In 1987, there was finally movement on both sides of the Taiwan Strait after a long absence. With an order from the Taiwan authorities, the "martial law" that had been in force for decades was finally successfully lifted. People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait couldn't help but cheer and welcome this beautiful moment.
Among them, the most exciting thing is the veterans who evacuated with the Kuomintang . They have been working in Taiwan for decades without relatives or serious jobs. They only have some veteran subsidies given by the Kuomintang.
Now that they can go home to visit relatives, it is undoubtedly a happy thing for them.
However, veteran Yao Dachuan did not expect that returning home to visit relatives would push him into a dead end. His relatives repeatedly asked him to "borrow money" from the childless man.
Feeling helpless, after some struggle, he decided to cut off contact with his hometown and chose to live alone in Taiwan until his death. He never experienced the warmth of family affection again until his death.
What happened to Yao Dazhuan? Why would you make such a move?
Taiwan veterans who have been wandering for half their lives
In 1987, after Taiwan and the mainland resumed exchanges, a large number of veterans who had followed the Kuomintang to Taiwan but were abandoned, all embarked on a cruise ship returning home.
came in high spirits and left with white hair, but their faces were full of joy. At this moment when they embarked on the road back home, their years of waiting seemed to have made sense.
Yao Dachuan is one of these veterans.
He stood on the pier excitedly, looking in the direction of the mainland from a distance. After being away from home for so many years, Yao Dachuan could not imagine what his hometown had become, nor did he know whether his relatives were still there, but he still felt a sense of joy in his heart.
After two days of traveling, Yao Dachuan finally returned to his hometown of Anhui, but everything here was completely different from when he left.
Looking at the tall buildings rising from the ground, Yao Dachuan marveled at the rapid development of the mainland under the leadership of the Communist Party in recent years. All this unfamiliarity made him almost unable to find his way home.
finally found out the location of his hometown. After rushing back to the village with his simple luggage, Yao Dachuan found that his home was already empty and the courtyard where he once lived was overgrown with weeds.
Some people in the village recognized him, and then told him the truth. It turned out that not long after he left, his parents died of illness, and his only brother had to take his family to Xinjiang in order to support his family, and worked in the Shuanghe City 81 Regiment of the fifth division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Thinking that he had not been able to see his mother for the last time, Yao Dachuan felt extremely sad. He found his parents' graveyard that was covered with weeds, knelt on the ground and cried bitterly: "Dad, mother, it is my son who is unfilial, and he has not been able to come back to see him. Look at each other, we will still be a family in the next life! "
The vicissitudes of the white-haired old man's cries moved many people. Someone stepped forward to help him up and advised: " You can't help it. Your parents will definitely not blame you. Get up first. Let’s talk again! "
Yao Dachuan then stood up slowly, and someone asked: "What are your plans for the future? Are you coming back to live? Or continue there? "
Yao Dachuan seemed to have remembered something. He thought about it seriously, and then said firmly: " I am going to Xinjiang to find my brother. ”
In this way, Yao Dachuan embarked on the journey to Xinjiang again.
Xinjiang is vast and sparsely populated. It took a lot of effort for Yao Dachuan to find his long-lost brother in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
The two have been separated for nearly 40 years, but they still recognized each other at a glance.
Yao Dachuan's younger brother, Yao Huanan, hugged his brother tightly with tears in his eyes and cried bitterly: " Brother, where have you been all these years? My parents and I have been waiting for you to come back. "
Looking at his brother's gray hair, Yao Dachuan, who had lived alone and helpless for 40 years, finally felt the warmth of family affection, and then he told his brother his experiences over the years.
Yao Dachuan was born in 1927. At that time, the revolutionary situation was severe. Yao Dachuan's family lived in poverty and often faced the dilemma of not having enough food and clothing.
Yao Dachuan dropped out of school early and started working for his family to earn living expenses.
But the poverty of his life forced him to think about how he could make more money so that his parents and younger brother could have enough food and clothing.
