Chapter 24 Chapter Six

The winter of 1933 was really cold, a dank cold that could seep into the bones of a person.Although the falling snow and the frost on the ground could not be seen, the coldness definitely filled every inch of the prison's high walls, and the trembling and uneasiness it brought could not be shaken off.Therefore, Ji Boshun firmly remembered that winter. In that winter, Ji Boshun was wearing a dark gray and blood-stained torn blanket, and sat blankly on the plank at the door of the cell, like an uprooted dead tree stump.His body was in pain, his face was swollen a lot, and his right index finger was broken. The inmates who were in the same cell were ordered to do it by the cell boss.According to the unwritten rules in the prison, they asked Ji Boshun for filial piety money, but Ji Boshun didn't have any. When Ji Boshun preached the truth of revolution to them, those people beat him.Later, Ji Boshun had to protest to the prison authorities, and the prison transferred him to this small, dark three-person cell.When he first arrived, there were two people imprisoned in the cell. One was a death row prisoner with heavy shackles. He was sent to the execution ground to be shot the next day. Ji Boshun never knew the name of the deceased.The other one is known, named Qian Fenqi, in his forties, a middle school teacher in Shanghai, a member of the Communist Party, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.Qian Fenqi had an amiable face.With such an amiable face as his companion in prison, Ji Boshun no longer has to worry about being beaten or bullied, so he has the possibility to spend his prison life safely.

However, after avoiding the scorching fists and kicks of the criminals in the big cell, the cold came in waves.For some reason, Ji Boshun always felt that the three-person cell was much colder than the big cell that held twenty-five people.The door of the big cell faced south, and even though it was blocked by the corridor, it still couldn't let in a ray of sunlight, but it wasn't as dark as this small cell facing north.If you can't get the sun, you can see the white sunshine and it will give you warmth, not to mention that there will be more people to add some warmth. The cold brought more anxiety and indignation.That day, Ji Boshun wrapped the blanket tightly around his body and thought angrily: He never expected that the people at the bottom would be so ignorant. He couldn't believe this harsh fact if he hadn't been punched so many times.To be honest, he was full of sympathy for the thieves, robbers, and criminals held in the big prison. According to Marxist theory, Ji Boshun believed that they could not bear the oppression and exploitation of society, so they took the risk.He didn't think of them as prisoners any more than he never thought of himself as a prisoner.And it was chilling that they had beaten him, a loyal soldier who had fought hard for their cause.

For no reason, I thought of Zheng Shaobai.Ji Boshun actually vaguely saw Zheng Shaobai's sly face on the blood-stained wall, and believed in his heart that Zheng Shaobai was also of the same kind as them, and further speculated: If he and Zheng Shaobai did not know each other, if he and Zheng Shaobai were also criminals today. The different identities of political prisoners meet in this prison, so what will Zheng Shaobai do?Maybe he would hold a sharp screwdriver against Ji Boshun's chest like he did with the stalker that night in Qingpu, and collect filial money from him, right? Poor Chinese proletariat!

Because of Zheng Shaobai, I thought of the long-lost Qingpu, and thought of that wet morning on October 17, 1925.The scene of that morning was not caught by Ji Boshun when he slid past Ji Boshun, but Ji Boshun remembered it bit by bit during the countless lonely days and difficult years afterwards. Ji Boshun remembered that morning.The wet fog from that morning in 1925 seemed to be sucked into the nostrils again.He sniffed and inhaled the fresh and intoxicating wet mist, walked in the hot sun, and walked towards the Nikko Pier.The beautiful face that touched his heartstrings no longer existed in his memory, let alone the despicable deception.What he could think of was the sun, the free air, and the fragrance from the restaurants on both sides of Mary Road.

The free air and distant fragrance often drift into Ji Boshun's dreams.The night of sleep thus becomes imperceptibly bright day, and the harsh day becomes as long as the night of nightmares.In the first days, when Ji Boshun was not used to prison life, one day after another day became more and more difficult to bear. Ji Boshun began to take the initiative to chat with Qian Fenqi, a fellow prisoner who also believed in communism, about the Soviet Union, about Trotsky, about the opposition Central Committee, about the current situation in China and the future Chinese revolution. Unfortunately, Qian Fenqi does not belong to the Trotskyist ranks, and Qian Fenqi is not interested in him or his Trotskyism.At first they argued and quarreled, but then, day after day, they lost even the interest in arguing.They read their own books, thought about their own thoughts, and guarded each other. Even the guards couldn't understand it.

