In October 1997, the Chongqing Martyrs' Cemetery Memorial Hall carried out restoration work on the notorious Kuomintang slag cave, preparing to use it as a red education base for future generations to remember the sacrifices of the revolutionary martyrs.
There was such a white-haired old man who was specially invited to serve as a guide, and he was neither a famous designer nor a high-ranking official leader.
However, when he came to this place soaked with the blood of more than two hundred revolutionary martyrs, including Sister Jiang, he still couldn't help but burst into tears and bowed deeply three times to the place where Sister Jiang was imprisoned.
The old man's experience was even more bumpy, his name was Huang Maocai, a revolutionary hero who should have been commended by the people and the state, but he was mistakenly mistaken for a Kuomintang counter-revolutionary, and after the founding of the Country, he experienced hardships and suffered from imprisonment.
He had suffered grievances, but he had never resented the country, and he knew that compared with the suffering that Sister Jiang had suffered, he was already extremely lucky to be able to live and watch his motherland slowly grow stronger.
During that short period of time with Sister Jiang, Sister Jiang's revolutionary will and personality charm have always influenced him, and in his home, the most precious thing hidden is a sweater that integrates the warmth and will of These Revolutionary Heroes and Martyrs of Sister Jiang. And the story of this sweater has to start from the scum hole of that year...
Martyrs are sacrificed in the slag cave, and fellow guards are inspired
In May 1948, Huang Maocai, a native of Rong County, Zigong City, Sichuan Province, was recruited to chongqing's Zhadidong Prison as a guard, and he had just put on his guard's uniform, and Li Lei, the director of the detention center, and Xu Guilin, the head of the management group, called him over for a lecture, saying that the detention center was full of vicious criminals, who had a little knowledge, and who "counter-revolutionary" and "did no evil and did all the bad things" every day.
Huang Maocai, who came from the countryside, was trembling at the time, he did not have much culture, nor did he undergo systematic military training, and he did not dare to refute what his commander said. Although he also saw many "criminals" who preferred to die in the later years, and heard their slogans, Huang Maocai also felt that it was very reasonable, but he did not dare to show it.
In this way, Huang Maocai spent his first month as a guard in contradictions and doubts, and in June, a person was locked up in the slag cave, and this person changed Huang Maocai from then on.
Detained was a woman named Zeng Zixia, who happened to be on duty by Huang Maocai that day, and he inadvertently saw on the registration form that the woman's place of origin was filled in with "Sichuan Neijiang White Horse Temple People."
When Huang Maocai saw this, he suddenly smiled, "Yo" and said, "I can't imagine that I am still a fellow countryman?" ”
He escorted Zeng Zixia to the cell, and Zeng Zixia also talked to him and asked him, "Where are you from?" ”
Huang Maocai said that he was from Rong County, and he was next to Neijiang. And looking at this guard who was very kind, completely unlike other fierce and vicious guards, Zeng Zixia also slowed down her tone and chatted with him without a word.
After Huang Maocai put her in a cell, Huang Maocai seemed to think of her hometown identity, hesitated, and whispered to her: "If you need help in the future, you can find me." ”
Zeng Zixia took a deep look at him and remembered it in her heart. In later days, when Zeng Zixia was working in the wind, she consciously approached Huang Maocai and talked to him, and soon became acquainted with the relationship.
Little by little, she probed Huang Maocai's tone to see his attitude toward the revolution. After learning more about Huang Maocai's peasant background and being recruited as a guard, Zeng Zixia slowly instilled in him some of the party's ideas of fighting for the peasants and for the poor.
Slowly, with Zeng Zixia's education, Huang Mao found that he was no longer contradictory, he could distinguish who did good things and who did bad things, at least in his past experience, the Communist Party was indeed helping the poor.
Zeng Zixia saw that Huang Maocai's education work had yielded results, and began to use some very small things to help him, in order to test Huang Maocai's mentality. And Huang Maocai happily agreed every time, and was not discovered by anyone.
Later, half a month later, on the day when Huang Maocai was on duty, he met another woman, who completely changed him and shocked him.
When Huang Maocai first saw this "female prisoner", she was wearing a light blue cheongsam, cut short shoulder-length hair, not tall, very temperamental. Although her face was haggard and there were some fine blood marks on her face, there was light in her eyes, a majestic light, and Huang Maocai felt that she looked down on these guards in her heart.
Since the last time he found Zeng Zixia, a "fellow", he began to pay more attention to those registration forms. The name written on the registration form of this "female prisoner" is "Jiang Zhujun", and the place of origin is also filled in as "Zigong Dashanpu".
