Chapter 13 Taipingzhuang

I had thought, or rather hoped, that two days' rest would be granted after the great struggle.I just can't take it anymore. However, the temper of the "rebels" was not like this. They want to strike while the iron is hot. On the second day of the massacre, more than one hundred of our "gangsters" received an order to gather at the coal plant and bring their luggage.I know there is a new trick, but I don't know where it will take us.I really didn't feel well, and felt very desolate.When I was carrying my luggage and walking on the winding path leaning against the mountains and the lake, I ran into a professor of economics named Hu who had been criticized as a capitalist roader a while ago.Although he has not been "liberated", he still has a grim look on his face; but after all, he doesn't need to go to the coal factory to gather.In my eyes at the time, he was already a god among gods, which really made me envious.

I walked into the coal factory tremblingly.For us "counter-revolutionaries", this is a very frightening place, which is no different from the palace of the king of hell.The memory of yesterday was still fresh, adding to my sense of terror.I walked in, and was first led to a wooden sign outside the wall, where I bowed my head and stood there.This is the first off Mawei.I was always ready to be slapped, punched, kicked on the face, on the head, on the shoulders, on the back, on the feet.However, none of this happened.I think this is very abnormal, and I feel very uneasy and uncomfortable.I don't think this is necessarily a good omen, but there is a murderous intention hidden in it.However, I can't sincerely ask for a few slaps, so that I can feel normal and comfortable.I can only bury this painful anxiety in my heart.

After a while, our group of "gangsters" were ordered to line up in two columns.A man who looks like a student of the Xinbei University Commune, with a big appearance, holds a spear made of steel pipe in his right hand.He opened his mouth to lecture and talked a lot of nonsense.We're not in a jet now and can understand what he's saying clearly.There are quite a few epigrams in it, such as: "You bastards, your crimes are as solid as a mountain, and no one should dream of overturning the case!" He shook the spear in his hand a few times, and raised his voice, saying: "My spear is Non-vegetarian!" I know this best, and I fully believe it.Because their spears have indeed eaten human flesh several times, including the flesh of a middle school student outside the school.I just hope now that their meat-eating spears don't eat me.Killing a "gangster" at that time was equivalent to killing a fly, not only would you not be punished by the law - where is there any law! — on the contrary, it will become a "revolutionary action".While lecturing, some people dragged a few people out of our gangster team, slapped or kicked them, knocked them down to the ground, and then went up and beat them up, their noses were bruised and their faces were swollen, and they didn't dare to say a word, and then returned to the team middle.This is a trick of killing a chicken to show a monkey, I understand it.I just didn't know the principle of their dragging people, and I was afraid that I would be dragged out too, and my heart trembled with fright.Fortunately, I am only a monkey, not a chicken.

After the chicken killing trick was finished, the "gangsters" lined up and boarded several convertible cars under the escort of the spear team, and drove to the Peking University branch near the Ming Tombs, commonly known as No. 200.About an hour on the road.When we arrived, we got out of the car and formed a team. Only one car drove to the destination of our trip, which was Taipingzhuang, the place where we were reformed through labor.From No. 200 to Taipingzhuang, there are still four or five miles to walk.But when queuing up, some of our old gangsters were called out of the queue.This time it is not to kill the chicken to show the monkey, but to give us preferential treatment.We can go to Taipingzhuang by car, and the rest have to walk.This time, God's kindness is so generous, it really surprised me.Can you say that they have no humanitarianism at all?I was really flattered.

When we arrived at Taipingzhuang, we were arranged to live in some bungalows.I don't know what these bungalows are for.It is now in disuse.Few of the doors and windows are complete.The house was full of dust, and the wooden bed was also covered with thick soil.Fortunately, we are no longer human at this time.What is hygienic or unhygienic has nothing to do with us.There were four gangsters living in each room, and my roommate was an old professor from the Department of Oriental Languages, and a professor named Zhao from the Department of National Affairs that I was very familiar with.He seems to have "accompanied the whole process" from the capitalist roaders to the bourgeois reactionary academic authority, without missing a single step.We are all acquaintances; but no one dares to say a word or smile.We have all become wooden and clay sculptures that have lost their smiles and expressions.We have all gone from "human" to "non-human".This is also a kind of "alienation".

