In early 2007, the site of the former Zhachudong Prison in Geyue Mountain, Chongqing, was damaged by flash floods. Relevant departments quickly rushed to the scene to conduct exploration. During this exploration, workers discovered a mysterious hole in a cell.
Some of the items hidden in the cave once again reveal the heavy history of the past. Why, then, is there a hole in this cell? And what are the things that are hidden?
Let's unravel these mysteries.
Chongqing Dregs Cave, this is a special place. At the end of 1937, the Kuomintang moved its capital to Chongqing, and most of the ** organs were transferred to Wuhan. With the defeat of the frontal battlefield of resistance against Japan, these magnates gradually marched to the southwest.
Dai Li's military commander had a branch in Chongqing, but when he brought a large number of troops over, there was not enough place for the branch, and he needed a prison that was both safe and had enough space.
After careful selection, he chose a suburban villa at the foot of Clarion Mountain. This villa was originally the property of a small warlord in Sichuan, and Dai Li bought it at a price far below the market price, which is the "White Mansion".
After buying the villa, the military commanders converted it into a secret prison for "serious" political prisoners, mostly Communists and patriots, where up to more than 200 prisoners were held.
In 1943, the United States cooperated with the Kuomintang, and the White Mansion became a guest house, and the former prisoners had nowhere to go. In order to solve this problem, the military commander's agents began to look for a new place of detention.
Soon, the "scum hole" was discovered. Because of the poor quality of coal produced by this small coal mine and the large amount of slag, the local people call it the "scum hole". The military commander's spies chose the scum cave because it was surrounded by mountains on three sides, the terrain was dangerous, and it was easy to defend.
Machine guns were erected from the commanding heights, making it difficult for the prisoners to escape. In addition, the dregs cave is remote and has limited access to it, making it easy to imprison criminals. What's more, the dregs cave is not far from the White Mansion, which is convenient for transferring prisoners.
The excavated caverns can be converted into prison cells, which are ideal for the needs of military commanders.
In 1943, all the prisoners who had been held in the White Mansion were transferred to the Dregs Cave. Then, in 1946, the military commander integrated the prisons around Geyue Mountain, and the dregs cave was expanded to accommodate inmates from other prisons.
By this time, there were more than 300 prisoners in the scum cave.
After the reopening of the dregs cave, the heroic martyrs such as Sister Jiang, Xiao Radish and their parents, as well as Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan and other authors who later wrote "Red Rock", they became a forbidden area in this area, and the outside world was not allowed to snoop, and the nearby people had to take a detour, otherwise they might be attacked by the Kuomintang soldiers.
Since then, the horror of the scum cave has reached its peak, and it has laid the groundwork for the later **.
At the end of the Liberation War, the defeat of the Kuomintang was decided, and everyone from the top to the grassroots was running for their own way out. However, a small group of war criminals who had committed many crimes began their madness at this time.
In August 1949, Mao Renfeng personally arranged Yang Hucheng's plan, including Yang Hucheng's secretary Song Qiyun's family, and the 8-year-old little radish head.
Little Radish Head's parents are both members of the Communist Party, and they were sent to work under Yang Hucheng, and later because they were with Yang Hucheng, they were tragically harmed by the military commander's spies on the eve of liberation.
After killing Yang Hucheng's family, in order to cover up the crime, they actually poured nitric acid on the corpse, and then buried the corpse in a pre-dug pit. In order to prevent the news from leaking, they also spread Sanhe soil on the pit in an attempt to completely destroy the incriminating evidence.
This period of history is heart-wrenching, and it also makes us deeply aware of the hard-won nature of peace. We should cherish our present life, but at the same time, we must not forget history, and we should learn from it, remind ourselves, and keep moving forward.
The prisoners in the scum cave are living evidence of the secret service's crimes, and their presence makes them feel more and more nervous about the approach of the front-line PLA. They have already made a start, and they can only go all the way to the dark, ready to brutally kill the prisoners.
In November 1949, most of Sichuan had been liberated, and the sound of our army's artillery could already be heard on the outskirts of Chongqing, and the military commander's spies had been cornered.
At the signal of Mao Renfeng, the spies began to shoot the people in the Bai Mansion in batches, killing a total of three groups of people, and Sister Jiang was among them, and died on November 14, 1949.
In order to stabilize the people's hearts, the military commander's spies escorted three groups of people under the pretext of transfer. But this is clearly unconscionable and raises suspicions. They did not sit idly by, but contacted the guards who had already had progressive ideas, and planned to escape from prison before the military commander's spies were on guard, and directly break through the guards by force to find their comrades.
However, the military command decided to control everyone and concentrate them in the scum hole. Then, they fired at the crowd with machine guns, and the mine was filled with gunsmoke and a thick smell of blood, and a large number of unprepared comrades fell in pools of blood.
