I met an eldest sister named Tian Binru, eighty-four years old, who told me the story of the Tian family.

Tian's family is in Tianlou, Jinxiang County, with 12 hectares of land, more than 30 people in the family, three long-term workers, three cooks, and three wet nurses.

Grandpa did business in Shanxian County, his father went to university in Nanjing, and his second uncle went to school in Jinan's Normal School.

Once, my grandfather came back from Shanxian and brought back a lot of oranges and bananas, and she took them and bit them, but she couldn't eat them.

My father was away all the year round, and he wrote a letter saying: Don't bind your daughters' feet, let them go to school. The Tian sisters have not wrapped their feet, and the eldest sister is eighty-nine years old this year and has never touched the footcloth.

Binru went to school for a few days, but when she came back, the family did not provide food, and her grandmother said, "The school is mixed with men and women, don't go." ”

She never dared to go again.

After a short time, the family set her a marriage, the man was nine years old, and she was twelve years old.

My father went abroad and stayed abroad. When he returned from Liuyang, he went to Sichuan, worked in Baishiyi, was an official of the Kuomintang, and became a member of the Communist Party after being captured.

My father sent a letter to my family, asking my grandfather to donate the land, the house, the carriage and the horses to the poor, and the long-term workers, cooks, and wet nurses gave the money and opened a warehouse to release grain.

Grandpa listens to Daddy.

At the time of the land reform, there was nothing left in the family, and the composition of the division was enlightened landlords. Zhuangli set up a steel gun class, and there were only people without guns. The Tian family paid for 20 fast guns for the steel gun class, and also made 20 sets of purple coarse cloth dresses for the steel gun class. Originally, I came to see the 28 boxes of guns for the family and gave them to the president of the peasant association.

Dad worked outside and didn't come home for six years. Later, he became seriously ill and went home, suffering from lung disease. Two years later, my father died at the age of thirty-eight. That year, the eldest brother was eighteen years old, the eldest sister was twenty-one, she was sixteen, and there were four younger siblings below.

Binru attended a literacy class, and the large size "Binru" was given by the teacher of the literacy class. She served as the head of the sister group for two years, leading a group of sisters to fight the bad guys, mobilizing women to cut their hair and put their feet. She still remembers the songs that persuaded women to cut their hair, singing: "No combing, no ties, no messy hair." Persuade the women to put their feet and sing: "My little sister is seven or eight years old, wrapped in two feet, she doesn't dare to walk or move, and she shiveres in pain." ”

As the head of the sister group, the peasants would give sixteen yuan a month.

When I was eighteen years old, my grandfather didn't let me go out, saying, "You are a person with a mother-in-law's family, and your mother-in-law knows that you are crazy, how bad it is." ”

The Tian family was an enlightened landlord and had always been respected.

Grandpa died in the spring, using a nanmu inner coffin, a cypress coffin, a papermaker tied for a month, and a full yard was placed. The horse has a horse boy, and the sedan chair has eight sedan chair men; There are boats that are tied, and there are boats that are supported; Zha compound building with a back garden. Boys and girls, mountains of gold and silver, needless to say.

In January 2015, Jiang Shumei "loaded" in Juye, and the first one on the right was Tian Binru. Photo by Ai Ling.

At that time, Yuanyou (note: prayer) had a cliché for the dead: "Ride a horse and a sedan chair on a dry road, and take a boat on a waterway, don't forget your hand gold and silver box, and ask the servant to take it." ”

On the day of my grandfather's funeral, there were many pine and cypress trees planted on the woodland.

At the time of registration, Binru was twenty-one years old and was accompanied by a literacy teacher. At that time, Gao Laizong was eighteen years old, graduated from Juye Normal School, and taught in Yingli Township, Juye County.

The teacher saw that Gao Laizong was tall, white and clean, and whispered: "People have good parents, they are younger than you, and they still have jobs, so they may not be willing." ”

After getting married, Binru mentioned this and came to the sect and said: "How dare I ask my relatives to do it?" ”

He also said: "Two people are harmonious, and the children born are smart. ”

Binru had never worked in the field, and the first time she went to the production team to cut wheat, she cut the wheat stubble high.

They told her, "You sit on the sickle." ”

Binru put the sickle on the ground and sat on it, everyone laughed, she didn't know what they were laughing at.

Someone told her, "It's not like this, it's telling you to lower your waist a little, sit down with your sickle, and don't sit so high on the stubble." ”

That's when she knew what it was all about.

The production team knew that she couldn't do the work, and often asked her to do something else. If you come out to visit, let her lead the singing and reciting quotations on the ground.

The couple has never been angry in their lives, and the four children are all smart. The children are filial, the younger generations are born, and there are eight college students among the grandchildren.

Ten years ago, Lai Zong died at the age of seventy-one. In the past ten years, Binru has never been less to cook, or you have a bowl and I have a bowl, and I sit alone. Not a day goes by that she doesn't shed tears, always thinking, "How nice it would be if you lived." ”