1. Resurrection from the dead

On April 1st, the third hall opened as scheduled. This festival of ten thousand fools has really become the festival of our group of fools. For the sake of the country, for the nation, for the War of Resistance, and for the salvation of the country, from this day on, everyone called Chen Cheng, Zhang Lisheng and others "job" and "presented".

The establishment of the third hall was followed by the establishment of the Political Department for two full months, during which the Political Department was silent and odorless, which made Chen Cheng feel lonely. On the evening of the first day of the opening of the third hall, I invited him to "lecture" to everyone. After that, he said to me: Why don't you do it soon and spread the word about the significance of the restoration of the Political Department?

"Soon? How about the fast method? ”

"Within three days."

I feel a little difficult. Just about to start the gong, even the people are not very complete, how can they come to play a big play? What if you can't mobilize? But I didn't want to show weakness, so I had to promise him: discuss with everyone.

Chen Cheng was really anxious, and he immediately opened a note to me: "Pay the temporary fee of 10,000 yuan for the expansion of the publicity week of the third hall." ”

I was not sure, so I went back and discussed with Han Sheng, Shouchang, Qianya (Hong Shen), and Ji Long (Zhang Zhirang), but they all advocated doing it, so as to show their skills and desperately exalt the significance of the Anti-Japanese War.

So we started to prepare for an outreach that would last for a week from April 5th (I can't remember the date, maybe a day or two earlier).

First of all, it is worth mentioning that in our preparatory work, we have broken with the KMT's style of doing everything but not doing it, and have adopted a democratic attitude -- doing things but not doing them. We invited all the important organs and organizations of the three towns of Wuhan to make joint preparations, and invited the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, the Party Department of Hankou City, the ** of Hankou City, the Garrison Headquarters, chambers of commerce, cultural groups, journalists, and student youth organizations. Except for a very few who are their friends, to be serious, they are all "masters". But I also have to thank those "masters", they only want to be famous and don't contribute, and almost leave everything to us.

The seven-day campaign has a major program every day, such as Singing Day, Drama Day, Movie Day, Comic Day, and many more. One of the days there will be a torchlight procession, and the next day there will be a big demonstration during the day. In addition to this, it is necessary to prepare a lot of propaganda materials, organize daily special editions of various newspapers, hold lectures, and conduct radio programs in Chinese, English, and Japanese. The scale is quite ambitious, and everyone's work is quite intense.

But—

"Are you sure?" The acquaintances I've seen in the past few days almost asked like that in the first sentence. They are concerned and afraid that they are not sure.

In fact, I was never sure. Without a fixed mass base, in a hurry, who can have the ability to scatter beans into soldiers?

The three towns of Wuhan, since the Northern Expedition, have been suffocated under the sword light and blood shadow for a full decade. Who can bring a dead city back to life with a single boast?

Second, Hong Jun operation

If you think about it, you have to say it's luck, right?

On the third day of the beginning of the propaganda week, there was a great victory in Taierzhuang, and the military news at that time was reported as follows:

The enemy in front of Taierzhuang began a general attack on the night of the sixth day after our army, attacking inside and outside, the enemy still resisted stubbornly according to the danger, hand-to-hand combat, and the battle situation was unprecedented. By 3 o'clock in the morning, the enemy had run out of ammunition and the whole line was shaken. The morale of our army was boosted, and they took advantage of the victory to attack and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop, thus causing an unprecedented victory. More than 20,000 enemy casualties were killed and wounded, and we captured more than 10,000 rifles, 931 light and heavy machine guns, 77 infantry guns, 40 chariots, more than 50 cannons, and countless prisoners. The main forces of the enemy's two divisions, Itagaki and Isoya, have been annihilated by us.

It had been nine months since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression by that time, and except for the brilliant victory of the Eighth Route Army in the Battle of Pingxingguan in the very early days, the Kuomintang troops were always shifting their positions and retreating one after another. Two rather clever phrases: "Space for time, small wins for big wins", can be recited by almost three-year-old children. But no one thought that such an "unprecedented victory" suddenly came in Taierzhuang!

