Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

But why did the "People's Commune" emerge? In fact, it was almost ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Although there were twists and turns, overall productivity continued to develop.

The demand for large-scale construction and division of labor and cooperation among grassroots units has been increasing, which has led many rural production cooperatives to need to unite with other cooperatives in order to continue to develop. However, the alliance between cooperatives cannot always be blind cooperation.

It can be said that the division of labor and cooperation required for large-scale construction is driving the development of cooperatives on a larger scale. Just as mutual aid groups develop into primary cooperatives, and primary cooperatives develop into advanced cooperatives, the development of productive forces drives changes in production relations.

But to be honest, the "People's Commune" was a grassroots organization that appeared at the wrong time and in the wrong place, and ultimately lost its function without really playing a role.

Because the emergence of the "People's Commune" coincided with the "Great Leap Forward," it could be said that the "People's Commune" emerged during China's most difficult period, and the problem of exaggeration was directly attributed to the "People's Commune," making it carry "original sin" from the moment it appeared, and in fact it went bankrupt just two years after its establishment.

The Central Committee hopes that the "People's Commune" will become a grassroots unit of a socialist social structure that can accommodate the integrated development of industry and agriculture, combining workers, peasants, businessmen, students and soldiers, and at the same time a grassroots unit of a socialist organization.

However, its credibility collapsed soon after its establishment. Not only did it become a source of exaggeration in the minds of the people, but it also earned the dislike of some central leaders who opposed continuing with the rural cooperative economy. The "people's commune" was not directly abolished only because of the Chairman's support, but that was all.

Although there have been attempts to restore the original system of the "people's commune", they have never been successful. It is more like a replacement for the original township administrative agencies, rather than a more advanced cooperative with more functions.

Therefore, the "People's Commune" appeared at the wrong time. Its immature internal system collided with the Great Leap Forward, and it simply "died before achieving its goal."

"What does Comrade Luo Weilin think?"

"Comrades at the grassroots level have already come up with an idea: to promote collaboration among cooperatives. To address this issue, some counties in Henan Province have combined several rural cooperatives to form 'large communes.' These 'large communes' have jurisdiction over 500 to 600 households, or even 700 to 800 households."

"Dasha."

Deng Zhihui thought carefully.

This type of "large cooperative" is nothing new. When developing rural cooperatives, the Rural Work Department conducted numerous experiments. Of course, the earliest experimenter was Chen Tao, then director of the Hebei Agricultural Commission. He conducted the most experiments in Hebei at the suggestion of Wei Hongjun.

Many experiments with these "large communes" were also conducted. Later, when Chen Tao went to Guangdong, the Rural Work Department took over these experiments, and much of the work was handled by Luo Weilin, then director of the Policy Research Office.

The management experience of the "big commune" was reviewed at the time. Among the most unsuccessful "big commune" experiments were the large canteen model and the average model. A more successful one was that the "big commune" still used the rural cooperative as the grassroots accounting unit. The "big commune" was only responsible for coordinating and directing the various rural cooperatives during construction, and generally responsible for coordinating the development of rural education, medical care, security, and other work.

At that time, we only summarized some experiences in the development of "big societies", but because there was no demand at the time, we did not make any judgment on the nature of "big societies".

However, now "big cooperatives" are beginning to appear in Henan, cooperative associations are beginning to appear in Shanxi, and some cooperation between rural cooperatives is also emerging in Guangdong and Heilongjiang. This cannot be completely ignored.

"This type of large cooperative is similar to the cooperatives that Comrade Tao Lujia mentioned, which have emerged in rural Shanxi, as well as the cooperatives that have emerged in Guangdong and Heilongjiang. That is, the grassroots units like rural cooperatives are weak and are beginning to need cooperation."

Deng Zhihui slowly organized his thoughts.

"This is very similar to the mutual aid group model that emerged in various places before and after liberation."

