Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

The Chairman appreciated that the North China Bureau already had so many specific ideas.

However, the Chairman remained cautious and said, "We don't have enough foreign exchange at the moment. If we want to get so much back from the Soviet Union, we will definitely need a Soviet loan. Comrade Wei Hongjun, have you ever thought about this?"

Finally, we came to the issue of loans.

The Central Committee's visit to the Soviet Union didn't originally involve many specific issues. It was a visit to pay respects and acknowledge the country's leadership. China had been in turmoil since the Opium War, and now, at last, the opportunity to establish a new China was finally available.

The recognition of the international community is particularly needed at this time.

And the Soviet Union was a world power.

As long as China could gain the support of the Soviet Union, it would quickly gain recognition in the international community, especially within the socialist camp. This was the first step, but simply gaining Soviet recognition was far from enough. Wu Hao went to the Soviet Union in the hope of further strengthening relations with the Soviet Union.

Eliminate some of the historical differences between the two parties.

In order to further strengthen relations, the Central Committee also had to make a statement and tell the Soviet Union that after the success of the Chinese revolution, China would also be part of the socialist camp.

Only if Stalin recognized and accepted China could many subsequent negotiations proceed.

However, after arriving in North China, the delegation's workload suddenly increased significantly after hearing the suggestions made by Wei Hongjun on behalf of the North China Bureau. The North China Bureau wanted many things, but all of them required money.

The Soviet Union needed to lend money to China, and then China would repay the loan with other things.

In history, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao visited the Soviet Union and negotiated a loan of US$300 million. At that time, the central government of the newly established People's Republic of China was relatively cautious, especially when it came to loans.

I absolutely dare not take out large-scale loans.

The Chairman also thought of this, so he asked Wei Hongjun.

Wei Hongjun looked at Zhou Bin.

Zhou Bin, currently Deputy Secretary of the North China Bureau and Vice Chairman of the North China People's Government, works closely with Wei Hongjun. Zhou Bin also contributed extensively to Wei Hongjun's report. Zhou Bin explained, "We have carefully studied the loans the Nationalist government made to the Soviet Union during the War of Resistance. The Nationalist government borrowed from the Soviet Union three times, totaling $2.5 million. It took the Nationalist government approximately seven years to repay the first and second loans, amounting to over $ million in principal and interest. The Nationalist government faced financial difficulties during the War of Resistance, but they were still able to repay. Although China's industrial base is weak and its economy is struggling, we are vast and have abundant resources, resulting in a strong ability to repay. The Nationalist government primarily repaid its loans with commodities such as tea, leather, animal hair, antimony, tin, zinc, nickel, tungsten, silk, cotton, tung oil, medicinal herbs, and red copper. If we were able to obtain loans from the Soviet Union, we could also use these to repay our loans. Furthermore, our repayment capacity is far greater than that of the Nationalist government."

China's problem is its weak industrial base.

It does not mean poor repayment ability.

As long as it can develop stably, New China's repayment ability will still be very strong.

Wei Hongjun interrupted, "During the Anti-Japanese War, some overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia came to visit Jin-Cha-Yi. I chatted with them. They said that modern industry is inseparable from the rubber industry, and natural rubber is a necessity for modern industry. However, the world's natural rubber is controlled by the British. Given the current relationship between Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, it will be difficult for the socialist camp led by the Soviet Union to purchase natural rubber from the British. But once we liberate all of China, we can act as an intermediary, purchasing natural rubber from Southeast Asia and supplying it to the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries. Moreover, overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia said that some people in China's Hainan Island area have successfully cultivated natural rubber. After the national liberation, we can expand cultivation in this area. We should also be able to increase trade with the Soviet Union in this area."

Zhou Bin nodded.

