During the Cultural Revolution, in addition to studying political theory at school and conducting struggles and reforms at school, we red soldiers also had to participate in activities organized by the street when we returned home. At that time, the neighborhood committee had to build a “Xiangyang courtyard” in each compound. Our hutong only had two courtyards, so they were unified into one “Xiangyang courtyard”.
On the day “Xiangyangyuan” was established, the neighborhood committee gathered residents from our two yards for a meeting in our yard. The reason why they are all concentrated in our yard is because our yard is relatively bright, and the courtyard next door has exactly the same pattern as ours (because the building we live in and the building next door are the same townhouse built by the British) ), but the neighbor’s yard was occupied by the director’s family of the neighborhood committee who lived on the first floor, and the yard was full of crops. The husband of the director of the neighborhood committee is very domineering. He put up a fence in the yard and guarded it every day. The two sons are also very powerful. People in our two yards dare not provoke this family. Therefore, their yard is far less lively than ours.
During the meeting, the director of the neighborhood committee who lives in the yard next door first gave a speech. Talk about the establishment of “Xiangyangyuan” in other courtyards, and then announce that our “Xiangyangyuan” has also been officially established. Naturally, she is also the director of the “Xiangyang Yard”, and she appointed a few people to take up their respective positions. It is unclear what these positions are for, and the people in the two courtyards applauded, and it was considered a pass.
This “Xiangyangyuan” really has something to do, or the power that can really be mobilized is probably us children. After the inaugural meeting, the director of the neighborhood committee brought a white cloth with red “Youth Red Sentinel” printed on it, and asked us children to cut out a “Youth Red Sentinel” pattern, and then took it home to find a piece The cardboard is used as the inner lining, and the pattern is covered on the top, sewn from the back, and pinned to the chest, just like the badges of the Red Soldier and the Red Guard. After finishing, we will gather in our yard.
According to the request of the director of the neighborhood committee, each of us rushed home, each showed his talents, and quickly made badges, and returned to the village one after another in less than an hour. to our yard. Everyone wore this kind of badge with red letters on a white background and lined up in a neat line, and then the director of the neighborhood committee appointed a person to be the captain, and asked everyone to take a red-tasseled gun or something, and take turns to stand guard on the street. My family never had any “weapons” such as red-tasseled guns or wooden pistols and wooden knives, so I formed a group with my bare hands and another child carrying a red-tasseled gun, and officially “on duty” according to the location stipulated by the street.
At that time, the big cities were actually a traditional society in China. Due to strict household registration control, people who walked on the street were neighbors and acquaintances, and strangers were rarely seen. Occasionally, one or two beggars or mental patients can be seen begging for food. In addition, some farmers who came to the city from the countryside secretly exchanged food stamps for peanuts and melon seeds. The main duty of our “Youth Red Sentinels” is to “discover bad guys and catch spies”.
In the era of “never forget class struggle”, people, especially children, were very obedient, always tightening the string of “class struggle”, ready to act like Fight to catch the “bad guys” and “agents” as the movie shows.
It’s ridiculous to say, we probably watched too many movies at that time, and anyone who walked past a stranger or someone who we thought was “thug-eyed” would call them Bringing it into the scene of the “secret agent” in the movie, I am also like the children’s team members who “check the road” in the movie, stopping people for questioning in a big way.
Once, several of us “Youth Red Sentinels” were standing on the road “on duty”. The middle-aged man in the padded jacket was carrying a travel bag in his hand and wearing a pair of glasses. At first glance, he did not live here. There were a lot of us, and we felt that this person was very much like a spy, so we stopped him and asked him where he was from. The person saw that our children were interrogating him like a mental patient, and ignored us and walked in front of us. The few of us immediately raised our vigilance, and followed the man to see where he was going and who he was going to connect with. After following him, we found that the man entered our yard and went directly upstairs. It turned out to be my building. A relative of Grandpa C. We immediately scattered like birds and beasts in dejection.
Actually, where are there so many spies for you to catch! Moreover, the real spies, let alone us children, even adults can’t find out. In our Five Avenues area, there really was a special agent at that time. This person was Li Bendong, a cadre of the sub-district office. He was captured and sentenced to death in the late seventies.