Chapter 2 The first chapter is persuasive and persuasive, with a public heart——In "Red Guards Movement"

On August 18, 1966, a major event that affected the whole country and shocked the world happened in the capital Beijing: Mao Zedong received tens of thousands of "Red Guards" from Beijing universities and middle schools in Tiananmen Square, and celebrated the "Cultural Revolution" with millions of people in the capital. Mao Zedong’s meeting with the Red Guards in Tiananmen was a further statement of his support for the Red Guards after he had written a letter of support to the Red Guards at the High School Attached to Tsinghua University not long ago. August 18th became the beginning of the national "Red Guard Movement".

After the "August 18th" Congress in Beijing, all parts of the country responded one after another, and tens of thousands of Red Guard organizations spread all over towns and villages almost overnight.These youths, mainly from the "five categories of red", have the sacred mission and sincere desire to "defend Chairman Mao, defend the Communist Party of China, and defend the red regime". They no longer stay in school to engage in sports, but rush out of the campus , took to the streets, and introduced the fire of the "Cultural Revolution" into the society and spread it to the whole country.

From the end of August, groups of Red Guards who "destroy the old and establish the new" have appeared in the streets and alleys of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and cities across the country.They first carried out the "revolution" in people's clothing and "outmoded customs", and then began to sweep away the names and names of the so-called "feudal, capitalist, and Xiu": In Beijing, the Red Guards proposed to change the name of East and West Chang'an Avenue to "Dongfanghong Avenue" , and smashed the "Quanjude" signboard, smashed "Rongbaozhai" and "black shop"; field"…….Due to the instigation of public opinion and propaganda, in just a few days, the trend of "breaking the four olds" swept across the land of China.

However, the evil results of anarchism came with the actions of the Red Guards to "destroy the four olds": many places of interest and historical sites were destroyed, and the cultural heritage of the motherland for thousands of years was looted and abandoned; Confiscation and destruction of private properties abound; behaviors of insulting, beating, scolding, and imprisoning famous writers and artists, grassroots leaders, and ordinary teachers can be seen everywhere.What's more serious is that some Red Guards also targeted Soong Ching Ling, Guo Moruo and other famous party and state leaders at home and abroad for "destroying the four olds". A group of senior intellectuals such as Lao She and Fu Lei chose a dead end because they could not bear the humiliation. Many "five black" personnel were beaten to death or forcibly sent back to their hometowns. ...

Zhou Enlai paid close attention to the progress of the "Red Guard Movement" in Beijing and other places.He did not show sincere enthusiasm for some actions and initiatives of the Red Guards to "destroy the old and establish the new".Once, when he learned that Zhongguancun in Haidian District of Beijing had been renamed "Revolutionary Village", he said disapprovingly: "It's better to call it Zhongguancun first, otherwise many people will not know the place, and I don't know what 'Revolutionary Village' is." Where?" As for the world-famous national key cultural relics and historic sites, he tried his best to protect them.On the night after the "August 18th" reception meeting, he announced the decision to "immediately close the Forbidden City" at a meeting hosted by him, and deployed Beijing garrison troops to guard it, making this centuries-old royal palace in the public domain. It was preserved during the "Red Guard Movement".Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou is also preserved in the same way.Later, Zhou Enlai told the Red Guards: "Destroying the Four Olds" is a long-term task. China's feudal rule is so long, the feudal tradition is so strong, and the force of habit is so strong. It is impossible to solve the problem at once.

Various name changes and naming activities continued to appear until before the National Day. In late September, Zhou Enlai received a report from the General Office of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee: Red Guards in 34 middle schools in Beijing and students from other places organized a "Dongfanghong Preparatory Committee" to change Beijing to "Dongfanghong". At the same time, the Chinese watches and stone lions in front of Tiananmen Square were removed, and the bronze statues of Mao Zedong and statues of heroes were erected.Zhou Enlai wrote in his report on the 26th: "Please call the General Office of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary-General Zhou (Rongxin) by phone. By contacting the central station, tell them that this is a major national event and that it is relevant for international observation. They can care about it and make suggestions, but they cannot It is up to them to decide and name it. Otherwise, the name will be invalid, and won’t it lose credibility?”

During the period of the Red Guard Movement, unexpected events happened almost every day to Zhou Enlai, especially those issues that appeared in the "Destroy the Four Olds" that had a wide range of influence and involved party and state policies, laws, and systems.For this reason, Zhou Enlai believed that it was necessary to persuade and guide the Red Guards on these issues. In view of the spontaneity and randomness of the activities of the Red Guards, Zhou Enlai first considered that various Red Guards should be organized in order to create opportunities and conditions for them to do their jobs.