Huang Maocai was happy again, and he couldn't help but blurt out again, "Here comes a fellow again." ”
This female prisoner named Jiang Zhujun is actually the "Sister Jiang" that we are all familiar with, she is also a famous revolutionary martyr, and she is the prototype of the heroine in "Red Rock".
Sister Jiang heard the words of Huang Maocai, the guard, and glanced at him dismissively, as if to say that she was ashamed to be a fellow with his agent.
Sister Jiang didn't say a word, and was pushed and shoved by the guards to the cell with her head held high. After arriving at the cell, the other guards talked about where to go for a drink, leaving Huang Mao to close the door with the key.
Huang Maocai did not hurry to close the cell door, he saw that this cell was particularly dirty, so he ran to get a broom to clean it, although Jiang Jie was a little surprised, but did not give a good face, coldly said: "I will come myself." ”
Huang Maocai laughed weakly twice, a little shocked by Sister Jiang's aura, and gave the broom to Sister Jiang. After sweeping and locking, Huang Mao couldn't help but mention: "If you have any requirements, you can find me." Sister Jiang, who was sitting on the straw pile, heard his words and finally began to look at him squarely, and Huang Maocai was different from the Kuomintang agents she had seen before.
Not long after, Sister Jiang was interrogated, and Huang Maocai, who was several rooms away, heard the frantic roar of the agents in the interrogation room and Sister Jiang's painful moans.
Huang Maocai sympathized with this fellow and wanted to help the leader, but Sister Jiang was specially "cared for" by the detention center, and he could not do anything. Outside the interrogation room, he heard the vicious agents laughing and trying to strip her of her clothes and insult her. Sister Jiang scolded weakly but with hatred: "Your insult to me is equivalent to insulting your mother, insulting your sister and your daughter, and only those who are incompetent will insult women!" ”
Huang Maocai was terrified to hear it outside, and secretly admired the courage of this fellow in his heart. The head of the secret service was provoked by Sister Jiang's words, and angrily ended the interrogation, and let sister Jiang be taken back to the cell.
A few days later, Sister Jiang was transferred to the cell of an ordinary prisoner and locked up with Zeng Zixia. After meeting with Zeng Zixia to learn about Huang Maocai's situation, Sister Jiang and Zeng Zixia immediately agreed and decided to continue to strengthen the education of Huang Maocai and strive to make him completely throw himself into his own camp.
The two men talked about social injustice, about the Kuomintang's corruption, about the Kuomintang's frenzied and chaotic efforts to pull Zhuang Ding, causing many families to be separated from each other, and popularizing the party's ideology and ideas to him.
Sister Jiang and Zeng Zixia took advantage of the opportunity to prevent the wind and secretly found Huang Maocai, hoping that he could help bring a letter out. Hearing this request, Huang Mao hesitated. Although he had the intention to pay for the party's revolutionary cause, he could not turn a corner in his mentality for a while when he did such a dangerous thing at once.
He hesitated for two days, and finally made up his mind that since he was going to fight for the revolutionary cause of liberating the poor, he could not be so afraid of his head. He took the letter written by Zeng Zixia and Jiang Jie, hid the letter in the mezzanine of the innermost clothes, and then dressed in the Kuomintang military uniform, although he was weak-hearted, he pretended to be swinging and walked out of the slag hole.
He went through several checkpoints in a row, and finally came to No. 10 Xieheli, Zhongshan 1st Road in the city with a letter, and handed the letter to the person who secretly connected it. And this successful delivery of letters allowed Huang Maocai to completely gain the trust of Jiang Jie and Zeng Zixia, and Huang Maocai, after this experience, also came out of his courage, providing great help for the internal and external contacts of the prison.
Knit sweaters to send friendship, and celebrate the revolution in prison
In the slag hole, there are many people, many people are mixed, and it is very dangerous to do intelligence work. Therefore, in order to protect Huang Maocai and protect this reliable internal and external communication channel, After consultation, Jiang Jie and Zeng Zixia decided to let Zeng Zixia alone be responsible for the intelligence work against Huang Maocai to ensure security to the greatest extent.
And it is precisely because of this that Huang Maocai was wronged after the founding of the Country, and he could not find Zeng Zixia for a while, and there was no way to redress his grievances.
Time passed quickly, half a year had passed since Huang Maocai came to the slag cave, and the weather had cooled down.
