Chapter 11 In the days of building and guarding the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

On October 8, 1976, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Decision on Establishing the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao Zedong, the Great Leader and Mentor". The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is located on the south side of the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square.It is on the same central axis as the Tiananmen Gate Tower, the national flag, the monument and Zhengyangmen.The establishment of the memorial hall here not only provides the best place for the people of the whole country and the world to pay respects to Chairman Mao's remains, but also adds a very commemorative landscape to the magnificent Tiananmen Square.

Located between the monument at the southern end of Tiananmen Square and Zhengyangmen, due to the Beijing Post and Telecommunications Building in the east and the Beijing Special Art Company and other buildings in the west, Tiananmen Square is in the upper half of the convex shape, and the east and west are relatively narrow, making Mao The Chairman Memorial Hall's land area is not wide enough, which also affects the overall effect of Tiananmen Square.For this reason, the central government decided to demolish all buildings such as the Beijing Post and Telecommunications Building and the Beijing Special Art Company on the east and west sides of the southern end of Tiananmen Square, including the small red building where the personnel directly under our company and battalion headquarters lived.Change the square from the original convex shape to the mouth shape.Thus making Tiananmen Square more magnificent and majestic.

After careful preparation, at 3 pm on November 24, 1976, the foundation stone laying ceremony of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was held at the southern end of Tiananmen Square.Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, Chen Xilian, Wang Dongxing and other central leaders attended the groundbreaking ceremony.In order to ensure the safety of the foundation laying, the leaders of the division and the regiment went to the scene to arrange security work.Therefore, the surrounding area is the security range of our company. In addition to setting up ground sentries with the cooperation of the brother company, we also strengthened the commanding heights close to the foundation.Martial law and clearing of the square were carried out in advance.The weather was relatively cold at that time, and everyone waited for the moment of laying the foundation with reverence.The groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Wu De, and Hua Guofeng delivered a speech.When we were building soil on the foundation stone, we saw that the elderly Marshal Ye Jianying seemed to be unable to stand still with a shovel, and it was very difficult to shovel half a shovel of soil.However, Chen Yonggui, who was born in a farming family and has worked in the fields for most of his life, can wield the shovel freely and powerfully shovel the soil, which makes him look much more relaxed.

After the foundation stone laying ceremony, various construction works started in an orderly manner.In order to ensure the smooth progress of the construction, the entire construction site is covered with wooden boards as walls.Our company also transferred some comrades to do security work according to the instructions of the superiors.Building the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is an extremely politically important task.All comrades who participated in the construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall are proud to be able to participate in this important work.Whether it is leading cadres or ordinary construction workers; whether it is technical research and development personnel or logistics management personnel, they all treat every job they are responsible for meticulously with a high sense of political responsibility.At that time, the requirements for each job were very strict.I remember that when a master worker was pasting a piece of granite on the wall, he accidentally misplaced it, and was suspended for inspection by everyone on the spot.Inspired by the political slogan of ensuring quality and speeding up progress, the entire construction site worked hard day and night, presenting a steamy and busy scene.

During the days when the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was being built, cadres and people from all walks of life in Beijing actively requested to participate in voluntary labor on the construction site with full political enthusiasm.The cadres and soldiers of our company also took turns to participate in voluntary labor on the construction site.I remember that when the memorial hall was about to be completed, a group of literary and art workers were approved to work voluntarily on the construction site.After participating in the labor, he (she) performed condolence performances for the cadres and the masses on the construction site on a temporary stage.I remember that when the singer Guo Lanying sang the song "Embroidered Golden Plaque", when she sang "Embroidered Chairman Mao, the people's good fortune, you are dedicated to us, we support you", Guo Lanying could not restrain her deep friendship with the leader , Tears poured down, choked and difficult to sing, aroused a resonance in the audience, everyone's eyes were blurred, and many people cried bitterly.Hu Songhua, Li Shuangjiang, Jiang Dawei, etc. all sang many songs praising Chairman Mao.The artists at that time were also very simple.David Jiang walked off the stage after singing, took off his gray wool performance costume, put it neatly in the box, and put on very ordinary casual clothes.At noon, they ate with the soldiers of our company guarding the Supreme People's Court, and were invited to sing in the dining hall.Hu Songhua's "Bless Chairman Mao Longevity" sung in the movie "The East Is Red" once again left people with an unforgettable charm of the prairie.Although the actor who played Zhao Yonggang in the Peking opera "Battle on the Plain" aroused everyone's laughter at the beginning because the starting tune was too high, he won full applause after singing again.

