Fifteen-year-old Ye Ting was imprisoned for cutting off his braids. Qing Jun said that he was "suspected of disrupting the party", the principal reprimanded him for "misdeeds of words and deeds", and his father scolded him for "rebellion". He said, "I'm all over again!" ”

This is a sensational incident that happened in Huizhou, a historical city in southern Guangdong.

The time was in the summer of 1911, a steamer-like heat.

probably responds to the ancient motto of "heaven and man induction". This year, the weather in Huizhou was unusual and changeable. The sun was still like fire, and when he turned his face, the rain poured down. On a sunny day, the scorching sun scorched the earth like a fire, making the muddy paths and rooftops of the rain and even people's heads like smoke, and the wisps jumped straight into the sky, hot and windless, and the wet and stuffy air would tick out the water when twisted, and the broken threads fell down in strings like beads. However, as soon as the haze was dense, suddenly it was like a heavenly river bursting its embankment, and heavy rain was pouring; Suddenly, like a dense basket, the drizzle was drizzling, and what was especially hateful was that from time to time a gust of wind blew in the oblique thorn, and the bad boy lifted off the pedestrian's umbrella, or spilled it through the doors and windows of the house like a mischief, making the bed and the bed wet and annoying.

"What kind of world is this!" People couldn't hold back the anger in their hearts and cursed angrily.

The ravages of the weather are completely proportional to the horror of the situation. At this time, in Huizhou, a group of revolutionaries responded to Sun Yat-sen's call to oppose foreign powers and overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and on the basis of summing up the lessons of the failed uprisings in Sanzhoutian and Qinuhu, they made great efforts to accumulate strength and prepare to launch another uprising.

However, due to the failure of the Huanghuagang Uprising planned and launched by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing in Guangzhou not long ago, the enraged Qing Dynasty suppressed the revolutionary party with a hundredfold frenzy. The Qing troops stationed in Huizhou inspected pedestrians with loaded guns during the day, blocked the main exit roads, and patrolled non-stop at night, arresting them on the spot if they thought they were suspicious, and being severely beaten at every turn if they resisted at the slightest. What's more, they aimed the cannons on the batteries at the prefectural high school halls, where they thought the revolutionaries were most active, and the black holes seemed to be ready to fire lethal shells at any moment. It's chilling.

At this time, Ye Ting, who had reached the age of fifteen, was studying at the Huizhou Provincial Sericulture School.

Fifteen-year-old Ye Ting has grown into a handsome and peugeot young man. His slender and tall figure, slightly raised eyebrows are thick and black, looking vigorous, a pair of clear eyes radiating a smart and resolute light, a pair of beautiful nose bridge-like hard lips like an embankment reveal a stubborn character, huge ear wheels give people an extraordinary omen in the world, white complexion, coupled with handsome facial features, enough to be called a beautiful boy.

The government sericulture school that Ye Ting studied was completely a government-run school strictly controlled by feudal officials, and the feudal etiquette and autocratic constraints were like iron buckets, which tied the lively students to death, and walking into the school gate was like walking into a century-old tomb, cold, dull, depressing, and fearful. From the prefectural middle school to the sericulture school, during this period, due to Ye Ting's frequent contact with the revolutionaries who spread Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary ideas, and under the influence of revolutionary ideas, he has completely turned into a revolutionary progressive youth, in order to resist the feudalism, decline and ferocity of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to using the night to post some slogans in the school to support the revolutionary party, he also planned an actual revolutionary action - cutting braids.

"Cut off your braids, you'll be expelled from school!"

"Not only that, but there is also a possibility that they will be arrested and imprisoned by the Qing army!"

Some students listened to Ye Ting's proposition and looked at him in horror, hesitating for a while.

Ye Ting understands that the serious consequences of these students' worries are entirely possible. Because, at that time, the man dragged a ponytail on the back of his head, which was a unique symbol of the Qing Dynasty's obedience to the people, like a "declaration" willing to serve the court. Wouldn't cutting off the braids mean disloyalty to the imperial court and rebellion against the Qing dynasty? Rebelling against the imperial court and being expelled from school is still light, and it is very likely that you will be arrested and killed!

