Chapter 44 3. Back to Beijing

Those who were leniently released left in batches.Some were picked up by family members, and some were sent away by cadres.Before the Spring Festival in 1976, most of the detainees in Shanxi Province had left; the detainees from other provinces also left Taiyuan one after another.According to the policy announced by Secretary Wang of the Labor Reform Bureau at the meeting, and my own qualifications, everyone estimated that I would be among the first to return to Beijing.However, the released persons in Beijing have left several batches, and the cadres of the Labor Reform Bureau have not approached me to talk about returning to Beijing, so I am a little puzzled.I went to the Labor Reform Bureau to ask why.A section chief said that the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau has already notified your situation, but has not received a reply; I will call Beijing again to ask.The result of the question is: my original work unit has been revoked; there is no accepting unit, and it is difficult to solve housing and work problems.So relevant authorities in Beijing did not agree with my return to Beijing.

After several rounds of negotiations, my daughter wrote a letter of guarantee to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, guaranteeing that I would not ask the government for housing or work after I returned to Beijing, and the relevant parties agreed to my return to Beijing.On March 26, 1976, the Shanxi Provincial Labor Reform Bureau sent me a cadre and a nurse, and sent me back to Beijing to live in the Chongnei Hotel.A cadre from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau came to talk to me.He said: I planned to resettle you in Shanxi.It is because of your daughter's request that you are allowed to return to Beijing; your daughter will take care of the housing, and you can go to the sub-district office in Dongcheng District to collect living expenses of 18 yuan per month.He made a phone call to my daughter.Soon, my daughter and my son came to the hotel.The cadre said to my daughter: Go and call a taxi to take your father to the apartment you found for him. The car fee can be reimbursed at the Public Security Bureau.My daughter and I got in the car and drove to a rural area near Qinghe Town in the northern suburbs of Beijing.My daughter borrowed a house here from a farmer friend, and my niece is setting up a bed for me. This is my new home in Beijing.

At that time, there were three urgent issues in front of me: household registration, food stamps, and housing.At that time, Beijing was still ruled by the "Gang of Four", and things were difficult to handle.I took my Beijing household registration card issued by the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau and went to the police station to register.The household registration officer at the police station asked: Where do you live?What's the house number?I said: I just returned to Beijing the day before yesterday, and I am temporarily staying at a friend's house. I don't have a house yet.The household registration officer said: Hukou, household registration, you must have a house before you can register; you don’t have a house yet, and you don’t have a house number, so we can’t apply for your residence registration; you should go to the housing management bureau to rent a house first.I went to the Housing Authority and asked to rent a house.The housekeeper said: Take out your account book and have a look.I said: I just returned to Beijing and haven't registered my household registration yet.The house manager said, "We are the Beijing Housing Management Bureau. You don't have a Beijing household registration. Even if you have a house, you can't rent it to you."I took the grain transfer relationship certificate issued by the Taiyuan City Grain Bureau, and went to the Beijing Grain Bureau to collect food stamps.I live in a suburban village about 20 miles away from the city, and my eyesight is not good. In order to solve these three minor problems, I have to overcome difficulties and run back and forth almost every day.I have petitioned the Beijing Municipal Government, Municipal Public Security Bureau, Dongcheng Branch of the Public Security Bureau, Jiaodaokou Police Station, Municipal Housing Management Bureau, Dongcheng District Housing Management Bureau, Jiaodaokou Housing Camp, Municipal Grain Bureau, Dongcheng District Grain Bureau, Subdistrict Office, etc. .It took more than three months, but none of these three issues were resolved.

Later, I heard that the document for the lenient release of the former Kuomintang detainees was issued by the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee and the Ministry of Public Security.So I went to the Central United Front Work Department to appeal.The comrades at the reception said: Our United Front Work Department is only in charge of politics, and the Ministry of Public Security and Beijing Municipality are responsible for the issue of living arrangements.I went to the Ministry of Public Security to appeal again.After I explained my intentions, the comrades at the reception said: Since the government allows you to come back, Beijing must let you eat. No matter how other problems are solved, the problem of food stamps must be solved first.He asked me to write a document, which was forwarded by the Ministry of Public Security to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

After a period of time, I went to the United Front Work Department of the Dongcheng District Committee of Beijing to appeal, discussed the opinions of the Ministry of Public Security, and demanded to solve the problem of food stamps.Comrade Yu Shuiwang, head of the United Front Work Department of the Dongcheng District Committee, warmly received me and accepted my request.He immediately called the Dongcheng Branch of the Public Security Bureau and suggested lending me food stamps every month so that I can live.The East City Bureau agreed.I went to the sub-bureau and met Comrade Wei, who agreed to accompany me to the grain department] on September 10th to go through the formalities of borrowing food stamps. On September 9th, Chairman Mao passed away, and all agencies in Beijing were busy with the funeral, and my question of borrowing food stamps was also postponed. In late September, the procedures for borrowing food stamps are completed, and 28 catties of food stamps can be borrowed from the Beijing Dongcheng Grain Bureau every month.Living expenses of 18 yuan per month and 28 catties of food coupons are the only source of income for me after I return to Beijing.

