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山西平定 | 亂世紀往| 亂世紀往手稿版 | 紀年 | 紀年手稿版 | 西鎖簧村 | 漢口購地日記手稿版 1946.7.20-11.1 | 旅漢日記 1946.11.5-12.19 | 旅漢日記 1946.11.5-12.19 手稿版 | 赴蘭日記 | 赴蘭日記手稿版 | 台灣日記 | 新竹 | 暮年拾零 | 家庭 | 海峽彼岸 | 子玉書法 | 食譜剪報 山西平定西鎖簧村李若瑗回憶錄 [Introduction][1][2][3][4][5][6][Addendum][Chronology] Memories of a Troubled Era by Lee Ruoyuan (4) The initiative of the Yumin Company was aborted due to worries about the likely fall of the port of Haifang to the Japanese. Not long after, the Dahua Company sent its vice president Mr. Yan to deal with the closing down of Yumin's operations. Mr. Yan invited me to work for the Dahua Company, but I declined because of a prior promise to Mr. Feng and Mr. Zhang to accept a job at the headquarters of the Fusheng Zhuang (a government agency to buy and sell textile products and foodstuffs). In September 1938, I traveled from Chengdu to Chongqing (also of Sichuan province), arriving there after two days on the road. In that period Chongqing was the wartime national capital of China, as yet untouched by Japanese bombing, and consequently possessing a relatively intact infrastructure. A lot of buildings five stories high could be seen in the vicinity of the intersection of Duyou Street and Xiaoliangzi Street, both bustling commercial and high-end residential streets in Chongqing. Municipal buses running on diesel served the city, which is built on hills. Before arriving in Chongqing I could already see from a great distance the heavy fog that enveloped it. To climb up or down the steep roads leading to or from the wharves one could take the so-called pa shan hu ("hill-climbing tigers"), a kind of litter or sedan chair borne on two bamboo poles commonly used in Sichuan province. To reach the bus station from the wharf, the litter bearers had to climb more than 400 stone steps. The designation of Chongqing as wartime capital brought further prosperity to the city that had already been thriving as a business center, making it overnight into a national political, military and economic hub. Once I started working at the Headquarters of the Fusheng Zhuang agency, I realized that those sent to other cities on mission had an easier time while those staying at the headquarters got a feeling of being shunned and sidelined. Fortunately Mr. Xu Xiaofeng of the Northwest Industrial Company generously offered me a job at the iron works he was setting up. The plant was located in the county town of Jiangbei, across the Jialing river from Chongqing. Mr. Dong Tianwei and Du Qi, who worked at the plant, were both transferred from the Lancun Paper Mill of Taiyuan (originally the paper manufacturing plant of the Northwest Industrial Company founded by the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan). On May 3 and 4, 1939, the city was for the first time bombed by Japanese warplanes. I sought cover among graves in the hills of Jiangbei during the bombing raids. When I looked across the Jialing river after the the warplanes left, I saw the Linjiang Gate area engulfed in flame. They were not yet able to put the fire out. Other areas of the city were also burning, particularly in the high-end neighborhoods of Duyou Street and Xiaoliangzi Street, which saw heavy destruction. Whole families perished in the air raids because the bombing was unexpected and they did not have time to run for cover. Another reason for the heavy casualties was the destruction of the telephone system for air raid alerts during the May 3 bombing, which so paralyzed the air raid alerts on May 4 that people were confused and didn't know what to do. They got so skittish that when any one person was seen running, other people would break into a frantic stampede. As the air raids increased in frequency and intensity, it was decided that our plant be moved to Huangshaxi. The new location was further upstream on the Yangtze river toward Caiyuanba, past Douzibei. The company also built a steel mill in Rongchang county, with a Mr. Lee as plant manager. The iron works at first received orders for manufacturing grenade shells but couldn't produce good enough ones; so it switched to making planing machines to avoid going under. Following my resignation from the Fusheng Zhuang agency, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Feng also left to take up, in Haitangxi, the management of the joint transport office of factories that had been moved to Sichuan. Mr. Zhang, director of the Office, invited me to join him in his new work and I readily accepted the invitation. His office managed about 15 vehicles, which traveled between Haifang and Chongqing in a rush to transport machinery and other materiel of factories being moved to Chongqing to avoid falling into enemy hands. In September 1939, as Japanese troops tightened the siege of Haifang, the Office evacuated the staff manning its office in Haifang. Mr. Yan, one of those evacuees, was on cordial terms with me. He and his family lived in the Shibati section of the city, and we saw each other often. At this