【China Story】
Author: Xue Shu (Member of the Plenary Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Writers Association)
Chuansha Martyrs Cemetery, located at No. 2575, Huaxia East Road, Chuansha New Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, was formerly known as Chuansha Martyrs' Tomb. A total of 383 martyrs who died for the country during the First and Second Civil Revolutionary Wars, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the struggle to defend the motherland and fight floods and rescue dangers after the founding of New China are buried.
Illustration: Guo Hongsong
Tinder is being nurtured
Wang Mingqi finally waited for the day to go to school and study. On that day, the teenager, dressed in a thin shirt and a simple pen and ink and textbooks in the baggage, left his home in Jinguang Village, Yangyuan, Chuansha, and went to the senior class of the Second Class Primary School (now Guanlan Primary School) in Chuansha County, twenty kilometers away. His square face, which was already emitting a mustache, smiled irrepressibly.
Born in 1897, Wang Mingqi was fifteen years old and had only attended private school for a few years. The outside world is undergoing earth-shaking changes, Wang Mingqi does not want to stay at home and be a rural wild boy with no culture and no knowledge, he wants to go to school and want to study.
In 1897, 15 years before the fall of the Qing government, Kang Youwei wrote to the Guangxu Emperor for the fifth time to call for reform, pointing out that "change can be complete, and if it is unchanged, it will die; Full change is strong, small change is still dead. The Qing government remained unmoved. In this year, although Shanghai, which is at the mouth of the Yangtze River, has been opened by western powers for more than 50 years, the sichuan sand fumin hall on the other side of the Huangpu River, which belongs to the Songjiang Province's coastal defense and tongzhi, seems to be weakly affected. This year, Wang Mingqi was born, and his parents named him "Mingqi", Hoping that the birth of the child would bring good luck. No one expected that this child would become the founder and leader of the first revolutionary regime in Chuansha County in the future, and he did not bring glory and wealth and good luck to his parents, and in the future, parents would have to bear more, it was worry, it was fear, it was the worry of waiting for the child to return home safely day after day.
In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution was successful, and the Chuansha Fumin Hall was changed to Chuansha County. The following year, Wang Mingqi finally entered the academy. This "older" teenager never dared to slacken off, and he became the hardest one in the class. To the eye of the fifteen-year-old, in addition to the classroom and textbooks, he can also read a large number of books and newspapers, and he has plunged into a new world. Two years later, the seventeen-year-old was admitted to Songjiang Middle School, but dropped out of school because his family no longer had "spare money" for him to study, and could only return to his hometown and find a teaching career at Mingqiang Primary School in Gonglu Town, Chuansha. Two years later, thanks to the financial support of relatives and friends, Wang Mingqi was admitted to the Jiangsu Provincial Third Normal School in Wuxi.
That year, Wang Mingqi was already a twenty-year-old youth, and he discovered a broader world, but also discovered the confusion and chaos of the road ahead. The next road, how to go? In the library of the normal school, Wang Mingqi saw the magazine "New Youth". He clearly felt that in the chaos, a faint light was attracting him, and he was like an arrow waiting to be fired, silently gathering momentum.
In 1919, the influence of the May Fourth Movement and the May Fourth New Culture Movement expanded rapidly in China, and Wang Mingqi was about to graduate, and he was ready to enter the society with a new look and become an educator in the new world. He intended to start with his own name first. In the past two years, studying at the Normal School, Wang Mingqi can see the school motto carved on the stone tablet every day - Hongyi, from the Analects of Tabor. Zeng Ziyi: A soldier cannot fail to carry out his duties, and he has a long way to go. Isn't it important to be benevolent? After death, isn't it far away? Wang Mingqi also remembered the heroic ambition of "King Wu of Zhou swinging his sword out of Qishan", a young man with great ambitions, who changed his name to "Yi" and "Sword Mountain" (also known as Jian San).
