Monument to the People's Heroes
May Fourth Movement (relief)
I remember that on Youth Day in the first year of enlistment, the regimental branch of the company held a collective activity to commemorate the May Fourth Movement, and organized some of the new soldiers to go to Tiananmen Square to pay respects to the Monument to the People's Heroes and pay tribute to the revolutionary martyrs.
The Monument to the People's Heroes is a major project decided to be built by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the early days of the founding of New China. The back is engraved with the handwriting inscription written by Premier Zhou Enlai, which is beautiful and upright, and the golden light flashes in the sunlight, dazzling. The large reliefs embedded around the stele base record the history of the century-old struggle of the Chinese people since the Opium War, and carry countless heroic souls who sacrificed their lives for the country. It is a place where the people commemorate the martyrs and is a landmark building with a strong political nature.
At that time, I was a statistician in the company, and I was a miscellaneous officer of the company headquarters, and the whole company paid attention. Our company was stationed in Chongwenmen, which was very close to Tiananmen Square, and it was only a little more than half an hour's walk away. Instructor Jiang handed over the organization of this regimental day activity to me, and I was nervous when I was ordered to do so, because the company had just finished its new training for less than two months, and I was not very familiar with everyone, and most of them were still relatively unfamiliar faces, and I couldn't reach the bottom of it. But I was also very excited, the new army life, a blazing flame, full of passion. I thought about it and carefully planned a plan of action, such as the program and content of the event, the formation of the team, how to cut to the main point, and the main content of the speech. I gave the plan to the instructor for review, and he nodded in agreement.
On the morning of the festival, there was an order to get up and get up, and everyone quickly completed the company's routine subjects and got ready to go. More than 30 sassy and heroic recruits, wearing five-pointed red star military hats on their heads, wearing brand-new grass-green military uniforms, the morning sun is obliquely shining, the red collar badge reflects the brightness of youth, decorating their immature faces, and a password, "Let's go!" Everyone marched in the direction of Tiananmen Square with neat steps. The team was high-spirited, walked straight and crossed the road, and the traffic police ordered the red light to stop the vehicles going straight and run through. Along the way, the team was neat, the slogan was exciting, and the pace was sonorous, attracting countless passers-by to stop and watch, which was really bad.
Arriving at the square, it is already full of tourists, bustling. A procession walked by, attracting countless eyes, following onlookers until the huge relief of the monument to the heroes in front of the platform. The vast square, the spring breeze, the boiling crowd, and the noisy sound drowned out the existence of this team, and the command I tore out of my throat with the knots all over my body only buzzed in my ears like a mosquito and a fly. For a while, the team was surrounded by tourists, and it was impossible to implement the planned formation. It was only then that I deeply felt what it meant to talk on paper.
In desperation, I could only give up the original routine, mix with the tourists in a free formation, go around the field clockwise, and carefully observe and figure out the scenes of the revolutionary martyrs in front of me. In the end, more than 30 of us League members and young people consciously gathered in front of the relief of the May Fourth Movement, raised our right hands and recited the solemn oath prepared by me: "Inherit the revolutionary tradition of the May Fourth Movement, carry forward the revolutionary spirit of the martyrs, step in the footsteps of heroes, hold high the banner of Mao Zedong Thought, hold the steel gun in our hands, and dedicate our youth and strength to defend the motherland and the cause of socialist construction!" After taking the oath, we took off our military caps and solemnly bowed three times to the Monument to the People's Heroes.
This reunion day activity to commemorate the "May Fourth Youth Day" was flawed due to poor consideration, and there were slight shortcomings. But it did stir up a lot of waves in the company, that era of burning passion, that childish face in its prime, that sunrise barracks, that extraordinary place, time and unusual experience, half a century later, still let us remember and never forget.
Author: Yu Qingqian
2024.3 in Beijing