Chapter 1: Descendants of the Imperial Family

  She Wenfang had suffered all his hardships when he was in Huaiyu Songyuan.

  From the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy, Yu Songyuan's mischievous nature had already begun to show. Every day, there would be two or three times when she would jump and kick in her belly, punching and kicking wildly. Often, it would scare Qian Wenfang and Qian Wenshu so much that they would be at a loss, wondering what kind of monster they were carrying, and whether it would jump out of their bellies by itself.

  When she was more than six months pregnant, once Wen Fang was picking beans in her own vegetable garden, suddenly feeling that her abdomen had been heavily punched several times, the pain made her straighten up, mouth gasping for air, and fell to the ground with a thud. Looking around, there was no one nearby, only then did she realize that it was the child in her belly who had delivered several heavy punches, directly knocking her to the ground.

  She Wenfang had always been resentful about this, and after Yu Songyuan was born, every time she thought of it, she hated him so much that she couldn't bear to give him a few slaps.

  It was just after the three years of natural disasters, the team's cafeteria collapsed, and each family began to live their own small lives. At night, her mother, who was heavily pregnant, was tossed about by Yu Song inside her belly, unable to sleep, suffering in silence, and becoming increasingly frightened and apprehensive.

  Yu Xinhe comforted his wife, saying, "Now is a time of good governance, no evil spirits can emerge. This little scoundrel is making such a fuss, I have raised so many children, and it's likely that only this one will inherit my legacy. In the future, he'll either be a great talent who brings prosperity to the country or a thoroughly depraved rascal."

  "Húnzi", a northern Jiangsu dialect, refers to those who are uneducated and unmannered, gluttonous and lazy, and bring harm to their hometown. In fact, Yu Xinhe had already had high expectations for this child in his heart, he couldn't believe that he, Yu Xinhe, would give birth to a little "húnzi".

  Ten months of pregnancy, one morning delivery. Yu Songyuan was not enough to make trouble, and he actually refused to come out. When his mother gave birth, he didn't jump out by himself, but instead, due to the abnormal fetal position, it led to a difficult delivery, almost taking the life of Shu Wenfang.

  His mother had to go all out to finally give birth to this naturally stubborn son. At dawn, a loud cry announced the birth of baby Yu Songyuan.

  The whole family was overjoyed when the baby weighed in at nine and a half pounds. But Mrs. Wen Fang seemed to have used up all her strength and fainted dead away, sleeping for three days and three nights.

  According to Xiao Shu's aunt, Wenxiu, Yu Songyuan was born with black hair and looked very spirited. The midwife handed him over to his father, Yu Xinhai, who had already opened his eyes and stared straight at his father.

  Yu Xinghe said angrily, "You little beast, your mother must have been driven mad by you, I'll definitely raise you up and see what kind of demon or monster you are!"

  Yu Songyuan was born with a remarkably loud voice. It is said that the first cry he let out when he was born was long and mournful, like a military bugle call, and every household in the village could hear it clearly.

  He never cried and made a fuss like other children. He only cried three times a day, suddenly bursting into tears as if scalded by boiling water. Generally at noon, evening and night, he would cry once each time, very regularly.

  His crying was also special, with a high-pitched and loud voice, the loudest among all children. When he cried at night, the whole village would be awakened from their sleep. Moreover, once he started crying, feeding or coaxing him were of no use. It would only take a while, after finishing his tantrum, he would fall asleep when it was time to sleep, and play with abandon, talking to himself, having a great time.

  Yu Songyuan and his uncle Yu Songquan were born in the same year, Yu Wenfang gave birth to Yu Songyuan more than three months later, and Yu Wenshu also gave birth to Yu Songquan. The two babies were placed together, it is said that as long as Yu Songyuan cried, Yu Songquan would cry too. If Yu Songyuan didn't cry, Yu Songquan wouldn't cry either, they were very consistent.

  She Wenfang and She Wenshu are twin sisters, also sisters-in-law. Perhaps due to their close relationship by blood and marriage, the two young children were as close as one person. Yu Songyuan was domineering but loved his younger brother dearly. When they first learned to speak and walk, the two toddlers would play together, going in and out, with Yu Songyuan always holding Yu Songquan's small hand.

  They are busy with farm work, locking them at home, they will play on their own, very happy and absolutely reassuring for the adults of both families. In the meantime, as long as one of the sisters, Cen Wenfang or Cen Wenshu, rushes back to feed them, it's enough. The two little brothers hold a bottle each, no fighting, no quarreling, even if they are not full, they will not fight or make noise.

  At the age of four or five, the two brothers' mischievous nature was fully exposed and they began to wreak havoc. The usual pattern was that Yu Songyuan was the mastermind, while Yu Songquan was the one who charged forward recklessly. Starting from the age of five, they made adults detest them deeply. "Their evil deeds were notorious and numerous", this is how Yu Xinhai and Yu Xinmin evaluated their own sons.

  At that time, women went to the toilet using a horse bucket. Yu Songyuan and his brother often saw their mother and aunt squatting on the horse bucket. They suddenly had a playful heart, first picking up more than a dozen poplar catkins from the old elm tree behind the house, using grass clamps to repeatedly throw them on paper, throwing off a large number of branch thorns and toxic hairs. Then, they carefully sprinkled these branch thorns and toxic hairs on the toilet lid of She Wenfang and She Wenshu.

  That night, She Wenfang and She Wenshu were both hit, and they both jumped up from the toilet like they had been set on fire. Their buttocks were red and swollen, aching with a sour and spicy pain, unable to sit or lie down, suffering extremely, and the two families hardly slept all night.

