Chapter 3 Zhou Enlai was born

There is a beautiful legend in ancient my country: On Bochi Mountain in Chuzhou, the "magnificent first state in the southeast", there is a divine bird called "Luan" that is as famous as "Phoenix".Luan bird's feathers are colorful and beautiful.As soon as this kind of bird appears, the world is peaceful and the common people live and work in peace and contentment.This is of course not true, but it entrusts a good expectation of kind people. In Shanyang County (now Huai'an City), not far from the south of Bochi Mountain, on March 5th (February 13th in the lunar calendar) in 1898 (the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), Zhou Jiasheng in the Consort Lane in the city Had a firstborn boy.When the baby was born, he was born with big ears, a high nose bridge, and a handsome face, especially a pair of bright eyes that can talk, which is very cute!While having fun, the whole family thought of the divine bird on Bochi Mountain, so they took the auspicious name "Da Luan" as the child's baby name, entrusting the good wish of "seeing the spirit of the gods will bring peace to the world".This "big luan" is none other than Zhou Enlai, a great man of the century who was later famous for his outstanding contributions to world peace.

Shanyang County, where Daluan was born, belonged to Chuzhou in ancient times. It is located at the intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Subei Irrigation Canal. It is an ancient civilized city with a long history.In the long past, it has always been the seat of the state capital and the political, economic, military, and cultural center of northern Jiangsu.It was not only an important place for water transportation and salt administration at that time, but also a must-dispute for military strategists of all dynasties. It is not only a north-south transportation hub, but also a comprehensive area of ​​cultural landscapes, scenic spots and historical sites, and the accumulation of ancient material civilization and spiritual civilization. Place.With its unique and charming image, it has been glorious for more than 20 centuries in the Jianghuai River Basin in southeastern China.

When Daluan was born, the world was not peaceful.That was the time when the corrupt and incompetent Qing Dynasty was riddled with holes, and the Eastern and Western powers were rampantly carve up China.Three years before Da Luan was born in 1895, on behalf of the Qing government, Li Hongzhang signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, which was humiliating and humiliating. military spending of 200 million taels of silver; opening up Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as commercial ports; Shandong Jiaozhou Bay.Even in 1898, the year of Da Luan’s birth, disasters arose one after another: in February, the British forced the Qing government to declare that they would not agree to the cession or lease of the provinces in the Yangtze River Basin to other countries, and changed the “shared benefits” to “exclusive benefit”; In April, Germany forced the Qing government to sign the "Jiao-Ao Concession Treaty"; Tsarist Russia forced the Qing government to sign the "Luda ​​Concession Treaty"; in April, France forced the Qing government to declare that Guangdong and Guangxi would not cede to other countries; The government declared that Fujian would not be ceded to other countries; in June, Britain forcibly leased the area south of the Shenzhen River on the Kowloon Peninsula; It is on the verge of the abyss of misery in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.The harsh reality is like a fire that scorches the hearts of countless people with lofty ideals, making it a strong demand of the bourgeois reformers to save the nation and survive for a while.In 1888, Kang Youwei wrote to the Qing court for the first time, requesting political reform. In 1895, more than 1,300 examinees from 18 provinces in Beijing "publicly submitted letters." In 1896, Liang Qichao founded the "Current Affairs News ", advocating that "change also changes, and no change also changes".On the Chinese political stage, the old and the new factions have been engaged in a life-and-death struggle.Three months after Zhou Enlai was born, the long-awaited "Eight Movement Reform" took place in the Forbidden City in Beijing, but ended with the killing of the "Six Gentlemen" Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, Yang Shenxiu, and Kang Guangren, and Emperor Guangxu's confinement in Yingtai , a short and tragic political drama directed by bourgeois reformists, came to an end in an instant.