In October 1976, the "Gang of Four" was overthrown, and the situation began to improve.The United Front Work Department of the Dongcheng District Committee and the Dongcheng Sub-bureau made a research decision to give me my unit’s household registration and report it to my daughter’s residence.This solved my household registration problem, and I became an official citizen of Beijing.One remaining issue is that of housing.Although the United Front Work Department of the Dongcheng District Party Committee has contacted the housing management office about my housing problem, I have visited the housing camp many times myself, and the answer is always: there is no house. On January 8, 1977, I wrote a letter to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Premier Zhou and sent it to Comrade Deng Yingchao, then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.The letter talked about my difficult situation at that time. I returned to Beijing for nearly a year, but I was still living in the countryside in the suburbs of Beijing without a stable residence.Sister Deng forwarded my letter to the Dongcheng District Committee. In late February, the United Front Work Department of the Dongcheng District Party Committee notified me to see the house.This is a small one-story house of 8 square meters, located in a courtyard at No. 96 Jiaodaokou East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing.I went to the housing management office to go through the procedures of renting a house, and on March 8, 1977, I moved into this small bungalow.I named this hut "Nine Six Shabby House".Although it is a humble room, it is my birthplace.I read, I slept, I cooked, I wrote grievances, I met journalists...all in this hut.Here I wrote more than 100 appeals to the relevant units of the Party Central Committee and the State Council (including the appeal letter approved by Comrade Hu Yaobang), received several journalists, and my injustice was made public.In this cabin, I also tutored 6 high school graduates to go to university; one of them got a Ph.D. in the United States.

Now let me introduce the situation of the compound.There are 16 households living in this compound, 14 of which are workers' families, one of which is a middle school teacher and a worker's master. They take good care of me.Especially Master Li Xuejian, who lives next door to me, is a university student in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, and works in the Nankou Thermos Bottle Factory.Seeing that my life was difficult, he offered to lend me money, but I politely declined.He offered to help with housework that I couldn’t do, such as installing the stove and hanging mosquito nets; his wife, Comrade Zhao, always gave me a copy to improve his family’s life.At that time, my eyesight was very poor, and burning briquettes was not good for my eyes; his daughter Bingfen, sons Bingzhou and Binghai took turns lighting and sealing the stove for me.There is no toilet in the compound, and I have to go to the public toilet in the small alley outside the gate. I can’t see the way at night, so Bingzhou or Binghai will lead me there.Comrade Zhang Meifen was the only Communist Party member in the compound. She participated in street work and often mobilized me to listen to policy reports. When I was sick and hospitalized, she asked her lover, Master Li Guoqiang, to visit me with fruit.There were three young workers near the compound. When they heard that I had moved into the compound, they took the initiative to visit me.Their names are Ma Changhui, Zhao Duanjun, and Liu Hanru.They were warm, sincere, generous and loyal, and helped me solve many difficulties.For example: I have poor eyesight and cannot transcribe the more than 100 complaint materials I wrote to various relevant units, all of which were transcribed by Comrade Ma Changhui on my behalf.He goes to work during the day and transcribes at night, and he writes it on time every time. Every word is in regular script, and every word is good.Comrades Zhao Duanjun and Liu Hanru often help me with housework, such as changing gas, buying briquettes, sending documents, seeing a doctor, etc., and never bother me.Comrade Zhao Duanjun's lover, Comrade Yang, always invites me to their home to improve life during festivals.Liu Hanru saw me steaming steamed buns in the hut, turned around and offered to buy a lunch box of steamed stuffed buns...These are some young friends I made back in Beijing.Once I went to the Joint Reception Station of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council at No. 8 Taoranting, Beijing to appeal. place.Afterwards, he assisted me to appeal to the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate many times, which played a positive role in my efforts to redress.

The summer vacation of 1977 was the first time that colleges and universities resumed unified enrollment after the "Gang of Four" was overthrown.Seven or eight high school graduates came to me to help them with their homework, and as a result, 6 of them were admitted to college.I also revised and published "Natural Common Sense Questions and Answers" (Physical Part).