"Yes, it is the demand that naturally arises after the development of productivity."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

When mutual aid groups emerged in rural areas, they were not initially promoted by the government. Instead, some farmers spontaneously organized mutual aid groups to cope with the situation immediately following land reform.

After discovering this, grassroots Party organizations and governments felt that the mutual aid group model was a promising option for rural areas with weak infrastructure and limited resilience to risk. They summarized the mutual aid group's progress and reported it to higher-level organizations. Ultimately, the central government approved the approach and began promoting it nationwide.

The large cooperatives and associations that have emerged today are all spontaneous. These rural cooperatives choose what is most beneficial to them based on their actual conditions. Therefore, policies must also keep pace.

"What do you think?"

Although Wei Hongjun is nearly 20 years younger than Deng Zhihui, the cooperation between the two over the years has made Deng Zhihui accustomed to listening to Wei Hongjun's opinions.

"Since this situation has arisen, we must take it seriously. My suggestion is that we shouldn't jump to conclusions yet. The Ministry of Rural Affairs should first send personnel to various provinces to investigate the situation and see the specific extent of the situation and whether there is a strong demand for this kind of cooperation. Once we have the investigation report, we can consider the next step."

"What if this happens frequently? How do we handle it when the outcry is too high?"

"Go with the flow."

Wei Hongjun said: "We will support where there is demand, and we will not force it where there is no demand. my country is not a small country. Each province, and the cities and counties within each province, have different natural conditions and different levels of economic development, and therefore different needs for cooperatives. We cannot force everyone to use the same model for these different places. This is just like when we first promoted production cooperatives."

"For areas where there's demand, we'll first allow some cooperatives to form larger cooperatives or cooperative associations. We'll first observe how these large cooperatives and cooperative associations develop and how they manage themselves internally. Perhaps the people are more resourceful than we are, and their methods of managing large cooperatives and cooperative associations may have many unique features. We'll observe their development, learn from their experiences, correct their mistakes, and gradually improve them in the process. Ultimately, if they prove effective, we'll roll them out nationwide."

Deng Zhihui nodded.

In fact, Deng Zhihui was a little panicked when large cooperatives and cooperative associations began to emerge in the local area. It was not that Deng Zhihui was afraid of new things.

It was because Deng Zhihui thought of the development of rural cooperatives in the past. At that time, Deng Zhihui adopted a conservative approach, so the rural cooperatives in Hubei and Hunan regions were relatively late in becoming advanced cooperatives.

But precisely because of Deng Zhihui's steadfastness, the cooperatives in Hubei and Hunan have a very solid foundation. Some provinces, overly eager to move to advanced cooperatives, have encountered numerous problems, some even having to start over. However, these problems rarely occur in Hunan and Hubei. This is all because Deng Zhihui laid a solid foundation during the mutual aid groups and primary cooperatives.

Deng Zhihui was concerned about the emergence of large cooperatives and cooperative associations in the local areas. If local governments started to stir up trouble, and if central leadership supported them, it would be easy to see a repeat of the situation in some provinces where some provinces had rushed into advanced cooperatives. Rural areas in New China were booming, and if these factors affected rural stability, that would be what Deng Zhihui hated most.

Deng Zhihui felt relieved after hearing Wei Hongjun's words. With Wei Hongjun, the First Secretary of the Secretariat who handled the daily work of the Party Central Committee, keeping things stable, there wouldn't be any major problems.

So Deng Zhihui asked, "How do you think these large cooperatives and associations should be positioned best? Should they be grassroots government units, or even replace township agencies in the future?"

Wei Hongjun also began to think.

The "People's Commune" in history was a failure, but this does not mean that the "People's Commune" was wrong.

These large cooperatives and associations were not yet "people's communes", but they were the basis of "people's communes".

Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "I can't really say for sure now. But I think the model of large cooperatives and cooperative associations should ideally remain farmers' cooperatives, not government administrative agencies. Although they will be given some powers, they will ultimately still be farmers' cooperatives."