My concern at this time is by no means such a philosophical question, I just want to drink a little water.I have dripped water from morning until now and there is no entrance.The weather was hot, and after a long journey, the thirst was unbearable.I sat on the bed blankly, thinking only water water water. If there is any water in front of me, whether it is river water, lake water, water in the sea, water in a pit, or even water in a stinking ditch, I will definitely bury my head and drink it.I feel that the greatest happiness in life is to have water to drink.I dreamed that "times come and go, wind and thunder move", and once I am "liberated", I must first drink a lot of water.If you can have a bottle of cold beer, it will be better than Yuye Qiongjiu.

"Water, water, water," I thought to myself. But not a single drop of water could be seen. I suddenly thought of the "Ancient Mariner" written by the British romantic poet Coleridge (Coleridge) that I read when I was studying in college. There is a line in it: Water, water, everywhere (water, water, everywhere). This refers to sea water.There was water everywhere, but it was so salty that there was no way to drink it.I can't even see the salt water now, just a dry yellow dust in front of my eyes.Contrary to Gu Zhouzi, I am: Water, water, nowhere (water, water, nowhere there is water).

I sat there, paranoid.In a trance, I don't know how long I stayed there. This place is at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, leaning against the mountains in the north and criss-crossing Tianchou in the south.There is still a distance from Taipingzhuang, where the residents live together.In fact it is isolated in the wilderness.However, the young revolutionary generals and lieutenant generals who escorted us here were terribly afraid of this pleasant place like a paradise.They probably feared that gangs far outnumbered them would unite and riot.So at any time, anywhere, they are armed with spears.They are timid at heart.In fact, our group of middle-aged and elderly intellectuals who are powerless, how can we have the ability and courage to riot?We just pray to God silently, may the spear of non-vegetarian not pierce us, we have nothing else to ask for, nothing else to plan.Seeing their trembling look, I felt very ridiculous in my heart.

At night, the guards were even more heavily guarded, probably because they were afraid that we would run away. Do we have the ability and courage to run away in the wilderness?Maybe the escorts were really flustered.They issued an order: No one is allowed to go out at night, otherwise be careful with spears!If you have to go to the toilet, you must yell: "Report!" and get permission before you can act.One night, when I needed to pee, I walked out the door, everything was silent, and the moon was shining in the sky.I couldn't see anyone, so I had to shout to the sky: "Report!" Sure enough, there was a voice in the shadow: "Go!" This person must have a spear in his hand, but I didn't see anyone.

We are here for labor reform.Labor is our main subject.The next morning, we went up to the middle of the mountain, and the class was to plant sweet potato seedlings.It is said that this is not a tiring job.But dragging my wounded body, kneeling on the ground and planting seedlings with my hands, it was not easy.But I still work hard and don't dare to slack off.But I was hit on the head suddenly, and when I looked up, I saw an escort holding a spear in one hand and a stick in the other. He shouted sharply: "Ji Xianlin! Do you want to be beaten?!" I didn't want to be beaten, so I had to lower my head, I worked with all my strength, and my fingers were bleeding.

