Chapter 7 Chapter 6: Working in Northeast China

In October 1960, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that Song Renqiong would be the first secretary of the Central Northeast Bureau, Ouyang Qin the second secretary, and Ma Mingfang the third secretary.At that time, because the second secretary, Ouyang Qin, was concurrently the first secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Ma Mingfang not only took charge of financial and trade work, but also assisted the first secretary in managing the overall work of the Northeast Bureau. From November 2 to 7, 1960, the Northeast Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held the first plenary committee meeting in Changchun City, Jilin Province, discussing and passing resolutions on the situation and tasks in the Northeast region and opinions on 10 issues concerning the development of agriculture.

Northeast China is an important industrial base and commodity grain base in my country.During the period of the first five-year plan, major achievements were made in all aspects of construction. By 1957, all constructions had exceeded the plan, the economy was prosperous, and people's lives had been greatly improved.However, after the three-year "Great Leap Forward" from 1958 to 1960, the proportion of the national economy was seriously out of balance, agricultural production dropped sharply, there was a huge gap between social purchasing power and the value of available commodities, and the urban population surged. The market supply is extremely tight, people's living standards have dropped significantly, the entire national economy is in a very difficult period, and the Northeast region is facing serious difficulties.

In January 1961, the Ninth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China analyzed the situation and pointed out that the temporary difficulties in the market due to poor harvests in agriculture and insufficient raw materials for light industry were an urgent problem to be solved.The plenary session called for rapid measures to help the development of light industry, urban handicrafts, household sidelines and suburban agriculture, increase the production of various daily necessities and non-staple food, and at the same time improve commercial work to activate the rural primary market.The plenary session determined the eight-character policy of "adjusting, consolidating, enriching, and improving" the national economy.The Northeast Bureau resolutely implemented the policy of the central government. While vigorously strengthening agriculture, it shortened the heavy industry and lengthened the light industry. It drastically closed, stopped, merged, and transferred more than 1,100 industrial enterprises, and drastically reduced the urban population of more than 3.5 million. A series of important measures were adopted to rapidly restore and develop industrial and agricultural production.By 1965, various economic indicators were close to the level of 1957, and the national economy was on the track of balanced development, laying a good foundation for the realization of the third five-year plan.Ma Mingfang was in charge of economic adjustment work and specialized in financial and trade work in the Northeast Bureau.He resolutely implemented the instructions of the Central Committee and the decision of the Northeast Bureau, carefully conducted investigations and studies, proceeded from the actual situation in the Northeast, and adjusted the national economy, arranged people's lives, arranged markets, developed agricultural and sideline production, and developed light textile and handicraft production. A lot of work has been done and important contributions have been made.

