Chapter 9 Chapter Nine: Visiting Tiananmen Square Again

To be precise, the big black Audi that Gong Kaichen was riding in had just driven out of the southwest gate of Zhongnanhai.He asked his secretary Guo Liming to call the General Office of the Provincial Party Committee of the news that he was going back to Province K, and then he called Xiaomei himself.The car leaves Zhongnanhai, drives south along the majestic and solemn red wall that often needs to be repaired and colored because it is too old, exits Fuyou Street, and goes from the side of the antique office building of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Turn east and you will approach Tiananmen Square.Gong Kaichen said softly to the driver: "Go around." The driver understood, slowed down calmly, turned, left the avenue leading directly to the airport, and drove towards the main road on the side of the square.This is also a habit of Gong Kaichen: every time he goes to Beijing to finish a meeting or finish his work, he always drives his car around Tiananmen Square before leaving.He does not shy away from such a statement: worship.That was the first time he went to Beijing to attend the Central Work Conference after he was formally appointed as K province.It is also very urgent.Probably less than two weeks after the official appointment --- what kind of two weeks is this: stepping down.take over.Various reports.Various meetings.All kinds of people knock on the door.Various internal situations, requests for instructions and reports are piled up on the desk.They are the most urgent, the most important, and the most urgent...they are the ones that need you to know, deal with, review, and give instructions the most...you can only sleep three or four hours a day.On the night before I flew to Beijing, I just rushed back from the KK River construction site and went to listen to the joint work report of the Provincial Department of Culture and the Radio, Film and Television Department.The meeting ended and it was already past two o'clock in the morning.Secretary Jiao at that time, the secretary surnamed Jiao Que, came to tell him that an old teacher who was nearly seventy years old wanted to see him.He froze for a moment, then smiled and said: "At this time, an old teacher who is nearly 70 years old wants to see me. I said Secretary Jiao, you are not mistaken, you know, what time is it now?" After a while, Secretary Jiao really An old teacher who was nearly seventy years old was brought to him.The old teacher really waited for him in the hall downstairs all night.He stepped forward to take a closer look and recognized him.When I was the secretary of the county party committee in Shannan County many years ago, I met an "old friend".History teacher of Chengguan Middle School in Shannan County, member of the Standing Committee of the County Political Consultative Conference.A casual and knowledgeable "strange scholar" who specializes in the history of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty.I never bring textbooks or handouts to class, just lean on the podium with my elbows on the podium, and talk freely.It really took a little effort for Gong Kaichen to recommend him to the county CPPCC.The difficulty lies not in whether the leaders of the CPPCC agree to declare him as a member, but because the old man himself is unwilling to be a "member".There is a seven-foot central hall written by the old man in his home. What I respectfully recorded is a self-reported poem by Li Ao, a disciple of Han Yu. Dao Wuyu said, 'Clouds are in the green mountains and water is in the bottle'." The old man heard that Gong Kaichen was appointed as the top leader of the provincial party committee, and he wanted to come and talk to him a long time ago.That night he brought Gong Kaichen two booklets with the front and back covered with dark blue cotton cloth.A passage from Zeng Guofan's diary was copied in an excerpt, which is nothing new, that is, "the way of governing is to pay equal attention to both people and affairs..." and so on.Another excerpt copied a story from it.The story was about the failure of Huang Chao's uprising in July of the fourth year of Emperor Xizong's reign in Tang Dynasty. Someone chopped off Huang Chao's head and presented it to Emperor Xizong, along with the "head" of Huang Chao's family and a group of his "concubines".Xi Zong, who fled to Sichuan to avoid the war, received these "tributes" on the tower of the south gate of Luocheng, Chengdu, and asked those "concubines" that you are all the children of the nobles of the Tang Dynasty. "Thief" replied one of the concubines headed by Ji. The country's millions of people did not block Huang Chao's attack. Where are the generals and ministers?" Xi Zong stopped asking and ordered them to be beheaded.People in the city felt sorry for these women, and offered them wine one after another.Most of the concubines were "drunk with grief" at this time, but the leader "did not drink or cry, and as for the execution, his expression was solemn." After reading this story, Gong Kaichen naturally felt quite sad and excited. Emotional, but unavoidably a little unhappy.He secretly felt that the old man didn't hesitate to travel hundreds of miles and wait for the middle of the night to "educate" him with such a story.In the ensuing pleasantries, the old man learned that Gong was going to Beijing early the next morning, and suddenly reminded him solemnly that no matter what, he had to spare some time to visit Tiananmen Square during his trip.At this time Gong Kaichen couldn't bear it anymore, he laughed and said: "It's not the first time I've been to Beijing." But the old man said seriously: "You are no longer the Gong Kaichen in the past. You will gain another understanding of life.” Gong Kaichen said with a smile, “If I can’t get the kind of ‘another understanding of life’ you mentioned, so what?” The old man did not speak. After only staying for a while, he bowed his waist and packed up his old-fashioned artificial leather handbag, smiled wryly and sighed, "Then... that's the only way..." Then he insisted After rejecting the hotel that Gong Kaichen had arranged for him, he left in horror.