The hungry are easy to eat, and the thirsty are easy to drink. For the people who are hungry for victory, even a small defeat is already good news, not to mention that it is still a "big victory", not to mention an "unprecedented victory"! With so many captures and annihilation of "the main forces of the enemy's two divisions", isn't this war won? The Itagaki Division and the Isoya Division were both the enemy's elite troops, and the vanguard of the invasion of China were both "annihilated"!

In today's view, this news is a bit of a stunt. The fact is that the enemy made a strategic retreat from the Taierzhuang area in order to carry out an all-out offensive, but our "military divisions" exaggerated it and really did "expanded propaganda." This was originally a cliché used by the "military advisors", but at that time, ordinary people were swept into the intoxication of victory.

On the 7th, the news spread, and the torchlight procession was held early that day. It is really a family celebration, everyone congratulates, and those who participate in the torch procession are connected to the three towns of Wuhan, and I am afraid that there are four or five hundred thousand people. Especially under the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuchang, it was so crowded that the passengers of the ferry could not get off the boat, and the torch illuminated both sides of the Yangtze River. The sound of singing, firecrackers, and shouting slogans seemed to blow up the entire space.

The three towns of Wuhan are indeed resurrected! Who can say that the people are dead? Who can say that iron-blooded repression can suffocate the people forever? It is an absolutely elastic balloon, and as soon as the pressure is released, it not only immediately returns to its original shape, but surpasses it.

But whose credit is it? Friends are congratulating us: the first shot has been fired openly, and it is so loud! - Lao Guo's luck! - Good luck in the three halls! ……

I'm afraid I have to say it's luck, okay? ——

Joke! Sober people, I believe, don't think so. The colleagues of the three halls and all the friends who participated in the work have done their best to do their best, and there is no problem. The exaggerated report of Taierzhuang's victory helped a lot, and we can't deny it. But no one expected that the effect would be so great.

The biggest factor is that there is something else.

What is the biggest factor in this?

The people who do not want to be slaves of the country have the potential will to break all shackles!

3. "Song of the Four Sides"

The 8th is the day of singing.

According to the established plan, a square singing party was held in the morning at the old Chinese merchants' racecourse in the northern suburbs of Hankou, followed by a singing procession.

Presumably, it should be a relatively quiet day, because there are not too many teams that can participate in the singing. During the preparatory period, I was not in favor of holding it in the square, but Shouchang insisted that he still win.

Shou Chang, Xian Xinghai, and Zhang Shu are really capable. In a few days, I don't know where so many singing teams came from!

Shouchang said: This is the seed sown in the past few years, and today is our harvest day.

My easily excited emotions suddenly became agitated again.

Shouchang asked me to give an opening speech, and I improvised a "Song of the Four Sides" to him". This opening speech has been preserved:

Singing is the most moving. The sound of singing can instantly merge people's feelings and wills into action.

On the positive side, singing can unite one's strength. On the negative side, singing can discourage the enemy.

Zhang Liang, a counselor of Han Gaozu, once used the power of singing to disperse the soldiers of the overlord of Chu. Although the overlord of Chu had the courage to pull out the mountain and cover the world, he was finally unable to defeat the sound of singing.

At present, our enemy, in spite of its brutality, in spite of its large number of artillery planes, we must be prepared to destroy it with the power of singing.

Zhang Liang gave the overlord of Chu a "song on all sides", and we will now give the Japanese imperialists a "song on all sides".

We want to use the power of singing to amplify our propaganda, and we want to use the power of singing to celebrate our victory.

The recent successive victories in Lunan and especially the unprecedented victory in Taierzhuang are worthy of our praise.

But we must also know that there are still several provinces of land that we should recover, and there are still many enemies that we should annihilate.

We must use our singing to unite our own forces even more, to recover all the lost ground, and to drive out all the pirates.

