Image slogan of RMB

1948 In March, with the prospect of liberating all of China clear, Yang Qi, a PLA soldier who used to be a printer, received a special task. The nature of the task is top secret, and the content is to design the first set of RMB after the founding of New China.

At that time, in China, apart from the monetary system issued by the National Government, there were still legal tender and silver dollars in circulation, and the amount of money circulating in the vast liberated areas was even more numerous. Almost every liberated area has its own currency, such as Central China Currency, Jianghuai Currency and Shandong Beihai Currency. Solving the unified monetary system is the primary problem faced by every new regime, as was Qin Shihuang 2000 years ago.

So, at the end of March 1948, Dong, then the chairman of the North China government, was appointed by the central government to develop the first set of RMB after the founding of New China, and Dong found Yang Bingchao, then the president of Beihai Bank, and finally Yang Bingchao handed over the specific work to Yang Qi.

Yang Qi, who has just received the task, said that the pattern and size of coins should be different from those of the old times and conform to the environment at that time, so it is extremely difficult. He finally found Zhai Ying, a comrade who studied sculpture. It is hard to imagine that these two young people in their twenties can undertake such an important job. Finally, Yang Qi and Zhai Ying, as people's representatives, printed their photos on the first set of RMB permanently.

Yang Qi was born in Baoshan, Shanghai on 1925. 1932, the Japanese army launched 1.28 aggression against Shanghai, which was the beginning of the first battle between Shanghai and Songsong. At that time, seven-year-old Yang Qi was carried by his parents and fled to a foreign concession in Shanghai with the whole village. Along the way, our 19 route army is about to leave for the front.

Yang Qi said: He was very impressed by the 19 Route Army, because in countless marching teams, although the clothing of the 19 Route Army was also tattered, everyone wore a uniform hat, very young and full of energy. It was from this time that Yang Qi had the desire to join the army, but at the age of seven, he didn't know what happened to the country and people at that time.

1In the autumn of 937, 12-year-old Yang Qi's family had been begging in the concession for a living. Although it is relatively far from the war, it is also displaced. In September of the same year, China-US Daily was published in Shanghai, in which Yang Qi was lucky to find an apprentice job. It was from this so-called job that his life was completely changed. After entering China-US Daily to study typesetting, Yang Qi met several underground comrades in the same unit. At that time, Yang Qi was only 12 years old, but he already knew what family hatred was.

After getting to know underground comrades, he kept asking them to send him to the team. Finally, Yang Qi came to Shajiabang Anti-Japanese Base, which is more than 200 kilometers away from Shanghai. But when he was young, he was worried that his mother wouldn't agree and didn't leave a word. He saw his mother again after this parting in the spring of 1949. Yang Qi said: Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety cannot be satisfactory. If there were not so many bloody men who went to the battlefield without hesitation, the people of China would only be reduced to conquered people.

However, after qi zhou came to Shajiabang, he was not able to fight the enemy on the battlefield. At that time, a mass newspaper was being published in the liberated areas of southern Jiangsu, and qi zhou's organizational task was to print the newspaper. For fear of the destruction of the Japanese puppet government, their printing work has been carried out on the boat in Yangcheng Lake. 1941March, the Japanese troops stationed in Suzhou began to sweep the Yangcheng Lake area, and the reeds used to hide the base areas and publishing equipment were completely burned by the Japanese army. More than 30 comrades in the newspaper were trapped, but only 10 people, including Yang Qi, escaped. On the way to flee for life, qi zhou met a team of several hundred people led by Tan Zhenlin, then the commander of the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army.