On August 24, according to Zhou Enlai's proposal, Beijing's new municipal party committee decided to establish the "Capital Red Guard Liaison General Station", which was located in the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace, and the work of the general station was presided over by the secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; the Party Central Committee and the State Council set up a In the office, Zhou Enlai appointed the Secretary-General of the State Council, Zhou Rongxin, to be in charge, to understand and communicate the situation, and to discover various problems in a timely manner.

On the 26th, Zhou Enlai went to attend the inaugural meeting of the "Beijing University and Middle School Red Guard Liaison Station". He delivered a speech to more than 1,000 Red Guard representatives from more than 500 universities and middle schools: Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee care about you. The state has the responsibility to help you and should create conditions for you to organize and discuss things with you.For example, it is easy to change the name of the road, but it needs to be investigated and a good solution needs to be discussed.There are also some matters that involve the national system, such as the abolition of fixed interest rates, which must be approved by the People's Congress.Through the contact station, you can collect your opinions, which ones should be done immediately, and which ones should be done later, and after discussion, they will be sent to the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao for approval.In short, the purpose of setting up this liaison center is first to support and help you, second to love and protect you, and third to discuss things with you.

Two days later, Zhou Enlai learned through communication channels that the Red Guards of a middle school in Beijing proposed to change the name of Yangwei Road in front of the Soviet embassy to "Anti-Revision Road". A large celebration parade is held.In order to avoid foreign-related disputes, Zhou Enlai convened an emergency meeting on the night of the 28th. He patiently explained to the Red Guards: Our anti-revisionist struggle is based on literary combat rather than military combat.If you stick to the spirit of anti-revisionist big-character posters in the embassy, ​​you will break into the embassy, ​​and you may turn a civil war into a violent one.We still have national and diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union today, and we should abide by this relationship, just as they respect our embassy in Moscow.Therefore, you can hold demonstrations at their gates, but there must be a limit, and you cannot break into the embassy.After repeated work, the organizers of the conference finally agreed to follow Zhou Enlai's suggestion.From the 29th, the mass demonstrations lasted for two days, with a total of 400,000 people, without any destructive incidents.

