1. Go to Qiting

The battle to defend Wuhan was indeed fierce at times, but it was a foregone conclusion that the enemy was determined to win and the authorities were determined to preserve their strength, and sooner or later they would inevitably withdraw. Especially after the fall of the Tianjiazhen fortress on September 29, the gateway to the Yangtze River was almost opened, and the Great Wuhan Committee was really shaken. ** Institutions, private industry and commerce, after a partial retreat, are beginning to retreat again.

Take, for example, the Department of Political Affairs. At the beginning of October, the secretariat, all of the first and second offices, and a larger part of the general affairs hall were evacuated to Hengshan. The General Affairs Department left only a few people who handled transportation and necessary affairs, and Vice Minister Zhou Enlai and Secretary-General He Jinhan left only their own entourage secretaries. The people of our third hall were led by Fan Yang and Fan Shoukang, and retreated to Changsha. In this way, the three towns of Wuhan have almost become an empty city.

Although the evacuation of the Political Department was biased towards the south, we did not completely neglect the northern battlefield. There is a shameful memory here.

The Fifth Theater of the Northern Battlefield was scattered there by a number of cultural people, and the Fourth and Sixth Brigades of our Anti-Enemy Drama Brigade were dispatched there. In addition, there are two teams of drama teams exiled from Shanghai, one team is led by Jin Shan and Wang Ying, and the other team is led by Wan Laitian. There is also a cultural work group led by Zang Kejia. With the spread of these organizations, some of the progressive elements in the commander's headquarters planned to set up a cultural work committee under the headquarters, and they were interested in asking Hu Yuzhi to lead it.

Of course, this news is very pleasant for us: we can take this opportunity to place some cultural workers in the Northern Battlefield.

Therefore, on October 8, Yu Zhi invited many friends to visit Li Zongren in Qiting. At that time, the headquarters of the Fifth Theater had already moved to Qiting.

At 5 p.m., both cars set off at the same time. One of ours sits with Yu Zhi, Naichao, Liqun and me, and the other sits with Hu Cheng, Qian Junrui, Shen Zijiu, and Chen Beiou. The friends of this other part are mainly members of the future cultural work committee. Nai Chao and Liqun and I were accompanied by sightseeing and cheered at the same time. Nai Chao was very careful, and he also checked a set of Japanese lead characters from our three halls and took them out to make gifts, which needless to say was a tool for propaganda against the enemy.

Shortly after the car departed, one of ours broke down. Finished, ran again, but broke down again.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the moon was full. We stood on the side of the road looking at the moon, waiting for the car to be repaired, but the car was not always repaired well, and the driver was desperate. According to him: there is no way at all.

On the way, we stopped a number of passing cars, but none of them would pick us up. The other car had already run ahead early. Nachao and Yuzhi decided to try their luck and look for a repair station nearby to find the car. I thought to myself: Isn't this the same as Haidilao Moon? I couldn't get it right, so I had to walk back. However, strangely, after more than an hour, Nai Chao and they came in a construction truck. The bottom of the sea blatantly fished to the moon!

Nai Chao told me: We went to the east and west, touched several nails, and found this comrade (he pointed to the person driving the construction truck) and found his temporary repair station. This comrade said that he knew Yue Zhi and was very enthusiastic about helping, so he drove the construction truck himself. The construction truck has a crane, and a few of us sat around the crane, let our little car be pulled, and then continue to move forward.

It was a very pleasant thing, and in the midst of despair there was hope.

2. Sit on a cold bench

The engineering truck pulled us to the commander's command post, and the very attentive young man dragged our small car to repair it. He also told us that he was going to inform the people in the guest house and help find out the whereabouts of our other car. Such a diligent and responsible person is rare, but unfortunately I have forgotten his name, and Nai Chao and Liqun have also forgotten it.

In front of the command post, we gave the names of the people standing guard and explained their intentions, and asked to see the commander. The man standing guard told us to sit on a stool outside the door, and he went inside to inform us. We sat and waited for more than an hour, but there was no news inside. We asked the guard to inform him again, and he told us that the adjutant's office said that the commander was asleep and should not disturb him, and that he could not be introduced until early in the morning.

I was afraid that I had to sit on a cold bench until dawn.

