The seeds sown in the night - RouShi, Yang Guohua and other comrades are righteous before and after - Fangzheng

This article was written in 1957 based on the memories of Comrade Chai Yingtang. Twenty-six years ago (1931), when Comrade Chai Yingtang was imprisoned in Shanghai Longhua Prison, he was locked up with 23 comrades, including Roushi, Yang Guohua, Feng Hao, Hu Yesu, Li Weisen, Xu Ying, Bai Mang (i.e., Yin Fu), and Long Dadao. See with your own eyes the secret murder of Roushi and other comrades.

I used to be a silversmith. He joined the Communist Party during the Great Revolution. Later, under the instructions of the Party, he went to the Kuomintang army to do the work of plotting rebellion. In 1930, while working at the Wusong Fort, the matter was leaked, and I was arrested and imprisoned in the prison of the Longhua Shanghai Police Headquarters.

In January 1931, two more people were brought in in the cage where I lived. I stared at them intently. Coming first was a short, thirty-something man with a thin face, black curly hair covering his ears, and a pair of deep myopic glasses on the bridge of his nose. He was wearing a black tweed coat with a black Nakayama suit inside. He walked steadily and looked like a teacher. The one in the back looked like a middle school student, no older than sixteen or seventeen years old. White face, wearing a graffiti hat on his head, wearing a blue cotton robe, a pair of black leather shoes on his feet, and two hands behind his back, like an adult.

At first, I didn't know who they were, and I didn't dare to approach them. Later, I learned that the person who was the elephant teacher was named Zhao Shaoxiong (that is, Roushi), and the young man who was like a middle school student was named Yang Guohua. He only knows that he is a political prisoner, and he knows nothing else.

At that time, the prison was sleeping in bunk beds, roushi and I slept on it, and Yang Guohua and another comrade slept underneath. Those days, it was very cold, soft stone had no quilt, and I slept in a quilt. Both of us had iron shackles on our feet. This cold thing, occasionally touching a person, often wakes him or me up from a dream. So every night before we went to bed, we helped each other wrap our feet in dry towels. Roushi was not accustomed to prison life, so I often helped him to take off his cotton pants from the shackles, and the next morning he put them on again, and then buttoned the buttons on the barrel of his pants. ”

After more than a week, Roushi told me that twenty-three of them had been arrested by the enemy on January 17 at a secret meeting at the Far East Hotel on Xizang Road in Shanghai (now the "Shanghai Workers' Cultural Palace"). In addition to him and Yang Guohua, there are also Hu Yepin, Feng Hao, Xu Ying, Li Weisen, Bai Mang, Long Dadao and so on. After I knew that he was also a member of the Communist Party, I felt more deeply for each other and cared more about him.

There were ten people in our cell, six political prisoners and four military and bandits. Rou Shi, Yang Guohua had just entered prison, and he didn't understand the "rules" inside, but just felt fresh. After Yang Guohua took off his cotton robe, inside was a white shirt, tucked into his suit pants. When he talks to people, he either puts his hand in his trouser pocket or pulls his hand behind his back. Rou Shi, carefree and very calm, said, "It is not bad to come to prison to experience life." "He was physically inflexible, and when he got into bed and out of bed, he always climbed up on his knees and climbed down on his knees. Those military criminals and bandits saw Roushi climbing up and down, saw Yang Guohua holding his hands behind his back, and all muttered and scolded:

"Yuck! When I meet you, I am really unlucky!"

Rou Shi, Yang Guohua was beaten, and he didn't know why. I told them the "rules" of the prison, the prisoners came from different backgrounds, some people talked about superstition, they thought that throughout the day, if they saw someone kneeling or holding their hands behind their backs, it was an unlucky symbol, and they were taboo in their hearts. Because that's when people are shot. I advised them to pay more attention in the future, but they often forgot about it and had to be scolded again.

