Zhao Keming: Search for an ancient city wall

A friend who worked for the Publicity Department called and said that my "Blood-Stained City Bricks" met the requirements of the "Red Memory" activity, and I could participate in it, and sent an official document about the event notification through WeChat.

That section of the ancient city wall has always rested in my heart, and I tried to visit it several times without success, but I just took this opportunity but made a wish.

Hop on your bike and arrive at the Old Town Xiguan in less than half an hour. Standing at the "T" intersection near the old pier outside Guanwai, looking left and right, jagged and crowded houses, I didn't know for a moment which courtyard the ancient city wall was hidden. A few years ago, I came with a friend from the Cultural and Tourism Bureau, and I went down from a cramped alley, and then turned a corner or two, and the wall was on the east side of the courtyard. But where is that alley? The memory has been blurred, and the search cannot be traced.

The road is under the nose. Who in the vicinity is not familiar with this section of the ancient city wall?

There was a big sister sitting in the shop, and I went up to ask her how to go to the ancient city wall, and she first looked at me with some confusion, and when she understood my question, she shook her head: "I don't know, I have only moved here for more than ten years." ”

A middle-aged couple walked slowly, looking like they were walking, I expected them to be the old residents here, and quickly greeted them to ask the location of the ancient city wall. The man looked me up and down with strange eyes, paused, and replied in a small but sharp voice: "What do you ask?" Do you want to get ancient city bricks? I hastened to explain. The man and the woman waved their hands together, "Gone, long gone!" Then they continued their walk.

I was a little anxious when I saw an old man sitting on a pony in front of the door. As soon as he heard the ancient city wall, his eyes immediately emitted light: "The ancient city wall, isn't it over there?" At that time, the wall was so high, they all climbed on it, ran and ran there, and it was very flat! "Uncle, where can you see that section of the city wall?" Surprised that I had finally found the right person, I hurriedly interrupted him. And the old man was not in a hurry, as if he had not heard my question, he recounted those past events to himself, and at the end, he sighed: "Alas! All pickpockets, pickpockets -- la! No- that! Maybe he was a little disappointed to see me, and pointed his hand to the north, "Go over there and look, maybe you can still see some shadows." ”

At this time, an old man with a huqin in his hand came over and learned that I was looking for the ancient city wall, and suddenly opened his eyes and smiled: "You must be the department of cultural relics and monuments protection, you should have come earlier, you should have come earlier, and even if it was too late, you really couldn't even see the shadow!" As he spoke, he nodded his finger at an alley, "Right there, not far, near."

Oh, it turned out that it was near, it was really "the crowd looked for him a thousand hundred degrees, and suddenly looked back, but the man was in the middle of the lights"!

Surprise, excitement, footsteps a little flustered. But when I walked through the houses with the doors and windows removed, through the cobwebs of artemisia grass, and the moment my eyes touched the old city wall, I couldn't help but "cluck" a little.

The winding vines, the horizontal thatch, the mottled stone walls, the dark gray square bricks, like the face of an old man with a ravine, looked old and decadent even more than the last visit. The most poignant thing is that a large opening of two meters square is exposed in the center of it, and some bricks that have been broken by chisels are scattered underneath. The wide open mouth, like an empty and helpless eye, carried with sadness and sorrow for help.

There was silence, but there was an inexplicable impact in my heart.

"The wall is so high, they all climbed on it, and they ran and ran and ran The old man's words rang in his ears again. Although I have never seen the original appearance of this city wall, I can imagine its greatness and grandeur, just like the heroism and vitality that a person once had.

When this city wall began, the Thirty-Ninth Year magazine of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, "Records of Huoqiu County", has this record:

Around the county seat, six miles and two hundred and seventy-two steps. The old only earthen walls, no clouds. This week, Uncle Huo's former site, the Han, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties are still there, and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was therefore the same. Chenghuajian, Zhixian Gaosheng Peizhu. In the fifth year of Hongzhi, Wang Qi of Zhixian began to overthrow the tiles and beheaded Them. In the seventh year of Zhengde, the rogue thieves suppressed the territory, and the imperial history was built from Lan according to Huo Lingmin, and it was easy to use bricks and stones... For eight years, Sun Cheng of Zhixian County heeded the business, and the achievements were completed, and yiran was guaranteed by one party. It is eight feet high and two feet thick, with doors on all four sides and a floor on each door.

The seventh year of Ming Zhengde is 1512 AD, so it is estimated that this brick and stone wall has a history of more than 500 years, and the city bricks marked with gray and black marks on this side have passed through the time tunnel for hundreds of years, witnessing the smoke clouds of history, witnessing the glory years, and witnessing the change and rise and fall of this city. They must remember that during the Chongzhen period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong and other peasant rebels invaded the county town, and most of the city walls were destroyed by fire; they must remember that in the seventh year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, Ji Zhigui of Zhixian County rebuilt the city, added more buildings, and made the urban area develop south, connecting with Guanwai to form a commercial market; they must remember that in June of the twenty-first year of the Republic of China, the Red 25th Army liberated the entire territory of the county town and Huoqiu and established the Soviet power of Huoqiu County; they must remember that during the years of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the patriot Wang Yeqiu. Li Helin and others returned to their hometowns, set up education, propagated anti-Japanese propaganda, and accumulated strength to resist foreign insults... Each of these city bricks is a living fossil of the city, engraved with stories that have been obliterated and are increasingly forgotten.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that this section of the city wall, this piece of brick and stone, is a witness to a tragic battle 89 years ago.

In June 1932, as soon as the Red Army occupied Huoqiu, the Kuomintang began the fourth counter-revolutionary "encirclement and suppression", mobilizing Xu Tingyao's troops to cross the Wei River and attack huoqiu's outskirts, and the 19th brigade's Zheng Tingzhen and Song Shike and Sun Geng's three departments also marched from huaibei to Huoqiu, encircling Huoqiu county on three sides. The commander of the Red 25th Army, Kuang Jixun, carried out the orders of the Party Central Committee and vowed to defend this newborn Soviet regime to the death, and he personally came to the front line to take command and led the soldiers to fight to the death against the enemy who was several times larger than mine. In the end, because the enemy was outnumbered, the enemy was strong and weak, and there was no food, the soldiers of the Red Army and the Red Guards were forced to the burial ditch on the side of the western city wall, and they were frantically strafed by machine guns. The soldiers shouted slogans and scrambled to stand in the front, arm in arm to form a human wall, blocking the enemy's bullets with their flesh and blood, and covering the retreat of comrades and the masses behind them. The people in front fell, and the people in the back held their hands together, one by one, with their heads held high, like bronze statues, and built one wall after another, and no one gave in, and no one begged for forgiveness. According to statistics, in the Huoqiu Defense War, more than a thousand Red Army soldiers and Red Guards died heroically, and many of them could not know their names, nor could they verify their place of origin, military age, and party age.

Inside this section of the city wall is the buried snake ditch, and these city bricks have been soaked with the red blood of those heroes. Now, they stand here silently, expecting to have some hope, that is, to be an old explainer, to tell the moving history of the present and the comers, so that everyone can understand where I came from and where I will go.

A great man said that forgetting the past is tantamount to betrayal. With what kind of reverence should we have faced this ancient city wall?

The rumble of bulldozers was heard inside the city walls, the city's "beautiful project" was under construction, and it was said that a landscape belt along the river would be built outside the city walls.

The ancient city walls were speechless. I bowed deeply, my eyes hot, and felt a tear slip from my cheek.