"My thinking is that once these large cooperative associations truly develop, there will only be a few left in each township, and then there will be no need for township agencies. This is because the large cooperative associations can handle rural work directly, without the need for township agencies. The county can directly lead the large cooperative associations without going through township agencies. This can also be considered another way to streamline the bureaucracy."

“You want a large village model where the county directly leads the large villages.”

If the Dashe Association is not considered a first-level government agency, then it is a large village model.

Wei Hongjun nodded.

"Yes, that's what I think. The development of rural education, medical care, industry, and agriculture should be entrusted to these large cooperatives. The government's leadership of the countryside is mainly achieved through the party organizations of these large cooperatives."

"In the future, some of our young cadres will go to these large cooperatives to directly participate in the construction of rural political economy and understand the rural development of our country."

"Of course, these are just some of my thoughts. Right now, our country's transportation situation is poor, and there's a serious shortage of transportation. The situation is even worse in rural areas, so it's going to be difficult to achieve widespread coverage within a short period of time."

Deng Zhihui hadn't really considered these aspects. So he said, "I'll go back and make some arrangements and send someone to investigate."

"it is good."

After seeing Deng Zhihui off, Wei Hongjun was also thinking about the next issues in rural areas.

After the large cooperative associations develop, even if they are not first-level government agencies, the choice of leadership organization is still a big problem.

If the Party does not control the organizational structure of the large cooperative associations, these large cooperative associations may become small lords, and even the county government will be unable to control them.

The Party and the government must never lose control of the countryside. Once the management of the countryside is relaxed, various problems will arise in the rural areas.

Therefore, the Party organizations of these large cooperative associations must be led by the Party. We cannot abandon the dispatch of cadres and let local farmers manage them entirely.

While Wei Hongjun was still pondering this question, Zhao Han walked in and whispered, "Secretary Wei, there's news from the hospital. Comrade Lai Ruoyu has passed away."

Wei Hongjun stood up suddenly.

Although Wei Hongjun knew this day would come since Lai Ruoyu was diagnosed with liver cancer, he still couldn't help feeling sad when he heard the news.

Lai Ruoyu was only 48 years old, not even . He had done so much revolutionary work, yet he passed away at such a young age.

Wei Hongjun immediately said, "I have to go to the hospital now. Please put off your other work for now. I'll come over to take care of it in the evening. And you don't have to come with me. Go find Comrade Yang Shangkun and tell him that I will personally take charge of Comrade Lai Ruoyu's funeral."

"Yes."

Lai Ruoyu's funeral was held at a high level. Wei Hongjun served as chairman of the funeral committee, with other members including Comrade Xiu Yang, the Premier, Marshal Nie, Deng Xixian, Guo Moruo, General Peng, General Peng Zhen, General He, General Chen, Deng Zhihui, Li Xiannian, Bo Shuchun, Tan Zhenlin, Li Shaocheng, and others.

Of course, many of the committee members here are just expressing their respect for Lai Ruoyu, and they are not really going to participate in the specific funeral work.

So most cadres just came to attend the funeral and then went back to their own affairs. However, the Premier accompanied the funeral procession and escorted the ashes to Babaoshan.

Wei Hongjun personally read the lyrics and gave a high evaluation of Lai Ruoyu's life. This was a completely heartfelt evaluation from Wei Hongjun.

Whether in Shanxi or in the Rural Work Department, Wei Hongjun was very satisfied with Lai Ruoyu's work.

Wei Hongjun had originally thought that Lai Ruoyu, a member of the Central Committee, had served as a provincial party secretary, and had worked in the Ministry of Rural Affairs for many years, and since he was still young, he would be of great use in the future. But who could have imagined that he would die so soon?

However, Wei Hongjun did not have much time to be sad, because there was still a lot of work waiting for him to deal with.

1052

After the financial work meeting ended, all departments acted quickly.

The First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Transportation all gave high praise to rear-wheeled motorcycles. They were considering the market prospects of these rear-wheeled motorcycles.