The guard was a young guy from the countryside in northern Jiangsu, and he didn't seem to have a bad heart.Ji Boshun couldn't agree with Qian Fenqi, so he talked with the young guard.The guard was very interested in the situation in the exotic Soviet Union, so he took the opportunity of talking about the Soviet Union to introduce Trotskyism to the young guard.The sad thing is, as soon as the guy found out who Trotsky was, the warden found out, and the next day he was transferred out and replaced by a bearded guy.That guy was a vicious villain, and he gave Ji Boshun a disgrace as soon as he came, canceling Ji Boshun's one-week briefing, and even slapped Ji Boshun when he protested.

However, due to an unexpected change, the prison life in 1933 was not long. If school is used as an analogy, it is only the preschool kindergarten stage. The accident happened after Ji Boshun was imprisoned for two years and nine months.It was already a hot summer, and on that summer morning, a prisoner with disheveled hair and a Tianjin accent was escorted into the three-person cell where Ji Boshun was.Ji Boshun never expected that the new prisoner was Gao Ming who decided to go to Lushun with him in October 1925, but then disappeared! Ji Boshun rushed over, hugged Gao Ming tightly, and burst into tears: "Old Gao, it's you, it's you! Why don't you..."

Gao Ming nervously covered Ji Boshun's mouth, and leaned into his ear and said, "Don't ask, I will tell you later, my name is Cheng Boren now, remember, Cheng Boren!" Ji Boshun understood, nodded, and changed his voice: "Old Cheng, I never expected to see you here after Qingpu!" Gao Ming asked, "Old Ji, how have you been here for the past few years?" Ji Boshun smiled miserably: "How did you come here? Isn't it just coming here?" "I just heard that you went to the Soviet Union." "Yes, we were withdrawn from Qingpu in October of that year. Didn't you arrange for us to go to Lushun together? Think about it, you, I, and Zheng Shaobai, a worker executive committee member? Oh, Zheng Shaobai, remember?"

"Of course I remember, this worker seems to be quite timid..." Ji Boshun nodded: "That's right, he ran away on the day of the retreat. I guess he hid back to his hometown in Zaozhuang. I don't know what happened afterwards! You didn't come that day, so I boarded the boat alone. Not long after I got connected, I was sent to Sun Yat-sen University in the Soviet Union. Oh, by the way, where did you go that day?" Gao Ming sighed and said, "Don't mention it, I was almost arrested that day! You left for less than an hour, and I was talking with An Zhongliang, when the vicious dog of Superintendent Zhao pounced on me. To be honest, it was An Zhongliang, He Gongcheng covered me, so I didn't go to prison, and I didn't die... Sigh! Let's not talk about the past, let's listen to you talk about the Soviet Union!"

Ji Boshun really wanted to have a good talk, but he stopped talking.At that exciting moment, Ji Boshun wisely kept a calm head, instinctively afraid that Trotskyism would create a barrier between him and his former comrades, and it was not his nature to tell lies. Ji Boshun didn't talk about the Soviet Union, but instead asked, "Hey, old...Old Cheng, where have you been all these years?" Gao Ming was very witty. He first glanced at Qian Fenqi who was sitting on the plank in the other corner of the cell, and then whispered into his ear, "Hey! It's too much to say! Let's talk about it later when we have time!"