"However, as a student, we want to support the revolution and oppose the rule of the Qing Dynasty with practical actions, and we have no guns or cannons in our hands, so what support do we use? I think the only thing I can do is cut off my braids. After Ye Ting finished speaking, in order to show his courage and determination, he took out the scissors prepared in advance, and cut off a thick ponytail with a "click". Then he threw himself into the ground, "If you want to support the revolution, you must be like the martyrs who died in the Huanghuagang Uprising, and you are not afraid of losing everything!" "The power of example is the most tangible propaganda. Driven by Ye Ting, a few worried progressive students also resolutely picked up scissors and cut off their heavy braids, and everyone cheered: "There is no burden behind you in the future!" ”

However, their action of cutting off their braids was like a huge jack of stone thrown into a pond from a height of thousands of feet, and suddenly set off a huge wave on the campus, and the whole campus was tilting, shaking, and turbulent. The officials who ruled the school looked frightened, and angrily gathered the students who had cut off their braids, and after repeated questioning, when it was clear that the leader was Ye Ting, they took him to the principal's office alone, and seven or eight people questioned him in unison with fierce expressions, and the most annoyed of them was the official of the government who was also the principal. Although the principal is not tall and thin, he wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his white face, and he looks polite, and he usually speaks to his students half-literate and half-white, but in school, he has to tremble when he stomps his feet, because he is not only the principal, but also an important official of the government. So none of the school staff saw him as frightened as a mouse saw a cat. Today, in his eyes, Ye is just a yellow-toothed child, and he dares to risk the world's condemnation and take the lead in cutting off his braids at the juncture when the government wantonly captures the revolutionary party. At that time, Ye Ting's students were arrested for a small matter, and if the boss took off his black gauze hat for the crime of "not governing the school strictly", the consequences would be too terrible. Therefore, he was contrary to his usual Sven, his face was sallow and blue with anger, probably because the light in the principal's room was a little dim, like the shell of a pine egg, he was already out of breath before he could speak, and his words became stuttering, rough and stiff: "You, you say, why do you want to cut off your braids, huh?!" ”

Ye Ting, who was confident, was neither humble nor arrogant, and replied as soon as he opened his mouth: "There is a horse's tail behind his head, which is cumbersome and unhygienic." ”

"You're quibbling! It's a denial! The headmaster was so angry that his two eyeballs would have jumped out desperately if it hadn't been for his insistence on holding on. The green tendons on his forehead were like a silkworm bulging, and he roared loudly with all his might, and the spit Xingzi shot at Ye Ting's face like a solid rebuke projectile, "Do you know that you are misbelieving?!" ”

"The braid grows on my head, I can cut it if I want, what does it matter to others?" Ye Ting's waist was straight, and he looked confident.

"Ignorant, stubborn, and simply idiot!" Seeing that Ye Ting was not answering the question, the principal said that cutting braids was a personal act, and it was child's play. Although he knew that Ye Ting was prevaricating, it was inconvenient to take the initiative to tie the braids with the behavior of the revolutionary party. Therefore, he deliberately changed the topic, pointed at Ye Ting's head in a stern tone and said, "If people don't learn, they don't know righteousness!" At a young age, you don't study poetry hard, you don't study hard, but you take the lead in these behaviors that violate the court and school rules, and you are responsible for all the consequences! ”

"We cut the braids ourselves, and of course we bear the consequences." Ye Ting still held his head up, and he had the spirit of a good man doing things.

"Aren't you afraid of being caught and going to jail?" The other officials present asked with straight faces.

"We were not guilty, but they insisted on using the excuse to arrest us and go to jail, and I was afraid that we would not be able to escape." Ye Ting still answered fluently.

"Have you ever thought that if you go to jail, you will be expelled from school, then you will have to go back to your country, you will lose the opportunity to study, maybe you will be a countryman with your back to the loess for the rest of your life, you are not afraid?" This kind of intimidating questioning was almost the result of several people speaking together.

"I was originally the son of a farmer, what is so terrible about returning to the countryside to be a farmer?" Ye Ting smiled slightly, calmly and fearlessly.

Ye Ting was unusually calm and calm, but it caused the psychological imbalance of these officials, and there was a sense of being ridiculed and ridiculed, so they launched a counterattack against Ye Ting one by one, and smashed Ye Ting's head and head at Ye Ting with harsh and harsh words like revealing the old bottom.

"You're not very old, but you're a rebellious person."

"Judging from your name, you are a restless person, and you will inevitably bring disaster in the future!"

