The reader may remember that back in chapter 4 I mentioned a particular individual and promised to devote a chapter to him later in the book. I believe that without this man, many more than 4,500 people would have lost their lives in Daoxian’s killing wind, and that the killings would have spread far beyond the surrounding 10 counties and cities.
Let’s return to Daoxian’s No. 2 High School at time that the killing wind began on August 13, 1967, where we will resume our story of a “capitalist roader” locked up inside the school, county head and deputy county Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Huang Yida. Huang had come under attack by the revolutionary masses at the outset of the movement for executing “Liu Shaoqi’s bourgeois reactionary line,”1 and after the “January power seizure” he had been apprehended by the Revolutionary Alliance and confined in the No. 2 High School for struggle and criticism. Initially Huang was subjected to daily public denunciation rallies, but as the movement progressed and attention shifted to the conflict between the Revolutionary and the Red Alliances, he was left to reforming his thinking through the study of Central Committee documents, the editorials of the CCP’s official publications, and the works of Mao Zedong, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin.
While Huang Yida was studying the works of Mao on the morning of August 13, 1967, a Red Guard strode into his room and told him the “Red Fogies” were planning a bloodbath at the No. 2 High School that day: “If you do or say anything rash, you’ll bear the consequences.”
After the Red Guard left, Huang Yida wondered what he should do. Although sidelined, he was still county head, and he didn’t feel he could just stand by and watch. Aware of the numerical superiority of the Red Alliance, and unfamiliar with the martial skills of Revolutionary Alliance commander in chief Liu Xiangxi, Huang was sure that the Red Alliance would force its way into the No. 2 High School, giving rise to countless fatalities.
A little after ten o’clock, whistles sounded throughout the No. 2 High School, and armed men scrambled everywhere. Seeing an old schoolmate surnamed Jiang pass by his window, Huang Yida asked what was going on, and Jiang replied, “The Red Alliance is holding a meeting and will soon attack the school. We have to defend ourselves.”
Huang Yida said, “Please tell comrade Liu Xiangxi that no matter what happens, he shouldn’t fight! Tell him I want to give him some suggestions face to face.”
After Jiang left, a Revolutionary Alliance leader surnamed Zhu arrived and said, “Comrade Liu Xiangxi is very busy at the moment. Tell me what you have to say.”
Huang Yida urged him to send someone to report the situation to the county People’s Armed Forces Department (PAFD) headquarters: “They’re the only ones who can speak with authority right now.”
Zhu agreed this was a good idea and said he’d send two men over with a letter right away. But around noon, Huang heard the sound of gunfire outside and sensed that the situation had become grave. He sat motionless in his room, deciding to let fate direct him.
A little after one o’clock, Liu Xiangxi came to his room with several others and said, “Comrade Yida, Jiang gave me your message. The Red Alliance has sent troops to attack us today and apprehended two female comrades at the Chengguan grain depot. We didn’t open fire to defend ourselves until the situation became untenable.”
Just then, Jiang came in and said, “Two people just got killed. Militia from the nearby towns and villages are amassing toward the county seat. Things are going to get really bad by nightfall!”
Huang Yida said anxiously to Liu Xiangxi, “Commander Liu, now that the situation is so serious, why not report it to the PAFD headquarters and ask them to resolve the matter?”
Liu Xiangxi said, “I sent two people to the PAFD headquarters, but they just ignored them.”
Putting on his county head demeanor, Huang said “The Central Committee just issued its ‘July 13 Notice’ explicitly stipulating that the peasants aren’t allowed to enter the cities and engage in violence. Why isn’t the PAFD headquarters implementing it? Let me go to the PAFD headquarters to personally speak with Commander Cui and political commissar Liu and ask them to immediately send men to deal with this.”
Liu Xiangxi eagerly accepted Huang’s offer, and around four o’clock that afternoon, Huang Yida arrived at the county PAFD headquarters, where he told a functionary, “I’ve just come from the No. 2 High School. It appears that armed fighting has resulted in two deaths there already, and we hear a large number of villagers are arriving tonight to place the school under siege. I’m afraid even worse fighting will break out, and I’d like to report this personally to Commander Cui and political commissar Liu.”
After disappearing inside for a moment, the functionary emerged and he said, “Commander Cui is indisposed and all the other leaders are out on business. Tell me what you want to say, and I’ll pass it on to him.”
Huang Yida could only relay his suggestions, which were to broadcast the content of the “July 13 Notice” to prevent the peasants from entering the city, and to have PAFD leaders come to the No. 2 High School and arrange talks between the leaders of the two factions to curb the violence.
