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吴建民回忆杨天水点点滴滴
我被捕后，一直关在部队的看守所，除了几个军人待审判的犯人外，整个看守所空空荡荡，基本没有几个犯人。突然有一天，把我从南京军区政治部西善桥看守所转入南京市公安局茶亭看守所。
记得那是夏天的一个傍晚，我被送进市局看守所的五号监室，我进门的时候，一个戴眼镜留着络腮胡子的人出门，和我打了一个照面，他是拎着自己行李被调往另外一个监房的，随着身后_当一声铁门被关上，房间里面其他的犯人告诉我，出去的这个人名字叫杨同彦（杨天水）。
因为同一个监房不能关押两个反革命集团主犯，所以，我进这个号房，老杨就必须要调走，看守所对我们执行的是分开关押。但那个时候，市局关押的政治犯太多了，根本就做不到政治犯全部分开关押，所以过了几天，天水的同案犯詹跃维就调入我所在的五号监室，他给我看了他们的起诉书，我才了解到他们这个案子的所有案情。
随后是我们各自开庭被宣判，我们都是以组织领导反革命集团罪被定罪，都以主犯被量刑，分别被判处了十年有期徒刑。
再次见面就是一九九一年的冬季了。我被送到江苏龙潭监狱的时候，天水已经在这里服刑了好几个月了。那个时候，江苏省决定，把全省的政治犯的主犯，全部集中关押到这里。所以陆陆续续有全省各地的政治犯被不断的押入。
我到了龙潭监狱下车间的第一天就看到了天水，我们被关押在同一个中队。当时我们只能以目光交汇，因为我是新犯人，是要上紧箍咒的，所以监狱里面看管我的人盯的特别紧。没有机会说话。
随着漫长的刑期开始，我们逐步有了接触的机会。尤其是周末，犯人们大都喜欢去看电视录像，我和天水就会站在我们监房的走廊上，隔着铁栏杆，眺望着蓝天，经常畅谈理想。无聊的时候我们在一起背诵范仲淹的《岳阳楼记》背诵文天祥的《过零丁洋》，我们经常互相鼓励，互相交流着我们在这个恶劣环境中，如何健康的活下去。
监狱的生活是非常残酷的，有一次我实在吃不下去那个馊霉的米饭，倒掉的时候，被犯人揭发了，大会小会批我。记得那天晚上，天水端着一碗烂糊面过来，深情的对我说：建民，为了将来一起战斗，保重身体，好好活下来，是我们现在的任务。他坚持看着我吃完了所有的面条，笑吟吟的把碗拿去洗了，回身时，偷偷的对我做了个V的手势。
这碗面条，我一直回味了几十年！
我比天水提前两年恢复了自由。但是我不被允许留在南京。我记得有一天，我回南京去看父母，南京的朋友告诉我，天水也回来了，我立即要求安排我们见上一面。
第二天，天水来了，在自由的蓝天下，天水的笑容显得是那么的和善和率真，两位饱经煎熬的战友，终于有了一个久别的拥抱。
很快我就知道，天水在继续从事的民主活动中，已经和我一样，经常被盯梢和威胁。
大约在SARS事件爆发后那段时间，我记得当时我们都戴着口罩，我和天水又一次在南京秘密会面。那次天水已经意识到他有可能再次入狱，他意志坚定的告诉我：建民，我已经无牵无挂，老婆孩子都已离去，我随时准备做中国的曼德拉。我听了后心头一沉，我马上劝诫天水：你糊涂啊同彦，不能做无畏的牺牲，不能把我们再次送进牢里，你想做曼德拉，不错，但是中国不缺曼德拉，中国缺的是德克勒克。你以为中共和南非白人政府一样吗？如果没有德克勒克，就没有曼德拉。
其实天水心里都明白，他当然知道中共是什么，中共就是法西斯，就是希特勒和斯大林。中共哪有什么道义底限？在中国，我们没有看到过任何一位民主斗士，因为长期服刑，让中共感到过一丝一毫道义上或者良心上愧疚的，所以我们都知道共产党最不怕的就是民主斗士都去坐他们的大牢。
但是：苟利国家生死以，岂因祸福避趋之。
天水还是再次入狱了，这一次是煽颠罪，被判刑十二年。
他的身边已经没有任何亲人。除了他年迈的一个在老家的四姐和狱方有联系外，很长时间，他的服刑情况无人知晓。我知道，我们都经历过那种长期无人关注的一种习惯，我们只是选择默默地服刑，度过那些坚守的日子，只是这一次，对天水来说，太漫长，太漫长。
漫长到眼看只有几个月服刑将满，天水却被中共折磨的奄奄一息了。听说狱方帮助他办理了保外就医，住进了上海的华山医院。我甚为关切，当年的战友们在南京一起送别了天水，希望他此次去上海治病，能度过难关。
非常难过的是，今天听到了他已经逝去的消息。天水他再也不能和我一起战斗了。
短短一年，先后有彭明，刘晓波，杨天水被中共折磨死于狱中。
中共这样一个令人发指的暴政，人民无论多少苦难都不会让他们有一丝的震颤。够了，我们的血流的够多了，除了血债要用血来偿之外，还能有其他的方法吗？
很多人会反问我，什么时候让中共偿还血债？我想问我这个话的人，也问问自己，你打算怎么样去做？我希望找到和我有共同愿望的人和我一起去做，因为说再多愤怒的话都是空话，干掉他们几个才是实话。
Bits and Pieces About Tianshui
After my arrest, I had been booked into the military jail. Other than a few military inmates waiting to be tried, the whole jail was empty with barely a soul detected. One day without any warning, I was transferred from the Xishanqiao Jail of the Political Department under Nanjing Military Region to the Tea Pavilion Jail of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau.
It was a summer evening. I was sent to cell Five of the jail. Upon my entrance, out came a guy in glasses with beard, who said “hi” to me. He was sent to another cell carrying his personal belongings. With a loud bang, the cell door closed. I was told by other inmates that the guy was Tongyan Yang, also known as Tianshui Yang.
Due to the jail rule that not two “ring leaders of the anti-revolutionary gangs” could be housed in the same cell, Tianshui had to be sent to another cell because of my arrival. We were jailed separately. Yet at that time, that jail was overcrowded with political prisoners. It was impossible to separate all political prisoners. Therefore in just a few days, Tianshui’s accomplice Yaowei Zhan was transferred to my cell, number five. It was not until Zhan showed me his indictment paperwork did I find out the details of their case.
After that, we were tried and sentenced separately, but both were convicted for organizing and leading “anti-revolutionary gangs” as the ring leaders, and both were sentenced to 10 years in prison. It was not until the winter of 1991 that we met again.
When I was sent to the Dragon Pond Prison, Tianshui had already served several months here. At the time, the Jiangsu Province decided that all the ring leaders of political prisoners of the province to be collectively locked up here. In time other political prisoners tricked in from various parts of the province.
I saw Tianshui on the first day I worked in the workshop of Dragon Pool Prison, because we were assigned in the same squad. At the time we could only communicate with eyes. I was a newcomer, and to talk with other prisoners would get myself severe physical punishment called “tight crowning”. Being under intensive watching of jailers, I had no chance to talk.
With both of our long sentences dragging on, Tianshui and I got to know each other little by little, especially during the weekends, when most of the inmates went to watch videos. Tianshui and I would stand in the hallway of our cells, looking at the blue sky beyond bar and talking about our dreams. When it was boring, we would recite <On the Yueyang Tower> by Zhongyan Fan and <Passing the Lingding Ocean> by Tianxiang Wen. We gave each other support and encouragement, and how to maintain good health to survive a nasty environment like this.
Life is especially tough in prison. One time I could not bear to eat the moldy rice and threw it away. I was found out and denounced in all kinds of meetings. One night during that period of time, Tianshui came to me with a bowl of over cooked noodle and told me with endearment, “Jianmin, it is our job to maintain good health and live well, so that we can fight together in the future.” He made sure that I finished all the noodle in his presence, and took over the bowl with a big smile and washed it. When he turned around, he sneaked to give me a hand gesture of “V”.
The taste of that bowl of noodle remains in my memory for decades.
I regained freedom two years before Tianshui, but I was not allowed to remain in Nanjing. One day when I went to visit my parents in Nanjing, I was told by friends that Tianshui had been released. I asked immediately to be arranged to see him. Tianshui came the next day. Under the free blue sky, his smile was ever so kind and sincere. Having endured so many years of tortures, the two fighters gave each other a hearty embrace.
However, I found out soon after that just like me, Tianshui had been followed and threatened because of his continued involvement in democracy activities.
We met again in secret not long after the breakout of SARS, and I remember we both wore masks. At that time, Tianshui already sensed that he was probably going back to jail, but he told me firmly, “Jianmin, I have nothing to worry about already. My wife and children have left me. I am prepared to be the Mandela in China at any time.” My heart sank hearing these words. I told him, “Tianshui, you’re being silly. We can’t make senseless sacrifices by throwing ourselves back into prison. You want to be Mandela and there is nothing wrong with it. But China is not short of Mandelas. Instead, China is short of Frederick Willem de Klerks. You thought the Chinese Communist Party were the same with the government of whites in South Africa? There would have been no Mandela had there not been a de Klerk.”
Actually Tianshui knew it well. Of course he knew how Chinese Communist Party is. It is Facist. It is Hitler and Stalin. How could anyone expect it to have any moral bottom line? In China, no one has seen the Communist Party ever showing any bit of remorse, either morally or conscientiously, for sentencing any fighter of democracy to long-term prison time. Therefore, we all know that the last thing the Chinese Communist Party would be wary about is sending the democracy fighters to prison.
But, as the famous saying goes, “If my life or death serves to benefit the country, how can I avoid it either way should it bring me good or bad luck?”
Tianshui was put in prison again after all. This time serving twelve years for “instigation to overthrow the government”.
Other than an aging sister who maintained contacts with the prison, he no longer had any family around him. For the longest time, no one was even aware of his imprisonment. I know very well that for people like us who have been accustomed to the oblivion by other people, our only choice is to serve out the term, except this time for Tianshui, the imprisonment was excruciatingly long, so long that by the time he was months away from being released, Tianshui was in his final days.
I heard that the prison granted him parole citing health reasons and he was checked into the Huashan Hospital in Shanghai. I was deeply concerned about him. Our comrades got together in Nanjing and saw him off, praying for his recovery in Shanghai.
The devastating news came today: Tianshui passed away. He could not fight with me anymore.
Within a short year, Ming Peng, Xiaobo Liu and Tianshui Yang — several democracy fighters have been tortured to death in prison.
An unprecedented atrocious government like the Chinese Communist Party is never shaken no matter how much its people are suffering. Enough is enough. Too much blood has been shed — is there any alternative to pay back blood with blood?
Many people would ask me, “When is the right time to make the Chinese Communist Party pay back all the debt of blood?” I hope those people who bring up this question could ask themselves, “What do you plan to do?” I hope to find more comrades who share my wish and are willing to fight for it with me, because when it comes to Communist Party, angry words serve no purpose. Only actions to overthrow it do.