Chapter 24 7.3 Mobilize 20 million urban population to go to the countryside

Agriculture cannot support large-scale construction.Chen Yun took the initiative to mobilize 20 million urban residents to go to the countryside. To tide over the difficulties, it is not enough to just think about the source of food. We must also find a way to reduce the sales of food and reduce the pressure on the country's food supply.Chen Yun calculated at the time that it would be difficult to import more than 10 billion catties of grain, because there was not that much foreign exchange and there was not that much transportation capacity.Agricultural failure caused a severe food crisis, which was exacerbated by rapid urban population growth. Since the "Great Leap Forward", the scale of construction has expanded rapidly, and 20 million workers have been added in a few years.So much labor force has entered the city from the countryside, which has weakened agricultural production on the one hand, and increased the country's food burden on the other hand.For this reason, Chen Yun took the initiative to mobilize a large number of urban population to go to the countryside.

From May 21 to June 12, 1961, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a work conference in Beijing, mainly discussing rural work, commercial work and urban and rural handicraft work.At the meeting, Chen Yun made an important speech on the reduction of workers and the issue of urban population going to the countryside. Chen Yun pointed out that there are two roads ahead: one is to continue digging out farmers' rations; the other is to send the urban population to the countryside.One of the two roads must be chosen, and there is no other road to take. Chen Yun does not advocate digging out farmers' rations anymore.At that time, farmers had already dug very hard for food rations, and if they continued to dig, agriculture would not be able to recover.

If there is no way to squeeze farmers' rations, the only way is to make up their minds to mobilize the urban population to go to the countryside.However, this decision is really difficult to make. Chen Yun's proposition coincided with that of Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and other central leaders.The central government quickly adopted this proposition. On June 16, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved and issued the "Nine Measures on Reducing Urban Population and Compressing Urban Grain Sales" formulated by the Central Work Conference on June 18, proposing to reduce the urban population by 20 million within three years on the basis of the end of 1960. above.On the same day, the central government also issued "Emergency Instructions on Verifying Urban Population and Food Supply".To this end, the central government established a team to verify urban population and food supply, with An Ziwen as the team leader.Back then, 10 million urban workers left the city and returned to the countryside.

Chen Yun has been calling for this work not to be relaxed.Under his repeated appeals and urging, on May 27, 1962, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Decision on Further Reducing Workers and Urban Population". After the central government made the decision to reduce the urban population, all localities acted quickly. More than 20 million urban people, sympathetic to the country's difficulties, responded to the party's call, packed their luggage, helped the old and the young, returned to the land where their ancestors lived and multiplied, and picked up the hoes and sickles again.They have made great sacrifices and contributions to the recovery and development of the national economy.

On July 31, 1963, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced the reduction of employees and the completion of the work of reducing the urban population in the "Report on the Completion of Downsizing Tasks and the End of Downsizing Work" issued by the Central Downsizing Group.According to statistics, from January 1961 to June 1963, the number of workers nationwide decreased by 18.87 million, the urban population decreased by 26 million, and the number of people who ate commercial grain decreased by 28 million.The above-mentioned report pointed out: "Due to the large reduction in workers, urban population, and population eating commodity grains, the strengthening of the agricultural front, the reduction of wage expenses, the reduction of grain sales, and the improvement of labor productivity of enterprises are of great importance to the improvement of urban-rural relations and the struggle for financial and economic development. The improvement in the situation has played a big role.”