It was Nachao who volunteered again, and he was going to find a guest house to solve our accommodation problem.

Nachao went, and another hour later, a truck came. It is said that the guest house came to pick us up. We thought it was Nachao who had come to contact us, and we were taken to a farmer's yard to sleep in the middle of the night. But when he saw Nai Chao early the next morning, he realized that he didn't go to contact last night's car, and the person who contacted him was undoubtedly the young man from the repair station. Nai Chao told us that he was too presumptuous at night, and went indiscriminately, and broke into several sentinels. I asked for the password, but I couldn't answer it. Several times the bayonet stabbed himself in the chest. But fortunately, he was from Guangdong, and when he spoke Cantonese, those Guangxi soldiers did not make things difficult for him. It took him a lot of twists and turns to find Qian Junrui and Chen Beiou. When the car came to pick us up again, we knew we had been picked up.

After all these twists and turns, the more I thanked the young man from the repair station. But I really shouldn't, I completely forgot his name.

When we came to the Fifth War Zone, we had to say again that Li Zongren, who was the commander, wanted to set up a cultural work committee, and he planned to hire Hu Yuzhi as the chairman. This good news, which made us so excited to catch up with the front line at night, made us feel a little ashamed when the morning dawned and let us find out what was going on. It turned out that the commander didn't mean this, but one or two of his subordinates were doing this. There were even one or two short buyers and short sellers who mobilized us and asked us to go to the front line to learn from Mao Sui and recommend ourselves. It's a joke! But who can we blame?

The commander met us at noon the next day and had lunch with us. We didn't learn from the self-recommendation, and the other party didn't mention the matter of the Cultural Committee, no, but there was a little strange between the look and the tone, and I didn't understand why we were suddenly in the front again.

We're really daydreaming! But who is to blame? There are naturally people who buy and sell short, but who tells you to believe? Who told you to easily fantasize about a fascist Li Zongren?

Especially myself, I really feel ashamed when I think about it today. I was too prescient and too unprecedented.

How can you say that it is too prescient? The organizations of various cultural people scattered in the Five War Zones were forced to disband or transfer soon after, and people like Zang Kejia and Yao Xueyin could no longer stay. Can such a fascist second-class leader be expected to value culture?

How can you say that you are too bad to be a teacher? During the Northern Expedition, when the revolution was first betrayed, I persuaded this second-class leader in Anqing to denounce the betrayal of the revolutionary Chiang Kai-shek, but he pretended to be drunk and passed sloppily. When it came time to purge the party, he was clearer than anyone else. How can I be so forgetful about these past events?

Man is really an animal prone to fantasy, and fantasy prefers this second-class leader, and it seems that loyalty is his only merit, right? I hope that people who are still having fantasies today will feel ashamed of themselves as soon as I do.

3. Two treasures

I'd like to add one thing here. We were engaged in propaganda against the enemy, printed countless Japanese propaganda materials, and when Wuhan was about to be withdrawn, we also personally sent a set of Japanese lead characters to the Fifth War Zone as a gift, so where did these Japanese lead characters come from?

As you all know, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the party masters made a lot of money and robbed money, but in fact, some people had already distributed it at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War. Hankou had a Japanese concession, and when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the Japanese withdrew, and the remaining porch property was naturally looted.

But the robbers had high hands and low eyes, and they had many very precious things, but they did not ask for them. Because of this, although we arrived in Wuhan very late, the printing press and Japanese lead letters of the Japanese "Hankow Mainichi Shimbun" remained untouched. The archives and books of the Japanese Consulate are also untouched. I got the news before the third hall opened, so I suggested to Chen Cheng that the General Affairs Department should take these things and keep them; After the gong was opened, the third hall was handed over to us. In this way, a complete set of printing presses and Japanese lead characters became our weapons of propaganda against the enemy.

Even more worthy of boasting, seriously, are those Japanese typesetting workers. They saved the machine in the hard days, saved the lead letters, and also took part in the work against the enemy. A few of them retreated with us, passing through Changsha and Hengshan to Guilin, and worked in Guilin for a period of time before breaking up. Isn't this enthusiasm something to sing and cry about?