After the functionary promised to pass on his message, Huang Yida rushed to his home near the PAFD headquarters to see his wife, Sun Meijiao. Huang Yida and his wife had been apart since the “January power seizure,” and they had a great deal to tell each other, but it wasn’t safe to talk at home, so they arranged to meet at the citrus grove near the east gate. Huang had just reached a stone gate less than 300 meters from the PAFD headquarters when he heard his wife call from behind him, “Huang Yida, run! They’re coming for you!”
Huang Yida turned and saw the functionary from the PAFD headquarters and seven or eight cadres and staff from county CCP committee organs chasing him with clubs and fire tongs and yelling, “Catch Huang Yida! Beat him to death!”
Huang Yida took off running as fast as he could with the others close on his tail. Risking a 1.5-meter leap from the city wall, he dashed off to the Dongyang brigade’s Liangtian Village, where he took refuge in the home of an acquaintance surnamed Jiang.
Huang hardly slept a wink, and after spending all night thinking, he had Jiang send word to the No. 2 High School the next morning, expressing his wish to return. It was a hard decision for Huang to make; although he’d reached the conclusion that the Revolutionary Alliance’s actions were more compatible with Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, most of his dealings over the years had been with people in the Red Alliance, and he felt a kinship with them. But it had also become clear that the Red Alliance wanted him dead; even Cui Baoshu and Liu Shibin, who had always bowed and scraped to him, had sent people out to kill him. He had been driven to join the “outlaws.”
After receiving Huang Yida’s message, Liu Xiangxi quickly sent one of his most capable subordinates, the commander of the “verbal attack and armed defense” command post, Li Chenggou, with a dozen armed men to escort Huang Yida and villager Jiang to the No. 2 High School.
That day (August 14), the Revolutionary Alliance received intelligence that core militiamen from every district and commune were amassing under the Red Alliance’s direction at the Yingjiang Commune seed multiplication farm on the outskirts of Daojiang, and that they were preparing an all-out siege to capture the No. 2 High School. After conferring with county CCP committee propaganda department head Jiang Quanyi, who was staying at the No. 2 High School, Huang Yida went to see Liu Xiangxi. Huang felt that with the county PAFD supporting the Red Alliance, the only way to resolve the situation in Daoxian was for him and Jiang to go to the provincial capital to report to the provincial CCP committee leaders and ask them to step in. Huang Yida had two strong connections in the provincial capital: Hua Guofeng, at that time vice chairman of the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group, had been assigned to Chetou Commune for work experience while Huang Yida was county head. Another preparatory group vice chairman, Zhang Bosen, had been Huang Yida’s leading cadre when Huang served as a bank president in Hengyang, and they’d been in close contact up until the Cultural Revolution.
Liu Xiangxi accepted their suggestion even more readily than they’d hoped, and he said, “That’s an excellent idea, and I’ll send a representative along with you. But we’re completely surrounded now, and the villages are blockaded with sentry posts, so you have to consider how dangerous this will be—the Red Alliance has already issued an order for comrade Huang Yida to be killed on the spot.”
Huang Yida said, “This situation has passed the point of considering individual safety.”
Liu Xiangxi said, “I’m grateful to you both and will arrange for you to be escorted out of Daojiang Town, but once you leave the city, there’s nothing I can do. When you reach the provincial capital, please tell the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group and the 47th Army that we’re a revolutionary mass organization defending the safety of the people’s lives and property, and we’re not engaged in beating, smashing, or looting or staging an overthrow. Please report the facts to the upper-level leaders—tens of thousands of lives are at stake!”
The men then discussed the specific route Huang and Jiang should take, and a rudimentary outline for their report.
Liu Xiangxi wanted to accompany them to Changsha himself, but Huang Yida said, “You can’t go. With things so tense at home, you need to stay here to manage operations.” It was finally decided to send another Revolutionary Alliance leader, a teacher at the No. 2 High School, Huang Chengli.
At that point, the Revolutionary Alliance still objected to Huang Yida; he was particularly resented by some alliance members who had earlier been attacked as “little Deng Tuos,”2 “Rightists,” or “political pickpockets” in the campaigns Huang led. Some suspected that Huang Yida’s trip to Changsha might be another capitalist-roader intrigue, or that he was using it as a pretext to escape the struggle and criticism of the revolutionary masses. Outnumbered and surrounded by the Red Alliance, however, the Revolutionary Alliance was in an extremely weak position and was in urgent need of outside help, especially from the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group. Huang Yida was the only top county-level leader taking the side of the Revolutionary Alliance, so even if they regarded him as a “capitalist roader,” they could only hope that he’d genuinely returned to “Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line” and support his suggestion.
At 10:45 on the night of August 15, under cover of darkness, Li Chenggou led an armed escort that took Huang Yida, Jiang Quanyi, and Huang Chengli out of Daojiang Town over the cable bridge behind the No. 2 High School. Upon reaching Shangguan, Li Chenggou shook their hands and said, “I can take you only this far. Take extra care on the road ahead.”
