The term old cannon comes from the old Beijinger's colloquialism, referring to some hutong who like to gang up and fight, often causing trouble and being arrested by the public security bureau and taken into the detention center of the cannon bureau hutong, and these people are proud of the number of times they enter prison or detention center. Later, the "Old Gun Bureau" was simplified to the title of "Old Cannon".
The Gun Bureau Alley is not far to the east of the Lama Temple. In the Yuan Dynasty, it belonged to the boundaries of Juxianfang, the Ming Dynasty divided Juxianfang into two parts, south and north, and the Cannon Bureau Hutong belonged to Beijuxianfang. In the Qing Dynasty, the Hutong of the Artillery Bureau was under the jurisdiction of the Yellow Flag, and there was a Yellow Flag Cannon Factory in the hutong.
Although it was the era of cold weapons, large knives, spears, and bows and arrows were the basic equipment of the army, but there were also cannons. The cannons of that time could not be compared with today's cannons, but they were also "hot weapons". At that time, there was a factory for casting cannons in this alley, and at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court began to import foreign cannons from abroad, and the domestic cannons were useless, and the casting factory was abandoned, which became a place to store cannons, ordnance and waste cannons. Thus, the name of the artillery hutong appeared.
Because the boundaries of the foundry are "official land", the flat-headed people cannot occupy it casually. The imperial court built a prison on the site of the old artillery factory. The history of the artillery prison is very long, from the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang government, the Japanese and puppet periods, the Kuomintang rule period to the early liberation period, it has always been a prison. Until now, there are still remnants of watchtowers in the Gun Bureau Alley.
This is also what adults often say, referring to the Artillery Prison at No. 21 Gun Bureau Alley.
Former site of the Artillery Bureau Prison (now the Traffic Safety Protection Corps of the Municipal Public Security Bureau)
Because of the Gun Bureau Prison, there are so many tragic and painful past events in the Gun Bureau Alley. In the 1930s, the official name of the Artillery Prison was "Peiping Army Prison".
On November 24, 1934, it snowed heavily. The famous patriotic general General Ji Hongchang bravely took up his righteousness here. At the last moment of his life, he waved his hand on the snow with a branch and wrote a poem of righteousness that swept back to the intestines:
Hate not to resist japan and die, leave it as a shame today.
The country is still broken, I have no pity about this.
After writing, the chair moved, and Ji Hongchang sat down facing the muzzle of the gun and said sharply: "I want to see with my own eyes how the reactionaries shoot and kill patriots!" The executioner trembled with his awe-inspiring righteousness. Finally, Ji Hongchang shouted vigorously: "Long live the anti-Japanese resistance!" Long live the Communist Party of China! "The gunshots rang out, and the earth-shattering anti-Japanese national hero, leaning back on his chair, was heroic and righteous! The 39-year-old flower of life blends into the snowflakes of the sky.
Ji Hongchang is not only a legendary anti-Japanese hero, but also a model of strict self-discipline and honesty as an official.
Before his death, his old father told him that after his father's death, Ji Hongchang wrote the 7 words "If you are an official, you are not allowed to get rich" in a fine porcelain tea bowl and give it to the ceramic factory to imitate and burn.
After the porcelain bowl was burned, he was pulled by truck to the troops, gathered all the officers and men, held a solemn bowling ceremony, and made a vow: From now on, the tea bowl of "being an official is not allowed to get rich" will follow him to the north and south until he is sacrificed in the artillery prison.
In addition to General Ji Hongchang, Communist Party leaders such as An Ziwen and Bo Yibo were also imprisoned here, as were Japanese traitors such as Yoshiko Kawashima, Wang Kemin, and Wang Yitang, who were also arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang.
Near the east entrance of the hutong, there is an alley that turns north, which reads "Gun Bureau Headlines".
A short distance to the north, you can see a five-meter-high green brick watchtower connected to the left wall, and there is a shooting hole at the top. Inside the power grid and dead vines is the former site of the Gun Bureau Prison.
Further north, you can see a second watchtower with three well-preserved firing holes at the top, and the cement below has fallen off, revealing green bricks that have begun to weather.
Continuing westward is a courtyard with a small two-story building with a half-sided watchtower connected to the south wall.
The long walls of the artillery prison were pulled all over the power grid.
The fourth well-preserved watchtower.
Recalling the shots and characters in the movie "Old Cannon", I don't know if Liu Ye really entered the Artillery Bureau Prison, but after watching the destruction and decline of the Cannon Bureau Hutong today, I can resonate with Guan Hu and Feng Xiaogang more, and I also understand the Beijing Hutong cultural elegy that the movie lamented.
The old cannon generation represented by the sixth master played by Feng Xiaogang is a generation born and raised after the founding of New China, and they inherit the chivalry and arrogance of hutong culture, and pay attention to rules and credit. The new generation represented by Xiaofei is allied with capital, power and violence, and is even more fearless, more willful and reckless. In the duel between the two generations, we see the jianghu spirit worthy of nostalgia in the old cannon, as well as the warmth of hutong culture.
Hutong culture is like the heart and blood vessels of the sixth master, although there have been many blockages, and finally it is going to die, but its last cry makes us have some respect for the chivalry and responsibility spirit of the "old cannons" in the hutong, and more regret the passing of the hutong culture.
Walking in the alley of the artillery bureau, looking up at the high-rise buildings squeezing the hutong behind you, you can more truly feel the reason for the transformation and rout of the hutong chivalry, and you can touch the spirit of the hutong, the little demise of the hutong culture, and the cold reality of annihilation...