"No wonder some students reported that not only did you get into trouble at our school, but you also didn't follow the rules when you were in the country!"

"Wait, you're about to be in for trouble!"

The intensive "bombing" of these officials. It seems to blast out a space-time tunnel, which not only reveals Ye Ting's past, but also foreshadows Ye Ting's present.

Ye Ting was not called Ye Ting in the past, and Ye Ting's home was indeed in the countryside. Before he was admitted to the Huizhou Provincial Sericulture School, and even after he arrived at the Sericulture School, he did have many "bad deeds" that were regarded as "great rebellion" by the defenders of feudal autocracy.

Ye Ting was born in Zhoutian Village, Tamsui Town, Huiyang County, more than 20 kilometers away from Huizhou. Shutian Village is a beautiful mountain village nestled in the middle of undulating and open hills. Around the village, the streams are vertical and horizontal, the rice grass is stacked, the gold is embroidered and the cui is paved, the birds are chirping, the geese are dancing and the fish are flying; In the village, each family has its own courtyard. The green and shady ground, the smoke curling, the melon vines climbing the wall, the roosters and the dogs barking, a pastoral scene, a picture of a farmer.

The house where Ye Ting's family lives is called "Huishui Building". The origin of the name comes from the fact that there are two small streams flowing down from the mountains in front of the door, and then they run to the Tamsui River with laughter and laughter. However, "Huishui" is practical, but "Lou" is just a few ordinary houses, so the title of "Lou" may be a kind of hope and hope.

The Ye family of Zhoutian Village is a "Hakka people", but it is not known whether their ancestors migrated south from the Central Plains in the late Tang Dynasty and the Warring States Period or from the Central Plains in the late Tang Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. The "Hakka people" are industrious, thrifty and pay attention to culture and education. They brought the profound Central Plains culture and production technology to the south, and multiplied in the southern Xinjiang of Wuhua Tianbao, living a life of abundant food and clothing. However, after the Opium War, the corrupt Qing Dynasty succumbed to the imperialist powers, and exploited the people of Li at home. Ye Ting was born on September 10, 1896, in this catastrophic year.

Ye Ting's father is called Ye Xisan. When he was young, he studied in a private school and learned some Chinese medicine theory. He was particularly fond of astronomy and geography, diligent in the study of cultivation techniques, and was a man of many talents. When he was young, due to his family's poor income, he traveled to Malaya to earn a living, worked on a plantation, and later returned to the village because he was unwilling to be poor. He first opened up more than 20 acres of orchards with a spade and pickaxe, planting lychees, plums, peaches, longans, pears and olives and other seasonal fruits. When Ye Xisan's orchard entered the normal harvest stage, he relied on his ancestral medical skills and his own traditional Chinese medicine theory, and renovated a "Xizongtang" Chinese medicine shop left by his father and opened for business again. Ye Xisan planted an orchard and opened a pharmacy, and his family was richer than ordinary villagers.

Ye Ting is the second son born to Ye Xisan's second wife, Wu. Ye Xisan's first wife was surnamed Huang, and she had four boys and three girls, but unfortunately five children died within two years, leaving only the eldest daughter Ye Ying and the eldest son Ye Su. The kind-hearted Huang family was afraid that the Ye family would wither, so he painstakingly persuaded Ye Xisan to marry the Wu family in Dongguan, Guangdong. After the eighteen-year-old Wu passed the door, a year later gave birth to a son Ye Zhao (also known as Zhiping), and in the sixth year gave birth to a son Ye Xun, the word "Xiyi" (that is, Ye Ting), and then gave birth to two daughters (nine daughters Ye Zhu and eleven daughters Ye Xiang) and a son (ten sons are Mou also known as Fuping). Therefore, Ye Ting ranks eighth among Ye Xisan's children, and his younger siblings call him starling.

Ye Ting is competitive and brave by nature, and he always likes to ask what is going on. At the age of five, he helped his father graft fruit trees, planted rice and vegetables, and liked to go to the hillside to graze cattle. Every time he herded the cows, he either went into the bushes with his peers to hide and seek, or used bamboo poles and sticks to make knives and guns, and slashed and slashed until he defeated other children. It is said that smart children are curious, and people who grow up to be productive must have been naughty children when they were young. Ye Ting is curious about everything, and he wants to give it a try for everything he is curious about. When he was six years old, he picked up a bullet while herding cattle, and the other children were so frightened that they shouted that he should throw it away or it would kill him. Ye Ting not only threw it away, but took it home and secretly threw it into the stove where he was cooking to see if it could explode if it was burned by the fire. As a result, there was a "boom", and the cooking pot was blown up with a big hole. Ye Ting was beaten and kicked by Ye Xisan for this.

