1. Get out of silos

After Shanghai became an isolated island, the "Salvation Daily", which played a great role in the propaganda work in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, was first forced to suspend publication. The newspapers changed their tune, and all kinds of life-saving publications and activities were discontinued. The small bookstalls in the streets and alleys where the sale of books and newspapers of the Anti-Japanese War was once flourishing have also completely changed their appearance. Shanghai is paralyzed.

Cultural workers are completely useless in staying in such a place, and everyone is thinking and planning how to get out of this island. Some went north to Yan'an, the holy land of the revolution, while others moved to the rear to continue their work. Some of the latter took collective action, such as friends in the theater world, who organized ten rescue drama teams and set off to the rear; Individual actions have also been taken. I am one of those latter people.

I left Shanghai on November 27, a date that I remember very well: because it coincides with the date when I fled from Japan to Shanghai, which was July 27 after the Lugou Bridge Incident. I lived in Shanghai for four months.

I was accompanied by a Cantonese who had been to Nanyang and had worked in the General Political Department during the Northern Expedition, but I can't remember his name now. At that time, I had such a plan, I wanted to go to Nanyang and raise some money from overseas Chinese to run newspapers or engage in other cultural work, so I chose such a fellow traveler.

It was early in the morning and I left Shanghai on a French mail ship. The boat docked at the Gonghexiang Pier and could not be reached directly, so all the passengers were sent in batches by the Huangpu beach with small rows.

The place where the mail ship docked was adjacent to the famous "Izumo", the capital ship of the Japanese invaders at the time. When the small rowers carrying a group of us arrived at the mail ship, an enemy plane on the water flew near the Izumo, flew over the head of the mail ship, deliberately flew very low, and circled the ship three times. I don't know what this ostentatious prank was for, and everyone on the boat was silent and angry.

On board, the ship's stewards asked the passengers to take shelter in the cabin. It is said that it is safe only after leaving Wusongkou.

In fact, this mail ship was worthy of a few ** dropped by the Japanese devils, but it didn't vote. After leaving Wusongkou, I learned that the ship was full of so-called party and government dignitaries of the Kuomintang, and almost all the so-called Shanghai Wenren, were on this boat. We also have many friends of our own, and Mrs. Liao and Zou Taofen are both unexpectedly on the same boat.

Second, look at the Song Emperor Terrace from afar

After arriving, I stayed at the Rokkoku Hotel. I stayed alone in a room near the sea on the third floor, and my mood was quite lonely.

Nanjing's attitude towards the Anti-Japanese War has been enough for four months of living in Shanghai. Although he was forced to take up arms militarily, politically he only made some gestures from time to time, and he did not have the slightest sincerity to change his style. Especially when it comes to popular mobilization, they will not let up. You have to say that they don't mobilize, the organization of the "Anti-Enemy Support Committee" has been set up everywhere, but it is nothing more than an excuse to collect money, but not to do it, and to occupy the pit and not.

Although I was determined to raise money in Nanyang, I was not sure. Nanyang has never been there, can the fundraising be successful? If it succeeds, what effect will it have if it only relies on the propaganda of writing?

The bleakness of the future inevitably increases my melancholy. If you go to the north, the mood will be completely different. I regret it, why didn't I go to Yan'an with Comrade Zhou Yang?

These emotions became the internal response to the gloomy weather, and they attacked me. I stood on the arcade and looked at the smoky sea, and the smoke clouded the distant mountains on the other side of Kowloon, and unconsciously became two old poems.

Ten years back and forth, two trips here.

The rise and fall of the emotion is on the shoulders. (Part 1)

Looking at Song Huangtai from afar, the smoke and clouds are gloomy.

Thinking of the north in the wind, what is the matter in the south? (Part 2)

Ten years ago, in 1927, I had been there. It was after the setback of the "August 1" Revolution that I came from Shenquan on a sailboat floating to the sea. That time I lived in ** for nearly a month, and I once went to Song Huangtai to visit, and I also had some feelings. It's been a full decade, how much has the situation improved in China? After 10 years of civil war, the revolutionary people were forced to march 25,000 miles by force, and provoked the violent aggression of Japanese imperialism, which swept half of China in a few months like a tsunami. Those who have sinned so much don't know how to repent!

