Yongdingmen Railway Station looks south to the north, facing Taoranting Park across the moat.
The front of the train station is the ticket office and exit. On the east side of the square paved with cement bricks, there is a seven- to eight-meter-wide aisle. It is an empty space when you enter. If you want to find the entrance and waiting room, you must turn here to see it.
The waiting room is at the innermost part of the airport. The door opens to the east and faces several tall poplar trees. It was from here that Hong Yanwu was ejected by the duty officer just now.
This train station is actually quite famous, because it later became the most important high-speed rail hub in the country - Beijing South Station. However, it would not be officially renamed until 1988. It is similar to what Hong Yanwu remembered. The current Yongdingmen Railway Station
It is still a backward and chaotic old station with quite backward public facilities.
If you look around, the most intuitive feeling now is that the train station building is low and the glass is dirty. Not to mention that the ticket window is just a row of small wooden windows, and even the waiting room looks like a simple iron shed.
From outside it, you can see the high overpass inside the station.
In addition, not only are many of the floor tiles in the square broken, but the paint on the iron guardrails has also almost peeled off. There are many places where the surrounding brick walls have collapsed and lacked bricks and tiles. There is another special feature here.
The phenomenon is that there are still many relics from the "movement" period on the broken brick walls. Those big-character posters posted on the walls are unknown because they have experienced too much wind and rain, or they were treated as useless.
The paper was torn off secretly, and most of it was torn, and was blown violently by the wind. Besides these, tourists were allowed to squat, lie down, and litter as they pleased in the square without anyone interfering.
No one wants to believe that such a chaotic place is less than ten kilometers away from Tiananmen. But in fact, this objective situation has always existed. Speaking of which, this is all because Yongdingmen Station was designated as temporary during construction.
The station has hardly been renovated in the following thirty years.
However, it is precisely because Yongdingmen Station specializes in dispatching local and temporary trains and is the most popular station in Beijing, so only trains departing from here will stop at Chadian Station.
Chadian Station is actually the least popular third-class station on the Jingshan Railway. It is so simple that it doesn’t even have a platform. Express trains never stop there, and the local trains only stop at the station for two minutes. Most of the people getting on and off there are labor camps and people going to the station.
Visiting family members. The reason why this small station has the significance of existence is entirely because of the nearby "Qinghe Farm".
The reform-through-labor team known as "Qinghe Farm" is the first large-scale reform-through-labor farm in the new society. It was originally established to train Kuomintang agents. The word "Qinghe" in its name actually does not refer to the river, but to "Qingqing River".
"Water cleanses the soul" means "Qinghe Farm" is actually the most formal name, but because people have to get on and off at Chadian Station, everyone still calls it Chadian Labor Camp.
A year ago, Hong Yanwu took the bus from here and was escorted to Qinghe Farm. Similarly, he also had to take this slow train from Chadian Station back to Beijing. In fact, as of yesterday, he had spent 300 days at Qinghe Farm.
Eighty-eight days.
"Woo——!"
A long and piercing whistle came from the station. It was an old-fashioned steam train, full of power and passion.
Hong Yanwu was awakened by the deafening sound of the whistle, and stopped facing the glass window and continued to be in a daze. He put away the certificate of release from religion, the certificate of leave, and the train ticket stub, and then began to count all his belongings.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he took out a brown-red banknote with a pattern of steel workers on it, he was distracted again.
He will never forget that these five dollars were forced upon him by Captain Xue before he was sent to the train.
Captain Xue was the warden of Chadian. His family was in dire straits. The whole family depended on the old man’s salary. He knew that in order to squeeze out five yuan, the old man would have to eat steamed buns and pickles for countless days, so he would never
Received it. But Captain Xue did not allow him to refuse, saying that he did not want him to have other ideas because he had no money. He actually held his hand firmly and forced the money to him.
In addition, Captain Lao Xue, because he was afraid that he would encounter some unsolvable troubles on the road, deliberately left the farm's phone number for him with a pen in the upper left corner of the "Steelmaking Worker" in the space with a lot of blank space in advance, "26110-
—9”.
He really didn't know what to say to all this, so he could only call Uncle Xue and bow deeply to Captain Xue.
Perhaps it was pity that he was sent to a labor camp with adults at such a young age. This kind-hearted old man really took good care of him during his more than a year in the labor camp. To be honest, he never thought that Uncle Xue was a
The policeman is just a kind-hearted old man, a rare kind-hearted person with a smile on his face. Uncle Xue treats him no worse than a real father. This time he returned to Beijing after being released from prison, all because of old Xue
With the captain's help, the field director approved eight more days of leave and gave him fifteen days of family leave. And on the morning of his return to Beijing, it was this old man who dropped him off as if he were his son.