In 1921, Wang Mingqi, who had changed his name to Wang Jianshan, completed his studies, returned to his hometown, became a teacher at The Huibei Higher Primary School in Gulu Town, Chuansha, and quickly became a leader in the field of education in Chuansha. Soon, the Chuansha Normal Training Institute was founded, and Wang Jianshan was the director of academic affairs, and since then, the training institute has become the cradle for cultivating a new type of progressive teacher force.
The spark is on fire
In November 1924, before the leaves of the plane trees had fallen, one day when the autumn breeze was rising, a young man from the Chuansha Normal Training Institute came, dressed in a blue cloth robe, with a pair of tortoiseshell glasses on the bridge of his nose, and a emaciated but calm face with a sense of elegance from the inside out. He reported himself to Wang Jianshan: In Xialin Jun, your old classmate, fortunately!
Wang Jianshan couldn't remember that he had an old classmate named Lin Jun, but when he saw the young man in front of him with clear eyebrows, personable demeanor, and a scholarly appearance, he couldn't help but feel good. Wang Jianshan invited this "old classmate" to sit down, a pot of tea, and the two began to talk.
At that time, Lin Jun was still a student in the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University, but at the same time he was the director of the civilian school affiliated to Shanghai University. After talking carefully, Wang Jianshan knew that Lin Jun and himself had "three same", the same age, the same hometown, and the same school. Lin Jun was born in 1897, the same age as Wang Jianshan. Lin Jun is a native of Chengxiang Town, Chuansha, and Wang Jianshan is a native of Yangyuan, Chuansha, and is a fellow villager. The so-called same school is the second-class primary school in Chuansha County on Wang Jianshan many years ago, but Lin Jun had graduated two years ago when Wang Jianshan entered the school. Later, Lin Jun was admitted to jiangsu provincial first normal school and went to suzhou to study; Two years later, Wang Jianshan was admitted to the Third Normal School of Jiangsu Province and studied in Wuxi. The same teacher training student, also known as "classmate", the two rubbed shoulders again and again, but now they met at the Chuansha Normal Training Institute.
Since then, Lin Jun has become a regular visitor to the Chuansha Normal Training Institute, a young college student party member who has just joined the Communist Party of China for a month and quickly threw himself into the revolutionary cause of his hometown. He often brought Wang Jianshan the latest theoretical publications of the Communist Party of China, and Wang Jianshan once again saw the magazine he had read in the library of the Jiangsu Provincial Third Normal School in Wuxi, "New Youth", and "Guide" magazine, which he had never read. Lin Jun also often brought the latest revolutionary situation, as well as a term that Wang Jianshan had heard but had never fully understood— communism. As the director of academic affairs, the two young educators often talk on their knees, talking about the road of the Chinese revolution, talking about the responsibilities of educators, talking about the "things outside the window" that readers in the old world have turned a deaf ear to, and talking about a group of people who have paid for the truth and their youth and future, their name is the Communist Party.
One evening in the summer of 1925, I knew that I had been hissing all day at the head of the treetops, the sun was about to end, and the ground continued to steam with damp sweltering heat. Lin Jun came, still wearing a long summer robe, still wearing tortoiseshell glasses, still with a calm and elegant face, he walked towards Wang Jianshan, his face was tired, but the gaze behind the lenses was bright.
Two months after the May Thirtieth Massacre, as the main leader of the Federation of Industry and Commerce, Lin Jun immediately participated in organizing the shanghai-wide strike, strike, and class strike struggle, and also organized an anti-imperialist rally of 100,000 people at the Nanshi Public Stadium, and Lin Jun was elected as one of the representatives to negotiate with the government.
Lin Jun was busy with revolutionary struggles, but he never forgot Wang Jianshan, who was stationed in his hometown of Chuansha.
