Chapter 12 Chapter Three Ma Mingfang in Shaanxi

On January 10, 1950, the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government was formally established and the inauguration ceremony for all members of the provincial government was held in Xi'an Mass Hall. Ma Mingfang delivered an inauguration speech at the meeting, asking the administrative staff of the People's Government to establish a new style of work. On January 15, at the closing meeting of the first meeting of the Provincial People's Government Committee, Ma Mingfang emphasized that the people are the creators of all undertakings, the people are the source of all strength and all wisdom, relying on the people, and being with the people, is the people's foundation. The characteristics of a democratic regime are also a kind of good quality and wisdom that new democratic administrators should possess, and it is the foundation of our administration.We must be the primary school pupils of the people and learn from them with an open mind.If we forget this very common truth, forget the will and strength of the people, or adopt an attitude of coercive orders to thousands of people, or fall behind the people, we will either suffer failure or become a stumbling block in the progress of history.In order to enable the new type of administrative staff to truly establish a new style of work, after the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China officially took office on February 15, 1950, it actively led the provincial organs to carry out rectification and learning campaigns.Ma Mingfang personally presided over the study mobilization meeting and study report meeting, pointing out that the rectification movement is a serious and meticulous ideological construction, and the main responsible cadres of all agencies should strengthen the study of rectification and improve their understanding, and calmly overcome all problems that are not compatible with the new democratic regime. thinking and style.

From the winter of 1950 to the spring of 1951, the peasants in Guanzhong who had survived the land reform movement wrote letters to Ma Mingfang one after another, describing the local land reform struggle and the production and work conditions after the land reform.After reading these letters, Ma Mingfang was very happy and replied straightforwardly. On January 29, 1951, Ma Mingfang wrote back to all the farmers in Si Township, Fenxi District, Baoji County, saying: You have not replied to my letter on December 28 last year. to write.I think you guys are doing a good job.After the land reform, you bought some livestock and pigs, put a lot of dung on the land, collected firewood, cut brooms, and sold charcoal to solve some difficulties in your life and production. During production troubles, militiamen took turns to guard against bad guys. More than 150 people went to winter school, and the public food was paid the first time, and they paid a few hundred catties more. This is very good.Now that spring is beginning, I, like you, hope that you will plant this year's crops well, harvest more grain, and your life will be better after the harvest.After the land reform, doing a good job in production is the top priority.I wish you a good crop and a safe town.On the same day, Ma Mingfang also wrote a reply letter to the Baxiang Farmers Association in Zhouyuan District, Baoji County. He said: The letter to me on January 7 has been received.Your plan to complete the public grain, improve production and militia security work is very good.This is exactly what we need to do after the land reform.In order to do these things well, I hope that you can organize your own peasant associations better. If you have something to discuss, "three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang". We must be democratic, regardless of autocracy, and we must love each other and not exclude each other. The Tianfarmers are a family, and they must be united like brothers and sisters.I wish you and the people of Quanxiang good health and better conditions day by day. On February 15th, Ma Mingfang wrote a letter to all the military workers in the Sixth Township, Dazhao District, Chang'an County. Respect, I am very happy.But the U.S. imperialists still hate our new country, and sent their troops to invade our Taiwan and neighbor North Korea. We military workers should set an example in production, resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea and other work, work hard, and often write letters to our relatives , Tell them to study hard, improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, do a good job in the government's various tasks, and build our country well.Ma Mingfang wrote a reply letter in person, and on April 26, the male and female farmers who sent the letter through the "Shaanxi Daily" said: I hope everyone will continue to implement the spirit that broke out in the land reform, and use all our strength to do a good job in the immediate spring plowing and sideline production. Unity and fraternity within the peasants, active and free lending, mutual aid, and weathering the spring famine; study hard to improve one's political awareness and cultural level; actively consolidate and expand the militia organization, and strengthen public security work.Do all the things in the countryside well, strive for a bumper harvest in 1951, and strive to make everyone live a better life after the land reform.