time Mr. Feng set up a separate Zhongyuan Trading Company with its office sharing the premises of the Yuhua Textiles Factory in Lijinju Lane. Mr. Yan soon joined that company to work in its transport division, but the division lost its usefulness soon after the transportation link to Haifang was severed. I and Mr. Zhang, the director of the office, returned to the Zhongyuan Trading Company. Chongqing boasted the best air defense system at the time, with air defense tunnels crisscrossing the city accessible at multiple entry points. These air raid shelters were either stone caves under 10 meters of rock or man-made tunnels, which were supposed to be resistant to big bombs. An additional factor favorable to air defense was the fact that the fog season lasted from the beginning of autumn to May of the following year, and during that period the Japanese warplanes would have a hard time locating Chongqing targets. That's why Chongqing would be bombed in fair weather and would rebuild in the fog season, when the residents had a reprieve and enjoyed a relatively normal life. There was not much the Japanese warplanes could do when the city was enveloped in heavy fog. During the fog season the wartime capital would be temporarily spared the bombings and could devote itself to the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. In the spring of 1940, the War of Resistance entered its fourth year, and I reached the age of 32, seeing no early end to the war and wearied by loneliness and uncertainties. I experienced the helplessness most acutely when I was laid up in bed from illness; I thought nothing could be sadder. I could have gone back to my home town but lacked the financial wherewithal, nor did I wish to go back to my enemy-occupied home town to be subservient to the Japanese occupiers. Weighing all possible factors, the pros and cons, costs and benefits, etc., I came to the conclusion that I couldn't have everything I desired. I decided that I needed to do two things (not counting the job I held). One was to assess whether I could use the savings from years of employment as basis to start some business to solidify my financial footing. The second thing I should do was to seriously think about starting a new family, since I was already past 30. But starting a family and starting a business couldn't be undertaken at the same time. I could have one or the other but not both, as they say you can't have the cake and eat it. With my limited means, if I started a family I would not have the wherewithal to to start a business and vice versa. So I made a choice. Judging by the workings of the business world in Chongqing at the time, I could see that while those who possessed plenty of capital and therefore were less concerned about losing their investments could make profits by fully parlaying their financial strength, most businessmen with insubstantial capital who watched the market with caution and were conservative in business decisions had gone under in the maelstrom of the business world. There is much truth in a saying circulating at the time: "Those who dare get to feast and those who get cold feet starve to death." But I was not brave enough. I was deeply conflicted about starting a family away from home. Although I wanted badly to express my thought but I couldn't put it to paper after much racking of my brain. If there had not been the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, I would surely have consulted my home folks, and asked, especially my second elder brother, for his consent, for I had depleted most of the cash my second elder brother entrusted to me, spending it on transportation and the purchase of my wardrobe when I traveled from Shaanxi to Sichuan, I wouldn't be able to face myself if I got married in the circumstances before paying back the money I owed him. But it was impossible at the time to remit the money to him, nor was it possible to ask someone returning to my home town to carry it to him. My home town was after all a thousand li away! Anyone traveling that far wouldn't dare carry a lot of cash on his person. That kind of trip would have involved getting up early every day and traveling on foot at the risk of losing one's life and crossing enemy lines. Once in the Japanese-occupied area, one would have had to convert the cash into local Japanese tender and would have had to apply for a Japanese-issued "good conduct certificate," and to undergo questioning by Japanese-controlled gendarmes, police and Chinese turncoats. The trials and tribulations and perils faced by such a would-be returnee would have matched those encountered by Xuan Zang on his pilgrimage to India in the 7th century. For that reason few displaced persons would contemplate returning to their native place in that era. But quite a few displaced people in areas in Shaanxi and Gansu closer to the Japanese-occupied regions were able to get their folks out; and a cottage industry had sprung up specializing in this business: people who wanted to get