Chapter 24 Chapter 5 Sudden Changes (1)

1 Hubei Cotton Yarn King Zhang Songqiao is a legendary figure created by Chinese history in the 20th century. His history of making a fortune is a miracle in itself, and it is a historical witness of the difficult growth of China's modern national industry. "Historical Materials of Yu Dahua Textile Capital Group" (Hubei People's Publishing House, 1984 edition) contains: Zhang was born in the eleventh year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1872 AD, and died in 1960 at the age of eighty-eight.He has gone through ups and downs all his life and is one of the pioneers of my country's folk textile industry.By the founding of New China in 1949, Yu Dahua Capital Group had developed into the largest textile kingdom in mainland China, owning many large textile factories in Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shijiazhuang, Guangyuan, Taipei, etc., as well as railways, mines, Marinas, banks, schools and real estate investments to name a few.Hubei Yudahua Group and Coastal Shenxin (Rong's) Group are twin peaks, and they are also known as the two giants in China's textile industry.

Many people may not understand why my grandfather Zhang Songqiao's surname is Zhang, but his descendants such as my father and I are named Deng?Regarding the origin of the family name, most people only know that the owner of Yuhua Spinning Mill is named Zhang Songqiao, but they don't know that he has another name named Deng Xuanzong.Behind this story about the origin of the surname lies the mystery of Zhang Songqiao and even our family's little-known life experience. My father told me that our Deng family is not an aborigine in Hubei. Zhang Songqiao's grandmother, my great-great-grandmother, was a refugee from the central plains and came to Hubei.I found in the history books that from the first year of Daoguang (1821) to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River overflowed many times. More than a hundred feet, submerged more than 20 prefectures and counties, and there are many displaced people in the Central Plains...

According to Hubei's "Hanyang County Beiquan Township Records" records: During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, a Henan woman Deng Peng took a boy surnamed Deng to live in Wanzishan Village, Beiquan Township... The villagers surnamed Zhang in this village had no children, so they adopted him and changed their surname to Zhang . This "Henan woman Deng Peng" is my grandfather Zhang Songqiao's grandmother, and the boy surnamed Deng is my great-grandfather and Zhang Songqiao's father.The above text records the difficult and bumpy migration process that our Deng family has gone through for more than a century.

Zhang Songqiao went to the city to beg for food at the age of seven. At a young age, he worked as an apprentice, clerk, helper, and account manager. After more than half a century of hard work, he finally grew into a cotton yarn king in Hubei. A family story to be told in a biography.Zhang Songqiao has married three wives in his life. The first two are his savior, the daughter of a grocery store owner and a daughter of a comprador in Shanghai named Xu. Their children are my father's half brothers and sisters. Zhang is the so-called "orthodox surname".As mentioned earlier, Zhang Songqiao also has a little-known name named Deng Xuanzong, which is the "ancestral surname", which is the ancestral surname brought by "Deng Peng" from his hometown in Henan.The father said that the great-grandfather passed away early, and the great-grandmother called her son to her before she passed away. At this time, Zhang Songqiao had already made a fortune, and the great-grandmother never forgot to tell her son that you are a descendant of the old Deng family in Henan. The surname will be restored for three generations", otherwise my old Deng family will lose all children and grandchildren. "Returning surnames for three generations" is an ancient custom in the Central Plains. It means that boys adopted by foreign surnames can restore their ancestral surnames in the third generation.

Zhang Songqiao was fifty-two years old when his great-grandmother passed away. He decided to marry the third wife in order to obey his mother's order. The future mistress is destined to take it as her own responsibility to have children and complete the important mission of renewing the family's incense.So in the vast world of all living beings, a spinning woman named Liu Yunxian from Xiantao, Hubei, walked into the Zhang family. She was young, beautiful and vigorous, and continued the Deng family. Liu Yunxian was a poor boatman girl. When she was sixteen years old, she accompanied her father to Wuhan to transport cotton. Unfortunately, her father fell ill and died suddenly. She and her younger sister were homeless, so they worked in Yuhua Spinning Mill.Many elders of spinning mills told me that there were more than 2,000 female workers in Yuhua Spinning Mill in Wuhan back then.But Liu Yunxian, a boatman girl from Xiantao Water Village, was an exception. Not only was she naturally beautiful, she was ingenious, but she also created a series of miracles that were unparalleled, and were talked about by people at that time.

In the 1930s, the most important technical work of female spinning workers was splicing broken ends, commonly known as "twisted yarn ends".At that time, the spinning machine was very prone to end breaks. Since one machine could spin four hundred spindles at the same time, so many spindles were flying together like rain in the sky. It will also greatly affect the quality of cotton cloth.Therefore, the factory often organizes technical competitions for problems. Zhang Songqiao takes the lead in learning management from the Orientals. The predecessors of the spinning mill told me that under normal circumstances, it takes about ten seconds for skilled female workers to splice yarn ends, and fifteen seconds for apprentices. Only the best and outstanding female workers can increase this work efficiency to five seconds.However, Liu Yunxian, a young female worker who has been in the factory for less than two years, shocked everyone when she appeared on the stage. She took an average of three seconds to set a record in the factory in the blink of an eye.Many car operators spend their whole lives twisting yarn ends with both hands, but Liu Yunxian can twist them with one hand effortlessly, not only twisting them with one hand, but also twisting two yarn ends at the same time with both hands.Later, she was able to perform the stunt of splicing three ends of yarn with both hands and mouth at the same time.Usually, a female worker is so busy inspecting one spinning machine that her feet don't touch the ground, but Liu Yunxian can inspect two machines by herself, and she does not rush and do a job with ease.The elders of the spinning mill sighed and said that it was a wonderful enjoyment to witness Liu Yunxian patrolling the yarn. She was like the legendary moonlight fairy, with light steps and graceful posture, cruising through the jungle of machines like the spring breeze.

Zhang Songqiao was stunned all of a sudden. From that moment on, the red line of fate thrown by God fell into Zhang Songqiao's heart, making him inescapable.It is said that when Zhang Songqiao proposed to his female spinning worker, he only had one sentence. He said: Give me a group of sons... I will treat you well for the rest of my life. Liu Yunxian was only 18 years old when she became my grandmother from a taxi worker. She really lived up to her high expectations and gave birth to three healthy sons for her husband. The blood of the second son named Deng has been flowing into the veins of me and my brothers and sisters. .Therefore, we can proudly say that we are all descendants of Lao Deng's family in Henan.

In the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China (1938), Japanese planes bombed Wuhan, and the pace of war was getting closer.This year Zhang Songqiao was sixty-six years old, Liu Yunxian was thirty-one years old, and their second son, my father Deng Shuyi, was only twelve years old. My family is in trouble.