Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

With the large-scale water conservancy projects carried out by the country in recent years, the amount of fertile farmland has increased significantly. Whether it is the previous Huaihe River control, the Jingjiang River flood diversion project underway in Hubei, or the control of the Yellow River flood area in Henan, these are all amounts that could not be organized in old China.

These major river management projects have greatly increased the area of ​​arable land and have also led to a continuous increase in grain production in New China.

However, this approach of increasing grain production by increasing arable land is unsustainable. The best approach is to increase yields per mu. Currently, winter wheat yields per mu have increased by over 100 kilograms per year.

It's a great revolution.

"How could it be only 10 billion jin?"

Lai Ruoyu interjected, "Don't forget, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan can plant twice a year. After the winter wheat is harvested, they can plant another crop of corn. If corn production can also increase by this much, we can increase the country's annual output by 20 to 30 billion catties, or even 30 to 40 billion catties. Especially if corn production can reach 50 to 600 catties, then the combined annual increase in winter wheat and corn production will be 50 to 60 billion catties."

"Correct."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

If corn seed improvement is as successful as winter wheat, the actual increase in grain production will be greater than expected. This is because corn is not very picky about the quality of arable land and can be grown on many mountainous areas.

At present, the winter wheat planting area is not as large as the corn planting area. The corn planting area can easily reach about 300 million catties.

If the per-acre corn yield can be increased, it is possible to increase China's grain output by 200 billion jin within ten years.

"Comrade Zhihui, it seems we need to speed up the promotion of improved varieties." "Yes."

Deng Zhihui nodded.

After a moment's thought, he said, "This time, all the seeds from the state-owned farms will be kept for further expansion. For the 1954 winter wheat season, we'll aim to plant around 300 mu (approximately 100 acres), aiming for a total wheat planting of around 1956 mu. We'll then see the results and experiment with the appropriate seed count per mu and the appropriate spacing between wheat plants. Once we have enough data, we'll have the experimental institute continue to improve the seeds. If the results are positive, we'll begin full-scale planting of the new winter wheat seeds in ."

"Okay. Don't be too anxious, just take it one step at a time."

Although Wei Hongjun wished that all the arable land would be planted with the current seeds within one day.

But this is impossible. We still need to proceed step by step.

Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "There's one more thing to note. When distributing seeds to cooperatives, don't impose rigid regulations like how many seeds to sow per acre or how far apart wheat plants should be planted. We can give them a certain range and tell them that this is the result of our laboratory research. As for the specific planting methods, we should leave it to the cooperatives to decide."

"Ah."

This is why Deng Zhihui is satisfied with Wei Hongjun. Steady.

Despite his youth, Deng Zhihui is not impatient. He stated bluntly, "Although our seeds are suitable for planting in North China, North China is vast, and each region has different climate and soil conditions. It's impossible for all planting techniques to be the same. We shouldn't impose too many orders on the cooperatives; we should give them more freedom in this regard."

"Vice Premier Wei and Vice Premier Deng, agricultural development still requires guidance from agricultural technology. For example, after liberation, the Ministry of Agriculture provided guidance to rural areas nationwide on the correct methods for producing organic fertilizer. This alone significantly increased grain production. In Inner Mongolia and Suiyuan, in particular, teaching farmers how to compost and store manure doubled grain production. We still need to provide technical guidance to rural areas, including for grain cultivation."

Zhao Dezun became anxious.

How can agriculture be possible without technical guidance?

Wei Hongjun smiled and said, "It's not that we won't provide technical guidance to rural areas, but in many areas, we must put an end to technical guidance that sounds like administrative orders. We need to learn to distinguish between these things."

"Comrade Hongjun is right. Rural areas have weak foundations, and problems are most unacceptable. Therefore, any changes must be step-by-step and planned. The same goes for technical guidance. Once administrative orders are issued, it is easy to make random changes. Therefore, technical guidance should also be gradually infiltrated."

Deng Zhihui explains.

Zhao Dezun was a very capable cadre, but he was too young. Having previously worked in Northeast China, he understood the rural areas there, but his understanding of rural China as a whole was limited.

Li Shaocheng continued, "Our Ministry of Agriculture's plan is to establish agricultural technology extension stations in every county nationwide within ten years. This will allow more agricultural technicians to go to the countryside and promote agricultural technology. This is not about issuing administrative orders."

"This is good."

Wei Hongjun nodded, supporting Li Shaocheng's idea.

Then he said, "Secretary Zhihui will be responsible for handling the work of the Rural Work Department. The next major task is to use about three years to fully promote improved varieties. At the same time, we will support seed research institutes across the country to continue research on improved varieties suitable for each region."

923 Large Soviet Delegation

The June 617th Incident was not good for the reputation of the Soviet Union and the entire socialist camp. Berlin was particularly at the forefront of the Cold War confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, so such an incident would have spread the infamy far and wide.

How could Britain and the United States miss such a good opportunity?

All major newspapers reported this incident extensively. The Soviet army used troops to suppress the demonstrators.