Among the children of the Ye family, Ye Ting was beaten the most, and among the children of the Ye family, Ye Ting was most favored by Ye Xisan, and his expectations were the highest. As the saying goes, "if you don't fight, you can't make a talent", and "sticks make filial piety". Ye Xisan scolded Ye Ting, hoping that his son would become a "dragon". He felt that Ye Ting, a child with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, full of heaven, and strong body, had a tiger spirit all over his body, and he would not be an ordinary man when he grew up, and maybe he would give them the glory of the Ye family. Therefore, Ye Ting was not yet seven years old, and Ye Xisan sent him to Tengyun Academy to study in a private school.

The teacher of Tengyun School is surnamed Ye Mingyoushan, although he and Ye Xisan are not from their own family, they can be called close friends. Ye Youshan is an old scholar with a deep knowledge of ancient literature, and the textbooks he teaches his students are nothing more than "Three Character Classics", "Hundred Family Names", "Thousand Character Texts", "Six Classics", "Four Books" and so on. And the way of teaching is nothing more than cramming. Soon after Mr. Ye Youshan started class, he found that Ye Ting was absent-minded in class. Once Ye Ting actually took advantage of the teacher's inattention and slipped out of the classroom without asking for leave. Is this worth it? Ye Youshan immediately came to follow and pursue, and was surprised to find that Ye Ting was hiding in front of a small attic to weave a bird cage. This can make Ye Youshan so angry that his beard stands upside down, if he doesn't discipline Ye Ting well, not only will he insult the teacher's honorific title, but also lose the trust of his best friend Ye Xisan. That night, he found Ye Xisan and complained. When Ye Xisan heard this, he was so angry that he rushed to his head, picked up a stick with a thick arm, called Ye Ting, and hit him with a split.

"Wait!" Seeing this, Ye Youshan stopped, "We can't beat the innocent, let's ask him why he doesn't listen to the class?" "Yes, why don't you listen carefully to Mr. Ye's lecture?" Ye Xisan angrily poked the wooden stick into the ground and questioned sharply. It looked like a raging lion. "I've learned it all, so why waste any more time." Ye Ting blinked his black butterfly-like eyelashes and replied immediately. "Okay, tell Teacher Ye to test you immediately, if you can't answer, see if I tell you what 'cane killing' is!" Teacher Ye, just let him go. Ye Xisan carried a stick in his right hand, crossed his waist with his left hand, and watched Ye Ting like a Dharma protector. Ye Youshan immediately asked: "You give me a word for word to memorize the three-character scripture?" Ye Ting frowned, didn't fight, opened his mouth like a pearl, and almost recited it in one go. Ye Youshan came up with a topic that he had just talked about: "Recite to me the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's "Gulang Moon Xing" again!" Ye Ting still carried it like a cloud: "I don't know the moon when I am young, and I call it a white jade plate." ......" Ye Ting's loud recitation had not yet landed, and Ye Youshan slapped his palms happily: "Okay, genius, the son can be taught, and it will become a great tool in a long time!" Immediately, Ye Ting's "cane punishment" was not only exempted, but Ye Youshan also loved him like Bole found Maxima. In addition to asking him in class to "read is valuable in divine understanding, learning to be able to think deeply and understand doubts"; Outside the classroom, he also asked him to "learn the classics without interruption, and the soil can become a mountain over time", and instructed Ye Ting to read the famous works in "Tang Poems", "Song Ci", "Zizhi Tongjian" and "Guwen Guan Zhi", so that he laid a deep foundation in ancient literature.

