Chapter 23 Section 23

In those days, big-character posters and slogans were all over the walls and streets, on lampposts, and slogans were even written on the streets.The radio van shuttled from morning to night, with loudspeakers singing Mao's quotations and leaflets flying in the air. It was even more lively than the National Day ceremony.The party leaders at all levels who inspected the people on the viewing platform in previous years got on an open truck and were escorted by the rebel masses to show the public. They wore all kinds of paper hats on their heads, some of which were so high that they would fall over in the wind. You have to hold your hands tightly.Some simply put them in the wastebasket in the office, and hung signs on their chests, with names written in ink and crossed in red pen.At the beginning of this revolution, in early summer, children in middle schools criticized their principals and teachers like this; in autumn, the Red Guards fought against the "five black categories"; Party revolutionaries who take struggle as their profession are just like the example set by the great leader when he started his career in Hunan and launched the peasant movement.

Wu Tao was pressed down on the head by Da Li on the stage in the auditorium. He was still very stubborn at the time. Everyone has dignity and righteous indignation, and he refused to bow his head easily. Da Li punched him in the waist. Wu Tao, who had a fat belly, bent down in pain and his face was purple , the head no longer raised. He sat on the stage covered with a red tablecloth, which used to be Wu Tao's seat, and presided over the criticism meeting jointly convened by various mass organizations.In the face of these increasingly violent actions, he also seems to be sitting on the crater, and a little restraint will also be ousted from power.At the meeting place, the crowd was excited, the members of the party committee were called one by one, they all stood in front of the stage, they all learned to bow their heads, they all confessed to expose Wu’s lead, they all came from the instructions issued by their superiors, they all admitted their mistakes, and they all followed the same line without saying a word own words.On the contrary, Deputy Secretary Chen of the party committee, who was tall and slender and bent like a dried shrimp, had an idea and added that Wu Xin had said to several core and core members of the party committee: "Chairman Mao doesn't want us anymore."

The atmosphere at the venue boiled up again, and everyone shouted: "Whoever opposes Chairman Mao will call him perish!" Amidst the slogans of defeating Wu Tao and long live Chairman Mao, he could hear a little sadness.This is what Wu Tao said from the bottom of his heart, but he seemed to have heard it somewhere, and then remembered that the head of Zhongnanhai had expressed this kind of resentment before he threw Wu away, but these words turned into sadness from Wu Tao's mouth. As the host of the meeting, he must be stern, knowing that this grievance is not enough to be regarded as opposing the great leader, but if the old guy is not knocked down, he will preside over the meeting. Once Wu gets up again, he will remain calm He was also labeled as a counter-revolutionary.

A decision was passed at the meeting, ordering Wu Tao to hand over the meeting minutes of the party committee and his work notes.After the meeting, he and his buddies Tang and Yu got into the Jim brand black car specially used for the secretary, and took Wu Tao himself to his house to check immediately. He wanted to make the matter more peaceful, so he didn't do anything, and asked the old man to open the drawers and the bookcases piled with files.Tang and Yuyu were looking through the closet, and ordered the old man to hand over the key to the box. "Those are old clothes," grumbled the old man in protest.

"What are you afraid of when inspecting and inspecting? How about harboring black material from the whole crowd?" Brother Tang rubbed his waist, looking very proud, and there might be a sense of pleasure in the inspection. The old man went to the dining room to ask his wife for the key.It was dinner time, the dishes were ready and on the table, the door of the dining room was open, Wu's wife was at home, and there was a little girl, their granddaughter.Wu's wife stayed inside all the time, talking to the little girl on purpose. He thought that there might be something important hidden in the dining room!But immediately dispelled this thought, did not go into the dining room, and avoided meeting them face to face.

Two months ago, at noon on a Sunday after the Red Guards raided his house, someone knocked on the door. "A girl stood by the threshold, her complexion was fair, her face was bright, her eyes were clearly illuminated by the sunlight from the side, and her pink earrings and sideburns shone brightly. She said she was the daughter of the landlord who lived in the next yard and came to collect rent for her family. He has never been to the courtyard, and only knows that Lao Tan and the landlord are old acquaintances. The girl stood at the door, took the rent he paid, frowned slightly, glanced at the room, and said:

"The furniture, the table and the old sofa in this room belong to our family, and they will be moved out at that time." He said that he could help her move there in a while, but the girl didn't answer, her sparkling eyes flicked coldly again She glanced at him with obvious hatred, turned her head and walked down the steps.He thought the girl must have misunderstood, thinking that it was Lao Tan who he had reported on, and wanted to occupy this room.A few months later, the girl never came to collect the rent, let alone remove the furniture.When the old man Huang in the courtyard collected the rent for the housing management department in the street, he didn't know that all private properties had been confiscated.He didn't go to inquire about the owner's situation, but he firmly remembered the cold eyes that the girl cast on him.

