Chapter 19 The Ins and Outs of the "Four-Five Movement"

In February, March, and April of 1976, I was treated in the division hospital due to tuberculosis. I did not know much about the "April Five Movement" that took place in Tiananmen Square. "There is a context before and after.I have connected these unforgettable fragments of memories together, and let it be a memory of that mass movement. "It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival, and passers-by on the road want to die."This is the scene of people mourning for their dead relatives during the Qingming Festival described by Du Mu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty.For thousands of years, she has been popular among the people. Whenever this poem is recited, people's yearning for the deceased relatives will arise spontaneously, adding a sense of being there.

Tomb-sweeping Day, this traditional festival was passed down to 1976 AD, Chinese people, especially Beijingers, experienced a qualitative sublimation of ancestor worship activities on Tomb-sweeping Day.People don't miss their own dead relatives in pain, but collectively and spontaneously miss the relatives of hundreds of millions of people-the beloved Premier Zhou who just passed away less than three months ago. As soon as April enters, according to the lunar calendar, it should be the time of March in Yangchun.But the whole of Beijing is still immersed in a solemn and cold.With reverence, people came to the monument with all kinds of wreaths, silently presenting the most holy wreaths to their Prime Minister to express their condolences.Among the endless stream of people are students, workers, the People's Liberation Army, and people from all walks of life in culture, health, sports, and education.With deep nostalgia for Premier Zhou, people slowly came to the monument to carry out various mourning activities.Especially when people look up to the inscription written by Premier Zhou, "The people's heroes who died in the People's War of Liberation and the People's Revolution in the past three years will be immortal..." The chic and elegant monument inscription reminds them of his dedicated life, and tears burst out of their eyes. , people burst into tears.Crying moved ghosts and gods, and grief tore through the sky. In everyone's heart, there was an indelible monument to the beloved Premier Zhou.

On April 2, the "Gang of Four" issued an emergency telephone notice in the name of the central government, saying that Ching Ming Festival is a ghost festival, sending wreaths is "four olds", and that there are bad people making trouble in Tiananmen Square, and it is strictly forbidden to go to Tiananmen Square to destroy the remembrance activities.However, many units and individuals in Beijing violated this prohibition and still carried wreaths to Tiananmen Square. On April 4th, Ching Ming Festival, and Sunday again, the commemoration of Premier Zhou reached its climax.People carrying wreaths rushed towards Tiananmen Square like a tide.The wreaths in Tiananmen Square are too numerous to count.The periphery of the monument is almost covered by wreaths, and several layers, even more than ten layers, are built inside the white marble railings.All the reliefs were submerged in wreaths, and the whole Tiananmen Square became a world of wreaths. The two pine walls on the south side of the monument were also covered with small white flowers. Covered with wreaths.Tens of thousands of people turned to chant loudly or transcribe the poem on the wreath mourning Premier Zhou's satire of the "Gang of Four."On this day alone, more than 2 million people went to Tiananmen Square to hold mourning activities.The number of people and the scale are unprecedented in previous mourning activities for the Ching Ming Festival.It was a harbinger of a political dynamic.It is reported that a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee was held in the Great Hall of the People that night.Under the control of the "Gang of Four", the meeting decided to take two measures to prevent the so-called bad guys from instigating more troubles: one was to instruct Wu De, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, to be responsible for pulling away all the wreaths from Tiananmen Square that night; The police, public security and garrison troops set up three lines of defense, and it is strictly forbidden to send wreaths in front of the monument.That night, the "Gang of Four" mobilized and demanded staff at all levels on the grounds that the Ching Ming Festival had passed, and if the wreaths in the square caught fire, the consequences would be disastrous, and more than 100 trucks were used to pull all the wreaths away.In the name of the central government, an urgent notice was issued to all units again that activities to mourn the Prime Minister can be held by all units, but Tiananmen Square is not allowed.