The slanting sun shone on Wang Jianshan through the shade of the tree, he walked towards Lin Jun, he saw the dappled tree shadow falling on Lin Jun's thin face, saw him smiling, smiled and walked to himself, and then, stretched out his sweaty hands: Comrade Wang Jianshan, in the name of the introducer, on behalf of the party organization, I welcome you to join the Communist Party of China!
Wang Jianshan felt the heat in his palm and the humidity of the tide, he didn't know whether his hand was sweating, or Lin Jun's hand sweat stained his hand. Two young people who held each other's hands, since then, after the "three same" of "same age", "hometown", and "classmate", they have another title - comrade.
Tsunami, gathered by thousands of waves
The year Yang Peisheng went to Qichang Machine Factory as an apprentice, he was 23 years old, and he already had a wife and a child in his hometown of a small camp in Chuansha, but the apprenticeship's livelihood was a hard-won opportunity for his brother-in-law who worked in the spinning factory, and he could not give up no matter what. Yang Peisheng worked hard and was skillful, and soon the apprentice grew into a skilled fitter master. Because of the fire in the Qichang Machine Factory, the workers were laid off, and at the end of 1914, Yang Peisheng went to work at the Pudong Xiangsheng Pig Iron Works under the Xiangsheng Shipyard set up by Hutchison Foreign Firm in the United Kingdom. Skilled, old and heavy-handed, still a warm-hearted man, the workers liked to talk with him about family affairs and state affairs, and soon he became the most authoritative fitter foreman among the workers.
Shanghai opened its port in the 1840s, and as the number of industrial workers grew, the spirit of resistance of the workers gradually awakened, and they fought against the capitalists in protest against the deterioration of working conditions and insufficient wages, and at the same time, their national spirit and patriotic enthusiasm continued to burst forth.
When Wang Mingqi changed his name to "Wang Jianshan" with pride and returned to his hometown of Chuansha from the normal school, when Lin Jun worked as a primary school teacher in Chuansha while running a progressive publication with like-minded friends, the 36-year-old Yang Peisheng was already a qualified, skilled, and conscious worker master. On June 6, 1919, 60,000 workers in Shanghai went on strike in support of the May Fourth patriotic movement launched by students in Beijing. Yang Peisheng appeared among the 400 workers participating in the league strike at the Xiangsheng Iron Works, and they demanded that the large class of the iron works send a telegram to the authorities, release the detained students, punish the traitors, and the strike lasted from the 6th to the 9th.
A month later, in response to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's call to develop industry, Yang Peisheng initiated and joined the "Steel Machinery Industry Trade Union", and the temperament of a worker leader has begun to take shape.
In June 1925, just over ten days after the May Thirtieth Massacre, the weather was somewhat muggy, and the Yellow Plum Season had arrived. Yang Peisheng's wife, Zhou Xiaofa, is worried, and the family has six children, the eldest is sixteen years old, and the youngest is still in his hands, all relying on a salary from Yang Peisheng's work in the iron factory, and the eldest son's child labor in the British and American tobacco factories to earn some money to supplement the family. Because of the strike, Yang Peisheng lost his income in those months, fortunately, Zhou Xiaofa and his children lived in a small barracks in Chuansha, a rural family, and a little thin field, barely making ends meet. Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, others are already preparing to wrap rice dumplings of reed leaves and glutinous rice, but they have no idea. Reed leaves are easy to do, Chuansha countryside, there are always a few surrounding ponds outside the door, the waterside swamp grows dense reeds, in previous years, the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhou Xiaofa will go to pick, wrap a few grass head dry stuffing rice dumplings, to the children to beat the tooth sacrifice. But this year, the family's rice tank has bottomed out, Yang Peisheng has not returned home for many days, she is a little worried, Yang Peisheng has mentioned many times in front of her, the strike will continue, the workers have no income to maintain their lives, the family's fields, it is possible to sell part of it... Zhou Xiaofa knew that her husband was making a revolution outside, but wasn't making a revolution to live a better life? Why is my life becoming more and more stretched?