After the establishment of the Northeast Bureau, Ma Mingfang always took it as a major task to arrange the life of urban and rural people under the circumstances of severe reduction in agricultural production and extremely difficult people's lives. At the first plenary meeting of the Northeast Bureau in November 1960, Ma Mingfang proposed: "Arranging the life of the rural people is the central issue of the current work."He said: The problem of food has always been a big problem, and it has been proved for many years that whoever can do better or better in this respect can stand firm.He calculated a detailed account with his comrades in the three northeastern provinces: in 1960, the grain output of the whole region decreased by nearly 5 billion catties compared with 1957, and the rations were reduced by about half.After completing the procurement tasks and deducting the autumn and winter rations in the whole region, the per capita rations from January to September 1961 were only 120 catties (a little more in Heilongjiang and Kyrgyzstan provinces, and less in Liaoning, excluding the production of private plots), and some areas were even lower than this figure , there are 256 brigades that have no food and rely on reselling.Obviously, the problem is very serious, and if the arrangement is not proper, there will be big problems, which will pose a great threat to the improvement of production and life in the coming year.In 1960, at the first to fifth secretariat meetings of the Northeast Bureau, he successively put forward many important opinions on the issue of living arrangements.He proposed that arranging people's lives should be an important part of the rectification work, and it should be used as one of the important signs of whether the rectification work is done well.If the most urgent problem of the broad masses of the people is neglected to rectify the movement and the society, it will be tantamount to failure to rectify.He proposed that whether they can get by next year, the key to the whole problem is whether each person can have at least 120 catties of grain and two taels of dry starch (food substitute) per day from January to September. 120 catties of grain is the lifeblood. If it is well managed and arranged, and the labor force is maintained at a certain intensity, it is possible to achieve good results, otherwise the production will definitely fail.Labor force is productivity, arranging life and protecting labor force is actually a problem of productivity.He proposed that specific arrangements must be made for the life of the rural people from January to September. The 120 catties of grain should be divided into three stages: roughly three taels of grain per person per day in the first three months, six or seven taels of dry starch, plus their own In the middle four months, during the busy farming season, each person must have six taels of grain and two taels of dry arginine powder; in the last two months, when early-maturing crops and vegetables come in, each person must have two taels of grain per day , plus some food substitutes, can receive the autumn harvest.At the same time, it is proposed that the feed for farm animals should also be properly arranged, which is also a matter of protecting productivity.The Secretariat agreed with Ma Mingfang's above opinion, and in accordance with his spirit, on December 28, 1960, in the name of the Northeast Bureau, issued an emergency instruction on the arrangement of people's lives.The instructions pointed out: "Arranging people's lives well is a very important task for the party organizations at all levels in the region at present. It is the basis for doing all the work well, and it is a serious task related to the people's lives in the region and production in the next year." Requirements Party organizations at all levels, in accordance with the opinions put forward in the instructions, arrange and implement them one by one, one by one, one by one, and one by one.

In February 1961, Ma Mingfang put forward specific requirements for the living arrangements of urban workers in his speech at the cadre meeting of the Northeast Bureau.He first clearly pointed out the relationship between production and life, saying that if life is good, production can be good, life problems have a great impact on the thoughts of employees, production is a fundamental long-term problem, and production will naturally improve life. With a good living arrangement, employees can produce better, and the development of production provides material conditions to meet the needs of life. In the final analysis, the purpose of production is to improve the material life and spiritual life of the entire society.It was very valuable for Ma Mingfang to clearly raise the fundamental question of the purpose of production at that time.He asked all factories and mines to run canteens, save food, produce high-grade food substitutes, grow vegetables as much as possible, and solve the living problems of employees. .

When streamlining the urban population and delegating it to the countryside, Ma Mingfang promptly proposed that party and government departments at all levels should make good arrangements for the production and life of the rural population in order to stabilize people's hearts and consolidate achievements.Otherwise, there will be a phenomenon that the population from the countryside will return to the city, which will cause chaos in the social order and artificially increase difficulties. In order to solve the vegetable problem of the urban population, in March 1962, Ma Mingfang hosted the Urban Vegetable Work Conference.In his speech at the conference, he pointed out that food for the urban population is rationed, and it is impossible to increase it. Now there is less meat and less vegetables (14 catties less per person per month than in 1957), which has increased the difficulties of life for workers. .We must do everything possible to catch urban vegetables. This is an important issue in the lives of urban people next to food.After careful study and discussion at the meeting, the minutes of the meeting were formed, and some important policies and measures to solve the urban vegetable problem were put forward, which were approved by the Northeast Bureau for implementation in various places.

Ma Mingfang has always paid close attention to the work of arranging the life of urban and rural people. In various meetings and inspections in the countryside, this issue is often mentioned, and specific arrangements are made every year according to the grain situation of the year. In 1965, the food situation in Northeast China was the best in several years, and the farmers' food ration level also increased a little.Most production teams have some food reserves, and some places have relaxed arrangements for people's lives. On February 4, 1966, Ma Mingfang pointed out in his speech "About Several Current Works": At present, the family background of the country and the people is still very weak, and the country still imports a part of grain every year, and the Northeast still eats grain imported from the customs. , the comrades of the whole party must continue to make great efforts to increase food production, work hard to do a good job in food work, pay close attention to living arrangements, and save food. This is a long-term policy. Catch, mobilize the masses to catch, strive to eat less resale grain, not to eat probe grain, keep the reserve grain, and lay a good foundation for the third five-year plan.

