Wake up（169）

 

169

 

When Chai Jianmin, He Jiafu and Li Tiandao chatted with Pan Guangfu about the Cultural Revolution, Chai Jianmin said to Pan Guangfu: You were young at that time, and your father Pan Renshu once told me about his experience in the Cultural Revolution.

At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, on July 20, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a notice to establish an editorial committee for Mao Zedong's works, with Liu Shaoqi as the director. At that time, no one would have thought that Liu Shaoqi would become Mao Zedong's number one enemy.

Chai Jianmin said to Pan Guangfu: Your father was a military doctor in the Nanjing Army. The General Political Department of the Central Military Commission approved the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Nanjing Military Region, the Ministry of Culture, the "People's Frontline" newspaper office, and the military academies affiliated to the Nanjing area such as Nanjing Military Academy, Nanjing Infantry School, Nanjing Engineering Academy, Nanjing Artillery School, and Nanjing Military Region Drama Troupe , opera troupe, song and dance troupe, military band, and sports team, that is, the "three troupes and two teams" to comprehensively carry out the "four majors", namely Daming, Dafang, Dazibao, and Dalian.

On November 12, 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" mobilization meeting was held in the open-air cinema of the Military Club of the Nanjing Military Region. Xu Shiyou, the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, personally mobilized and called for the writing of big-character posters to give opinions to the Party Committee of the Military Region. And stipulate how many sheets each person should write every day. And said, "This is a matter of attitude towards Chairman Mao."

The Nanjing Military Region Headquarters, the Political Department, and the Logistics Department have temporarily set up a special office for the departments that do not carry out the "four major" in an organized manner, allowing small-character posters to be written, and criticism and self-criticism to be carried out. Nothing about "sweeping", "criticizing the bourgeois reactionary line", "overthrowing capitalist roaders" and the like. Small-character posters are all about trivialities and small people. Basically, there are two problems in the thinking of the cadres of the military region organs: one is that they do not support the local rebels attacking the provincial and municipal party committee organs and waging power struggles, thinking that it is a wrong act. The second is that they are suspicious and dissatisfied with the "fear of the masses" and "preventing government cadres from exposing and criticizing issues" by the party committees and second-level leaders of the military region.

Chai Jianmin said to Pan Guangfu: Your father is a military doctor in the army. At that time, your father Pan Renshu and the soldiers who visited the doctor were confused about the downfall of Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Peng Zhen, Luo Ruiqing, Lu Dingyi, Yang Shangkun and other central leaders. The family members who worked in the local area at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution brought back the content of big-character posters and "gossip" from the government, which seriously affected the ideological stability of government officials. Some cadres' views on the "Cultural Revolution" are gradually changing.

The headquarters, the political department, the logistics department, and the teams directly under them were told: "Nie Yuanzi and Kuai Dafu are taking advantage of the '12.9' movement to go south to Nanjing, fanning the flames, launching a large-scale mass movement, and seizing power." The government party organization secretly made strict arrangements. Prevent emergencies from happening.

Chai Jianmin recalled: Pan Renshu once told me that he remembered the night of "December 9" when he and other medical staff stayed up late at night, braved the severe cold to take turns to be on duty in the hospital, and some soldiers were on patrol, just in case.

After the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party, there was an upsurge of criticizing the so-called "bourgeois reactionary line" across the country, and the contradiction was directed at Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and others. However, this climax did not last long, and it fell into a deep valley.

In 1967, on January 1, when Lao Mao was 74 years old, "People's Daily" and "Red Flag" magazines published a New Year's Day editorial "Carrying the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Through to the End." The editorial pointed out: 1967 will be the year when class struggle will be launched in an all-round way across the country. It will be a year when the proletariat unites with other revolutionary masses to launch a general attack on a small group of people in power in the party who are taking the capitalist road and the ghosts and monsters in society. On the same day, "Red Flag" magazine published Yao Wenyuan's article "Comment on Zhou Yang, a double-faced counter-revolutionary". A passage from Mao Zedong is quoted in bold in the article: "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a great revolution that touches people's souls. It touches people's fundamental political stance, touches the deepest part of people's world outlook, and touches everyone's path and future. The path we have taken has touched the entire history of the Chinese revolution. This is the greatest revolutionary change that mankind has never experienced, and it will train a whole generation of strong communists."