According to the intelligence the Revolutionary Alliance had received, checkpoints had been set up on all the roads out of Daoxian, and only the road through Xiaojia to Shuishi in Ningyuan County was still passable. As it happened, Jiang Quanyi was a native of Xiaojia and familiar with this road. In spite of the summer heat, the three were dressed in blue uniforms to avoid detection. The night was dark and moonless, and since they didn’t dare use flashlights or take the main road, they had to grope their way across mountains and fields; if not for Jiang Quanyi having grown up in these parts, they would soon have become hopelessly lost. They reached Shuishi before dawn, their legs torn by thistles and streaming with blood. Even at that, they were not yet out of danger, because Ningyuan County’s Red Alliance had close ties with its Daoxian counterpart. Deciding it would be safer to keep walking and catch a bus in Lanshan County instead, they set off in that direction after putting their clothes in order and grabbing a bite to eat. After walking a day and a night and crossing more than 50 kilometers of mountain paths, they finally reached the county seat, Lanshan, at noon the next day and were able to breathe easy.
That same day (August 16), they arrived in Chenzhou, where they raced to the train station and squeezed onto a train bound for Changsha. There was nothing to eat or drink on the train, and no sign of an attendant, and even the toilets were packed with people. People sat below seats, on luggage, and on the floor, and some even climbed on top of the train carriage. All around them was fighting and the sound of gunfire, and the train lurched forward at a snail’s pace; if there was fighting ahead, the train stopped until the fighting ended, while the passengers fainted and wailed in distress in the oppressive August heat. The train proceeded in this halting fashion the entire 200 kilometers from Chenzhou to Changsha, chugging along for nearly two full days until it reached Yijiawan on the afternoon of August 18. There, within sight of Changsha, the train stopped.
This time the train seemed rooted in place, and when evening arrived with no further movement, Huang Yida ran forward to get some news. What he learned was that the provincial Workers Alliance and Xiang River Storm were engaged in an armed battle with the Xiangtan Revolutionary Rebel Alliance, and both sides had mobilized tens of thousands of people, bringing the railways and highways to a standstill. No one knew when traffic would begin moving again. Huang Yida and the others were out of their minds with anxiety, but all they could do was climb off the train to stretch their legs and lie down to rest on some discarded posters beside the tracks. In the darkness they heard the sound of constant artillery fire, and tracer bullets lit the sky with their long tails of light like a meteor shower, ripping the night air with their piercing whistle. Huang Yida wondered how many were dying in such a large-scale battle, which made even the conflict in Daoxian fade in comparison. And then, the battle suddenly stopped.3 When dawn broke, the train blew its whistle and set off on its way.
On the afternoon of August 19, Huang Yida and his companions arrived in Changsha.
Upon arriving in Changsha, Huang Yida and his companions rushed off to report to the leaders of the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group and the commander of the 47th Army.4 By then violence had reached fever pitch in Changsha. While battling the College Command Post faction, the Worker Alliance faction had parted ways with Xiang River Storm, and an even more intense conflict had developed on the groups’ shared battlefront. The normally bustling May 1st Avenue was deserted apart from roadblocks and sandbags piled into fortifications, while heavily armed fighters roared through the streets in vehicles, firing their guns into the air and making the populace tremble with fear. The leaders of the revolutionary committee preparatory group and the 47th Army were frantically busy from morning till night. As vice chairman of the preparatory group, Hua Guofeng spent every day shuttling back and forth for negotiations with the heads of the two mass organizations, his meals consisting of crackers and a canteen of water he carried in a yellow satchel wherever he went. Zhang Bosen was in a similar situation, and it was exceedingly difficult to arrange to see either of them.
On the evening of August 24, 1967, Huang Yida telephoned the Revolutionary Alliance headquarters to learn about the latest situation in Daoxian, and Deputy Commander Pan Xingjiang told him, “People are already being killed in the villages! Some places have even established ‘supreme people’s courts of the poor and lower-middle peasants’ and have arrested and brutally killed people without authorization from higher-level organs! According to incomplete figures, more than a thousand people have been killed throughout the county, and corpses are floating down the Xiaoshui River… . The situation is still developing and expanding. …”
Horrified at the news, Huang Yida rushed to the preparatory group office with Jiang Quanyi and Huang Chengli to report the critical situation, and then went to the home of preparatory group member Liang Chunyang (a former secretary of the Provincial Planning Commission, whom Huang knew very well) and reported the situation to him as well. Deeply shocked, Liang Chunyang quickly telephoned Zhang Bosen and Hua Guofeng,5 who agreed to meet Huang Yida and the others at the preparatory group’s office the next morning.
