Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"What else did Comrade Rao Shushi say at the meeting? Why are they suddenly asking the Secretariat to review important documents?"

"Comrade Rao Shushi's point is that there is still a danger of 'separatism' within the Central Committee, so the Party's leadership must be strengthened. The Secretariat reviews and approves important documents to ensure that the Party's correct line can be implemented."

Lai Ruoyu answered.

Wei Hongjun didn't say anything, but he was angry in his heart.

While it's fine for administrative agencies to strengthen the Party's leadership, different agencies have different responsibilities and powers, and it's not up to the Secretariat to dictate what they say. Wei Hongjun, however, couldn't determine what the Secretariat meant, or what Gao Gang meant.

So I said, "Don't worry about it. It will be the same as it was before. Let me find out the details first."

"Yes."

Chapter 960 Gao Gang's Ambition

After Li Shaocheng and Lai Ruoyu left, Wei Hongjun immediately understood what had happened.

Wei Hongjun had no control over Gao Gang's activities in Party affairs or his handling of matters within the Secretariat. Although Wei Hongjun was a member of the Secretariat, he had no division of labor within the Secretariat and did not participate in its daily work. He was primarily responsible for the State Council, so he remained out of the Secretariat's work.

But Gao Gang wanted to reach out to Wei Hongjun.

Especially when it comes to rural agricultural work, Wei Hongjun couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Gao Gang had also worked in rural areas during his time in Northeast China and was considered a cadre within the central government who was quite familiar with rural work. But that was many years ago.

Since Gao Gang was transferred to the Central Committee, he has been working in Party affairs. Wei Hongjun, starting with the National Land Conference in 1947, gradually took charge of China's rural affairs for seven or eight years, which is how he developed the rural areas of New China to its current level.

Wei Hongjun would not allow anyone to disrupt the current stable development of the countryside. Gao Gang was too troublesome.

If he were allowed to interfere in rural affairs, applying the same energy he had in the Secretariat to rural work, it would undoubtedly undermine the current stability in the countryside. As long as the countryside and grain production remain stable in New China, there will be room for change in many areas. Therefore, the countryside cannot be in chaos, and Wei Hongjun will not allow anyone to undermine rural stability.

But overall, Wei Hongjun still couldn't figure it out. Gao Gang now wanted to advance further and become the second-in-command within the Party. He could only win over a powerful cadre like Wei Hongjun. There was no reason to offend him. Although Wei Hongjun had less experience than other central leaders during the Agrarian Revolution, he had steadily built his way from the Anti-Japanese War to his current position, and his foundation was very solid.

After all, almost twenty years had passed since 1937. Twenty years was enough time for Wei Hongjun to lay a solid foundation.

That's why Wei Hongjun was even more confused. Although Gao Gang was a bit impulsive, he was not a rookie entering the officialdom and should not have acted in this way.

Things are a bit weird.

Wei Hongjun had to know what happened before he could respond. However, after a brief understanding, Wei Hongjun found that the Secretariat was not targeting Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhi.

Hui's actions weren't specifically directed at the State Council's Eighth Office, but at the entire State Council ministries and commissions. The Secretariat held a series of meetings with several State Council offices and ministries, some chaired by Gao Gang and others by Rao Shushi. While the attendees varied, the content of these meetings was largely the same: a demand that State Council ministries and commissions report to the Secretariat in the future.

The meaning of the Secretariat is very simple.

We must resolutely oppose any "separatist" tendencies within the central government, particularly those within the State Council that suggest a separation of Party and government. Administrative agencies must strengthen Party leadership. The Secretariat, which handles the day-to-day work of the central government, requires all ministries and commissions under the State Council to strengthen their reporting.

Wei Hongjun didn't know what to say.

Gao Gang intended to place the Secretariat above the State Council, treating it as the leading body of the State Council. Following the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the First National People's Congress in 1952, the National People's Congress replaced the CPPCC, and the State Council replaced the Central People's Government and the State Council.