After analysis, the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce all agreed that rear-wheeled motorcycles had a promising future in China. Furthermore, compared to producing large trucks, rear-wheeled motorcycles required less investment, presented few technical challenges, and could quickly accumulate capital, so they should be vigorously developed.

The Ministry of Transport is impressed by the important role of three-wheeled motorcycles in short-distance transportation. At a time when national transportation capacity is relatively poor, this relatively cheap and easy-to-use means of transportation is indeed a very good supplement.

So they jointly submitted a report to the Finance and Economics Working Committee, requesting the establishment of a new enterprise specializing in the production of rear-wheeled motorcycles. However, both the Hongdu Machinery Factory and the Xiangjiang Machinery Factory were military factories, affiliated with the General Armaments Department of the Central Military Commission. Furthermore, they were subordinate to the National Defense Industry Committee, which in turn was the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and then the Central Science and Technology Working Committee.

Therefore, Chen Yun personally approached Wei Hongjun. Although Wei Hongjun did not participate in the day-to-day work of the Military Commission, these military factories were directly under the leadership of the General Armaments Department of the Military Commission, which ultimately came under Wei Hongjun's management. Therefore, Wei Hongjun wrote a directive approving the request of the Finance and Economics Working Committee.

However, this wasn't something that could be resolved simply by Wei Hongjun writing a directive. His directive merely indicated his agreement in principle. However, specific details still needed to be coordinated between the Finance and Economics Working Committee and the General Armament Department.

However, with Wei Hongjun's approval, the General Armaments Department finally relented and agreed to divest the motorcycle business from the Hongdu Machinery Factory and the Xiangjiang Machinery Factory. However, the General Armaments Department and the General Logistics Department also made a request: the newly established motorcycle company must prioritize meeting the military's motorcycle needs. The production of rear-wheeled motorcycles should not affect the supply of motorcycles to the military. The Finance and Economics Working Committee agreed to the General Armaments Department and the General Logistics Department's request.

Finally, the Ministry of Finance, the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Commerce, Jiangxi Province, and Hunan Province jointly invested in the divestiture of the motorcycle businesses of Hongdu Machinery Factory and Xiangjiang Machinery Factory, transferring their technical personnel to the new factory. A new group of workers were recruited to establish the Nanchang Motorcycle Factory. Nanchang was chosen because the three-wheeled motorcycles had previously been assembled at the Hongdu Machinery Factory.

After the factory was established, it initially had only two main tasks: one was to continue to supply military motorcycles to the army, and the other was to vigorously produce rear three-wheeled motorcycles.

Even the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce encouraged the newly established motorcycle factory to set an ambitious goal: to produce 100,000 rear-wheeled motorcycles per year. This was because the Ministry of Light Industry and the Ministry of Commerce had more detailed information and a better understanding of domestic demand.

The demand for rear-wheeled motorcycles is not only in Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi and other provinces, but also in other provinces. Cities need them, factories need them, and towns and rural areas also need them.

The First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce not only established a motorcycle factory in Nanchang, but also Shanghai was the first to produce rear-wheeled motorcycles. As early as 1951, the Shanghai Litong Manufacturing Plant produced rear-wheeled motorcycles for 1400 yuan. However, the rear-wheeled motorcycles in Shanghai were primarily intended to replace the human-powered tricycles that plagued the streets. Therefore, they were only used as a replacement in Shanghai and were not widely promoted.

But the Shanghai factory had the technology. Therefore, the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly negotiated with Shanghai, hoping to build a larger motorcycle factory there. Essentially, this meant expanding the Litong Manufacturing Plant and increasing production of rear-wheeled motorcycles. Naturally, Shanghai agreed to such a good idea.

I didn't know before. Now that I know how popular rear-wheeled motorcycles are, how could Shanghai pass up such a good opportunity? If these ministries hadn't approached me, the Shanghai Municipal Government could have invested on its own.