What Zhou Xiaofa didn't know was that to make a revolution, it was necessary to throw his head and spill his blood. Zhou Xiaofa did not know that in this June, during the Dragon Boat Festival, her husband, 42-year-old Yang Peisheng, became a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
The sea is accumulating a tsunami in silence, Yang Peisheng, Lin Jun, Wang Jianshan are running on the streets, they are like a wave in the sea, at any time to the highest point of the wave. For the sake of being in charge, for the rise and fall of the country, for a roaring tsunami, they are crying out for their best.
In the front-line battlefield, in the rear cities
In the year that Lin Jun, a native of Chengxiang Township, Chuansha, entered the Sociology Department of Shanghai University, Gu Yan was born in the Gu family house in The Village of Twilight in Chuanshawanggang Township, just five kilometers away from Chengxiang Town. Named "swallow", Xu is when the girl is born, there are swallows nesting under the eaves of the family, or parents hope that their daughters will be like swallows, bringing the warmth of spring and the smell of flowers. No one would have thought that the future Xiaoyanzi would become a soldier of the New Fourth Army and be called "Battlefield Spring Swallow" by his comrades-in-arms.
On January 28, 1932, late at night, the cold wind whistled outside the window, and 10-year-old Gu Yan was awakened by the roar of aircraft and the explosion of bombs. It was night, and the Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai suddenly launched an attack on the Kuomintang 19th Route Army in Zhabei, launching the 128 Incident. Gu Yan hid in the bed and did not dare to move, she could not understand why someone wanted to commit such a cruel atrocity at their own doorstep, why China's land was trampled on by others.
Because of the death of her father, a few years ago, Gu Yan left Chuanshawanggang with her remarried mother and went to Shanghai to make a living. Usually, her mother and stepfather go out to earn zero to support six brothers and sisters, Gu Yan is the eldest daughter in the family, she learned to do housework and take care of her younger siblings since she was a child. But her favorite thing to do is to go to school, she is lively and clever, smart and studious, and the big eyes on her round face always flash with curiosity. After graduating from primary school, she was admitted to Shanghai Girls' High School, but because of the difficult life at home, she only studied until the second year of junior high school, and then left her favorite school.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing, and the Japanese invading forces launched a large-scale attack on Zhabei, Hongkou, and Yangshupu, and a large number of refugees from Jiangsu and Zhejiang continued to pour into Shanghai to escape the Japanese bombardment. Gu Yan, a 15-year-old girl, volunteered with her classmates to work at a refugee relief center led by the Shanghai underground party. The citizens of Shanghai vigorously carried out the mass anti-Japanese salvation movement, and the refugee shelter and relief center became an important position of the party and an important base for the underground party to train and send talents to the anti-Japanese front.
In the refugee relief center, Gu Yan met a group of equally young "seniors". She was deeply infected by the strong patriotism of her "predecessors". What kind of career is a great cause? Gu Yan couldn't help but reverie.
In January 1938, the cold was unexpected, and there was still half a month to go to the Spring Festival, Gu Yan quietly set off. The sixteen-year-old girl was ready to do that great cause. The place that attracted her to leave her hometown resolutely was called Anhui Nan, the great name that shone brightly, called the "New Fourth Army".
Together with her classmates, Gu Yan left the fallen Shanghai and traveled all the way through Wenzhou, Jinhua, Lanxi and other places to the headquarters of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui, which was already February after the Spring Festival. On that day, she became a soldier in the Eighth Corps of the New Fourth Army's Teaching Corps, and received a military uniform, a pair of leggings, a thin quilt, a rifle, a few rounds of ammunition, a rice bag, and a pair of straw shoes. Since then, the 16-year-old girl has begun her career as a horseman.
In that year, Lin Jun, a fellow villager in Chuansha who was the principal of Huahua Middle School and the director general of the Shanghai University Alumni Association, with the consent of the Eighth Route Army Office in Shanghai, formed the Border District People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Corps (referred to as the "Four Greats of border resistance") in Pudong.
