Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

To ensure rural food security and develop agricultural and sideline industries, the state implemented strict regulations on state-controlled grain purchases. Until 1957, the central government capped the purchase at 900 billion tons. Occasionally, purchases would be increased by around 100 billion jin. However, in 1958, due to excessively high grain production, an additional 500 billion jin was purchased.

The benefits of this are obvious. Many rural areas are now able to eat their fill, and agricultural and sideline industries, especially the pig industry, have recovered rapidly. Furthermore, the rural grain processing industry has also developed very well.

But it is not without its drawbacks. In some grain-producing areas, there is too much grain. The government does not buy it, and private sales are not allowed, so there is a lot of leftover grain in these areas.

Therefore, in many grain-producing areas, local governments either purchase and store some of the grain, or cooperatives hoard some. Some cooperatives receive larger distributions, leading many households in these areas to hoard significant amounts of grain. It's easy to argue that the Chinese have an innate sense of crisis, making stockpiling food an instinct.

Jiangxi is a prime example. As a former revolutionary base, it enjoys many preferential policies. Compared to other provinces, the amount of public grain and state-purchased grain is significantly less. Yet, Jiangxi is also a major grain-producing province.

Jiangxi currently has approximately 6000 million mu (approximately 4500 acres) of arable land, 120 million of which is irrigable. When the country was first liberated, Anhui's yield per mu was only about 300 kilograms (approximately jin) per mu, while Jiangxi's yield has already exceeded kilograms (approximately jin) per mu. This demonstrates the exceptional quality of Jiangxi's arable land.

Because Jiangxi has no shortage of water, it's more vulnerable to floods than droughts. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jiangxi has suffered no major disasters. The 1954 Yangtze River flood barely affected Jiangxi.

Since the successful development of dwarf rice, the combined yield of two crops of rice per mu in many areas of Jiangxi has exceeded 700 catties, with some areas even reaching nearly 900 catties. In 1958, Jiangxi's grain output broke through 300 billion catties, reaching a historic 340 billion catties.

In 1959, many areas suffered severe drought, but Jiangxi was relatively unaffected, and grain production still reached over 280 billion jin. Jiangxi's population is now less than 2000 million, so food has always been abundant in Jiangxi.

Jiangxi reported that its provincial, municipal, and county grain reserves also exceeded 100 billion jin. That's why Wei Hongjun only asked about Jiangxi after Sichuan.

"Comrade Shao Shiping, you in Jiangxi should also be prepared. In 1960, at least 40 billion catties will need to be transferred. If the situation is not good, it may be possible to transfer around 60 billion catties."

"We will get the job done."

During the three difficult years in history, Jiangxi not only ensured that there were no problems in Jiangxi, but also accepted millions of people fleeing famine, and at the same time transferred nearly 50 billion jin of grain to other places.

Jiangxi is now much more financially stable than it was in the past. In 1960 and 1961, Wei Hongjun planned to provide Jiangxi with approximately 100 billion jin of grain.

If Jiangxi can bear the burden of 100 billion jin of grain, then Zhejiang and Fujian around Jiangxi will not have any problems.

After discussing the situation in Jiangxi with Shao Shiping, Wei Hongjun turned to Guan Wenwei, deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee.

"Comrade Guan Wenwei, Jiangsu has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times. Not only does it have a good economy, but its grain production is also not low. After the founding of New China, Jiangsu's grain production has developed very well. You have grain in Jiangsu, which not only allows you to be self-sufficient, but also allows you to export grain."

"But since the end of last year, Jiangsu's guiding ideology has been flawed. Jiangsu has plans for eight steel mills, and is planning to operate six simultaneously. Even if Jiangsu has money, it shouldn't squander it like this. Furthermore, this unrealistically ambitious steel development plan will impact agricultural development and increase pressure on food supply."

This is the first time Wei Hongjun has criticized local officials today.

Overall, after the past decade of rural development in New China, the foundation had become much stronger. The fact that each province had revealed its financial strength gave Wei Hongjun great confidence. As long as no serious mistakes were made, there would be no problems in 1960 and 1961.

