1938 - age 37 continued
Because of war, transportation was difficult. One of my colleagues, Mrs Xu, and I were in Longyo at the time, and her husband wanted to return to Longyo. Mrs Xu requested a ride. It was so hard to rent cars during the time, they were very grateful. After I dropped them off, I went back to Nanchang. One day, Mrs Xu was riding with another manager, Mr Chen, and unfortunately, his car had an accident, they drove off a bridge and died. It was very tragic. During this time, I was traveling around Zhejiang to several places and on December 5, I arrived in Wenzhou. On December 8, from Wenzhou to Lixue. On December 18, I went back to Lixue. A lot of the time, because of the Japanese invasion, many of the roads were broken or closed and there was no way to get around. Many times, we had to wait for a car or for a road to open. We had to wait in little private boats for whatever was available. We would sit through the night. Many times, we stayed on a little boat and played mahjong by candlelight to pass the time until dawn. This was our old-fashioned Chinese life. On the 19th of December, I arrived in Wenzhou and there Mr Chan needed to go to Shanghai. So I bought some small presents and asked him to bring them to my wife as Christmas presents for my family. On the 23rd, one of my colleagues Mr Yang telegraphed me saying to urgently return to Nanchang. So on the 25th, I traveled from Wenzhou to Nanchang via Qingtian but our car broke down so I had to wait in a hotel there. On the 26th, they sent another car for me. By the end of the year, I had traveled all around Jiangxi and ended the year back in Nanchang.
1939 - age 38
Last year, at the end of December, the bank at Jiangxi urged me to go to Nanchang because Yumin Bank wanted to hire a manager. The Yumin Bank organizational structure was more or less the same as every other bank. Usually, the provincial government assigned board members and the board would hire the manager. Under the manager, there was a secretary, accounting, business, etc. This year, there was a position open for a manager. Because this position has good pay and a lot of power, many people competed for it. But most of the candidates were rejected by the General Manager, MrWei Chen. Mr Wei Chen was a Zhejiang Central Bank CEO and highly reputable. He was recruited to GM by Jiangxi's governor. Even though Governor Shong Shihui hired Mr. Chen, concerning banking business, he was not indebted to him. Any governor-recommended candidates were also rejected by Mr Chen. No one knew how to deal with him. A lot of his subordinates tried to find out what kind of person Mr Chen was looking for. Anyone who did not fulfill his criteria, regardless of recommendation, he would reject. He was a fair person and was not swayed by VIP opinions. He wanted to hire truly qualified people. There were several people recommended by powerful persons. He rejected every one of them. Finally, someone recommended me. At that time, I had already left Jiangxi and returned to Shanghai. So again, I left Shanghai for Wenzhou to Nanchang. I had formerly worked with Mr Chen on a committee, though I was not a close friend. He made a statement: "I might want to interview Xu Junzhou." So my friends at the bank urged me to return. On January 10, I received a letter from Yumin Bank saying they had an opening in the management position: "We need someone who's familiar with financing and banking. We want you to come here and take this position." So I took the position and with the help of many of my friends at the bank, fortunately I did a fairly good job.
During the war, even though Nanchang was pretty close to the front line, transportation by water or road was very difficult, so our army and the Japanese were at a stalemate holding position. Nanchang was not involved in the war so markets were pretty stable and prosperous. My job at Yumin Bank became more familiar and I didn't feel as much pressure. During non-working hours, the young workers in all branches of the government and banking formed tennis teams. They used tennis courts to practice and held tournaments between different teams. Sometimes, when you hit the ball, the sound fell among the noise of the cannons. Because we were used to the firing sounds, we didn't mind them at all. Sometimes after we played, everyone would go to the newly built bathhouse for showers. We had a pretty nice life. Unfortunately, in mid-March, the Japanese planned to attack Nanchang. Everyone panicked and the government gave orders for all the organizations to evacuate to safer areas. During war, we had to reorganize and retreat, reorganize and retreat.
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