While the main project of the memorial hall was being built, the development of Chairman Mao's crystal coffin and the demolition of the buildings on both sides of the memorial hall were also underway.The later work of developing Chairman Mao's crystal coffin was carried out on the second floor of the North Exhibition Hall of the Revolutionary History Museum guarded by our company.It is said that the biggest problem of the crystal coffin is to solve the problem that the light should not erode the chairman's body in any way and the shadow of the light cannot be seen from any angle.On the basis of drawing lessons from the experience of Lenin's crystal coffin and through the joint efforts of scientific researchers, the development of Chairman Mao's crystal coffin has finally achieved a complete success.Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian and others personally went to the History Museum to listen to the report and watch the crystal coffin, and put forward suggestions for improvement.The demolition of the Beijing Post and Telecommunications Building and the Beijing Special Art Company Building was undertaken by a certain army.The two floors are located at the entrances of Dongjiaomin Lane and Xijiaomin Lane respectively, and are adjacent to the Chinese Revolutionary History Museum and the Great Hall of the People respectively, and are Western-style buildings.In order to ensure the safety of important buildings, the unit adopted the directional blasting method of drilling more small holes, placing a small amount of explosives in each hole, and detonating all the holes at the same time, so that the blasting direction and the collapse of the building reached the predetermined target with a loud noise.We also reluctantly left the Xiaohonglou where we had lived for many years, and moved to the Archives Building of the Supreme People's Court, which is close to Tiananmen Square.Under the shock of the big hammer of the crane, this small red building next to the history museum disappeared from Tiananmen Square forever.

After half a year of intensive construction by construction workers, the main construction project of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was successfully completed at the end of May 1977; after nearly three months of hard work, various greening and beautifying projects were also completed one after another. On August 29, 1977, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was completed.On the same day, the crystal coffin containing Chairman Mao's body was moved into the hall. The completed Chairman Mao Memorial Hall covers an area of ​​5.7 hectares, with a total construction area of ​​28,000 square meters.The memorial hall is square in shape, with double-layer glazed tile eaves on the roof, and the main body is raised high by 44 bright yellow granite pillars produced in Fujian.The wall is covered with granite veneer from Qingdao, Shandong.The base has two levels of staggered platforms, and the platform sides are all made of purplish red granite from Sichuan.It is surrounded by white marble railings from Fangshan, Beijing.Both the north and south gates are inlaid with white marble gilt characters of "Chairman Mao Memorial Hall" written by Hua Guofeng.There are a group of 15-meter-long group sculptures on both sides of the south gate and the north gate.The memorial hall is surrounded by pines and cypresses, symbolizing that Chairman Mao Zedong will last forever.The Memorial Hall is composed of North Hall, Main Hall and South Hall.Entering from the north gate is the grand north hall, in the center is a 3-meter-high white marble statue of Chairman Mao, with a huge velvet embroidery depicting the great rivers and mountains of the motherland on the back of the sitting statue, and a red carpet on the floor.The main hall is the worship hall.In the center is a crystal coffin, the base of which is made of Shandong black granite, surrounded by flowers.Chairman Mao, dressed in gray and covered with the flag of the Communist Party of China, lay peacefully in a crystal coffin.The wall of the main hall is engraved with 17 white marble gilded characters "The great leader and mentor Chairman Mao Zedong is immortal".In the south hall is written the handwriting of Chairman Mao's heroic poem "Man Jianghong and Comrade Guo Moruo".

On September 9, 1977, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China solemnly held the first anniversary of Chairman Mao's death and the inauguration ceremony of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in front of the north gate of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.We have deployed competent personnel to strengthen the security work.Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, Wang Dongxing and others attended.Hua Guofeng spoke at the meeting.After the meeting, the leaders of the central government paid homage to Chairman Mao's remains. After the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was completed, I led the comrades in the class to withdraw from other posts and go to the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall to perform duties.Because I am on duty in the Memorial Hall, my attire has improved to some extent. For example, my belt has been replaced with artificial leather, and I wear black leather shoes custom-made from Shanghai all year round.Of course, there are also high standards for standing guard, especially in the scorching summer, with a pistol on your waist and black high-waisted leather shoes, nailed to the sentry post like pine, and your clothes will be soaked in sweat in a short while under the scorching sun. , but no one complained.No matter it is windy or rainy, or hot and cold, everyone stands on their posts with the same posture, and is praised by tourists.After the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was officially opened, thousands of people entered the Memorial Hall every day to pay their respects to Chairman Mao's remains.Together with relevant departments, we have taken various measures to do a good job in security and security.In the tide-like flow of people, I watched everyone's actions to ensure the safety of the memorial hall.In the early days of the opening of the memorial hall, foreign high-level leaders almost always visited the memorial hall to pay respects to Chairman Mao's remains.

In the midst of monotony and solemnity, we also found a kind of joy, that is, whenever the sun goes down, a large group of beautiful birds the size of sparrows fly into the small pine tree inside the railing of the memorial hall, perch on it, borrow With the lights on, always singing and singing, accompanied by the resolute sentinel. It has been more than 30 years since I left the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall to perform duties. Whenever I recall the last post I stood in during the nearly 8 years of security work, I have endless memories of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. The chairman's infinite thoughts.