In prison, Jiang Jie and several other responsible persons of the temporary party organization thought about it, and in order to reflect the care of the party organization and to inspire Huang Maocai, they decided to give Huang Maocai a small gift.
But at that time, in prison, there were no materials, and Jiang Jie and several female party members thought about it and finally decided to knit a sweater for Huang Maocai. Sister Jiang found Huang Maocai and said to him: "Xiao Huang, now that the weather is cold, you have been taking care of us in prison, we have nothing else to return, so we plan to knit you a sweater." Please use your vacation time to go to Chongqing to buy a pound of bee brand yarn, which is of better quality. ”
Huang Maocai heard this special "task", his heart was warm, growing so big, except for the old woman at home who was worried about herself, no one had given herself this kind of gift.
Huang Maocai quickly bought back the kind of wool that Sister Jiang said, and the female comrades in prison worked together, taking advantage of the fact that other guards were not paying attention, some people looked at the wind and some people knitted, and whoever had time knitted a few stitches.
Soon, with the efforts of everyone, a strong and warm sweater was knitted, and when Sister Jiang sent this sweater to Huang Maocai's hands, Huang Maocai excitedly took it, and after putting it on, his body was warmer and his heart was warmer. Even after many years, Huang Mao was treated unfairly, but as long as he thought of this sweater and the care that Sister Jiang cared for his brother, he gritted his teeth and persevered.
Although there is no light in the slag hole, in the outside world, the party's People's Liberation Army army is unstoppable.
Before the Spring Festival of 1949, Huang Maocai was pleasantly surprised to bring back a piece of news from outside that surprised all the comrades in prison: The People's Liberation Army had won the two major battles of Liaoshen and Pingjin, was fighting on the front line of Huaihai, and could enter Nanjing at any time and hit Chiang Kai-shek's lair.
In addition to bringing this news in, Huang Maocai also intimately cut out Chairman Mao's important speech "Carrying the Revolution through to the End" from the newspaper and quietly brought it to prison and gave it to Sister Jiang.
All the comrades, including Sister Jiang, looked at this newspaper clipping, all jumped and hugged excitedly, tears in their eyes, and all of them lifted their spirits and said: "We are going to win!" We're going to win! ”
The comrades in prison were so happy that they were happy as if they were new year's, and everywhere they cheered and cheered, which attracted the cheers and curses of the guards. But it is obvious that the guards at this time also seem to be a little fierce, perhaps knowing that the situation is not right, at this time they are not as fierce as before.
So in order to celebrate this news, Sister Jiang and Zeng Zixia decided to hold a celebration, so they asked Zeng Zixia to contact Huang Maocai and ask him to help.
Huang Maocai went to inquire about the news, just to know that on the first day of the Chinese New Year, the director and the leader of the group, the two top bosses, all took their families to the city to play, and the other spies and guards were all from Chongqing, and they all went home for the New Year, so only Huang Maocai was left.
On the first day of the first year, the prison was much deserted than usual, the soldiers patrolling the periphery were sparse, and the guard agents in the prison were only Huang Mao.
After confirming that everyone was out, Huang Maocai took the key, opened the doors of all the cells, released everyone, and everyone hugged each other happily and took out some small gifts they had prepared for each other.
Some people made small animals and insects made of straw straw, some people cut small window flowers with shredded pieces of paper, and some people wrote poems and drew pictures to cheer each other up with cigarette boxes thrown by guards.
Everyone enjoyed this free time, and each cell also performed their own prepared programs in order, although the conditions were simple, but everyone still sang and danced, knocking on the rice bowl, knocking on the tabletop, knocking on the railing, and the laughter and laughter lasted for a long time.
At the end, everyone sang "The Sky in the Liberated Areas is a Blue Sky", "The March of the Volunteer Army", and sang "Nanniwan", and everyone was full of tears, and their hearts were full of hopes for victory and a better tomorrow.
Huang Maocai was also in the crowd, enjoying himself with everyone, listening to everyone's songs at the beat. But he would not know, and no one would know at this time, that this time the celebration was the last joy, and the blood and pain were quietly approaching.
The scum cave was full of blood, and the hero was unjustly prosecuted
With the victory of the People's Liberation Army, the agents in the slag hole also sensed a bad atmosphere. Some of the secret service chiefs also began to become a little crazy, more sensitive and suspicious than before, and even doubted these guards under their own command, and they whipped or imprisoned them if they were not good.
By October 1, the party had gathered other democratic parties and held the founding ceremony in Beijing, and the People's Republic of China had since been established, and the spies in the slag cave felt like the end of the world and panicked at this time.