We want to expand our singing to the whole of Wuhan, to the whole of China, to the whole world.

We must inspire our friends all over the world to defeat our common enemy and imperialism!

If these words are to be scrutinized in detail, there is actually something wrong with them. It is clear that all four sides are singing Chinese songs: such as "March of the Volunteers" and "March of the Great Sword", how can they be said to be "songs of the four sides"? But I hope that friends will not be embarrassed by words. China's new music does have its merits in the awakening of the nation, in the advancement of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and even in the surrender of the enemy. The builders of new music, such as Nie Er, Huang Zi, Ren Guang, Zhang Shu, and Xian Xinghai, have all contributed their lives to the motherland, and they will never be erased.

The sound of singing undoubtedly spread to the whole world, to the whole of China, at least to the whole of Wuhan on that day.

The people's morale has really been carried forward! …… But what about the real "harvest"?

Fourth, hindrance

The party elders are afraid of the people, especially the vitality of the people. If the people lived, the party lords would die.

Chen Cheng wanted the Third Department to hold an expanded propaganda week, and his original intention was to add a little luster to the newly established Political Department and to him, a student who is a conscripted in political work. But I didn't expect that the public sentiment in Wuhan would be ignited at such a point. And he and his men were afraid.

At that time, the Kuomintang headquarters hid in Chongqing, and there were several high-ranking personnel who remained in Wuhan, such as Shao Lizi, the head of the propaganda department, who had a relatively moderate style and few manpower, and could not do anything. The censorship has not yet been established, and speech in general is relatively free. However, the rigorous inspection work began within the Department of Political Affairs, and we, the Third Department, were the main targets of the inspection.

The friends in the third hall are all used to freedom, and everyone is already feeling a headache to make eight shares that suit the taste of the party masters. For the sake of prudence, I myself had to look at every propaganda text at the beginning, and sometimes I had to make drastic changes, so that I could simply become a teacher of changing the textbooks of the Chinese language. Despite this caution, my friends were unhappy with me, but I still got out of the way.

On the first day of the opening of the propaganda week, it happened that the preparatory meeting rushed to print a very small and very small booklet, which was the old drum poem "Li Zongren, General of the Anti-Japanese War". At that time, Li Zongren was in command of the military on the Taierzhuang side. Because I was so busy in those days, I didn't look at the original manuscript, and I felt a little uneasy when it was printed and scattered around the venue. But thinking that it was Lao Xiang, this was originally a member of their Kuomintang, and it was in the name of the preparatory meeting, so I didn't have to be too stubborn. But when it was distributed to Chen Cheng, he protested to me.

"This pamphlet is inappropriate and should not be promoted for any individual general! Has it already been distributed? ”

Fortunately, it has not been distributed yet. So he detained all the printed materials on the spot.

I didn't think it was going to happen, but I didn't expect to receive an order from the headquarters on the fifth day. The instruction says:

In the various propaganda documents recently printed by the Third Investigation Department, the words "people", "motherland", and "post" are always inappropriate. "People" should be replaced by "national", "motherland" should be replaced by "state", and "post" should be replaced by "position". In the future, all external documents must be submitted to the Ministry for approval before they are issued.

I understand that this is a pretext to play on the topic, and the fact should be that the pamphlet "Li Zongren" planted the antecedents, and the overdone expansion of propaganda has the consequences.

But I was very polite and refuted the first half of the instruction.

The words "people" and "motherland" have been frequently used in Mr. Cha Yat-sen's writings during his lifetime, should the words "national" and "country" be used instead?

There is no subsequent rebuttal of this refutation, but in fact the words "people" and "fatherland" have become generally taboo. When the party elders see the "people," they think of the "people's front," and when they see the "motherland," they think of "the workers have no motherland." Whoever wants to use these words is also trying to redden.

- It's a fluke, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, thanks to you dying early. Otherwise, I'm afraid you will also be reprimanded by Chen Cheng, Zhang Lisheng and others. If you don't say it well, you will be arrested and detained for a few days!