Laughter and scolding were laughed at by him, and Roushi did not count these. On the contrary, he was more concerned about the lives of these people. Every day, he always had to go to Yin Fu to learn German. He felt that he did not have time in normal times, and sitting in prison was a good opportunity to study. When he was free, he would talk to me, and in addition to asking about the ordinary prison life, he often asked me, "Tell me all the stories of the heroic sacrifices of those comrades!" I said it over and over again, and he often asked me to add explanations where he couldn't figure it out, and then I took up a chopstick pen (split it with a chopstick, clipped it with a pencil tip, and tied it to the line to make it) and quickly wrote it down. Two days later, he sorted it out into articles, numbered it, bandaged it, and it seemed that he was planning to produce a book in the future.

One day, he said to me, "Old Chai, some people in prison look down on Yang Guohua and think that he can do great things at a young age." Don't look down on Yang Guohua, this little devil, his fighting spirit can be tenacious!" Then he said: Some time ago, he was arrested, and in the special court patrolling the houses in the concession, the judge looked at him, almost as a child, and after asking for his name and place of origin, he then asked:

"How old is this year?"

"Sixteen."

"Little age, why did you become a bandit?"

Yang Guohua said: "I have never been a bandit, who is like you helping imperialism drink the blood of Chinese and gnaw the bones of its own people."

The judge couldn't imagine that a little kid would say such a thing, so two eyeballs popped out: "Bastard!" Casually slapped the desk hard. Yang Guohua was not intimidated, and his mouth did not forgive the enemy. He said: "What table do you put under the pants of imperialism and make a blessing in disguise?" You're the right bastard! Don't lose Chinese face. After hearing these words, the enemy judge stood up one by one, and the green tendons on his forehead were countable, and he squeezed his fist with his right hand and slammed the table, and then suddenly stood up and pointed to the side with his left hand:

"Look at your small people, the tone is not small, come!" Drag me down a heavy beating, a heavy blow

beat! ”

"Good! Yono! You relied on the power of Daddy Yang to oppress me, and you beat me to death. ”

So the little hero was hung on a pillar by the enemy, ate thirty or forty leather whips, added countless blood spots to his white skin, and was beaten to the ground, but he also said in a loud voice:

"Ahem! Well played! Well played! Let's walk and see! Someday!

Rou Shi said this, looked at Yang Guhua on the lower bunk, Yang Guohua did not bite at this time, put his hands under the back of his head, closed his eyes and silently leaned on the quilt, like a small adult.

Roushi did not talk much about his own affairs, and he often said that he had not done anything, and if he could get out of prison in the future, he must do a better job for the party. However, he did not expect that the executioner had extended his bloody hand to the outcasts.

On 7 February, at the time of the roll call at night, the situation was a little peculiar, in addition to the hump enemy secretary and a guard who came every day, there was also the enemy warden who was like an opium smoker. There were more than a dozen gendarmes in the back, guarding outside, each holding a flashlight in his hand.

The enemy guard chief stood outside the iron gate, took a thin book, nodded a name, and used the electric jane to shine it on the face of a comrade. After the roll call, the opium smoker locked the door and went out together. The comrades in prison could not help but tense up a little, and everyone guessed that something unfortunate might happen, but no one said it. Later, I don't know who said it: Today is the anniversary of the "February Seventh" general strike, and it may be that martial law will be imposed in prison. This gradually eased the tight air. Later, everyone climbed to their own positions to sleep.

Shortly after falling asleep, I suddenly heard the sound of leather shoes in the alley, and a comrade in our cage jumped up from the curtain, pounced on the wooden shed and the "water hole", looked at it and said, "No... Here it comes! Here it comes!... He also carried a gun. "When I heard this, I also jumped to the edge of the water cave with three feet of rain, only to see that under the moonlight, many gendarmes were successively raised in cages No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. After a while, the group came to our cage again, and the opium smoker called out two names in a row:

"Zhao Shaoxiong (i.e., Roushi)! Come out. ”

At this time, everyone was suddenly shaken, and the atmosphere of terror set the whole prison in place. My heart felt like a knife was hanging, and I painfully helped Roushi put on his pants and tidy up the shackles.

