LITERATURE

15. Finally Returned to Shanghai After Eight Years

The Minister of Economic Affairs was Weng Wenhao at the time, and Zhang Zikai was appointed as the special commissioner of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The main task was to receive the enemy and puppet industries after Japan surrendered. The foreign material group was temporarily under the Ministry of Economic.

 

In the morning, I left Chongqing and arrived at Longhua Airport in Shanghai in the evening via Hankou and Nanjing. After eight long years of absence, I finally returned to Shanghai in December, 1945. That night, I stayed in a small dormitory assigned to Zhang Zuping by the Central Trust Bureau on Jiujiang Road. When I went to report the next day, the foreign materials group first arranged to work in the Bund 17 Building, and soon moved to the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Special Commission Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Jiangxi Road. Several ships of CDS materials had arrived, but no dock could be found to unload. One of the earliest ships had been here for nearly a month and was still anchored in the Huangpu River. After I contacted Liu Nianzhi’s Zhonghua Wharf Company, the ship stopped at Zhonghua South Warehouse Wharf to unload the materials. Another hundred Dodge trucks were unloaded at the outer Wharf and barged to the Gongyang Wharf before unloading to the Nissan Yangshupu Chemical Industry Factory vacant land. After arriving in Shanghai, due to work, I hadn’t been able to come back to my home in Changzhou.


Image by DEZALB from Pixabay

Sister-in-law Fang and nephew Ning took the boat back to Shanghai before returning to Luzhi. After I arrived, they were living at Xi Jianping’s house on Fuzhou Road in Shanghai, so I rushed to visit. Soon sister-in-law Fang and nephew Ning went back to Luzhi.

Image by Zhu Bing from Pixabay
 

On the New Year’s Day holiday in 1946, I immediately took the train back to Changzhou and went to my sister’s house in Baiyundu. It happened that my mother also came to the city one or two days earlier. When I met, I couldn’t help but cry and hugged my mother. Everyone had mixed sorrows and joys, but this was reality, and immediately tears stopped and burst into a smile. The joy of everyone’s heart, after the catastrophe, the flesh and blood could still meet, there was no more life than this. All the nephews were in their teens, Mingjuan, Zhongjuan, Dahuan, Xiaohuan, Guan Fang were all there. The eldest brother-in-law and eldest sister have entered middle age. In the afternoon of the next day, my mother, eldest brother-in-law and I took the boat to go to the countryside and went ashore on Nanni Bridge. First we met Huansheng, and met my aunt and Brother Chang at home. Immediately the whole village knew it, all came to visit, the lively scene, at this moment I still remember it, but it was very hard to describe by writing. After dinner, people from distant villages such as Yujiatang, Tangjiacun, and Xijiekou came. The gate was full, chatting and laughing until late at night. The next day I went to Lijiaqiao with my eldest brother-in-law. I was probably the first one to get home from the mainland not occupied by Japanese Amy, so whether I knew each other in the past or not, I had to say something. At noon, Chongqing invited us to his uncle’s house for lunch. The eldest aunt and several uncles and aunts all came to see each other. Afternoon, the second sister and the second brother-in-law also went home with the nephews when they heard the news. Kingxiang also came for dinner. On the third day, I went to Shanghai due to work.

The Shanghai Office of Materials in India Receiving Committee was established soon, and the relationship was temporarily attached to the Office of the Commissioner of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Brother Kai returned to Shanghai to take charge. I once asked Xie Chengjian to issue a letter of certification, saying that Wan Zhongxian and Wang Qilian were stagnation personnel from the office who should come to Shanghai as soon as possible to facilitate work. I took it to the special commissioner’s office in exchange for a certificate and sent it to Chongqing. It was handled by Wang Xudong. Zhongxian and Qilian took the flight back to Shanghai in late January 1946. Yin Gongsheng was still in Chongqing. He took care of Zhongxian and Qilian and saw them off. Qilian went to Nanjing to disembark from the plane, and Zhongxian went to Shanghai. At that time, Zhongxian had been pregnant for several months. Fortunately, she was able to fly to Shanghai. Otherwise, it would be too difficult to give birth in Chongqing or take a ship.

In March or early April of 1946, my mother invited Zhongxian and I to have a wedding for two days at home. There were about 30 tables. Brother Kai, sister-in-law Fang, Nephews Ning and Yue also went home to reunite together, the eldest sister and the whole family, as well as aunt and brother Chang. It was really so-called “After the disaster, there must be abundant happiness”. These were the most lively and joyous days in my family. The only regret was that my father passed away too early.

Image by cplz99atcsnilyk from Pixabay
 

On New Year’s Day, I returned to my hometown and this time brother Kai, sister-in-law Fang, and Zhongxian returned home. Although we did not become a big official or made a fortune, it could also be said that “we returned home with honor, and received a warm welcome”. Just look at two times of national subjugation in the history of our country, which ended up being the rule of Yuan and Qing for decades or hundreds of years. Wen Tianxiang and Shi Kefa failed to revitalize the country. This time the war of resistance was bound to win, defeating the Japanese army in just eight years. It was indeed the first time in history that we have returned to our hometown. The neighbors, relatives and friends far and near, were all happy, hoping for stability and prosperity from now on. This was how I felt at the time.

The Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Special Commissioner’s offices were soon cancelled. Zhang Zikai was transferred to China National Petroleum Corporation as an associate, and the general manager was Weng Wenhao. At the same time, the Material Supply Bureau of the Executive Yuan was established, with Jiang Biao as its director. All CDS materials of the foreign material group should be accepted by the Material Supply Bureau. The two institutions have changed, almost at the same time. So my own whereabouts must be considered.

You Yinzhao followed Zhang Zikai to the China National Petroleum Corporation as the director of the transportation department. I said that I would also go to China Petroleum Corporation, because oil was a new enterprise and had a promising future. At the same time, the foreign material group received a total of nearly ten thousand tons of materials from about a dozen ships. I had completed all the import procedures. However, the materials stored in terminals had not been picked up because of lack of warehouses. When the Material Supply Bureau would come to receive, we only needed to hand over all the bills of lading and other documents. There were a lot of documents and materials. Zhu Zhiwu, the director of the Storage and Transportation Department of the Material Supply Bureau, came to find out and felt that he did not know anyone who was enthusiastic about him. After discussing with Zhu Zhiwu, the head of the business section Zhu Maocheng (He was formerly a member of the Special Commissioner’s Office, my acquaintance) invited me to serve as the deputy chief of the business section in that office. It’s a lot more convenient for them. I agreed to follow the flow, but with an explanation that I had reported to the oil company and went to the storage and transportation office only temporarily, and I would decide whether to stay after the arrangements were made. They agreed and went to meet Jiang Biao. It took three months to help establish the system and design the card report. Because I did not explain to the oil company, I felt that it would be inconvenient to go back and forth like this, so I quitted my part-time job.
I was assigned to the transportation office of the oil company to be responsible for water transportation, under the name of the deputy manager. My previous monthly salary of 340 yuan was from the special commissioner’s office. Now the Eastern District Deputy Representative Office of the Ministry of Communications had stopped issuing it. My salary increased to 360 yuan when I entered China National Petroleum Corporation. At the same time, the dormitory on Baoshan Road, which has been living until now, was allocated. The work problem settled down.

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