5. Review

The next day, the sixth day of the Expanded Publicity Week, coincided with a ministerial meeting. As a rule, the Minister, the Deputy Minister, the Secretary-General, the Heads of Offices, the Deputy Heads of Departments and the Head of the Secretariat are present, and the Secretary of the Design Committee and interested persons are present.

In addition to the Secretary-General, there is also the head of the Secretariat of the Department of Political Affairs, which is held by Liu Keshu. This baby was born in Jiaotong University, studied in the United Kingdom, and wrote a book eulogizing Kemar Baxia Turkey before the war. He is Chen Cheng's confidant.

The secretary of the design committee is He Liankui, I only know that he is from Peking University and one of Chen Cheng's confidants. The design committee was originally outside the establishment and could only sit as non-voting members.

In addition, there was also Chen Cheng's personal secretary, Xie Ranzhi, who was also present on this day. He served as the editor of Ruijin's "Red Flag Newspaper", surrendered after being captured, and Chen Chengzi sent him to live in Japan for a time. He is also a member of the confidant group, and all Chen Cheng's entertainment texts or speeches are probably replaced by this little person (who is indeed short).

These three minor roles, together with Zhang Lisheng, the secretary general, are in fact in charge of the internal affairs of the Political Department.

Zhang Lisheng was the head of the organization department of the Central Party Department of the Kuomintang at that time, and it stands to reason that his status should be above that of the head of the political department, but he deigned to be the secretary general. He is really a typical staff member for Chen Cheng's groveling.

The important motion on this day was put forward by Zhang Lisheng, and it was necessary to organize a review committee and discuss its organizational regulations. According to the proponents, there are many units in the Ministry, and all external documents should be unified in content, so it is necessary to set up a review committee. Please adopt the Organizational Regulations so that you can start organizing immediately.

The constitution is very simple, only four or five articles, and I naturally don't remember the detailed articles. The main backbone is as follows: the head of the department is designated by a number of members of the design committee to form a review committee, and all external documents of the department must be examined and approved before they can be issued.

This is undoubtedly the heart-wrenching masterpiece of the four secretaries of Zhang, Liu, He, and Xie, and their intention is nothing more than to strangle the three halls. I can't tolerate it, I fired head-on.

I said that, according to the regulations, the review committee was outside the establishment. If the minister were to organize a secret think tank, we would have nothing to say. However, once the regulations are made public, the regulations are first and foremost a document that is not passable. There are people with special responsibilities at all levels of the ministry, so why should a review committee be organized? If the deputy minister, the secretary general, and the heads of various departments and departments are the members of the committee, then it is still a democratic organization, so why must it be limited to the appointment of ministers among the design committees? If the design committee of the Ministry of Retention has nothing to do, they can be assigned to serve in various offices. Wouldn't the establishment of such a transcendent institution have a political department above the political department? I, the director of the department, can be unnecessary, and the responsible personnel at all levels below the minister can be unnecessary, why do I have to stack beds on the bed and set up a house on the house? Again, are these design committee members all omnipotent? All external documents contain various Chinese languages and various art departments, such as painting, music, film, drama, etc., which of the design committee members are such all-round experts and can ensure work efficiency? It seems to me that the person who drafted this regulation is a layman at all, and this gentleman's mind is worthy of "scrutiny" in the first place. ……

I said it quite hotly, which made Chen Cheng blush, and at least three of the four secretaries also blushed.

The people in the first and second halls didn't speak, just smiled and looked at Xiao Shen. Because they also have contradictions with the four secretaries and even ministers, and their conflicts in real power are sometimes more complicated than we can imagine.

Zhou Gong didn't speak, so it was naturally inconvenient for him to speak.

Huang Qixiang was left to be the arbiter. He said: The examination committee, as a staff body to assist the minister, can be organized, and there is a lot of room for discussion on the regulations.

This is a round, but the iron hoop curse of "censorship" is mercilessly applied to our heads!