"Arrested for what? How many years in prison?" Gao Ming said: "The Communist Party suspect, I was passing through Shanghai. People in Shanghai didn't know me, and they didn't get any great evidence. They only sentenced me to three years." Ji Boshun was sincerely happy for Gao Ming: "Good! Great!" Gao Ming held his hand tightly: "I'm so happy to see you, an old classmate and comrade! But, the place to meet is not very good, is it?" Ji Boshun smiled, nodded repeatedly, and said, "Not bad! Not bad! The place is a bit small, so I can't use my fists to show off my skills!" Gao Ming patted Ji Boshun's shoulder: "Brother, don't worry if you show your skills!" Ji Boshun took the opportunity to ask: "Hey, how has the situation outside been in the past two or three years?" Gao Ming thought for a while, and said: "Great changes have taken place in the past two or three years. The Central Red Army marched westward to northern Shaanxi. The reactionary Japanese government continued to implement the policy of aggression against China, which aroused the anger of people from all walks of life across the country. Representatives of Zhu De and Mao Zedong The Red Army issued the "Telegram on the Armistice and the United Anti-Japanese War." "What? Are you going to negotiate a truce with the Kuomintang again?" "Yes, I saw this before I was arrested." "Did Stalin's Comintern issue another directive?" "I'm not too sure about this, maybe..." Ji Boshun grabbed the skirt of Gao Ming's prison clothes excitedly, pulled him face to face, panting quickly: "Old Gao, no, Lao Cheng, this is class surrender! This kind of surrender is unacceptable! Shouldn’t we learn from the lessons of the Great Revolution? Haven’t we shed enough blood? Think about it, when the KMT and the Communist Party had no grievances, they couldn’t cooperate sincerely. What’s the basis for cooperation now? It doesn't make sense in theory, and it's unacceptable emotionally, you know?" Gao Ming broke Ji Boshun's hand and said earnestly, "Old Ji, the situation is different now. The intention of the Japanese imperialists to invade and destroy China is obvious, and the ethnic conflict has become the main one!" "Then sell the interests of the proletariat and the oppressed people to cooperate with the Kuomintang, which represents the bourgeoisie? Frankly speaking, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party during the Great Revolution was fundamentally wrong. If we ignored the wrong instructions of the Communist International, According to Comrade Trotsky's correct proposition, if we work independently, maybe today the Chinese revolution will be as successful as the Russian revolution! This time, we must not make the same mistake again..." Gao Ming was very surprised: "What correct proposition did Trotsky have on the issue of the Chinese revolution?" Ji Boshun told Gao Ming everything he knew about Trotsky's thoughts and strategies on the Chinese revolution. Gao Ming became serious: "Hey, old Ji, have you been influenced by the Trotskyites, or have you joined the Trotskyites? What have you done in the past few years?" Ji Boshun knew that the situation was not good. The old acquaintance and friend in front of him obviously didn't know the great significance of Trotsky to the Chinese revolution and the world revolution, and he wanted to use a dialogue to make this old acquaintance closer to Trotsky. not realistic.He smiled calmly and said, "In the past few years, I have done some things that I think I should do!" "What should I do?" Gao Ming asked. "What a responsible Chinese revolutionist and Marxist should do." "Don't you want to say it?" Ji Boshun changed the subject: "Forget it, let's talk about you first!" "Me?" Gao Ming naturally didn't want to talk about it, and his face fell down, and he became a bit fierce, "I also did what I should do, that is, I didn't engage in separatism and became a counter-revolutionary Trotskyist!" Ji Boshun protested: "The Trotskyites are not counter-revolutionaries, but revolutionary Marxists..." Gao Ming sneered: "This kind of revolutionary Marxist will be shot in our Soviet area..." The first conversation ended so badly. The next day, during a briefing, Ji Boshun heard his roommate Qian Fenqi tell Gao Ming in the toilet that he was not only a stubborn Trotskyist, but also a member of the Central Committee of the Trotskyist Central Committee.Ji Boshun's identity at that time was public. Ji Boshun had told Qian Fenqi in the past, Qian Fenqi knew about it, and Qian Fenqi asked Gao Ming to be more careful in front of him. Sure enough, after the wind was over, Gao Ming asked Qian Fenqi to guard the door, and he walked up to him solemnly and knelt down: "Old Ji, are you really a pseudo-Central Committee member of the Trotskyite?" Ji Boshun knew that a breakup was inevitable: "That's right! However, what needs to be corrected is that the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's Left Opposition is the Party Central Committee that truly represents the interests of the Chinese proletariat, not a false Central Committee. Our General Secretary Chen Duxiu is also Your general secretary back then!" "You...you are seriously sabotaging the revolution!" "Wrong, our Left Opposition is in the permanent revolution. Comrade, do you know Comrade Trotsky's 'Theory of Permanent Revolution'?" Gao Ming became angry: "I know, those are completely unrealistic and deceptive junk, so we just sue!" Ji Boshun was not angry, and said calmly: "Old man, don't worry, true Marxists can't be scolded and killed. Comrade Trotsky also said similar things. By the way, I have listened to him many times. teachings!" Gao Ming was extremely disappointed, with a dejected look on his face: "Old Ji, I know you, you are an old comrade of our party, why did you go to the Soviet Union and come back like this! You really let me down! Think about Qingpu, how well we worked together back then!" Ji