Before the General Affairs Office went to receive it, the workers ate their own food. After the General Affairs Office went to receive it, it was also very inconsiderate. In order to make a difficult living, a foreman was bribed by the International Propaganda Office to steal and sell the copper mold with lead characters. Later, this hindered our work: when our lead characters were reduced and used up, we repeatedly borrowed copper molds from the National Propaganda Department, but we could not borrow them. It is difficult to describe the morality and politics of the party masters.

By the way, let me mention the file that I received from the Japanese Consulate. That's valuable information in other senses. There are many types of information and a wide range of areas, and many of them are messages sent by Japanese intelligence officers from various places. For example, the current mayor of Qingdao City (I can't think of his name now, but I have no intention of deliberately concealing it for him) was born in the Imperial University of Japan and served on the Japanese-run Nanxun Railway, so he constantly sent a lot of information on political and military matters. I once copied this information and sent it to Chen Cheng, asking him to remind the authorities that such people should be taken seriously.

Now that I think about it, I was so naïve. What's so strange about that? At that time, Wang Jingwei was the vice president of the Kuomintang, Zhou Fohai was in the Propaganda Department, and Chen Gongbo, Zeng Zhongming and all the other low-key club members were still alive. Aren't those all Japan's high-ranking intelligence officers? Even if there is no such person around the "highest"? During the Anti-Japanese War, his every move was well known to the enemy. Isn't that the obvious proof? In fact, this is the so-called "curve salvation". I was really ignorant at the time, but I gradually understood a little bit later. The mayor who I wanted the authorities to pay attention to was indeed a favored favor, and then he gradually became prosperous. From an unknown railway administrator, he became the deputy director of the Sino-US cooperative production bureau, the vice minister of the Ministry of Communications, the mayor of Dalian (who failed to take office), and the mayor of Qingdao. I don't know when this intelligence agent had a disinsert relationship with the United States, maybe he should thank me for providing his information? It is precisely this kind of person that the reactionaries need, who can send intelligence to the Japanese, and it is precisely to prove that he can "save the country by curve" and that he has foreign aid. Aren't these the two big political capitals of being a big official?

Indeed, I have been thinking this way lately: Wang Gongjingwei unfortunately died too early. If he were still alive today, the Americans would have made him a comeback, wouldn't the value of his commodities be as good as that of Rojas, Syngman Rhee, and the likes of "country girl" Li Zongren? Please think about it, the singing of "peace" was originally considered to be the beginning of this public!

4. Literary and artistic activities

During the Wuhan period, the literary and artistic circles were harmonious, but they really achieved "humility like a valley, and the four aggregates are empty".

The All-China Association of Literary and Art Circles to Resist the Enemy was established on 27 March. Regardless of party affiliation, old or new, it unites all those who hold the pen. As the organ magazine of the association, there is "Anti-Japanese War Literature and Art" (monthly), edited by Luo Sun, Pengzi, Shiyi, Yiqun, and Naichao. In addition, there are "Literary Front" (semi-monthly) edited by Mao Dun and "Battlefield" (semi-monthly) edited by Shu Qun, and the literary world is not lonely on the surface. But what about reality?

The excitement of the war was so strong in the early days that everyone was so excited that they couldn't breathe. Reportage was in vogue, novels and multi-act plays were extinct, and poetry was making a superficial noise. But when the situation of the Anti-Japanese War persists and becomes hypocritical, everyone will be a little discouraged again. This period is a time for writers to reflect deeply. In order to resist the war, in order to win, it is necessary to mobilize the people and organize the people. And in mobilizing and organizing the people, literature and art also happen to be sharp weapons. But how do you put this understanding into practice?

At this time, the Literary and Art Association also appropriately put forward the slogans of "articles go to the countryside" and "articles enlist in the army", but unfortunately they could only be limited to slogans. The reactionaries have everything in their hands, and not only cannot the articles go to the countryside, but the literati cannot go to the countryside at all; Not only can't articles join the army, but literati can't join the army at all. -- The teams that had been enlisted in the army were being eliminated and expelled one after another. What to do? brave, continue to go far away to Yan'an; What is left is accompanied by empty slogans. Later, even this empty slogan changed its tone and changed it to "articles go abroad". Is it out? How many are out? No one knows. As a result, there are a small number of individual heroes who simply go to the top and satirize "front-line doctrine" and emphasize that "propaganda is not art". In fact, this is another facelift of the debate between the school of life and the school of art, and the problem has not been solved by the artists themselves.