6. False alarms

On the same night that I had finished the censorship regulations, I suddenly received a handwritten letter from Chen Cheng with three "ten" characters drawn on the envelope. I'm surprised, is there anything urgent?

When I opened it, I was even more surprised.

According to intelligence, tomorrow's propaganda week parade will be expanded, and there will be traitors ready to take advantage of it to take advantage of it to make trouble. The younger brother has taken care of Brother Zhaomin (Kang Ze) at the same time, and asked Qu to help and be on guard.

It's just such a simple piece of content, but what's it all about? Who is the "traitor"? Is it a traitor? Is it an enemy? Is there such a bold guy who dares to come and cause trouble? It's just nerve-wracking! Surprised, I had to laugh it off.

I woke up early the next day. It's a great day for our project. It took six days to really stir up the morale of the people in the three towns of Wuhan, and we estimate that on this last day, more than 100,000 people may participate in the demonstration.

This should also be the happiest day for Han Sheng, who is good at adapting, he takes on the responsibility of planning the overall situation, and the relationship with all aspects is very good, everything is going smoothly, not only as he wishes, but also in many achievements are more than he wishes. He originally lived in Wuchang, and he crossed the river very early on this day.

I showed him Chen Cheng's letter, but he shouted heartily: "Joke! What a traitor! Whoever wants to make trouble invite him to come, so that Lao Tzu will not beat him into meat sauce! ”

"It's a boring thing," I continued, "to feed all the informants, and to have nothing to do when they're full, and to make false information." ”

"What is the matter with Kang Zhaomin? Want to ask him for 'help'? Han Sheng was a little indignant.

"Is it about time for him to mobilize a special team to defend the venue?" I said it as a joke.

But we didn't mind very much, and at about eight o'clock, we took the car together to the big venue in the northern suburbs.

It's a little overcast, and it might rain. That's the only thing to worry about. It took six days of work, hoping to show a big scene on this last day, and it would have to rain or not.

When we arrived at the venue, everything was set up. The masses arrived one after another, from the south to the north, singing endlessly, slogans like thunder, all kinds of banners were waving horizontally, waving in the wind, flashing into the venue.

We ascended to the podium, and the conductor used a loudspeaker to direct the masses to take up their posts in turn.

According to the plan, the meeting began at nine o'clock, and the march began at ten o'clock. The closer the time to leave the meeting, the more enthusiastic the crowd became, and the large crosswalk in front of the square was congested. However, the sky was becoming more and more gloomy, and it seemed that it was inevitable that it would rain, and it would rain heavily.

At about half past eight, Kang Ze openly came. He came to the stage with his very stiff, puppet-like pace and dynamics, and was followed by the commander of the 1st Regiment of the Gendarme, and some dignitaries whom I did not know. They were all armed and armed with pistols.

Kang Zelai and I held hands, the fat hands and the goose-like forehead with a pair of raised eyebrows and bursting eyes, he had already said what he wanted to say in advance, and his equally stiff tongue said to me slowly: "Cixiu wrote to me last night, asking me to help maintain order. ”

"Thank you, he also wrote to me. Can you believe that anyone will dare to cause trouble? ”

"Well, maybe!" He rested slowly for a long time, "It's better for us to be steady and prepared." ”

Eventually, the rain fell, and it fell heavily.

But the crowd was still enthusiastic, and the people in the square did not waver in the heavy rain. We are smiling knowingly.

But it's weird! In the midst of that pouring rain, the alarm was openly raised. It's not fun! The commander of the gendarmerie snatched the loudspeaker and ordered the crowd to disband quickly. As a result, the team is completely scattered.

Kang Ze slowly held my hand again, and slowly activated his square cheeks: "The parade has to be stopped, we can go, ah?" With a slight tilt of his head and a slight tilt, he stepped off the stage with his very stiff, puppet-like pace and dynamics.

Han Sheng and I had no choice but to puff out our eyes and say nothing.

- Humph! Outrageous! Not only false intelligence, but also false alarms! I can't contain my anger.