Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

After resolving the issues on the Soviet side, the Chinese delegation was ready to return home.

But that evening, Wei Hongjun continued to discuss his thoughts with the Chairman. "Chairman," he said, "to address the issue of cadre privilege, we need to establish clear rules and strengthen inner-party democracy. Only through mutual oversight can we limit the spread of privilege within the Party. However, there's one thing that can significantly impact the implementation of inner-party democracy: cadres staying in one place for too long, which naturally leads to the formation of cliques. This isn't the fault of the cadres themselves; it's simply a natural consequence."

"Once factions are formed, they are prone to forming cliques. They will only focus on the interests of the faction, rather than the interests of the Party and the people. This situation will greatly undermine democracy within the Party and mutual supervision within the Party. Even if many mistakes are made and efforts are made to prevent the emergence of privileges, they will be impacted by the power of the factions."

"During the war, we had no solution. Due to communication and transportation issues, each unit had to establish its own base. After years of fighting together, factions would emerge. But in peacetime, we can prevent this from happening again."

Wei Hongjun is not shy about talking about the issue of mountaintops.

Because this is something the Chairman has said for years. The formation of factions is due to historical reasons. And you can't say factions are inherently bad. It's factionalism that must be combated.

The chairman nodded.

He said, "Once factions are formed, it's easy for 'factionalism' to arise. You mean, some of our cadres have stayed in one place for too long."

"Yes."

Wei Hongjun said directly, "It's been almost ten years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. But during these ten years, many cadres have stayed in the same place. For example, Comrade Liu Shude, the former political commissar of the Fuzhou Military Region, served as the Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee after the troops liberated Fujian, and has remained in Fujian ever since. There is also Comrade Li Jingquan, the former political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region, who served as the Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee since the conquest of Sichuan, and has also been in Sichuan ever since. There is also Comrade Tan Qilong, the former political commissar of the Jinan Military Region, who has been in Shandong since before liberation. And Comrade Wu Zhipu, if he had not been transferred out of Henan, he would have been in Henan for thirty years. This situation is currently a very common phenomenon in all provinces across the country."

"The situation in the military is even more so. Many of the commanders and political commissars of the major military regions are from their original units. If you dig deeper, you'll find that they've led many units in these regions since the Anti-Japanese War. Many have led units for twenty years, and everyone in their ranks is either a veteran comrade or a former subordinate."

In fact, this situation in New China is very dangerous.

Just like when Ding Sheng arrived at the Nanjing Military Region as commander, he was completely unable to command its troops. He even lost his temper over this, believing the Nanjing Military Region was completely impenetrable. Xu Shiyou had been in charge of the Nanjing Military Region for twenty years, and all the cadres, from top to bottom, were promoted by him. After Ding Sheng arrived, the lower-level cadres simply ignored him.

This is not the case only in the Nanjing Military Region.

Many other major military regions are like this.

That is to say, the Chairman was still alive at that time and was able to complete the swap of commanders of the eight military regions.

If it had been a few years later, the situation would have been very difficult.

Xu Shiyou, a Shandong military veteran, became commander of the Nanjing Military Region. However, Wang Qiuyun, commander of the Wuhan Military Region, commanded a majority of his troops dating back to the Anti-Japanese War. Not only his own troops, but also many of the current local cadres in Henan, Hubei, and Hunan are former military veterans. If Wang Qiuyun had stayed in the Wuhan Military Region for another twenty years, who would have been able to command its troops? He would have wielded immense influence even in Henan, Hubei, and Hunan.

If he doesn't take action at that time, the central government will be wary.

Wei Hongjun is now a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and must consider these matters. This is good for the Central Committee, as well as for local officials and military district officials. Everyone should avoid suspicion of one another.

It will be extremely difficult to adjust these issues in a decade or so. Taking advantage of the current opportunity, it would be beneficial for everyone if we could establish a set of rules.

"Tell me what you think?"

"Chairman, my idea is that whether it's a province, a city, or even a county, the top leader should have a term limit. Ideally, two terms, which means a maximum of ten years. After ten years, they must be transferred, whether to another location or to a higher-level agency. Only in this way can we ensure the normal flow of cadres and prevent one person from staying in one place for too long, which would affect inner-party democracy."

The chairman was smoking and thinking.

After a while, he asked, "Where's the army?"