In the process of communicating with the Red Guards, Zhou Enlai not only told the Red Guards modern history of China and the history of the Communist Party of China, but also introduced some common sense of natural science and social science to the Red Guards, in order to persuade them to take back or change things that violated scientific understanding and normalcy. Claims and “advocacy” for codes of conduct.For example, in order to explain to the Red Guards who insisted on changing the traffic signal to "stop at green light and go at red light" why this would not work, Zhou Enlai first learned the situation from drivers and other professionals, and then tried to persuade him.He started with the transmission of light, and then talked about the international practice, which is equivalent to giving students a lesson in optical physics.For another example, in order to correct the extremely wrong slogan of "eliminating Islam" put forward by some student organizations, Zhou Enlai, on the basis of investigations and a large amount of data, estimated that there are tens of millions of Muslims in China and hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world. Starting from the basic facts, patiently told the Red Guards about the origin, development, and social impact of religion, etc., and explained the necessity and long-term nature of the current party's ethnic and religious policies.Once, when Zhou Enlai made an emergency call to deal with a foreign-related incident in the northern border city of Hailar, he even had to personally explain to the "revolutionary" Red Guards who rushed to the international train "why the Chinese drive foreigners". ... In this way, as the prime minister of a huge country, Zhou Enlai had to deal with and work with Red Guards from all over the world almost every day.As he himself said, since then, his basic work has been on the side of the Red Guards. It can be seen from this that Zhou Enlai has always held an attitude of caring, loving and extremely responsible for the descendants of the motherland from the bottom of his heart.He used the opportunity of talking with the Red Guards to introduce his family, personal experience, work experience and lessons to them many times, and used his personal experience to enlighten and warn the young people: the road to revolution is not always smooth, and young people are bound to make mistakes. It is not right to cover up mistakes, but to face them up and correct them.The sentence he said the most on various occasions is: "I want to grow old, learn old, and reform until old." However, Zhou Enlai's painstaking efforts had little effect. The wave of "breaking the four olds" has not been contained, but intensified.During this period, what disturbed Zhou Enlai the most was the insults, beatings and scolding, and ransacking of the homes of leaders of various democratic parties, non-partisan figures, and various celebrities that occurred during the "Destroy the Four Olds".He repeatedly emphasized to the Red Guards that they must learn and use the "Sixteen Articles" well. One of his intentions was to hope that they would follow them, exercise restraint, and strictly abide by the minimum rule of "Written fighting, not violent fighting."However, young people who are not deeply involved in the world and lack policy and legal concepts have been dominated by fanatical "revolutionary" passions, and "rebellion is justified" and "lawlessness" have almost become their creeds and norms above all else. On the night of August 29, a group of Red Guards from the Economics Department of Peking University broke into the residence of Zhang Shizhao, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and ransacked it wantonly.Afterwards, Zhang Shizhao immediately sent a letter to Mao Zedong, reflecting the unreasonable behavior of the Red Guards, and asked for "a slight turnaround within the possible range, and there is hope that the bell will be relieved."The next day, Mao Zedong approved in a letter: "Send it to the Prime Minister for discretion, and it should be protected." After receiving the approval, Zhou Enlai immediately took measures to protect Zhang's house and secretly transferred Zhang himself to 301 Hospital.At the same time, Zhou Enlai personally wrote a "list" of cadres who should be protected, including Soong Ching Ling, Guo Moruo, Zhang Shizhao, Cheng Qian, He Xiangning, Fu Zuoyi, Zhang Zhizhong, Shao Lizi, Jiang Guangnai, Cai Tingkai, Sha Qianli, Zhang Xiruo, Li Zongren, etc. More than a dozen senior democrats, as well as the people in charge of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council and its affiliated ministries, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the central committees of various democratic parties, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Supreme People's Court.Although this "list" has only a few dozen words, it contains hundreds of protected objects.It can be said that Zhou Enlai spent a lot of thought on almost everyone on the "List" in order to find the safest method of protection. The first person in the "List" is Soong Ching Ling, Vice President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the National Revolutionary Committee.She is not only a well-known democrat at home and abroad, but also a close friend who has shared weal and woe with the Chinese Communist Party for decades.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Soong Ching Ling lived in Shanghai most of the time. At the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", Zhou Enlai felt that it was not safe for Song Chang to live in Shanghai, so he persuaded her to come to Beijing to settle down, and instructed Yang Dezhong, the head of the Central Security Bureau, to be in charge of various tasks in Song's house. The Ministry of Public Security, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and the local police station The three sides cooperate with the guard. During the "Destruction of the Four Olds", as expected by Zhou Enlai, Soong Ching Ling's apartment in Shanghai was attacked, and even her parents' cemetery in Wan'an Cemetery was destroyed by Red Guards.In addition, in Nanjing, some people proposed to tear down the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen; on the streets of Beijing, big-character posters attacking Soong Ching Ling appeared, and some people threatened to storm Soong Ching Ling's residence in Houhai, Beijing.In order to prevent the further development of the situation, Zhou Enlai personally came forward to educate the Red Guards who knew little about history: "Song Qingling is Sun Yat-sen's wife. Sun Yat-sen's achievements were affirmed in an important article "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" written by Chairman Mao after the liberation of Beijing. His achievements are also recorded on the Monument to the People's Heroes. The students in Nanjing must We absolutely disapprove of destroying the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen. It seems Chairman Mao decides to put Sun Yat-sen’s statue opposite to Tiananmen on May 1st and 11th every year. Sun Yat-sen is a bourgeois revolutionary. He has merits and shortcomings. He Since she cooperated with us, her wife has never bowed her head to Chiang Kai-shek. After the failure of the Great Revolution, she went abroad and rescued comrades who worked underground in our party. She cooperated with us during the Anti-Japanese War and sympathized with us during the War of Liberation. She and the Communist Party have long been Cooperation is consistent. We should respect her....It is not appropriate to put up big-character posters at her home. Three brothers and three sisters made her a revolutionary, and her sister cannot be overthrown just because she is Chiang Kai-shek's wife. " Under Zhou Enlai's full protection, Soong Ching Ling and her residence were saved from bad luck, and her parents' cemetery in Shanghai was restored. On November 12, Zhou Enlai broke through the obstruction of Jiang Qing and others, and personally presided over the meeting in Beijing to commemorate the centenary of Sun Yat-sen's birth.At the same time, he also approved People's Publishing House to reprint and publish the "Selected Works of Sun Yat-sen" with the title of Soong Ching Ling's title and the newly edited "Selected Works of Soong Ching Ling" with the title of the title written by himself. In the era when right and wrong were reversed and black and white were confused, Zhou Enlai tried his best to protect those cadres inside and outside the party that he could protect.With his ingenious art of fighting, he protected many people to pass through and kept them safe in the thrilling storm.During this period, the Panchen Lama, Erdeni Choji Gyaltsan, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme and other ethnic and religious figures were also protected by Zhou Enlai, as well as some famous scholars, artists, celebrities and their families.He did everything he could under the dangerous circumstances at the time.