In the early morning of April 5, many people came to the square and saw that their wreaths were gone, so they asked our sentries under the monument and the national flag where they got the wreaths.When they learned from the sentries that the central government had decided to pull away all the wreaths last night, it was like adding fuel to the fire. A flame of opposition to the "Gang of Four" rose in people's hearts. Everyone rushed to tell each other, and soon gathered in the square. The dark crowd.Someone said angrily: Why don't we let us mourn the Prime Minister?There must be ghosts in here!The sentinel understood everyone's mood, so he could only keep silent according to the request of his superiors.

In order to prevent accidents, the "Gang of Four" began to urgently mobilize the police, the capital workers' militia, and the garrison in the name of the central government in the early morning of the 5th.A total of 10,000 workers' militia, 3,000 policemen, and five battalions of garrison troops were said to have been mobilized.These people gathered in the Great Hall of the People, the Museum of Revolutionary History, Zhongshan Park, and the Working People's Cultural Palace, basically forming a situation surrounding Tiananmen Square.It may be that there are too many military and police officers to arouse the rebellious psychology of the masses. Except for the above-mentioned troops standing still, there are not many military and police personnel in the obvious places of Tiananmen Square.There were only two places to increase the number of troops: First, part of our battalion was added to the east of the Great Hall of the People, and then the honor guard battalion of our division was transferred to replace them. The main task was to prevent people from storming the Great Hall.The second is that the above-mentioned part of the officers and soldiers of our battalion who were replaced by the guard of honor battalion were added in front of the monument. The main task is to ensure the order in front of the monument.At the same time, the "Gang of Four" set up a central observation office upstairs in the Great Hall of the People.Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, and Zhang Chunqiao observed the development of the situation with binoculars at the observation station.The Ministry of Public Security, the Beijing Garrison District, and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau also established a joint headquarters on the Xiaohong Building where our battalion headquarters is located.Xiaohonglou is located in the southeast corner of the square, with the south facing north, and the whole Tiananmen Square can be seen in a panoramic view.

Around 8 o'clock, people began to break through the defense line again to send wreaths to the monument.The first ones to send wreaths to the monument were teachers and students from Niujie Primary School in Xuanwu District.They were very angry when they were blocked by soldiers holding hands in front of the monument.The soldiers whispered: Our hearts are connected in memory of the Prime Minister.Under the constant impact of the crowd, the soldiers silently made way for them.Successive wreaths were laid on the monument again.Among them are aluminum wreaths, which are said to prevent further burning.Under the national flag in front of Tiananmen Square, a group of people carried wreaths and asked the sentries to lower the flag to half-mast for Premier Zhou and hang the wreaths on the flagpole.This terrified our Sentinels, who immediately reported the matter to their superiors.Afterwards, more than a dozen soldiers rushed to them. While dissuading them, they explained to everyone: Our hearts and feelings are the same in mourning Premier Zhou, but the national flag is the symbol of the People's Republic of China. It will have an immeasurable impact internationally.These people listened to what the soldiers said and felt that their actions were inappropriate, so they carried wreaths and walked towards the monument.

Nearly nine o'clock, there were more than 100,000 people wriggling in the square.Most people were listening to young people's passionate speeches mourning Premier Zhou and alluding to opposition to the "Gang of Four."At this time, a Huasha publicity vehicle from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau drove to the east gate of the Great Hall to publicize.Angry crowds quickly surrounded the Warsaw car. A young man went up and squashed the horn on the car. Then, many people joined hands and overturned it.Several eighteen or nineteen-year-old young people with short hair shouted to people through the microphone: We are going to the Great Hall to find wreaths.The crowd began to surge towards the Great Hall with the shouts.The first line of defense outside the east gate of the Great Hall is the guard of honor battalion.Although these handsome men representing the souls of the army, navy and air force were lined up in a mighty and neat human wall arm in arm as if they were welcoming foreign heads of state at the airport, they couldn't withstand the tide of people and were rushed aside.Then, the second and third lines of defense were breached. When they attacked the second and third lines of defense, the angry crowd clashed with the police and militia, and some people were slightly injured.Thousands of people crowded the steps of the Great Hall of the People and the small square outside the East Gate.The Great Hall of the People at that time was extremely mysterious, and no one could enter without permission.People lingered on the steps of the Great Hall listening to some passionate speeches.

