Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"These eight fertilizer industry projects must remain." Deng Zhihui spoke at this time.

Very tough.

Deng Zhihui was known for his open-mindedness. But when it came to work, he wouldn't budge. After discussions with other ministries and technical staff, and after consulting with Jack Perry, the joint team finalized eight complete import projects for the fertilizer industry.

分别是英国汉格拉斯哥公司提供两套年产10万吨合成氨工厂的成套设备;还有一套10万吨合成氨，16万吨尿素的成套设备;荷兰大陆工程公司提供两套10万吨合成氨，16万吨尿素的成套设备;意大利公司提供年产五万吨合成氨成套设备，加上年产5万吨合成氨所需所的重油气化装置;瑞士蒙特卡提尼公司提供年产10万吨合成氨所需要的重油气化装置成套设备。

Currently, China's fertilizer industry primarily uses coal as a raw material, including the fertilizer industry built with Soviet aid. However, the imported equipment for synthetic ammonia production primarily uses oil and natural gas as raw materials.

Therefore, construction is mainly carried out in the Northeast region, Lanzhou, Gansu, and Sichuan.

"Old Deng, you are too greedy." Li Fuchun couldn't help but teasing Deng Zhihui.

The Ministry of Heavy Industry, the Ministry of Machinery Industry, and the Ministry of Construction Engineering hadn't said anything yet, yet Deng Zhihui was so unyielding.

Deng Zhihui said bluntly, "This time, the machinery and equipment imported from Europe is primarily for the fertilizer and fiber industries. Everything else will take a back seat."

Deng Zhihui is determined to win this major development of the fertilizer industry.

One is the fertilizer industry imported from the Soviet Union and East Germany, and the other is imported from Europe. Then there's the independently planned 1960-ton synthetic ammonia plant currently under development. According to Deng Zhihui's plan and the current state of China's fertilizer industry, there's no problem producing over 200 million tons of fertilizers like urea and ammonium sulfate before .

Moreover, with the experience gained from building these fertilizer plants this time, we will have a path for developing the fertilizer industry in the future.

So he would never let anyone else take this matter away from him.

One rarely sees Deng Zhihui's attitude. Deng Zhihui was one of the founders of the Fujian-West Base Area. Before being promoted to the Central Committee, he was the First Secretary of the Central South Bureau. He is now an alternate member of the Politburo and Vice Premier of the State Council.

With his qualifications, status and level, he is almost "playing rogue" here, and others can't say anything.

What can I say.

Wei Hongjun felt amused.

But Wei Hongjun, as the leader of the joint team, certainly couldn't laugh. Seeing Deng Zhihui's expression, Zeng Shan immediately said, "I support Comrade Deng Zhihui's opinion. This time, when importing complete sets of equipment from European countries, the first industries to be addressed are the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries. Therefore, I believe the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries must be prioritized, and the complete sets of equipment involving chemical fibers should be the first to be imported."

There are also many complete sets of equipment for chemical fibers.

英国维克斯吉玛公司提供的年产5000吨的聚丙烯成套设备;英国考特尔茨公司提供的年产8000顿腈纶纤维的丙烯晴纤维成套设备;英国卜内门公司、西蒙卡夫公司提供的年产34000吨的高压聚乙烯成套设备;联邦德国鲁奇公司提供的年产12000吨腈纶纤维的丙烯晴纤维成套设备;英国斯司考贝德尔公司提供的年产500吨聚酯树脂的成套设备。

These are companies that have communicated with Jack Perry and are able to provide complete sets of equipment to China.

"The fertilizer and chemical fiber industries we're introducing are both types of petrochemicals. They're chemical industries that require oil and natural gas as raw materials. However, the development of my country's oil industry is currently lagging significantly. Therefore, I suggest that to support the development of the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries, the first batch of imports should focus on machinery and equipment related to oil and natural gas."

Li Xuefeng followed immediately.

This made the leaders of other ministries, who were originally very enthusiastic, very dissatisfied.

Because they wanted to import complete sets of machinery and equipment this time, they also reported a lot of things. Metallurgy, machinery, electronics, instrumentation, as well as electricity, printing, and transportation all wanted to import machinery and equipment.

But now, how could they have a share? So everyone immediately started to clamor.

Wei Hongjun was helpless, so he could only slam his hands on the table. Seeing Wei Hongjun slamming the table, no one else raised a voice. However, the silence didn't mean they were convinced, so the atmosphere remained tense. Wei Hongjun looked at Li Fuchun. The departments causing the most commotion were those under Li Fuchun's current charge.

Wei Hongjun also understood them.

For China, with its weak infrastructure, every import of machinery, equipment, and technology from abroad was an opportunity for a major technological leap forward. No one wanted to give up such a good opportunity, especially the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the Ministry of Machinery Industry, which had always been the core of China's industry.

Now, such a good opportunity was being given up to the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries. What they were dissatisfied with was that after Khrushchev came to China, a number of projects he assisted in building were also in the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries.