That year, Gu Yan, a soldier of the New Fourth Army, ended her eight-month study life of teaching the eighth team of girls of the Headquarters, and in the song of "graduating to the front line", she rushed to her first job, the Field Service Regiment of the New Fourth Army.
In May 1939, Lin Jun's "Border Resistance Four Congresses" and another CCP-led guerrilla group, "Defending the Four Middle Schools", jointly launched the Battle of Panjiahong, besieging the Japanese Kou who had swept down the countryside, killing several devils and taking 2 prisoners. In October, the "Four Greats of Border Resistance" attacked more than 40 Japanese marines in Ogawasha, Baoshan County, fighting fiercely for three hours, completely annihilating the Japanese army, and capturing a batch of cars, weapons and ammunition.
In the winter of that year, Gu Yan, who was far away in southern Anhui, was ordered to accompany Chen Yi to the Jiangnan headquarters of the New Fourth Army. Gu Yan can sing and dance, she serves as a choreographer in the command service group, responsible for theatrical performances, the pro-democracy movement and the field service, and the name "Spring Yan in the Battlefield" is called here.
In the spring of 1940, Lin Jun, who was in Shanghai, in accordance with the instructions of the New Fourth Army Office in Shanghai, shouldered a more dangerous and arduous work of plotting against the enemy. Lin Jun often traveled between Puxi and Pudong, sometimes as a Shanghai businessman wearing a top hat and a suit, and sometimes as a country gentleman in a long coat and a suit. In Puxi, his figure is all over the tram and Pujiang Ferry, and in Pudong, his footprints are all over the starry night and tiangan river channels, always calm and calm in the face of the enemy's interrogation. His rich experience in struggle has enabled him to navigate the complicated and arduous united front work.
In March of that year, Gu Yan, the "Spring Yan of the Battlefield", stood under the red flag of the sickle and axe, raised his right hand, shook his fist and swore: I volunteer to join the Communist Party of China!
Two years later, Gu Yan was transferred to the position of confidential secretary to Su Yu, commander of the Central Soviet Military Region.
This was the greatest cause gu yan could understand, and she was running towards the ideal road. And this cause, on the battlefield on the front line, in the rear of the city, in a hidden corner, takes root and sprouts.
Embrace liberation, even with life
In 1949, the dawn was coming. In April, PLA soldiers approached the north bank of the Yangtze River and prepared to cross the river south. The Kuomintang, which was already in the ascendant, was preparing a way back and planned to rush taiwan with gold and other belongings stored in Shanghai. On April 20, the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River and approached Shanghai.
In the late spring, on the streets of Shanghai, Huang Jingwu wore a suit as usual and carried a briefcase to work. He got out of the car, raised his hand, combed his already neat hair, suppressed the excitement that was underwhelming his heart, calmed his breath, and walked toward the 404 office inside his central bank. In the past few days, the People's Liberation Army has begun to fight the "Shanghai Campaign" on the outskirts of his hometown of Chuansha and Gaoqiao, and Huang Jingwu, like all Shanghainese, has long been unable to hold back, they are waiting, the sound of gunfire is close at hand, and Shanghai is about to be liberated. Huang Jingwu is the second son of the famous educator Mr. Huang Yanpei, who was 46 years old and served as an auditor of the central bank. The master of economics from Harvard University is on the run for the liberation of Shanghai. As the executive officer of the Shanghai Civil Construction Association, he took advantage of his work to collect financial intelligence on "four lines and two bureaus" according to the instructions of the underground party organization to prepare for the party's takeover of Shanghai. The day of "fighting Shanghai" is approaching, and Huang Jingwu continues to convey a message to Shanghai's financial and industrial colleagues: "We must preserve state property and prevent the Kuomintang from transferring it." "If what is liberated is an empty city of Shanghai, how to feed 6 million people"...