Following Mr. Ye Youshan, Ye Ting met Mr. Chen Jingru, a new-school figure with progressive thinking. Chen Jingru admired Sun Wenxue's theory and admired Sun Yat-sen, so he wholeheartedly supported his political proposition of "expelling the Tartars, restoring China, founding the Republic of China, and equalizing land rights." Therefore, he "teaches something to do" when he lectures to students, so that students can "learn something useful". He wrote six regular script characters on the walls on both sides of the school gate: the right compartment is "good at diligence, learning is in thinking"; The left chamber is "the rise and fall of the country, the husband is responsible". Then, in his lectures on history, geography, and self-cultivation, he traced the history of civilization for thousands of years, and looked down on the motherland, which had been weak and impoverished since the Opium War, and was wantonly devoured, plundered, and humiliated by foreign powers, while the Qing Dynasty's "Treaty of Aihui", "Treaty of Nanjing", "Treaty of Shimonoseki", and "Treaty of Xinchou", which were subservient to foreigners, betrayed the country to seek glory, and humiliated the country, were nailed to the head of every patriotic Chinese son and daughter like a pillar of shame. However, the corrupt Qing Dynasty and reactionary officials in various localities were vicious, cruel and vicious to the common people, especially to the revolutionaries. However, in the history of the Chinese nation, heroes have emerged one after another, such as Qu Yuan, Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang, Yu Qian, Zheng Chenggong, and so on. They may sing generously and lamentably, or be mighty and unyielding, or regard death as home, or be righteous and awe-inspiring, or die for their country. They are the backbone of the Chinese nation! They are the pride of the descendants of Yan and Huang! Ye Ting listened to Teacher Chen Jingru's lecture, and felt that his chest was like a hurricane descending from the sky, humiliation, resentment, hatred, and hatred were stirred together like a whirlwind, and he hit his heart like a solid, making him want to immediately leap forward like a hero in the past and fight for the country.

"Teacher Chen, how can I become a national hero like Yue Fei?" That night, Ye Ting knocked on the door of Teacher Chen Jingru's house and asked urgently.

"Oh? Sit, sit. Teacher Chen Jingru, who is in his prime, has long fallen in love with Ye Ting, who is good at thinking about problems and has abundant energy. He asked Ye Ting to sit on a wooden stool next to the old Eight Immortals table he used for reading and grading homework, and told him earnestly: "If you want to serve the motherland in the future, you must increase your talents now, and what you need to do now is to read more books and read more progressive books." As he spoke, he handed over to Ye Ting the progressive newspaper "Minbao" that he had kept, and Zhang Binglin's "Book of Xu" and "Book of Refuting Kang Youwei's Theory of Revolution" on expelling aliens and recovering his old business, and told him to read more patriotic poems.

Since then, Ye Ting's enthusiasm for reading has increased. Whenever the rooster announces the dawn, the villagers who get up early and go to the field can see Ye Ting holding a book in the "reading pavilion" not far from the door of the house, chanting silently. Once he actually took a shortcut and walked more than 30 miles, came to Aotou Village in Daya Bay, climbed high and overlooked, facing a faint shadow of Gushan Island in the far distance-**, Chen Jingru teacher's voice sounded in his ears and angrily recounted the scene of the British imperialist robbers forcing the Qing Dynasty to cede the motherland's treasure island, and the fierce faces of the British invading army and the rice-shaped flag proudly fluttering in the sky above ** seemed to flash in front of him, and he recited Yue Fei's glorious poem "Man Jianghong" excitedly: "Angry hair rushes to the crown, leaning on the railing, Xiaoxiao rain break. Look up. Looking up to the sky for a long time, the fierce ......" shows that the young man Ye Ting's chest has drawn a magnificent picture of "driving a long car", "stepping on Helan" and expelling "Hulu".

Soon, the "heroic spirit" in Ye Ting's chest exploded.

On that day, Ye Ting went to Tamsui Town to buy stationery and came back, and saw several land temples along the way, and some of them were still filled with incense in front of the "god seat". Ye Ting remembered that the superstition mentioned by teacher Chen Jingru was a trick used by the ruling class to fool the people and strengthen their rule, and scolded angrily: "Now the country is not like a country, and the home is not like a home, but you are being enshrined vividly!" He reached out and picked up the incense burner in the land temple, crackled, and all of them were shattered. Then, pat the dust on his hands and walk away, with a heroic spirit.