The political structure then becomes: the Central Committee, or the Party Central Committee, and the Politburo hold the highest status. Matters concerning major national policies are discussed and approved by either the Central Committee or the Politburo. Below that, the Secretariat handles the day-to-day work of the Party Central Committee. The State Council is the highest executive body, and the National People's Congress is the highest legislative body.

Regardless of what the Constitution stipulates, in actual operation, the status of the Secretariat, the State Council, and the National People's Congress are almost equal, and their relationships are parallel.

Just look at the leaders of the various agencies. Premier Wu Hao, Chairman of the National People's Congress Xiu Yang, and General Secretary Gao Gang, who oversees the Secretariat, are all members of the Politburo Standing Committee. While there are differences in ranking within the Party, none of them claim superior status or that one agency leads another. Everyone performs their duties, and while the agencies are related, they don't interfere with one another.

But Gao Gang's move this time is to change this situation.

After Comrade Xiuyang's "crushing defeat" on the trade union issue, his influence within the Central Committee rapidly waned. If after the Seventh National Congress, Comrade Xiuyang was consciously or unconsciously considered second-in-command within the Party, few now view him that way. During this period, Comrade Xiuyang's primary focus has been on legislative matters for the National People's Congress. With so many new issues emerging, legislative work has lagged far behind reality, resulting in numerous legal issues that need to be addressed.

After Comrade Xiuyang rarely interfered in party affairs, Gao Gang set his sights on the State Council. He wanted to use the Secretariat to manage the State Council.

Wei Hongjun could only say that Gao Gang was becoming more and more courageous.

The State Council alone has three members of the Politburo Standing Committee, and there are a ton of Politburo members and alternates. There are also quite a few Politburo members and alternates who are actually responsible for State Council affairs. Each department has its own sphere of responsibility, and under normal circumstances, the Premier would not arbitrarily interfere in the affairs of individual Politburo members and alternates. Now, the Secretariat is claiming to be superior to the State Council and requiring them to report to it. How can this be possible?

Who will be happy?

These Politburo members and alternates were all high-ranking officials at the local level before being transferred to the central government. After their transfer to the central government, they were all in charge of their own responsibilities. It would be difficult for the Secretariat to interfere with their work now.

This will make enemies on all sides.

Originally, Wei Hongjun was prepared to fight back when the Secretariat was about to interfere in his affairs, but after learning about these events, he decided to hold back.

See how other people react first.

Perhaps Gao Gang was considering that while the State Council was powerful, its power was fragmented and fragmented. No one wanted to take the initiative and confront the now-dominant Gao Gang. That's why he decided to take action against the various ministries and commissions. The one most anxious at this moment should be the Prime Minister, not them.

However, I still need to discuss this matter with Deng Zhihui.

Although they had only worked together for a few short years, they enjoyed their work together. Sharing similar political views on rural and agricultural issues, they were considered political comrades. Deng Zhihui was a straightforward person, disdaining cliques and factions. His friendship with Wei Hongjun stemmed more from their shared perspectives on rural issues. As Vice Premier in charge of rural affairs, he was most concerned about excessive unrest in the countryside. Now that the Secretariat was suddenly trying to interfere with the State Council's work, specifically rural affairs, Deng Zhihui would certainly not approve. Deng Zhihui usually appeared good-tempered, but when he got angry, no one could stop him.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun needed to discuss this with Deng Zhihui, express his ideas frankly, and hope to gain his support. Regardless of what happened, the conflicts among the central leadership could not affect the countryside.

Deng Zhihui also knew what had happened.

However, after Deng Zhihui came to Wei Hongjun, he did not discuss this matter first. Instead, he started talking about work.

“What do you think of these reports?”

"Some are true, some are false, and many are exaggerated."

After reading the report, Wei Hongjun made a simple evaluation.

