The village Party branch secretary told me in the early summer of 1989 the general came home from Beijing which had been the first time since he left home at the age of sixteen. In those days, nearly 100 young men went out from Qinluozhuang to join the Red Army with the general. They fought through south to north for tens of years and finally died on strange land one after another and the general was the only one who had survived. Nowadays, seeing his hometown people were still suffering from poverty, the general felt his heart was as heavy as lead! At that time, the local villagers suggested that the general ask for some financial aid from the Central Government and the Provincial Government to solve some difficulties. This suggestion put the general in an awkward situation. He said, "We are cadres outside. If we paid particular attention to our hometown, other people would talk behind our back. Our hometown can only get rich by our local villagers' own strength." Hearing the general's words, reasonable villagers stopped to make any request any more.
Taihu County is also an old revolutionary base area located deep in the Dabie Mountain. Ranges of mountains are stretching up-and-down and ravines and gullies are criss-crossing. Farmers in the adverse circumstances can only live at the mercy of elements. In 1989, the per capita income of the whole county was merely 126 yuan and the per capita grains were 348 jin which was far away from the level of satisfaction of basic life needs specified by the state, "per capita income of 300 yuan and per capita grains of 600 jin" .
If it had not seen in person, no one would believe that nearly 10% of the population here could not have salt all year long and could only have some granted by the State during Spring Festival or busy farming season.
In those villages, the suffering of the children who were deprived of education badly concerned me.
His name was Li Minglin.
Two years ago, his mother unfortunately became paralyzed. Last year, his sister of fourteen years old passed away because of disease. In the daytime, his father had to farm in the fields out in the mountain, so his mother would lie on bed and couldn't even drink water. In order to take care of his mother, nine-year-old Li Minglin had to drop out of school and he had to do washing, cooking, collect firewood and deal with his mother's wastes. In the evening, as soon as his father stepped into the house, he would carry his schoolbag and with a torch, and climb over a hill to his neighbor, who went to school, to make up for the lessons that he missed. He did so regardless of the weather conditions.
His name was Hu Weizhong.
At the age of ten, his father who made a living by pulling a rickshaw in the county town was run over and killed by a car. After his father's death, the family couldn't survive any more. His mother said, "Mom doesn't have the tuition fees. Child, stop schooling, won't you?" He answered, "No! I want to go to school! I can earn my tuition fees by myself." The summer vocation came. Every morning when the sun had just risen, he went into the mountain to collect firewood. After the whole summer, there were several blood vesicles on his shoulders. On the beginning day of the new semester, he brought a bag of small change. He counted it again and again; however, he was still short of one more yuan. He was so worried that couldn't help crying out. "Teacher, please let me go to school. As for the money short, I will go to collect firewood at weekends…" The teacher in charge of his class held Hu Weizhong in her arms and said, "Poor boy, you just come to school. I will fill up the money for you."
His name was Liu Xiaoshan.
Three months after his birth, his father passed away. In order to bring him up, his mother suffered a lot. It was time for him to go to school, but the tuition fees, about ten yuan put his mother on the spot. He usually went alone to the mountain to collect firewood. On one Sunday, the north wind was whistling and it was freezing cold. He had not come back until it was dark. His mother was terribly worried and went to the village head. Right away, the head called some villagers to start searching in the mountains with torches. At last, under a stone some human remains and a textbook were found. The mother cried out, "My boy! My boy!" and she fainted.
His mother has gone crazy ever since and whenever she sees someone, she will cry out, "My boy! My boy —"
In Taihu County alone, there were over 5,000 children in total who dropped out of school due to poverty last year!
Before the Children's Day last year, the heads of three old revolutionary base counties (Luotian County in Hubei Province, Xin County in Henan Province and Jinzhai County in Anhui Province) in E, Yu and Wan[5], Dabie Mountains jointly issued an appeal titled "The Whole Society Should Care About the Healthy Growth of Children and Teenagers" :