But Sister Jiang was very calm, although she knew that the dawn of victory was in front of her, but she was not careless, she did not know whether these wolf-like agents would do whatever it took to jump the wall in the face of the general trend, causing irreparable results.
More than two months before, Zeng Zixia had been rescued by comrades outside the prison because of Huang Maocai's assistance, so the task of contacting Huang Maocai was taken over by Sister Jiang.
When Sister Jiang wanted to make a good plan with the comrades outside and see how to safely rescue the remaining two or three hundred comrades in the slag cave, Huang Maocai suddenly received news from his family, and his old mother was seriously ill, and I was afraid that time was running out.
The anxious Huang Maocai did not know how to be good, because he also sensed that something was wrong in the prison, and he wanted to pay more attention to the situation at this critical time, so that he could help everyone at any time.
But now that the situation at home came, he panicked for a while, and subconsciously asked for advice from his most trusted Sister Jiang.
Although Sister Jiang felt very sorry, she still felt that he would go home for about ten days, and he should not delay his plan, so he let Huang Maocai go home first to see his mother, and filial piety came first, and for the sake of the revolution, he did not even care about his family.
Huang Maocai, who had received a definite answer, hurriedly asked the two heads for leave, and the two heads were irritable at this time, so they ignored him and let him fend for himself.
On the day that Huang Maocai was ready to leave, Jiang Jie, on a whim, suddenly found him, and hurriedly wrote a family letter on the rough raw paper with soot mixed with carbon ash "ink", asking him to hand it over to his cousin Tan Zhu'an.
Huang Maocai was already familiar with the task of delivering letters, he did not think much about it, and before returning home, he sent Sister Jiang's letter to the designated person.
But including Tan Zhu'an and Huang Maocai, neither of them knew that such a letter had become Sister Jiang's last letter, and this family letter contained Sister Jiang's thoughts and endless love for her son Peng Yun, which was mixed with revolutionary enthusiasm and a beautiful vision of victory, so that later people could not help but cry when they read it.
This letter was called "Letter to Tan Zhu'an in Prison" or "Letter to Shi'er" by later generations, and has long been treasured and preserved in museums, so that countless later generations can draw strength from it.
At the end of the letter, Sister Jiang said, "That's it, I hope we will meet as soon as possible."
But Sister Jiang "reneged on her word".
After Huang Maocai returned to his hometown to meet his old mother, he took home all the money he had accumulated over the years, asked a good doctor to pack good medicine, and his mother's condition quickly improved.
Huang Maocai was worried about The situation of Sister Jiang in the prison, so he hurried back to the prison. As soon as he returned to the prison, he felt that the atmosphere in the prison was not quite right, everyone's face was gloomy, and the whole prison was filled with a depressing atmosphere.
One of the guards told him that his superiors had given orders to execute all the Communists, and that two batches had been dealt with in the previous days.
Huang Maocai's heart was like five thunderbolts, and he immediately inquired about Sister Jiang's situation, but what made him desperate was that Sister Jiang had already been executed a few days ago. Huang Maocai, who heard this news, staggered, his head seemed to have been smashed by someone, and the whole person was in a trance all day.
Although Sister Jiang had sacrificed, but the other comrades were still alive, Huang Mao was cheered up, and he knew that the only person who could save them now was himself. He regained his strength and decided to find a way to rescue the rest.
But fate was so tricky that he was included in the repatriation list. Although Huang Maocai had been helping the party organization to do things and pass on news, there had been no mistakes, but there was no wall in the world that did not leak wind, and although the agents of the slag cave did not catch specific evidence, they no longer trusted Huang Maocai, so they eliminated him.
The other comrades in the prison also felt sad about the news, but they still did not despair, but Hu Qifen, who was in charge of contacting Huang Maocai at the time, wrote a handwritten letter and asked him to hand it over to the head of the party organization outside.
Huang Maocai successfully completed his last task, and after receiving this secret letter, The head of the underground party organization in Chongqing, Guan Shuhua, attached great importance to it and actively prepared for the rescue operation of the prison robbery.
But what no one expected or wanted to see happened. On November 27, 1949, just as Huang Maocai left the slag cave with a letter on his front foot, a brutal massacre that shocked the whole country took place in the slag cave, and the remaining 200 revolutionary comrades were killed by the secret agents with machine guns. Even in order to cover up this crime, the agents set a fire and burned the martyrs to the bone.