"The Soviet Union is an industrial power, while our industrial base is very weak. So in a short period of time, what we can do is to supplement the needs of the Soviet industry. In this way, we cooperate with the Soviet Union and get its support. Comrade Wei Hongjun and I have discussed that the current situation of our North China Bureau is not in line with the objective situation for us to develop industry on a large scale. However, North China also has its own advantages, that is, Shanxi, Hebei, Rehe and other places are very rich in coal reserves and have a large number of coal mines. Over the past year, the North China Bureau has been fighting while restoring the normal production of these coal mines. In addition, there are many steel mills in North China, especially the Xuanhua Steel Mill. We have a solid foundation for a medium-sized steel plant with an annual output of over 30 tons. Therefore, our main focus over the next two years will be to develop the steel and power industries, with the coal industry at the core. Comrade Wei Hongjun just proposed exchanging machinery and equipment with the Soviet Union. We've calculated that if all of it is new, we'll need approximately $5000 million to $6000 million worth of equipment. Even with some older equipment, we'll need over $2000 million. This is just the basics. If our plan is slightly more ambitious, we'll need $3000 million to $4000 million.

If possible, Wei Hongjun and Zhou Bin would certainly like to have more good things.

But no.

Wei Hongjun and Zhou Bin only represented the North China Bureau. Tens of millions of dollars for a single North China Bureau is already a substantial amount. Currently, the two main regions controlled by the CCP are the North China Bureau and the Northeast Bureau.

In terms of industrial base, the North China Bureau cannot compare with the Northeast Bureau.

The North China Bureau wanted to acquire machinery and equipment from the Soviet Union to develop its coal industry, and the Northeast was certainly not willing to be outdone. The total amount of funds involved was not a small amount.

The Chairman and the others were all silent.

Tens of millions of dollars are nothing in the new century.

Even leaders of well-off prefecture-level cities could approve it. But for the central government, still locked in a war, tens of millions of dollars was a significant sum. And this was just the North China Bureau's request. If you include overseas students and the purchase of military supplies, the total would be hundreds of millions of dollars.

After a while, the chairman finally laughed.

He said, "It seems that we are going to be burdened with debt before we even establish a new China."

Everybody just smiled.

But this kind of laughter is just finding joy in suffering.

How could one be happy about suddenly being burdened with debt? However, it wasn't unacceptable, as the central government had already considered how to gain support from the Soviet Union.

Chapter 729 National Land Conference

The visiting Soviet delegation talked with North China Bureau cadres such as Wei Hongjun and Zhou Bin for several days.

Since Wei Hongjun and his team had made such a suggestion, they had a rough estimate of the equipment they wanted. So, they prepared a detailed list. Once the delegation arrived in the Soviet Union, if they could indeed retrieve the equipment, it would be best if they could bring back the equipment the North China Bureau wanted.

The North China Bureau put forward these suggestions because it had sufficient ideas.

After Wu Hao and Wei Hongjun finished their discussion, they departed from Yi County and headed for the Northeast Bureau. Of course, the Soviet delegation didn't always travel together. Comrade Wang Jiaxiang had already secretly flown to Moscow, paving the way for the Soviet delegation.

The meeting between the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Union was not arranged overnight, as the relationship between the two sides was not yet that good.

Wang Jiaxiang was familiar with the Soviet Union, so he went to meet with some Soviet leaders first.

Have some communication upfront.

When Comrade Wu Hao went to Moscow, he would be able to meet Stalin directly. Because the two leaders had already discussed some issues, Stalin and Wu Hao could discuss key issues directly.

After Wu Hao went to the Northeast Bureau, Comrade Xiuyang convened a national land conference in Yi County.

The National Land Conference was chaired by Comrade Xiu Yang, with the Chairman, Commander-in-Chief, Ren Peiguo, Kang Sheng, and others in attendance. The three secretaries of the North China Bureau, Marshal Nie, Bo Shuchun, and Dong Biwu, as well as Wei Hongjun, Zhou Bin, Wang Congwu, Lai Ruoyu, and Li Shaocheng, also participated. In total, over twenty cadres from the North China Bureau attended the meeting.

There were also quite a few cadres coming from the Northeast Bureau.

Northeast Bureau Secretary Chen Yun, Deputy Secretaries Peng Zhen and Gao Gang, as well as local leaders and military district leaders involved in land affairs in Northeast China also attended the meeting. Xia Houwen, who had previously served as the political commissar of the Ximan Military District, also attended the meeting.

The Northeast Bureau, like the North China Bureau, will soon be reorganized.

Because the Fourth Field Army would also lead the main force into the Great Wall, Chen Yun, Peng Zhen and others would be transferred to the Central Committee. This would cause a major change in the Northeast Bureau, and most of the half-members of the Northeast Bureau would have to be replaced.

