia, witnessed the fierce battle between the Japanese and Russian armies and the two armies, and he was heartbroken by it. He was dying of old age, and pinned his hopes for self-improvement on the teenager.
He wrote a "Gift to Zhou Enwen":
Pi Jizi was bone-chilling, later the Minister of the Six Kingdoms; Sima Tiqiao, who could finally ride a high car; Ban Chao threw pens, Guofeng Wanhu Hou; Zhang Liang was stoic and died in Han Shiye. Like the four kings, wouldn't you be a great husband?
Therefore, when the teacher of Dongguan Model Primary School asked the students why they were studying, some said that it was to get rich, and some said that Guangzong Yaozu, only he answered firmly:
"For the rise of China!"
Zhou Enlai in his youth
In school, Zhou Enlai achieved good results in all his homework, and his essays were often posted in a conspicuous position for students to watch. There is a "Speech on the Second Anniversary of Dongguan Model School" that was included in the "School Chinese Language Achievements" published by Shanghai Progress Bookstore.
Zhou Enlai has a gentle personality, but in the face of bullying, he will not bow his head and flinch.
When he first arrived in the northeast, he was scolded as "Southern Barbarian" because of his short stature and thick southern accent. He figured out how to make friends and form a united front with a group of skinny children to fight the villainous students.
In order to strengthen his body, he insisted on running and doing exercises in the cold wind, eating sorghum rice, growing bones, exercising his stomach, making his originally thin body strong, and laying the foundation for adapting to the difficult war years in the future.
3. Nankai School
In February 1913, his uncle was reappointed as a clerk in the Changlu Salt Transport Department, and Zhou Enlai moved to Tianjin.
Tianjin is an important industrial and commercial city in the modern north, and its advanced degree is comparable to that of the northeast.
At that time, although Nankai School was founded less than nine years ago, it had a considerable reputation. The reason is that its two founders, Yan Xiu and Zhang Boling, are open-minded and firmly committed to education to save the country.
In order to be admitted to this favorite school, Zhou Enlai made up English for three months and finally got his wish.
Entering Nankai, Zhou Enlai was eager to learn new knowledge, and in four years, he often won the first place.
Zhou Enlai in class (front row, first from left)
For various extracurricular activities, he also actively participated, he launched the "dedication music group meeting", contact the feelings of classmates, participated in the new troupe, in the new drama "One Dollar Money" men dressed as women, won the praise of Ping and Tianjin youth.
When enrolling, tuition and living expenses are supported by the uncle, but the uncle's income is meager, and the tuition fee is often not paid in time.
The school knows the situation and waives its tuition and miscellaneous fees, but the living expenses must be solved by itself.
In addition to trying to save as much as possible, he also carved wax paper, mimeographed, and copied lecture notes for the school in exchange for some remuneration.
The difficult situation made him have a deep empathy for the working people who lived equally hard, "seeing the world as hungry as his own hunger, drowning as himself." ”
For this student with excellent character and learning, principal Zhang Boling was very appreciative, and from time to time he was invited to his home for a long talk, and left him to eat small fish sticker cakes at noon. He often said that Zhou Enlai was the best student in Nankai. Zhou Enlai's admiration for him also remained unchanged for life.
In June 1917, Zhou Enlai graduated.
Where will he go after graduation?
Zhou Enlai decided to become an official student and go to Japan.
Zhou Enlai taking a group photo with his classmates during his study abroad in Japan (back row, first from the right)
Fourth, the Great River Song turned to the east
Japan and China share the same water, and have an agreement with the Beiyang government: all Chinese students who are admitted to designated Japanese colleges and universities will be treated with official fees until they return to China after completing their studies.
Therefore, there were many Chinese students studying in Japan at that time, including many students who graduated from Nankai.
Young Zhou Enlai
When he arrived in Japan, Zhou Enlai prepared to apply for the Tokyo Higher Normal School. But the situation at home is getting more and more difficult every day, making it impossible for him to study with peace of mind. The hardships of ordinary japanese life made him give up the idea of militarism to save China.
Lonely, he flipped through "New Youth".
Zhou Enlai
In his diary dated February 15, 1918, he excitedly wrote that "the remnants of the wind and snow are still unfinished, and a red sun has risen in the east." ”
In April of that year, Japan and Duan Qirui agreed to jointly send troops to suppress the Soviet Revolution. The news came, which triggered the indignation of a group of international students, and 400 people went on strike to return to China.
During this period, Zhou Enlai actively participated in the assembly and no longer had the heart to study, so he did not pass the exam.
In September of that year, there was a "rice riot" in Japan, and the sharp contradictions of Japanese society were exposed to Zhou Enlai, who had to think of a new way out considering China's future prospects.
In this context, he read Kawakami Zhao's "The Tale of Poverty" and Xingde Qiushui's "Socialist Essence", and was enlightened by socialist thought.
When the news came that Nankai School was preparing to establish a university department, he was determined to return to China.
In this way, Zhou Enlai, who lived in Japan for a year and a half, returned to the motherland with only the book of Kawakami Zhao.
5. Salvation and Faith
Zhou Enlai, who returned to China, soon caught up with the May Fourth Movement. Tianjin students held a strike. During this period, Zhou Enlai contacted Nankai alumni to oppose Cao Rulin's becoming a trustee.
On September 16, the Tianjin Federation of Students and the Tianjin Women's Patriotic Comrades Association decided to merge into a new group called the "Awakening Society", and Zhou Enlai drafted the Declaration of Enlightenment.
The establishment of the Awakening Society attracted the attention of Li Dazhao, who was at the time of the controversy with Hu Shi and needed more supporters to propagate Marxism.
Therefore, he did not hesitate to praise this newly formed society in the Morning Post.
On January 29 of the following year, in a petition, Zhou Enlai and others were arrested and imprisoned.
In order to clear his name, the Zhou family invited barrister Liu Chongyou. After his release from prison, Yan Xiu wrote to Gu Weijun and recommended Zhou Enlai to him.
In October of the same year, he and Li Fujing (son of the educator Li Qinxiang) boarded a mail ship to France.
The nearly four years of French years have a special meaning for him. Zhou Enlai came from an old-fashioned bureaucratic family, and with his social connections and outstanding talents, it was only a matter of time before he ascended to a high position.
But twenty-three-year-old Zhou Enlai made an important choice:
He wanted to rebel against all this and choose communism as his lifelong faith. This was not an impulse, but the result of three years of deliberation.
From then on, he became a Communist and dedicated everything to the Party until the last breath of his life.
Ten miles long street to send the prime minister