their family out from occupied areas would pay a so-called travel expense to these groups specializing in evacuating people from behind enemy lines. I was too far from the occupied areas and had lost touch with what was happening near the frontlines and never succeeded in returning the money to my second elder brother. Due to those difficulties mentioned above, I wasn't able to return to my home town to consult my folks. But I had my free will and had the right to decide for myself what action to take, and I made the decision to start a family. Once the decision was made I asked people, including my colleagues at the transport office, the Zhongyuan Company and other close friends, to find me a marriage prospect. It so happened that Mr. Yan's wife Wu Yunshu had unexpectedly run into a classmate from her elementary school in Liling in the winter of 1939 while paying homage to the Buddha in the Changan Temple. They could hardly believe their eyes at first but soon recognized each other and poured out their heart to each other. A chance encounter in a town far from home after so many years meant they became very close. The chance encounter happened because this classmate of hers by the name of Xiao Bangjie worked at the office of the Telecommunications Ministry, which was located just outside the gate of the temple. At first Ms. Wu set me up with Ms. Xiao, and the three of us went to the Da San Yuan Restaurant for lunch, after which we undertook a short outing in the Central Park, before we parted. Ms. Xiao was young, pretty and looked elegant and left a favorable impression on me, but it turned out I didn't impress her as much. Ms. Wu then invited Ms. Xiao's colleague Hu Yijun and Liu Yikun to her home, in the Shi Ba Ti neighborhood, for dinner. On that occasion I got to know the woman who was later to become my wife. This happened in the winter of 1939. Yijun came from Xiangyin, of Hunan province, a county near the upper reaches of the Miluo river. Her native home was in the village of Jian Jia Chong in He Jia Tang. She studied as a child in a "si shu," a traditional Chinese private school where classical literature and Confucianism used to be taught. Later she followed her aunt (her father's sister) to Changsha, the provincial capital, where she attended a home economics school and later got a job at a branch of the Telecommunications Ministry. In the aftermath of the Changsha fire of 1938 she was evacuated on a vehicle of the Ministry from the western part of Hunan and eventually ended up in Chongqing, where she continued to work for the Ministry in the local branch. Quite a number of her colleagues had also come from Shangsha. Besides Xiao Bangjie and Liu Yikun, other fellow evacuees from Shangsha included Hu Xueqiong, Lu Sanfeng and Gu Peiyu. I truly admired these young women who left their home towns in that tumultuous, strife-torn era to come to the headquarters of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression that Chongqing was, and continued to work despite the savage non-stop bombings of Japanese warplanes. Yijun and I had similarities in temperament. Both she and I were frank and straightforward. Not long after we got acquainted we became close due to our compatibility. We were often accompanied by her colleagues on our outings, and I also got acquainted with Ms. Hu Xueqin, Ms. Lu Sanfeng and others. We visited the Southern Hot Springs Park and Tushan on the outskirts of the city on the south bank. At the time the Zhongyuan Trading Company moved from Lijinju Lane to the upper floor of the Lao Yang Qing He Jeweler's Shop in the San Paifang neighborhood. We visited the Jiangbei Park with colleagues Mr. Rong Boshen, Mr. Fan Weizhang, Ms. Huang Wenyu, Ms. Tan Shiying and Ms. Wen Zhizhang. Not long after, Mr. Zhou Jingxi invested in a new company called Zhongya to manufacture potassium chlorate, an ingredient for making safety matches. Mr. Cao Mingfu was named president of the Zhongya Company; Rong Boshen was the factory manager, Guo Naiying was the operating officer and I was the accountant. I was set to travel to Chengdu to prepare for the launching of the new concern. After accepting the job as accountant at the Zhongya Company, I set aside everything and prepared for traveling to Chengdu. On the eve of my departure I bade Yijun goodbye on the stone steps of the Dao Menkou neighborhood. It was early spring and few pedestrians were about in the moon-lit street. There hadn't been air raid alarms for a number of days now. I discussed a wide range of matters frankly with her, explaining my family's situation, my skills and finances, in an effort to obtain understanding from her and deepen her knowledge about me. I tried to arrive at some preliminary decision about our marriage in consultation with her. I warned her that our finances wouldn't look very bright if we got married, and I asked her if she was willing to share weal and woe with me. Yijun knew very well my difficulties and agreed to everything before we parted. In March, 