Hasn't Song Huangtai become a symbol of the times again?

My knowledge of antiquities has also told me that the three or two huge boulders piled up on a high ground may be the relics of the Ice Age, and they will contain richer scientific significance; However, the historical tragedy associated with them weighs heavily on me.

History, in its period of long-term stagnation, is like a stream of water that has left the mainstream, only to whirlwind.

The Song Dynasty finished stirring up in the south, and the Ming Dynasty came to the south to stir it up again, isn't it the era of the late Song Dynasty and the end of the Ming Dynasty again?

Breaking through that maneuver and not allowing history to repeat itself is our immediate task today.

3. Dead people on the street

Friends who retreated from Shanghai, who went south by sea, mostly used ** as a relay station, stayed here for a while and then transferred to the mainland. Therefore, in this not very large island city, as soon as you go out on the street, you can meet acquaintances almost everywhere.

On the second day of my arrival, I came back from visiting a friend in Kowloon, and met a group of friends at the intersection of Queen's Road Zhuan Xuechang Street, which was Lin Lin, Yao Qianxiu, Ye Wenjin, who were forced to return from Japan, and two young ladies who had never been to Japan, one was Yu Dafu's niece Yu Feng, and the other was my current lover Yu Liqun

。 They worked in an international refugee camp in the French Concession when they were in Shanghai, and we met often. Especially Liqun, we have also gone to the front line several times to comfort the soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War. On the night of the loss, she also went to the front line with me and other friends, and I broke up halfway and went to Kunshan. They turned back to Shanghai, and when they drove through the field, they encountered a large attack by the enemy, and almost became cannon fodder.

Liqun is the sister of Yu Lichen, a Japanese correspondent for Ta Kung Pao, and they are Yu Shimei's grandniece. Although they are originally from Hexian County, Guangxi, they all grew up in Beiping. Their family tragedy, the process of becoming a broken family from an official eunuch, Li Chen once told me when he was in Japan. Li Chen returned to Shanghai four months before the Lugou Bridge Incident because of poverty and illness, but committed suicide soon after. Her funeral was almost entirely handled by Liqun and some of her young friends. At that time, Liqun was already with Lin Lin and them.

I also returned to Shanghai in July, and after Lin Lin's introduction, I met Liqun and was immediately surprised. is only in his twenties, and people who have been able to stand on their own in the drama and film industry have not been infected by the general fashionable atmosphere at all. Two pigtails, a blue cloth shirt, and a face half-tanned by the sun, almost like a country girl. And she also contributed to the anti-Japanese war work. After "813", she was often seen running outside.

On the eve of leaving, I persuaded her to change her plan and go to Wuhan with other friends by the sea and try to go to northern Shaanxi to study. She heeded my advice and left Shanghai with Lin Lin and the rest of her friends a day before me.

When they left Shanghai, my trip was scheduled, but I didn't tell them for the sake of secrecy. Naturally, I know very well that in a few days, we will definitely be able to meet in **. A few days later, they met, but it was a surprise to them.

"Ah, that's not Mr. Guo?" Liqun saw me first, and she, who had never spoken much, called out first.

"Oh, we're afraid you're going to defend Shanghai!" Yu Feng took it and said it in a somewhat exaggerated tone.

They stayed at the Hailutong Hotel, and as a result of the discussion, they all moved to the Rokkoku Hotel in the afternoon of the same day.

Fourth, tossing and turning

** The rescue work was also quite intense at that time, and there were public welcome meetings and lectures almost every day. I'm going abroad, and I've even got my passport ready, and I'm using the pseudonym "Hakugui". However, some friends advised me: I am not sure about going to Nanyang, so why not lay a foundation in China first, and then it is easier to raise funds?

I adopted this opinion, and I thought that it would be better to simply restore the "Salvation Daily" ahead of schedule. If this is successful, then many of my friends' work problems can be solved. However, in order to restore the "Salvation Daily," it is best to set up a base in Guangzhou, and if possible, make it a spiritual fortress in South China. If it is set in **, it is meaningless, then it is not "salvation" but exile.