's station.
Hong Yanwu still remembered the scene when Captain Xue saw him off on the train back to Beijing.
On March 21, that is, this morning, the moment the train stopped, he jumped on it.
But before the train started, Captain Xue, who had been freezing with him for more than half an hour, was shivering and repeatedly told him, "Don't make your parents angry, and don't cause trouble when you go back. Learn well and remember."
"
When he thought of this, the corners of Hong Yanwu's eyes became a little wet, and he quickly rubbed it with the back of his hand.
In his last life, he was a white-eyed wolf and let the old man hurt him in vain. This time, he doesn't mind. He will definitely listen to Uncle Xue.
In his previous life, after this vacation, according to regulations, he should have returned to the farm to work. His household registration would also be officially settled in Chadian, and he would completely lose his qualifications to be a Beijing resident.
But after he returned to Beijing last time, he did not go home at all, nor did he return to the farm to work. Instead, he wandered around the society for two years. It was because of this choice that he and his father suffered lifelong regrets.
And this time, he will never let the past happen again.
Hong Yanwuti turned his nose and counted down.
This "Steelmaking Five Yuan" was actually the largest denomination of banknotes in his hand. In addition, the remaining notes in his hand were some dimes and cents.
Not to mention, he hadn’t seen these tickets for a long time. Among these coins, the most novel thing he looked at was the green five-cent note. Not to mention the warship pattern on the note, even the one that had ever existed in the world
He had almost forgotten about banknotes of this denomination.
In fact, there are three types of paper coins like this, one cent, two cents and five cents. They all belong to the second set of RMB issued in 1955. Since most of the second set of RMB have been recycled and stopped for use,
There are only this kind of small-denomination paper cents left in normal circulation on the market. In fact, this kind of small-denomination cents can still be seen until the third set of RMB was withdrawn from the circulation market, but by then only
The most common yellow one-cent note.
Soon, the remaining loose coins were counted. There were three dollars and a half in banknotes, and a 13-cent steel pen. Together with the five-yuan bills, the total was eight dollars and sixty-eight cents.
This is all the cash he has on him. Don't mention it, it's quite an auspicious number.
After ordering the money, there are also food stamps.
People living in the 21st century can buy food freely, but in this era, if you want to buy any food, you almost have to show food stamps. In later generations, some people described food stamps as "eating passports", while others called them "food stamps".
"Second currency". In fact, food stamps are far more important than real currency. They should be called "survival passport" and "first currency". Without food stamps, no matter how much money there is, people can starve to death. This
Definitely a special case in the ticket era.
The food stamps in Hong Yanwu's hands were all issued by Chadian Farm. Although the farm had long since left the capital, it was still under the management of the Beijing Labor Reform Bureau, so the tickets issued were all capital food stamps, so there was no problem that they could not be used in other places.
He had to rely on these tickets to fill his stomach during the family vacation.
To put it bluntly, food stamps, a small piece of paper less than half the size of a matchbox, are more diverse than RMB. This is because people's diet at that time was more staple food than non-staple food, and non-staple food was mainly vegetables.
.So people have no food in their stomachs, which leads to a large demand for food. And there are more coarse grains than fine grains in the food supply. So food stamps become all kinds. Taking Beijing as an example, the supply ratio at this time is 20% rice and 40% rice.
White flour, 40% corn flour, is jokingly called "two white and one yellow" by the common people.
The food stamps that Hong Yanwu ordered totaled twelve kilograms and three taels. Among them, the rice stamps were one and a half kilograms, the face stamps were five kilograms and one tael, and the rest were coarse grain stamps. In addition, there was another two taels of oil stamps.
Tickets are not used to fill up cars with gasoline in later generations, but are used to buy cooking oil at the grain store.
As for that old key…
Hong Yanwu really couldn't remember it.
These two cigarette butts?
Go, what the hell.
Hong Yanwu shook his hand, flicked away the two cigarette butts without hesitation, and put only half the box of matches back into his pocket. But as soon as he finished throwing them away, he also remembered.
Not to mention, he actually had this kind of hobby when he was in a labor camp.
It turned out that at that time, Hong Yanwu liked cleaning the offices of the correctional cadres the most, and he was praised for his positive attitude. But his purpose was not that simple. The real reason was because he was eyeing the cigarette butts and clean letter paper in the dustpan.