Boshun was also moved: "Yes, I can't forget Qingpu, and I can't forget you. It wasn't for you who arranged for me to go to Lushunkou after the General League's strike failed. Today, I may still be stuck in the mud pit of Stalinism and the opportunism of the Chinese Communist Party like you. I really thank you, really, not sarcasm, but sincere thanks! Lao Gao, no, old...Old Cheng, you again Listen to me talk about Trotsky in detail, Trotsky belongs to me, it belongs to you, it belongs to the whole of China and the whole world!" Gao Ming shook his head in pain: "No need, I know what China needs, we should end this topic forever, and future history will answer our debate in prison today..." Ji Boshun nodded: "I also believe in historical answers. Some answers have already been made, such as the Great Revolution back then. If we hadn't listened to the blind command of the Communist International, we would have become independent earlier..." Gao Ming decisively cut off Ji Boshun's words: "Okay, let's not talk about it, people have their own ambitions, and you can't force it. However, as an old friend who fought together during the Great Revolution, I ask you to do one thing——" "Do what?" "Don't use the hand of the enemy to resolve our differences of faith, okay?" "This... I don't quite understand this!" "Old Ji, don't pretend, you should understand! Didn't Mayufu of your Trotskyite inform the enemy because of your internal differences? Therefore, I doubt whether your Trotskyite has a tradition of informers..." Ji Boshun suddenly felt that he had been greatly insulted, and couldn't help trembling all over. After shaking for a long time, he raised his arm and slapped Gao Ming severely: "Fart! You...don't you have few traitors in your midst?! " Unexpectedly, after being slapped, Gao Ming was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "Okay! You old Ji is a man!" Ji Boshun turned his face away in pain. This slap ended all the friendships of that year.Ji Boshun really didn't expect that friendship—the friendship formed in the bloody struggle of those years, would be so fragile and vulnerable to each other's chosen beliefs! Later, something happened to Gao Ming.Half a month later, Gao Ming's true identity as a member of the Communist Party was still exposed.The military police took Gao Ming to a new trial, and when he was taken back to prison again, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.Therefore, Gao Ming believed that Ji Boshun, a counter-revolutionary Trotskyist, had betrayed him, and secretly connected with Qian Fenqi and some party members and political prisoners in prison to punish Ji Boshun. right opportunity.As for Ji Boshun, he didn't know anything about this life-threatening crisis beforehand. One morning in the fall of this year, when Ji Boshun was going to the toilet, Gao Ming, Qian Fenqi, and two young men from other accounts rushed up and cleaned him up.Before Ji Boshun could lift his trousers, or even wait for Ji Boshun to call out the word "Help", he held down Ji Boshun and tied his neck with shackles.While Ji Boshun was struggling desperately, Qian Fenqi lifted the cover of the cesspit, and the three of them lifted him up and threw him into the cesspit as deep as a person.It was only when Ji Boshun fell into the cesspit that he yelled, which alarmed the guards in the courtyard and saved his life from the god of death. This incident caused a storm in the prison.At the same time, seven Trotskyist comrades who were detained in several other cells of this prison went on a hunger strike to protest in solidarity with Ji Boshun.And Ji Boshun fell seriously ill because of this disaster, and was unconscious for several days.Under such circumstances, the reactionary authorities released him four years in advance in the name of medical parole. The fact of this early release objectively further confirmed the possibility and reliability of the informant.In order to facilitate the control and differentiation of the political prisoners in the prison, the cunning prison officials also hinted many times that Ji Boshun finally realized his mistakes and embarked on the road of repentance and rehabilitation.After Ji Boshun received the letter of reprimand from the comrades in the prison, he almost fainted from anger, and he took the initiative to go to prison that afternoon. The prison authorities refused to accept it. On that gloomy evening, Ji Boshun squatted at the gate of the prison and cried like a child... Eighteen years later, this matter was only clarified during the investigation of the enemy files: it was not Ji Boshun who informed the prison authorities, but Qian Fenqi.It was Qian Fenqi who, after listening to the conversation between him and Gao Ming, used the opportunity of a briefing to report to the director of the guard. The date of the report was September 9, 1936.Both the clerk and Qian Fenqi himself signed the recorded report materials.When this matter was clarified, Ji Boshun didn't know that at that time, he had entered the Communist Party's prison and continued to serve on the charge of historical counter-revolution. In 1936, the feces that were all over his body for no reason still exuded in his heart a monstrous stench that even made him feel sick.By the time Ji Boshun figured out the matter himself, it was already after he was released by amnesty.For this reason, Ji Boshun specially wrote a letter to Gao Ming, who had already become the chief executive in Beijing.But until his death, Ji Boshun did not receive a reply letter or any form of reply from Gao Ming. Their friendship ended in 1936 for good. However, Ji Boshun said in "A Man Faithful to the Faith" that after he sent that letter, what he expected was not the friendship from history, but an apology from Beijing.He has always been serious about political chastity and integrity, just as he was serious about going to prison in 1936 to prove his innocence.