In this way, I stayed in ** for a week, and then took a boat to Guangzhou early one morning. Lin Lin, Qianxiu, Wenjin, Yufeng, and Liqun are also on the same road.

In Guangzhou, the year of the Northern Expedition in 1926, I lived for more than three months, and after a full 12-year absence, I revisited the old place. The market has not changed, but I have heard that more residential areas have been developed in the suburbs. I got a friend's introduction, so I went to "Plum Village" to find a person surnamed Li. He was a native of Hubei, working under Zeng Yangfu, and his wife was in Hankou during the Northern Expedition.

It was a two-story house, with some outbuildings and gardens, and it was quite spacious. In addition to Mrs. Li, the other family is Chen Xiaocen, the chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Party Department of the Kuomintang. He and I met for the first time, but his first words to me were: "The resumption of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is the credit of me and Zeng Yangfu." He mentioned this to me many times later. I also asked my friends about the fact that they were said to have first delivered a letter through an indirect relationship.

The host sent me a small building, small and exquisite, which should be able to stretch out and sleep well. But somehow, I couldn't sleep well that night in the quiet of the villa.

Sleepless, an old-fashioned educated man, brewing poetry there again. This time, I did a song of seven rules:

With the Tai Sui week, he re-entered Panyu for 12 years.

It is difficult to achieve the great cause of the Northern Expedition, and Changying is not ashamed to move south.

The rooster cries and the sword dances in the middle of the night, and the dog barks and closes the strings.

Last night, Emperor Song went down, and Emperor Qin swore that there would be no ministers.

Fifth, hit a wall

What's the solution? In order to run the newspaper, it is necessary to open up the relationship between the party, the government, and the military, and also hope that they will contribute some money. This kind of work, according to my personality, is a bit incompatible, but I took the initiative to do it.

Despite how the stone was turned into stone, Guangzhou withstood the storm of the Anti-Japanese War, and there was a slight pulse of life stirring. From time to time, there are air strikes by enemy aircraft. Occasionally, small armored artillery trucks with tigerskin-like paintings were dispatched on the market, and although the anti-aircraft equipment was very rudimentary, it was always in the equipment. Political work is also beginning to resume in the military, and short-term training courses are being held in several places in an effort to train some propagandists. At least propaganda for the sake of the War of Resistance is not forbidden.

Under such circumstances, I have attended many welcome meetings and lectures, and I have also been invited to give lectures at official training classes. Guangzhou Radio also asked me to broadcast, and the lyrics of my broadcast were "The Necessity of Mobilizing the People." This is really a core issue, but this core is not taken seriously at all, just like in Shanghai and Nanjing. It's not that the people won't move, it's that the authorities are afraid of the people and afraid of the people moving. Can this be resisted? Can the War of Resistance Have a Future?

I relied on the introduction of the owner of the residence to meet Zeng Yangfu (the mayor of Guangzhou and the head of the finance department at that time). I put forward to him the idea of reviving the "Salvation Daily", needless to say, I hope that he will receive a little allowance. He said to me: You'd better propose it to Chairman Wu, as long as he agrees, then there will be no problem.

Chairman Wu is Wu Tiecheng. As it happens, a few days later, he invited me to his mansion for dinner. The feast was very rich, and there were many people at the same table. At the table, it was said that if the war of resistance was protracted, all kinds of materials would be scarce in the future, and the source of white newspapers would also be a big problem. Therefore, he said that there are too many newspapers and periodicals in Guangzhou, and they should be banned. In this way, give me a cup of closed door first, so that I don't even have room to speak.

I think this must be the ghost of Zeng Yangfu, they are colluding. It seems that this trip to Guangzhou will only be a picture cake. This is the case in Guangzhou, but what will happen if you go to Nanyang? I didn't have much hope, but here I started to be disappointed in earnest.

However, the unexpected was very unexpected! Where there is no hope, there is hope!

It was a "soldier", and when he saw me running into a wall everywhere, he made a statement to me: Why don't you go and meet Yu Huqi (Yu Hanmou)?

