Chapter 10 chapter Ten

On the third day of the hunger strike, one of the first hunger strikers went into shock due to physical weakness, and more than a dozen people collapsed to varying degrees successively.However, there is still no news from the Central Investigation Team.The command center decided that more than 700 members of the second batch of hunger strike teams entered the hunger strike scene at 7:00 p.m. on the 26th in advance to start a hunger strike demonstration. Just then, an urgent telegram from Beijing was sent to the strike headquarters.The telegram said: "The Central Investigation Team will arrive at Menggang Farm tomorrow. I hope that young comrades will exercise restraint and not expand the situation."

At 11:45 a.m. on the 26th, all members of the Central Investigation Team who had just arrived at Menggang Farm had no time to catch their breath and went straight to the scene of the hunger strike to visit the male and female educated youths who had been on hunger strike for more than 60 hours.The leaders of the Central Investigation Team spoke many words of comfort through the large rusted iron gate.Obviously, educated youths don't need empty comfort but substantive answers, so Tiemen has no response to the leader's speech.Finally, someone handed out a note from inside. It was a bloody book with big crooked characters written on it: "...Don't go home, or give me death!"

In response to the strike and the hunger strike strongly demanded by the educated youth, at 12:30 noon, the meeting between the investigation team and the educated youth was held in the open-air venue on the hillside. "Comrades——, comrades of the young workers on the farm—" This is a model, a top-down policy model, which is the same as the previous working group and investigation team.The opportunity for trouble has come. "We are not young workers!" "Return my educated youth!" "Down with bureaucracy!" After all, Lu Tian was calm. "Comrades, let's not dwell on the details for the time being, shall we?" So the deputy minister tried his best to talk about the issue of educated youth from the overall situation of the country, from the danger of strikes to the speech of the head of the central government, trying to arouse people's reason and persuade them to obey the policy.

"It won't work like this, we have to let him answer substantive questions." Wu Xiangdong, one of the members of the strike headquarters, stood up with difficulty, straightened his clothes, and strode towards the rostrum. "Comrades from Beijing, my dear comrades-in-arms educated youth, brothers and sisters—I, Wu Xiangdong, a Beijing educated youth who went to the countryside in 1969, stand on this podium today, in front of my hometown, Beijing. The chief said a few fair words to his relatives.... As my speech is about to end, in order to defend the dignity of a real intellectual youth, a man with a capital letter of flesh and blood, and to reject the 'farm' imposed on me by the government just now I decided to express my protest in the last resort.” He turned around calmly, took out a sharp dagger from his trouser pocket, and cut open his wrist effortlessly. Arterial blood vessels.

A finger-thin column of blood gushed out like a fountain, splashing all over the surrounding people.When people came to their senses, the brave martyr had fallen to the ground with a smile on his face.The young man’s suicide behavior undoubtedly ignited the long-suppressed anger of resistance. If the educated youth picket team hadn’t maintained order in time, the irrational educated youth would have trampled the weak soil stage of the open-air venue to the ground. Lu Tian was already in tears.As a senior cadre of the party and the state and the head of the investigation team with a special mission, he never imagined that the educated youth policy he insisted on would cause such deep and deadly harm to the educated youth. He almost felt a sense of guilt like an executioner.You keep saying that practice is the only criterion for testing truth, so where is the standard of practice?Is it not in the educated youth itself but in the policy?The dam of reason began to collapse, and conscience and a sense of justice gradually gained the upper hand.

"Comrades, young comrades: I will seriously, responsibly and wholeheartedly apologize to you for what I said just now, and for that unfair title. I am here to say something formally to you, you—educated young comrades! …As an individual, I came to visit comrades in two identities. I, Lu Tian, ​​a staff member of the State Council, was responsible for understanding and reporting the situation of comrades. At the same time, I was an ordinary parent of an educated youth ...... Educated youth comrades, you are the future of the motherland, I hope you understand the general situation, take into account the overall situation, do not act too hastily, resume eating as soon as possible, take care of your body, we must bring back the actual situation of our comrades as soon as possible, and report to the comrades in charge of the Party Central Committee and the State Council report."

The audience fell into silence again. "Leader comrades, please make it clear, can we get an answer to our request to return to the city?" There was a stalemate on and off the stage.People's mood fell back into the abyss of pessimism and disappointment.The more evasive the people on the stage, the more the educated youths confirmed the terrible premonition that had been suppressed in their hearts for a long time: their fate was not only doomed but also unchangeable. A female educated youth stood up slowly.This Chengdu girl from the Land of Abundance has a thin and dark complexion.Her once extremely fair skin has long been mercilessly scorched by the subtropical scorching sun, and her once extremely healthy and vigorous young body is now tormented by heart disease from time to time. Years of heavy labor caused her right shoulder to be more inclined than her left shoulder.

She finally climbed onto the platform out of breath.Suddenly her knees became weak, she knelt down with a plop, hugged the chief's feet and cried loudly. "Uncle, good uncle, save the poor daughter!..." The heart-piercing whine, like lightning, like thunder, tore apart the sky and the earth.Like a lamb, like a chick, like all weak animals that are about to die.All of a sudden, more than 30,000 educated youth called "the future of the motherland" knelt down towards the rostrum, kneeling on the ancient and desolate red land of China.Shi Potian was startled and wept bitterly.History freezes here.

Lu Tian mourned greatly.He burst into tears and couldn't help himself.Weeping on and off the stage.Facing this female educated youth who regarded him as his father, and facing the crowd of more than 30,000 who couldn't kneel down, he felt that his stiff shoulders could no longer bear this overwhelming historical responsibility.He helped the female educated youth who was in pain and said emotionally, "Please believe in me, I will handle your affairs well. I have decided to ask the Party Central Committee for instructions by phone now, and reflect your wishes and requirements for returning to the city."

The educated youth waited in place for the final ruling on their fate. On January 28, 1979, at around 5 a.m. the day after the educated youth collectively knelt down, after more than ten hours of long-distance calls with Beijing, the tired-faced head of the Central Investigation Team Lu Tian re-entered the venue and boarded the rostrum. "Young intellectual comrades—" Lu Tian said hoarsely into the microphone.static field.Everyone felt like their heart was about to jump out of their throat. "Now, let me answer your questions responsibly. First of all, I hope that all comrades who are on hunger strike will resume drinking and eating immediately, and all educated youths will stop the strike and return to their original units to grasp the revolution and promote production. Because the comrades in the central leadership have made it clear that - the educated youth Comrades, your reasonable demands should be met."

A few seconds later, earth-shattering cheers erupted from the audience.Crazy stomping.applaud.Howling hysterically.Men rushed through the iron gates of the hunger strikers and lifted their heroes high into the air. In 1979 AD, history is no longer stubborn.