Yang Qicai knew that these people had come to rescue them. In the end, the New Fourth Army rescued 25 people from more than 30 trapped comrades. In the following days, Yang Qi and the comrades of the newspaper came to Wuxi to continue their work. However, only three months later, after the Japanese army swept through, the president led Yang Qi and them to burn equipment and propaganda materials, and then dispersed to break through. On the way to the breakthrough, because Yang Qi was still young, the President always took him with him, but unfortunately, in a mulberry field, Yang Qi and them were surrounded by the Japanese army. The president was also found and taken away by the Japanese army. Yang Qi said: He still remembers the last sentence that the President said to him, that is, don't say anything and go after dark. When Yang Qi finally saw the president again, his head was cut off and hung on the gate of Wuxi. This scene made him dream countless times in the next few decades.

After this incident, a female Red Army came to Wuxi to represent the organization and prepared to send Yang Qi and other younger comrades back to their hometown. However, this move met with fierce resistance from Yang Qi, who said that if I was afraid of death, I would never leave home. He wants to live to avenge the president. Later, he learned that the Red Army woman was Xie Fei, the wife of Comrade Liu Shaoqi during the Long March. At that time, he was the Minister of Propaganda Department in South Jiangsu.

Finally, at the insistence of Yang Qi, he was assigned to the northern Jiangsu base area to be responsible for the printing of the party newspaper. However, when passing by the Yangtze River, he was once again surrounded by Japanese troops. In desperation, he was rescued by an old woman in a village, and finally he escaped by pretending to be the grandson of the old woman. After the victory of liberation, Yang Qi came to her aunt's house to kowtow to the old man who died. After several twists and turns, Yang Qi finally arrived at the base area in northern Jiangsu and began to work. In 194 1, Yang Qi's dream finally came. Due to the need of the task, peace preservation corps was established in Subei base area, and Elgin became the monitor of peace preservation corps. The name of this class is Kid class. Members are 14 and 5-year-old children, and there are 9 people in the class. Only three shots were fired, a total of nine shots.

Yang Qi said that he took the soldiers in his class and dreamed of going to the battlefield to kill the devils all day, but the leaders finally told them that their tasks were only patrolling and keeping watch. This arrangement puzzled Yang Qi and the small soldiers in his class, so in June of 194 1, 10, Yang Qi led the soldiers of his class to sneak up with the troops. No one thought that it was such a small class that killed seven Japanese soldiers and captured two Japanese prisoners after the battle. Of course, Yang Qi's left leg was also hit by a bullet, and it was not taken out until 20 10.

After that battle, the leaders saw the fighting capacity of the imp class. In the subsequent counter-sweeps, the imp class also achieved good results, and everyone was assigned a gun. Just as Elgin was going to go further, a paper order from his superior completely ended his short fighting career. 1943 jianghuai mint built a branch in northern Jiangsu. yang qi was assigned to work in the mint because he was good at typesetting, carving and printing. Of course, qi zhou was puzzled by this order and refused to accept it, which made many emotions once affect his normal work. Finally, Ceng Shan, then the organization minister of the Central China Bureau, personally worked in qi zhou. Ceng Shan said that there are hundreds of league cadres here, but you are the only sculptor, and your responsibility is greater than the sky. Finally, these words touched Yang Qi.

From then on, qi zhou completely broke the idea of going to war again. I threw myself into this special work with peace of mind. From 1943 to 1946, Yang Qi studied and practiced carving and plate-making techniques intermittently in the war environment. And provided valuable financial support for the East China Bureau at that time. 1946 with the full-scale outbreak of the civil war, the former ministries of the New Fourth Army retreated from northern Jiangsu to Shandong. Yang Qi's banknote printing factory had the best and most valuable banknote printing equipment and materials at that time. They had to evacuate quickly and ensure safety.