At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, someone discovered the "New World" and grasped the secret that Xiaohonglou was the joint headquarters.A young man stood on the steps of the great hall and shouted to the crowd with a small trumpet in his hand: The small red building in the southeast corner of the square is the joint headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security, the Garrison District, and the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Let's ask them for a wreath!Amid the shouts of "good", a wave of people rolled eastward from the great hall, and a deputy commander of the garrison in the command headquarters learned that the masses were coming to encircle the small red building, so he hurriedly dispatched troops to protect the small red building. Nearly 50 officers and soldiers from my company immediately formed a human wall in front of the main entrance of Xiaohonglou, arm in arm.After the crowd came, several young people in the lead said: The People's Liberation Army and the masses have a heart-to-heart connection, and the military and civilian families, let us go in and get our wreaths (referring to the wreaths that were taken away).The soldiers said: There are barracks inside, no wreaths.After the peace talks failed, the angry crowd began to push the soldiers guarding the gate and tore off their coats and hats.But the soldiers understood everyone's feelings and endured silently.After a stalemate like this for nearly half an hour, they felt that the soldiers were under the command of the officers, and obeying orders was their bounden duty. Besides, they were connected with each other in mourning the Prime Minister and opposing the "Gang of Four", so they no longer made things difficult for the soldiers.At this time, a company from another regiment of our division was ordered to come for reinforcements. Their main task was to guard the west gate of the Little Red Building (this gate is a side gate, usually closed, and mainly used for the entry and exit of tricycles. Before the reinforcements arrived, It may be that people in the square did not realize that this door can enter the small red building).People in the square saw that the main entrance had not yet been taken, and reinforcements came to protect the side entrance. The crowd lost control of their emotions and threw bricks and tiles at the reinforcements. Most of the unarmed soldiers were slightly injured, but they still stood firm.At this critical moment, more than a hundred policemen lined up neatly and walked around the post office building from west to east to relieve the siege of the Little Red Building.But when they walked more than 100 meters away from the small red building, the unstoppable flow of people divided the police team into sections, and the ends could not be connected.Some threw the police caps into the air, and some threw steamed buns delivered by tricycles from unknown units on the police's heads.These policemen returned the same way under the impact of the crowd.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the angry crowd in the square first overturned a Shanghai car parked on the sidewalk in front of Xiaohonglou, then opened the rear cover of the car, found some cotton yarn and flammable materials for car cleaning, dipped them The car was ignited with the gasoline in the fuel tank, and then the two small cars on the east side of the monument were ignited in the same way.The fire was fierce and black smoke billowed.At this time, a red command car of the fire brigade made a quick circle on the east side of the square and left, probably to check the situation of the burned car.After a while, two fire engines rushed to put out the fire.When the firefighters in the first car had just used the sprinkler to put out the fire on the first burned car, some people rushed forward and snatched the water faucet from the firefighters.Others stood on the fire truck, pushed the firefighters to the ground, and then set the car on fire.When another car arrived in front of the portraits of Ma and Enwei, seeing this, it turned around and ran back.When Tiananmen Square was in chaos, a bald Japanese reporter took random photos with a camera, trying to snatch exclusive news, but was discovered by the crowd, and the angry people severely reprimanded the Japanese for their schadenfreude, and then took his camera away , remove the film inside.Then, the Japanese desperately ran into the history museum. Wang Ze, the squad leader of our company, who was on duty at the west gate of the museum, told him to run away from the east gate.When people in the square heard that the Japanese had been rescued into the museum, they flocked to the museum and rushed into the museum. Seeing that the Japanese had left, they all returned to the square.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, people began to attack Xiaohonglou with fire.The main thing is to throw burning objects dipped in gasoline into the windows on the second floor.The small building has three floors. The family members of the Chinese Revolutionary History Museum live on the first floor, and our company and battalion headquarters are on the second and third floors.The third floor is too high and it is difficult to invest, so I mainly invest on the second floor.Because the floor, doors and windows of the small building are made of wood, the lumps of burning material thrown into the windows will burn upstairs in a short while, and every window is spitting out flames and black smoke.At this time, the troops could no longer stand firm at the gate, and the battalion and company commanders received orders from the headquarters to let the soldiers retreat to the back of the building.But at this time, on the third floor, a deputy commander of the garrison and the head of our regiment and other relevant personnel did not come down. It was impossible to go down the stairs, because the fire on the first and second floors had blocked the entire corridor.At this very critical moment, they found a few backpack ropes, connected them together, fixed them in one place, and put them down along the window.Because the backpack rope was too short, it could only reach the second floor. The young soldier grabbed the rope and jumped to the ground.The deputy commander and the head of the regiment fell heavily to the ground.