  Fortunately, Yu Xinhe was well-read in ancient books and had a good understanding of medical principles. He and Yu Xinmin didn't have time to scold the two naughty children, but instead climbed up the old elm tree in the middle of the night to fetch a small pile of wild peppers. Carefully using his fingers to open their belly skin, he applied the contents to the buttocks and thighs of the two women. It wasn't until the next afternoon that the two recovered normally.

  After understanding the situation, Yu Xinhe and Yu Xinmin brothers couldn't help but burst into loud laughter, while She Wenfang and She Wenyu sisters were so ashamed that they were furious, their teeth itching with rage, and they couldn't help but cry and laugh at the same time, almost to the point of going crazy.

  The price of the prank was that two five-year-old boys were beaten by their mother until their buttocks were red and swollen for several days. In fact, being scolded by their mother for pranks happened almost every day in their childhood history, never stopping.

  Yu Xinhe has three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Yu Songdong, is already in the army. His wife is the head of the women's federation in the big team, responsible for family planning, and they have separated. The second son is still in school, and the third son is Yu Songyuan. The elder daughter was a private teacher and later followed the army to Fujian. The younger daughter is four or five years younger than Yu Songyuan and is the most spoiled by her parents.

  Among the three sons, Yu Xinhe liked and worried about this youngest son the most. It is said that at the age of three, one can see the greatness, and at the age of seven, one can see the old age. By the time they were six or seven years old, Yu Xinhe and his brother Yu Xinmin had already vaguely felt that the naughty Yu Songyuan was showing a slightly different flavor from the ordinary.

  When Yu Songyuan was seven years old, two households from Sunan were sent to the sixth team of Yujia Village Brigade. Before they arrived, Yu Xinhai had heard that both families were from Sunan and asked Yu Xinmin to build houses for them on the foundation of the Yu family ancestral temple and the old house.

  "No way, absolutely not!" Political commissar Zhou Kun immediately ran to Yu Xinhai's home and found Yu Xinmin, firmly expressing his opposition.

  Yu Xinmin was the production team leader of the Sixth Small Team, and the movement was led by the political team leader. However, building houses for the lower households was managed by the production team leader. So he asked back: "Just two houses, why is it absolutely not allowed?"

  "These two households, one is the family of a current counter-revolutionary and the other is 'black five categories', are both objects of dictatorship. They have come to receive education and reform from poor and lower-middle peasants, and the house was built in such a good location, do you want to give them special treatment?" Zhou Kun spoke out.

  Yu Xinghe handed Zhou Kun a cigarette, "This is two different things, where the house is built and education reform have nothing to do with each other. They are from our Yu ancestors' hometown, giving them some consideration in life is human nature!"

  Yu Xinhe has spoken, and although Zhou Kun had ten thousand unwilling thoughts in his heart, he could only agree verbally.

  Yu Xinhai and his brother, as well as She Wenfang and her sister, were highly respected in the surrounding villages. They gained fame during the Anti-Japanese War period and were renowned anti-Japanese heroes, with a reputation that spread far and wide along both banks of the Guan River. In Yujiacun Village, Yu Xinhai was the clan leader, while Yu Xinmin was the production team leader of the sixth small team; they enjoyed high prestige and no one dared to challenge their authority, which had been built up over the years.

  Yu brothers had not yet seen the people, but they lent a helping hand to these two demoted households. There was also a deeper reason, that is, the ancestral home of the Yu family was also in Sunan, and their roots were also in Wuzhong. They had a natural sense of closeness to the demoted households who came from their ancestors' hometown of Sunan.

  As a prominent family, the Yu ancestors moved from the fertile and prosperous land of southern Jiangsu to the desolate and barren wetlands of northern Jiangsu. This is not a mystery but a historical fact. It originated in the early Ming dynasty, during the large-scale migration that lasted for over 100 years, also known as the famous "Red Scarf Dispersal" (or "Red Fly Dispersal") event of the early Ming period.

  In the early years of Hongwu, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the dispersal of the population in Jiangnan. In 1370, the newly established Ming dynasty began to relocate over 4,000 wealthy households from Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou to cultivate land in Linhuai. More than 140,000 wealthy merchants were forcibly relocated from southern Jiangsu to Fengyang Prefecture for resettlement.

  In the following hundred years, the Ming dynasty continued to move wealthy families from various parts of Jiangnan to different places in Subei. According to historians' estimates, there were approximately 450,000 rich and powerful families with ancestral homes in Jiangnan who were relocated from Wu County to Suizhou City's northwest Ximen gathering place, then under the escort of government troops, they traveled by boat to settle in Yangzhou Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture in Subei.

  This migration of unprecedented scale that lasted for a century is known in history as the "Hongwu Migration" or "Red Turban Migration".

  The Yu family, a prominent clan in Jiangnan, originated from Suzhou's Jurong. The first generation had 58 brothers, and it was during the early Hongwu years that they underwent a massive migration, relocating hundreds of family members from Suzhou's Chunmen to the northern part of Suzhou, which was then a vast expanse of salt marshes and reeds. They made a living by boiling salt, fishing, planting grass as markers, reclaiming land, and building settlements, gradually thriving and prospering.

  Yu's "Fifty-eight" settled in northern Jiangsu after, in the following hundreds of years, through the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China period of great chaos, its branches have moved many times, to the founding of New China, Yu's descendants in northern Jiangsu have spread all over the country.

  When Yu Songyuan's father, Yu Xinghe, was born, due to decades of frequent wars, the once majestic and dignified Su North Yu Clan Ancestral Hall had long been destroyed in the flames of war. Only a few tens of thousands of people remained in their ancestral home in Su North, scattered among several natural villages centered around Yujia Village.

  Yu Songyuan had never seen his grandparents, uncles and aunts (father's side), let alone enjoyed their love. His father and uncle were always secretive about their family background, and only when Yu Songyuan grew older could he gather bits and pieces of information from the elderly villagers about his once glorious family history.