On January 17, 1951, Ma Mingfang delivered a speech at the 45th administrative meeting of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, demanding that the agency's style of work be simple and plain, and solve practical problems more.He said: (1) Recently, various units have only paid attention to the surface in some aspects, not to the reality.For example, most of the general meetings held by various units will start with an opening ceremony, pass the bureau, and give a long-winded talk.Dining, watching plays, and watching movies during the meeting have almost become a set of routines.We must oppose this extravagant and untruthful style of seeking superficiality.Except for the province-wide and mass meetings that must have certain ceremonies, general meetings must be straightforward, straightforward, and seek truth from facts, canceling all unnecessary formalities. (2) Each unit writes too much on the following.The tasks given to the lower levels are too heavy, which has become a great burden for the lower levels, especially the district and township cadres.For example, various units randomly distribute various survey and statistical forms, requiring districts and townships to fill in the reports one by one, and some even ask to report the number of roosters, hens, dromedary camels, and bactrian camels.The form materials sent down from above are indiscriminate, regardless of the actual situation below, and they are all forwarded down.There are more than 20 bureau-level units at the provincial level, and each unit dispatches tasks to the lower levels. How can it be feasible to concentrate on a few or three or two district and township cadres?We must understand that "a piece of paper from the top makes the bottom sweat." Too many official documents are not only useless, but harmful. We should not treat this situation as a trivial matter.Each unit issued instructions to the downward: if it is not urgently needed or necessary, do not distribute it casually, but try to be as simple and clear as possible, pay attention to avoid official documents and solve practical problems more.

On May 16, 1951, at the 59th administrative meeting of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, Ma Mingfang seriously criticized the bad phenomena in school teaching.He said: (1) Some middle and primary schools do not pay attention to the adjustment of students' study time, and sometimes the students' study load is very heavy.For example, a lot of extra math problems are given to students to do outside of class, but according to the time and energy of students outside of class, it is impossible to complete the task; teachers teach students a lot of homework, in fact, students digest little or not at all.A lot of handouts were handed out, but in fact some of them were not read at all and could not be read.This kind of teaching method of just injecting and not asking about the degree of digestion is undesirable.We must pay attention to "the actual effect of teaching" and correct this "formal teaching" method.The department of culture and education should earnestly inspect the actual teaching effect of the schools, and the director of the Provincial Department of Culture and Education should visit each school on the spot. (2) Some schools have too many extracurricular publicity, meetings, listening to reports, and recreational activities, which affect the study of the regular class.From the perspective of the country's long-term interests in cultivating talents, teaching students to "learn their homework well" is the primary responsibility of educators; "learning their homework well" is the only task of students.Necessary extracurricular activities should be based on the principle that they do not take up study time and do not affect class study.If you can't keep up with the regular study, no matter how correct the educational policy is, it will still fail in practice. (3) The Provincial Department of Culture and Education must effectively control the transfer of middle school students to various cadre training schools (classes).Without the approval of the Provincial People's Government and the Northwest Military and Political Committee, it is not allowed to post notices in schools to recruit students, so as not to affect the students' learning mood and the normalization of school education.At the 78th and 89th administrative meetings of the Provincial People's Government held later, Ma Mingfang also pointed out that governments at all levels should strengthen the administrative leadership of primary and secondary schools, and that primary and secondary schools that do not have suitable administrative candidates can be temporarily appointed by the party and government. The person in charge of the cultural and educational department should also serve as the person in charge; governments at all levels should focus on running one or two primary and secondary schools, sum up experience and promote them; pay attention to primary education in remote areas, and the Provincial Department of Culture and Education should send people to Taibai Mountain, Qianshan Mountain, Bashan Mountain, etc. The school education in the mountainous area should be carefully inspected to check and correct the unhealthy phenomena such as the use of old teaching materials, old teaching methods and corporal punishment of students; and the problem of low salary for primary school teachers should be solved.