So the atmosphere at the meeting was okay. But the Jiangsu issue was too serious, so Wei Hongjun criticized it directly.

In 1958, the market was facing a steel shortage, so the central government convened a special meeting to discuss the issue. Li Fuchun then coordinated the construction of local steel mills across the country, and the overall plan went smoothly.

In Jiangsu, the central government approved the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant, also known as the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant. Furthermore, under the coordination of Li Fuchun, the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant was jointly built by Jiangsu and Shanghai. Much of the supporting equipment for the Nanjing Iron and Steel Plant was provided by Shanghai.

After the central government supported local areas in developing steel mills, many areas with weak industrial bases found it difficult to meet the standards set by the central government.

But Jiangsu had money and a substantial industrial base. Consequently, Jiangsu's leaders became ambitious. Shanghai's light industry was flourishing, driving growth in the Yangtze River Delta region. The light industry development in Shanghai and Jiangsu required a high demand for steel.

结果江苏竟然制定了要发展8个钢铁厂，让江苏的钢铁年产量达到500万吨的雄心勃勃的计划。甚至要同时开工6个钢铁厂，要在1960年国庆之前全都建造完毕。到时候江苏钢铁工业年产量就能够达到150万吨到200万吨之间。

Jiang Weiqing, Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, was a cadre who dared to speak out. Historically, when Chairman Mao visited southern China, all the local cadres present praised the excellent operation of the people's communes' "big canteens," citing numerous advantages, and the Chairman was delighted. This included Ke Qingshi, the former Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and then Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, who also praised the "big canteens" with great enthusiasm.

Only Jiang Weiqing told the Chairman that the "big canteen" problem was serious, citing three negative aspects. This led to the Chairman sending Tian Jiaying to investigate the "big canteen" problem and allowing Jiangsu to rectify the "big canteen" problem based on its own situation.

But who could have imagined that the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, led by Jiang Weiqing, were a little too impulsive and came up with a plan to build eight steel mills, aiming to increase Jiangsu's steel production to 8 million tons within three years.

"Comrade Guan Wenwei, you also come from a background of leading troops in battle. You should understand that the most taboo in war is to expand the front line and disperse the troops. War requires concentrating forces and making breakthroughs at key points. The steel plan formulated by Jiangsu is the most taboo practice on the battlefield."

"Go back and convey my opinions to Comrade Jiang Weiqing and Comrade Hui Yuyu. Jiangsu needs to review all of its previously formulated industrial plans, not just the steel plan. Don't spread yourself too thin. Focus on developing needed industries with a planned approach. Especially now that the country is suffering from severe disasters, the central government may very well withdraw grain from Jiangsu at any time. Don't launch projects haphazardly."

Wei Hongjun had done his best to suppress the fanatical atmosphere and had the Propaganda Department pay close attention. During the propaganda, he repeatedly urged the Party, government, and military organs across the country to seek truth from facts.

However, the rapid and successful development in the eleven years after the founding of the People's Republic of China led many people to become overly enthusiastic, believing that socialist construction was nothing more than that. Consequently, over-advancement began to occur in many areas.

This frenzied atmosphere is nationwide and cannot be resolved by any one leader.

This was true for the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, as well as for local industrial construction. In 1958, national industrial construction investment increased by more than 30%, and in 1959, national industrial construction investment increased by more than 30% again.

If the rapid growth of industry and agriculture had continued in 1959, it's hard to predict how much national industrial investment would have increased in 1960. By then, local governments would have begun attempting to break through the central government's limits on the proportion of industrial investment in local budgets. This would have been a scenario where the Chinese economy would have surged at a breakneck pace, similar to the Great Leap Forward, and then exploded.

In fact, just as he was thankful for the failure of the Dongfeng-1959 missile launch, Wei Hongjun was also thankful for the nationwide drought in .

Because the 1959 drought was nationwide and had a huge impact on agriculture, it actually caused many fanatical leaders to calm down. After the next nationwide drought in 1960, everyone from the central government to the local governments calmed down.

By then, some industrial plans can be readjusted, and the local enthusiasm can be cooled.

"Secretary Wei, our Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee has also discovered this problem. So we've already started making adjustments."

Guan Wenwei immediately reported this to Wei Hongjun. Initially, several Jiangsu leaders were indeed ambitious and impulsive. This was primarily due to the severe shortage of steel in Jiangsu and Shanghai. However, after six months, it became clear that Jiangsu did not have the capacity to build six steel mills simultaneously.

Jiang Weiqing was a pragmatic cadre. Although he initially got carried away, he immediately began to make adjustments once he saw that it was impossible.

"We plan to focus on improving the technical capabilities of Changzhou Steel Plant to produce better quality seamless steel pipes. As for Nanjing Steel Plant and Wuxi Steel Plant, we have already coordinated with Shanghai, which has increased its support to complete the supporting facilities as soon as possible. As for the other three steel plants, construction has been suspended."

"This applies not only to steel mills but also to other sectors. my country is not yet wealthy and its technological capabilities are not strong. Therefore, we must shorten our battle lines, concentrate our efforts, focus on key breakthroughs, and develop one area at a time. Don't try to become fat all at once; that can easily lead to indigestion."

"Yes."

Wei Hongjun discussed this with each province individually. Each of these major grain-producing provinces would have to shoulder a portion of the burden of transferring grain abroad. In 1960, these provinces would collectively shoulder the burden of transferring approximately 400 billion jin (approximately million jin) of grain abroad.

Sichuan, for example, has to shoulder the burden of producing at least 100 billion jin (approximately billion kg). Hebei and Henan, provinces already severely affected by the disaster, must first ensure their own provinces are not affected. Then, they must meet the food needs of surrounding major cities. Hebei and Henan must also shoulder the food needs of cities like Beijing and Tianjin.

Guangdong and Hunan have suffered a lot from the disaster, but the grain production in these two provinces is not low, so they still have to bear the situation in Guangxi, Guizhou and other places.

After the plan was completed, the corresponding provinces would be responsible for transferring food to the areas with food shortages. This was because Wei Hongjun was worried about the potential for disputes when transferring food, so he implemented strict regulations.

Of course, this externally transferred grain isn't free. When needed by the central government or the affected provinces, it will be returned to them. The specific method of return can be discussed further.

After the meeting, Wei Hongjun breathed a sigh of relief. There shouldn't be any problems in 1960 or 1961.

Of course, this only addresses the general direction. There are still a host of minor issues to be resolved. However, these are matters that must be handled between the Ministry of Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Food, the State Material Reserves Bureau, and the various provinces. Wei Hongjun's primary responsibility is to establish the overall direction and rules, as well as coordinate.

1084 Regularization of meeting minutes

After Wei Hongjun communicated with leaders of major grain-producing provinces and provinces that were severely affected by the disaster, he formulated a grain allocation plan among the provinces.

At the same time, Wei Hongjun also exchanged views with the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation, mainly to understand the situation there.

The Ministry of Agricultural Reclamation is now a behemoth, its power formidable. It primarily oversees a large number of state-owned farms scattered across the country. These state-owned farms were initially established by local governments and military regions in the early years of the People's Republic of China. Later, when the Ministry of Agricultural Reclamation was established, they were all incorporated into the Ministry.

For example, there are three state-owned farms around Beijing, all of which were opened by the North China Military Region before the founding of the People's Republic of China to ensure Beijing's food and vegetable supply. Other provinces also have such state-owned farms under the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation.

In addition to these numerous small and medium-sized state-owned farms, the Ministry of Agricultural Reclamation also administered five large production and construction corps: the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Suiyuan Production and Construction Corps, the South China Reclamation Administration (which primarily administered the Hainan Production and Construction Corps and state-owned farms in Guangdong and Guangxi), the Kachin Production and Construction Corps, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

These five large production and construction corps, together with the corps’ families, each is a large-scale military reclamation with a population of over one million.

