In my youth years, there was a heartfelt memory.
One Sunday in the early summer of 1969, the second year of my rural insertion, a sudden disaster fell from the sky, like a treacherous wind and wave, washing my boat into a reef-lined shoal. Personal freedom was instantly enclosed in a suffocating case of reactionary slogans.
At noon that day, a few students playing in the classroom upstairs at Yangjiashan Primary School, suddenly found the classroom chalkboard in five big bold letters: “Down with xxx.
This is a shocking case, shocking the county. The County Revolutionary Committee designated this case as a major counter-revolutionary case, immediately organized by the County Armed Forces Department organized a task force, the same afternoon rushed to the Yangjiashan site, together with the commune brigade cadres, immediately start work.
The county revolutionary committee asked the task force to solve the case within a week, in order to complete the task, the task force was quick, after only one afternoon of preliminary investigation, it was determined that I am a major suspect, the reasons are three: first, there is a motive for the crime, my father is a reactionary academic authority, the Cultural Revolution was criticized for standing aside, so the hatred; second, there are conditions for the crime, living in the school upstairs, in the dead of night, the crime is very convenient; third, my housing The day of the incident was a Sunday, and I went out several times in the morning, so why did I ignore the reactionary slogans on the blackboard? The handwriting is not like mine, but it can be disguised.
After the task force came to the above conclusion, strike while the iron is hot and interrogate me overnight.
That day, I worked in the field for more than ten hours, tired of falling apart, and returned home at seven o’clock in the evening.
I was starving, held a large bowl of leftover rice, dug two spoons of red pepper, hungry to eat up. After devouring the food, wash off the dirt and sweat, to the bed, a little while later, drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly a sharp knock on the door, woke me up, opened the door to see the village militia leader. He said to me urgently, “It’s urgent, come on, follow me!”
The moon was hiding in the dark clouds, and only the distant and faint starlight loomed in the clouds, and the whole village was as silent as death.
When I arrived at the production team headquarters, I saw several motorcycles parked outside the main gate. The militia leader pushed open the door of a room and said to me, “Go in. I walked into the room with anxiety, and what caught my eye was a slogan on the wall that had just been put up: “Confession is lenient and resistance is severe.
A table was placed by the wall, and a short man was sitting in the middle, and a bearded man and a white man were sitting next to him.
Seeing me enter, the short man asked me with a serious face: “Are you Wu Jingqin?” I nodded my head. “Did you know that someone wrote a reactionary slogan on the school blackboard? We are the task force to solve the case, looking for you to understand the situation, I hope you answer truthfully.”
I went out to work early in the morning and heard people talking about the reactionary slogans while I was working in the fields, but I never thought it would have anything to do with me. I was in a state of fear and apprehension.
The short man did not come up and kill me, he was quite calm and seemed to get close to me, saying that my father was an old friend of his, but his eyes were fixed on the watch I was wearing.
This is an old watch that my father has worn for decades, and my mother gave it to me when I was on my way to join the army.
Shorty took my watch and held it in his hand, and while looking and listening, he said in a strange way, “You are quite a god, bringing a watch to receive re-education, you should give it to the poor peasants to wear.”
Then he told me like an insider that this watch was a “fine machine”. Although I didn’t understand anything about the “fine machine” he was talking about, and I didn’t know why he was talking to me about the “rough machine and fine machine” at this time, his attitude seemed to dissuade me.
But his attitude seemed to dispel some of my doubts and fears, completely unaware that all this was just the opening gong of a very interrogation of me.
Next, Shorty asked me, seemingly casually, if I often read books? What kind of books do I read? I honestly answered his questions one by one. Seeing that I was being led step by step into a well-digged hole, he turned his words and his tone suddenly became so harsh that I was shocked. He questioned me loudly like a series of pearls: Do you hate Chairman Mao in your heart because your father was beaten as a reactionary academic authority and stood aside? Why didn’t you see the reactionary slogans written on the blackboard when you passed by it several times yesterday morning?
My heart shook violently, and I came to my senses – all the previous conversations were just a prelude to his interrogation.
At this moment, I was convinced of my innocence. Chairman Mao’s words flashed in my mind: “We should believe in the masses, we should believe in the Party.” Never let a bad person go, and never wrong a good person.
I denied all of Shorty’s interrogations, and my righteousness made Shorty feel hurt pride and no longer have patience, and the thunderous anger broke out in a flash. At this moment, I was no longer an intellectual youth in front of him, but a stubborn counter-revolutionary.