On June 18, 1952, Ma Mingfang presided over the 105th administrative meeting of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, at which the "Outline of the Construction Plan for the Second Half of 1952 and 1953 of the Old Base Areas of Shaanxi Province" was discussed and approved. The "Plan Outline" pointed out: the old base areas in Shaanxi Province include Yan'an, Ansai, Zhidan, Yanchang, Wuqi, Ganquan, Fuxian, Suide, Mizhi, Jiaxian, Wubao, Qingjian, Zichang, Zichang All of the 17 counties including Zhou, Yanchuan, Dingbian, Jingbian, Chunhua, Yaoxian, Xunyi, Binxian, Shenmu, Fugu, Hengshan, Yijun, Huangling, Shangxian, Danfeng, Shangnan There are 149 districts, 945 townships, and 1.677 million people in each of 15 counties, including Luonan, Shanyang, and Zhen'an, accounting for 11.7% of the province's population.Most of the old base areas are the basic areas of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which were once the foothold and starting point of the national revolution.The broad masses of the people contributed their greatest strength in the Second Civil Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the Third Civil Revolutionary War, making indelible contributions to the victory of the national revolution.However, because the old base area suffered serious devastation by the enemy during the war, coupled with inconvenient transportation, barren land, and natural disasters in successive years, the people's life was extremely miserable.Therefore, for the economic construction and cultural construction of the old base areas, we must use our utmost efforts to promote its recovery and development.Ma Mingfang emphasized at the meeting that: in areas with old base areas, the Commissioner's Office must draw up specific construction plans based on the provincial "Plan Outline" and implement them effectively; It is also necessary to consult with the Provincial Department of Culture and Education to study and formulate an implementation plan to assist the agencies in implementing it; and proceeding from the characteristics of the old areas, we must vigorously do a good job in water conservancy construction, closing mountains and cultivating forests.After the meeting, the Provincial People's Government issued the "Instructions on Strengthening the Work in the Old Base Areas", and the "Shaanxi Daily" published a comment, asking the people in the strong old base areas to follow Chairman Mao's instructions, "maintain the glorious tradition and strive for greater glory", mobilize Rise up and work hard to realize the "Plan Outline".

On July 1 and 2, 1952, the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee successively held commemorative meetings for the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Party. building.He said: Social reforms in all aspects and the recovery and development of urban and rural economies have put forward a new task before us, which is the need to further carry out systematic and planned economic construction.This new task strongly requires us to learn many things that we are not familiar with or even completely unknown to us. It requires us to learn all kinds of knowledge about the construction of modern industrial production and agricultural production. It requires us to train a large number of people with these specialized knowledge. All kinds of cadres demand that we gradually turn our country into a country with a highly modernized industry in the process of production and construction, and turn our agriculture into an agriculture armed with industry.In addition to working hard to learn production knowledge, our entire party must work hard to learn Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, because whether it is industry, agriculture, finance, trade, culture and education, military defense, astronomy and geography, professionalism Whether it is advanced technology or ordinary technology, in short, whether it belongs to social science or natural science, it cannot be separated from the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.Learning must be combined with practice to apply what you have learned, and learning without practice is useless.We must also fully promote democratic life inside and outside the party, conduct criticism and self-criticism throughout the party, and fully mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of every party member.This has not been done enough in many places, and good attention must be paid to improvement.Every Communist must guard against arrogance and impetuosity, work hard and produce, and become a model in work and production. Every Communist must study hard to become a model in learning.Under the correct leadership of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, we will create many earth-shattering deeds beyond our expectation.