Since the Ministry of Rural Affairs formulated the national rural production cooperatives to expand reproduction and carry out rural accumulation, some grassroots governments have begun to mobilize everyone to build water conservancy projects and create fertile farmland.

All the battles are carried out in a small-scale battle mode.

Hundreds, thousands, and in some places even tens of thousands, of people participated in water conservancy projects and the development of fertile farmland. This small-scale campaign model was also a very effective method when there was a lack of sufficient engineering machinery and equipment.

If we work together and make good plans, we can accomplish many things that we cannot do normally.

Besides some small and medium-sized reservoirs, more efforts are being made to dredge ditches and bring water to farmland. In fact, creating fertile farmland is more about ensuring that farmland has access to water. As long as there is a sufficient amount of water, the grain yield on farmland can be guaranteed.

So this small battle did produce some results.

After these grassroots governments accomplished these tasks, they reported their achievements to the central government. For example, Wei Hongjun currently holds the report titled "Four Months of Hard Work Transformed the County's Natural Landscape." This report describes the county's experience starting in November 1954, where, after three phases and two climaxes, four months of hard work essentially eliminated floods and droughts.

Very well written.

There is a lot of data, including how to use four months to carry out a small water conservancy campaign and how to create fertile farmland.

The results are very good.

But there are also many exaggerations in it.

This is quite a boast. Although there have been some improvements in water conservancy, there are limits to how much they can contribute to increasing grain production. Yet this report boasts that after several months of hard work, the cultivated farmland can increase yields by 300 kilograms per mu.

Wei Hongjun would never believe this even if he was beaten to death.

After a few months, at most, basic water conservancy facilities were in place, but a complete water conservancy project was still some distance away. With just a few months of effort, increasing yields by around 100 kilograms per mu was already a remarkable achievement. 300 kilograms was simply impossible.

"You also think it's exaggerated?"

"The estimate of per-mu yield is wrong." Deng Zhihui nodded.

He said, "That's the problem. It's been mentioned in many reports lately. While the increase in improved seed production, water conservancy projects, improved farmland, and increased fertilizer and manure storage has indeed led to a significant, if not a significant, increase in per-acre yields, the per-acre yields reported by some places are still somewhat exaggerated."

They have all been working in rural areas for many years.

Even without actual investigation, just looking at these data, we can roughly judge one or two

"What do you think?" "It should be stopped."

Deng Zhihui said grimly, "Local governments must pay close attention to two things when it comes to agricultural issues, or rather, they must not neglect them. One is that when formulating plans, they must avoid being overly ambitious, setting arbitrary targets, or formulating unachievable plans. The other is reporting inaccurately after the harvest, especially reporting excessively high figures. If either of these issues spread, it would severely impact agricultural production and lead to misjudgment by the central government. Food is fundamental, and misjudgment on food issues could lead to fatal consequences."

Wei Hongjun nodded repeatedly.

I strongly support Deng Zhihui's ideas. While rural work has achieved excellent results in recent years, it's clear that Deng Zhihui remains very sober and hasn't become inflated by his current success.

So Wei Hongjun said: "This is just like when we fight a war. Before a battle, you must never set goals that are impossible to achieve. Setting such goals will cause problems in the overall strategic goal, and such a battle cannot be won. After the battle, the most taboo is to report false results. This will cause commanders to make mistakes in judgment and affect subsequent battles. Agricultural development is also a different kind of battle, and the rules of warfare are the same."

"Correct."

The problem with the reports submitted by these grassroots governments is that they set overly ambitious targets. Large-scale water conservancy projects are indeed a major achievement, but they believe that their efforts to build them can increase yields by 300 kilograms per mu, a delusional goal.

Exaggeration.

They set an impossible goal. But if they couldn't achieve it after planting, they had no choice but to cover it up. After all, they had already told the central government that the yield per mu would increase by 300 kilograms, so they couldn't just say they hadn't achieved the goal.

This will lead to false reporting of grain production. "Why do you think this happens?"