In order to protect their comrades, the martyrs on the periphery bravely walked towards the muzzle of the gun, and more than 30 uninjured comrades took advantage of the opportunity of their comrades to run towards a gap in the wall, and more than a dozen martyrs died.
In the end, only 15 people managed to escape, and 19 were still in the White Mansion, and the guards who were in charge of guarding them let them out at the last minute. These people are the last survivors of the scum hole.
After the liberation of Chongqing, the dregs cave became a patriotic education center, and the building was repaired and maintained in its original appearance. But in 2007, a rare flash flood damaged the building, and reconstruction began.
While tidying up the women's prison building, workers discovered a hole in the ground that had been dug by hand. After being inspected by engineers, it was confirmed that this was not a naturally occurring collapse.
It was a place where Sister Jiang and other female prisoners were held, and it is said that they had tried to escape by digging holes in the ground. Workers quickly cleaned up the debris, revealing the full picture of the cave.
The cave is quite spacious, about half a meter wide, it is impossible to hide people at all, and the depth is relatively limited, it seems that Sister Jiang and the others do not want to escape from prison by digging a hole in the ground, but may want to hide something.
In addition to the earth, there are also some iron tools in the cave, which have rusted due to age, but they can still be seen in their original appearance. According to expert research, these iron tools may be excavation tools, or they may be the ** when Sister Jiang and others were preparing to escape from prison.
Under the close supervision of the military commander's agents, the martyrs carefully collected iron ** and secretly hid them in their burrows, waiting for the opportunity to revolt. However, at the last moment when Chongqing was about to be liberated, the military commander's spies brutally killed them, and these ** were buried in the ground together.
It wasn't until after a flash flood that the items hidden in the cave were rediscovered. From these objects hidden in the burrows, we can feel the determination and courage of those revolutionary martyrs to still stick to their beliefs and try to save themselves in extremely harsh environments.
This optimistic and strong spirit is awe-inspiring, even under the cruelty of the Kuomintang, suffered inhuman abuse, but under the guidance of faith, they stick to their beliefs and make indelible contributions to the liberation of the country.
There were many Communist Party members in the scum cave, and they set up secret party branches, and used the strict "Eight Articles in Prison" to demand that all party members, leading cadres, and all prisoners unite as one to fight against the torture of high pressure.
In general, Sister Jiang and their comrades-in-arms did not give up hope of survival, took advantage of every possible opportunity, looked forward to the arrival of the dawn, and continued to persist in order to meet the most beautiful future.
In the caves of the scum cave, the patriots were not only iron-clad, they kept in touch with the party organization in various ways, tried to instigate the military unification spies, and used all their might.
When the good news of the founding of the People's Republic of China reached the dregs cave, they were overjoyed, as the pioneers of history, they were fortunate to participate in this important historical turning point, what a joyful thing!
To express this joy, some comrades proposed to sew a five-star red flag themselves. However, due to their isolation from the outside world, they did not know what the five-star red flag looked like, so they could only rely on their imagination to sew bright red flags with quilts and threads.
The flag was hidden in the mezzanine of the wall, evading the burning of the spies, and was later discovered by the People's Liberation Army and kept in the Dregs Cave Memorial Hall, attracting many tourists to pay their respects.
In the thrilling escape from prison at Geyue Mountain, the prison comrades deliberately left a gap in the wall to prepare for a last-minute escape. The collapsed wall was asked by the guards to be repaired by the prisoners, and everyone took the opportunity to make the otherwise flat wall embedded with cotton and rags, which could be opened with a light push and became the last escape route.
However, the madness of the agents was exposed at this last moment, and they chose ** to cover up the crime, most of them fell in pools of blood, and only a few managed to escape.
This tragic history was remembered by the survivors and spread to the outside world as witnesses, and the Hongyan spirit was born and became a part of the Chinese revolutionary spirit.
In 2007, the dregs cave was completely renovated, and in order to better preserve this historical site, in 2020, the protection project of the old site of the dregs cave will be fully launched.
In the process, both the architecture and the topography will be preserved intact so that more people can understand the history of that suffering. The story of the Dregs Cave cannot be expressed in words, it reflects the loyalty of Sister Jiang and other Communist Party members and progressives to the country and the nation, and the spirit of sticking to their original intentions even in difficult times, which is commendable.
They used their blood and lives to interpret the perseverance of Communist Party members, and made contributions to the founding of New China with practical actions.
Now, the White Mansion and the Dregs Cave Memorial Hall are open to the public free of charge, and many people come to visit the tombs every year to express their respect for the martyrs. The green mountains are still the same, the motherland and the people will never forget them, and the spirit of the martyrs will be immortalized.
Although we live in an era of peace and have never experienced the tribulations of war, we can deeply feel the pain and hardship from the stories of individual heroes, which countless heroes and martyrs have paid for with their lives.
Let us cherish the beautiful life in front of us, remember history, stick to our mission, realize our value through our own efforts, make China continue to grow stronger, and contribute our strength to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which is our due responsibility.