In 1963, a group of young and strong young men were logging in a forest farm in Wanzai County, Jiangxi Province.
Among them, a worker named Guo Xingren picked up a rotten black leather box in the nearby woods. Apart from some scraps of paper, there was only a seal left in it, which looked pretty good.
However, he did not see anything special about this seal. After returning, he handed the seal to Guo Taoren, the logging captain and his brother.
Unexpectedly, Guo Taoren went to the county for a meeting a few days later and was taken to the Public Security Bureau.
And the "culprit" of all this turned out to be the two random stamps he used to stamp the book with the seal he picked up.
So, why does this seal appear here? What is so special about it?
A red seal picked up by accident
Guo Taoren is from Pingjiang County, Hunan Province. Since his family was so poor that it was almost impossible to open the pot, he wanted to go out and try his luck.
However, as he is illiterate, he can only do some menial work. Not only is the salary not high, but there is also little room for improvement.
In 1958, Guo Taoren's friend came to him to reminisce about old times, and brought him good news: "A forestry farm is going to be developed in Wanzai County, Jiangxi Province, and they are now recruiting lumberjacks. I say you might as well try there."
Guo Taoren was very excited when he heard the news. Although the logging work is hard, as long as you work hard, the pay is really good.
Besides, in that era, forest farms were formal units, so this job couldn't be better for him.
So Guo Taoren signed up and became an official lumberjack.
Guo Taoren was young, strong, and hard-working. He soon won the favor of the leader, who transferred him to , Tonggu County, and was promoted to the captain of the pit inspection logging team.
After Guo Taoren established a foothold here, he thought about giving his younger brother Guo Xingren a hand.
At that time, Guo Xingren was still staying in his hometown in Hunan and had never had a stable job.
Soon, Guo Xingren took his luggage to join his brother and became a woodcutter.
In the forest farm, the two brothers cooperated tacitly and soon became successful.
In October 1963, Guo Taoren led a group of workers to work in a forest farm. Due to tight time and heavy tasks, everyone was very motivated. As the team leader, Guo Taoren set an example.
On the morning of October, it was still chilly in the forest farm, but these lumberjacks were working enthusiastically and soon they were covered in sweat.
Suddenly, Guo Xingren, who was working, squatted down and held his stomach. The worker next to him quickly asked him: "Xingren, what's going on?"
Guo Xingren pressed his stomach and replied: "Maybe he caught a cold at night, a little uncomfortable. "
At this moment, Guo Taoren also came over to see why the work stopped here?
When Guo Xingren saw his brother coming, he said, "Brother, I'm going to make it easy. I feel so sick in my stomach."
Guo Taoren saw that his brother's face was pale and there were beads of sweat rolling down his head, so he waved his hand: "Hurry up and go. Move quickly, there is still a lot of work to do today."
So, Guo Xingren responded and hurried towards the uncultivated forest land next to him.
After he finished solving the problem, he was about to go back to work when he suddenly caught a glimpse of something black under the fallen leaves not far away, most of which was covered by the leaves.
Guo Xingren picked up a wooden stick from the side and swept away the fallen leaves.
What appeared in front of him was a black leather box.
Perhaps it has been too long, and a lot of the leather on the surface of the box has fallen off.
But looking at the quality of this box, is it possible that there is something good in it?
Thinking of this, Guo Xingren looked around, but there was no one except him.
Just like that, he quickly opened the box, but the contents inside made him disappointed.
saw some broken scraps of paper in the box. Since he was illiterate, he had no idea what was written on them.
But Guo Xingren didn't give up and pulled it twice with a stick. This time, what he saw was a red seal with a crossed sickle and hammer in the middle, and some words on the outer circle.
Because the rust on it is already a bit heavy, the other parts cannot be seen clearly.
Guo Xingren thought, since it was put in such a good leather box, it must be worth some money.
So he put the seal in his pocket and ran towards where he was working.