The scenery here is really beautiful.It was early summer, and the peach and apricot blossoms had long since fallen; but the surrounding area was full of trees, shaded by green trees, and the ground was full of small flowers of various colors.Such as beautiful general.Looking up, there are towering mountains.In ordinary times, such wonderful natural scenery will definitely arouse my interest and greatly appreciate it.But at this time, I was only wary of the stick on my head, and the leisurely feeling of enjoying the landscape was gone.Maybe it’s really hard to get rid of. In the muddy and sweaty situation, I occasionally squinted and caught a glimpse of the verdant forest, and two poems came to my heart: planting seedlings under the mountain see the green forest At that time, Tao Yuanming "seeed Nanshan leisurely".At this time, I can't get up "leisurely", I can only "slowly".Nature doesn't care about the class struggle in the human world, no matter how "the yellow bells are destroyed, and the tiles are thundering", it still shows its beauty.Can I do it without being "random"? After working for a few days, the psychological burden, physical fatigue, and the scars from the school massacre completely broke down my body and mind.Suddenly, the testicles swelled up rapidly, until they were as big as a small ball. I couldn't put my legs together, and it was difficult to stand, let alone walk.Not only can I not work, but I can't even go out to eat.The escort showed great mercy and ordered the old professor of the Department of Oriental Languages ​​who lived with me to cook for me and not let me plant seedlings, but it is impossible not to work, and arranged for me to pick bricks and stones in the yard. Throw it out in the yard.I split my legs, crawled on the ground, picked up the bricks and stones, and then crawled and threw them out of the yard.At this time, all the troops of the brigade went up the mountain, and only a few escorts stayed behind.Not only was there silence in the yard, but also outside the yard, at the foot of the mountain, by the woods, on the fields, and in the small village.The silence was overwhelming, and even the voices of two people talking a few miles away could be heard.People who have lived in the city for a long time cannot understand this scene.I crawled up and down the ground alone in the great silence that seemed to have condensed.I couldn't help "reading the long distance between heaven and earth, and weeping alone". Two days later, the security guards saw that I was really suffering and the swelling of the testicles did not go away, so they ordered me to go to No. 200, a few miles away, to see a doctor.There are troops stationed there, and there are doctors in the troops.But I solemnly warned me: When you get there, you must declare that you are a "gangster".I respectfully obeyed, split my legs, and crawled out like a snail with a small ball-like testicle between my hands.On the road, I met Ma Shiyi, a fellow gangster.He pushed the cart to Changping County to buy vegetables.Seeing my situation, he sincerely asked me to get in the car again and again, and he wanted to push me to No. 200.I dare not get in the car after eating the heart of a leopard!However, I will never forget his sincere affection in suffering. It took me two hours to climb to No. 200.There is indeed a PLA clinic there.Inside sat a doctor in military uniform.When he saw me, he stood up quickly and wanted to help me with a happy face.I saw the red collar patch on his military uniform. The red color was particularly bright and dazzling, and it shone with a strange brilliance.This red is hope, it is light, it is everything I ask for.But I must carry out the order of the escort.I yelled, "Report! I'm a gangster!" and it broke.The doctor's face immediately turned from sunny to cloudy, not even cloudy at this stage.In his eyes, I seemed to be a person with HIV. He dared not even touch me, and said in a panic, "Let's go! Let's go!" I had hoped that I could at least take a look at my testicles and give I'll take some painkillers or something.Now that everything is over, the red in front of my eyes suddenly dimmed.I climbed the difficult return journey again. The human capacity to endure catastrophe and pain is simply bottomless and almost mysterious.After a few days, I didn't stop working, and I didn't take any medicine, and the swelling of the testicles disappeared.I was able to work in the mountains again.At this time, the sweet potato seedlings have been planted.The escort ordered me to go up the mountain with the old professor from the Department of Oriental Languages ​​to level the border under the peach tree.The two of us were probably a small labor team, led and supervised by an escort.He is a teacher of Arabic in the Department of Oriental Languages.In terms of seniority, he is our student.But now we are escorts, we are prisoners, and our status is very different.As for us two thin old men, he still has to be on strict guard, holding a spear in his hand, majestic, like one of the four heavenly kings.This place is quieter and more beautiful than the place where the sweet potato seedlings are planted below.But where do I have the heart to appreciate it? Our life - if it can be considered "life", if it can be considered "living" - is as simple as it can be.The place to eat is at the foot of the mountain, separated from the bungalows where we live by a dry sandy beach.The house here is clean and tidy, and people usually live there.The kitchen is located here.Escorts eat and sit in the room, there are tables and chairs, and the food is different.The place where we ate was on the grass outside the house, under the trees; of course there were no tables and chairs.The food we ate was extremely rough. Thick rice or steamed bread, boiled cabbage, deep-fried pancakes, etc. were considered delicacies, and we had absolutely no chance with them.We eat only to keep ourselves alive.Apart from working, eating and sleeping, there is no other activity. However, we also have a special sense of happiness: there is no need to worry about being criticized at any time.The units that criticize us have all stayed on campus.Except for the occasional stick or scolding, there is no jet-setting to sit on, no nonsense criticism speeches here.This is the greatest happiness for us. We really hope to stay long term.