I tore open the sheet again and helped him hang it between the two shackles so that he could carry it when he walked, so as not to wear out his skin and suffer less pain. Comrade Yang Guohua broke the dull air and suddenly asked the opium smoker:

"Hey! It's so late, why are we called to get up and do something?" said the opium smoker, "Because Nanjing has built a big prison, we are going to take advantage of the last bus to send you to Nanjing."

At that time, some people were indeed completely deceived. And I thought to myself, "Yeah, there's another bus at this time, probably true." At the time of separation, I also said to them, "Comrades! When you get there, you must write a letter!" Roushi was more sophisticated in the end, and he didn't make a sound at that time, casually handed me a bag of things, and said, "Please keep these things for me, they will be useful in the future." As soon as I saw that it was his usual manuscript, I immediately accepted it. Before he left, he said to me again: "I am very happy to have made a revolutionary comrade-in-arms here, and I will never forget you in this life!" I listened to a pang of heartache, and tears flowed down!

"I won't forget you either!" Please write!"

Roushi was wearing a shirt of mine, and when he left the door, he threw the unwashed shirt into my hand and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't wash it, I'll give it back to you, make a souvenir!" My heart was as uncomfortable as a knife cutting my heart, and I didn't dare to look at them with my eyes anymore.

After they went out, the warden casually slammed the door shut. At this time, the comrades who were still locked up in the dragon climbed the wooden shed, put their hands outside and shook hands with four comrades, including Roushi. Both eyes looked at each other and really wanted to drill their heads out of the wooden shed. Looking at their backs, little by little, they went away, until they could not see them before leaving the mouth of the "water cave".

At this time, the north wind whistled, and a broken piece of paper on the iron window was blown loudly. The cages talked softly, and the cages gave people an empty feeling. I felt a chill, so I touched the bed. Keep your eyes open and sleep there. Soft stone, Xiao Yang's every move and the situation of getting along together, one scene after another was reflected in front of my eyes. I meditated, calculating... It's time to get out of the prison gate, walk down the road, almost to the train station....

Suddenly, there was a noise in the front yard, and then a slogan like spring thunder sounded.

"Down with the Kuomintang reactionaries!" Long live the Communist Party of China!"

…..

I was shocked, and I got up from the bed and jumped down, and then rushed to the mouth of the "water cake hole" and looked out as much as possible. A loud bang like a "Down! Knock it down!" Mixed with "Hooray!

... Hooray!" The sound was like an arrow through the hearts of the comrades, and everyone knew that the situation was not good. Every man in the cage got up, there was a commotion in the cell, some angry, some sighed, some whispered, some did not move, the hoarse shouts outside gradually drifted away, and there was a mixture of shouting, and suddenly with the chaotic sound of gunshots, the people in the cage stopped moving, and everyone listened quietly, and without anyone to speak, everyone understood what was going on.

I don't know who was sobbing, at that time everyone filled their hearts with grief and resentment, everyone clenched their teeth, clenched their fists, and the blood in their whole body boiled up, if they wanted to rush out, kill these handbreakers, and avenge the deaths of comrades. But the ruthless fortitudes, the heavy doors, the iron windows that close them, what can be done! I hugged the bag of articles that Roushi had handed me and his unwashed clothes, dazed and distracted. I thought: The person who was fine just now is no longer there. Thinking of this, my eyes couldn't help but roll down to tears.

