中国，1967年。
China, 1967
“红色联合”对“四·二八兵团”总部大楼的攻击已持续了两天，他们的旗帜在大楼周围躁动地飘扬着，仿佛渴望干柴的火种。
The Red Union had been attacking the headquarters of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade for two days.
Their red flags fluttered restlessly around the brigade building like flames yearning for firewood.
“红色联合”的指挥官心急如焚，他并不惧怕大楼的守卫者，那二百多名“四·二八”战士，与诞生于l966年初、经历过大检阅和大串联的“红色联合”相比要稚嫩许多。
The Red Union commander was anxious, though not because of the defenders he faced.
The more than two hundred Red Guards of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade were mere greenhorns compared with the veteran Red Guards of the Red Union, which was formed at the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in early 1966.
The Red Union had been tempered by the tumultuous experience of revolutionary tours around the country and seeing Chairman Mao in the great rallies in Tiananmen Square.
他怕的是大楼中那十几个大铁炉子，里面塞满了烈性炸药，用电雷管串联起来，他看不到它们，但能感觉到它们磁石般的存在，开关一合，玉石俱焚，而“四·二八”的那些小红卫兵们是有这个精神力量的。
But the commander was afraid of the dozen or so iron stoves inside the building, filled with explosives and connected to each other by electric detonators.
He couldn't see them, but he could feel their presence like iron sensing the pull of a nearby magnet.
If a defender flipped the switch, revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries alike would all die in one giant ball of fire.
And the young Red Guards of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade were indeed capable of such madness.
比起已经在风雨中成熟了许多的第一代红卫兵，新生的造反派们像火炭上的狼群，除了疯狂还是疯狂。
Compared with the weathered men and women of the first generation of Red Guards, the new rebels were a pack of wolves on hot coals, crazier than crazy.
大楼顶上出现了一个娇小的身影，那个美丽的女孩子挥动着一面“四·二八”的大旗，她的出现立刻招来了一阵杂乱的枪声，射击的武器五花八门，有陈旧的美式卡宾枪、捷克式机枪和三八大盖，也有崭新的制式步枪和冲锋枪——后者是在“八月社论”发表之后从军队中偷抢来的——连同那些梭标和大刀等冷兵器，构成了一部浓缩的近现代史……
The slender figure of a beautiful young girl emerged at the top of the building, waving the giant red banner of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade.
Her appearance was greeted immediately by a cacophony of gunshots.
The weapons attacking her were a diverse mix: antiques such as American carbines, Czech-style machine guns, Japanese Type-38 rifles; newer weapons such as standard-issue People's Liberation Army rifles and submachine guns, stolen from the PLA after the publication of the "August Editorial"; and even a few Chinese dadao swords and spears.
Together, they formed a condensed version of modern history.
“四·二八”的人在前面多次玩过这个游戏，在楼顶上站出来的人，除了挥舞旗帜外，有时还用喇叭筒喊口号或向下撒传单，每次他们都能在弹雨中全身而退，为自己挣到了崇高的荣誉。
Numerous members of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade had engaged in similar displays before.
They'd stand on top of the building, wave a flag, shout slogans through megaphones, and scatter flyers at the attackers below.
Every time, the courageous man or woman had been able to retreat safely from the hailstorm of bullets and earn glory for their valor.
这次出来的女孩儿显然也相信自己还有那样的幸运。
The new girl clearly thought she'd be just as lucky.
她挥舞着战旗，挥动着自己燃烧的青春，敌人将在这火焰中化为灰烬，理想世界明天就会在她那沸腾的热血中诞生……
She waved the battle banner as though brandishing her burning youth, trusting that the enemy would be burnt to ashes in the revolutionary flames, imagining that an ideal world would be born tomorrow from the ardor and zeal coursing through her blood....
她陶醉在这鲜红灿烂的梦幻中，直到被一颗步枪子弹洞穿了胸膛，十五岁少女的胸膛是那么柔嫩，那颗子弹穿过后基本上没有减速，在她身后的空中发出一声啾鸣。
She was intoxicated by her brilliant, crimson dream until a bullet pierced her chest.
Her fifteen-year-old body was so soft that the bullet hardly slowed down as it passed through it and whistled in the air behind her.
年轻的红卫兵同她的旗帜一起从楼顶落下，她那轻盈的身体落得甚至比旗帜还慢，仿佛小鸟眷恋着天空。
The young Red Guard tumbled down along with her flag, her light form descending even more slowly than the piece of red fabric, like a little bird unwilling to leave the sky.