Huang and the others arrived at the preparatory group’s office at eight o’clock the next morning (August 25), but as soon as they entered, Liang Chunyang said, “It appears that what you reported last night may not be quite accurate. After you left, I had our office telephone the Daoxian PAFD, and PAFD commander Li Yonghua said, ‘Nothing of the kind has happened. In the mountain areas of Simaqiao District near the Ningyuan border, some black elements who were planning an insurrection fled into the hills, and militiamen surrounded them and shot some of them with fowling guns and then threw their bodies into the river.’ So it’s unnecessary to look any further into this matter, and comrades Guofeng and Bosen have gone out on other business.”
There was nothing Huang Yida and the others could say, since they knew nothing about the random killing of black elements in the countryside.
That night, livid with rage, Huang Yida telephoned Daoxian again and demanded to know why Pan Xingjiang had given him a bogus report. Pan immediately cried out, “Heavens! How can Daoxian’s situation be the way Commander Li says it is! Wholesale massacres are being carried out in all of the county’s villages, and according to multiple sources, at least 2,500 people have been killed. This morning, we stood for a short time on the cable bridge behind the No. 2 High School and saw 17 corpses float by in 20 minutes. The killing is spreading, and in some places it’s become factional. The Xiaoshui River reeks of death and no one can drink the water any more. People are lined up day and night at the Anjia Well next to the PAFD headquarters to draw drinking water. How can the PAFD headquarters claim to know nothing about what’s going on under their very noses? It’s obvious they’re intentionally ignoring it.”
After hanging up, Huang Yida discussed the matter with Jiang Quanyi and Huang Chengli. By then, some people from Daoxian had made their way to the provincial capital, and some had put up big-character posters proclaiming a “bloodbath in Daoxian.” The three men agreed that there could be no further delay and that they were in a race against time to save lives. They went again that night to Liang Chunyang’s home, and the next morning, with Liang’s assistance, they were able to meet with Zhang Bosen in the preparatory group auditorium, where they reported on the killings in Daoxian and exposed the lies of PAFD commander Li Yonghua and the others.
At that time, Zhang Bosen was busy presiding over a meeting, but he squeezed in some time to hear a report from Huang Yida and the others next to the rostrum. Huang told him, “We’ve come here at great risk to our lives to request that the provincial leaders and the 47th Army Support-the-Left Unit take action as quickly as possible to halt the killings. We’ve done everything we can to fulfill our responsibility, and if the provincial government doesn’t take decisive action, the consequences will be too dreadful to contemplate.”
When Zhang Bosen asked what measures Huang recommended to end the killings, Huang had an answer ready: “The first step is to revoke the county PAFD’s Support-the-Left leadership authority and send in PLA [People’s Liberation Army] troops to support the Left in Daoxian. Second, Chairman Mao personally issued the June 6th General Order (forbidding random killings) and the Central Committee’s July 13th Notice (forbidding organized groups of peasants from entering the city to fight), but the PAFD hasn’t disseminated or executed them, and most of Daoxian’s cadres and poor and lower-middle peasants have been completely hoodwinked. The province should dispatch aircraft to disseminate the June 6th General Order and July 13th Notice so the masses will come into direct contact with the Central Committee document and Chairman Mao’s directive.
“Third, it’s essential to immediately take down all checkpoints and declare that all ‘supreme people’s courts of the poor and lower-middle peasants’ are unlawful and banned, and to issue a general order to end the killing. The death toll needs to be calculated by class ranking and factually reported to the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group and the 47th Army’s Support-the-Left Unit. Any killings from now on should be harshly punished.
“Fourth, the Lingling Military Subdistrict and the Daoxian PAFD should recall all arms in the hands of conservative organizations, withdraw the PAFD militia surrounding the county seat, and prohibit peasants from entering the city to fight. Disagreements between the two opposing mass organizations can be resolved through consultation and negotiation under Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line.”
Zhang Bosen commended the suggestions and said he’d discuss them with Hua Guofeng and Li Yuan, commander of the 47th Army and chairman of the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group, and that they’d notify the Lingling Military Subdistrict to move in and end the killings. Meanwhile, Zhang told the men to draft two cables on behalf of the preparatory group and the 47th Army describing the situation in Daoxian and their proposals for ending the conflict. One cable would be sent to the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group and the other to the Lingling Military Subdistrict and Daoxian PAFD. “Once you’ve drafted the cables, get them to me, the sooner the better. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve discussed your suggestions with comrades Li Yuan and Guofeng.”
After returning to their hostel, Huang Yida and the others discussed and drafted the content of the cables. The cable to the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group reported the killings in Daoxian and stated that the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory committee had charged the Lingling Military subregion and the Daoxian PAFD with immediately halting the killings. The cable to the military subregion and PAFD then laid out the specific measures Huang Yida had recommended to end the killings.