Coincidentally, when Yao Dachuan was a teenager, he saw a recruitment notice posted by the Kuomintang when he was looking for work on the street. The military pay they offered was more than Yao Dachuan could earn after months of hard work, not to mention other generous benefits.
Therefore, Yao Dachuan immediately signed up to join the army. He had no idea of making a contribution at the time, just to make a living.
Soon after, the Kuomintang was about to leave. Yao Dachuan left his parents in a hurry and left under their worried eyes.
Yao Dachuan was still thinking at that time that when he made money and received military pay, he must send it to his parents as soon as possible to improve the living conditions at home. When he thought of his parents having enough food and clothing, Yao Dachuan felt that he could endure no matter how hard or tired he was.
However, the war was far more cruel than he imagined. He was sent to the anti-Japanese front line and narrowly escaped death on the battlefield. After many hardships, he survived the enemy's gun.
At first, he could still send his general's salary home on time. He didn't have much ambition. He just hoped that the war would end soon so that he could take the money he saved and return home to take care of his parents.
However, after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the outbreak of the Liberation War caught him off guard.
He didn't understand political matters. He just couldn't understand why he still wanted to fight his own people when the foreign enemies had been driven out. Yao Dachuan was originally unwilling to participate in this war.
As a result, as the Kuomintang was retreating on the battlefield, he actually received an order from Chiang Kai-shek asking them to go to Taiwan.
Taiwan was so far away from Anhui. Yao Dachuan was originally unwilling to do so. He still cared about his relatives in his hometown. At that time, there were many people who had the same idea as Yao Dachuan. But it was easy to get on a pirate ship, but it was difficult to get off the pirate ship.
This requirement of the Kuomintang is mandatory, and Yao Dachuan has no room to refuse. The Kuomintang promises that after arriving in Taiwan, veterans like them will receive more generous treatment.
Yao Dachuan was a little moved. He calculated that now he would just obey the Kuomintang's arrangements and wait until he got to Taiwan to find an opportunity to come back.
Therefore, with the encouragement of the Kuomintang, he quickly boarded a cruise ship to Taiwan.
As a result, after this separation, we were separated forever, and Yao Dachuan never saw his parents again.
After hearing what happened to his brother, Yao Huanan felt even more sad. He said: " My parents were chanting your name before they died. We all thought that you had sacrificed on the battlefield. Just come back, just come back! "
Yao Dachuan shook his head, with tears on his face: " I am sorry for my parents. ”
“ Otherwise, don’t go back, stay with us in Xinjiang, and our family will be reunited. ”
Yao Dachuan had a momentary heartbeat, but his younger brother now has a family full of children and grandchildren, and he did not want to be a burden to his younger brother. In addition, he could not adapt to the climate in Xinjiang, so Yao Dachuan still rejected his younger brother’s invitation. After living here for a while, he went to Taiwan.
Family ties are hard to break. Yao Dachuan, who lives in Taiwan, has always maintained contact with his hometown. The two parties communicated their current situation to each other through letters.
This kind of warmth of caring is what Yao Dachuan has always longed for, so he told his relatives in his hometown without reservation.
The picture comes from the Internet
As a result, a letter later broke the balance of Yao Dazhuan's life.
This is a letter sent by a distant relative. In the letter, he told about the plight of his life and hoped that Yao Dachuan, who had a retired military service, could lend them some money to help them with their work. They also promised that they would return the money to him when the money was turned over in the future.
Yao Dachuan didn't think too much and agreed immediately. Then he took out some of his savings and sent them to this relative.
But people's greed has no limits. After other relatives knew that Yao Dachuan had money, they also wrote to him and asked him to borrow money.
At first, Yao Dachuan wanted to continue to support them with his own money for the sake of his relatives. However, as time passed, Yao Dachuan's savings were running low, and the appetites of these relatives had not yet been filled.
Finally, after Yao Dachuan explained his predicament and expressed his unwillingness to borrow money, he was "abused" by what he called his distant relatives.
