Less than twenty years after the victory of the War of Liberation, New China ushered in the most serious cultural destruction in Chinese history. The storm of destroying the Four Olds was triggered by a 1966 People's Daily editorial - "Sweeping away all the demons and monsters".
The storm surged, and with lightning speed, it swept across the entire land of China within a few months!
In this craze, students once again became the main force of the revolution. A large number of Red Guards composed of students were stationed in various Red Guard war schools (after the rise of breaking the four olds, schools, shops, and roads were all given such revolutionary titles)
Under the leadership of teachers, important cultural heritage such as cultural relics, books, calligraphy and paintings are regarded as the top priority among the "revolutionary" objects.
They angrily attacked monasteries and monuments, destroyed Buddhist statues and antiques, confiscated and burned famous calligraphy and paintings, classical scriptures, and dug up tombs of imperial mausoleums, all in full swing!
In November of this year, ten middle school teachers from a certain place in Hunan led tens of thousands of Red Guards to bravely rush into the Yan Emperor Mausoleum! In one day, they destroyed the main hall of Yan Mausoleum and its ancillary buildings.
They dug up the mausoleum, snatched away all the contents, and finally razed them all to the ground! Among those ten teachers, there was one named Qian, who was my grandfather.
Speaking of my grandfather, he was not a teacher originally, but made a living by restoring ancient artifacts in Beijing. He studied under Gong Maolin, and Gong Maolin’s master was Waiziyu, one of the eight eccentric artists of the Qing Dynasty.
He once worked in the Construction Office of the Qing Palace and left the palace during the Revolution of 1911. He made a living by repairing ancient artifacts near the Qing Palace and had seven disciples.
But during a business trip, my grandfather fell in love with an imperial copper-bodied enamel yellow ground flower-controlled teapot. After careful consideration, he finally decided to leave Beijing with this teapot at starry night and return to his hometown of Lingxian County, Zhuzhou. In order to make a living and be able to
I knew how to write, so I became a Chinese studies teacher in the local middle school before the Four Olds were destroyed. Friends who play antiques should know how valuable this kind of pot is in modern times. In fact, whenever I think of this matter, I always express myself.
I burst into tears and deeply felt how wise my grandfather was back then!
My grandfather not only became a teacher, but also became a Red Guard by accident, but what attracted him most were the cultural relics and antiques buried underground. Therefore, when destroying Yanling, my grandfather used various means, including robbery and fraud.
I got a lot of dug-out antiquities. That day, my grandfather was so excited that he drank wine all night with five of the teachers!
With the burning of the excavated antiquities, the tide of "revolution" seemed to have swept away from Ling County. When the highly motivated Red Guards pointed their spearhead elsewhere again, strange things happened to the ten leading teachers that night.
The first person to bear the brunt was Wang Da, the oldest of the ten teachers.
After the night of drinking, suddenly there was a strong wind and thunder, and dozens of lightning bolts struck Ling County like wild dragons. The boundless rainstorm made a loud noise like a ghost crying, calling people back from the dreamland of joy of the victory of the revolution. The children were trembling.
Nestled in the arms of his parents, his horrified eyes stared at Luyuanpo west of the county seat. Because there, that is, the Yanling Land that had just been destroyed today, was emitting a red light that reached the sky. Under the flickering roar of thunder and lightning, the entire place was covered.
The night is painted blood red!
Wang Da, who was already a little drunk, took advantage of the alcohol and ignored the dissuasion of his grandfather and others. He put on a piece of tattered oilcloth, hummed a revolutionary ditty, and disappeared into the night in high spirits. The remaining people waited until dark the next day.
Only when it was bright did I dare to get up and go home.
But the wind, rain, and thunder did not stop, and it continued day and night for three days. When the dark clouds dispersed and the thunder and lightning stopped, people were horrified to find that the land for several miles around Yanling had turned blood red!
Large tracts of trees in the mountains turned into charcoal in these three days!
Just when my grandfather was preparing to go to Yanling to find out what was going on in fear, Wang Da's wife found her grandfather's house anxiously: "Xiaoqian, I haven't come home for three days! I didn't know about him until this morning.
Let’s drink here at night! Do you know where Wang Da is?”
"Why do you have to go home!?" Grandfather looked at Wang Da's wife with a serious look on his face. He already knew that something bad was going on, but he still said truthfully: "Wang Da, he, he went home that night!"
"Oh, you damn Wang Da, where did you go? You should have sent me a letter..." Immediately he burst into tears at his grandfather's house.
The grandfather was in a hurry and hurriedly persuaded Wang Da's wife to stop: "Sister-in-law is crying! It's important to find him first!"
After saying that, he followed Wang Da's wife out and called a few people who were drinking together that night. Everyone searched back and forth for his grandfather many times on the way to Wang's house, but still found no trace of him!
At this time, someone suddenly said: "He wouldn't have walked to Yanling in a daze?"
At this moment, everyone did not dare to delay, and hurriedly ran towards Luyuanpo. Before they reached Yanling, several people were frightened by the sudden appearance of blood-red soil under their feet, and their legs were shaking. When they stepped on it, the ground was full of moisture.
, a layer of light water halo was pressed out, which was the color of the soil, just like thick blood!