This is an event that happened 50 years ago.
Chengdu, around 9:00 p.m. on January 22, 1968, a cold and silent winter night.
Although the Chinese New Year was less than 10 days away, the city lacked the festive atmosphere that should precede the approach of the New Year, as the clouds of armed struggle hung over the city.
The streets were quiet except for the sporadic gunfire and the tannoy announcements of various factions, and the streets were deserted as people went to bed early to await the onset of sleep.
At this time, a troop of the Warsaw car speeding to the direction of the Palace of the Working People’s Culture located on Titus Street, when the car just to sweep past the Palace of Culture to the east, when a sudden burst of intense, ear-splitting submachine gun and machine gun fire sounded suddenly, two fire from the left and right side of the street to the car crossfire, the body of the crackling, the car’s glass was immediately smashed, only to see the car engine whirring a little, the front of the car a tilt, and no longer move.
Suddenly the sound of gunfire cut the night sky, but also alarmed people around, we have to guess the car and the identity of the people inside the car, but do not dare to approach.
The gunfire stopped, about an hour later, it was about 10 o’clock at night, rumbling truck wheels sounded, and saw more than a dozen military vehicles one after another to the Palace of Culture this side of the drive.
When the truck arrived at the entrance of the Cultural Palace, the soldiers were in high spirits and shouted: “Avenge the death of Division Chief Du Ling!” “Blood must be paid with blood!” “Return my division commander and severely punish the murderer!”
Division Chief Du was killed?
It turns out that the car that was hit was carrying Du Ling, the independent division commander of the Chengdu Military Region, and Li Wen, the deputy division commander.
Du Ling was shot from the right back of the head, the left temple through the left temple, brain matter outflow, died on the spot. Deputy Division Commander Li was seriously wounded.
Due to the fear of reprisals by the independent division officers and soldiers, the Palace of Culture, which was just haunted, was dark, as quiet as death, and silent.
At this time, another team drove in, looking through the headlights, they were empty-handed and gunless, but all had red cuffs on their arms, which were soldiers of the police command. It turns out that in order to stop the independent division’s retaliation, the police command sent people to maintain order.
Here is an introduction to Du Ling.
Du Ling, born in 1916, is a native of Chen Yi Street, Zhongba Town, Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, and joined the Red Army in April 1935. After the liberation, he served as chief of staff of Jiange and Nanchong military sub-districts; in 1951, he was transferred to the Southwest Public Security Force as deputy chief of staff; in 1954, he was transferred to Changsha as chief of education of the PLA Engineering College; in early 1964, he was transferred back to Sichuan as provincial public security chief, and at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the public security chief was reorganized into an independent division, with Du Ling as division chief (military position).
A little more about the factional organization of Wu Dou. When the Cultural Revolution entered its third year, the “martial arts struggle” in Chengdu was at its climax, and the main factions were as follows.
One faction consisted of the following: 1) the August 26th Red Guard Corps of Sichuan University, which was a student rebel group mainly from Sichuan University; 2) the Chengdu Workers’ Revolutionary Rebel Corps, which was a rebel group mainly from local industrial workers, also called the “Corps”.
The other faction consisted of the following: 1) the Chengdu unit of the Red Guards, a student rebel group mainly from the Chengdu Institute of Telecommunications Engineering (now the University of Electronic Science); and 2) the “Red Guard East” (a rebel group mainly from workers in national defense factories).
Both factions claimed to be the true defenders of Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line and criticized each other as opponents of Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line, so they fought with almost all light weapons (all kinds of guns and ammunition were seized from the army’s arsenal, and of course there was no lack of secret support from the army).
At that time, the two factions each had their own territory, with the “August 26” faction mainly occupying the center of the city, and the Hongcheng faction occupying the outskirts of the city.
At that time, the headquarters of the “Corps” (the 26th August faction) was located in the building of the former General Labor Union in the Cultural Palace on Tidu Street.
It is said that on that day, when Du Ling was preparing to return to the division headquarters (now the Provincial Armed Police Headquarters) in Houzi Gate after inspecting the troops, the driver asked, “Which way do we return?” Division Commander Du: “It’s safer to take Dongfeng Road and Tidu Street. There is the headquarters of the Culture Palace Rebel Corps in front and the Da Ci Si Police Command in the back, who dares to fire a cold shot?”
He was the highest ranking soldier to be killed in the war. In fact, the Independent Division is famous in Chengdu, specializing in mediating factional martial arts fights during the Cultural Revolution, usually no matter how hard the fight is, as long as the Independent Division troops intervene to stop it, the two factions will tolerate and accept a ceasefire, even if they fight again another day.
When news of Du Ling’s murder reached Beijing, both Mao and Zhou were said to have been outraged, and thus had the idea of adjusting the Cultural Revolution.
After Du Ling’s death, the two factions became much more honest, as if they had made a deal, and suddenly lost their temper. Each other also did not scold each other, nor did they start shooting at each other (for example, between Sichuan University and Chengdu Institute of Technology, between Chengdu Institute of Technology and Chengdu Seventh Middle School, between Chengdu First Clinic and Tenth Middle School, between Chengdu Construction Machinery Factory on the Second Bridge, and between two buildings of Chengdu Railway Engineering School).
Although a grand memorial service was later held for Master Du Ling, but who is the real killer has become an unsolved case.
Later on, there are various folk sayings about this.
One is “premeditation”, which means that the “Corps” did it intentionally, and the bullets were shot from the “Corps” headquarters, and they were instructed by Liu Jieting and Zhang Xitin, members of the provincial revolutionary group (whose position was to support the “Corps”). They were instructed to do so by Liu Jieting and Zhang Xitian, members of the provincial revolutionary group (whose position was supportive of the “Corps”), and the 50th Army (whose position was biased towards the “Corps”). The main people who held this argument were the “Hongcheng faction”, in order to arouse the resentment of the Independent Division against these people of the “Corps”.
The second is the “infernal story”, which says that the “red into” that night sent people disguised as “Corps” people, ambush at the entrance of the ditch alley shooting, and then framed to ” Corps” head. This argument is mainly held by the “Corps faction” to absolve themselves of the blame.
Third, the “foreign enemy”, that is, the foreign enemy forces called the “Corps”, that night, the “red into the faction” in charge of the car will pass through the Palace of Culture, and arranged for people to go to the Palace of Culture before the arrival of Du Ling Division Commander car to break through, thus causing the “Corps” to shoot Du Ling, in order to provoke the independent division soldiers to “Corps” shooting revenge, creating a liberation army and the masses to organize armed combat, thus triggering a larger scale of chaos.
The only change is that from this point on, there were no more large-scale martial fights in Chengdu.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, important members of both factions were sentenced to prison.
The only change is that from this time on, there were no more large-scale martial arts fights in Chengdu. No money to cure the disease, so they had to get some prescriptions to eat, but also can not cure the disease.
Later, when his comrades heard about it, they raised money to send him to the hospital, but he died in a few days.
The Cultural Revolution changed the destiny of many people and scarred the nation.
There are many things that cannot be forgotten.
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