On the night of April 24, Mr. Huang Yanpei appealed to the people of Shanghai through Xinhua Radio in Beiping: Cooperate with the People's Liberation Army and welcome liberation. Huang Yanpei's radio conversation spread throughout Shanghai with the airwaves. In those days, Huang Jingwu found that there was always a sneaky figure following behind him, and he knew that he was being monitored by secret agents and was in danger. Relatives, friends and colleagues persuaded Huang Jingwu to leave Shanghai and take refuge in his old residence in Chuansha. At that time, on the outskirts of Chuansha, the peach trees in front of the farmer's house had fallen, the rapeseed was being full of pods, and the green wheat had not yet turned yellow. Life should be like this, Huang Jingwu can live comfortably and safely, however, 20 years ago, he returned from Harvard University, why should he live a comfortable and enjoyable life? Huang Jingwu refused the kind arrangement of relatives, friends and colleagues, and at a dangerous moment and a critical moment, he stayed in Puxi and began to transfer confidential information to immigrants. On the morning of May 12, Huang Jingwu said goodbye to his wife as usual and left home to work. The wife was a little worried, but she didn't say much, only said one sentence: Beware on the road, goodbye. On this day, Huang Jingwu never returned home.
On May 17, at No. 190 South Station Road, the Secret Bureau Prison, Huang Jingwu and his friends lay in their cells and tortured him for several days. Late at night, the agents began to pick people up from the cell, one every 20 minutes, and Huang Jingwu silently counted: one, two... Six, seven... He heard his name: Huang Jingwu! Eighth, yes. Huang Jingwu staggered up, dragged his fleshy body, and staggered out of the cell. He seemed to hear the sound of gunfire from Wusongkou on the Huangpu River, the People's Liberation Army was cutting off the enemy's rear road on the outskirts of Shanghai, his hometown of Chuansha had been liberated two days ago, and the battle to annihilate downtown Shanghai would soon begin... The sun was rising, and he saw it, and his broad, upright but blood-blurred face seemed to burst into a smile.
On May 27, 1949, the Shanghai Nationalist garrison surrendered, and Shanghai was completely liberated. In the early morning of the 28th, Shanghai citizens opened their homes and saw PLA fighters lying on the side of the street covered in dust. People poured into the streets, shedding tears and laughter to celebrate Shanghai and liberation.
Communists and democrats imprisoned in Tilanqiao Prison and other places have been released one after another, but there is no news of Huang Jingwu. The wife searched outside every day, and the ominous premonition grew stronger, and in those days, as long as she heard about the dead man dug up somewhere, she had to run to see, she hoped that there were no relatives of her among the dead people, but she hoped that he was inside, and she could find him. The colleagues of the Minjian are also looking for it and doing their best. Finally, in the open space of the Secret Service prison, the remains of the martyrs were found. Thirteen heroes lay in rows in the pit, tied with flowers, wearing blue cloth over their heads, piercing their mouths, broken hands and feet, and losing their nails... He was the eighth of them. On June 3, 1949, the Shanghai "Ta Kung Pao" published a news report: The bandit party killed people horribly, and the patriots were buried alive...
Shortly after Huang Jingwu's death, Huang Yanpei, who was already a vice premier of the Central People's Government, wrote a commemorative article, which was the words of a father to his son: Jingwu! If you die, if you foresee that eight days after your death, six million citizens of Shanghai will be liberated, and the forty-seven million people of all of China will be liberated one after another. Even if you die a miserable death, you can rest assured.
In Mr. Huang Yanpei's living room, there is a portrait of Huang Jingwu, and in the blank space of the photo is Huang Yanpei's autograph:
Every time we walk through Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
See the monument to the heroes of the people high,
Remembering the thousands of people who sacrificed their lives for the benefit of the country and the people,
There's one for you.
Guangming Daily ( 2022-09-02 14 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily