Yeah, the biggest armed group at the protest was the Gang of Four's militias. Who were fighting to continue the cultural revolution. The students were a mix of anti-GoF and anti-Deng groups all basically wanting some form of cultural freedom.

The liberal reformists/American plants were a small minority and never really stood a chance of driving the protests towards color revolution because they represented such a small minority of the protestors. The PLA was essentially fighting a more radical group of maoist militia for control over the politburo with the students being caught in the middle.