About 100 meters south of the Wuhua Building in the ancient city of Dali, there is a famous place in the east - the former military headquarters of the 14th Army, the 54th Army and the 11th Army of the former Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Opposite the military headquarters is the office of the presidential soldier and horse marshal of the Du Wenxiu peasant uprising during the Qing Xianfeng period, which used to be a military kindergarten.
The Fourteenth Army was founded in the early 1950s, and it was earlier the military training ground of the old society ~ South Campus.
It is said that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the eleventh episode of the Nationalist Army was located in the "Shenglu Park" in Qihuali, which was far from the ancient city, and the group army set up a training camp in the South Campus.
The picture below is of the American Locke's South Campus in Dali on May 2, 1922.
In the early 1950s, the Fourteenth Army began to build barracks, and some subordinate units temporarily lived in nearby houses. At that time, my family was in Longquan Lane, and there was a company of troops stationed there. We were often led in a queue by well-meaning soldiers to the military hall to watch movies, and "Chicken Feather Letter" was one of them.
We were small, mixed in a tall queue, not easily detected by the guards guarding the gate, and at the moment when we were about to enter the gate of the army, our hearts were extremely nervous, and there were also times when we were caught by the guards and deeply regretted.
At that time, the barracks of the military department had not yet been completed, and occasionally northern military dependents wearing black cotton jackets and cotton pants were seen coming to the gate of the military headquarters to find their husbands, and occasionally there were weddings in houses near us. Our dolls' favorite thing at that time was to rub the wedding refreshments of the new daughter-in-law of the People's Liberation Army, the resident officer married the neighbor's little widow as a bride, and we could eat a lot of oranges, peanuts, and fruit candy.
I remember that the earliest time I went to the Military Martyrs' Cemetery to visit the grave was when I was in the 3rd and 4th grades of elementary school.
We wore red scarves and the teacher led the following team to go. Lay a wreath in front of the martyr's monument and bow for three minutes, when your palms are sweating and your whole body is hot. In the solemnity and tranquility, it was as if you could hear your own heartbeat. The martyrs' monument on the front is engraved with the inscription "Monument to the Martyrs of the 7th Detachment of the 14th Army of the People's Liberation Army and the 7th Detachment of the Yunnan Guiqian Column" The 14th Army and the 7th Detachment are lined up vertically, and the martyrs' monument is in large characters below. According to fellow Ma Yingsheng, the monument is handwritten by Mr. Zhou Zhongliang, a local calligrapher of the older generation.
Remember that the earlier reliefs on the foundation of the monument were white granite, and now they have been replaced by metal. The inscription on the north-facing monument: "You live in our memory, we live in your cause" At that time, I walked around the monument slowly, and I looked up at the inscription, and I was shocked, and somehow it was so blood boiling.
I still remember that at that time, many children of the army transferred with their parents to transfer schools to schools near the military headquarters. Our elementary school classmates include Xu Zhongsheng, Wang Kewang and Wang Wanchang. In the middle school, there are several children of Zha Yusheng commander ~ "Zha Yu Walk", Zha Hong...
Wang Bang (pictured below), the political teacher of our 77th class, was the wife of Liang Zhongyu, the deputy commander of the army, and lived in the head house in the south of the military department.
Liang Zhongyu's military commander and Wang Bang's marriage commemoration
Most of the military propaganda teams sent to their alma mater during the Cultural Revolution were cadres of military organs or direct subordinate units, including the famous writer Guo Mingxiao and the painter Tan Baixin. There is also a "smoke pot company commander" with a cigarette stick.
We often went to the Dali South Reservoir to swim, where from time to time we could hear the gunshots of the direct subordinate troops shooting targets...
At the beginning of 1969, no matter which faction of red guards the young generals, like all their classmates, had to go to the countryside to make a big difference. At that time, the students in front of the tall white statue of "Chairman Mao Waving Me Forward" at the gate of the military headquarters took a group photo of the original corps organization or the return of young people from different townships and towns as a group photo.
The picture above shows the commanders and fighters of the "Three Branches and Two Armies" of the unit with the commanders and fighters of the "Three Branches and Two Armies" of the unit in front of the statue of Mao Zedong waving their hands. I also took photos with good friends such as Fa Xiao and classmate Yang Zengxi.
(In the middle of the back row is Yang Zengxi, squat left Yang Zengxi's cousin Yang Ruitong, and on the right is me.) We all wore Chairman Mao's portrait badge) At that time, it was not difficult to march into the army, and we also went to the Great Hall and the Martyrs' Cemetery to take a group photo.
(From left, Yang Ruitong, Hu Yunlong, Li Youcheng, Yang Zengxi) Even children of a scholarly family like Ah Xi wore patch pants.
Li Youcheng, who is in the center of the front row, is the class leader of the 78th class of the junior high school, and the brother-in-law is a photographer at dali photo studio. After graduating from Dali Normal School, he was recruited as a temporary worker in the army's photography room, and later formally enlisted in Kaiyuan as a professional photography cadre of the army, a reporter for the People's Liberation Army Pictorial Newspaper, and a former chief officer of the photography and propaganda department of the Chengdu Military Region.