Among them, the Heilongjiang Construction Corps is the largest, with more than 200 million people including their family members.

In recent years, the central government has provided substantial support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation. Numerous troops have joined the Ministry, and a large number of educated young people have joined the production and construction corps. For example, the Kachin Production and Construction Corps has attracted over 4000 medical school graduates to address the dire sanitation conditions there.

In order to solve the personal problems of officers and soldiers who were demobilized from the military, a large number of female soldiers were also recruited to join the Production and Construction Corps. For example, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps sent more than 100,000 female soldiers to the frontier in the past ten years.

Likewise, the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation provides a large amount of commercial grain to the central government every year. The central government has been able to consistently limit the amount of state-owned grain purchases to 900 billion jin (approximately million kg) thanks to the annual increase in commercial grain from the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation.

The strength of the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation is not only reflected in grain production. It also controls state-owned ranches, which bring large quantities of cattle, horses, and sheep to the market every year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation also has its own schools, hospitals, and factories. For example, it has established six pig vaccine factories across China. In addition to vaccinating its own pigs, it also provides large quantities of vaccines to local communities. This has made significant contributions to the development of China's pig industry.

So Wei Hongjun met with Wang Zhen and his colleagues to learn about the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation's grain reserves. The Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation was indeed wealthy. Wang Zhen assured Wei Hongjun that although some production and construction corps had been affected by the drought and their grain output had declined significantly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation, in addition to delivering sufficient commercial grain to the central government in 1960, could allocate 50 billion jin of grain to support disaster relief if needed.

At this point, Wei Hongjun was completely relieved. China had accumulated considerable wealth over the past eleven years of development. Surviving this drought wouldn't be a problem. So, Wei Hongjun gradually withdrew from the specific work of disaster relief.

After Wei Hongjun finished these tasks, the Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee began. Compared with the previous sessions, this session was a little dull.

The main reason is that there were not many issues that needed to be resolved at the meeting, there was no need to amend the Party Constitution, and there were no major personnel adjustments.

The main purpose of this meeting was to allow the Central Committee to approve some things that the Central Committee had already approved.

Just like the issue of "resignation and recuperation" that had already been passed by the Politburo was reconfirmed at the Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee.

The most important topic at the Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee was probably the issue of overheated local industrial investment. Wei Hongjun did not use the term "adventurism" or "anti-adventurism" to criticize everyone's work.

Wei Hongjun proposed "adjusting and consolidating" industrial development to prepare for the Third Five-Year Plan. The Second Five-Year Plan has been successfully completed. Many sectors have already achieved their initial goals ahead of schedule.

The Second Five-Year Plan was finalized in 1956. Khrushchev, who had caused great trouble because of his "secret report," gave China a lot of support in order to gain its support.

最典型的就是中国的化肥工业。新中国刚刚成立的时候，全国的化肥产量也不过一万吨左右。但1959年全国的化肥产量已经超过200万吨，达到了210万吨。比邓志辉当初预计的还要快。邓志辉1958年预计的是1960年化肥产量才能够达到200万吨。

This was due in part to the fertilizer plant machinery and equipment that China initially imported from various European countries, but even more so to the Soviet Union’s support for China’s fertilizer industry during the First Five-Year Plan, in 1953 and 1956.

The fertilizer plants built with Soviet aid during the First Five-Year Plan and in 1953 were small-scale plants with an annual output of around 1956 tons. However, the fertilizer plants built with Soviet aid in 1957 and were medium-sized plants with annual outputs exceeding tons. Furthermore, the Soviet Union helped expand existing small-scale Chinese fertilizer plants. For example, the Lanzhou Fertilizer Plant, after expansion, had a production capacity of tons of synthetic ammonia and tons of urea.

Some fertilizer plants are currently under expansion. The Soviet Union's large-scale assistance to China in building fertilizer plants has greatly improved the technical skills of China's fertilizer industry.