Regardless of whether the Americans were behind this, the Soviet Union and East Germany were utterly humiliated by this incident. Eastern European socialist countries also questioned the Soviet Union, implicitly criticizing it.

Think that this is not the right thing to do.

The June 617 Incident made relations between the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries delicate.

Eastern European countries were also frightened. Although propaganda attributed the June 617th Incident to Western powers and reactionaries, everyone knew that the true cause of the June 617th Incident was the economic problems of East Germany. The Soviet Union, aware of this, quickly announced that Germany would be exempted from paying hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations and that all Soviet-controlled East German factories would be returned to the GDR. After the Soviet occupation of Germany, East German factories were under Soviet control. However, to mitigate the negative impact of the June 617th Incident, the Soviets returned these factories to East Germany. Overall, the goal was to reduce economic pressure on East Germany and improve its economic situation.

Eastern Europe feared a similar situation would occur in their own countries, so they took advantage of Stalin's recent death to revise their economic models. While it's normal for each country to adjust its economic policies based on its circumstances, these adjustments in Eastern Europe also included political adjustments.

This was something the Soviet Union could not accept.

Because Eastern Europe was considered by the Soviet Union to be its "backyard," after all, the regimes of Eastern European countries were all supported by the Soviet Union. Therefore, whether politically or economically, they should obey the Soviet Union. Now that Eastern European countries are not obeying, how can the Soviet Union agree?

However, the Soviet Union was still undergoing internal adjustments, so its control over Eastern Europe had eased somewhat. The Soviet Union was currently appeasing the Eastern European countries and turning a blind eye to their economic reforms.

The Soviet Union was also adjusting itself.

After Khrushchev stabilized his position, he would take action against these disobedient younger brothers in Eastern Europe.

But it wasn't all bad news for the socialist camp. Just after July, the Vietnamese army won a decisive battle, annihilating 7 million enemy troops. This completely established the situation in Vietnam.

In fact, the two sides have been fighting since April.

法国动员了九万多人。其中法军11000多人,外籍军团(主要是德国人）15000人，北非部队(摩洛哥和阿尔及利亚人)广16000人,空军部队3000多人,南越部队40000人。

North Vietnam also concentrated 5 divisions, 3 independent regiments, and 3 divisions of second-line troops.

It took three full months.

In July, North Vietnamese forces suddenly launched a powerful attack, trapping over 2.3 enemy troops. Despite the French's efforts, Iber was unable to repel this force. After more than days of fighting, the North Vietnamese completely annihilated the million enemy troops trapped in the encirclement.

The French and South Vietnamese troops suffered heavy losses.

In the end, the French army could not hold on because of heavy casualties.

Of course, the main reason was the significant increase in the Vietnamese army's combat effectiveness. After China ended the Korean War, a massive amount of weapons and equipment began to be transferred to the Vietnamese army. The first batch of equipment for the Vietnamese army alone included four Chinese-made rocket artillery regiments, four American-made howitzer regiments for NATO forces, and seven Soviet-supported anti-aircraft artillery regiments. There was also a day of Zhentak weapons.

Among them, four anti-aircraft artillery regiments were from the Guangzhou Military Region, helping the North Vietnamese army with air defense.

These weapons and equipment had been in the hands of the North Vietnamese troops for a year. Under the guidance of Chen Geng and Wei Guoqing, the North Vietnamese troops' combat effectiveness had been continuously increasing, and they had fully mastered these weapons. As a result, these heavy weapons played a huge role in this battle, making the French positions completely untenable.

In addition, the anti-aircraft artillery regiment sent to Vietnam by the Guangzhou Military Region shot down more than 110 aircraft.

Compared to the French, North Vietnam had an endless supply of troops. Besides the 100,000 frontline troops, North Vietnam also had a massive second-line force. France simply couldn't sustain its losses in Vietnam.

In recent years, the United States has provided $20 billion in supplies to France for its fight in Vietnam.

But this amount of supplies could not meet France's needs at all.

France's own economy was in trouble. The disastrous defeat in this battle directly led to the fall of the French cabinet. During the Vietnam War, France had already changed six commanders in a row, but none of them were effective.

The world is currently in turmoil, leading to a meeting of foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union in Berlin. These major powers, fearing conflict among themselves, frequently negotiated. During this meeting, the Soviet Union proposed a meeting of the five foreign ministers of the Soviet Union, China, the United States, Britain, and France to discuss measures to ease international tensions. Specifically, they sat down to develop a plan regarding security issues in areas like the Korean Peninsula and Indochina.

But the United States opposed it.

After Eisenhower became president, he began adjusting his policy toward China. He opposed direct conflict with China. After the Korean War, Eisenhower understood that a face-to-face confrontation with the Chinese military was not a good idea.

The combat effectiveness of the Chinese military is even stronger than the United States imagined.

Since direct conflict was inappropriate, Eisenhower chose another approach, which was to encircle China.

