In June 1973, at almost two o'clock in the evening, the staff of the West Flower Hall were very anxious. Seeing that the foreign affairs activities were about to begin, Premier Zhou suddenly could not be found.

In June 1973, at almost two o'clock in the middle of the night, the staff of Xihua Hall were very anxious. Seeing that the foreign affairs activities were about to begin, Premier Zhou suddenly could not be found.

It was obvious that just now, Premier Zhou asked everyone to do the preparation work, but he shaved himself, why can't he find it in a blink of an eye?

Secretary Ji Dong sorted out the whole thing. At around 1 o'clock, he knocked on the door of Premier Zhou's office and reminded Premier Zhou: "Prime Minister, it's getting late, there are still 14 minutes."

Because there was a foreign event at two o'clock, Vietnamese foreign guests who had just come to China asked to meet with Premier Zhou. Premier Zhou asked Ji Dong to prepare in advance and set aside time to strive to arrive at the venue in advance, so Ji Dong set up the time and reminded Premier Zhou.

Prince Zhou was so tired at that time. When he heard Ji Dong's words, he knew it was time to take a break, so he stood up. Because he had been sitting for too long, Premier Zhou shook his body obviously when he stood up. After stabilizing his body, he said to Ji Dong : "Well, you guys are ready, I'll shave."

This is a habit of Premier Zhou. When he participates in foreign affairs activities or appears in major public occasions, he will shave in advance and organize his instruments. This is a kind of respect for each other.

Seeing that there was not much time, Ji Dong quickly went to make arrangements and called the leader in charge of the reception work of the venue to prepare some food, because Premier Zhou could not have time to eat in the West Flower Hall, so he could only prepare some food in the venue.

Results After Ji Dong called back, he found that everyone was looking for Premier Zhou. Ji Dong thought about it and felt that Premier Zhou would "disappear" without saying a word. He thought that Premier Zhou said he would go shaving, so he walked to the bathroom.

Everyone saw Ji Dong walking towards the bathroom, and remembered that they had not yet gone there to look for it, so they walked towards the bathroom together. The moment the door opened, everyone was shocked. Premier Zhou was indeed in the bathroom, but the scene made everyone feel sore when they saw it, and tears almost flowed out.

Premier Zhou was holding a towel in his left hand and a shave knife with soap and stubble in his right hand. He leaned against his body and fell asleep in front of the mirror. His thin gray-yellow face, his deep sunken eyes were tightly closed.

That was a very uncomfortable position, but everyone couldn't bear to wake up Premier Zhou because he had worked for more than 30 hours in a row. What kind of workload is this?

Let’s talk about this issue based on the specific situation of Premier Zhou at that time. Premier Zhou had already celebrated his 75th birthday, and Premier Zhou was officially diagnosed with bladder cancer a year ago.

In other words, a 75-year-old cancer-related elderly person has worked for more than 30 hours in a row. We cannot imagine what kind of will he work with, but it must be something that ordinary people cannot do.

And he is not so busy occasionally, but so busy all the time, so busy that he has no time to go to chemotherapy and recuperate. It is normal to work more than ten hours a day, and occasionally more than twenty hours, this time it exceeds thirty hours.

So when you see Premier Zhou sleeping in the bathroom, you don’t care whether the posture will be uncomfortable or not, and you just think that it’s good to let Premier Zhou sleep like this for a while.

No one dared to speak, and they all held their breath, for fear of making a sound to wake up Premier Zhou, but Premier Zhou himself suddenly moved his shoulders and opened his eyes.

He realized that he was asleep, looked guilty, and quickly dealt with the matter at hand, then walked out, looking at the watch and said : "Oh no, I'm asleep, late, late, I'm blamed me this time..."

Secretary said nothing, but followed him quickly and followed Premier Zhou to Diaoyutai . At this time, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs was already waiting there. When he saw Premier Zhou coming, he quickly reported his work.

And as soon as Premier Zhou walked into Diaoyutai, he was obviously refreshed. This was an ultimate self-regulation, adjusting his best working state, because there would be a tough battle to fight next.

The staff of the original venue prepared noodles for Premier Zhou and asked Premier Zhou to eat a little, but Premier Zhou looked at the watch and was unwilling to be late, so he did not eat. Instead, he asked the staff to give him two coffee candy to resist hunger and fatigue.

talks soon began. Premier Zhou and Vietnam's sample essay talked with Prime Minister about the Cambodia issue, the situation in Southeast Asia and Europe, etc., and then officially entered the topic, that is, discussing issues about China's helping Vietnam to restore and develop its economy.

This time, Le Duan and Fan Wen led a Vietnamese delegation to China to provide a free aid plan to Vietnam in 1974. During the talks, Vietnam kept putting forward conditions and rebelling, as if China should unconditionally meet all Vietnam’s requirements, but aid is aid, and it is impossible for Vietnam to put forward conditions, so this talk was made.

Regarding this aid, Premier Zhou later wrote to Mao Zedong, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian and other members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on June 7, proposing:

"In recent years, due to the expansion of the scale of Vietnam's war against the United States and national salvation, our country's aid materials and foreign exchange have also expanded. This time, the Vietnamese side proposed a big plan with an estimated value of 8.1 billion yuan. This plan is too big. It is not practical; not only can we not do it, but it does not meet their urgent needs. We start from Vietnam in reality and report that restoration and development of the economy are not something that can be done in one year, and it will take several years to calculate. Therefore, we will first set an aid plan of 2.5 billion yuan (including 1.3 billion US dollars in foreign exchange) and then classify it. "

From this letter, we can see that the Vietnamese side proposed an aid of 8.1 billion yuan, while Premier Zhou only wanted to give 2.5 billion yuan.