The legitimate solution is in Yan'an. A few years later, at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Chairman Mao put forward the instructions that "literature and art should be targeted at workers, peasants and soldiers" and "improved on the basis of popularization and popularized under the guidance of improvement", and not only instructions, but also arranged places for literary and artistic workers to implement these instructions - factories, rural areas, and the army. It's like the sun is out of the ground, so that progressive writers no longer wander astray.

At that time in Wuhan, there didn't seem to be many literary and artistic gatherings, and perhaps I was afraid that I attended too few of them, but there was one gathering that I attended and was deeply impressed. That was the second anniversary of Lu Xun's death on October 17.

The meeting was initiated by three units: the Literary Association, the Third Hall, and the Lu Xun Memorial Committee. The venue was upstairs in the YMCA's Western Food Department, and the time was evening, and the cultural people in Hankou had been evacuated considerably, and there was almost no one to eat Western food. About 30 of us sat around a long dining table on the balcony in the desert to commemorate our literary giants. Although the number of people is small, the mood is very pious and tragic.

Everyone elected me as the chairman, and I naturally spoke. I emphasized Lu Xun's people's position. His novels are mainly about the people, and his essays are gun-throwing against the anti-people. The objects are different, and therefore the style is different. The novels are approachable, and the essays are sharpened. We should grasp that spirit and learn separately.

Zhou Gong, Zi Nian, Yu Zhi, and Nai Chao all spoke.

Zhou Gong's words are the most exciting, he mainly emphasizes Lu Xun's fighting spirit. Lu Xun's life was in the revolutionary era, especially after the defeat of the Great Revolution, the arrogance of the reactionaries was extremely nervous, but Lu Xun stuck to the revolutionary position, fought unrelentingly against the evil forces, gave birth to a new society, and fought until the death. Lu Xun is the most stubborn fighter and the most loving mentor. When we commemorate Lu Xun, we should also learn from Lu Xun's fighting spirit. It is not limited to the literary and artistic circles, but should go beyond the literary and artistic circles. Especially at a time when the great enemy is present, we must oppose compromise in the middle of the way, oppose passive coping, oppose the betrayal of the fifth column, and oppose the excesses of individualism. "The wind knows the strong grass", in today's "wind", everyone should become the same "strong grass" as Lu Xun.

According to Naichao, Zhou Gong's speech was originally sorted out and taken to Chongqing by Li Milin, a young reporter from Xinhua Daily, but unfortunately the ship "Xinshenglong" was bombed and sank into the Yangtze River along with the original manuscript.

5. Wait for the explosion

At the end of August, we moved from Luojia Mountain to Janssen Garden in Hankou, where we worked as a film studio. At the end of September, all the studios were evacuated to Chongqing, and we moved from Janssen Garden to No. 1 Poyang Street. It's on the second floor next to a church, and it has three rooms with bathrooms and telephones, and it's quite comfortable.

It is said that this floor was originally the residence of a priest, but when the war broke out, the priest left. At first, Chen Mingshu lived, and then Lu Di and Nai Chao lived together. During the second evacuation, Mr. and Mrs. Lu Di were sent to Changsha first, and Nai Chao gave it to us. We were living here, but it was only three weeks, and the DPA had to do a third evacuation.

This time it was thorough, and there were less than twenty people left in the entire Political Department. Vice Minister Zhou Enlai and Secretary-General He Jinhan had to stay. The third hall left me and Hu Yuzhi, and the rest were probably people from the General Affairs Department.

The evacuation period is October 21. The third hall was assigned to a small steamer, which sailed to Changsha by water. I asked Liqun to take this boat and go to Changsha first. At that time, it was quite dangerous to take both water and land routes, and the enemy knew that Wuhan was going to be withdrawn, and they continued to bomb trains and ships every day. Ships heading to Changsha and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River have suffered several times. Such a parting, neither the traveler nor the resident dare to be sure: when will they be able to see each other again.

Early in the morning, I sent Liqun from Poyang Street to the wharf, and most of the comrades and public property in the third hall also boarded the boat. A small steamer, the upper and lower floors are crowded with people and luggage. There were several projection teams and drama teams that had to go the same way, and it was really crowded. At this time, Sun Shiyi was replacing Yang Hansheng's position as the chief secretary (Hansheng went to ** to purchase medicines), and after his business planning, he also settled down in an orderly manner, and everyone seemed to be very happy. Salvation songs are constantly sung.

