Chapter 21 6.3 Truth is sometimes in the hands of one person

At the beginning of rectifying "Left", Chen Yun's suspicion of high indicators was regarded by some as "right-leaning conservatism", but Mao Zedong praised Chen Yun for "sometimes the truth is in the hands of one person". Chen Yun was brave enough to take charge of the research and implementation of iron and steel targets. After the Beidaihe meeting, the atmosphere of the "Great Leap Forward" was very strong, and Mao Zedong was very happy.But not long after, the situation in various places was reported to him, and he also saw some problems.Mao Zedong was very disgusted with some extreme practices.Taking steel as the key link has caused overall tension in the national economy, and various contradictions have become increasingly exposed.

In this case, Mao Zedong himself began to consider compressing air.He inspected various places and frequently talked with relevant departments and leaders. Chen Yun also participated many times, and seized the opportunity to speak to Mao Zedong on issues such as high targets. From November 28th to December 10th, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Wuchang, several seminars were hosted by Liu Shaoqi, and the main indicators of the 1959 plan were adjusted. The steel output was from 27 million to 30 million tons The reduction to 18-20 million tons, the increase of raw coal from 370 million tons to 380 million tons, but the grain and cotton output targets were set at 1.05 trillion catties and 100 million tons, and the total investment in capital construction was reduced from 50 billion yuan to 36 billion yuan.

The "Great Leap Forward" proposed "taking steel as the key link" and catching up with and surpassing the United Kingdom was marked by steel indicators.Although the index for steel had dropped, Chen Yun felt that it was still difficult to complete, and the other three indexes were still very high. For the sake of prudence, Chen Yun suggested that it is better not to publish the four major indicators, and told Mao Zedong's secretary Hu Qiaomu about this opinion, but Hu Qiaomu did not tell Mao Zedong about this situation. According to Hu Qiaomu later privately told people during the Lushan meeting that he was protecting Chen Yun, otherwise Chen Yun would not be able to restore his reputation when he came to the Shanghai meeting.At the Wuchang meeting, Wang Jiaxiang told Liu Shaoqi not to announce the decision of the commune. Wang did not dare to report to the chairman. Liu Shaoqi told Mao Zedong, but Mao lost his temper.

On January 18, 1959, just after the New Year, Mao Zedong invited Chen Yun, Li Fuchun, Bo Yibo, Li Xiannian and other vice premiers in charge of financial and economic work to dinner, and Peng Dehuai attended to accompany him. Naturally, economic and industrial issues will be discussed during the meeting.Chen Yun said that the 1959 steel, coal, grain, and cotton production plan determined by the Wuchang Conference was difficult to complete, and proposed: the 1959 steel quota issue, I tend to reduce it to 16 million tons. After Mao Zedong heard this, he paused and said: Then pull it down.I still have to observe whether this general line is correct or not.I am always ready to revise the general line.

One sentence is thunderous.The issue of planning indicators was closely linked with the party's general line of socialist construction, and specific economic indicators became a serious political issue, and the situation became severe.Chen Yun immediately felt tremendous pressure. From March 25 to April 5, 1959, an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and the Seventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee were held in Shanghai to discuss economic work, the rectification of the people's communes, and the staffing of state agencies.This meeting began to consider the problem of lowering the steel index and putting the plan on a solid basis.

At the beginning of the Shanghai meeting, Hu Qiaomu talked to Mao Zedong about Chen Yun's disapproval of publishing the four major indicators for steel, coal, grain and cotton in 1959 during the Wuchang meeting. On April 2, Mao Zedong encouraged everyone to learn from Hai Rui at the meeting, and bravely expressed what he had seen, saying that "the emperor of the Ming Dynasty used the imperial staff and even beat him to death on the spot, but there were still ministers who dared to speak out." Nothing more than five fears: fear of dismissal, fear of Dismissal, fear of divorce, fear of going to jail, fear of beheading.He praised Chen Yun and said: In January, I talked to several central comrades about economic and industrial issues, including Chen Yun, Li Fuchun, Bo Yibo, Li Xiannian, and Peng Dehuai.Chen Yun expressed a very correct attitude.He said that this year's production plan set at the Wuchang meeting would be difficult to complete.He is very brave, brave to make mistakes, brave to uphold the truth.In Wuchang, he was the only one who was correct about whether to publish the 1959 indicators for grain, cotton, coal, and steel.In January of this year, he was also right.His words are very contradictory to some comrades, and I appreciate them.I think he is a comrade with more experience.Truth is often in the hands of one person.Mao Zedong also criticized Hu Qiaomu: You are just a secretary, and you dare not report the opinions of the vice chairman.

The Shanghai meeting clearly put forward the requirement to cool down the high targets of the "Great Leap Forward" and encouraged different opinions, which turned the frenzy that had been high since the "Great Leap Forward" into a turning point. In April 1959, Chen Yun specially wrote a letter to the members of the Central Finance and Economics Group, focusing on the problems that had arisen in the financial and economic work since the "Great Leap Forward", specifically talking about market issues and planning methods. Chen Yun's letter is an effective way to correct a series of mistakes in the "Great Leap Forward". The starting point is to arrange the market first, and then arrange the infrastructure.It is a pity that in the frenzy of the "Great Leap Forward", none of these good words of gold and jade could play their due role, and some people firmly opposed it.