(Li Youcheng was on the front line of Laoshan)
At the beginning of 1969, I left the ancient city and went to the countryside to become a member of the People's Liberation Army. Many years later, when I returned to my hometown, I saw the white statue of Chairman Mao waving in the square in front of the military department replaced by a tall golden statue of a gun-wielding guard of the People's Liberation Army.
For more than 40 years, the garrison has successively rotated the 54th Army and the 11th Army. I remember that one year Tan Puren, the former first political commissar of the Kunming Military Region, came to Dali, and the welcome meeting was set up in front of the statue of Chairman Mao at the gate of the military department.
Later, the troops were disarmed, and the military headquarters became the division headquarters and now it is about the brigade headquarters. It's just that those of us who never get a chance to go in again.
Since the People's Liberation Army was stationed here at the beginning of the last century, every morning, middle and evening the military trumpet sounded on time between Cang'er, and we could hear it on the Cangshan Jade Belt Road a few kilometers away, and the military trumpet was so loud and melodious... There were faint voices of practice and counting.
On December 11, 2016 (Sunday), Su Yunhan, the son of a former Dali No. 1 Middle School teacher, invited me and a group of teachers and children to gather at the Majiayuan of the South Gate of the ancient city.
After lunch, Meng Yu, the daughter of Teacher Meng Berry, invited everyone to the military department and her daughter's home for tea, and our group finally had the opportunity to enter the military department again after 47 years. Meng Yu's son-in-law is a soldier and lives in a bungalow villa converted from an old barracks on the north side of Zheng road. Next to it is a basketball court, once we passed by this place in the early years, someone pointed out that Liang Zhongyu, who had just returned from studying in the Soviet Union, was watching the game. In the villa, in the middle is an east-west aisle, and the rooms on both sides are the same size. Around the yard was his family's vegetable patch, and the tomatoes and lettuce grew well.
The old classmates laughed around Meng Yu holding her granddaughter, who was only a few months old, and took a group photo in the courtyard.
(From the left in the picture above, Su Yunhan, Ma Qinsheng, Hu Yunlong, Zhang Baoquan [Hu Yunlong's wife], Zhang Yunjiang, Meng Yu, Guo Yu, Wang Xibing, Xu Lili)
I heard that we could go to the auditorium and the monument to take pictures, and everyone was very happy, and lo and behold, Xu Lili's face smiled like a micandy. We walked all the way to the fallen leaves. Zhang Yunjiang (the person wearing sunglasses in the picture below) clearly remembers that at that time, he also mobilized his elementary school classmates to knock on the tiles and send them to the military department to pave the cement road.
The green belt on both sides of the road is lush with oil palm growth. The mother of her wife Zhang Baoquan (pictured below) used to take children for a section chief surnamed Ma for many years in the military department, and she used to accompany her mother to visit the chang family, and she was more familiar with the military department than I was.
The pattern of the auditorium in that year is still the same, atmospheric and magnificent. The bay 1st military insignia is inlaid in the center of the roof side. Listen to an old revolutionary who participated in the construction of barracks in the military department, the designer of this auditorium was invited from Shanghai by Li Chengfang, the military commander at the time, and the design fee was paid with gold bars.
Now back here, the only change is the erection of a white full-body statue of Mao Zedong in front of the auditorium.
(Ma Qinsheng, Guo Yu, Xu Lili)
We came to the Martyrs' Monument about 100 meters south of the Great Hall. The trees on both sides reflect the towering stele, and the heart of the stele is marble gold. A new stone stele of the municipal cultural relics protection unit of the Dali Municipal People's Government has been added. We took pictures in front of the monument.
Xu Lili, Ma Qinsheng, Guo Yu, Wang Xibing, and Meng Yu hummed together the song that visited the Martyrs' Monument:
Over the hill,
Walk through the green grass,
The tomb of the martyrs came with a red scarf,
Raise your hand to take the oath,
Give a wreath watch heart.
Remembering the stormy night,
The iron shackles of the mountain gang clanged,
It's not you who shed your blood,
What a good day today.
We will walk in the footsteps of martyrs,
Always forge ahead!
The sunlight slanting west is very bright, and looking up at the distant sky of the military gate, the Cangshan Mountains appear as a faint outline, like a huge barrier guarding our homeland.
For a long time, dali ancient city actually exists two social classes, two different cultures, ancient town city tradition and modern urban culture coexist, is the opening of the continuous impact of blockage, in the ancient city of organic integration and continuation. In the long run, many military cadres have married with the residents of the ancient city, and the "big army dolls" have become friends with local dolls. This is the unique cultural landscape formed by the ancient city and the military department in Dali, and it has become an unforgettable memory for those of us who grew up with the republic and witnessed the changes in the ancient city and the military department.
December 17, 2016 in Erhai Binziyuan Community
On May 18, 2019, it was revised in Kunming FengheYuan
On August 2, 2021, it was revised for the second time