Chapter 4 Section 2 Tieling Qi Family

My childhood was a fatherless world.When he was two years old, he caught a glimpse of his father in surprise. He returned in the snowy night, and went on the road of escape again in the early morning.One day later, my grandmother, mother, and my brother and I fled to a relative's house in a small village smaller than ours to hide for a while, because Zhang Zuolin's army was hunting for Qi Shiying, who participated in Guo Songling's mutiny, and wanted his family They were all caught and killed.While I was there, I would cry every dark, "I want to go home! I want to go home!" This made them even more miserable, and they were afraid of hurting others, so they had no choice but to go home and resign themselves to their fate.

Tieling Qi family, from Xugou County, Shanxi Province (now merged into Taiyuan City) to Fengtian (Shenyang) in the early 18th century to serve as a civil official and settled down. My father is the eighth generation.The villa is located in Xiaoxi Mountain to the west of Fanjiatun, about five miles away from the Luanshishan Station of the Middle East Railway. The family property is about 400 shang (pronounced as "heaven" in Northeast dialect) and fields (about 10 mu per shang), which is considered a medium-sized family in the local area. . My grandfather Qi Pengda had four brothers.When he was a teenager, he didn't want to guard his family property and be a "farmer" in the countryside, so he went to a military academy and was born in Baoding's old crash school.Later, in Zhang Zuolin's Fengjun, he started as a battalion commander, and was promoted from a regiment commander to a brigade commander. He was loyal to Dashuai Zhang for more than 20 years.My father was his only son. He came back from studying in Germany and was full of new ideas of saving the country and the people. He actually participated in Guo Songling’s anti-Zhang Zuolin revolutionary action. It took only one month from Tianjin to send troops out of Shanhaiguan to defeat.At that time my grandfather was stationed in Baoding, Hebei, and he didn't know it. The whole Fengjun thought that Marshal Zhang would definitely kill my grandfather, but he actually said to his subordinates, "Father's life, son's life, don't settle for that. For so many years, I have no second thoughts about me. His son is a bastard, and he is confused when he studied abroad, but don’t kill his father.” Later, my grandfather was slightly injured in a small battle and died of a cold. He was only five years old when he died. ten years old.Zhang Zuolin was born reckless, but he had the heroism and loyalty of that generation of reckless heroes. He did not compromise with the Japanese. He was ambushed and killed by the Japanese on the Huanggutun train, ending the legendary era of warlords and leaving behind such a big situation in the Northeast. ; His son Zhang Xueliang inherited the name, power and wealth, but without wisdom and dignity, the hope of independent prosperity of the Northeast has never been realized.

My grandmother, Zhang Congzhou, is a Manchu. She married into the Qi family from a neighboring village at the age of 18 and gave birth to a son and two daughters. When my grandfather joined the army, she accompanied her husband to garrison various places. Later, she returned to her hometown to settle down because her family property needed someone to take care of her.The grandparents' estate is supported by my grandmother alone. She and my mother, two lonely women who have been watching all the year round, bring three young children and more than 20 long-term laborers to live in the spring and autumn harvest.I followed my brother to run all over the mountains and fields, to pull mallet weeds from Xiaoxi Mountain, small cucumbers and black berries in the backyard... and slippery on the frozen river in winter.Grandmother was a gracious, gentle and kind person, full of sympathy and pity for my mother, the daughter-in-law of her only son.But in that era, she also turned from a daughter-in-law to a mother-in-law, and she knew which rules could not be changed, so although she was kind to her daughter-in-law, never made trouble, and spoke softly to her, the rules were still the same, even though there were many Long-term workers and servants, but when the parents-in-law are eating, the daughter-in-law must stand by and stand by, which is the appearance of "people with status".My grandmother was the most sympathetic to me, and she saved my life. Later, when I went to the Beiping Xishan Sanatorium, she shed many tears, and I still remember it with guilt.

It was a big event for grandpa to come home. At that time, the officials were very powerful, and there were four box cannons (guards) standing at the door.He is very particular about food and clothing, and loses his temper if he does not meet his standards. The whole family seems to be holding their breath until he returns to the garrison.My father said that my grandfather also had quite new ideas, but he was too authoritative and no one dared to argue with him.Not long after I was born, my grandfather came home from the garrison, glanced at the little baby wrapped in the quilt on the kang, sat down majestically in the hall and said, "Bring me that cat's head! For some reason, the baby weighing less than five catties that didn't have to be "carried" inspired his strong protective nature, and he ordered, "No one is allowed to bully my granddaughter!" Grandson) Although it was a patriarchal era, the Qi family had a small population and each child was precious. This military order greatly increased my status in the family.

My grandfather was in the army, and his fortieth "birthday" gift was a delicate and handsome twenty-year-old concubine.He sent her back to her hometown when he moved defense or went to war.Soon, she died of lung disease. My grandmother took good care of her and brought up her newborn boy (named Qi Shihao). This little uncle was the same age as me. We often played together and were often teased by my brother and cousins.My uncle grew up in the care of my grandmother. After North China fell into the hands of the Japanese army, he graduated from high school and was conscripted into the army. One day, he was shot in the back by Chinese anti-Japanese underground workers in a township alley wearing a Japanese army uniform.

The grandmother was lonely and depressed all her life, and her only son left home at the age of thirteen to study in Shenyang, Tianjin, Japan, and Germany. He only came back during the summer vacation, and after returning from studying abroad, he joined the revolution.After the September 18th Incident in 1931, she took her two aunts and uncle to live in Peking.She was often bedridden in middle age.My two aunts turned out to be very good after they got married. The eldest aunt (known as the "fourth aunt" in the rankings) Qi Jinghuan, who went to study in Japan with her husband Shi Zhihong, is wise and courageous.After 1933, when my father returned to the north to organize and lead the underground anti-Japanese work, until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, she covered many times at Beiping Railway Station and other places for underground workers to enter and leave Shanhaiguan; Her cousin, who was acquainted with the people at the station, once asked her: "Why do you have so many cousins?" In fact, she probably understood in her heart that everyone hated the Japanese, and no one pointed it out. Moreover, she often hugged the child, Give gifts for the holidays without showing up.There are still a few "cousins" in Taiwan who remember her and admire her very much.Since the Anti-Japanese War, the two uncles could not stay in the enemy-occupied areas because they participated in the anti-Japanese work. They both went to the rear with my family and died of illness in Chongqing. The two aunts stayed in Peiping with their seven children and lived with my grandmother. All filial piety.My grandmother was only sixty-four when she died of cancer.It was the first year of the Anti-Japanese War. We fled to Hankou 20 days before the fall of Nanjing. After a short respite, we went to Xiangxiang, Hunan, where we lived for half a year. In Sichuan, I found out later in Chongqing that my grandmother had passed away for a year.My father regretted it deeply throughout his life.