Mr. Medicine is a learned, storytelling, good bragging native of Beijing, bluffing people move to quote the scriptures. “I’m not well read, don’t lie to me.” That’s probably what he said.
As usual, he told one bizarre story after another at the party. When we talked about the triads, Mr. Yak started bragging about his uncle, “Back then, from Wangfujing to Jingshan Park, the area was all my uncle’s, and all the ‘Buddhas’ had to pay protection fees to him.”
We don’t believe it. If Mr. Medicine has that power, why sit with us?
After more questioning, Mr. Medicine was not happy: “You know the little bastard, right?”
“Yes, I do.” The little bastard was a famous punk during the Cultural Revolution, known as the “master of the stubborn”. He was mentioned in Wang Shuo’s “Fierce Animals” and “Bloody Romance”, and he dominated Beijing for a while.
“The one who killed the little bastard is my uncle, known as Wang Xiaodu in the jungle!”
After the crowd dispersed, I pulled Mr. Medicine hard and continued to talk. Soon after, I finally met Wang Xiaodu in person. He was just over 60, but looked well over 70 years old, and his speech was not very clear.
According to Mr. Yak’s description and Wang Xiaodu’s memoirs, I was able to see his apprehensive life.
1
Wang Xiaodu was a child of the compound, one of the first old Red Guards.
During the Cultural Revolution, too many people in the police system were liquidated and replaced by people from the military. The police itself is a skilled job, how to tell who is a thief at a glance, how to interrogate, how to block the intersection and arrest, the military people do not have these skills.
The disappearance of the police in Beijing gave the gangsters a perfect opportunity to show their skills.
It was during this period that the little bastard came to dominate Beijing.
He united the gangsters in the southern city and intended to be equal to the Red Guards in the northern city – in his opinion, there was no difference between the gangsters and the Red Guards.
And in Wang Xiaodu’s eyes, the little bastard was a deadbeat heel, not qualified to melt into their circle.
At that time, wearing a green military uniform was a great honor, and all the children in the compound wore their fathers’ or older brothers’. The little bastard’s uniform was made from green cloth, poor quality and strange; the Red Guards often ate at the high-end Moscow restaurant, and the little bastard went too, shouting like he was eating fried liver and fried noodles.
Soon, a mutual “dislike” struggle began.
The battle between the old Red Guards and the little bastard lasted for a long time, and there were many “glorious deeds” in which the little bastard won with few until a “battle” in which the little bastard was killed. It is said that it was a chaotic fight, and there are four or five stories about the location of the fight. In the more exaggerated accounts, dozens or even hundreds of knives were stabbed into the little bastard’s body.
Wang Xiaodu never admitted that he killed the little bastard. Perhaps he was really “innocent”, but based on his long-standing reputation, he was later convicted.
2
Wang Xiaodu is not actually surnamed Wang, he is a minority, the simplified surname in the original language has an inauspicious meaning, the fathers did not dare to expect too much, only hope that his inauspicious smaller, so they took this name.
When the Cultural Revolution first began, Wang Xiaodu was very excited.
At that time, he was in the sixth grade and was preparing to deal with the final exams, which he could not pass at all with his grades, and was immediately faced with such humiliating things as make-up exams and repeating grades. The Cultural Revolution began just before the exams, and the “backward students” became “revolutionaries”, holding up the banner of “rebellion is justified” and rushing out of the school.
When Wang Xiaodu recalls this part, his face is full of dislike for childishness. It was like seeing a child in a Superman suit trying to jump off the balcony.
The first task of the Red Guards was to break the Four Olds. Initially, there were principles, not to damage the necessities of life, only to smash those “luxury goods for personal enjoyment”. For example, if you have a bronze pot from the Shang and Zhou periods for cooking, they will not care; but a Jun kiln vase for decoration, they will smash; if there are hundreds of dollars hidden inside, it will be returned to the owner intact.
The bottom line was tested slowly and little by little, and once it was discovered that no one dared to take care of it, it soon became unscrupulous. Wang Xiaodu once copied out a pair of ivory chopsticks and took the owner’s account book to a pawn store to pawn the money for yogurt and ice cream.
When the Cultural Revolution began, the “backward students” turned into “revolutionary generals” and stormed out of school with the banner of “rebellion is justified”. (Photo: Getty Image) When the Cultural Revolution began, the “backward students” became “revolutionary generals” and stormed out of school with the banner of “justification for rebellion”. (Photo: Getty Image)
After Beijing was almost finished, they went to Tianjin.