From August 20 to 29, 1952, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China held a representative meeting of propagandists. On the 22nd, Ma Mingfang attended the meeting and gave a speech entitled "Consolidating and Expanding the Party's Propaganda Army".In his speech, he demanded to correctly explain the beautiful prospect of socialism and correctly propagate the road of socialism.He said: We must take the road of socialism and never take the road of capitalism.To go to socialism is like walking. You have to go step by step. If you think about it, you will not be able to jump to socialism.Some people say that "socialism must be implemented now and collective farms must be organized", but this is not acceptable.Right now, in the countryside, we must vigorously carry out the mutual aid and cooperation movement on the basis of the individual economy, in particular, develop and reorganize a large number of small, seasonal mutual aid groups, and on this basis gradually move towards perennial and stereotyped mutual aid groups. Mutual aid groups developed and focused on organizing agricultural production cooperatives to unite all farmers, develop all potential productive forces, and vigorously develop agricultural production.In cities, it is mainly to vigorously promote advanced working methods, carry out rationalization proposals, and do a good job in the production of public and private factories and mines and the management of public and private businesses.We are a people's democratic country under the leadership of the Communist Party. We can only propagate and educate the masses of the people, and there is no other way.We are propagating that the masses are moving towards socialism step by step, not jumping to socialism all at once.

On October 15, 1952, the Material Exchange Conference jointly organized by the People's Government of Shaanxi Province and the People's Government of Xi'an City opened in Xi'an. Ma Mingfang attended the meeting on behalf of the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and delivered an important speech.He said: (1) In order to open up a new situation of material exchange, it is necessary to open up new markets and develop existing markets.At present, we are doing very poorly in the commercial work of the primary market in small cities. If the exchange of materials in the primary market is not done well, the business and trade work cannot be done well. (2) All useful old commercial networks must be restored, and those that have been restored must be developed, and new commercial networks must be opened up at the same time.It is necessary to promote the rush of feet and the burden of peddlers. This is very necessary in rural areas, especially in mountainous areas. (3) State-run trade agencies, cooperatives, and private businesses should cooperate, help each other, complement each other, and do a good job in the exchange of materials.There should be a reasonable division of labor between state-run trade agencies, cooperatives, and private businesses so that each has its place.Wholesale prices, retail prices, regional price differences, etc., all unreasonable places need to be adjusted to make it more conducive to the development of public and private commerce. (4) Product specifications should be improved appropriately, and those that do not meet the specifications should be changed into those that meet the specifications, and the inferior goods should be turned into good ones.People engaged in business operations must strictly abide by the faith, do not adulterate, do not forge goods, do not cheat, change the bad habits left over from the old society, and establish a new business ethics and style.Ma Mingfang also pointed out: Some comrades said that "New Democracy's business does not need profit", which is a wrong statement.Business must be profitable, but this kind of profit is not sudden profit or hoarding profit, but legitimate and reasonable profit. Reasonable profit is not only beneficial to public and private businesses, but also beneficial to the entire national economy.Commercial work is an important link in the country's economic construction. It is necessary to organize various commercial forces and carry out material exchanges to meet the needs of the people.At the first meeting of the Second Shaanxi Provincial People's Representatives Conference held in November, Ma Mingfang also said: In order to activate the urban and rural economies, improve the lives of farmers, and strengthen the alliance of workers and farmers, on the basis of consolidating and developing long-distance material exchanges, we must also Vigorously carry out short-distance material exchanges to find sales outlets for small local products with a large quantity and wide area, so as to improve the purchasing power of farmers and expand the sales volume of industrial products.Banks, trade agencies, and cooperatives should strengthen market and currency management and play their roles in promoting material exchanges.It is necessary to establish and improve the organization of federations of industry and commerce and trade associations, and strengthen political education for private businessmen, so as to give full play to their business enthusiasm and new business style, and enable them to obtain reasonable profits in their business operations.

Ma Mingfang was in charge of Shaanxi during the three-year economic recovery period. The Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China with him as the secretary and the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government with him as the chairman actively led the people of the province to work hard, overcome difficulties, heal the wounds of war, and restore development. Production, supporting the front line, clearing special bandits and counter-hegemony, suppressing counter-revolutionaries, carrying out land system reform, resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, and "three evils" and "five evils" campaigns have achieved great victories.The feudal land system was destroyed, and 7.8 million landless farmers in the province were allocated land.The tasks of restoring the national economy have been basically completed. Compared with 1949 in 1952, the province's total industrial and agricultural output value increased by 33.6%, and people's lives have been significantly improved.