Xiahou Wen is currently very popular.

He was very likely to become a member of the Northeast Bureau. This was due to his outstanding work in developing the Northeast base area and in the Western Manchuria Military Region. Chen Yun, Gao Gang, and Zhang Wentian all highly praised his work. Of course, the rank of Northeast Bureau member at this time was completely different from that of two years ago.

Then came the cadres of the Central Plains Bureau.

Li Xuefeng led the Central Plains Bureau cadres to attend the meeting. Deng Zihui was originally going to come because he was a renowned Party expert on rural areas. He was also a prominent cadre in both the East China and Central Plains Bureaus. However, with the decisive battle currently underway in Jiangbei, Deng Zihui was not on the General Front Committee.

But he was assisting Rao Shushi and was responsible for the logistics of this decisive battle.

Therefore, the number of cadres from the Central Plains Bureau and the East China Bureau was much smaller than that from the Northeast and North China Bureaus. However, even so, more than one hundred people attended the National Land Conference.

Comrade Xiuyang has outstanding organizational skills and theoretical knowledge.

In summary, the land reform work over the past year or so has been truly outstanding, both in terms of theory and practice. However, there has been much debate among us regarding some of the remaining work issues.

Wei Hongjun had discussed this issue with many cadres from the North China Bureau and the North China People's Government. This time, Wei Hongjun, representing the rural cadres of the North China Bureau, proposed formally determining the ownership of rural land.

However, this proposal conflicted with the issue of rural land ownership raised by Comrade Xiuyang in the "Outline of the Land Law".

Comrade Xiuyang proposed that the property distributed to each person be owned by him or her, so that all villagers would have access to adequate means of production and living. The government would issue land ownership certificates to the people and recognize their right to freely operate, trade, and rent out the land under specific conditions.

This was immediately resisted by the North China Bureau.

Li Shaocheng, Minister of Agriculture of the newly established North China People's Government, immediately spoke out, "I believe this is not in line with the purpose of our revolution. Once rural land is allowed to be freely bought, sold, pawned, and rented out, then within a few years, a landlord class will re-emerge in the countryside. We have worked so hard to overthrow the rural landlord class, carry out land reform, and change the rural production relations. If the landlord class re-emerges in the countryside after a while, then what is the point of our revolution? When we implemented land reform in 1946, everyone had already reached a consensus that land reformed land could not be bought and sold. This National Land Conference should clarify this point from a legal perspective, rather than changing this consensus."

In other words, Li Shaocheng’s current level is relatively low.

Comrade Xiuyang’s status is too high.

If it were someone else, Li Shaocheng would directly say that he was right-leaning.

Land reform had been proceeding steadily. The Central Land Reform Working Committee had accepted Wei Hongjun's proposal, stipulating that land involved in the reform could not be bought or sold. However, at this Central Land Reform Conference, Comrade Xiuyang argued that some areas of the second phase of land reform were too radical, arguing they were "leftist." While criticizing the "leftist" nature of the second phase, he also proposed that a certain degree of freedom should be granted to the rural areas.

Hence this proposal.

That is to give farmers a certain degree of freedom so that the countryside can recuperate.

Such debates and disagreements are common in party meetings.

What no one expected was that the cadres of the North China Bureau directly opposed Comrade Xiuyang's idea. After all, Comrade Xiuyang was currently the second-in-command within the Party. When the Chairman went to Chongqing, Comrade Xiuyang was temporarily in charge of the work of the entire Party and the entire army. Many people admired Li Shaocheng's courage.

Even the central leadership paid attention to Li Shaocheng.

After all, Wei Hongjun was the leader of the land reform in Jin-Cha-Ji, but the real practical work behind it was all handled by Li Shaocheng. Li Shaocheng was also a rural agricultural cadre in name only in front of the central leadership.

And more importantly, the rural development in North China has been really good in recent years.

Grain production has been increasing, and rural wealth has been accumulating. Various rural policy initiatives implemented in recent years, including collaboration between rural areas and banks, have yielded promising results. As a frontline leader in North China's agriculture sector, Li Shaocheng has received widespread acclaim.