“红色联合”的战士们欢呼起来，几个人冲到楼下，掀开四·二八的旗帜，抬起下面纤小的遗体，作为一个战利品炫耀地举了一段，然后将她高高地扔向大院的铁门。
The Red Union warriors shouted in joy.
A few rushed to the foot of the building, tore away the battle banner of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade, and seized the slender, lifeless body.
They raised their trophy overhead and flaunted it for a while before tossing it toward the top of the metal gate of the compound.
铁门上带尖的金属栅条大部分在武斗初期就被抽走当梭镖了，剩下的两条正好挂住了她，那一瞬间，生命似乎又回到了那个柔软的躯体。
Most of the gate's metal bars, capped with sharp tips, had been pulled down at the beginning of the factional civil wars to be used as spears, but two still remained.
As their sharp tips caught the girl, life seemed to return momentarily to her body.
红色联合的红卫兵们退后一段距离，将那个挂在高处的躯体当靶子练习射击，密集的子弹对她来说已柔和如雨，不再带来任何感觉。
The Red Guards backed up some distance and began to use the impaled body for target practice.
For her, the dense storm of bullets was now no different from a gentle rain, as she could no longer feel anything.
她那春藤般的手臂不时轻挥一下，仿佛拂去落在身上的雨滴，直到那颗年轻的头颅被打掉了一半，仅剩的一只美丽的眼睛仍然凝视着一九六七年的蓝天，目光中没有痛苦，只有凝固的激情和渴望。
From time to time, her vinelike arms jerked across her body softly, as though she were flicking off drops of rain.
And then half of her young head was blown away, and only a single, beautiful eye remained to stare at the blue sky of 1967.
There was no pain in that gaze, only solidified devotion and yearning.
其实，比起另外一些人来，她还是幸运的，至少是在为理想献身的壮丽激情中死去。
And yet, compared to some others, she was fortunate.
At least she died in the throes of passionately sacrificing herself for an ideal.
这样的热点遍布整座城市，像无数并行运算的CPU，将“文革大革命”联为一个整体。
Battles like this one raged across Beijing like a multitude of CPUs working in parallel, their combined output, the Cultural Revolution.
疯狂如同无形的洪水，将城市淹没其中，并渗透到每一个细微的角落和缝隙。
A flood of madness drowned the city and seeped into every nook and cranny.
在城市边缘的那所著名大学的操场上，一场几千人参加的批斗会已经进行了近两个小时。
At the edge of the city, on the exercise grounds of Tsinghua University, a mass "struggle session" attended by thousands had been going on for nearly two hours.
在这个派别林立的年代，任何一处都有错综复杂的对立派别在格斗。
As the revolutionaries had splintered into numerous factions, opposing forces everywhere engaged in complex maneuvers and contests.
在校园中，红卫兵、文革工作组、工宣队和军宣队，相互之间都在爆发尖锐的冲突，而每种派别的内部又时时分化出新的对立派系，捍卫着各自不同的背景和纲领，爆发更为残酷的较量。
Within the university, intense conflicts erupted between the Red Guards, the Cultural Revolution Working Group, the Workers' Propaganda Team, and the Military Propaganda Team.
And each faction divided into new rebel groups from time to time, each based on different backgrounds and agendas, leading to even more ruthless fighting.
但这次被批斗的反动学术权威，却是任何一方均无异议的斗争目标，他们也只能同时承受来自各方的残酷打击。
But for this mass struggle session, the victims were the reactionary bourgeois academic authorities.
These were the enemies of every faction, and they had no choice but to endure cruel attacks from every side.
与其他的牛鬼蛇神相比，反动学术权威有他们的特点：当打击最初到来时，他们的表现往往是高傲而顽固的，这也是他们伤亡率最高的阶段。
Compared to other "Monsters and Demons," reactionary academic authorities were special: During the earliest struggle sessions, they had been both arrogant and stubborn.
That was also the stage in which they had died in the largest numbers.
在首都，四十天的时间里就有一千七百多名批斗对象被活活打死，更多的人选择了更快捷的路径来逃避疯狂：老舍、吴晗、翦伯赞、傅雷、赵九章、以群、闻捷、海默等，都自己结束了他们那曾经让人肃然起敬的生命。
Over a period of forty days, in Beijing alone, more than seventeen hundred victims of struggle sessions were beaten to death.
Many others picked an easier path to avoid the madness: Lao She, Wu Han, Jian Bozan, Fu Lei, Zhao Jiuzhang, Yi Qun, Wen Jie, Hai Mo, and other once-respected intellectuals had all chosen to end their lives.