Eisenhower first signed the "US-ROK Mutual Defense Agreement" with Syngman Rhee, and then immediately began signing the "US-Chiang Mutual Defense Agreement" with Chiang Kai-shek. Less than six months after taking office, Eisenhower had already signed two consecutive "mutual defense agreements." His goal was to firmly control South Korea and Taiwan and curb China's development.

He wants to isolate China from the world.

The next step was Southeast Asia. Eisenhower's plan was to completely encircle China by attacking Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indochina, and then Pakistan.

It would be even better if India could be won over.

In this way, the United States can completely block China and isolate China from the world. However, if the Soviet Union's initiative is followed to convene a five-nation conference of China, the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union to discuss the security issues of the Korean Peninsula and Indochina, wouldn't this be acknowledging China's status as a paradise?

This is unacceptable to the United States.

However, France responded positively and supported the Soviet Union's initiative. Because France was unable to conquer and lost, especially the disastrous defeat during this period, France no longer wanted to stay in Vietnam.

But how to end the fighting in Vietnam and how to ensure France's respectable withdrawal from Vietnam still required China's support. Therefore, France agreed to the Soviet Union's proposal to hold a conference as soon as possible to discuss the peace issue in Indochina. France wanted to end the war as soon as possible.

The UK has the same attitude.

The UK no longer wants a major power like China to remain isolated. Bringing China into the fold is in its best interest. Furthermore, the UK has its own agenda. Since the US wants to contain China, the UK is willing to actively facilitate this.

It would be best if the United States and China fought another war in Southeast Asia. So he also supported the Soviet Union's initiative.

Finally, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union decided to hold a five-member foreign ministerial conference in Geneva in February 1954, focusing on security issues in Indochina. The security issues in Indochina encompassed not just Vietnam but also Laos, Burma, and other regions. Even Malaysia and Thailand hoped to reach a consensus and quickly stabilize the Indochina Peninsula.

China's influence has further expanded.

The United States cannot accept this.

The Geneva Conference demonstrated that China has the strength to be a standard-bearer in Southeast Asia. Even if it is not the entire Southeast Asia, it shows that the problems of the Indochina Peninsula cannot be separated from China.

If China's influence continues to expand, it will further invigorate the communist movement in Asia. Therefore, US Vice President Nixon, who was visiting the Philippines, proposed that the US establish a military organization similar to NATO in Asia.

The United States wants to win over Southeast Asian countries and establish a collective defense organization similar to NATO in Southeast Asia.

However, apart from the Philippines, which is very active, the reactions of other Southeast Asian countries are average.

The reaction from the countries in Indochina, in particular, was even more lukewarm. They were looking forward to the upcoming Paris-Berneva Conference, hoping that the Geneva Conference would reach a consensus rather than follow the US in containing China.

The countries in Indochina do not want to become pawns of the United States and come into conflict with a big country like China.

Even the United States suffered a major defeat on the Korean Peninsula. Now the United States wants these countries in the Indochina Peninsula to fight with China. How could they possibly agree? They are not crazy.

During this chaotic time, Khrushchev brought a large group of people to China, ostensibly for an exhibition.

Khrushchev attached great importance to this exhibition. He brought nearly every new product from the Soviet industrial front. Khrushchev wanted to win over China, but at the same time, he also wanted to show China the Soviet Union's immense strength.

Let China see the situation clearly.

In September 1953, Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, traveled to China with Beria, First Deputy Secretary of the Council of Ministers, and Mikoyan; KGB Chairman Sherov; Chairman of the All-Union Trade Unions, Svernik; Moscow Party Secretary Furtseva; Soviet Minister of Culture, Alexander Alexandrov; and former Soviet Ambassador to China, Angel Wujin. Of course, Khrushchev had already executed Beria before his arrival.

Historically, Beria was not executed until December.

But Khrushchev couldn't wait any longer. China's status had risen so rapidly since the Korean War, and Khrushchev desperately needed China's support. But before coming to China, he worried about Malenkov and Beria, who was in prison, stirring up trouble again. So, he had Beria executed in early September.

As long as Beria was dead, Malenkov was no longer in Khrushchev's sight.

After Beria's arrest, Khrushchev used the "Leningrad Affair" to suppress Malenkov. Khrushchev had become First Secretary of the CPSU, overseeing the Secretariat, that is, the work of the CPSU Central Committee. He gradually reduced the once supreme Council of Ministers to a mere formality.

Khrushchev would only come to China after resolving internal Soviet affairs. This visit was truly spectacular. Twelve aircraft and a delegation of over 12 people were deployed. The Union also airlifted 70 vehicles, three of which were GAZ armored vehicles for Khrushchev, Bulganin, and Gao Yang; the remaining seven were GAZ vehicles for the delegation members and security personnel.

Given Khrushchev's grand gesture, the Chinese side naturally gave him a high-level reception. The Chairman personally went to the airport to greet him.

The Commander-in-Chief, Comrade Xiu Yang, the Premier, Chen Yun, Marshal Nie, and Gao Gang, seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, were all present.

This is the highest-level event since the founding of New China.