Becoming Madame Mao - Anchee Min [104]
Appointed by Vice Chairman Liu, the head of the Work Teams, Yelin, stands firm. Although he has released Kuai Da-fu from house arrest, Yelin has gone to Liu and Deng and obtained permission to criticize Kuai Da-fu as a negative example. While Yelin begins his public criticism, Madame Mao Jiang Ching and Kang Sheng come to Kuai Da-fu's rescue. Without notifying Yelin, Jiang Ching and Kang Sheng call up a student rally and demand that the Work Teams disperse.
Yelin begins to understand that the fight is not just between him and the students. Higher powers are involved. Something he has refused to believe is happening. To avoid confrontation, Yelin leaves the campus and goes to hide at the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army, where he originally came from.
Kuai Da-fu is determined to live up to Madame Mao Jiang Ching's expectation. He has organized a student body into an army called the Jing-gang Mountain Group. The students proclaim themselves soldiers and sing "Unity Is Power" day in and day out from campus to campus. They are joined by thousands of other students from outer provinces. The Jing-gang Mountain Group is now a 600,000-member organization with Kuai Da-fu as its commander in chief.
To demonstrate his power Kuai Da-fu takes a group of students to the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army. He demands Yelin. When blocked by the guards the students form a sound-wall. Down with Yelin! they shout. The guards hold their rifles and pay no attention. No trick Kuai Da-fu plays can make the guards open the gate.
The students begin to sing Mao-quotation songs. It's good to rebel, it's right to rebel, and it's necessary to rebel! The guards play deaf. The students sing louder, they begin to climb onto the gate.
The soldiers line up and raise their rifles to aim.
The students turn to Kuai Da-fu.
Catch Yelin and get respect! the hero shouts, remembering what made his name. He climbs on top of the gate and stands erect. Forming his palms into a megaphone, he suddenly declares a hunger demonstration. He then leaps off the human wall and lands on the concrete ground. He lies down like a dead fish and closes his eyes. Behind him a thousand bodies stretch flat across the ground.
It is ten o'clock in the morning when I receive a report from my agent, Mr. Dong. I had sent him to secretly check on the students. I asked him to send my regards to Kuai Da-fu. I have ordered water from nearby hospitals to be infused with glucose and delivered to the students.
I have the operator connect me to my friend Lin Biao, whom Mao recently has appointed as the vice chairman of the Communist Party.
What's up?
I need your help, Marshal Lin.
Speak up, please.
Your employee Yelin is giving my kids from Qinghua University a hard time. The kids just want a word with him but the guards don't understand. The kids are undergoing a hunger strike.
What are you going to do with Yelin?
I'm going to criticize him as a capitalism promoter.
A capitalism promoter? I have never heard of such a title.
My dear Vice Chairman, once the kids get Yelin, they will hold a stadium-size rally to criticize him under that title. They will shout out the phrase officially.
Over the phone I hear Lin placing an order. I hear him yell, I don't care whether or not Yelin is sick. If he can't move, send him out on a stretcher!
***
After she puts Yelin in Kuai Da-fu's hands, she begins