A dozen people rode their bicycles for seven or eight hours to Tianjin, and when they saw a luxurious home, they went in and raided it. Later found that the local residents have been copied to experience, very little has been gained. After returning to Beijing, I learned that a certain person went to Tianjin to copy out a lot of valuable things, heart chagrin, a group of people to meet again to go to Tianjin.
Although they were later caught in a local brawl – the police in Tianjin were all on strike at the time, and the sports coaches and gymnastics students were also in charge of traffic and security. Wang Xiaodu was beaten up by the national team athletes and suffered a lot of losses. They were easily released and returned to Beijing, where they were beaten up by Tianjin people to let off steam.
Speaking of this, Wang Xiaodu suddenly looked straight and said, “This is deservedly the Chinese version of Kristallnacht” (referring to the attack on Jews in Germany and Austria by the Hitler Youth, the Gestapo and the SS in November 1938. This marked the beginning of the organized massacre of Jews by the Nazis. .
3
As a person with a vested interest, the scene-stealing Wang Xiaodong would never suspect that there was a problem at the top. When Lin Biao said that Chairman Mao would live to be 150, he was overwhelmed with happiness – a lifetime of revolutionary work under the personal leadership of Chairman Mao if he was 80 years old.
Soon, the first group of old Red Guards was suppressed. After the “Great Cascade”, many news spread: for example, Jiang Qing was an old society playwright in the 1930s, and they could not accept in any way that the holy Chairman Mao was with such a bad woman, a female rascal.
A trend of anti-Jiang Qing rose up. Wang Xiaodu was also arrested for slandering Comrade Jiang Qing.
This time, he was not imprisoned for long and was released soon. The old Red Guard organization had been completely broken up. The old Red Guards did not care to be with the new Red Guards and formed various small organizations. Wang Xiaodu also regrouped a group of old Red Guards to continue the “revolution”.
This time, the main object of resistance was focused on the new Red Guards.
Soon, Wang Xiaodu’s group clashed with the “Third Command of the Capital Red Guards”. There were more than 1,000 people on the other side, who were supporters of Jiang Qing. Wang Xiaodu’s group confronted them with slogans and continued to harass them by throwing stones and glass at each other.
After a head-to-head encounter, Wang Xiaodu’s group was captured by several people from the other side.
Wang Xiaodu went to negotiate, the other side simply disregarded the tradition of “two armies fighting without cutting off the envoy”, and beat Wang Xiaodu severely. The good thing is that Wang Xiaodou also set up a team to continue to mess around, making the other side suspicious. For a few hours, he did not let up, until the police came, moving out of the “six-six order” can not be armed combat, successfully saved the brothers.
How badly he was beaten, how glorious. This marks the return of the anonymous Wang Xiaodu to the jungle.
4
At that time, the school is not much class, some men and women from bad backgrounds locked in the classroom, forcing them to account for their problems, and the family to draw a clear line, and every day to the statue of Chairman Mao to plead guilty.
Later, the “revolution” began to resume, but not many people came back, and the class was also shouting “Long Live Chairman Mao” in Russian, reading quotations from Chairman Mao, dancing the word “loyalty” and doing the word “loyalty” exercise.
Wang Xiaodu could not bear such a boring life. However, this period without the support of the central government, a group of small friends can only go to do something to steal chickens and dogs. Soon, they stole chickens are stolen out of experience, the highest record of more than 200 stolen in one night – with a few large bags to cover the exit of the chicken nest, with a strong flashlight towards the chicken head, the chicken will be particularly good dare not scream. Hand into the chicken nest, ring finger hooked chicken neck, a force will be broken. Then throw it into the sack.
Once after stealing chickens, there were more than 40 live trophies in the sack, so they were simply raised in the dormitory. Every day there are eggs to eat, is the luxury of that era is unparalleled.
They also tried to steal the pigs, the pigs are very smart, did not steal. Steal the milk responsible for the delivery, a dozen barrels, theft of a barrel after inspection, moved back to the dormitory, using an alcohol stove to refine the milk into condensed milk, buddies share a few to eat.
5
Then, the little bastard died in the “chaos”.
Although the death of the little bastard in the world, but after all, it is a small gang of evil, the police and the people are not much reaction. Everyone’s life is more cut and dry to the mountains and the countryside to divert attention.
The man who killed the “little bastard”
Soon, Wang Xiaodu went to Jilin, just learned to do farm work less than two months, then something happened.
That day, Wang Xiaodu had just finished dumping horse manure when he suddenly received a notice that all the youths had gathered, saying that a leader from Beijing had come to give a lecture. After the roll call, the leader took out a piece of paper and ordered the police to “arrest the current counter-revolutionary and murderer Wang Xiaodu!”