On April 29 and 30, 1959, the Secretariat of the Central Committee held consecutive meetings to discuss the economic situation, especially the issue of steel indicators.The meeting decided to instruct the Central Finance and Economics Group led by Chen Yun to study three issues: First, in 1959, the iron and steel indicators were divided into two, one is the reliable indicator, and the other is the striving indicator; Second, the allocation of steel products in 1959 should be carried out according to the reliable figures that can be produced in this year; Third, if the amount of steel allocated is reduced, some construction projects will inevitably be reduced. In principle, it is determined that capital construction should be reduced to ensure the needs of production, the market and maintenance; Indispensable construction project.

The general spirit is to stabilize the position before moving forward. The problems at that time were essentially caused by the excessively high production targets of iron and steel and the large scale of capital construction. To reverse the passive situation, we had to touch on the problem of high targets for steel.This was a very difficult job, because steel production had become an important political task at that time. Although the implementation of the target was a task proposed by the central government, when the planned target was already very high, it was necessary to realistically suppress it by a relatively large margin. Coming down is not without risk.If it is not done well, there is a danger of becoming a "retirement-promoting school" or a "post-autumn account settlement school".

After Chen Yun accepted the task, he didn't flinch in the slightest.From May 3rd to May 9th, he presided over the meetings of the Central Finance and Economics Group, listened to reports from the Ministry of Metallurgy, and studied steel indicators. Reports on 5 topics of materials, iron and steel smelting, and steel varieties, and then a focused discussion. On May 11, 1959, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting to listen to Chen Yun's opinions on the implementation of steel indicators and discuss the report of the State Planning Commission. Chen Yun advocated that steel products should be set at 9 million tons, and the steel production target should be set at 13 million tons.Even so, he still has reservations.He said that the research on iron and steel indicators this time is limited to various links within the iron and steel industry. There has not been a comprehensive study on the relationship between the iron and steel industry and other industries, let alone the relationship between other sectors of the entire national economy.It is impossible to be completely appropriate to only discuss iron and steel in terms of iron and steel, and to stipulate the production indicators of steel and steel products.Because steel is only one link in the entire industry and the national economy, whether the indicators for steel are properly set can be seen more clearly after comprehensive research.The figure of 13 million tons is only preliminary, and it is only for the Politburo to consider, and it is not expected to make a final decision.

On May 15, 1959, after the Politburo meeting approved the implementation of the iron and steel targets, Chen Yun wrote a letter to Mao Zedong specifically on the issue of the iron and steel targets, reporting the considerations and disagreements of the financial and economic team on the implementation of the steel targets in a realistic manner. On June 13, Mao Zedong presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and officially confirmed that the steel target in 1959 would drop to 13 million tons.Mao Zedong also expressed his appreciation to Chen Yun in a tone of self-criticism and lessons learned.He said: Whether it is industry or agriculture, the indicators are all agreed by us.For example, the 20 million tons of steel set at the Wuchang meeting in December last year, in January this year, some comrades, represented by Chen Yun, pointed out that it would be difficult to complete.But at that time, it was still difficult to change, and people still wanted to do a lot of work. It was impossible to change to the target of 16 million tons of high-quality steel proposed at the Shanghai meeting, and it was impossible to change to the current target of 13 million tons.People in the world don't hit the wall by themselves, have no experience, and don't always turn around.Next year's target must not be too high. I think it is roughly this year's target, and it can be lower. Let's make it a saddle shape. The mistake in 1956 was that we should not openly oppose "rash advance". As for lowering the target in 1957, it was absolutely correct.We have been talking about planned and proportional development for many years, but we just don’t pay attention to it, and we don’t pay attention to comprehensive balance.In the next seven months, the main task is to improve the overall balance. The intense work seriously damaged Chen Yun's health.After the steel index was adjusted, I went out to rest until 1961. The actual results show that 13 million tons of steel is not a conservative goal. After the mobilization of the whole people, even the iron pots in some ordinary people’s homes were taken back to the furnace, and some elementary school students also mobilized to look for scrap iron everywhere, and they are still in the The Lushan Conference continued under the political situation of "anti-rightist deviation and vigorous efforts". By the end of the year, only 13.87 million tons of steel and 8.97 million tons of steel products were barely completed.At that time, in order to protect the steel industry, a lot of money was spent, crowding out other departments, resulting in an imbalance of proportions.If it is not lowered to 13 million tons according to Chen Yun's opinion, if it is increased to 16.5 million tons or even more, it will inevitably cause more serious consequences. Of course, the rectification of "Left" during this period was actually just tinkering with specific work, and it never touched the most fundamental issue of guiding principles.Therefore, the rectification of "Left" is also very incomplete, and the effect is limited.It is a pity that such a momentum of rectifying the "left" has not been able to develop along with the trend. In July, the Lushan Conference labeled Peng Dehuai, Huang Kecheng, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Xiaozhou and others who openly held different opinions on the "Great Leap Forward" policy into an anti-Party group, and in the subsequent large-scale intra-Party struggle, they were again arrested from top to bottom. A large number of "Right opportunists" emerged, and a large number of cadres and masses who disagreed with or even resisted "Left" mistakes in their understanding and actual work were miserably criticized and attacked, which exacerbated the abnormal situation in the political life of the party and suppressed dissent within the party. The mistakes of the "Great Leap Forward" further developed, and finally led to the occurrence of a nationwide famine during the three-year difficult period.