This year, the Yellow River and the Huaihe River flooded, and the embankments burst. Hundreds of thousands of people were drowned, and millions of acres of crops failed. "Zhenhuai Tower, also failed to suppress the evil flood beast.People in many places lack food and clothing, sell their sons and daughters, and suffer in dire straits. How can there be a peaceful life! The feudal official family where Daluan was born is also in decline.Daluan's grandfather, Zhou Panlong, was originally from Shaoxing, Zhejiang.He came to northern Jiangsu as an official, and in his early years he worked as a "master" (equivalent to the current secretary) for the county magistrate in Huai'an.But he did not reach the prominent position of climbing the dragon and attaching the phoenix. In his later years, he only "climbed" to the position of a small official-the magistrate of Shanyang County.Unexpectedly, his predecessor happened to be a person with a background, and he refused to hand in the seal for a long time. When he officially took office, he was already dying of illness and died soon after.Although Zhou Panlong became a county magistrate, he did not make a fortune. He just used some of his past savings to buy this house together with his second brother Zhou Hai;

Zhou Panlong had four sons: Yigeng, Yineng, Yikui and Yigan.According to the rules of feudal big families, the big ranking among uncles and brothers is fourth, seventh, eighth and eleventh. The old Qi Zhou Yineng, who later changed his name to Shaogang and styled himself Maochen, was a loyal and mature man.He also learned from the master, but he didn't succeed, he could only do small things.His wife is the twelfth daughter chosen by Wan Qing, the governor of Huaiyin County. Her nickname is Dong'er, and everyone calls her Twelve Aunt.She is a capable woman.After Zhou Panlong passed away, the couple lived in the courtyard next to Prince Consort Lane.

When the twelfth aunt of the Wan family gave birth to Da Luan in a bedroom on the east side of this north house, Wan Qingxuan was critically ill in Huaiyin.On the sickbed, the old man learned that Aunt Twelve had just given birth to a child, so he told the people around him: "This child is promising! Ask Dong'er to raise him well!" On this day, the old man passed away.Unexpectedly, Wan Qingxuan's dying words turned out to be a coincidence prophecy.Of course, Wan Qingxuan pinned his hopes on this "promising" grandson, hoping that he would revive the declining family business of Zhou and Wan in the future, and make contributions to the Qing Dynasty; but this grandson later did the opposite. As a result, resolutely betray and completely break with the feudal ruling class, and become a gravedigger who buries the old world!This was unexpected by Da Luan's grandfather.

Da Luan grew up vigorously under the caress of his mother.However, when he was less than one year old, an unfortunate incident happened in the family: Daluan's eleventh uncle became seriously ill. Uncle Eleven is his father's fourth brother Yigan.He had only been married for a year then, and was barely twenty years old.The newly married eleventh aunt Chen is the daughter of Huaiyin scholar Chen Yuan. Chen Yuan's ancestors were also from Zhejiang, and they settled down in Baoying because they went to northern Jiangsu to be an official.Chen was very anxious about her husband's illness. Her husband vomited blood, and the doctor diagnosed him with tuberculosis, which almost sentenced him to death.The bride wept, the old man was worried, and the whole family was in pain.

Someone proposed a rescue plan: adopt Da Luan to Uncle Shi Shi as his son.It is an attempt to use such a festive ceremony to "eliminate disasters and difficulties" for patients-to use the superstition of the old society, it is called "Chongxi".There is another advantage in doing this: at least it can give the bride a little comfort and ease her ominous worries. This requires Wan's consent.Twelve Aunts generously agreed.In order to save her uncle's life, she hugged Daluan to Aunt Shishi.With tears of gratitude, Mrs. Chen took the baby and invited a virtuous and kind nurse for him—Jiang Jiang.

But that didn't change the patient's bad luck.Yigan became weaker day by day, and finally, he watched the bride and baby leave the world.From then on, Da Luan became the only family member of the Chen family. Mrs. Chen took Daluan to live in the two pavilions in the third entrance of the west courtyard.One of the pavilions faces south, the other faces north, and to the east of the north gate is a well.The desolate residence made Chen's widowed life even more lonely.But this has no effect on Da Luan.He spent his cradle life under the joint caress of his biological mother, stepmother and wet nurse.