But before leaving Beijing that time, he still went to "visit" Tiananmen Square.Unexpectedly, as the old man said, although he was already familiar with Tiananmen Square, it was the first time that he approached it as the top leader of a large province with 70 million people, and set foot on every inch of it again. When the tiles on the floor had been burnt and the plaza was condensing most of the meaning of Chinese history, he suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of exaltation, an urge to ask the world... and gave birth to A dignified and heavy that has never been seen before.Suddenly, he suddenly realized that what the old man did that night was nothing more than pointing out two words to him, and that was the word "responsibility". The "responsibility" of the "public ministers and generals" So, in panic, he dropped his eyes from the towering and tall buildings around the square, and landed on the group of gray people wriggling in the middle of the square. on the pile.He knew that there must be "common people" from province K here.They come here to fuse, to find.As their "top leader", what will he bring to them? He felt his heart constricting...

Maybe it started from that time, every time before leaving Beijing, Gong Kaichen always let the car make a turn around Tiananmen Square...slowly turn around...in different moods, in different situations, he You can always get some kind of spiritual comfort from this "turning around"... The car drove slowly around the huge Tiananmen Square.It was dark inside the car.Gong Kaichen, who looked heavy and increasingly tired, sat deeply in the large back seat, staring at everything on the square through the dark window glass. At this time, the Mercedes-Benz that Zhang Dakang was riding in also drove into the residential area where Ma Yang lived.This is an old red brick residential building.Due to his wife Huang Qun's work, she has been working as her chief doctor in the Dashanzi Workers' Hospital. After Ma Yang was transferred to the deputy director of the Provincial Economic and Trade Commission, he never moved.But when Zhang Dakang came to knock on the door of his house today, he was busy with moving matters.Not to move to the provincial capital, but to move out of K province, move across the Yangtze River, "five ridges meandering with a fine wave", and perform a "victorious escape" in the new era.In other words, he finally felt that he had to be transferred from Province K.

The implementation of this "transfer" is of course directly related to the 60,000 to 70,000-word "material" he wrote to the Development Research Center of the State Council.Before writing, he was very clear-headed, every word of the material would eventually offend someone—Gong Kaichen.However, in Province K, he offended Gong Kaichen. Of course, Ma Yang knew what it meant.Ma Yang has repeatedly considered whether to write this "consequences must be serious" material.For a while, he was hesitant and apprehensive.He approached the two senior researchers at the Development Research Center of the State Council several times, asking them to allow him to "not write such a material", and hoped that they could truly understand and sympathize with his "not writing"... But several times The next time the words came to his mouth, he didn't say them, he bit them into pieces one by one, and swallowed them back into his stomach.He asked himself repeatedly: Is it necessary to complain to these senior researchers of the Development Research Center of the State Council? It seems to be an era where people can still place a ray of hope...it depends on what you want to do

You have to change something, you have to give something Already forty-six or seven years old, he and Zhang Dakang are college classmates.At that time, Zhang Dakang was the propaganda director of the Youth League Committee of the school, a very dazzling "political star" on the campus.He is a general cadre of the student union.Whenever I see him, I always keep my head down, with an old canvas bag full of books slung across my shoulders, going and coming in a hurry, as if I am always walking on the road of borrowing and returning books.When you need him to raise his head, he always smiles at you silently, with a simple, honest, and reticent look.But everyone knows that he is the most powerful "Gao Shen" beside "Minister Zhang", "the dog-headed military adviser who shakes the goose feather fan", and "the knife and pen official who relies on a horse and a thousand words".Before graduation, Zhang Dakang had a very incisive and accurate analysis of himself and Ma Yang.He said that there is the best trio in the world, if one day these three people can really get together, then there is nothing in this world that the three of them cannot do.Of these three people, one is of course Zhang Dakang, the second is Ma Yang, and as for the third, "If you don't know each other, I won't talk about him, and I will hide it for the time being." Unable to tuck in, hide or block, the "vigor" gurgling and bubbling out of the joints and holes in the body is attracting and pushing people around. "...and Ma Yang uses his thoughts and personality to gather and dominate people quietly. If one day, he is willing to show his face and stand in front of the team to carry the flag, then he is a hundred times better than me ..."