Hou Debang led Chinese technicians to overcome many technical difficulties. As early as 1957, China established a small, fully domestically produced fertilizer plant in Hefei with an annual output of 800 tons.

At the end of 1958, Danyang, Jiangsu Province, began producing ammonium bicarbonate using Hou Debang's new process. Furthermore, based on the Danyang Fertilizer Plant's experience, building a small fertilizer plant with an annual output of 700 tons of synthetic ammonia typically requires only about a year and a half and an investment of million yuan, saving about half the cost of building a plant using the old process.

At the same time, the Ministry of Chemical Industry and Shanghai jointly organized more than 4000 machinery, motor and instrument factories across the country, as well as technical personnel from key construction and installation units across the country, to participate in the construction of the Shanghai Wujing Chemical Plant.

The Wujing Chemical Plant was one of the key projects in the Second Five-Year Plan aimed at localizing industry. This was a key requirement of Wei Hongjun when formulating the plan. In addition to the large-scale introduction of advanced foreign equipment and technology, the plan also included a number of localized construction projects, with the Wujing Chemical Plant being one of them.

It is difficult to understand the construction of many factories unless you do it yourself.

Furthermore, a country as large as China cannot import all its machinery and equipment from abroad. China lacks sufficient foreign exchange reserves. The vast amount of machinery and equipment China has been able to import to date is largely due to favorable timing, location, and personnel, as well as loans from the Soviet Union. However, this is not a long-term solution. For China to industrialize in the future, it must master its own equipment manufacturing industry.

At the end of 1959, the Wujing Chemical Plant officially began producing synthetic ammonia, sulfuric acid, and ammonium sulfate. The first phase of the project involved producing 2 tons of synthetic ammonia, 8 tons of sulfuric acid, and 10 tons of ammonium sulfate.

The success of Danyang Fertilizer Plant and Wujing Chemical Plant has enabled China to begin to independently build small fertilizer plants.

Another problem encountered by the Second Five-Year Plan was that in 1959 Khrushchev formulated an ambitious plan to communistize Indochina, and again invested nearly 200 billion rubles in China. This greatly promoted the completion of China's Second Five-Year Plan.

Moreover, the complete opening of China's diplomatic situation in 1958 and 1959 led to more cooperation between China and Europe.

This led to the fragmentation of China's Second Five-Year Plan. However, it was precisely because of the large amount of foreign capital entering China that it directly promoted the rapid development of China's industry.

It's precisely because of these various factors that China has already completed its Second Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule in many industrial sectors. Therefore, Wei Hongjun suggests that at this stage, especially in the face of a drought unprecedented in a century, industrial layout should be "adjusted and consolidated."

Faced with a severe drought across the country, especially in the northern part of the country where there had been little snow, everyone knew that there would be another severe drought in the north in 1960. So everyone calmed down.

At this time, food is the most important issue. If we continue to invest heavily in industry and increase the industrial workforce, the food crisis will be further exacerbated.

Therefore, at the Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee, everyone agreed to carry out a certain degree of rectification of the national industrial system in 1960.

The Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee discussed these issues in general.

Finally, because several Central Committee members "left their posts for recuperation", several alternate members of the Central Committee were promoted to Central Committee members.

After the Fourth Session of the Ninth Central Committee, Wei Hongjun began to review the first inspection report of the Central Inspection Team.

Overall, Wei Hongjun is quite satisfied with the Central Inspection Team's work. They believe the key areas of inspection were well-executed.

Of course, based on the inspection results, Wei Hongjun will definitely have to reshuffle some cadres. This is especially true regarding the "property disclosure system," which did not go over well this time.

Wei Hongjun had been mentally prepared for this. Without strong central government support, local governments couldn't devote significant energy to this area. Institutional building is easy to say, but actually implementing it is incredibly difficult.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun had to find a few typical cases and severely punish a group of cadres in order to deter local authorities and let them know that the central government attaches great importance to the construction of the "property disclosure system."