The gap between the two is very big. Vietnam wants to bargain and keep making its own demands. Premier Zhou insists on the bottom line that China can give, so the talks are naturally very difficult.

Moreover, Premier Zhou was hungry and worked for more than 30 hours in a row. He was exhausted both mentally and physically, which increased the difficulty of the talks. However, he still suppressed his hunger and fatigue, dealt with Vietnam, and used constant drinking tea to relieve hunger and fatigue.

But as time goes by, Premier Zhou feels more and more tired, and this fatigue is almost impossible to hide, and the talks are still in a difficult situation.

Premier Zhou naturally would not let the talks fail. When he saw the waiter taking the water, he suddenly had an idea and whispered to the waiter : "Send me a wet towel."

The waiter quickly brought Premier Zhou a towel soaked in cold water with a tray. Premier Zhou took the towel and repeatedly wiped and massaged the forehead and eye sockets, then put it back on the tray, and whispered : "Thank you."

Wet towel relieved Premier Zhou's fatigue to a certain extent, but it was obvious that it could play a very small role and lasted very short. In less than ten minutes, Premier Zhou signaled the waiter to ask for the towel with his eyes.

When the waiter put the towel on, Premier Zhou whispered : "Hot, hotter."

Hot towels are obviously much more useful than cool towels. Premier Zhou pressed the hot towel on his forehead, but in a moment, he regained the wisdom and agility of negotiations. He could not see any fatigue, responded quickly, and answered the same questions in the sample essay in a reasonable, powerful and concise manner, and took the initiative without moving.

The waiter quickly reached a tacit understanding with Premier Zhou, and gave Premier Zhou a towel that had been washed with boiled water every ten minutes.

, and Premier Zhou also maintained a high degree of soberness and wisdom with the help of these hot towels. The talks were held from 2 o'clock in the night until dawn, and Premier Zhou successfully completed the task.

But strangely, when Premier Zhou left, the two waitresses who had been responsible for delivering towels did not walk forward to see the Prime Minister as usual, but stood there watching the Prime Minister leave.

This strange behavior was keenly noticed by the reception leader, and asked why, it turned out that in order to make Premier Zhou use a hot towel with just the right temperature every ten minutes, the two kept rinsing the towel in boiling water.

After a few hours, their hands were already burnt with blisters, which hurts as soon as they touched them. If they walked up to see the Prime Minister at this time, once they shook hands with the Prime Minister, the blisters on their hands would inevitably be unable to hide.

By then Premier Zhou would inevitably feel distressed and guilty, and they were unwilling to let Premier Zhou be distracted by such trivial matters, so they did not send Premier Zhou as usual, which was also a kind of silent dedication.

They are willing to give like this. Premier Zhou gave all his body and mind to the country and the people, but he forgot himself. Therefore, the staff around him did their best to think more about Premier Zhou. Even if they couldn't help Premier Zhou, they would not be distracted.

After this talks, Premier Zhou wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian and other members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on the provision of free aid to Vietnam in 1974. The contents of the letter have been mentioned above. At the end of the letter

, Premier Zhou also added : The plan has been agreed with the Vietnamese side.

Chairman Mao approved the revised aid plan after reading it. On June 8, Premier Zhou attended the signing ceremony on the 1974 Chinese government's free economic and military aid agreement to Vietnam.

According to convention, foreign guests must arrange to visit all parts of the motherland after coming to Beijing. This time, Premier Zhou made clever arrangements.

Let the Vietnamese side go to the west where we are still in a poor area to see it, so that they know that our internationalist aid is saved by our people with their belts. They should not speak out like this. They should not combine the reality of the Vietnamese side and the reality of our China.

So Premier Zhou is going to take them to Yan'an to take a look. Of course, part of this is because Premier Zhou himself wants to go back to Yan'an to take a look. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou has always wanted to go back to Yan'an to take a look, but he has never had time and opportunity. This time he happened to accompany the Vietnamese guests to take a look.

In Yan'an, Premier Zhou accompanied Vietnamese leaders to visit the former revolutionary sites such as Baota Mountain, Zaoyuan, Yangjialing and Phoenix Mountain in Yan'an, and introduced the history of the Red Army's Long March, Zunyi Conference and Chongqing Negotiation .

At the same time, Premier Zhou also suggested displaying more photos of older generation revolutionaries such as Zhu De, Dong Biwu, Ren Bishi, Chen Yi , Peng Dehuai, He Long, Xu Xiangqian, Wang Ruofei, Liu Zhidan to commemorate them. As for Premier Zhou himself, he did not want too much publicity and even asked to close his former site in Zaoyuan.

After leaving Yan'an, Premier Zhou accompanied the Vietnamese leaders to visit Xi'an city. After the visit, he sent off Vietnamese guests. Premier Zhou himself held a meeting with the Yan'an Prefectural Party Committee Secretary and the Provincial Party Committee Secretary to talk about the living conditions of the people and agricultural development in Yan'an area.

Premier Zhou said with tears and guilt: "The people of Yan'an have nurtured us and won the victory of the national revolution. We are in the central government and do not take good care of Yan'an's work."

Premier Zhou suggested to the local person in charge that the backward appearance of Yan'an area should be changed as soon as possible. The local person in charge promised Premier Zhou to let Yan'an change its appearance in the next three years and double the grain in five years.

At that time, Premier Zhou was still excited to say : "Food doubled in five years. I will definitely come, I will definitely come. As long as I am alive, I will definitely come."

However, Premier Zhou could not wait for the new look of Yan'an, nor could he return to Yan'an. Just two and a half years after returning to Yan'an this time, at 9:57 am on January 8, 1976, our beloved Premier Zhou died of illness at the 305 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army of China, and left us forever.

However, he left us, but he did not leave us, because he has been living in our hearts, always, always.