Huang Maocai, who received this news, had a weak leg at that time and directly collapsed on the ground. The bitter Huang Maocai hated himself incomparably, he did not save Sister Jiang, nor did he save the remaining comrades. He had been depressed for a long time, plus he had been a spy in the slag cave, and now the comrades who knew his situation had died, and the more he thought about it, the more pessimistic he became, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened Huang Maocai did not tell anyone, and quietly returned to his hometown alone.
Huang Maocai returned to his hometown without alarming anyone, nor did he bring back any gold and silver treasures, but only brought back the sweaters that Sister Jiang and his comrades had knitted together, as if they were treasures.
Hometown people sometimes curiously ask Huang Maocai what he is doing outside, and Huang Maocai smiles and says that he is helping the Communist Party to do things, and the hometown people all give him a thumbs up when they hear it. Later, the state launched a literacy campaign, and Huang Maocai let him become a primary school teacher because he was the only person in the village who had read a little bit of books and literate, and he had also wandered outside.
At this time, Huang Maocai's life was comfortable, but soon fate made a joke with him.
After the country's township counter-movement began, he was taken away by the staff of the township government and imprisoned in the public security bureau. They tracked down Huang Maocai's experience as a spy and asked him to confess his crimes.
But Huang Maocai desperately retorted, saying that he was doing things for the Communist Party and lurking in the slag hole, and did a lot of things for the martyrs. However, the public security bureau personnel at that time did not believe his words, and when they saw that he had been hard-mouthed, they used a lot of heavy punishments on him, and Huang Maocai could not resist, physically and mentally tortured, thinking that in order to survive, he could only confess his guilt with a fierce heart.
So, after more than two years of intermittent interrogation, Huang Mao withdrew again and again, and finally admitted his "guilt." He confessed that he had participated in the "11.27" massacre and had lurked after the massacre, preparing to wreak havoc. Although Huang Maocai, who was already on the verge of collapse, had no choice but to admit many crimes, he would not admit to the charges of killing Sister Jiang.
The trial personnel did not know how much weight Sister Jiang occupied in Huang Maocai's heart, in his heart, Sister Jiang would always be his considerate and gentle big sister, and he would always be the little Yellow in front of her.
After Huang Maocai confessed his guilt, the simple mountain villagers were heartbroken, not knowing that the person they spent day and night with was actually such a murderous agent, and the crowd was excited, and they all shouted for him to pay for his blood debts and blood debts, and for him to pay for Sister Jiang's life.
So on July 20, 1953, Huang Maocai was sentenced by the whole county and then executed by shooting. Looking at the crowd of people looking at him angrily, Huang Maocai was full of grief and shouted, "I should die because I have no way to rescue Sister Jiang, no way to save other comrades." But I am definitely not a counter-revolutionary, I have done many things for the Party, I have been wronged, and I cannot be said to have killed Sister Jiang and executed. ”
Huang Maocai's shouting at the scene caused a commotion in the audience. Many people in the audience, some of whom are familiar with Huang Maocai, know that this teacher is usually a gentle person. The county court's enforcement officers heard his terrible cry and immediately decided to detain him and send him to the labor camp to serve his sentence and suspend the execution.
During the period of labor reform on the labor farm, he was honest and responsible, active in labor and hard work, and was soon sentenced to 15 years in prison by the court for "good labor performance".
He remained honest and obedient in prison, so by September 1964, he had been released early after several commutations. When he was released from prison, he was in tears, and at that time, the knot in his heart had not been opened for a long time, and the desire to seek revenge and rehabilitation had always existed. However, soon after he was released from prison, he encountered the great storm that swept the whole country, and the catastrophe of ten years made his desire for rehabilitation delay for another ten years, and even because of his crime of "murdering Sister Jiang", he suffered a lot during this period, and countless criticisms of large and small made him miserable.
In 1979, Huang Maocai, who had been persecuted for many years, looked very old, but he still trembled and went to the public security bureau and the procuratorate and submitted his complaint, but there was no reply.
In 1981, he received an invitation letter from the director of the Chongqing Martyrs Cemetery Memorial Hall, asking him to carry out relevant historical verification work, and after the introduction of the curator, he finally found Zeng Zixia, who taught in the middle school, and after his confirmation and the letter of certification from the United Front Work Department of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, he finally proved his innocence.
On the day huang Maocai heard that he had been acquitted, he burst into tears, remembering his past years, and remembering the days when he worked with Sister Jiang, he chose to return to the slag cave, came to the place where more than two hundred comrades were killed, and bowed deeply three times.