Now it's them again.

This is the reason for their dissatisfaction.

However, they didn't dare to say that these were all departments under Wei Hongjun's jurisdiction, and that Wei Hongjun favored them. So, they could only express the difficulties they faced. Li Fuchun could only speak out, "Comrades, don't worry. Our cooperation with Europe won't be a one-time event. After this, we will have more collaborations in the future. This time, we imported complete sets of equipment, prioritizing the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries. This was something we reported to the Chairman and Premier, and they approved it. Everyone should keep the overall situation in mind."

Li Fuchun has a really good temper.

Careful explanations were given to the cadres of the various ministries below.

After a while, many cadres finally calmed down. At this time, Wei Hongjun said, "Comrades, I know everyone is working hard for the industrialization of our country. But we must know that our country has not yet solved the problem of food and clothing for the people. In recent years, nearly half of the fiscal expenditure has been invested in the industrial sector. But we cannot ignore the most important problem of food and clothing in order to develop industry. The development of the fertilizer industry and the chemical fiber industry is to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people. Only when the problem of food and clothing is solved can our people devote themselves to industrial development with greater enthusiasm."

"Correct."

Mao Zemin nodded and agreed, "Don't worry, everyone. As long as this cooperation goes smoothly, we will have more and more cooperation with European countries. By then, every ministry will have a share. So I also agree that the first batch will focus on complete sets of equipment needed by the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries, as well as the oil industry."

Everyone finally reached a conclusion.

The first batch of imports included 13 complete sets of equipment for the fertilizer and chemical fiber industries, as well as three equipment related to oil and natural gas extraction and processing. These included a diamond drill bit for a 5000-meter deep-well drilling rig supplied by a French company, a platinum-catalyzed reforming and aromatics extraction unit supplied by Italian company Snam, and a crude oil sand furnace cracking and olefin separation unit supplied by Lurgi of the Federal Republic of Germany.

There are 16 projects in total.

Approximately $1.4 million. The first installment will require approximately $3000 million, with a subsequent $1.1 million payment due within five years. The central government originally approved $2.7 million, but this was cut in half because the government simply couldn't come up with the funds. Furthermore, the technical team concluded that any additional funds would be unsustainable at this stage.

The treasury is really empty now.

Even the central government really couldn't come up with the money, so this time the central government decided to decentralize three of the five fertilizer plants to local governments.

948 Rural Cooperatives under the Free Market

Qiantang Village Cooperative in Xingtai, Hebei.

Why is it called Tangcun?

Legend has it that once, everyone here was surnamed Tang, hence the name Tang Village. This is the Qiantang Village Cooperative, and to the south is the Houtang Village Cooperative. However, now, neither Qiantang Village nor Houtang Village has a single person with the surname Tang.

The former secretary of the Tangcun Cooperative Branch, Old Man Li, smoked constantly.

The country attaches the most importance to farming. In order to grow cotton,

When tobacco cultivation was under control, it became even more scarce. Most people couldn't afford tobacco, so they used other grasses instead. These grasses were dried and used as tobacco leaves, as long as they produced smoke.

"Old Li."

"Sixth Uncle."

Two people came in.

There was another person who looked like Old Man Li, both of them were in their sixties, but in fact, they were both under fifty. It was just that people aged easily at that age, so they looked like they were in their sixties.

The other man was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, and he was a gentle man, but he had a lame leg and walked with a limp.

"Old Li, didn't you attend the township meeting? What did the township say?" The man talking to Old Man Li was Old Man Niu, the former president of the Tang Village Cooperative. There were three brothers in his family, so everyone called them "Old Niu," "Second Niu," and "Third Niu." Old Man Niu was the third of the three brothers.

"It's about the sale and purchase of agricultural and sideline products."

"What's wrong?"

The old man feels happy when talking about this cow.

When the state-owned supply and marketing cooperatives (SMCs) previously controlled the purchase and sale of agricultural and sideline products, prices were kept very low. This was because the SMCs and state-owned commercial companies experienced significant losses during storage and transportation. Agricultural and sideline products should be readily available. However, the SMCs imposed too many restrictions, subjecting agricultural and sideline products to the same processing as other industrial products. As a result, a significant number of vegetables went bad.

However, since the establishment of county and township supply and marketing cooperatives, agricultural and sideline product prices have risen sharply due to significantly reduced losses. While the increase isn't significant, vegetables have seen a one-cent increase for every ten kilograms. Eggs used to cost 0.443 yuan per kilogram, but now they cost 0.49 yuan per kilogram. Of course, some places simply charge three eggs for one cent when purchasing.

But it still increased a lot of income in rural areas.

"Today I went to a meeting at the township government, and they conveyed a document from the central government. It said the central government allows rural cooperatives to set up their own supply and marketing cooperatives and trade agricultural and sideline products on their own. However, they cannot trade in agricultural and sideline products that are subject to state-mandated purchase and marketing, such as grain, oil, and live pigs."