As early as 1961, there was a serious gap between the social purchasing power and the value of commodities available in Northeast China. In 1962, the difference reached 1.44 billion yuan.Many daily necessities are seriously lacking, and the market supply is very tight. On May 24, 1962, Ma Mingfang focused on market issues at the third plenary (enlarged) meeting of the Northeast Bureau.He said that the market problem is nothing more than the problem of increasing production and saving.The difference in the market is very large, how to solve it?The fundamental way is to produce more things, do everything possible to develop the light textile industry and handicraft industry, and produce more daily necessities and production utensils.If you produce more things, you will have more real power. This is the foundation.Political work is indispensable, but the foundation is material, and politics must be combined with material conditions to generate strength.What should I do if the raw materials are not enough?We must try our best to collect all kinds of raw materials and leftovers required by the light textile industry and handicraft production, and use them in production.We must resolutely do a good job in clearing warehouses and verifying capital, and take out excess inventory materials and use them in the light textile industry and handicraft production in the market.And we must use limited materials reasonably, save raw materials, and strive to produce more and better quality.He also proposed to resolutely reduce the purchasing power of social groups, compress working capital, effectively reverse the loss-making situation of industrial and commercial enterprises, and reduce the amount of money injected.

Around this time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the reports of Chen Yun and Li Fuchun, pointing out that the whole country was in a very difficult period, and resolute measures should be taken to reverse the situation.The Northeast Bureau studied how to implement the instructions of the central government based on the situation in the Northeast region, and believed that the difficulties in the Northeast were more serious than those in other regions of the country, and the market balance and financial and financial contradictions in the Northeast were more prominent than those in the whole country.Therefore, in addition to solving problems by ourselves, we must report to the central government and ask for possible support from the central government.After Song Renqiong personally contacted the central government, he sent Ma Mingfang and Qiang Xiaochu (alternate secretary and secretary-general of the Northeast Bureau Secretariat) to Beijing to report to the Politburo.Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, who presided over the report meeting, were very understanding of the difficulties in the Northeast and organized relevant departments to give strong support.During this period, Ma Mingfang also organized the Finance and Trade Committee to systematically investigate and study the financial, financial, and market conditions in the Northeast region, and proposed four measures to improve the market and financial conditions.

Zhou Enlai was very concerned about the difficulties in the Northeast, and he personally went to the Northeast to inspect the work.The Northeast Bureau Secretariat reported to Zhou Enlai the market, financial and financial situation.Under his direct guidance, he proposed to further reduce the group's purchasing power by 200 million yuan, and do everything possible to increase the production of light, textile and handicraft products by 320 million yuan, which played an important role in overcoming the difficulties in the Northeast. In order to invigorate the market, Ma Mingfang not only vigorously focused on the production and purchase of agricultural and sideline products, actively promoted the development of the light textile industry and handicraft production, and worked hard to increase the supply of goods in the market, but also advocated the opening of rural fair trade and the opening of small commodity markets in cities. In July 1962, he went to Mudanjiang, Hejiang, Ning'an, Linkou, Suihua, Jixi, Hegang, Jiamusi, Yilan, Tangyuan and other places in Heilongjiang Province to conduct extensive investigations.In his investigation report to the Northeast Bureau Secretariat, he pointed out that the development of the free market plays a supporting role in the collective economy, and the method of rigidly restricting the free market is divorced from the masses.According to the investigation of the Tai’an Brigade of Shuanghe Commune in Boli County, the Fifth Production Team of Shengli Brigade in Tulong Commune of Huachuan County, and the First Production Team of Yong’an Brigade in Sandaogang Commune of Yilan County, the income of members in 1961 was calculated according to the national price. , the income from the collective and the income from the free market each account for half; if the free market price is calculated, it is six to four;Farmers reported that "food and clothing depend on the collective, and daily pocket money depends on small freedom." Regarding the negative side of the free market, Ma Mingfang advocates using the method of developing the self-operated business of supply and marketing cooperatives to limit it.According to the report, since the self-operated business of the supply and marketing cooperatives started, the purchase of rural products has increased, the market prices of certain commodities have decreased, and the exchange of urban and rural materials has accelerated. Allowing supply and marketing cooperatives to operate on their own is very beneficial to the active market.

