That year was really extraordinary! There were so many unprecedented stories, for example, the leader suddenly put on the green army uniform and waved his hand on the Beijing city tower, which made hundreds of thousands of dolls sing, dance, shout, laugh, and of course, cry! What’s more, the leader also put on the red armband sent by the dolls, and in an instant, the land of China was overwhelmed with red waves. Sure enough, the central government issued a notice, issued a call, from then on the Red Guards “no barriers” to travel around the world, take the train for free, eat for free, everywhere is the Red Guards “public canteen”. This is the world’s amazement, sweeping the Chinese land for half a year of “Red Guards”.
I finally caught the last train of this “fashion”. It was November, and the Red Guards had left Chang’an Street one after another, and the school’s Cultural Revolution finally “opened the floodgates” and gave each student an exceptional “crosstalk allowance”. According to the policy set by the class viewpoint, this time the subsidy was issued according to the standard of “three, six, nine”. Naturally, I was the last one, and received 2 yuan and 40 cents, so I was grateful that it was better than nothing.
In the county Cultural Revolution office, I was able to get a letter of introduction to the tandem after a few hours of hard work. In those days, no one dared to pull me in, so I started a solo tour of the capital city. The road encounter tossed too horrible, but also too embarrassing, let’s not say. Finally at night, the car stopped at the Yongdingmen terminal, the radio came the first greeting – “Welcome the guests of the great leader to the capital Beijing”, sweet female voice, really nice!
The greatest wish of the trip was to meet the Great Leader. As the military representatives led us in drills more and more frequently, we guessed that the day to realize our dream was getting closer and closer. One cold and windy morning, we were suddenly informed of the emergency combination, arranged in the squad of the drill, and given two steamed buns and an apple each, we knew it by heart, and without saying anything, we set off under the leadership of the military representative. I don’t know how many roads I took and how many turns I took, but I walked for three or four hours and arrived at the station at dawn.
I was a little disappointed to hear that this was the western suburbs airport, so why not go to Chang’an Street? However, the disappointment was soon overwhelmed by the joyful wait. The black heads of people were fixed in a square, and under the command of the military representative, they recited quotations, shouted slogans and sang red songs, one after another, “one more”, “one more”, from sunrise to sunset. Cold and hungry, the buns froze to white powder crumbs, but there was still an apple, “bitter, think of the Red Army 25,000”? We all stayed up, held on, and waited for the moment when the “Red Sun” would rise.
Suddenly, the tannoy broadcasted “the East is red, the sun rises”, the crowd stirred up, the people in the loudspeaker excitedly said, said what can not remember, to the effect that the leader came to our midst.
Finally, in the blurred distance, a line of open-topped cars drove by, fast, as if there were people in military coats on each car, generally tall and imposing, all waving to the endless dolls. I desperately moved forward, trying to lock my eyes on the “red sun” I had longed for, but I could not catch up with those flashes of light, there were soldiers in front of the human wall with arms, and those who were in the same mood as me, you blocked me, I pushed you, “I can not see, you can not see! “! In just that blink of an eye, the convertible cars whizzed by. Compared to the day of 8.18, when Mao Zedong reviewed the city tower for six hours, today not even six minutes ah!
As sunset approached, the storm of passion passed, but the airport in the western suburbs remained unsettled, with those who had hoped for it cheering, but many more were frustrated. Some of the girls were crying because they didn’t get to see the “Red Sun” they had been longing for. The scene was a mess, human excrement was everywhere, not to mention the shoes, hats and clothes scattered everywhere.
More than 50 years have passed, I have searched my mind again and again in an attempt to frame a memorable, but also worthy of bragging footage, but always unable to fill in the blanks. It seems that the 24 days of riding a thousand miles to the capital is a waste of time.
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