Chapter 6 Chapter Six

Since the petition group entered the Educated Youth Building, the identities of the staff in the building have quietly changed. The corridors on all floors, including the telephone switchboard and sending and receiving communications, are under strict monitoring by the public security department. On the 26th, after negotiations between the representatives of the educated youth and relevant leaders broke down, they bought hard-seat train tickets in batches and planned to go to Beijing as ordinary passengers. In the middle of the night that day, all the passengers in the Educated Youth Building, including the houses of representatives, were interrogated several times by the joint defense team members performing their duties.Passengers' sleep was constantly disturbed and complaints abounded.

Lan Ting, the representative of the petition group, woke up with a scream. It turned out to be a dream.She looked at her watch, it was quarter to six.That is to say, if there is no accident, they will board the direct express train to Beijing in another three hours.She quickly turned over and got up, woke up the other female companions, and then made preparations before boarding the car.But when she reached into the empty travel bag, she couldn't help letting out a low moan.It turned out that the wallet was gone. This is not an ordinary girl's wallet, but a military satchel containing all the activities of the educated youth petition group, including more than 11,000 yuan and bus tickets.This huge amount of cash was donated bit by bit by the educated youths on the farm from their meager salary of 26 yuan a month. Now that the wallets are gone, it means that the army has run out of food and grass.More importantly, the petition group's plan to go to Beijing will be frustrated.

The educated youths in the petition group were all shocked.Judging from the scene of the theft of huge sums of money, Lan Ting lived in the same room with three female educated youths, and the doors and windows were closed at night. How did the bold thief sneak into the house and steal the satchel containing the cash ticket without leaving a trace? Woolen cloth?What's more, there are people on duty day and night in the Educated Youth Building, and the joint defense team makes frequent ward rounds.What's more, the theft was neither too late nor too early, and it happened just a few hours before the first group of petitioners boarded the car.

After dawn, many public security officers came uninvited to investigate the theft of huge sums of money, and temporarily detained all representatives of the educated youth in the educated youth building under the pretext of subpoenaing them.After a day of interrogation, there was no result.But the police officers seemed in no hurry.It wasn't until the next morning that a young policeman who sympathized with the educated youths quietly said to them: "Don't be stupid, you better go back quickly, can you beat the government...the money will be returned to you when the time comes." , The educated youth is like waking up from a dream.

In the afternoon, more than a dozen other educated youths who attempted to mix trains were also detained by the on-duty staff and expelled from the station. The petition has come to a critical juncture.The person in charge of the petition group closed the door and pondered over countermeasures. "In order to realize our sacred wish of going north to petition, to achieve the ultimate goal of reporting the situation to the Party Central Committee, and for the trust of the 100,000 educated youth comrades behind us, to live up to our glorious mission, the headquarters decided,..." On December 28, 1978, nearly a hundred representatives of the Educated Youth Northward Petition Group held banners, set foot on the railway track without hesitation, and collectively lay down on the track at a place called Yangjiaoao, two kilometers east of Kunming Railway Station. The demonstration blocked dozens of pairs of passenger and freight trains departing from Kunming that day.The main railway arteries connecting Kunming to Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou, and Longhai main lines were interrupted.Almost at the same time, the strike-educated youths in the frontier took corresponding actions, forcibly detaining some farm leaders as hostages.And threatened that if the representatives lying on the rails were hurt, they would fight back with fire.

The educated youth put all their eggs in one basket and released a "winning hand".The situation heated up again. Twelve hours passed.The two sides stalemate. Twenty-four hours passed, and the working group's dissuasion was ineffective.It is ineffective for leaders to go to the scene to persuade, and neither are any criticisms and warnings.The educated youths lay arm in arm in an orderly manner, forming a silent roadblock of flesh and blood like a city wall. Forty-eight hours have passed.Sixty hours passed.The truck is blocked.The bus is blocked.The military train that was being secretly transferred to the Sino-Vietnamese border was blocked.At the same time, some educated youths from the frontiers began to march to the provincial capital to support the representatives of educated youths lying on the track.The situation was on the verge of breaking out, and the whole country was shocked.

For three days and three nights, the serious situation of the educated youth lying on the track finally alarmed the Party Central Committee and the State Council.On December 31, Beijing sent a telegram to Yunnan, agreeing that the educated youth petition group go to Beijing to report the situation, but the number must be limited to less than 30 people. They won the third round.