"I think there's a tendency towards over-expansion in society right now. In the six or seven years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, rural grain production has nearly doubled, increasing by 2000 billion jin. Also, pig production is now more than double what it was in 1948, and it's still growing. The numbers of large livestock like cattle, horses, and mules, as well as smaller ones like chickens, ducks, and geese, have increased severalfold. The rural economy has recovered rapidly and developed very well in recent years, which has led many grassroots officials to believe that national development is easy and that it's nothing special. At the same time, they're even more eager to change China's current backwardness and poverty. This leads to this tendency towards over-expansion."

Deng Zhihui was a little worried.

He had already sensed that many cadres wanted to urgently change the current backward situation of New China and wanted to change the face of China within a few years so that China could become a wealthy socialist country.

This idea is understandable.

After enduring countless hardships, China finally entered the new era and was free to develop. Everyone naturally hoped that China could achieve significant development in a short period of time. And they believed that this was entirely achievable.

Because after the founding of New China, the country's development has indeed been very good.

This situation, however, worried the usually prudent Deng Zhihui. It reminded him of events in the past. After the failure of the Great Revolution, the Central Committee convened the August 7th Conference to correct the mistakes made within the Party. However, after the August 7th Conference, the Central Committee quickly shifted to the left, and this left-leaning adventurism continued until around the Zunyi Conference.

But why did left-wing adventurism become mainstream at that time?

Is it just because of the mistakes of the central government?

Of course, it's not that simple. Without a foundation from top to bottom, leftist adventurism wouldn't have been so easy to spread nationwide. Even within the then-Central Soviet Area, the soil for leftist tendencies was very deep. Deng Zhihui believes that the current "overly ambitious" goals set by local governments are in danger of becoming "leftist."

Therefore, Deng Zhihui said with certainty: "This tendency towards 'reckless advance' must be stopped. The current plan is just a little too high. But if it fails to be completed, the next step will be to falsely report grain production. This is the most dangerous thing."

"Indeed, this trend must be stopped."

Wei Hongjun supported Deng Zhihui's idea, but still corrected him: "Mr. Deng, there are roots for these grassroots government ideas, so I don't think it's appropriate to label them as 'adventurous.' If we do, it will be as if they've made a mistake, which will dampen the enthusiasm of grassroots cadres. After all, their current enthusiasm is for building a good country. So what we need to do is guide their enthusiasm and allow it to develop in a positive direction, rather than simply labeling them as 'adventurous.'"

"What do you mean?"

Deng Zhihui was not unhappy because of Wei Hongjun's correction.

Deng Zhihui understood Wei Hongjun's point. If a cadre of Deng Zhihui's rank described the actions of grassroots cadres as "adventurous," then this was a characterization. It meant that the central government believed these cadres had made mistakes, which dealt a heavy blow to the enthusiasm of grassroots cadres.

Being motivated is a good thing, but don't overdo it.

Wei Hongjun asked, "Adjustment, consolidation, what do you think of that?" "Adjustment? Consolidation?"

"Yes. Over the past few years, our rural areas have been steadily developing. Overall, the results have been remarkable, but they have also been accompanied by many problems, including the development of mutual aid groups and agricultural production cooperatives. Now is the time to remain calm and summarize our successes and failures. Therefore, our Rural Work Department can propose that the focus of rural work in 1956, the final year of the First Five-Year Plan, be adjustment and consolidation. This will allow for flexibility when formulating plans."

"Ah."

Deng Zhihui agreed with Wei Hongjun's idea.

If we don't use the term "advancing too quickly," we're not characterizing grassroots governments and cadres. We use words like "adjustment" and "consolidation" to suppress the current signs of fanaticism.

In particular, the "adjustment" and "consolidation" proposed in 1956 applied not only to agricultural production but also to the current promotion of a free market for agricultural and sideline products and the development of rural industry and commerce.

Adjust it and consolidate the foundation.