The draft cables were delivered to the provincial preparatory group office to be passed along to Zhang Bosen and Hua Guofeng.
At noon the next day (August 27, 1967), Huang Yida and the others were told to come to the preparatory group’s office at two o’clock that afternoon to meet with comrade Hua Guofeng. The three men arrived promptly, and after hearing their report, Hua Guofeng said, “Your report and suggestions are excellent. Comrade Li Yuan intended to come, but he’s busy writing a report, so he’s entrusted me with representing the provincial revolutionary committee preparatory group in voicing some preliminary views.”
After some preliminary remarks assuring Huang and the others that the CCP Central Committee and Chairman Mao attached great importance to the problems in Hunan, and that the two roads were clearly delineated and the problem was easy to resolve, Hua Guofeng issued a five-point directive.6
(1)The Central Committee had approved the suggestion to send aircraft to Daoxian to disseminate the Central Committee’s June 6th General Order and July 13th Notice in the near future.
(2)The provincial preparatory group and the 47th Army would send the drafted cable to the lower levels ordering them to end the killing, but punishment of the killers would have to be resolved at a later time.
(3)The Central Military Commission had approved a transfer of troops to carry out Support-the-Left work. But Huang and the others were expected to make a greater effort to win over cadres in the county PAFD. “Once you’ve effectively dealt with the county PAFD, it will be easier to win over and unify the district and commune PAFD cadres.”
(4)Likewise, more ideological work should be carried out on the Red Alliance organizations rather than suppressing them. “In particular, the two of you [referring to Huang Yida and Jiang Quanyi] must work harder on the leading cadres following your return, and get them to switch sides.”
(5)After the situation improved, a revolutionary committee preparatory group was to be established to address the lack of a leadership core. “Two matters require attention in the future: The first is the need to focus on internal unity, and the second is the need to assist the hoodwinked masses. The peasants have suffered great harm through fighting and random killings, and we need to organize a transport of material goods to help restore productivity. The three of you can first return to Lingling and see Comrade Guo Zhi’an, who will help you resolve the problems in Daoxian as soon as possible.”
Two days later, the finalized texts of the cables to the Central Cultural Revolution Small Group and the Lingling Military Subdistrict and Daoxian PAFD were approved and signed by Hua Guofeng and Li Yuan. Once they were sent out, Huang Yida and the others were finally able to prepare for their return.
They left Changsha early in the morning on August 29 and arrived in Ningyuan on September 1, preparing to take the long way back to Daoxian from there. When their return was prevented by massacres and roadblocks, they decided to go back to Changsha and focus on reporting on the massacres. During their second stay in Changsha, Huang and the others submitted reports to Liang Chunyang, Hua Guofeng, and Zhang Bosen, as well as preparatory group members Tan Wenbang (also political commissar of the provincial military commission), Ye Weidong (also head of Xiang River Storm), Li Zhenjun (also political commissar of the 47th Army), and others.
While reporting to Liang Chunyang, Huang Yida made a point of asking about the August 8 gun-snatching incident, which still troubled him: “Chairman Liang, was the rebel faction following the spirit of the higher levels by seizing the PAFD’s weapons?”
Liang Chunyang replied, “The party center called a meeting of military region commanders, and Premier Zhou [Enlai] said this was a lesson to us to take note of which side people were on. If they’re on the side of Chairman Mao, weapons can be handed over to the rebel factions.” He also said, “The provincial military region also called a meeting of subregion commanders… . As a result, three situations have emerged in our province: one is that guns were handed over to the rebel faction, the second is that the situation became worse when weapons were handed over to the conservative faction, and the third is that once both sides were armed, they fight.” Huang quickly put this in writing and sent it to Daoxian.
After the CCP Central Committee issued its September 5th Order, the Revolutionary Alliance telephoned Changsha to consult Huang Yida and the others: “The 6950 Unit wants us to hand over our guns. What should we do?”
Huang consulted Xiang River Storm leader Ye Weidong along with Zhang Bosen at the provincial preparatory group office, and both advised against the rebel faction turning over their weapons unless the conservative faction did as well. Huang passed on the gist of Ye’s and Zhang’s comments in a telephone call to Pan Xingjiang and the others at the Revolutionary Alliance and came up with an idea: “In order to take the political initiative, we can make a show of handing over some of our malfunctioning guns to the 6950 Unit.” He added, “Under the current conditions, it would be suicidal for the Revolutionary Alliance to hand over its guns. On the basis of the experience of the rebel faction in the provincial capital, we can organize some Mao Zedong Thought propaganda teams to go down and liberate the territory occupied by the Red Alliance district by district.”
