Chapter 8 Fourth, arrange the plan and take the overall situation

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the State Council led by Zhou Enlai has been focusing on economic construction.In terms of economic construction, one of Zhou Enlai's most important tasks was to formulate annual national economic plans and five-year development plans. Before the "Cultural Revolution", Zhou Enlai fully researched and researched every annual plan and five-year plan, and drafted the plan, leaving room for it. He believed that it was safe and reliable before submitting it to the Party Central Committee for approval and implementation. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, the work of the State Planning Commission and other departments that drafted and implemented national economic plans was completely disrupted and basically came to a standstill.Under Zhou Enlai's temporary arrangement, the national economic plan for 1967 was discussed and drafted at the National Planning and Industry Conference held in November 1966, and was reported to the Central Committee after Zhou Enlai's review and approval.However, due to interference and sabotage by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, the central government has not been able to approve and issue this plan.In order to ensure that the task production in 1967 would not be interrupted, the relevant departments could only issue task indicators by region, by industry, or even by factory and mine unit.With the intensification of "overthrowing everything" and "comprehensive seizure of power", the business work of the State Planning Commission can no longer be carried out normally, and the operation of the entire national economy is facing loss of control, especially the railway transportation and coal production, which are related to the lifeline of the national economy, are the first to bear the brunt and go from bad to worse.

At the end of May 1967, due to factional struggles, the four main railway lines of Beijing-Guangzhou, Jinpu, Longhai, and Zhejiang-Jiangxi were all in a semi-paralyzed state. In Xuzhou alone, 69 freight trains were stopped, resulting in passenger traffic including international trains. Cargo transportation is not functioning properly.Shortly thereafter, the entire railway traffic in the country except the Northeast was interrupted (the Northeast Railway was also blocked in many places).Due to difficulties in coal transportation, industrial power consumption and even urban residents' power consumption are often interrupted, resulting in huge losses.At the same time, due to the inability of Chinese and foreign ships to load and unload goods on schedule, the goods in many ports and wharves along the coast and along the river have piled up like mountains.The stagnation and destruction of domestic industrial production caused many foreign aid projects to be forced to suspend or stop production, and the country's reputation was seriously damaged. ...

By the end of October, what Zhou Enlai faced was such a report on the production situation of the whole country: Since May, industrial production and railway transportation have successively experienced relatively large declines.By September, the average daily output of steel and pig iron had dropped to 12,000 tons, only about 26% of the annual planned average daily output; 50% of the planned daily output; the average daily power generation decreased by 160 million degrees, which was 60% of the annual planned daily power generation; the average daily output of crude oil dropped to 19,000 tons, which was 40% of the annual planned daily output; The average daily loading of vehicles dropped to 19,000 vehicles, which was 46% of the planned daily loading.The average level of national industrial production in the third quarter was only about 50% of the original plan.It is estimated that the total industrial output value in 1967 could only complete about 70% of the original plan (draft).

Such a production situation is absolutely intolerable to Zhou Enlai, who has a population of hundreds of millions and is "head of the family". In response to the increasingly chaotic railway transportation situation, Zhou Enlai pointed out to the representatives attending the National Railway System Work Conference held in October: How to improve railway transportation is a huge problem.Food production, industrial production, and in retrospect, it is still a matter of railway transportation. "Grasp the revolution and promote production", the railway is in a key position.Now, the rail traffic volume has not yet returned to the level line.If the transportation indicators fail to increase this year, it will affect the development of next year.Shouting "revolution" in vain, without grasping business, "revolution" is empty.Freezing the locomotive depot at every turn is not revolutionary in any way, it is sabotaging the revolution.

In November, Zhou Enlai said earnestly to the representatives of the two rebel groups in Heilongjiang: Your Northeast is the coldest place, but the daily output of the best coal mines is less than half.How can the Northeast leave coal?The revolution has been going on for a year and a half. Last year, there were still stocks, and this year I have used them all. If they fail, they will have to stop production.So, you can no longer fight (send wars)! During this period, Zhou Enlai used the word "civil war" many times to summarize his views on the chaotic situation caused by factional struggles in various regions and departments.He criticized the rebels in Guangzhou who are only keen on faction wars and have no regard for national interests and reputation: You have even forgotten internationalism and patriotism!Now that Huangpu Port is unable to unload the cargo, the state pays 500 pounds per day for each foreign ship.If I were in Guangzhou, I would shout loudly: "Oppose civil war!" He also sternly asked the representatives of the two factions in Guangxi: Take a look, what the "civil war" is like now!Sections of railways are even worse than in the war between warlords in the past!Our working-class brothers and the people are fighting this "civil war"!

In addition to criticizing and stopping the anarchist trend of thought and factional behavior that hindered the development of production and destroyed national assets within a limited range, as the prime minister in charge of the entire national economy and people's livelihood, Zhou Enlai knew very well the importance of arranging and formulating plans under unfavorable circumstances.Otherwise, it will be difficult to grasp and control the overall operation of the national economy at a macro level, and even lead to the shaking and collapse of the economic foundation that he is worried about.

