Knock knock, a sharp and violent beating on the door woke us up from our dream.
We, referring to the same classmate who lives in the same room, she is the same as me, home in Beibei, Chongqing, far from the school, but also the iron sisters of the year. We, also refers to the other two rooms on the same floor of the three two senior classmates. The beating of the door must have awakened everyone.
The two of us quickly put on our coats and sat on the bed, and did not answer the door, the time is estimated to be one or two o’clock at night. The room was furnished with four upper and lower wooden beds on both sides of the room, the middle of the room and the bed in the same direction, a long writing table placed by the window, sometimes the table became the steps to our bed, we all slept in the top bunk by the window.
I returned to school on the first day to catch this trip, coincidentally or not? The two of us have no words to communicate, only eyes to eyes, panic to maintain calm. The heart has guessed that the neighboring Shi Qiaopu high school “prairie soldiers” by. (Shi Qiaopu middle school prairie red guard group)
There was anxiety and a little fear. Still naïve: we have no big problems with the “prairie soldiers”, there should not be too much trouble, it is unlikely that anyone will be injured and disabled. This harassment occurred at the end of the primary stage of the Cultural Revolution’s martial arts struggle, when a storm was about to hit!
“When”, the door was kicked open, the door lock fell into the house more than 1 meter away from the ground. Enter a masked man, more than 1 meter 7 meters, strong body. He looked around the room, on the two girls, he saw not much stuff in the room, almost empty. I vaguely remember that our bedding had been packed and put on the top bunk next to us, ready to leave school tomorrow morning to go home.
He asked whose backpack rolls belonged to him. We answered one by one, and asked whose cover it was. I don’t know whose it is, I don’t know if it’s a classmate who didn’t take it, or if it was brought from somewhere else in the school. This question and answer relieved the fear and anxiety in my heart: they would not hurt us, just to get something, the word “rob” is too exciting. A bed with a military raincoat hanging over the head, a bed with a military blanket, a basketball in the corner of the house, buckets and basins and other miscellaneous items, as long as the statement does not belong to the two of us, swept away without saying anything. They took the “spoils of war” Yang Yang left.
After waiting for a while, the students in the three rooms got out of bed and rushed to the window at the end of the corridor to see the “prairie soldiers” with wooden sticks in their hands, dragging iron bars and steel braziers, with the “loot” had leapt to the school entrance. This is a face-to-face incident that I personally experienced during the “Cultural Revolution”, but it was just a false alarm.
The “Cultural Revolution” claimed to be a revolution that touched everyone’s soul, but the results not only touched the soul, but also the flesh and bones. Some people not only touched other people’s flesh and skin, but also their lives, while others could only passively accept the touch of others.
“During the Cultural Revolution, a 13- or 14-year-old student did not know what the soul was. Only once was the flesh touched with a small stone. It was a fight between two factions in Shi Qiaopu Middle School, and the students who belonged to our faction were at a disadvantage, so we ran to show our solidarity. The so-called solidarity, in fact, did not do anything, just shouting slogans to strengthen the voice. In the confusion, a small slingshot stone hit my calf, the distance was far and the stone was small, so it didn’t have any “killing power” on my leg. “During the Cultural Revolution, I never touched anyone’s flesh 100% of the time.
It was an important point in the process of the Cultural Revolution in Chongqing: July 1967. The next morning, the sky was foggy and drizzly, I didn’t eat breakfast, I resolutely picked up my backpack and fled the school, after leaving the city traffic paralyzed, the armed struggle escalated, the real gun dry open.
Shi Qiaopu Middle School and our school are close neighbors, “Cultural Revolution” before the school level or between individuals must not be much interaction between the connection. The “Cultural Revolution” special era, the very period, the school prairie corps and our Red Guard Rampage column to form a conflict, causing some conflict. This conflict was actually the unilateral will of the “prairie soldiers” and we were forced to accept it.
There were also two groups of Red Guards in our school that belonged to different points of view, and there was a constant war of words at the beginning of the movement, but we always adhered to the rule that a gentleman should keep his mouth shut and not make a move, so we always lived in peace and coexisted peacefully. The “Cultural Revolution” forced us to choose sides.
I joined the Rampage column purely because of the psychology of randomly following the crowd, without any half-hearted consideration.
I remember after dinner, when I walked out of the cafeteria, the entrance to the cafeteria was a battlefield of words and arguments. The senior classmates debated on a certain issue, a certain point of view, and often fought to the death. I stood on the periphery to listen, according to today’s saying on a crowd of eaters.
It was these debates that made me think that the heads of the Rampage Column were very capable, all of them could speak well, and most of them were cadres of the school league committee and student council. The relative Red Guard group was a little inferior, although there were also heads of the school league committee and student council.
