Chapter 8 The Story of the Monument of Blood and Tears

Not long after Xiao Enlai was born, his family fortune declined sharply.After his biological mother and stepmother passed away one after another, as the eldest son of the Zhou family, Enlai, who was only ten years old, had to take on the heavy burden of housework prematurely.In order to maintain his family's livelihood and deal with people who came to collect debts, he often went out to pawn clothes and knocked on doors to borrow money. He had tasted the bitterness and bitterness of life and knew the hardships of the poor.Jiang Jiangshi, a wet nurse who was born in poverty, often brought Xiao Enlai to the house, visited relatives and friends, went to temple fairs, and went to the market, so that Enlai could hear and see the evil deeds of those who were rich and unkind, and more feel the darkness of the old society. , hypocrisy and cruelty.

One day, Xiao Enlai went to the street with his wet nurse, and when he walked to the Shanyang County Yamen, he saw a broken stone tablet.so, what happened? Huai'an at the beginning of the 20th century, like the whole of old China, was in the darkness of semi-colonial and semi-feudal.In the late Qing Dynasty, class contradictions became more and more acute. A large amount of land was concentrated in the hands of a few landlords. Struggling, selling their sons and daughters, fleeing famine to beg for food, many families were forced to have their wives separated, their families were destroyed, and the people lived in dire straits.However, the nobles, bureaucrats, and landlords lived a life of extravagance and debauchery by extorting money.In the Huai'an River area alone, there are more than 70 gardens built by wealthy gentry and merchants.

Heavy feudal exploitation forced peasants to rebel, tenants refused to pay rent, and struggled with landlords to the death, which was not uncommon.During the seven years of Daoguang, with the approval of the Huai'an government, Shanyang County issued a notice, which stated that the feudal landlords forced the payment of land rent. , Diao Dian", claiming: "It is strictly forbidden for evil tenants to fight against rent by defrauding tyrants".Black and white, blood and tears.In a word, the tenant farmers can only act like cows and horses, and they are not allowed to show any resistance.If you resist, as long as the landlord sues, you will be "severely punished and punished according to the law."The big landlords in Huai'an even united to erect a stele of this notice in front of the Shanyang County Yamen, in an attempt to rely on the power of the feudal government to maintain their cruel exploitation and oppression of the peasants.The angry peasants couldn't bear it anymore, and they rose up and smashed the rent forcing tablet, but they failed in the end, and the leader was arrested and beheaded by the government.After Jiang's mother told Da Luan about this, she sighed heavily: "The poor cannot afford to offend them." At that time, Xiao Enlai gradually understood the reason why the poor in the world suffer so much and the rich suffer so much.This broken monument is the rent-forcing monument of the rich, the blood and tears monument of the poor, and the resistance monument of the oppressed.

Enlai also encountered an incident in his hometown when he was a teenager, which touched him so much that he never forgot it throughout his life.A hardworking and loyal farmer, his wife was taken by a local bully as a concubine, and she committed suicide by jumping into the river when she refused.The farmer sued everywhere, but the officials and officials protected each other, and the bully got away with it, but the farmer was forced to go to Liangshan to become a "bandit".Later, when the county government arrests him, he fights with the arrester, misses and injures the arrester, and then runs away.Four years later, when this impoverished farmer was recognized while begging on Qinghe Street, he was arrested by the county government and sentenced to beheaded.Xiao Enlai witnessed the farmer being executed.He thought, the prisoner was forced to become a robber, and he was also forced to defend himself and hurt others. As a result, his family was destroyed, but the bully who robbed his wife and killed him was safe. What is going on? ?This question has been lingering in Enlai's young mind.Later, when he went to Tianjin Nankai Middle School to study, he also talked about this matter in an article "Recalling the Past in Sheyang".However, by then he had understood the social roots of the tragedy.

The above-mentioned story of the Stele of Blood and Tears has always been imprinted in Zhou Enlai's mind, which became one of the reasons why he stood extremely firm in the proletarian revolutionary struggle in the next few decades.