During the transfer process, due to the large number of personnel and heavy equipment, there was a dispute over whether to go by sea or by land. Yang Qi said: When attacked by land, it is convenient for people to escape, but it is difficult to transport equipment. It is convenient for ships to transport equipment by sea, but all the seas are Kuomintang ships. In case of encounter, it can only be a dead end. In the end, the banknote printing factory decided to divide the troops into two ways, with personnel going by land and equipment going by sea. Heading for Yan' an and Northeast China respectively. But at the same time, the superior ordered the printing factory to ensure printing money during the transfer period, so some comrades such as Yang Qi led a set of equipment and set off from the mountain road with people on their shoulders. Along the way, more than 100 comrades who were responsible for escorting Yang Qi's squad were killed or injured, while 7 regimental cadres died in the whole transfer process of the banknote printing factory, and the number of comrades in the banknote printing factory exceeded 120, leaving only about 70 in the end. It can be said that every step on the road to transfer is a dead end. No one knows that in this rear battlefield, so many people have made great sacrifices for the same goal.

1947 In March, after about seven months, Yang Qi's team finally arrived at the Northeast Base, and went to work in Shandong Beihai Bank in March 1948, until he received the task of manufacturing the first set of RMB in new China. After receiving the task, he and Zhai Ying went to a small mountain village in Hongning Town, Wulian County, Shandong Province, and secretly started this plate-making work. After four months of work, the template for printing money has been basically completed, but the characters on the money have not been decided according to the arrangement at that time. Finally, Elgin decided to make a prototype with her and Zhai Ying's heads. Soldier Yang Qi designed the shape of carrying a gun for himself, and farmer Zhai Ying designed the shape of carrying a hoe on his shoulder. Dong inscribed the calligraphy font of the People's Bank of China and eventually made it the People's Bank of China.

When the first ten-dollar bill was sent to the North China Bureau, the following reply was received: This is not a revolutionary poster, and it is not suitable for impassioned slogans. In addition, after the peace, paper money has been circulated internationally, and guns are not suitable for it. After getting the rectification suggestion, Yang Qi and his wife began to redesign the typesetting, removed the special propaganda signs of the revolutionary period, replaced the guns with farm tools, got inspiration from a New Year picture of the house where they lived, and drew Chinese knots and jade-like shapes around the banknotes.

1September, 948, although the war of liberation was still going on vigorously, the domestic people already knew the fate of the Kuomintang, and the future capital would be Beijing. Therefore, Yang Qi and others designed the symbols of the Summer Palace and the Great Wall on the banknotes of 100 yuan and 200 yuan. Surprisingly, Yang Qi and Zhai Ying have never been to Beijing, although they have made molds. The Summer Palace and the Great Wall were also completed by the two of them according to the pictures in the book. At the end of 1948, Yang Qi and Zhai Yingying made four sets of banknotes, namely, ten yuan, fifty yuan, one hundred yuan and two hundred yuan. However, the reason for not submitting it for review again is that the other three bills are all landscape photos on the front, but the ten-dollar bill is the heads of Yang Qi and Zhai Ying. As for what the ten-dollar bill is finally drawn, the North China Bureau can't make up its mind.

With the three major battles in full swing. The time for the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC) is also imminent. Finally, Chairman Dong of North China Bureau submitted four kinds of paper money samples to the Central Committee for decision. According to Yang Qi's memory, Chairman Mao only said that it was appropriate to use farmers' heads. The people are the masters! At this point, the heads of Yang Qi and Zhai Ying are permanently on the first set of 10 yuan RMB.

When recalling these past events, Yang Qi was still excited. He said that he often saw some people's careless reports on the first set of RMB heroes on the Internet. Use obscure words to guess that the characters on the paper money have some special relationship. Yang Qi said that the behavior of such people is really irritating, and he also hopes to clarify the facts through reports. After the founding of New China, Yang Qi married and had children, and lived a happy life. However, he didn't tell these stories to his family and wife until 20 10, because the task he received when making paper money was top secret. But no one told him the time of decryption. Just like Gu in the movie Assembly, he kept a task assigned 60 years ago for half a century.

In this way, the first set of RMB was born on the battlefield and quickly went to the whole country at a peaceful pace. Although this edition of 1955 has completed its historical mission, those who fought for freedom and ideals on the front of printing money and gave their youth and blood for it will also be remembered by history forever!