" We recognize you to give you face, to give you a root, and to allow you to come back a hundred years later. If you insist on being so heartless, then break off the contact! "
Yao Dachuan looked at this letter and felt extremely heavy in his heart. He did not expect that these relatives of his would look at him in such a way, nor did he expect that all the warmth of family affection before was just their disguise.
Yao Dachuan was very sad. For many years, no one knew how he came here. Only he knew what they, the veterans, had experienced after arriving in Taiwan.
After retreating to Taiwan in 1949, Yao Dachuan did not enjoy the welfare benefits promised by the Kuomintang at all. It was not until news of the establishment of new China came from the mainland that he knew that the Kuomintang could no longer return to the mainland.
Yao Dachuan was extremely anxious. He wanted to find a way to return to the mainland, but he did not expect that the Kuomintang would directly impose military control on them and restrict their freedom in Taiwan.
As long as someone wants to return to the mainland, he will be immediately executed by the Kuomintang. Before this, many people have been shot for trying to return to the mainland. Yao Dachuan has no other choice but to continue to stay in the Kuomintang's troops.
But what he didn't expect was that veterans like them were abandoned by the Kuomintang. Within two years of
being here, the Kuomintang eliminated them on the grounds of saving expenses, and all they got was severance pay ranging from 300-400 yuan.
Yao Dachuan took the money and was about to return to the mainland. News of "martial law" came from Taiwan, and now they couldn't go back at all.
Yao Dachuan could only take this meager severance pay and work odd jobs on the streets of Taiwan. Only in the dead of night would he regret why he didn't choose to stay in the mainland and why he couldn't keep the letters left by his parents so that he could still have thoughts about them.
's life in Taiwan is not easy because they have a "strange accent" and cannot integrate into local life at all.
If they want to find some work, they will be squeezed out. Moreover, due to the Kuomintang's policy prohibiting "miscegenation", many veterans cannot start a family or start a business here.
Although they once tried to protest to the Kuomintang, and they walked the streets wearing clothes with the word "homesick" written on them, their weak power did not cause any waves, and they were expelled by the Kuomintang.
Yao Dachuan finally found a job that could support himself, but because of his age, he could only die alone.
These veterans are more like the past forgotten by the Kuomintang. Although they exist in various places in Taiwan, no one pays attention to them and no one cares about them.
Yao Dachuan has spent nearly 40 years alone in such loneliness, and naturally desires family love more than anyone else.
When Chairman Mao issued the "Message to Compatriots in Taiwan" in 1979, he was extremely excited. He thought that cross-strait relations had finally turned a corner, but he did not expect that Taiwan would not respond at all to this notice.
He united with some veterans like himself in Taiwan and once again tried to launch a resistance. However, this time the Taiwan authorities suppressed it with more brutal means.
They could only wait quietly for the opportunity, and they waited until 1987.
1987 was undoubtedly a special year for Yao Dachuan. He immediately returned home to look for his relatives and the long-lost warmth. As a result, not only was he unable to see his parents, but he was also treated like this by distant relatives.
Disheartened, Yao Dachuan chose to cut off contact with this group of greedy people and lived alone in a nursing home in Taiwan. He ended this lamentable life without a single family member to accompany him.
Yao Huanan, who was far away in Xinjiang, didn't know what happened to his brother at this time. He only knew that his brother, with whom he had been keeping in touch, suddenly lost news, so he went back to his hometown in Anhui.
Only then did he learn about Yao Dachuan. He hated himself for not being able to keep his brother to live with him, so he could only direct his anger at these distant relatives and criticize them.
Before his death in 2021, Yao Huanan said to his daughter with grief: " My child, I am worried about your uncle leaving alone. You must find him and place him in our ancestral grave. You cannot let your uncle go alone. "
From then on, Yao Lingdi embarked on the road to find Yao Dachuan's ashes.
A group photo of Yao Dachuan's brothers
Fortunately, because he could not contact his relatives, I found out about Yao Dachuan's ashes at the "House of Veterans". After learning about it, Yao Lingdi planned to bring her uncle's ashes back and bury them with her family when the epidemic was over.
After all, no matter how far you go, your hometown is your final destination.