Yu Yuqi, I don't know the same side. The "soldier" volunteered to be a lobbyist for me, and it made sense.

Yu Hanmou invited me to meet him in the military headquarters. Without waiting for me to speak, he said that he was willing to support the "Salvation Daily" and was willing to donate 1,000 yuan a month, which would be paid monthly. From December, it can be used as a start-up fee, making it easier to turn around.

I can understand that he can be so "generous". Because he is not a direct descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, in order to buy and sell short, he can't help but try to do both.

6. "Pat and Drag"

The resumption of the "Salvation Daily" has been settled, and the jobs of my friends have been decided. Lin Lin, Qianxiu, Wen Jin, and Yu Feng all decided to stay in Guangzhou for the time being to help with editing, and at the same time called to Shanghai, asking the editor-in-chief Xia Yan to come quickly. I still want to go to Nanyang myself, just wait for Xia Yan to come, connect all the relationships, and then set off slowly.

It's almost the New Year. It was not very convenient to live in Meicun, and I was invited by the "soldier" to move to the Xinya Restaurant in the city to live with him. At that time, he also introduced me to some friends in the business community and opened up some social connections. Eating snake meat, eating dog meat, visiting Lychee Bay, visiting the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, listening to Cantonese opera, visiting the Xuhu boat, life is really weird. The fall of Nanjing, the westward migration of the "national **", and the transfer of military positions seemed to be a matter of another planet in Guangzhou's view.

Suddenly, on New Year's Day, I received a telegram from Wuhan. The content is very simple: "If you want to serve business, you will be killed, Chen Cheng." "Just a few words. Since the fall of Beijing and Shanghai, the military and political center has moved to Wuhan, where Chen Cheng served as the commander of the garrison, as I know. But what "important things" do he have to discuss with me? It's a stuffy gourd.

As a result of my consideration, I decided to go to Wuhan. This is necessary. It's not too late to go over there and then go to Nanyang. The Eighth Route Army has set up an office in Hankou, and Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, Ye Jianying, and Deng Yingchao have all come out, and they have been absent for many years, and they really want to go to see them.

In this way, Liqun can have company. She was originally going to Wuhan, so she separated from her other friends and moved into New Asia Restaurant. As soon as she moved in, she quietly read and wrote all day long. She writes with a large face of Haedon, and also uses elbows. This surprised me. I used to learn how to write calligraphy, and I also used a lot of work on the pen with the elbow hanging. I asked her when she had learned calligraphy. She told me that it was their family tradition, that my grandfather was a writer and that my mother was also a writer, and that she had learned this since she was a child. This is probably also a kind of family education, right? The seriousness of the face may play a normative role, making a person's life more serious. With such a serious "little sister" writing on the side, I also accompanied her to write a big face for a few days.

Xia Yan arrived on the 5th, and we also welcomed him to stay at the New Asia Restaurant. All the relationships were easily explained, and the "Salvation Daily" was officially republished on New Year's Day, and a site was found on Changshou East Road. My mission to stay in Guangzhou has come to an end, and I can go.

On the evening of the 6th, we took the train from Yuehan Road and set off from Huangsha Station. Liqun and I were on the same road, and there was also a young man surnamed Su, who was also introduced to me by the "soldier", hoping that he could take care of us on the road.

Many friends went to the station to see them off, and a friend from the business community repeatedly said: "When you arrive in Wuhan, don't be an official!" I hope you will come back to Guangzhou soon! I was very touched by that. - But this friend, after the fall of Guangzhou, he changed his temperament, which is really a pity. He responded to the old saying that "those who are concerned are faint, but those who are bystanders are clear", he understands that "no official is light", but he does not understand that "no property is also light".

As the train was about to leave in the twilight, we stuck our heads out of the window to say goodbye to our friends, shaking hands more than once and shaking each other again.

In the end, Xia Yan told Liqun half-seriously and half-jokingly: "When you get over there, don't 'drag' with others!" ”

Everyone was laughing heartily, but I knew that I was laughing the least natural. Isn't it? I've been mentally "patting and dragging" her tightly.