Huang and the others stayed on in Changsha for a few more days, mainly to pay their respects to some old leaders, observe the situation of the Cultural Revolution there, and learn from the experience of the proletarian rebel faction in the provincial capital. Around September 13, the three of them left Changsha and embarked on their return journey to Daoxian. Upon arriving in Lingling, Huang and the others followed Hua Guofeng’s instructions by meeting with Guo Zhi’an to discuss measures to solve Daoxian’s material supply problems, after which they prepared to hurry back to Daoxian. Guo Zhi’an told Huang Yida that Daoxian’s villages hadn’t yet dismantled their blockades and checkpoints and were still sealed up tight. The mountain pass at Shuangpai was basically impenetrable, and all the land routes were perilous. For that reason they decided to return to Daoxian by water.
This water route had once been Daoxian’s main connection with the outside world, but since the construction of the Ling-Dao Highway, road traffic had gradually increased while water traffic decreased. The water route followed the Xiaoshui River through Zijin Mountain, then passed through Shuangpai to Pingzhou in Lingling and then into the Xiang River. By this time, the killing wind had caused a shutdown of Daoxian’s ferry services, so Huang Yida and the others traveled by road to Jiangcun and arranged for a small boat to take them upstream to Daoxian.
Daoxian’s killing wind had begun to subside at that point, but the Xiaoshui River still reeked of death, and there were piles of corpses where the river forked and bent. The floodwaters had begun to recede, and the roots of willows and other trees along the banks had emerged from the water like boney fingers, creating the horrifying image of a hand reaching into the muddy banks in its death throes while another hand clutched the swollen corpses to the land where they’d been born and bred. As the dinghy labored its way upstream, Huang Yida sat at the prow, wondering how this kind of killing could have happened. Suddenly two corpses with bellies swelled to the size of barrels floated by, and the men on the boat began sobbing in unison, but the boat’s captain nonchalantly used his punt pole to jab at the bellies of the corpses and force them below the water. With a popping sound, the bellies burst open, and a pasty film trailed after the punt pole and adhered to the boat’s prow. At that moment, one of the men cried out in fear as another corpse jammed against the stern of the boat. The boat captain turned and extended his punt pole again and lightly pushed the corpse away. Huang Yida felt his heart thundering in his breast and choked back vomit as the Xiaoshui flowed by, dimly mirroring the green mountains on its banks in water that rippled like fish scales in the cool autumn wind.
The day Huang Yida returned to Daoxian was the day of the shocking “September 23 Tragedy.”7
A man who experienced the Cultural Revolution in Daoxian said, “The Cultural Revolution here in Daoxian was like a pancake, flipped from one side to the other and then back again.” (In fact, that was the case throughout the country.) “During the first stage, the Revolutionary Alliance took the heat, but now the 6950 Unit took over the Support-the-Left work and explicitly expressed its support for the Revolutionary Alliance, so it was the Red Alliance’s turn to feel the heat.”
In a show of force, the Red Alliance leaders called a “seize-and-push mass effort pledge rally” on September 23 at the Dongfeng Cinema (formerly the county labor union assembly hall), which was filled to the rafters. County deputy CCP secretary Huang Shiyou gave a speech assuring the 1,200 attendees of the county leaders’ support for the Red Alliance, followed by a grand parade through the streets.
Cadres from the county CCP committee and county people’s committee marched at the front of the parade shouting inoffensive slogans authorized by the Support-the-Left troops, but then someone began yelling, “Down with the Revolutionary Alliance bandits!” and “Down with the Royalist faction!,”8 and the entire contingent joined in. As the demonstration passed the entrance to the No. 2 High School, the slogan-shouting became thunderous. The demonstration then proceeded to the county Goods and Materials Office (where the 6950 Unit was stationed at the time), after which Red Alliance heads Zhang Mingchi, Liu Changlin, and others led the contingent back along the same route and past the No. 2 High School again. Infuriated beyond endurance, 20-odd Revolutionary Alliance members burst out of the No. 2 High School and grabbed county CCP committee deputy secretary Ouyang Yingxiong and county CCP committee united front department head Li Mingde from the procession and pulled them into the school. Chaos broke out as the Red Alliance masses burst into the school grounds to grab their people back. More than 300 people flooded the school’s sports ground as the situation spun out of control. Some Red Alliance heads took the opportunity to urge the masses to rush into classrooms where guns were being stored and “seize back some guns.”
They underestimated Liu Xiangxi’s vigilance, however; the Revolutionary Alliance had turned over and sealed up only a token number of their weapons, while retaining a considerable number. As the Red Alliance poured into the school, the Revolutionary Alliance’s security force under the direction of Deputy Commander Zhang Fushan opened fire. Twelve people were killed on the spot, and dozens more were wounded. Two 6950 Unit military representatives stationed at the school also suffered serious injuries. The incident sent shock waves throughout the county.
