On the morning of May 16, 2021, the phone rang, and it was From Yi's hometown, Uncle Desheng:
"Hello Mingjian! Beacon Village has a martyr named Chen Gang. He was killed in the Shaji massacre in Guangzhou that year. I heard that his tomb is in Huanghuagang. You help us find it, take a few photos and videos and send them over. ”
Uncle Desheng's words pulled my thoughts back to the mountain village of western Fujian, the Yi family. In the early 1970s, when I was seven years old, I was sent to the mountains of western Fujian with my parents to a mountain village called Yijia in Jianning County. The village is two and a half hours from the nearest road, which crosses three large ridges. Beacon Village? I remembered that it was a village further away from Yijia, on a higher mountain. I heard that looking down from Beacon Village, I saw the Jiangxi Province next door.
From the age of seven to ten, I spent three years in my hometown. It is the age I remember, the remote mountain village and the simple villagers, so that our family feels the warmth of the second hometown.
However, I had never heard of Chen Gangqi at that time.
The Shaji massacre is a historical event that basically everyone in Guangzhou knows or hears about. The 623 Road next to Shamian and the Saki Massacre Monument by the river are witnesses to this event. On June 23, 1925, more than 50,000 people from all walks of life in Guangzhou held a demonstration in solidarity with the "May Thirtieth" Movement in Shanghai. When the team passed through Shaji on the other side of the Shamian Concession, it was shot by the British and French troops in Shamian, killing 53 people on the spot, seriously injuring nearly 200 people, and causing countless minor injuries, resulting in the "Shaji Massacre". Among the dead, there were 27 teachers and students of the Whampoa Military Academy. Chen Gang, a graduate of the first batch of Whampoa, was one of the dead. Baidu Encyclopedia's "Chen Gang" (1902-1925) entry shows that Chen Gang in 1925 had graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and was then a platoon leader of the First Brigade of the Party Army.
However, putting down the villagers' phone, I felt for the first time that the tomb of the martyrs of the Shaji Massacre was not in Huanghuagang, but in the Honghuagang Martyrs Cemetery. After all, my family has lived in the Academy of Sciences compound next door to Huanghuagang for more than ten years. So I weChat asked Brother Xiaoyi, the person in charge of Huanghuagang. Sure enough, he said that there was no tomb of the martyrs of the Shaji massacre in Huanghuagang. I thought I guessed well, so I asked the iron brother of the Martyrs' Cemetery, is the tomb of the martyrs of the Shaji Massacre in Honghuagang? Unexpectedly, he said with certainty that he was not there. Both friends said that they only knew the Saki Massacre Martyrs' Monument on the Shamian River.
Both experts said they didn't know, and I was a little flustered. Or ask the almighty net. Unfortunately, the Wiki entry for "Shaky Massacre" only mentions the Monument to the Martyrs of the Shaky Massacre, not the Tomb of the Martyrs. Baidu Encyclopedia's entry on the Shaji massacre has a pitifully low number of words.
Fortunately, enter the "Shaji Massacre Martyrs' Tomb" query, and finally found out - in the many "Monument" pictures, a very old travel website, there is actually a "Shaki Massacre Martyrs' Tomb" entry:
The Shaji Massacre Martyrs' Tomb, originally on the side of Deng Yin's South Tomb in Dabaogang, Dongsha Road, was moved to the Martyrs' Hill of the Galaxy Revolutionary Cemetery in 1957 (and the remains of ten martyrs could not be relocated due to building obstacles), on the right side of the Martyrs' Hill of the Galaxy Revolutionary Cemetery. The granite stone tombstone, directly above it is engraved with two bunches of red flowers, a five-pointed star, the next book is "The Tomb of the Martyrs of the 'June 23' Shaji Massacre in 1925", and the lower right yin is engraved with the names of Li Zhi and more than forty other martyrs. It also bears the inscription "Relocated on March 30, 1957".
