Chapter 22 3. We were arrested for opposing the disbandment of the Nanjing Pingjin Alumni Association by the KMT

When we first came to Nanjing, the Kuomintang authorities had illusions about our Pingjin students, and wanted to bring the student movement we organized into their orbit and make them use it.So they show their support for us.With the development of the Anti-Japanese War situation, our anti-Japanese propaganda and mass organizations have been carried out vigorously, exceeding the scope of their requirements.They regard us as a thorn in their side and a thorn in their flesh, and want to eradicate us.The situation at that time is briefly described as follows: Beginning in early September 1937, students from some universities and middle schools in Nanjing often came to the Pingjin Alumni Association to get in touch and jointly study how to carry out anti-Japanese and national salvation work. Even the students of the Gendarmerie School invited Pingjin students to sing anti-Japanese and national salvation songs.After the Pingjin Alumni Association got in touch with the Nanjing Secret Student Union, it held a symposium on current affairs with students from Central University and Jinling University.This shows that the anti-Japanese national united front work carried out by the Pingjin Alumni Association has achieved obvious results.The members and activists of the Pioneers sent by the Nanjing Pingjin Alumni Association to various places in the rear have actively carried out anti-Japanese and national salvation activities in various places, organized anti-Japanese and national salvation groups, and developed the Pioneers.These activities are beyond the scope of action required by the Kuomintang.The Kuomintang authorities had doubts and panic about this.They felt that the Pingjin Alumni Association and a large number of Pingjin students continued to stay in Nanjing, which was a threat to them.

So in mid-September 1937, the Ministry of Education of the Nanjing government demanded that the Pingjin Alumni Association be organized under the pretext that the major and middle schools in the area had already started, and some colleges and universities in Beiping and Tianjin also established temporary joint universities in Changsha, Hunan, and Chenggu, Shaanxi, respectively. Evacuate a large number of Pingjin students gathered in Nanjing and go to the rear.And mobilize Pingjin students to leave Nanjing on their own.However, very few students were willing to leave Nanjing, and most of them still asked to go to the front to do anti-Japanese work.The Ministry of Education of the Nanjing government issued a "instruction" to the Pingjin Alumni Association, requiring the alumni association to automatically disband, which was firmly opposed by the alumni association.Under the pretext of "maintaining public order in the capital," the Nanjing Gendarmerie Headquarters also sent people several times to urge the Pingjin Alumni Association to evacuate a large number of Pingjin students in Nanjing as soon as possible; and asked the Alumni Association to stop its activities.Students will refuse.

In order to resolve this contradiction between the Pingjin Student Association and the Kuomintang government, Comrade Li Hua, Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, conveyed to the person in charge of our Student Association the instructions of Comrade Bogu, the representative of the Central Committee: In order to facilitate the transfer of Pingjin students in Nanjing, through legal The channel was sent to the front line to do anti-Japanese work; in the name of the Pingjin Alumni Association, the Kuomintang government was asked to organize a training class for the Pingjin students in exile in Nanjing.After listening to the message, the student association sent me and Zheng Daigong as representatives to the Ministry of Education of the Nanjing government, met Zhou Binglin, director of the Department of Higher Education, and proposed to hold a combat training class.Answer Zhou, you can ask the national government to study it, and you have to prepare yourself to see how many people are willing to participate?The alumni association will announce the news of the combat training class to all the students, and invite those who are willing to participate to sign.Do some students sign because they don't understand the nature of the combat training class?indecision.The party's underground organization explained and mobilized the masses through party members, and the party members and members of the Pioneers took the lead in signing.So many students signed. In late September, the preparatory office of the combat training class sent Li Bingchang to recruit 3 instructors to the Pingjin Alumni Association to learn about the signing situation. How many men and women are there?And took the autograph book. At the end of September, the combat training class was officially announced. Some students went to the combat training class, but most of them remained in the Pingjin Alumni Association.

One day in early October, Yu Zhonghu, a special agent of the Nanjing Gendarmerie Headquarters, in the name of Gu Zhenglun, the commander of the Nanjing Gendarmerie, asked us to dissolve the Pingjin Alumni Association.He also threatened: If you don't disband, if there are traitors among the Pingjin exiled students in Nanjing, your classmates will be fully responsible.The person in charge of our classmate association flatly rejected his request. On the evening of October 8, 1937, the executive committee of our Pingjin Alumni Association was having a meeting, and Li Hua, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, also came to attend.Suddenly, the sound of riding boots was heard outside the window.Zheng Daigong said: "No, the army is here to arrest people." I quickly walked eastward along the corridor, and saw a large number of military police had entered the courtyard, fully armed, as if facing an enemy.Two gendarmes escorted me to the dormitory and told me to pack my luggage and follow them.In this way, I was arrested.A total of 10 of us were arrested at the same time.Namely: Wang Wenbin, Zheng Daigong, Ding Xiu, He Li, Ge Peiqi, Liu Yuzhu, Fang Qide, Zhao Qihai, Jiang Nanxiang, Du Tianxiang.We were imprisoned in the prison of the Nanjing Police Headquarters on the charge of "provoking trouble with students".The arrest of the executive committee member of our Pingjin Alumni Association fully exposed the true face of the Kuomintang who was forced to resist the war, one-sidedly resisted the war and feared that patriotic students would participate in the war of resistance.

On the day of our arrest, we were scattered and detained in cells with criminals.The room is humid, the air is dirty, and the smell is unbearable.After breakfast the next day, we questioned the police headquarters: why did you arrest us?We are patriotic students who came to the capital to ask to participate in the War of Resistance. Why did you lock us up with criminals?Patriotic and innocent, demand our immediate release.In the afternoon, the guards gathered 10 of us into an empty cell (used to hold political prisoners).There are more than ten prison numbers in the room, let us arrange the beds by ourselves.Only lock the cell door, not the cell door.In this way, it will be more convenient for us.Ding Xiu led them every day to do morning exercises in the corridor, and Zhao Qihai directed them to sing salvation songs. They gathered together in the morning to discuss current affairs and politics, and they were free in the afternoon.There were two bad rice meals a day, and the students in the north couldn’t get enough to eat, so the guards went out to buy pancakes for us.

On October 10, the National Day, we asked for a better life (a form of struggle), and the guards sent us Nanjing salted duck.After we were detained, we were not "interrogated".On the seventh day, we were called to three empty rooms, and a man in a suit gave each of us a piece of red lined paper without words, asking us to write down our home address, educational background, and purpose of coming to Nanjing. .What I wrote is: Come to Nanjing and ask to participate in the work of the Anti-Japanese War.After finishing writing, that person asked us to go back to the cell to pick up our luggage.The Garrison Command sent us to the "Nanjing Youth Field Service Training Class" in a big car.As soon as I entered the door, I saw many old classmates from the Pingjin Alumni Association. They surrounded us, shook hands with us warmly, talked with us, and helped us with our luggage.We feel very cordial and infinitely happy.