On January 2, it was decided to send Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan to Shanghai as investigators of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, responsible for reporting to the central government the situation of the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai. On the 4th, Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan arrived in Shanghai. On the same day, Lao Mao called Zhou Enlai and others to a meeting at the swimming pool residence in Zhongnanhai, and asked Zhou Enlai about Jiang Qing's lawsuit against Tao Zhu for "suppressing the masses". After Zhou Enlai reported Tao Zhu's interview with the "Wang Renzhong Rebel Group in Guangzhou" on December 30, 1966, he said that it was not to suppress the masses. Mao Zedong said: Don't bring Wang Renzhong to Beijing, let him check in Wuhan. Wang Renzhong, formerly the second secretary of the Central South Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the first secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, the chairman of the Hubei Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and the political commissar of the Wuhan Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, he was persecuted.

On January 6, Lao Mao read Liu Shaoqi’s letter on January 5 about the Red Guards of the Beijing Institute of Architecture and Technology asking him to conduct a public inspection, and commented: “Prime Minister: Please use your discretion on this matter. I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about it. Please. Do some work for the students." The next morning, Zhou Enlai met with the student representatives of Beijing Institute of Construction Engineering and stopped their action of forcing Liu Shaoqi to come to the institute for inspection.

On the same day, Yang Chengwu, acting chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, conveyed Mao Zedong's instructions to Xu Xiangqian, asking Xu Xiangqian to be the leader of the Cultural Revolution Team of the whole army.

On the same day, under the planning of Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, the Shanghai rebel organization headed by Wang Hongwen and others announced the seizure of the leadership of the party and government in Shanghai, which triggered a nationwide storm of power seizures.

Chai Jianmin recalled: Pan Renshu was transferred to Shanghai Changzheng Hospital during that time, which was a military hospital. I was also purchasing medicines in Shanghai at the time, so I met Pan Renshu in Shanghai. The Cultural Revolution movement in Shanghai took place, I believe it has left an indelible memory.

On January 6, 1967, under the planning of Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, the Shanghai rebels headed by Wang Hongwen organized a "Conference to Down with the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee" to usurp the party and government power in Shanghai. In August, Chairman Mao Zedong issued an instruction, which was highly praised. He said, "This is a class overthrowing another class. This is a great revolution." "When the strength of the Shanghai revolution is strong, the whole country has hope. It must affect the entire East China, and affect all provinces and cities across the country."

On January 8, Lao Mao called Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, Wang Li, Guan Feng, Qi Benyu and others for a meeting. When talking about the Shanghai Wenhui Newspaper and Jiefang Daily's takeover by the rebels, Lao Mao said: It is a good direction for the leftists to seize power. Wen Wei Po rebelled on the 4th, and Jiefang Daily also rebelled on the 5th. The seizure of power by two newspapers is a national issue, and we must support their rebellion. This is one class overthrowing another class, this is a great revolution. The publication of these two newspapers will definitely affect East China and the whole country. When the revolutionary strength of Shanghai rises, there will be hope for the whole country. When talking about the current issue of public opinion and propaganda, Lao Mao said: In order to make a revolution, we must first engage in public opinion. To reprint a large number of articles from the Red Guard newspaper, our newspaper is very dead. There are many things that the Propaganda Department can’t control, the Culture Ministry can’t control, the Education Ministry can’t control, you can’t control them, and we can’t control them either. When talking about issues that should be paid attention to at present, Lao Mao said: We need to use all kinds of people, left, center, and right. Everything is so clean, I never agree. If we want to talk about grasping the revolution and promoting production, we can't break away from the post to make the revolution! At this meeting, it was decided that all ministries of the central government should be transformed into groups, starting from the Central Propaganda Department, and then transformed into propaganda groups. The propaganda group is headed by Wang Li.

Chai Jianmin began to tell about Pan Renshu's experience in the Cultural Revolution.