Chapter 9 3.1 Responding to danger

On February 9, 1949, Chen Yun, Luo Ronghuan and others braved the wind and snow and took a jeep from Peiping to Xibaipo, Pingshan, Hebei, where the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is located. They met Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other old comrades again. At that time, the three major battles had ended, the main military force of the Kuomintang was basically wiped out, the major liberated areas that had been divided were united, and the victory of the Chinese revolution was in sight.Mao Zedong and others are already planning to establish a new Chinese people's regime.However, the decentralized management of finance and economics in the liberated areas during the Revolutionary War obviously did not adapt to the development of the situation.In order to unify and lead the national economic work, it is planned to establish a financial and economic committee.The head of this organization is actually the financial commander of the new China. Zhou Enlai recommended Chen Yun to Mao Zedong, and Mao Zedong approved it.At the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chen Yun proposed not to smash old machines, which made Mao Zedong suddenly feel the need for financial experts in the party, and left a deep impression on Chen Yun.

Mao Zedong also personally talked to Bo Yibo, the head of the North China Bureau, and asked him to concurrently serve as the deputy director of the Central Finance Committee and Chen Yun's assistant. On February 1, the second day after Peking was peacefully liberated, Chen Yun rushed to Peiping from Shenyang to discuss logistics supply and other issues with the Northeast Field Army and the leaders of North China who were on the front line. On February 6, Mao Zedong called Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Nie Rongzhen, asking them to tell Chen Yun, "Chen Xieluo, please come and talk together."

After arriving in Xibaipo, Chen Yun immediately reported the situation in the Northeast and the work of the Northeast Bureau to Mao Zedong and others, and had a long talk with them all night.Zhou Enlai informed Chen Yun that the central government had decided that he would be in charge of leading the country's financial work, and asked him to hand over the work after returning to the northeast and come to the central government as soon as possible. This is not an easy task. The challenges on the financial front are no less difficult than the hail of bullets on the battlefield.The first thing Chen Yun faced was the serious struggle that was later called one of the "three major battles" of financial work in the early founding of the People's Republic of China: stabilizing prices.

Prices soared, and people panicked.Chen Yun was ordered to settle down on the site and try it out. What the Kuomintang left to New China was, in fact, an economic "mess" that deserved the name.From 1937 to May 1949, the currency circulation of the Kuomintang government increased by more than 140 billion times, and prices rose by more than 8.5 trillion times during the same period, causing a loss of about 15 billion silver dollars to the people of the whole country. Hyperinflation has completely bankrupted the credit of banknotes. People worry about the depreciation of currency, so they rush to buy goods, or exchange banknotes for gold, silver and dollar bills one after another.In rural areas, they simply return to the most primitive barter.

The market turmoil has caused serious damage to the legitimately operating national industries and businesses, and the people have suffered unspeakably.The economic collapse hastened the downfall of the Kuomintang regime. Speculative capital has been deformed development.At that time, it was said that "business is not as good as industry, business is not as good as hoarding, and hoarding is not as good as speculation."The long-term hyperinflation has seriously deteriorated the normal industrial and commercial operating environment, but it has cultivated a strong speculator army. Bureaucratic capital relies on privileges to speculate for profit, and social idle funds speculate and chase huge profits. Only a few are still struggling to engage in industrial and commercial operations. National capital, in order to reduce the loss of inflation, also had to be involved in speculation.Speculation fueled market volatility.

Speculative capital is like a crow sucking carrion, growing rapidly in this extremely chaotic financial economy, posing a great threat to the nascent people's regime.Zhou Enlai once said: "The cities taken over by the Chinese people have almost become big casinos for speculators due to years of continuous inflation and high prices." The extremely chaotic and dangerous state of the financial economy left over from the rule. However, it is not easy to compete for market control and stabilize prices from speculative capital! In 1949, military and administrative expenses, disaster relief expenses, and railway repair expenses totaled 56.7 billion catties of millet, while the fiscal revenue of that year was only 30.3 billion catties of millet, which was a balance between revenue and expenditure. The fiscal deficit reached 26.4 billion catties of millet. , accounting for 65.9% of all expenditures.

This means that more than half of the central fiscal expenditure depends on invoices. In this way, speculative capital had an opportunity to set off four price turmoil in April, July, October, and February 1949, causing prices to skyrocket in a short period of time, causing extreme seriousness among the masses. The panic psychology in the country has disrupted the normal operation of the national economy and seriously affected the front-line supply, the lives of the people and legitimate industrial and commercial operations. Under the circumstances that fiscal revenue and expenditure cannot be balanced for the time being and production has not yet resumed, whether it can overcome the destruction of speculative capital and make prices rise gradually instead of sharply in accordance with the increase in currency is a challenge to the new people's government and its financial and economic leaders. severe test.Can the Communist Party deal with speculative capital?Many people are skeptical.Some even said: "The Communist Party scores 100 points in military, 80 points in politics, and 0 points in economy."

After Chen Yun was ordered, he immediately returned to the northeast to arrange related work.Considering that it would be difficult to come back after going to the central government, he took the time to inspect various factories and mines in the northeast, hoping to learn as much as possible about the economic situation in the northeast.With this busy schedule, another three months have passed, and he has no time to attend the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which is of great historical significance. During this period, the continuous volatility of the market caused panic among the masses, complaints from the industry and commerce, and the logistics support of the army was complicated and urgent, and all localities turned to the central government.Zhou Enlai called Chen Yun many times, urging him to come quickly.

After the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, the Central Committee entered Peiping on March 25. On May 9, Chen Yun hurried to Peiping.When Chen Yun was ordered to enter the customs, someone asked him what he planned to do after entering the customs, and he said calmly: "Set down the site and give it a try."