Besides Shanghai, the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce also wanted to establish a rear-wheeled motorcycle factory in Changchun. This was primarily due to the relatively simple technical challenges of rear-wheeled motorcycles. For the industrially developed Northeast region, especially in Changchun, where FAW already produced motorcycles in small batches, rear-wheeled motorcycles presented no significant challenges.

The Ministry of Transportation is also actively supporting this initiative. The idea is that rear-wheeled motorcycles can solve short-distance transport problems. With a properly designed fuel tank, rear-wheeled motorcycles can travel 100 to 200 kilometers. Therefore, if rear-wheeled motorcycles become more common, they can free up a large number of trucks from short-distance transport, freeing up the limited number of large trucks currently available for long-distance transport.

However, the actions of the First Ministry of Machine Building, the Ministry of Light Industry, and the Ministry of Commerce put even greater pressure on Li Fuchun. The more these products, aimed directly at the people, were produced, the greater the demand for steel. A single three-wheeled motorcycle required hundreds of kilograms of steel. If so many factories were built and the production of these motorcycles were to be mass-produced, how much steel would be needed? Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of tons—the very thought of it gave Li Fuchun a headache.

Li Fuchun was now tasked with addressing the steel shortage. His work had barely begun, but the major steel producers were already considering how to increase production. Fortunately, this was good news, indicating that the national economy was developing and the people's purchasing power was increasing.

Upon receiving his appointment, Li Fuchun's first task was to oversee key steel projects funded by the central government. He had to ensure that these large steel mills maintained their production capacity and that expansion projects at many of them proceeded smoothly. As always, the lifeblood of China's steel industry still lay in these large steel mills. As long as these large mills maintained their production capacity, even a shortage of steel in the market wouldn't significantly impact the nation's industrial development and economic growth.

Then there are the steel mills expanded during the Second Five-Year Plan. Because these were large-scale projects funded by the central government, the blast furnaces built during the expansions were all large, with a capacity of over 1000 cubic meters, which would have been considered advanced even in the Soviet Union. In these projects, simply expanding a single blast furnace could increase steel production by hundreds of thousands of tons. Therefore, solving the steel supply problem ultimately depends on these large steel mills.

However, the biggest challenge with expanding large steel mills is the high investment and time required. Building a large blast furnace often takes a year, and sometimes two years. Given the current steel shortage, this is like providing distant water to quench immediate thirst.

So Li Fuchun went to the local areas to convey the spirit of the Central Finance and Economics Conference, and then went around looking for funds for the local steel industry. The first place Li Fuchun looked was Shanghai.

Li Fuchun hoped that Shanghai would provide financial support for the development of Anhui's steel industry. Preparations for the Hefei Iron and Steel Plant in Anhui had been ongoing for a long time, and had been nearly complete during Zeng Xisheng's time. The plan was to build a steel plant in Hefei with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons.

However, for various reasons, construction never began. Of course, after the Great Leap Forward, Anhui officially developed its steel industry, and the Hefei Iron and Steel Plant officially began construction. It took only a few months to build the Hefei Iron and Steel Plant. To meet steel production targets, the Hefei Iron and Steel Plant built a number of earthenware blast furnaces, almost all of which were dismantled in 1962.

The current steel market is in short supply, and the central government supports the development of local steel industries. Therefore, after meeting with Anhui officials, Li Fuchun urged the Hefei Iron and Steel Plant in Anhui to revise its original plan and build a medium-sized steel plant in Hefei with an annual production capacity of approximately 30 tons, rather than the originally planned 5 tons.

The central government supported Anhui's steel mill development because of the Ma'anshan Mine. Since liberation, the central government has prioritized its restoration and development. After a decade of development, the mine now produces over 200 million tons of steel annually.

Moreover, with the increase in mining machinery in the past two years and the overcoming of many technical difficulties, the development of the Ma'anshan mine has been accelerating, and mining output has been increasing. Therefore, Anhui has the foundation to build large and medium-sized steel mills.