Yu Qiuli, who was still assisting Zhou Enlai in economic work, later recalled: In 1968, the economic situation became more severe, and industrial production continued to decline across the board.Since it was impossible to convene a planning meeting, no plan was drawn up this year. It was the only year since the First Five-Year Plan that there was no annual plan for the national economy.Near the end of the year, after repeated consideration, Premier Zhou decided that an annual plan must be arranged, so he approved the holding of a national planning meeting in early December.The meeting was convened by the person in charge of the State Planning Commission and the Military Management Committee of the Construction Committee. The participants included members of various departments of the State Council, members of the Military Control Committee of each province, city, and autonomous region, and representatives of mass organizations.However, in the atmosphere of "taking class struggle as the key link", it is impossible for the participants to focus on formulating national economic plans.During the meeting, there was almost no discussion of planning issues, but mainly "big criticism".Until the end of the meeting, there was no annual plan for 1969. At 3 a.m. on December 26, Premier Zhou called me to his place.He was extremely exhausted, and said to me with worry: "This year is only 5 days away, and the plan for next year has not yet been worked out. Some important production materials and people's daily necessities are planned to be produced and where to be transported. How can we do without a plan! "I said, I will find a few people to make a plan for the first quarter of next year, so that the work can be arranged.The Prime Minister said: "Okay! You can go back and do it quickly." After I came back, I didn't care about taking a rest, so I consulted with several comrades and came up with a plan for the first quarter. reported to the Prime Minister.After the Prime Minister's review and approval, it will be reported to Chairman Mao for approval.Chairman Mao quickly approved the plan.Thus, at the beginning of 1969, there was at last a plan to follow.

From February 16 to March 24, 1969, according to the spirit of Zhou Enlai's instructions, the State Council held a national planning work symposium in Beijing, mainly discussing the national economic plan, guidelines and tasks in 1969, and discussing the annual industrial and agricultural production indicators and basic Exchange views on issues such as construction scale.In order to hold this meeting, since January, Zhou Enlai has convened several meetings with the heads of relevant departments to discuss, investigate and study, and personally read, revise, and approve the State Council meeting notice draft.During the meeting, Zhou Enlai learned more about some situations and problems affecting the overall economic work through meeting briefings and talking with relevant personnel. At the end of the meeting on March 24, Zhou Enlai delivered a speech at the meeting, systematically expounding the various tasks of the 1969 national economic plan, and proposed: When formulating plans, we must seek truth from facts, pay attention to actual results, and leave room for it.He sharply criticized the indiscriminate production of Chairman Mao's badges and the indiscriminate printing of Chairman Mao's quotations as formalism, extravagance and waste, disrespect for Chairman Mao and violation of Mao Zedong Thought. The raw materials used can be converted into other products; if saving paper can save caustic soda, more soap can be produced. Isn’t there not enough soap now?He also particularly emphasized that the foothold of the annual plan and the long-term plan should be placed on the two principles of "preparing for war, preparing for famine, and serving the people" and "grasping revolution, promoting production, promoting work, and promoting war preparation". Based on agriculture, led by industry".This planning symposium was actually a supplement to the "aborted" planning meeting at the end of 1968, and it was also the first national planning meeting to achieve some results since the "Cultural Revolution".

Zhou Enlai also attached great importance to the formulation of the medium and long-term plan for national economic and social development - the "Fourth Five-Year Plan". Under very difficult conditions, he personally organized and gave specific guidance. At the end of 1968, he instructed relevant personnel to study and prepare the work together with the plan drafting group, and put forward some guiding opinions: Regarding the goal of the "Fourth Five-Year Plan", he believed that it should be considered comprehensively, not only industry, but also Considering agriculture and the entire national economy; with regard to policy and tasks, he proposed to use the expression "preliminarily establish an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system in our country".He also said that the conditions for formulating a detailed fourth five-year plan are not yet available under the current circumstances, but it is possible to formulate an outline first, which will play a certain role in guiding economic development and preventing blindness. The combat readiness situation in 1969 had a huge negative impact on the preparation of the "Fourth Five-Year Plan".Afterwards, at the National Planning Conference held in February and March 1970, the participants initially discussed the outline (draft) of the "Fourth Five-Year Plan".In June and July of the same year, the drafting group of the plan was abolished, and the State Planning Commission was responsible for the preparation work, which further revised the outline (draft).Due to historical limitations and interference and sabotage by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, the draft outline of the "Fourth Five-Year Plan" failed to fully reflect many of Zhou Enlai's correct guiding ideology despite many studies and revisions. And so on a series of disadvantages.For this reason, many adjustments were made in the actual work in the later period of the "Cultural Revolution".

According to statistics, after the national economy fell to the bottom in 1967 and 1968 in the early stages of the "Cultural Revolution", it began to recover rapidly from 1969 onwards.The total output value of industry and agriculture in this year reached 249.55 billion yuan, an increase of 23.8% over the previous year and an increase of 7.2% over 1966.Among them, the total agricultural output value was 64.2 billion yuan, an increase of 1.1% over the previous year, and the total industrial output value was 185.35 billion yuan, an increase of 34.3% over the previous year.At the same time, the output of major industrial and agricultural products increased significantly, except for individual indicators such as cotton.On the basis of the recovery of the national economy in 1969, in 1970, the last year of the "Third Five-Year Plan", industrial and agricultural production continued to achieve relatively large growth, fiscal revenue and capital construction investment increased greatly, and various Most of the main economic indicators have completed or exceeded the "Three Five-Year Plan" and the annual plan.

While history objectively records these specific figures, it also truly records Zhou Enlai's hard work and great contributions to the country and the people during this period.