"real?"

Old Man Niu was overjoyed and said, "Xxxx, Lao Li, do you know how much an egg costs in the township? A pound of eggs costs 74 cents, and three eggs cost 20 cents. It's much more expensive than what we sell to the county and township supply and marketing cooperatives. If we could sell them ourselves, our annual income from vegetables and eggs alone could double."

Old Man Niu became more and more excited as he spoke.

There's still a huge gap between the supply and marketing cooperatives' purchase prices and the market prices. For example, eggs are bought for 10 cents each in rural areas, but only 20 cents each when they're sold in the market.

If I could sell this myself, how much money could I make? Old Man Li shook his head.

He said, "It's not that easy. The township has said that any rural cooperative that wants to open its own supply and marketing cooperative and engage in the sale of agricultural and sideline products must register with the county. Do you know how much it costs to register? 50 yuan."

"How much? 50 yuan, are you robbing me?" Old man Niu jumped up.

Seven or eight hundred kilograms of grain, sometimes even nearly a thousand kilograms of grain, can only be sold for 50 yuan.

Old Man Li said, "This is just the registration fee. Furthermore, the county stipulates that agricultural and sideline product markets can only be located in designated areas within the county and townships. And to sell things there, you have to pay a three-yuan stall fee every month."

"I can't do it. I can't do it."

Old Man Niu nodded repeatedly.

He said: "How many agricultural and sideline products do we sell in a year?" Old man Li also nodded.

When the cooperative cadres returned, they discussed this with each other. Paying so much money wasn't cost-effective, no matter how you looked at it. It would be better to sell to the county and township supply and marketing cooperatives and earn a steady income.

The middle-aged man who had been silent nearby said, "Sixth Uncle, the township is saying that the supply and marketing cooperative established by our production cooperative will have the same status as the county and township supply and marketing cooperatives in the future, and can also trade in agricultural and sideline products."

"Correct."

"That is to say, in addition to our own agricultural and sideline products, we can also purchase agricultural and sideline products from other cooperatives, just like the county and township supply and marketing cooperatives, and then sell them."

"probably."

Old man Li nodded uncertainly.

The middle-aged man said: "Sixth Uncle, Third Uncle Niu, I think they are capable."

"Stone, do you think you can do it?"

Both old men looked at the middle-aged man.

Although he is middle-aged, he is only 33 years old this year. His nickname is Shitou, and his full name is Shi, meaning Li Shi. Because he also has the surname Li, he follows the others in calling Old Man Li "Sixth Uncle." In fact, they are not related. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Shi joined the village militia, and Old Man Li was the deputy captain of the militia at that time.

It was not until the failure of the May 1st campaign to sweep the Japanese army that the situation of the anti-Japanese war in Hebei changed.

At the time, the Jin-Cha-Ji region was developing rapidly, requiring a large number of grassroots cadres. Many were promoted from the militia. Zhi, a studious young man, had attended school for two years, effectively escaping illiteracy. He was selected and formally joined the Eighth Route Army. However, he was not assigned to Wang Li's unit. He studied at the 15st Army and later participated in the rent and interest reduction campaign.

After that, he participated in the land reform in Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei.

Because of his good performance, he later served as a county work team leader. After the establishment of the Tenth Bureau, Li Shi went south to participate in land reform in Pingyuan Province. He was attacked by a group of bandits and his leg was crippled. The higher-ups originally wanted to assign him to a government department, but he declined and returned to his hometown.

After he returned to the village, he became the village accountant.

Because he was a disabled soldier and a former high-ranking official, his opinions were highly respected by the county and township governments. After arriving in Qiantang Village, his extensive experience helped him develop mutual aid groups, later transitioning to primary cooperatives, and now to advanced cooperatives, all with remarkable success. He also single-handedly oversaw Qiantang Village's literacy campaign, earning him widespread trust.

"Uncle Six, Uncle Niu San, do you think our cooperative is poor?"

"Of course I'm poor."

Old Man Li sighed and said, "Look, our villages, Qianqiu and Houqiu, are less than ten miles apart, but their population is small and there's more arable land, while ours is large and there's less. Their villages have always been prosperous, while ours can't even fulfill the state's commercial grain production quota."

Old Man Li was the deputy captain of the militia during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

During the war years, Qiantang Village was also quite famous. Many of its members joined the Eighth Route Army. However, after liberation, Houtang Village met its annual public and commercial grain quotas, while Qiantang Village struggled to meet its commercial grain quota. The county subsequently reduced Qiantang Village's commercial grain quota based on its situation.

"Sixth Uncle, actually, our Qiantang Village Cooperative is a typical rural area with a large population and limited land, not only in the county, but also in the entire province."

Qiantang Village did not have such a large population before, and many people came here during the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation.

Because it is mountainous and one of the old bases of the Eighth Route Army, many people came here to escape the war.