Who knows, as soon as Ye Ting returned home, a local leader followed him to Ye's house, called Ye Ting's father, Ye Xisan, and scolded Ye Ting for offending the gods and smashing the Bodhisattva, and deserved death! Ye Ting said without showing weakness: "Bodhisattvas are all made of mud, what kind of gods." If you want to say that there are gods, I'll pinch a buffalo and squat at your house! The leading figure was ridiculed by Ye Ting on the spot, and he was even more unrelenting, so he had to take Ye Ting to the Land Temple to kneel down and kowtow and confess his guilt. Ye Xisan was originally superstitious, and Ye Ting offended the leading figure again, which added to the fire, and he was about to beat Ye Ting with his fists, but fortunately, Teacher Chen Jingru rushed to hear the news and mediated from it, which calmed down the turmoil.

Two years later, Ye Ting finished his studies at Tengyun School with excellent grades and went to Huizhou to apply for the Provincial Sericulture School.

Before saying goodbye to his parents and teacher Chen Jingru, Teacher Chen said something that he had thought about for a long time: "When you leave home and go to Huizhou, it is like a bird out of a cage, and your autonomy will be greater." The ancients said: People want to go up, and leaves want to go up. Today's people say: Stand up and save China. Your name should be changed from 'Wei Xun' to 'Ting', Ye Ting, which means upward, erect and high-spirited. How is it? Ye Ting felt that Mr. Chen's name for him was full of expectations and aspirations, and the meaning was profound, so he chin a little, and the word "yes" fell to the ground like a stone.

This is the origin of Ye Ting's name.

Ye Ting came to Huizhou alone, and he was really happy in the first few days. Because Huizhou has been prosperous since the Song Dynasty, it has become an important port and a historical ancient city in southern Guangdong. Huizhou is surrounded by water, which is the throat road between the province, Hong Kong, Chao and Mei, and the terrain is dangerous, and it is a place where soldiers of all dynasties must fight; At the same time, Huizhou is bordered by the Dongjiang River in the north, and the city is divided into two by the Xizhi River. The west of the city has the beautiful West Lake with the reputation of "Manluo Xizi", and there are relics such as Su Causeway, Xixin Bridge, and Dongxin Bridge built by Su Shi and his concubine in Huizhou; Thousands of years of Kapok Water Pavilion, Baihuazhou, Diancuizhou, Sizhou Tower, Jiuqu Bridge and other places of interest are stationed in the holy period; The downtown park stands tall with the Wangjiang Pavilion shaded by towering ancient banyan trees and phoenix trees; There are all kinds of shops on both sides of the city's thoroughfare; The well-known prefectural middle school hall and prefectural sericulture school stand side by side. Huizhou is indeed a well-known commercial port and cultural city in southern Guangdong.

However, when Ye Ting really entered the sericulture school set up in the Yongfu Temple, an ancient temple on the west bank of West Lake Crocodile Lake, his chest was as suffocated as pressing on a heavy stone slab. The whole school is like an ancient castle, empty, deserted, and lifeless; The officials of the school are all dignified, lively and indispensable; In addition, some "old students" with special backgrounds in the same grade as him usually slandered the revolutionaries in their speeches, but they were all mentally inferior in their studies, and every time they took an exam, they would go to the main hall of Yongfuji Temple to burn incense and kowtow to the Bodhisattva, praying that the Bodhisattva would bless them with good results in the examination. Ye Ting was determined to tease them.

On this day, Ye Ting asked a few progressive students to hide behind the Bodhisattva, when those "old students" came to the main hall, burned incense, and knelt down on both knees to pray to the Bodhisattva, Ye Ting Leng Ding stood on the incense table in front of the Bodhisattva, stretched out his hand to pluck a few beards on the Bodhisattva's mouth, and said loudly to the few "old students" who bowed to the Bodhisattva three times and bowed nine times: "Today, count me as offending the gods, and see how the Bodhisattva will punish me in tomorrow's exam?" If you do better than me in the test tomorrow, it means that the Bodhisattva has a miracle, and I promise to reshape the golden body of all the Bodhisattvas in this hall in the future! The "old students" looked at each other, frightened and didn't know how to answer. In the exam the next day, Ye Ting still dominated the entire grade, and the "old students" did a mess. However, soon the principal found Ye Ting violently, reprimanded him fiercely, and told him that if he did this nonsense in the future, he would definitely be sanctioned.

