In January 2004, I accompanied Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on a visit to Sudan and four other African countries. When meeting with Sudanese President Al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Li said that the people of Chinese owe the Sudanese people a debt of gratitude. Foreign Minister Lee was referring to the killing of the Sultans by the Executioner of the Chinese Taiping Rebellion, the Englishman Gordon. So I went to the place where Gordon was killed.
The current Sultan's Presidential Palace is the Governor's Palace during Gordon's colonial rule over Sudan. It is a three-story palace-style white building, heavily guarded inside and out, and soldiers are armed with live ammunition. On the white wall at the entrance to a side entrance in the hall on the ground floor, a wooden plaque is nailed with the inscription: Charles George Gordon died on January 26, 1885.
In 1860, the British Gordon participated in the Eight-Power Alliance's attack on Beijing and directly commanded the burning and looting of the Yuanmingyuan. In 1863, Gordon led a foreign gun team to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution "meritorious", and the Tongzhi Emperor specially rewarded him with a yellow silk coat. The coat is still on display in the Sultan Caliphate Museum.
In the wave of imperialist partition of Africa in the 19th century, the British used Egypt as a base and gradually infiltrated sudan. In the late 1870s, Sudan erupted in the Mahdi Uprising, the largest armed anti-colonial uprising in modern African history———.
In May 1881, Muhammad Ahmed proclaimed himself the "Savior" Mahdi, leading the Sudanese people in jihad and expelling foreign invaders. His claims were quickly echoed, and the peasant revolt he led was so overwhelming that it repeatedly defeated the British.
In the end, britain's rulers pinned their hopes on Gordon. Gordon, who spent five years in Sudan as governor of Equateur Province, boasted that "miracles can happen just by his name". Gordon was ordered to arrive in Khartoum by steamboat from Cairo in January 1884. Gordon quickly sent a letter to mahdi and sent him a red ceremonial robe and a high-ranking felt hat to persuade mahdi that if the riots stopped, he could become the monarch of Kordofan. Unexpectedly, Mahdi immediately returned Gordon's gift and gave gordon an Arab robe in return, asking him to convert to Islam.
Soon, mahdi approached Khartoum with his army, cutting off telegraph lines and the northward retreat of the Anglo-Egyptian army, encircling the city with a strong line of 40,000 soldiers. By the fall, Gordon could only look through telescopes at the top of the Doge's Palace to look forward to the arrival of reinforcements.
At the beginning of 1885, the number of soldiers besieging the city reached 100,000. On 26 January, the rebels invaded Khartoum and stormed the Governor's Palace. Gordon was stabbed to death with spears by Sudanese soldiers, and his head was cut off and paraded down the street.
In January 1964, when Premier Zhou Enlai visited Sudan, he said: "Gordon, the imperialist who suppressed the Chinese Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolutionary Movement and the Sudanese National Revolutionary Movement, was finally punished by the Sudanese people. ”
I carefully discerned every letter on the wooden sign, looked at the small corner door, and remembered the scene of the gunpowder-filled fight at that time, and constantly pondered the executioner's desperate mood at that time.
The Vatican has a secret papal passage
The kilometer-long brick wall conceals mysteries for wartime escapes
Shi Kedong
On the banks of the Tiber River in the City of Rome, Italy, there is a red brick wall about 1 km long, which connects the Angel Castle with the Vatican City. There are many arched door openings in the lower part of the wall for passing by vehicles. Newcomers to Rome often mistake this wall for an ordinary wall. In fact, there is a secret passage hidden inside this wall, which is dedicated to the Pope's refuge from Vatican City to the Angel's Castle when he encounters external attacks.
I had heard about it for many years working in Rome, but I had not been able to see it with my own eyes because the tunnel had been closed to the public. A few days ago, the Angel Castle Museum took advantage of the summer party activities and decided to open the restored Papal Secret Passage to the public at night for only two weeks. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the opening ceremony and walked along the Papal Tunnel.