After various efforts, by 1963, the market situation in Northeast China had improved significantly.Market commodities increased and money was withdrawn; the sales of low-priced commodities increased, while the sales of high-priced commodities decreased, market trade prices fell, and planned prices were basically stable.It has played a positive role in accelerating the adjustment, consolidation, enrichment and improvement of the national economy. Ma Mingfang is also very supportive of the work of the Agricultural Committee of the Northeast Bureau.According to the Northeast Bureau's analysis that "agricultural development cannot keep up with the needs of industrial development, which is the main contradiction at present", he devoted a lot of energy to researching agricultural issues. policy opinion. Regarding food collection.In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers, Ma Mingfang proposed: (1) Fix the procurement task, which will remain unchanged for several years; (2) With the increase of grain production, increase the price of part of the increase in production, such as about 30%. On the issue of private plots.Ma Mingfang has always advocated that private land should be determined as soon as possible, and protection policies should be adopted, and should not be easily changed and transferred to make up for the shortage of people's rations and feed for raising pigs and chickens.He pointed out that when agriculture is recovering, it is advisable not to levy agricultural tax on private plots. Regarding the issue of land reclamation.Ma Mingfang affirmed that small land reclamation played a positive role in giving full play to personal enthusiasm, expanding the area of ​​cultivated land, increasing grain production and developing agricultural and sideline production.At the same time, it also pointed out some side effects of small land reclamation, and put forward some practical policies for small land reclamation, such as strictly prohibiting the destruction of forest resources and water and soil conservation, and appropriately levying agricultural taxes on small land reclamation after three years.On the development of animal husbandry.There are many grasslands in Heilongjiang, and the development of animal husbandry can provide meat.It can also increase fur income.But at that time, most sheep were raised in groups, and individual raising of sheep was restricted.Ma Mingfang proposed to allow individuals to raise sheep and adopt a combination of collective and individual breeding to accelerate the development of animal husbandry.Ma Mingfang believes that the regulation that the commercial sector purchases sheepskin to buy nine and keep one is not conducive to the development of animal husbandry, and suggests appropriate adjustments. On the management responsibility system of agricultural production. In July 1962, when Ma Mingfang investigated the Wansheng Brigade of Lianjiangkou Commune in Tangyuan County, Heilongjiang Province, he fully affirmed the brigade’s implementation of household contracting.In his investigation report to the Northeast Bureau Secretariat, he said: "This brigade is a rice-producing area. There are two production teams, 49 households (all Koreans), and 675 acres of paddy fields. The production has been decreasing year after year. When the production was arranged this spring , 450 mu of land could not be arranged. Later, the method of contracting production to each household was adopted, and production and labor were fixed according to the land. All the land has been contracted, and the escaped commune members have returned, and many commune members have tried every means to increase the amount of fertilizer. Now, the rice seedlings are growing green, and the estimated yield per mu is 400 jin, which is more than 50% of the contracted output of 266 jin. We believe that, This method of contracting production to households is not to weaken the collective economy, but to make labor organization more reasonable in a certain link of the production process, and to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of cooperative members for production. The contradiction between work evaluation and scoring and labor allocation is also resolved. "Unfortunately, shortly after his investigation report was issued, the household contract was criticized at the Beidaihe meeting. In May 1963, Mao Zedong convened a meeting in Hangzhou attended by some Politburo members and district secretaries to discuss the issue of socialist education in rural areas, and formulated the "Decision on Several Issues in Current Rural Work (Draft)" (the first ten articles) . The "Top Ten Articles" made a "Left" assessment of the situation in our country, believed that "serious and sharp class struggles have emerged in Chinese society at present", and proposed to "reorganize the revolutionary class team" and repel capitalism and feudal forces. attack.In September of the same year, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a working meeting in Beijing, and discussed and approved the "Regulations on Some Specific Policies in the Rural Socialist Education Movement (Draft)" (the last ten articles), which continued to emphasize "class struggle as the key link", At the same time, it also emphasized the importance of uniting more than 95% of the cadres and the masses. December 1964.The Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a national work conference to