"Comrades, we have passed the first stage of land reform, and many liberated areas have entered the second stage. Now that victory in the revolution is imminent, our rural policies must be thoroughly finalized. Therefore, the ownership of rural land and property must be clearly defined. Comrades from the North China Bureau have proposed that ownership of rural land be transferred to the state and to rural collectives. This is too radical given the current situation. Our farmers have just received their land, but ownership is no longer in their hands. How will they feel? This is not good and too radical. We should oppose the egalitarian tendencies that have emerged in the second stage of land reform."

Peng Zhen, the representative of the Northeast Bureau, spoke.

Comrade Xiuyang's rank was too high. Furthermore, since this National Rural Conference was chaired by Comrade Xiuyang, it would have been difficult for him to directly step down. Those cadres who supported Comrade Xiuyang's ideas stepped forward.

This is the case with Peng Zhen.

Over the past year or so, both the central and local governments have been criticizing the leftist leanings in land reform. But now, some of the content in Comrade Xiuyang's "Land Law Outline" seems too rightist. However, Peng Zhen believes this is correct.

Especially after working in cities in Northeast China, Peng Zhen believes that compromise is necessary at this stage.

The right thing to do is to develop the economy stably.

After Peng Zhen expressed his thoughts, he looked at the North China Bureau officials. Because the main opposition to Comrade Xiuyang's Land Law Outline came from the North China Bureau officials. However, what no one expected was that the North China Bureau officials hadn't said anything yet.

Gao Gang, also from the Northeast Bureau, said, "I think the land ownership plan proposed by Comrade Wei Hongjun is very perfect. Our revolution is to overthrow the exploiting class, and in rural areas, it means overthrowing the landlord class. Land is the largest means of production in rural areas. If rural land is allowed to be freely traded, the most important means of production in rural areas will be concentrated again, which means that historical land annexation will occur and the rural landlord class will re-emerge. To prevent this problem, the best solution is to transfer rural land ownership to the state and to the rural collective. We can also issue land certificates to farmers, but they are not ownership certificates, but land use rights certificates. As long as we divide the land equally according to population, there will be no radical issues.

Peng Zhen looked at Gao Gang.

This is totally sabotage.

We all come from the Northeast Bureau. And judging by the current strength of the CCP's local bureaus, the Northeast and North China Bureaus are the strongest. The North China Bureau is close at hand, and with a large number of cadres expected to be promoted to the central government, its strength will only grow. At this time, the Northeast Bureau should also unite.

Unfortunately, the Northeast Bureau and the North China Bureau are two local central bureaus with completely different histories.

The Northeast Bureau was formed by the Central Committee transferring cadres from Yan'an and various local bases to the Northeast. Therefore, the composition of the Northeast Bureau, the Northeast Military Region, and the Northeast Field Army was extremely complex, encompassing cadres from all walks of life.

Moreover, the Northeast did not suffer any setbacks and was liberated very quickly.

When the Northeast Field Army was established, it was already the final moments of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Within two years, Northeast China was liberated. Even within such a short period, these cadres, drawn from all corners of the country, still maintained numerous factions. Primarily because they had not experienced the same setbacks as in the past, the various local military commands and field army units developed independently, following the same model as when they first entered the Northeast. As a result, these factions were unable to re-establish themselves as a major power. This is the current problem in the Northeast.

But the North China Bureau is different.

Although the Jin-Cha-Ji Central Bureau and the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Central Bureau were merged, the Jin-Cha-Ji Central Bureau held absolute dominance. Jin-Cha-Ji, a major faction formed during the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, was less divided and more united than the Northeast Bureau. Any disagreements were resolved through meetings, and major, intractable disagreements rarely arose. However, the Northeast Bureau was deeply divided from the outset, and even after the liberation of Northeast China, these differences had not been completely resolved.

This is what happened.

The two deputy secretaries of the Northeast Bureau directly confronted each other at the meeting.

Gao Gang didn't care about Peng Zhen at all.

During the Northeast Bureau, relationships had been strained. Chen Yun, Gao Gang, Zhang Wentian, along with military figures like Lin Shuai, Luo Shuai, and Tan Zheng, had always been at odds with Peng Zhen over the overall strategy for the Northeast.

Including land reform work.

Peng Zhen and Gao Gang had clashed several times over land reform work at the Northeast Bureau meetings.