Wang Xiaodu had no time to react, so he was tied up and bundled into a mule cart that had been prepared.
He resisted all the way and asked why he was being arrested.
The police ignored him and said, “You know what you have done.”
Unable to resist Wang Xiaodu’s angry questioning, the policeman replied slowly and methodically, “I think you look like a murderer.”
Wang Xiaodu saw that the other side had no intention of being reasonable, so he was silent.
After returning to the Beijing police station, the police officers simply told Wang Xiaodu to quickly admit who he had killed. When Wang Xiaodu asked “who died” and “who did you say I killed”, they did not answer.
The police were used to seeing such inexplicable counter-revolutionary cases in these troubled times, and did not question them. However, Wang Xiaodu remained in Beijing prison for two years.
Until 1979, when he was rehabilitated, Wang Xiaodu’s file contained only a certificate of release with the seal of the Military Control Commission, and no other information, not even notes of his confession.
6
During the time when Wang Xiaodu was in and out of the bureau, Lin Biao issued “Order No. 1” – the war evacuation of all outstanding prisoners in Beijing. Wang Xiaodu was transferred to a small village in Hebei.
During the transfer, the toilet was open and there was only one spot. Everyone lined up in a line, regardless of gender, and took turns going to the toilet. The people at the back of the line were watching.
Wang Xiaodu felt that it was all over, the last bit of dignity left in human beings was gone.
The police in Hebei are much more lawless than in Beijing. Always holding a pistol, no matter what you ask, just say “honestly, not honestly will crash you.” In the face of the gun, there is little reason to speak.
At this time, the unsolved prisoners, has been renamed reform through labor. The so-called reform through labor was to do all kinds of agricultural work. Some of the work that would have required the purchase of a donkey was now done by this group of free laborers.
A group of young men in their teens and twenties, wearing uniform gray clothes with the word “reform through labor” written on their backs and chests, reeking of corpses and dung.
There were only seven taels of rice a day, and often two people shared the nest. The nest was too hard to break, so they used nylon stockings to strangle it into threads and slowly cut it open.
A child just ten years old, because his parents do not have money to let him go to school, and want to find someone to control, so they sent to the Maoist chairman of the ideological training course. This child always skipped classes, in order to kill a hundred examples, was also sent to the labor camp as a counter-revolutionary.
There are eleven or twelve-year-old beggar, lazy on the fertilizer, by the correctional officers to press the head in the dung water to drink full belly.
Labor camp in a total of thirteen female labor reform, seven or eight of them have gone to the county to have an abortion. When “doing something”, Wang Xiaodu “bumped into” three times and did not avoid it at all.
Wang Xiaodu is convinced that this is a magic cave on earth. What the children of the courtyard, the revolutionary general, what two or three streets of land, stealing chickens and pigs to make a scene in the capital, what hand to kill the little bastard, only to negotiate the red three. Now only in a rural labor reform, there is no reason to speak, but also was bullied without the power to fight back.
The thought that he had also sent more compatriots than he could remember to such a situation made him feel even worse.
7
The good thing is that Wang Xiaodu had been in the jianghu before, a mouth of oil and slippery, a strength to let him hold on. After seven full years of imprisonment, he was finally released.
Wang Xiaodu is not temperamental to apply for rehabilitated according to the procedure. Later did some small business, did not succeed. And found an institution, now retired.
The early years of suffering too much, a disease. Late stage diabetes, one eye has been blind, a leg can not move.
After the rehabilitated he married and had a son, after 80 years, is working as a civil servant, like many patriots, trying to express their admiration for the country. Wang Xiaodu still resentment of the heart, seems to be very dissatisfied with this point, the father and son often quarrel with each other.
Once talking with his son about the post-80s, he quarreled again over the expression of elder-style resentment.
The son made a remark that has kept him calm for the rest of his life: “People of my generation have not had the blood of our compatriots on their hands.”
(According to a 2014 report in China News Weekly, Wang Xiaodu, better known as Wang Nansheng, was born in Nanjing in 1949, and his father, Wang Wenxuan, was a former deputy political commissar of the Ministry of National Defense’s Fifth Academy (the predecessor of the Seventh Aircraft Department) and a major general in the founding of the country, and became a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection after the Cultural Revolution; “Little Bastard”, whose real name is Zhou Changli, was a member of the Jishuitan and Xinjiekou areas of Beijing’s Xicheng District. He was killed in Beijing Zoo on June 23, 1968. –(Related article: “The Incident of the Old Red Guards Chasing and Killing the “Little Bastard” in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution”)
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