further discuss the issue of the rural socialist education movement.And released the discussion minutes of this meeting on January 14, 1965, "Some Issues Presently Raised in the Rural Socialist Education Movement" (that is, Article 23), further pointing out that "there are serious problems in both urban and rural areas of our country. , sharp class struggle", we must "grasp the program of class struggle and the program of the struggle between the two roads of socialism and capitalism", and put forward for the first time that "the focus of this movement is to rectify those capitalists within the party. The faction in power on the socialist road". The "Four Clean-ups" movement was launched across the country under this "left" guiding ideology. Ma Mingfang participated in this movement, and also implemented the viewpoint of "class struggle as the key link" in the meeting on the "Four Cleans" movement.However, when he was carrying out the "Four Cleanups", he made a realistic analysis of the situation of rural cadres and advocated the method of enthusiastic help. In November 1965, Ma Mingfang went to the Guantun Brigade of Yingkou County, Liaoning Province to carry out the "Four Cleanups".At that time, it was advocated to gather a large number of cadres in each county and commune to organize a work team to fight the "war of annihilation", but when he stayed at the camp, he only brought two cadres with him.He said: "We follow the mass line, not the work team line. Wouldn't it be better to mobilize all members and turn them into work teams? And they are work teams that will never leave." Every day, I went to the rural cadres to have a heart-to-heart talk, and went deep into the masses to understand the production and living conditions of the masses, and solicited the opinions of the masses on the rural cadres.For a period of time, when the masses went to work in the fields, he followed them; when the masses gathered manure, he also followed the barn;At the beginning, the cadres and the masses still had concerns, thinking that his officials were big and dared not speak their minds.A few days later, seeing that he was kind and sincere, without any official airs, the cadres and the masses were willing to talk to him.At that time, he was nearly 60 years old and suffered from chronic gastric ulcer. In order to take care of his body, the county party committee appointed a cook to cook for him alone.After he learned about it, he immediately went to the party secretary of the commune and instructed him not to take special care of anything in the future.When eating the second meal, he went to the cafeteria to line up with everyone to buy food.His words and deeds have given everyone a profound education, and the masses are closer to and respect him.He also personally explained the party's policies to the cadres, telling stories about the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the War of Liberation.What he said can be compared with the thinking of the cadres and the masses, so people are willing to listen to him, and take the initiative to ask him to report the situation, expressing their inner knots and ideological and work problems. After more than 20 days of in-depth and meticulous mass work, he and the cadres who went with him wrote a report to Song Renqiong and the comrades of the Northeast Bureau Secretariat after many studies.He made a completely different view of the situation of rural cadres from the "Left" estimates at that time.The report said: "We have been in the Guantun Brigade of Guantun Commune for more than 20 days, and we feel that we are in the social education movement. How to correctly understand and treat good and relatively good cadres, how to greatly improve their ideological consciousness, It is an important issue that is easily overlooked." "What problems do cadres have, and how should we understand their problems? How can we solve their problems well? After many studies, we believe that these cadres are basically good, but they also have many mistakes and shortcomings. As far as they are concerned On the good side, each person is different. To sum it up, most of them are working people, basically able to adhere to the direction of socialism, have a certain level of policy thinking, and in the work of leading production teams and production brigades, He has done a lot of work in leading the production of agricultural and sideline industries, as well as in distributing and arranging the life of members of the commune, and has done many good things for the masses." "This is their basic and main aspect." "As far as their mistakes and shortcomings are concerned, they are also different, some are more, some are less, and some are very slight."The report said that the shortcomings and mistakes of rural cadres are mainly due to their undemocratic style of work, vague class views, some eat more than they want, some are engaged in some commercial activities, speculative trading, and some have a declining revolutionary will and want to be "Peace Party members." , "comfortable member" and so on. "Their achievements must be adequately estimated, and their mistakes and shortcomings must be seriously criticized and educated, so that they can achieve the goal of raising awareness, correcting mistakes, uniting, and doing a good job."this report.Approved by the Northeast Bureau and forwarded to various places, it played a good role in the "Four Cleanups" movement.