He avoided going to see Wu's wife and the little girl. Although a child is young, he will have memories, and he will also leave hatred for a long time. Brother Tang moved the boxes one by one. Wu Tao opened the silver box and said that it was his daughter and children's suitcases. When he opened it, there were bras and women's dresses.He suddenly felt embarrassed, remembering the scene when the Red Guards searched Lao Tan's things in his hut and found the condom, waved his hand and said forget it.Brother Tang was checking the sofa again, lifted the cushions, and reached out to feel for the cracks in the armrests of the sofa. It was probably the searcher's instinct, once he took on the role of search.Eager to finish quickly, he packed several bundles of letters, official documents, and notebooks.

"These are all my personal letters and have nothing to do with my work," Wu said. "Let's check and register everything. If there is no problem, I will return it to you," he refuted. What he wanted to say but didn't say was that it was already very polite. "This is... the second time in my life!" Wu hesitated for a moment, but still said this. "Have the Red Guards been here?" he asked. "It's about forty years ago, when I was doing underground work for the party..." Wu's eyelids wrinkled, and his smile was half a smile.

"But you suppressed the masses, didn't you also search your home? I'm afraid you are not so polite?" He also asked with a smile. "It was all done by the Red Guards of the government. Our party committee has never made such a decision!" Wu categorically denied it. "But it's also the list provided by the Political Department! Otherwise, how would they know who to censor, and why wouldn't they also censor you?" He stared at Wu and asked. Wu kept silent, since he was old in accidents after all, and silently sent them to the gate of the yard.But he knew that this old fellow loved him too, and that one day when the official returned to his post, he would kill him without moving. He had to grasp enough materials to make Wu an enemy.