My route of visit started at the end of the Angel Castle, actually going in the direction of the Pope's escape. Angel Castle was first used as the mausoleum of an ancient Roman emperor and has a history of nearly 2,000 years. In 271 AD, the castle was transformed into a fortress, surrounded by moats, easy to defend and difficult to attack. In the 6th century AD, the city of Rome experienced a plague, and legend has it that the pope at that time saw angels descend to get rid of the plague, and later placed angel statues on the top of the castle. People changed their name to The Angel Castle. Now it's a museum.
Accompanying me on the Pope's secret passage was Miss Alessia. This mysterious papal passageway is narrow, and Alessia takes me on and off, and from time to time briefs me on the secret passage. This secret passage was built in 1277 AD. The Pope's secret passage should actually be called the "community passage", which was a living quarter at that time. Walking on the passageway, I observed left and right that the summer weather is hotter, the houses living next to the passage are wide open doors and windows, and people are shirtless and cool, which is indeed a scene of community life. Since this passage is only accessible to the Pope, it is customary to call it the "Pope's Secret Passage".
There is a suspension bridge at the entrance to the dark passage of the Angel Castle, and there is a sentry dedicated to guarding this entrance, and it is also responsible for identifying and lifting the suspension bridge. Through the suspension bridge, people can enter this mysterious dark passage. From the outside, this is just an ordinary brick wall, and when you look inside, its structure is quite exquisite. After walking on the suspension bridge for a while, we enter a passage with a wall of more than one person on both sides, and the passage itself is about 1 meter wide, just enough for two medium-sized adults to walk side by side. After about 10 meters of travel, there is another entrance, where the passage is divided into two layers, the lower one is a veritable dark passage, only the rectangular windows reserved on both sides of the wall can provide light and ventilation for the passage; the top floor is built for the Pope's Swiss Guard patrol, this floor of the passage has a parapet on both sides, about 1 meter high, the wall is built with battlements, and the patrolling soldiers are condescending to protect the safety of the entire passage.
According to Alessia, after the completion of this secret passage, there were two times in history when popes fled to the Angel Castle due to foreign invasions: one was in 1494 AD, the French invaded Rome, Pope Alexander VI hid in the Angel Castle through the passage, and the other was in 1527 AD, when Spain attacked Rome, Pope Claremont VII escaped into the Angel Castle with the help of the secret passage, and hid inside for 12 months. According to legend, Alessia said, the Pope's entourage was trapped in the castle for too long, and later there was no food to eat, so they had to catch rats to eat.
Alesia walked us not far from the Vatican, where we could already see the great dome of St. Peter's Basilica and the Pope's office building. At this time, the light marker set in the dark passage was gone, and there was darkness ahead. Alessia said: "Our visit can only go here, we can't go any further. According to the Treaty of Lateran signed between Italy and the Vatican in 1929, this 1-kilometer-long secret passage, of which 950 meters belong to Italy, and 50 meters near the end of the Vatican belong to the Vatican. We visited about 750 meters, and the restoration of the rest of the part has not yet been completed. ”
I asked Alessia why this secret passage had been closed to the public for many years, and this summer's opening hours were so short, only two weeks. Alessia said that the reason it has not been opened to the public for many years is because the passage is being repaired, and the restoration work has not been completely completed so far. The short opening hours are mainly for safety reasons, because many places under the passage intersect with the road, and the top passage is not high, once someone throws an item down, it may cause traffic accidents, and the battlements are not high, and it is very dangerous to worry that someone is unruly and climb up. At present, there are few management personnel, but each group of visitors is still required to be accompanied by a special person to be responsible for the safety of the entire visiting process.
Listening to Alessia's introduction, I think that their task today is no easier than that of the Swiss Guard, which used to be patrolled by Swiss soldiers who did not let anyone walk on it, and now they not only have to accompany the visitors, but also make sure that nothing happens.
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