After half a month, twenty-three martyrs passed through the deaths before they inquired from the guards. One of the guards said: That night, after the twenty-three martyrs were escorted out, the enemy sent a company of gendarmes to escort them to the courtroom upstairs, and in the dim light, there was a row of high chairs on the judges, and the qing party members of the Kuomintang Central Party Department, the clerk, sat on it, and the two founders next to them took the execution book, looked at the pictures, looked at the faces of each comrade, and asked them to stamp their fingerprints. The third was Comrade Roushi's turn, and he took a closer look when he covered his handprints, only to see the words on it: "Verify the right body, and immediately escort him to the execution ground for execution." Comrade Roushi pushed the execution book, turned around, and said to the comrades behind him:

"Comrades! This is the executive book! We don't cover!"

Yang Guohua was behind him, and as soon as he heard it, he shouted, "No cover! , what law did we break?

The comrades in the back also cried out angrily:

"Why have twenty or thirty of us been here for a month without even asking?"

"What a court, you're a bunch of pigs!"

"Down with the Kuomintang reactionaries!"

"Long live the Chinese Communist Party!"

There was a great chaos in the courtroom, some comrades broke the glass windows, some picked up stools and threw them at the courtroom, and several judges hurriedly ordered the gendarmerie company commander: "Immediately drag it out for execution!" Then, in a panic, they all hid behind. Twenty-three pairs of leather shoes, iron shackles, stomped on the floor with all their strength.

The gendarmes came up to drag the men, and twenty-three comrades resisted as hard as they could, resolutely not going down the stairs, protesting against the massacre of the Kuomintang bandits. The gendarmes forced them downstairs with shiny bayonets, but to no avail. The gendarme company commander gave the order to drag the comrades down the stairs one by one by several gendarmes dragging one by one. When the comrades were dragged out, they were severely wounded by the gendarmes on their bodies and feet and could not stand up. The executioner had no choice, so he dragged the comrades lying on the ground one by one down and dragged them straight to the big chimney of the Manufacturing Bureau next to the Longhua Security Command and shot them. While dragging out the door, some comrades stubbornly shouted slogans, struggled, fought with the enemy, and the executioners shot them at the door in a panic.

The next day, the prison authorities asked several of the victims to hammer iron shackles on the feet of the martyrs next to the big smoke brine. The victims almost wept and fell on the corpses of the martyred comrades.

According to their return, when they saw the comrades who had been shot, they no longer had any strength on their limbs, could not lift their hands, and could not hold the iron hammer. Only twenty-three comrades were seen, and with the exception of three female comrades who still had a pair of shorts on their lower bodies, the rest of the men's clothes were all stripped naked. Dozens of comrades were lying there in all stripes. Comrade Roushi's head and chest were even among the top ten, Comrade Hu Yepin's body was hit by three bullets, his whole body was blurred with blood and flesh, and Comrade Yang Guohua's duck-tongue hat on his head, leather shoes on his feet, and socks were all gone. His body threw himself against Roushi's chest. The clothes on the lesbians' bodies and the hair on their heads were also taken by the enemy. Under the bayonet of the enemy, the comrades knocked the shackles of their comrades and carried twenty-three comrades into the truck. The enemy gendarmes covered the bodies of their comrades who had died with tarpaulins, and later, without knowing where they had sent them for burial. (It was only after liberation that the bodies of twenty-three of them had been found in the wilderness outside the Longhua Pseudo-Security Division.) Now relocated to the Dachang Martyrs' Tomb in Shanghai)

For two days since these twenty-three comrades were shot, not a single one spoke. The whole prison was so silent that even the sound of a needle falling could be heard, and everyone could not even eat a bite of food. The comrades who were in prison there, when they mentioned this matter, there was still unspeakable discomfort. Roushi's clothes, which I kept until after the War of Resistance, wore them as if he were still by my side, until they were very torn and torn, and I was still wrapped in my baggage. Later lost in battle in 1944. A package of articles of Roushi, because the enemy searched for it later, I hid it under the floor, or the enemy pried open the floor and searched it. This is the most regrettable thing. I think this bag will be of great use if it can be left behind.