When he saw his brother coming back, Guo Taoren told him: "Why are you so slow? Go to work quickly and don't think about being lazy."
Guo Xingren, who felt that he had picked up a treasure, did not respond to his brother's scolding, so he started with a smile. own work.
When night fell, they finished their day's work and returned to the dormitory to rest.
went to the Public Security Bureau because of the seal
After Guo Xingren went back, he found an opportunity to wash the seal.
I saw that after some of the rust stains on it were washed away, the full picture was revealed. The raised words on
looked like they were made of silver, but he didn't recognize the words or what they were.
So, he quietly called Guo Taoren. Seeing his brother's mysterious look and even closing the door, Guo Taoren was puzzled: "What are you doing?"
Guo Xingren told him mysteriously: "I picked up something in the woods today, come here "Look what this is?"
Guo Taoren took the seal and looked at it carefully, but he couldn't see any clue.
At this moment, Guo Taoren suddenly remembered that there was a box of ink pads in his drawer, so he wanted to see what this seal could produce.
Since there was no paper at hand, Guo Taoren took out his new notebook, opened it and stamped a few stamps on it.
However, when the brothers looked left and right, they couldn't figure out anything except a few five-pointed stars.
Therefore, Guo Xingren put it in a drawer in his dormitory and asked someone when he was free.
But the brothers never expected that they would soon learn the origin of the seal, and they actually learned it from the county public security bureau.
A few days later, the county will hold a work meeting, and Guo Taoren, the captain of the logging team, will naturally go to listen to the meeting.
In order to record it conveniently, he took the stamped notebook.
After arriving at the venue, Guo Taoren quickly started chatting with the people next to him. After the
meeting started, everyone took out their notebooks and started recording, and Guo Taoren was no exception.
While waiting for the intermission, the comrade next to me had some things that he didn’t remember in detail, so he wanted to read Guo Taoren’s notes to supplement them.
Unexpectedly, there was not a word in the notebook, it was all dense symbols.
Seeing the puzzled look in his comrade's eyes, Guo Taoren explained: "I don't know the words, so I thought of a way to memorize them."
Seeing the excitement here, some people came over and pointed at the words above. Symbol: "Lao Guo, can you introduce to everyone what this is?"
Where others point to it, Guo Taoren will explain it to everyone.
To everyone's surprise, Guo Taoren remembered them all and was able to match them all.
Now, everyone is really convinced by his method.
However, when the comrade turned back two pages, the thing printed on the impression was clearly presented in front of everyone.
The comrade holding the notebook suddenly became serious, and he asked Guo Taoren: "What kind of seal is this?"
Guo Taoren replied honestly: "I don't know, I picked up the seal from the mountains. "
The comrade opposite said nothing and returned the notebook to Guo Taoren.
But Guo Taoren didn't take it seriously, thinking that the other party knew the seal.
When it was time for lunch, the loudspeaker outside the venue played in a loop: "Comrade Guo Taoren, please go to the Public Security Bureau after lunch."
After hearing the news, Guo Taoren was extremely nervous. After all, if nothing happened, why would he call himself to the Public Security Bureau?
But then he thought about it, he was not afraid of shadows. Maybe he just had some work that he needed to cooperate with the investigation.
After finishing lunch, Guo Taoren nervously stepped into the door of the Public Security Bureau. The police comrade who greeted him introduced him: "My surname is Pan, you can just call me Lao Pan. By the way, did you bring the notebook you took notes with this morning? "
Guo Taoren hurriedly took out his notebook from the bag: "I've brought it with me, I've brought it with me." "
But Guo Taoren really didn't know what was in the book and had to ask him to come to the Public Security Bureau.
Old Pan flipped through a few pages and found the place where the seal was stamped. He pointed at the seal and asked Guo Taoren: "This seal, Which seal did you use to seal it? Where did the seal come from? "
So, Guo Taoren told Lao Pan exactly how his brother found the seal and how he stamped it on the notebook.