In fact, the principal's threats to Ye Ting were not all intimidation. Because at this time, the political situation of the country was in a tense situation. In order to save the end of the corrupt and declining Qing Dynasty, it regarded all progressive ideas and actions of revolutionaries and other members as "beasts of the flood" and wanted to "investigate and deal with them strictly" and did not hesitate to "suppress them with blood."

Just a few days after Ye Ting cut his braids, a team of Qing troops surrounded the sericulture school while the students were in class. There was probably a class of Qing troops who blocked the classroom where Ye Ting was classing. One of the squad leaders-looking veterans spoke with a thick Sichuan accent and told the students to come out one by one to be searched. As soon as Ye Ting came out of the classroom, the veteran who looked like a squad leader instructed the Qing army under his command: "Ge Laozi, this baby is a rebel, arrest it!" ”

In an instant, two Qing soldiers pounced in front of Ye Ting like wolves, numb shoulders and arms, and tied him up.

"Why are you arresting our students?" Ye Ting shook his arms and tried to break free from Qing Jun's arm. He asked loudly.

The veteran who looked like a squad leader smiled: "You baby, you cut off your braids, and you don't know that you are suspected of becoming a chaotic party?" ”

Ye Ting still refused to give up, and continued to ask: "The braids grow on our heads, and we cut our own braids, whose party are we messing up?!" ”

"Don't talk nonsense with him, and put anyone who cuts off his braids and puts him in prison!" At this time, a Qing army who was an official came over, with a murderous face full of murderous intentions, and gave orders to the Qing army.

The day after Ye Ting and a few other progressive students who had cut off their braids were caught in prison by the Qing army, the government official who was also the principal of the sericulture school was afraid that his boss would sentence him for "dereliction of duty". wrote a "letter of guarantee" overnight, explaining that Ye Ting and them were purely young and ignorant, bailed them out, and strictly disciplined them in the future, so that there would be no more behaviors such as cutting braids to disrupt the party and the country. Unbeknownst to him, Ye Ting and a few progressive students who had cut their braids returned to school, and notices had been posted on the campus that they had been expelled from school for "misdeeds".

"If you don't expel me, I don't want to go to a school like this!" Ye Ting went to the student dormitory to pack up his things, picked up the bedding roll, and walked out of the sericulture school without looking back.

However, when Ye Ting left the ancient city of Huizhou and stepped on the dirt road back to Zhoutian Village, Tamsui Town, he muttered in his heart. He knew that when he returned home and told his father about being expelled from school, Ye Xisan would definitely be furious, and he would inevitably suffer another meal. How do you get through this? Ye Ting thought of Teacher Chen Jingru. So, he first went to Tengyun School to report to Mr. Chen that he was imprisoned by the Qing army for cutting braids and then expelled from the sericulture school, Mr. Chen reassured him not to be afraid, took him home to meet his father for a while, and introduced him to the revolutionary situation in Guangzhou after the failure of the Huanghuagang Uprising in Guangzhou, and encouraged him to continue to find a way out to serve the country and the people.

"Teacher Chen, I will keep your teachings in mind." Ye Ting's bright eyes radiated a beam of resolute light, which was as penetrating as an arrow.

"Okay, I'll take you home." Chen Jingru helped Ye Ting carry a bag of bags to his home.

"You rebel, you rebel!" Ye Xisan listened to Ye Ting's story, and he was really angry, grabbed a stick in the hall and was about to beat Ye Ting.

Ye Ting, who has teacher Chen Jingru by his side as a "talisman", argues confidently: "Whose king's law did I break by cutting off my braids?" Today they talk about this chaotic party, tomorrow they talk about that big rebellion, they are feudal autocracy and dictatorship! I'm just a backbone, look what they do to me?! ”

"Good. I can't afford to mess with you. Even if I don't have a son like you. Get the hell out of here! Ye Xisan saw that Ye Ting not only did not admit his mistake, but was angry and angry, becoming more and more angry.

"Listen to me first." Teacher Chen Jingru comforted Ye Xisan and Ye Ting to sit beside him, told Ye Xisan the reason why Huizhou Provincial Sericulture School was not suitable for Ye Ting to go to school, and then explained the arrangements and explanations for him to introduce Ye Ting back to Huizhou to study in the Provincial Middle School.

Ye Xisan and Ye Ting, father and son, grabbed Chen Jingru's hand together, thanked him repeatedly, and the words of gratitude made the atmosphere that was still cold and warm immediately became gentle and warm like spring.