1940, I arrived by public transport in Chengdu. The office of Zhongya was situated at 25 Dong Xin Jie. By that time the company had already bought about 40 acres of land in the Jiu Kong Qiao ("nine arches bridge") neighborhood as the building site of the future factory. I visited the land, which consisted mainly of rice paddies. The electrical machinery for the electrolytic furnaces was to be sourced from an American supplier, but the manufacturing plant was to be built by a Belgian company. However when World War II broke out the machinery could no longer be exported, causing the operations of the planned company to run aground (Zhou Jingxi, the original investor, was able later to sell the electrical machinery to the match-manufacturing mogul Liu Hongsheng, who built a plant in Changshou to make potassium chlorate). As a result we sat around all day with not much to do. In July 1940, I flew back to Chongqing from Chengdu on a flight operated by the Eurasia Aviation Corporation to discuss matters with Yijun. Prior to this we had kept in touch by writing to each other. Although we were dating, we both had been feeling lonely after I left Chongqing for Chengdu. During that period in the War of Resistance, both Chengdu and Chongqing were subjected to Japanese bombing, and we were very much concerned about each other's welfare. After my arrival in Chongqing I stayed in the Xinchuan Hotel; I lost no time in discussing the matter of our engagement with her and her colleagues Ms. Hu and Ms. Lu. On August 4, 1940, our engagement took place at the Xiayulou Restaurant in Chongqing, witnessed by company president Zhang Shixin and Mr. Xiang, an official from the Telecommunications office, and with Mr. Yan Yunqi and Ms. Wu Yunshu present, as those who introduced us to each other. The fiancé's elders being far away in enemy-controlled territory and the fiancée's elders in a remote village in Xiangyin of Hunan province, the names of our close relatives on the engagement papers were those of my second elder brother Li Ren'an and Yijun's father Hu Nanqing only. During my stay in Chongqing the Japanese bombing never let up. One day when the air raid alarm sounded, I grabbed my briefcase and my blazer and dashed into an air raid tunnel. I could feel the bombs falling on top of the tunnel and exploding nearby, shaking the earth and deafening our ears. When the air raid was over and I was ready to return to my hotel, I saw fires everywhere. I passed between the fires at great risk and when I arrived at my hotel, I found the 4-story building already razed to the ground, leaving only the steel water tower still dangling in mid-air. The suitcase containing my wardrobe was reduced to ashes and gone with the wind. In order to attend the engagement ceremony with Yijun I had come to Chongqing with a whole new wardrobe and other articles bought at great expense, and now everything went up in smoke thanks to the Japanese napalm bombs! The Japanese bombing continued for days. The downtown areas, the San Paifang and Xia Bancheng neighborhood were all burned down. The streets were deserted after the fires, and the streets were lined with half collapsed walls, precariously leaning pillars and electric power poles either leaned in a precarious manner or lay across the street, which was strewn with power lines. I picked my way around them with trepidation and terror. I had never in my life witnessed such devastation left by the bombs and the ensuing fires. In normal times firefighters and police would have rushed to the scene to put out the fires, but nobody turned up in this case. The firefighters and police were overwhelmed by the more than 300 fires created by the Japanese bombing. The entire hilly city was engulfed in heavy smoke and flames, a scene reminiscent of the Flaming Mountains of the famed Journey to the West. A previously prosperous city was reduced to rubble overnight! The office of the Zhongyuan Company, situated in the Lao Qing He Jeweler's Shop building in the San Paifang neighborhood, was destroyed in the bombing, and had to move back to its old premises in Lijin Lane. In the meantime there was a plan to move its entire operations to Xi'an of Shaanxi province. In the latter half of August 1940, I returned to Chengdu to resume my work at the Zhongya Company. Not much was going on at the company then, but I still needed to sort out the accounting records. In early September Yijun got transferred from Chongqing to Chengdu. On her trip to Chengdu she ate too many pears, and came down with acute gastritis when she arrived in Chengdu. She stayed at the Jing'an Hotel and recovered after a month of care by Dr. Yu Fusheng, but remained frail. At the time the Zhongyuan Company had moved to Xi'an, and Mr. Yan Yunqing had followed the company to Xi'an. His wife Wu Yunshu happened to be in Chengdu waiting for transportation to Xi'an. She moved in with Yijun before leaving for Xi'an when transportation became available. [Introduction][1][2][3][4][5][6][Addendum][Chronology] |