I am young and ignorant, many issues are not clear, but there are those who can figure it out to understand. Although the two schools of thought are sharply opposed to each other, both sides unanimously confess to follow the Party Central Committee and defend Chairman Mao, the general direction is the same.
They are not happy to see the two factions of our school getting along harmoniously, and they always want to stir up trouble, seemingly to support their brothers and sisters of the same faction to take out their anger, people are not aggrieved, there is no anger, who asked you to come to their head?
The massive martial arts struggle has stopped, and if it does not stop, the country will not be a country, the family will not be a family. Those students who experienced the surrender of guns also described in graphic detail the scene of the surrender of guns, all driving large trucks. There were all kinds of guns and cannons on the trucks, and they were so loud and proud that they marched around the city and then went to the police district to surrender their guns. The guns were handed over, but the cold weapons were still there, and there were still sporadic clashes and martial fights in local areas.
When I returned to school, having escaped the mass fighting at home, the school was a different story. The other faction of the Red Guards was almost paralyzed and had left the school to go on the loose. The only staff left in the school was the Rampage Column, which occupied the entire building. The steps on the left side of the building were blocked, and the right side of the hallway was blocked with tables, chairs, and planks, leaving only a human path.
The movement has developed to this process, not to write or copy large print, not to carve steel plates, not to print leaflets. There were no textbooks and no classes. Everyone turned to their own books to study. What other people bring books, I “grabbed” to read, mostly fiction books, regardless of what books, open books are beneficial, reading books is also beneficial.
And so it went on day after day. When it was lunch time, I was ready to go downstairs to have lunch, when the observation post on the roof reported that on a path behind the tram maintenance yard, three or two young people were walking in several groups in the direction of the school, and they disappeared as they walked.
I remember it was May, the corn stalks in the field grew very high, people did not come up, must have taken refuge in the green tent. Our school is a new school building, infrastructure work is not completed, the fence is not built, the playground is not hardened, opposite the entrance to the school is a large pond, the pond ducks are free to play swimming, seems a peaceful peace.
The surrounding area is surrounded by farmers’ crops, and is accessible from east to west and from north to south. The school is a high point in the Shi Qiaopu area, and from the top of the building you can see the No. 4 tramway to Yangjiaping and the No. 2 tramway from Jiefangbei to Shapingba.
There was a street in Shiqiaopu below, a tram maintenance yard on the right, and the Sichuan Provincial Mission School on the left (Sichuan and Chongqing were one at that time). We waited and analyzed whether there was a real situation or we were overly nervous and too sensitive.
After waiting for a while, the campus was quiet and there was no hint of movement, so they decided to go in groups to have their meals, and the roof and the entrance of the building were put on alert. All the people who had previously eaten went back to the building without any problems. I was almost the last to go to the meal, the master just scooped up the food and poured it into my enamel pot, when I caught the glimpse of someone with a stick or board rushing in through the side door of the cafeteria, I shouted: Run! I ran through the side door of the cafeteria fire escape at a speed of 100 meters towards the school building, with no pursuers behind me, I managed to run to the stairs.
Some of the students who had eaten before us thought there was nothing wrong and slowly ate while walking, the “prairie soldiers” rushed out from the front door to catch up with them, I and a few other students into the stairway after the passage was closed, did not catch up with the students ran to the provincial school, running individual students were “prairie soldiers The students who ran were hit by the wooden planks of the “prairie soldiers”, but they did not hit the vital parts. The students upstairs threw stones at the “prairie soldiers”, and they did not dare to attack the stairway.
Fortunately, a few students who ran to the provincial school escaped to the school by flipping over the wall, shouting for help from the PLA as they ran, where a small number of troops from the police district were stationed. I admire very much, the wall is at least 1 meter 3, people in an emergency, the potential are mobilized, actually a leap over the. This is the wisdom in an emergency, over the top! Later, the garrison representative came to the school to check, where there are students from other schools? When the garrison was on the conservative side, they turned a blind eye to the matter and let it go.
After this incident, the “prairie soldiers” did not come to disturb again. As the fervor of the Red Guards waned, where was the future of the six students from junior high and high school who had been delayed by the Cultural Revolution? It was impossible to continue studying, and it was impossible to arrange employment. The only way out was to respond to Chairman Mao’s instruction and go to the countryside to receive re-education.
The historical mission of the Red Guards was over, and the “grudge” between the “prairie soldiers” and us was written off. Those who had regarded us as a thorn in the side of the “prairie soldiers” began to wake up and regret. I remember that many students took the initiative to show goodwill and reconciliation to our school’s Rampage Column, former rival “enemies” shook hands and made peace, and one student surnamed Lao even became friends with our school.
The consensus is that the Cultural Revolution is a historical misunderstanding that is unclear to us childish students, and that the misunderstanding is too great for those who were injured and killed.
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