But I don't want to hide it myself, I feel a faint sense of melancholy. I am going to break up with many comrades who live with him day and night, and I am also breaking up with Liqun, just like transplanting a tree, and at the same time picking a branch from the tree and trying to insert it, I really feel that the future from now on is a bit auspicious. Perhaps this is also the sentiment of the petty bourgeoisie? But I don't shy away from saying it, I said goodbye to all my friends and Liqun with a smile, and in my heart I secretly wish them to arrive in Changsha safely.

After seeing me off, I transferred to Mitsui & Co. Suddenly, I felt that the house was very large. On the entire third floor, there are more than a dozen rooms of all sizes, and there is no one in the figure. Some of the desks and chairs that had been left behind were lying around nonchalantly. Some messy paper ends are piling up all over the place. Why is it so rushed that even the paper is not cremated? This should be forgiven.

Since mid-October, Mitsui has become a depot waiting to explode. According to the rules of the time: when retreating, the main enemy property of Hankow should be blown up. Mitsui Yoko is one of them, and the people of the engineer regiment have long penetrated the floors, buried the **, and installed the lead, only waiting for the ignition if necessary. In such a ** library waiting for the explosion, even smoking is usually prohibited, who would dare to raise a fire easily?

After a while, Yu Zhiye Lonely Shadow came quietly, and the two of them looked at each other and smiled, not against their hearts, but they fully felt excited in their calmness.

Yes, we can't help but be excited, and we have to do some of the work we have to do: write articles for the newspapers, put up slogans against the enemy in Hankow, deal with international journalists, and sometimes take care of the city's security......

Although there are only two people, the third hall has not yet completely evacuated Wuhan.

Sixth, General Fei descended from the sky

Most of the friends of the Eighth Route Army Office and Xinhua Daily also boarded the ship on the same day, preparing to retreat to Chongqing. So, in the afternoon of the same day, Zhou Gong moved to Poyang Street to live with me. We're here to welcome a rare guest from the sky. He originally said that he would come on the 21st, but because of the weather, he did not take off, so his friends in the dangerous city had many regrets and couldn't wait to leave. The friend left, but the long-awaited guest finally flew to Wuhan in the afternoon of the next day.

Who's that?

That was General Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the 18th Army.

Can it not be a surprise? When Wuhan was about to fall, it flew from the front line in North China! We are goodbye after eleven years of absence. After the August 1 Revolution in 1927, Zhou Gong and I entered Shantou first, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu guarded the Sanhe Dam, and we broke up from then on. I didn't think that eleven years later, after a lot of changes in the valley, we would be able to see each other again in this dangerous city on the verge of falling.

After Commander-in-Chief Zhu arrived, he was guided by Duke Zhou and met with the "supreme". I didn't ask what they talked about.

In the evening, Kang Ze entertained, and asked Zhou Gong and me to accompany him. The arrival of such a conspicuous guest, even though it was at the time of the "sunset in the lonely city", it was Kang Ze's turn to be the host, and it could also be seen that the hospitality was not enthusiastic. This is a matter of course, and to ask the reactionaries for enthusiasm is not the same as asking for a little blood from the tortoise?

Commander-in-Chief Zhu came and went in a hurry. He stayed with us overnight at No. 1 Poyang Street, and on the morning of the 23rd he flew back to the front.

Before he left, we talked in the study all morning. He asked me to write him something as a souvenir, and I wrote a few lines of vernacular poetry, the contents of which I had forgotten. When I asked him to write something to me, he wrote a vernacular poem as well. The title of the poem is "Reunion".

After ten years,

The Great Revolution failed, the Dongjiang River shook goodbye,

The Anti-Japanese War was in full swing, and it was seen again in Hangao.

You have returned from the enemy country, and the enemy situation has contributed in detail.

I have returned from behind enemy lines, and there is no end to victory.

The enemy has penetrated deep into my hinterland,

I also have to support the war of resistance in North China,

and must recover the Central Plains;

You go and support Nantian.

Reunion and farewell, see you again-

Must be on the Yalu River.