Guangzhou Galaxy Revolutionary Cemetery (now known as Guangzhou Galaxy Martyrs Cemetery, commonly known as Galaxy Cemetery), this is another place I am familiar with. His grandfather, Li Jingchi, moved from the South China Normal Institute to the Overseas Chinese Fruit Ranch in Aoyugang in 1972 and spent the last three years of his bumpy life. Fruit Ranch is close to the Milky Way Cemetery. We sometimes pushed our grandfather in a wheelchair for a walk on the boulevard of the Milky Way Cemetery. The Galaxy Cemetery is quiet for most of the year, only for most of the Qingming season, it is crowded, and the buses on the road cannot be moved. I was not uncomfortable with this quiet cemetery, and sometimes I lingered in it after school, curiously looking at the photos on the tombstones, imagining one life after another; guessing their lives according to the dates of their birth and death. Most of them were unfamiliar to me, and I only remember that there was a martyr named Xiang Xiuli who was mentioned in the textbook. But in my memory, I don't remember that there is a tomb of the martyrs of the Shakee Massacre in the Galaxy Cemetery. If so, which hill is in the Galactic Cemetery? There are several hills, thousands of tombstones...
Looking at the date, two days have passed. I decided to pluck up the courage to drive to the Galactic Cemetery to find out. I know that during the epidemic, Qingming advocated online worship, and now the cemetery is not open? Hearts don't count; do you bring sacrifices and flowers? Don't bring it first, I have some superstitions. The premonition told me that if I took it, it would not be easy to find it; the car was about to reach the Galaxy Cemetery, and I was a little timid, and I did not dare to drive the car to the entrance of the cemetery. I'm afraid that if I don't let in, I'll have to go around in a big circle again...
It seems that I think too much. The cemetery gate was open, and as soon as I entered the gate, I saw a parking lot on the side of the road, empty and without parking a few cars. It seems that the end of May is no longer the peak season for festival sweeping.
"May I ask, where is the tomb of the martyrs of the May 30 Massacre?" I asked an old janitor in the booth, about fifty years old.
He smiled slightly, corrected me, and said, "Are you looking for the tomb of the martyr of the Shaji Massacre?" ”
"Yes, yes." I have confused these two related historical events.
He leaned out of the guard post and pointed forward: "Bypass the first mountain, cross the second mountain on the small bridge, and you will see the road sign." ”
The Monument to the Tomb of the Martyrs of the Shaji Massacre in the Galaxy Martyrs' Cemetery in Guangzhou
On the inscription of the martyr, the name of the martyr "Chen Gang" is prominently listed
So you can find it directly? Indeed, not far from the post is a panoramic hand-drawn map that clearly shows that in the west corner of the Galactic Cemetery, there is a tomb of the martyrs of the Shaji Massacre.
Didn't expect to find it so easily. While I began to regret that I did not buy a bouquet of flowers for the sacrifice, I played a drum in my heart, martyr Chen Gang was buried here from Dabaogang? Or is it one of the ten martyrs who "could not be relocated due to building obstacles and remained in place"?
Walk across a small bridge and climb up a wide stone staircase with a gentle slope. I couldn't help but think of Chen Gang's hometown, the small village on the mountain in Beacon Village. I've been so close, but also so far. It was like acquaintance, but it was so strange.
Looking up, I was greeted by the beautiful stone sculpture of Xiang that I was familiar with since I was a child. She was like a patron saint, and like a signpost, once again waiting for my arrival. It was here that the signpost for the "Tomb of the Martyrs of the Shaky Massacre" also appeared. The signpost pointed to the end of the road, and in the shade of the pines and cypresses, the tomb of the martyrs of the Shaji Massacre was getting closer and closer to me.
I sped up my pace and walked up the steps of the tombstone, and the second line of the "Martyr's Inscription" came from the left and the third place, and the name of "Chen Gang" appeared in front of me.
Ninety-six years later, I have come to visit you today on behalf of the villagers in my hometown.
Am I the first folk to come here?
I bowed three times deeply toward the tombstone.
In May in Guangzhou, it is already the height of summer, and the sun is like fire. But in this corner of the cemetery, the big tree pavilion is like a cover, and the breeze is cool. What makes me feel even more wonderful is that there is no shortage of laughter in such an inaccessible place - outside the wall under the hill of the martyr's tomb, next to a school, the bells of class, the laughter of children, the sound of frolicking... It was as if the heavens had given a piece of warmth here in the darkness, comforting the heroic soul who had died before he could succeed.
(The original title of this article is "Searching for the Tomb of the Martyrs of the Shaji Massacre", written by Li Mingjian, Doctor of Anthropology, tourism industry research and planning expert)