He was so fierce that his voice became a gong: “Confession is lenient, resistance is strict! Only give an honest account, or you will die!”
The bearded man next to him also viciously helped: “You have committed such a crime, and still refuse to confess, it seems that you want to go to jail for decades!”
I was instantly petrified, as if countless large and small drums were banging in my chest. For the first time in my life, I was speechless in the face of a harsh interrogation!
Although the strong, unyielding, fearless to describe me at that time, too exaggerated, but at that time I did behave surprisingly calm. I knew very well in my heart that I must not admit to what I had not done, and that I must hold on and not be intimidated by them. I didn’t spit out a single word as they pressed me.
My silence probably made Shorty think that his power had an effect, so he lowered his voice a little, but his attitude was still like reprimanding a counter-revolutionary: we have sufficient evidence, the slogan must be written by you, think about it, why write a reactionary slogan, who ordered you to write it, think about it and write it down on paper, and honestly confess clearly. If you don’t tell the truth, even your father will go to jail together.
The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the actual situation. At this point, I did not know what time it was late at night, I looked at my watch and realized that it had been taken away by Shorty.
I sat there dumbfounded, my heart was blank, my head hurt like it was going to explode, as if I had fallen into the abyss, lying on the table and drifted off to sleep.
I woke up with the sound of a door opening, and when I looked up, I saw the sun outside the window had risen more than a foot high.
After a night of torment, the confession is still a blank sheet of paper.
The task force began to continue to interrogate me again, interrogation methods, procedures, questioning, exactly the same as yesterday’s repetition.
I still have not said a word, not written a word.
In order to get me to confess as soon as possible, the task force decided to increase the pressure and escorted me to the brigade headquarters for interrogation.
They took me on a motorcycle and arrived at the brigade headquarters ten minutes later and put me in the brigade office. In order to keep an eye on me, the bearded man slept in the same bed with me at night. In the dim light, he sat on the other side of the comforter, bored, smoking one cigarette after another, his fingers burned yellow, and the whole room was shrouded in choking, thick smoke.
When I was only a teenager, or a teenager to be exact, after two days of such high pressure interrogation, I don’t know what strength held me up, but I didn’t shed a single tear.
At this moment, lying under the blanket, I thought of myself innocently becoming a counter-revolutionary, soon to be thrown into the prison, behind bars, tears could not help but come out of my eyes. I was afraid of being seen by the bearded man, so I hid my head under the blanket and silently wiped my tears.
I don’t know if the whole day of interrogation made me highly nervous, or overworked, I was dazed and sleepy, and my foggy brain had a vision of armed men with long guns handcuffing me, escorting me to the rocks, and suddenly pushing me off the cliff.
I woke up from my nightmare with a shout, and the bearded man sat up with a shout and scolded me: “What are you doing?” I wiped my drowsy eyes and mumbled: “Dreaming!
The nightmare woke me up, but I could not get away from the fear and loneliness in my heart.
I couldn’t sleep anymore, thinking, “They convicted me without any evidence, and didn’t allow me to argue my case. Why should my personal freedom be restricted?
The truth may be late, but it will never be absent.
When the task force decided to take me to the county the next day to declare the case solved and convict me, there was a major turnaround in the case.
The task force was informed that a counter-revolutionary case of the “Anti-Communist Salvation Army” had been uncovered in Fujian. The organization had a platform, slogan, funding and action plan, and its main task was to develop members and carry out activities in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.
A wealthy farmer surnamed Gan in Yangjiashan was also a major member. The task force was notified and immediately took control of the man surnamed Gan and interrogated him. The flag and slogan of the Salvation Army were found in his house. He confessed that he had instructed his son to write the reactionary slogans on the blackboard. His son had come to the scene to testify that his handwriting was exactly the same.
The truth was revealed to the world.
As a wronged person, I was saved from a prison sentence, which was undoubtedly a great blessing. But after all this, the torment, the heartbreaking pressure and injury, to my young psyche, cast an indelible shadow.
This incident has been a long time, every time I think of it, my heart still aches, vague fears. “Confession from leniency, resistance from severity” a few big words, in front of my eyes for a long time to linger. The incident was a dark moment for me, no matter what angle I looked at it from. Later, my story spread among the youth and touched countless people.
Today, half a century later, I still feel uncomfortable telling this story.
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