Lao Pan didn't think Guo Taoren was that kind of sneaker. The treacherous man went to ask several comrades who had dealt with Guo Taoren. He learned from them that Guo Taoren was just an honest and honest lumberjack, so he made a decision as to why he was "invited" to the Public Security Bureau.
It turned out that the comrade who borrowed Guo Taoren's notebook was a cadre of the Public Security Bureau. When he went to the meeting in the morning, he saw the seal on Guo Taoren's notebook.
Since he was exposed to a lot of party history, he recognized it at a glance. The origin of the seal.
If this impression is true, then it is the seal of the provincial Soviet government, which has extraordinary significance.
Next, Lao Pan introduced the origin of this seal to Guo Taoren. .
The meaning behind the seal
The story behind this seal can be traced back to 1928.
At that time, the Kuomintang reactionaries massacred the Communists, and the country suddenly fell into the "White Panic".
It was at this time. , the Communists have learned a reality through bloody lessons, that is, the Kuomintang is not trustworthy, and blind accommodation and tolerance cannot solve the current problems.
Only the unity of countless Communists can lead the Chinese people to victory. .
Under such circumstances, the first shot of the Red Army was fired.
In July 1928, Peng Dehuai, Teng Daiyuan and others launched an uprising force in Pingjiang , and organized the Fifth Red Army to launch armed struggle in the Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei revolutionary base areas. .
After hard struggle, the revolutionary ranks in the Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei Soviet Areas continued to grow, and the revolutionary struggle situation made great progress.
Therefore, in July 1931, the Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei Provincial Committee was formally established, and two months later it was established in Xiaoyuan. The Hunan-Kiangsi-Hubei Soviet Government was established.
At the same time, the Chinese people have always been eager to establish a political power belonging to the working class.
After a long period of preparation, the Chinese Soviet Provisional Government was established in November 1931. This was with the Kuomintang. There is a fundamental difference between the government and the regime of the workers and peasants.
At the same time, the Soviet Seal, which symbolized the red regime, was born.
The Soviet Seal
However, at this time, the Kuomintang government was frantically pursuing the new red regime. Carry out encirclement and suppression in an attempt to strangle the interim government in the cradle.
With the development of time, the revolutionary situation in the Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei revolutionary base areas reached its peak, and it became one of the six major revolutionary base areas at that time.
However, the Kuomintang has already been eyeing this revolutionary base area.
Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei can be regarded as the central area of the country. It is close to the National Government , and there is no way for others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch. Naturally, the National Government cannot tolerate the Red Army here to continue to develop and grow.
In addition, Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei are one of the gateways to the Central Soviet Area and played an extremely important role in the development of the Central Soviet Area.
At that time, although the number of the Red Army in Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei was only more than 20,000, they always took the lead in attacking Nanchang and other places to contain the enemy's forces.
Therefore, Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei can alleviate the military pressure on the Central Soviet Area to the greatest extent and ensure the security of the Central Soviet Area.
Subsequently, the enemy mobilized two columns in the Hunan-Jiangxi-Hubei border area to carry out the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign.
Among them, Xiaoyuan, where the Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei Provincial Party Committee is located, has become a key area of attack.
In January 1934, under the fierce attack of the enemy, in order to preserve their strength, the provincial-level agencies in Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei were forced to transfer.
The former site of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee
However, during the transfer process, they were violently bombed by enemy planes, causing serious damage to the team. Not only were there a large number of casualties, but also some important documents and items were damaged or lost, including Provincial government seal.
After the Red Army conducted the Long March, the Kuomintang government transferred most of its troops to the Hunan-Kiangsi-Hubei border area to carry out "encirclement and suppression" against the Red regime here.
In a short period of time, the enemy established more than 2,000 bunkers here, occupied most of the area, and cut off the Red Army's lines of communication.
In desperation, the Red 16th Army who stayed here could only be forced to operate deep in the mountains.