"That's as it should be. Military and political cadres in military regions also need to be mobilized. They can move to another military region to serve as commander or political commissar, or they can be transferred to the Central Military Commission. In any case, they shouldn't stay in one place for too long."

The military is more sensitive.

When liberation was just beginning, the military system remained largely unchanged.

Even cadre appointments were considered based on the military's factionalism. For example, after Chen Geng left the Kunming Military Region, the Military Commission always chose the Second Field Army as its commander, as the Kunming Military Region was formed from the Second Field Army.

In the end, Chen Xilian was removed from his position as artillery commander and sent to Kunming.

This is how the central government takes care of the mountaintops.

Therefore, if we want to allow military district cadres to move around like local cadres, the resistance will be quite large.

Even if the central government successfully transfers the personnel, the follow-up work will be very troublesome. In the current situation, if you let the commander of the Second Field Army go to command another military region, the cadres below will definitely not cooperate with you and think you are stealing the position.

The Chairman is also very clear about this.

But the more this happens, the more we cannot allow this situation to continue. This is no longer the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Back then, factionalism was very clear, and the central government needed to quickly stabilize it, so it took more care of factional factors.

However, after years of development, the central government's position has become very stable.

Some adjustments can be made.

So the Chairman thought for a while and said, "This problem should be solved. After returning home, I will exchange views with other comrades."

1028 preparation

On November 1957, 11, the Chinese delegation began to return home.

On my way back home, a small incident occurred at the airport. It was about the first-class cabin. Today's planes are not like later ones, where first-class seats are always packed.

Currently, there is only one first-class cabin on planes flying to China.

This was originally prepared for the Chairman.

As a result, a "dispute" broke out between the Chairman and Song Qingling, with both sides pushing for concessions. In the end, Song Qingling couldn't prevail against the Chairman, so she sat in first class. Although the flight was only a few hours long, everyone still discussed work.

Those organizing materials continued to do so. Those discussing cooperative projects with the Soviet Union discussed how to implement them. Quite a few members of the military delegation remained in the Soviet Union.

Especially Yang Quanwu.

He was directly responsible for the "Two Bombs" project. Now that the Soviet Union had launched another satellite, Yang Quanwu naturally wanted to ask the Soviet Union for some goodies. Xiao Jinguang wanted to cooperate with the Soviet Union to continue to strengthen the Chinese navy.

"What do you think of Comrade Khrushchev's slogan?"

Deng Zhihui sat next to Wei Hongjun.

I exchanged some opinions with Wei Hongjun. Since taking charge of the Secretariat, Wei Hongjun has not interfered with the work of the Rural Work Department. He has a very good sense of proportion regarding these matters. He also hasn't discussed too much work with the cadres of the Rural Work Department.

It is relatively rare for me to have such private communication with Deng Zhihui.

This is also a respect for Deng Zhihui's work.

"Which one are you talking about? Comrade Khrushchev has put forward not one but two slogans in the past two years."

What is it like to have a leader who is quick-witted? This is the situation of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev talked too much.

Some of them did not even discuss it within the party, but started shouting slogans everywhere outside, and then the Central Committee of the CPSU had to come and clean up the mess.

Especially in the two years since the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev completely let himself go.

There are too many slogans shouted.

Can't count.

“就是今年五月份赫鲁晓夫同志提出来的，苏联的人均牛奶和黄油的产量将在1958年赶上美国，人均肉类产量将在1960到1961年赶上美国。要求苏联1958年的肉食供应增加60%到80%。”

Listening to Deng Zhihui repeating Khrushchev's words, Wei Hongjun couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's just bragging."

It is not easy to produce more meat per capita than the United States.

Currently, per capita meat production in the Soviet Union is only one-third of that in the United States. Total meat production in the Soviet Union is approximately 570 million tons, while the United States produces 1600 million tons. The Soviet population was between 2.2 million and 2.3 million, while the United States only had around 1.7 million people.

To catch up with the US in per capita meat production within a few years, the Soviet Union would have to increase its total meat production by more than 1500 million tons. 1500 million tons of meat production would require an additional 300 billion jin of meat supply. Based on the easiest metric to calculate, the number of live pigs would need to increase by nearly million. And these million pigs would be sold for slaughter, meaning the market supply would need to increase by million.

According to the Soviet Union's situation, this was no longer a simple "launching of a satellite."