At the time that the September 23 Tragedy occurred, Huang Yida was having a drink at the home of a teacher from the No. 2 High School. When he heard the sound of machine gun fire from the direction of the sports field, he ran out to learn what had happened, and upon being told of the incident he became deeply distressed.
That evening, he visited Ouyang Yingxiong and Li Mingde at the No. 2 High School, and since they’d normally gotten along well, Huang Yida made a special effort to work on them, passing on the directive from Hua Guofeng and the other leaders of the provincial preparatory group and describing what he’d seen and heard at the provincial capital and advising them to switch sides.
The September 23 Tragedy threw the entire county into chaos, but it didn’t lead to further killing. The chronology of the Daoxian killings shows there was not a single death in the days immediately afterwards, and the killing wind continued to subside.
At this time, the standpoint of the Hunan provincial preparatory group and the 47th Army became increasingly clear-cut, and the Red Alliance began to disband. Especially after the preparatory group and the 47th Army issued their joint notice on September 279 and aircraft dropped leaflets throughout the county, the Red Alliance collapsed.
One old Daoxian cadre (not Huang Yida) said, “After the killing wind subsided, the executioners, especially those behind the massacre, were like dogs who had lost their master. They became panic-stricken, and some absconded to their home villages and the homes of friends and relatives, while others kept silent and laid low, no one having any idea where they’d gone. Just a few people continued to put up a stubborn resistance; for example, the PAFD commander of District 6, Zheng Youzhi, who took men and guns to Dapingpu Farm. But overall, the chaotic situation in the county calmed down and steadily improved.”
From the end of October to early November, the 6950 Unit stationed in Daoxian issued notices calling on all work unit leaders and cadres to return to their units as soon as possible to seize revolution and push production. Some leaders and cadres of county CCP committee organs began returning to the county seat and gathered in the county CCP committee guest house on Douzi Street for a period of collective study during which everyone could express their thoughts and feelings regarding recent events and undergo ideological transformation. The great majority were “educated and rescued.”
While the situation was still in flux, some surviving Revolutionary Alliance members and family members of victims believed that the ringleaders of the massacre had returned, and they burst into the guest house and beat and denounced some of the leaders and cadres. When the 6950 Unit troops learned of this, they quickly dispatched cadres and soldiers to safeguard the guest house, and the situation didn’t deteriorate further. Even so, some county CCP committee leaders and cadres were badly beaten. For example, county deputy CCP secretary Yu Shan was blinded in one eye after being bound, blindfolded, and whipped with a leather thong. Likewise, the head of the county CCP committee’s organization department, Wang Ansheng, was dragged onto a basketball court in the depth of winter, stripped down to his shorts, blindfolded, and made to kneel in the snow while he was punched and kicked until his assailants tired and went home to warm themselves. Wang Ansheng lay in the snow, afraid to move for a very long time before finally crawling home.
In December 1967, the 47th Army’s Support-the-Left force and the Hunan Provincial Revolutionary Committee Preparatory Leading Small Group held Hunan’s first Mao Zedong Thought Study Group, the main task of which was to select leading cadres for Hunan’s county and municipal revolutionary committees. Huang Yida represented Daoxian at this session of the study group, which was to last for two months.
One evening about 10 days into the study session, Hua Guofeng called Huang Yida to the provincial garrison headquarters and told him, “Daoxian doesn’t have any leading cadres qualified to handle Support-the-Left operations. I’d like you to go back and take charge of the first stage in coordination with the army.”
Huang said, “I’m grateful for the provincial leadership’s trust in me, but I feel there are many problems I’m powerless to resolve, and I’m not capable of meeting the provincial leadership’s demands.” When pressed on the matter, Huang pointed to the need to restore the county’s leadership core and recommended the establishment of a revolutionary committee to gradually train up a new group of cadres. The second issue was to provide for the material needs of surviving victims of the massacre and for some 20,000 people who had fled the county. Finally, there was the matter of satisfying calls for punishment of the instigators and perpetrators of the killings. “My view is that those who killed black elements should be let off for the time being and dealt with later. We first need to go after those who killed out of revenge or to snatch women or property, and those who instigated killings or who directed them behind the scenes, and punish them according to law, showing no mercy to the most heinous offenders.”
Hua Guofeng said, “You can move faster on establishing organs of power. There’s no need for preparatory groups or such things—just set up a revolutionary committee and shorten the process. Regarding how to handle the killings, after you’ve established the revolutionary committee, clarify the situation and work out the various categories so you can get an idea of the scope of handling it through legal processes. Write a report with recommendations and send it up, but for the time being don’t deal with anyone except those who continue to harm the people or particularly heinous offenders who are preparing to flee. The rest can be handled in a uniform fashion once a policy has been formulated. As for bringing back family members who have fled and making proper arrangements for them, this is a very important practical issue. I think that no matter what, you must first get them to come back and not allow them to continue roaming around the country. For current hardships, you’ll need to take relief funds back with you. How much do you think you’ll need?”