Just as the soldiers retreated, some people rushed upstairs, opened all the doors that could be opened, picked the locks of the drawers and cabinets, and threw all the quilts, mattresses and books downstairs On the bicycles stored by the workers' militia, the people below set these things and hundreds of bicycles on fire. The raging fire overheated the bicycle belts, some exploded, and some were thrown into the air by the air in the tires.A sea of ​​flames mixed with an unpleasant burnt smell filled the southeast corner of the square.After the people upstairs threw their things away, they lit some inflammables upstairs, and then left the small building.One of the young women who came down first was holding a pistol and walked near the toilet on the west side of the small building. She was stopped by our army in plainclothes and asked for the pistol. In order to save the weapons and ammunition upstairs and avoid greater losses, the commander of our battalion took the plainclothes soldiers he dispatched and climbed over the east side of the small building into the courtyard.At first, they tried to go up the stairs, but they were choked by the fierce fireworks and couldn't get in.There was no climbing object at the scene, and the only thing found was a water pipe outside the wall.In such a hurry, Fu Jiyu, the squad leader of the 7th company of our battalion, stood up first and said: Let me get on the water pipe.Can a water pipe thicker than your thumb support a person?If the water pipe breaks after climbing halfway up the floor, it will be broken.Just as everyone was sweating, Fu Jiyu had already climbed up.Then a platoon leader also climbed up. When he climbed to the second floor, the water pipe broke. Fortunately, he was mentally prepared, and at the moment of falling, he quickly caught a water pipe he had just found with one arm. sand bar.Although the arm was scratched, it was not injured.After Fu Jiyu and others went upstairs, they quickly opened the armory with fireworks, and unloaded all the bullets, weapons and other items to avoid a bigger accident. At 6:00 p.m., Wu De, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, mobilized everyone in Tiananmen Square to leave Tiananmen Square immediately through loudspeakers.After hearing the broadcast, most people left Tiananmen Square quickly.Martial law begins at 9:30 p.m.Those on the outside are not allowed to enter, and those on the inside are not allowed to go out.All the lights in Tiananmen Square were turned on, and searchlights were also shot around the monument at the same time.At 11:00 p.m., the police and militiamen on standby in the Great Hall, Museum, Zhongshan Park, and Labor Culture Palace marched towards the monument in 8 columns with sticks in hand, and escorted more than 200 people who were still in the square to the cars that came immediately. pulled away.Then, the cleaners immediately cleaned up the debris on the square.Finally, sprinklers washed the entire Tiananmen Square and restored its original appearance. The "April 5th Movement", known as the "Tiananmen Incident" at that time, was an unprecedented major political movement in which the general public mourned Premier Zhou and opposed the "Gang of Four". The extreme behavior objectively created a pretext for the suppression of the "Gang of Four", but "no one died, this is the greatest blessing among misfortunes."