The main method is to break out the shredded tobacco from the cigarette butt and make it into a "roll" that is "twisted" by hand, commonly known as a "cannon".
The farm did not allow students to smoke, so Hong Yanwu could only smoke these hand-rolled "cannons" to satisfy his addiction. No one knew about this, and in order to keep it secret, he didn't even tell Chen Liquan.
He didn't feel embarrassed about smoking butts. He could do whatever he wanted at any time, and it was better than others smoking without cigarettes. Moreover, through this incident, he also learned that the correctional officers kept their cigarette butts very short, which made him feel more miserable.
He felt sorry for them. The two cigarette butts he threw away were probably the "souvenirs" he had hidden on his body.
In short, his current property has been counted. A total of eight yuan and sixty-eight cents in RMB, a total of twelve catties and three taels of food stamps, two taels of gas stamps, half a box of matches, a key...
Oh, no. Hong Yanwu suddenly remembered that there was a bedroll thrown on the ground in the square behind him.
He turned around and searched all the way back, only to find that there were only cigarette butts and scraps of paper. The dirty, torn, and oily bedding was actually gone.
Was it thrown away by the garbage collector? Or was it taken away by someone else? Will anyone still want this thing?
Yes, just lose it. He simply gave up looking for it.
The climate in Beijing in 1977 was no better than that of later generations. There were fewer buildings and cars, and there was no greenhouse effect. It was still very cold at the end of March. A small wind blew through, like a small knife. Hong Yanwu couldn't help but shudder, and he really shivered a little.
He was not wearing the black clothes and trousers from the labor camp. The blouse outside the cotton-padded jacket and trousers was a white-washed people's uniform. His buttocks, knees, and elbows were all patched, and he wore a pair of worn-out black cotton trousers on his feet.
The cotton on the uppers of his shoes has already exposed. Thirty years later, his outfit will definitely be a magic weapon that is not passed down to the beggars. He might be able to become a disciple of the Six-Packs, but in this era, it would not attract anyone's attention.
He stood in the square, just like a leaf in the green grass, inconspicuous.
This is not surprising, patching clothes is too common in this era of lack of food and clothing. "Three years for the new, three years for the old, and another three years for mending." This was the living standard of the society at that time. Everyone was the same
Soaked in sweat and wearing patches, everyone is leading the trend of simplicity.
In addition, the "Ten Years' Movement" also led to the "unification" of the Republic's clothing, so that people all over the country look the same. When it comes to clothing colors, almost all are blue (including blue and black), military green (including military yellow)
The three "oldest colors" are gray. The clothing styles are just the "third clothes" such as military casual clothes, cadre uniforms, and work clothes (youth clothes). These clothes are sweeping the country and are worn by both men and women. And because of this kind of obliteration of individuality
Due to the politicized clothing and fashion, the people of the Republic are ridiculed by Westerners as the same-style "blue ants".
Perhaps many people born in the 1980s and 1990s will find this scene very vulgar and ridiculous. From their perspective, the capital has simply become a city occupied by beggars, and all the people these days can be compared to "sharp"
"Brother". But in this special era, everyone is like this. Dressing simply is a kind of honor, but also a kind of helplessness. This is the reason of the big era, not the problem of any one person.
Hong Yanwu held his cotton-padded jacket tighter and began to look left and right, identifying the direction and looking for a way out.
This is an old train station more than thirty years ago. People are coming and going on bicycles. Passengers are either carrying luggage on their backs or carrying bedding in their hands. They rush past him. Everyone’s face looks like
All so far away yet so close.
Although everything in front of him was ordinary, it was like a dream to him. When he thought about being in 2012 not long ago, how could he not feel panic? How could he not be excited?
The moist feeling in his eyes came again, and he couldn't help but want to shout in his heart.
1977! I, Hong Yanwu, am back to fight!
But just as he clenched his fists, a particularly provocative sentence popped up in his mind.
Why do I always have tears in my eyes? Because I love this land deeply...
He immediately had an impulse and even wanted to roll on the dirt-filled ground so that the soil of his hometown could get closer to him.
In the cold wind, his eyes were red and his nose was twitching, looking like a naughty child who was aggrieved by his father's punishment.
At this time, a long-lost bungalow in the courtyard inevitably jumped out of his heart.
East courtyard of No. 2 Furuli.
When he thought of going home, a warm feeling of excitement immediately rippled through his body. There were his relatives there, his parents and sister who were still alive, and his brothers who still regarded him as his younger brother. Even Chen Liquan was still alive and well.