Huang Yida said boldly, “Let’s start with 400,000.” (That was a considerable sum at the time.)
Hua Guofeng made no objection and told his secretary to write a memo to the provincial Department of Civil Affairs approving the sum.
Huang Yida returned to Daoxian on January 6, 1968. Apart from assigning staff to handle relief requests and settlement arrangements for the families of victims, Huang focused on establishing leadership groups in each district and commune to take charge of production and operational matters in the countryside, and on lifting the lid off the massacre.
The 6950 Unit focused most of its energies on quickly establishing Daoxian’s revolutionary committee on March 1, 1968. Huang Yida was appointed vice chairman, while 6950 Unit political commissar Sun Runqing served as the committee’s chairman. The revolutionary committee’s power structure remained military in nature, and the heads of each organ under the revolutionary committee were comrades from the 6950 Unit, with deputy heads drawn from the community through direct appointment by the military.
Soon after the revolutionary committee was established, Huang Yida and two leaders of the 6950 Unit convened “exposure study sessions” at the county grain depot (the county CCP school in Dongmen) for all work unit leaders, representatives of the two mass organization factions, and more than 250 people involved in the killings. The study session consisted of establishing fact and talking reason and didn’t involve beating, struggle, or extorting confessions through torture. People who had engaged in serious errors that involved killing others were given an equal opportunity to defend themselves and expose the errors of others. At the same time, each district and commune established a special investigation team to investigate and verify issues brought to light during the exposure study sessions.
News of the exposure study sessions spread rapidly, and an increasing number of people began attending. Some used their personal experience to expose and accuse others, while others hurried to the county seat from remote regions to make tearful denunciations. The study sessions continued for 21 days at various levels and, combined with investigation and verification work, resulted in a series of reports submitted to the prefectural and provincial revolutionary committees, which established that some 6,000 people had been killed. The classic cases I’ve highlighted in this book came to light during these study sessions.
Not long after the sessions began, an eye-catching piece of doggerel appeared on the wall between the county PAFD headquarters and the county CCP committee offices:
Little cockerel, don’t strut too much,
Your crowing days are done;
The left hand grabs you to cut off your head,
The right hand grabs you for the fattening cage.
The people running the study sessions were shocked. Refusing to be intimidated, Huang Yida went to the leaders of the 6950 Unit’s Support-the-Left group and said, “So many people died in the massacre, and the methods were so brutal, it defied every human and divine law. If we don’t thoroughly expose it and deal with it, it will bring our party into disrepute and plague future generations. We have to continue these sessions until the truth becomes clear.” The leaders of the 6950 Unit were in full agreement.
Liu Xiangxi’s responsibilities in the county CCP committee standing committee covered finance and trade, and at first he had little interest in the study sessions, especially since he felt slighted at only being appointed to the revolutionary committee’s standing committee. Now, reading the doggerel painted on the wall, he was so angry that he reverted to form, telling Huang Yida, “Secretary Yida, what are we waiting for? Submit the reports quickly, and then let’s kill some of those fellows, while arresting some and removing others.”
Huang Yida said, “At this point we’re still investigating the problem and raising awareness. Dealing with those responsible will have to wait for later.”
Liu Xiangxi said, “Secretary Yida, you’re too softhearted.”
Huang Yida said, “Comrade Xiangxi, I’m not softhearted. Chairman Mao instructs us to be extra careful in dealing with people; a human head isn’t like a leek that can grow back again after it’s cut off. Comrade Guofeng has also directed us to leave the handling of those responsible for a later stage when the provincial leadership comes out with a unified policy. Don’t worry. We have this material and ironclad evidence, and there’s no way they’ll escape.”
Why was Huang Yida so reluctant to follow through? I asked him this at one point. He muttered ruefully, “I just didn’t want to take things too far. …”
I posed the same question to an old Daoxian cadre who knew Huang Yida very well. He said, “I’ve thought about this question for a long time. In the final analysis, I think it boils down to six reasons: one was that Huang had the material in hand and ironclad evidence, and he could take it out at any time. He never guessed that the upper-level leaders might not understand the truth as clearly as we did. The second reason was that there were still false rumors misrepresenting the killings as an overreaction by the poor and lower-middle peasants to a genuine threat by class enemies. The third was that people were killed under the banner of defending the Red regime. The fourth was our failure to recognize the nature and ruthless repetitiveness of line struggle within the party, and our belief that the larger picture was settled. The fifth was underestimating the social influence of the killers. The sixth was that Huang Yida had been too heavily influenced by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius. In a word, he was too naive and too shallow in his understanding of Chinese society and politics.”