It's complete bullshit.

If the Soviet Union had the ability to increase the market supply by 300 million pigs in a short period of time, then communism would have been achieved.

So he whispered, "Comrade Khrushchev's farm reforms do have some merit in stimulating farmers' enthusiasm. But the goals he set are too high and impossible to achieve. Do you know what will happen if they can't be achieved? It will cause cadres at all levels to start falsifying data in order to gain political points. This will disrupt the entire Soviet Union's agricultural development and severely undermine the development of its animal husbandry."

Deng Zhihui nodded.

After a moment's thought, he said, "What do you think of Comrade Khrushchev's 'Corn Revolution'?"

“That’s also a mess.”

Wei Hongjun scoffed, "Although I'm not an agricultural expert, I've been involved in rural work for many years. Corn is a dry, hot climate crop that requires a certain amount of sunlight. But look at the areas where Comrade Khrushchev wants to plant corn on a large scale. They are all places with severe sunlight shortages and cold weather. If we haven't developed corn seeds suitable for these areas, and we blindly plant corn, it won't produce ears. We grow corn in the Northeast, and the seeds we use are constantly being improved. The Soviet Union had no experience growing corn in these high-altitude areas, yet they demanded over 400 million mu of corn planting area. What else could this be? I can state with certainty that Khrushchev's so-called 'corn revolution' will inevitably fail."

Why is it said that Khrushchev had poor working ability?

That's it.

The work style is too rough.

They lacked theoretical knowledge, liked to shout slogans, and liked to set unattainable goals. Without any investigation or research, they relied on their own successful experience in corn cultivation and wanted to plant corn on a large scale in Siberia, the Soviet Union.

It's really messed up.

If corn cultivation were that easy, Wei Hongjun, in charge of rural affairs, wouldn't have been so cautious about promoting improved varieties. He would have already expanded corn cultivation to hundreds of millions of mu (approximately 1,000 hectares), rapidly increasing China's grain output by hundreds of billions of kilograms.

Because this won't work.

For corn cultivation, different soils and different climatic conditions require different seeds.

Corn seed improvement in China is currently being conducted by several research institutes. The seed research institute in North China primarily researches corn seeds suitable for cultivation in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan. Meanwhile, research institutes in Northeast China are responsible for improving corn seeds.

Even improved seeds can't be universally promoted all at once. They need to be gradually promoted over several years to fully understand how to plant the new seeds. This understanding isn't solely for researchers, but for the farmers who grow these improved seeds. Only in this way can promotion be successful.

Obviously Khrushchev did not understand this.

The total corn planting area in the Soviet Union was only about 50 million mu, but he insisted on expanding the planting area to 400 million mu. The result was bound to be a mess.

Deng Zhihui nodded.

I also agree with Wei Hongjun's judgment.

The Soviet Union's agricultural reforms had both positive and negative aspects. One positive aspect was that Khrushchev began to relax agricultural regulations, allowing many farms to choose their own crops. He also liberalized grain procurement, removing the mandatory, unmandatory purchase requirement. He also planned to liberalize grain purchase prices. This greatly increased farm incentives.

But there are also many problems.

Unrealistic targets would undoubtedly put immense pressure on the farms. If they failed to meet their targets, how would they report back to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union? Political opportunists would inevitably emerge, and they would begin to falsify production figures.

As long as one political speculator succeeds, countless political speculators will emerge like mushrooms after rain.

Khrushchev liked to brag and to save face.

This is absolutely unavoidable.

Furthermore, Khrushchev's farm reforms gave the farms too much autonomy. This so-called autonomy meant more power for farm officials.

Khrushchev acted blindly and without confidence. It was more like he was delegating some power to lower-level Party committees, trying to win them over and secure his own position. Originally, power was shared by the central government, local governments, and the people. However, Khrushchev, unable to maintain his position, withdrew a significant portion of the rights that the people should have enjoyed and handed them over to local Party committees. This further strengthened the privileges of these local officials.

In this way, they support you.

When suppressing the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial court allowed local landlords to organize militia.

Although the specific measures are different, the principles are the same.

Wei Hongjun said to Deng Zhihui, "Didn't Comrade Khrushchev say that Soviet meat production in 1958 would increase by 60 to 80 percent compared to this year? What do you think?"

"Of course not possible."

Deng Zhihui's answer was also concise and clear.