Under the enemy's crazy counterattack, Xiaoyuan also fell. From then on, the Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei revolutionary base areas entered a difficult guerrilla period.
Even though the conditions were so difficult, neither the Red Army soldiers nor the people here gave up their revolutionary struggle.
In the process of fighting the Kuomintang, the Red 16th Army experienced "three ups and three downs."
Every time after the Red Army soldiers suffered heavy casualties, the people in the Soviet area enthusiastically joined the Red Army, resurrecting the defeated Red Army.
It was not until 1937, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated again, that the Red Army teams in Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei had a chance to breathe.
However, the provincial government seal that was lost in 1934 has never been found.
It was not until 1963 that the two brothers Guo Taoren and Guo Xingren picked up the seal, which symbolized the red regime of that era, to see the light of day again.
Hundreds of people went into the mountain to search
After hearing the origin of the seal, Guo Taoren realized that he and his brother had accidentally discovered an important cultural relic.
Later, Lao Pan asked him: "Where is that seal now? Can your brother still remember the specific location where the seal was found?"
Guo Taoren replied affirmatively: "The seal is placed in the drawer of the dormitory. You Don’t worry, it’s only been a few days, I’ll definitely still remember it. The place where we were working that day was only so big, so we can definitely find it.”
Lao Pan quickly assembled a team of hundreds of people, consisting of three people. The car was marching toward the mountains in a mighty manner.
While on the road, the worried Lao Pan was still confirming with Guo Taoren repeatedly.
Amidst everyone's anxiety, they finally arrived at the dormitory of Guo Taoren and others.
Only then did Lao Pan finally see the true appearance of this big seal.
In the middle of the seal is a globe with a sickle and hammer pattern on it.
And tightly surrounding the earth are ears of wheat, ears of rice and five-pointed stars. This is the inner layer of the seal.
On the outer layer of the seal, there is a circle of traditional official script tightly surrounding it. The top is "Soviet Republic of China" and the bottom is "Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei Province Soviet Executive Committee". Connected in the middle are two five-pointed stars.
There are four small holes drilled on the side of the seal, and their function is to install the wooden handle that fixes the seal.
Lao Pan gave the silver-shiny seal to his colleagues for safekeeping, and then led everyone to the mountain to search.
On the way to the mountain, Lao Pan gave everyone the mission of this operation.
First, the lost seal must be handed over to the government for safekeeping.
Second, go to the mountains to search for other items that can symbolize the provincial Soviet government.
Third, if the remains of Red Army martyrs are found on the mountain, their bones should be moved and buried so that these soldiers can rest in peace.
However, despite more than a hundred people searching the mountain, they still found nothing.
In the end, they could only return to the county with this big seal.
Today, this seal is treasured in the Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei Revolution Memorial Hall in , Wanzai County, , quietly waiting for future generations to pay their respects.
According to the speculation of relevant personnel, when the Kuomintang launched heavy troops to encircle Xiaoyuan, the provincial Soviet government was forced to move north. When passing here, it was bombed by enemy planes.
At that time, the comrade who was protecting the seal was injured. In order to prevent the seal from falling into enemy hands, it was buried here.
Later, these comrades died heroically for the revolutionary cause, and no one knew the whereabouts of this provincial Soviet government seal.
Because this place is so inaccessible, the suitcase that originally protected the seal was washed out, and was discovered by Guo Xingren, who came here unexpectedly.
Unfortunately, these Red Army soldiers were no longer able to see the victory of the revolution with their own eyes, and the important documents transferred with the seal were severely damaged and can never be recovered.
Fortunately, this seal of the Soviet government of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei Province, which has experienced the baptism of blood and fire, is displayed in front of the world.
It symbolizes the turbulent years and glorious history of the red regime of that era, and always reminds us to cherish the hard-won happy life today.
Reference:
[Stay true to the original intention and shoulder the mission - One hundred revolutionary cultural relics about Jiangxi] The Soviet seal that has been missing for thirty years