Back in the office building, he looked through Wu's letters overnight and found a letter from his family calling Wu his cousin.The letter wrote: The people's government was so sympathetic and punished me lightly, but now the livelihood is difficult, I am suffering from illness, and there are still young and old in the family. I only hope that my cousin can pass a word to the local government. Obviously, what is wrong with this relative? Ask Wu for help on political and historical issues.However, he stuffed the letter into a briefcase and wrote that it had been checked, but he didn't ask about it, because there was an obstacle in his heart. He rarely came home those days and nights, sleeping in the office that served as their rebel headquarters.Day and night, there were meetings and small meetings, connections and disagreements between various mass organizations, and internal disputes among the rebels.Everyone was scurrying like ants in a hot pot, and everyone declared rebellion.The old Red Guards also announced their rebellion against the party committee and were reorganized into The "Red Revolutionary Rebel Column", even the political and industrial cadres formed a combat team, betrayal, betrayal, speculation, revolution and rebellion, and they couldn't tell the difference between revolution and rebellion, and they all found their own way out.Once the original order and power network were disrupted, they were re-entangled and reorganized, all of which took place in this honeycomb-like office building, and countless conspiracies were not limited to this building. No matter which faction of the masses organizes the struggle meeting, Wu Tao will inevitably be scolded.The New Years fought even more fiercely. They bent over and lowered their heads while hanging signs, and put their arms on their knees, causing them to fall to the ground. Just like how they punished bulls and snakes a few months ago, they took away the rebels. The prestige of the party was transferred to Wu Tao, and the old secretary who was abandoned by the party not only became a useless old dog, but also everyone was afraid of getting dirty. One day after it snowed, he saw Wu Tao shoveling the slippery ice and snow in the backyard of the building, and he hurriedly shoveled it when he saw someone coming.He stopped and asked: "How about it?" The old man stood on the shovel, panting, and said repeatedly: "It's okay, it's okay. They beat people, you don't do it." Wu put on a pitiful face, obviously trying to sell him, he thought at the time.His sympathy for this old man who no one dared to pay attention to was a year later. The old man always wore a patched and dirty blue hanger, and every morning he took a big bamboo handle made of bamboo strips and swept the yard with his head down. He didn't look at him, his shoulders were set wrong, his cheeks and eye sockets were slack, and he really looked old, which made him feel a little pity, but he didn't talk to the old man again. The life-and-death struggle pushes everyone into hatred, and the anger is like an avalanche.Waves of increasingly powerful limelight pushed him in front of party officials, but he had no personal hatred for them, but he wanted to label them as enemies too.Are they all enemies?He couldn't be sure. "You're so lenient—they never show mercy when suppressing the masses, why don't you bring all of them to the stage—" Da Li accused him at an internal meeting of the rebel faction. "Can you knock them all down?" He hesitated!asked rhetorically, "Can you turn all those who are superior to others into enemies? You must allow people to correct their mistakes, pay attention to strategies, treat them differently, and strive for the majority." "Strategy, strategy, you intellectual!" Da Li became irritable and domineering, with a hint of contempt in his words. "Everyone is united and absorbed, and the rebels are not a hodgepodge! This is a right-leaning opportunist line, and it will ruin the revolution!" Another old party member who has just joined their headquarters has studied party history and is even more radical. Aiming at him, the line struggle also started within the rebel faction. "The leadership of the revolution must be in the hands of the firm and true leftists, not opportunists!" The eldest sister of the rebel party was very excited, her face flushed like a red cloth. "What are you doing!" He slapped the table, and became wild among the mob, but felt aggrieved again. Those arguments, those righteous indignations, those fiery revolutionary words, those personal desires for power, those schemes, plots, collusions and compromises, those motives behind impassioned passions, those unthinking impulses, those wasted emotions, he could not I remember how I spent those days and nights, and I couldn't help following them, debating and conflicting with conservative forces, and quarreling among the rebels. "The fundamental problem of the revolution is political power. If you don't seize power, it will be in vain!" Da Li was so angry that he also slapped the table. "Have you won the right not to unite with the majority of the masses and cadres?" He asked back. "Seek unity through struggle, unite to survive!" Yu took out "Quotations from Mao Zedong" to demonstrate his weak class roots, "I can't listen to you. Intellectuals will waver at critical moments!" They all consider themselves proletarians of blood, and this red country should belong to them.Whether a revolution or a rebellion boils down to a struggle for power, he was amazed that such a truth was so simple.But what he wanted was not clear at the time, and the rebellion was also led astray. "Comrades, if you don't seize power at the critical moment of the revolution, you will be Chen Duxiu! You will be a right-leaning opportunist!" The elder sister of the party member quoted party history, ignored him, and issued a call to those who attended the meeting. "All non-revolutionaries get out as soon as possible!" Some more radicals followed suit, and the latecomers always came out on top. "Whoever wants to be the leader, go!" He got up angrily, left the smoky conference room where dozens of people smoked all night, went to an office next door, pulled up three chairs and went to sleep.He was indignant, more at a loss.Is it not a fellow traveler of the revolution or an opportunist of the rebellion?He was probably still, perplexed. That New Year's Eve broke up so unhappy.After the new year, the scuffle began when the big Lis and several of the most fierce combat teams announced to take over the paralyzed party committee and political department. "Smash the old party committee! Smash the Political Department! All revolutionary comrades, whether you support or oppose the new red regime, is the dividing line between revolution and non-revolution, and there is no ambiguity!" Xiao Yu shouted in Guangli, the heads of each office flickered, and the same workers and staff released a group of old cadres and some party branch secretaries in their prime. They all hung signs on their chests, and Wu Tao beat a gong on the head. Inside, there are verandahs on the first floor to show the public. What a trick!That's probably how revolutions are made.Those dignified leading cadres who are usually the incarnation of the party shook their heads one by one, and filed in a panic. The eldest sister of the rebel party took the lead and raised her fist, raising her arms and shouting: "Down with those in power who take the capitalist road! Long live the new red regime! Long live the victory of Chairman Mao's revolutionary line," Buddy Tang Xue, the head of the inspection, frequently waved to the people crowded in the aisle and blocking the door of the office to watch the excitement, which caused "some people to laugh, while others were ashen-faced. "We know you're against the seizure of power," said the Lieutenant Colonel. "No, what I'm against is this way of taking power," he replied. This lobbyist is a political cadre transferred from the army, and only served as a deputy director—a master who is eager to try in this chaos. He smiled and said to him: "You have much more influence among the masses than they do. You come forward to support us. We hope you will pull out a team to cooperate with us." The conversation took place in the confidential room of the Political Department, which he had never entered before. The agency's documents and personnel files, including his files that recorded his father's problems, were stored here.When Da Li seized power, they put seals on these iron safes and locked file cabinets, but they could be torn off at any time, but no one dared to destroy these files. The former lieutenant colonel found him when he was having dinner in the big cafeteria, saying that he wanted to exchange ideas with him individually, and the appointment here must have ulterior motives, and he somehow understood it when he came in.He knew who was behind the former lieutenant colonel. A few days ago, the deputy secretary of the party committee Chen put the skinny Lianyu's big hand on his shoulder to convey this signal.Chen was originally in charge of the Political Department of the agency. He was usually unsmiling. After being criticized, his face became more serious. He walked up from behind him in the corridor. At that time, there was no one in front of him.Chen's big bony hand rested on his shoulder for only a second or two, then he nodded and passed away. It seemed that he didn't care, but he showed unusual intimacy, pretending to forget that he had been in the conference The Internet also criticized him.Compared with the mob who rebelled, they certainly had not a little bit of political experience, so they reached out to him instead.But he was far from being an old hand at politics, and he was not so cunning. He only thought that he could not be with them, so he reiterated: "I don't agree with this kind of power seizure, but I don't oppose the general direction of power seizure. After all, I support the rebellion against the party committee." The smug former lieutenant colonel pondered for a moment, then nodded!Say: "We rebelled too." That's like saying we drink tea too.He smiled and said nothing more. "It's just a casual conversation among us, so let's pretend we didn't say what we just said." The former lieutenant colonel got up after finishing speaking. He also left the confidential room, rejected the deal, and cut off contact with them.The conversation lasted less than ten days. After the Spring Festival, at the beginning of February, the old Red Guards and some political cadres regrouped to oppose the seizure of power and smashed the Guangyi Station in the government building controlled by the rebels.The two sides organized the first martial arts fight, and someone was slightly injured, but he was not there at the time.