Chapter 5 2. The Food Dream of the Leaders of the Republic

On October 2, 1949, an editorial in the "People's Daily" announced that the total population of China was 475 million. Mao Zedong, the leader of the Republic who solemnly proclaimed "the establishment of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China" on the Tiananmen Gate the day before, saw this figure and couldn't help but feel the pressure on his shoulders: the problem of feeding 475 million people will be led by him. The Communist Party of China will solve it. Of course, this is not the tens of millions of people in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area, but the 475 million people in the whole country!At that time, most of them were still hungry, and they were looking at their savior Mao Zedong expectantly.

Solving the food problem of the people has become the first test for the newly born Chinese government. Drawing on the experience of the revolutionary base areas, China began a massive land reform movement in 1950.Its core content is: "Abolish the land ownership system of feudal exploitation by the landlord class, and implement the land ownership system of farmers, so as to liberate rural productive forces and develop agricultural production."After more than two years, by the spring of 1953, except for some minority areas, the land reform was basically completed, and more than 300 million landless farmers in the country obtained about 700 million mu of land and a large amount of production materials free of charge. In the past, the heavy land rent of about 70 billion catties of grain paid to landlords in the past.The foundation of the feudal system that has lasted for thousands of years in our country - the land ownership of the landlord class has been completely eliminated.

This is the greatest land reform in Chinese history, and it is the most successful feat to realize "there is land for farming and food for people".In the history of the world, China's grain production has been at the forefront of the world for thousands of years, whether it is per unit area or total output. However, due to the imbalance of land occupation, the result is that most people suffer from hunger.This time, the land reform allowed all the farmers to be allocated the arable land that their ancestors had dreamed of for generations. Not only did they quickly alleviate their own food problems, but also the agricultural productivity was solved to the greatest extent, and food production was developed rapidly, ensuring that the newborn people The regime suppressed bandits and rapes, and wiped out the remnants of the Kuomintang opposition.Since 1950, the country's total grain output has increased by 10 million tons every year. It reached 166.83 million tons in 1953, an increase of 47% over 1949, and exceeded the historical record of 150 million tons in 1936.

Solving the food problem of the Chinese people became the first grand goal of Mao Zedong leading China.He believes that to build socialism, the people must first have enough to eat.He said clearly: "Are we socialist? Our peasants shouldn't still be eating steamed buns! They shouldn't..." In order to achieve the grand goal of feeding the people of the whole country, Comrade Mao Zedong devoted his whole life.During his administration, there were famous "two grasps": one is to grasp class struggle, which he believes is the basis for the stability of the proletarian regime; the second is to grasp food, which he believes is the basis for the survival and development of the Chinese people.At that time, "Taking class struggle as the key link" and "Taking food as the key link" were equally important, and almost all the walls in the countryside were painted, becoming the most resounding slogan.

"Food is the lifeblood" and "people are iron, and food is steel. If you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry." This is the truth that Mao Zedong repeatedly explained to cadres at all levels.He believes that "take food as the key link, and the key link is to make the eyes open", and food is the primary issue.Without food, nothing can be done well.Except in 1958, in order to "catch up with the Premier League and the United States" within 15 years, the "overlord" status of grain was handed over to the "Steel Marshal". For a long time after that, China always put grain production first.Mao Zedong warned people: "It is dangerous not to catch food. If you don't catch food, one day there will be chaos in the world."

Mao Zedong not only formulated a grain production policy for China that "takes grain as the key link, and outlines the outline", but also personally intervened in specific grain production.The "water, fertilizer, soil, seed, density, security, management, and work" he proposed became the "eight-character constitution" for grain production and was widely promoted. However, due to the limitations of some conditions at the time and the failure to effectively control the excessive growth of the population, the development of China's grain production was slow, and there was a considerable distance from Mao Zedong's expected goal. In 1958, the total national grain output reached 200 million tons, but it has been declining since then. By 1976, when Mao Zedong left his people with a feeling of regret, the national total grain output was still only 286.31 million tons, or 307 kilograms per capita.In particular, many peasants who followed him to make revolutions and conquer the country have not yet completely shaken off poverty and hunger. In 1977, the average grain ration (raw grain) distributed to the rural population across the country was 208 kilograms, an increase of only 5 kilograms from 203 kilograms in 1957. Over the past 20 years, our farmers have increased their grain consumption by only half a catty per year on average.No wonder our chairman has been muttering: "Our farmers shouldn't still eat steamed bread, shouldn't..."

In 1957, the first artificial earth satellite was launched into space by the Soviet Union, which gave great encouragement to socialists all over the world, and especially a stimulus to China.Many people began to fanatically believe that under the socialist system, there is nothing that cannot be done, and there is no problem that cannot be solved. The first problem China has to solve is, of course, the problem of food. On October 27, 1957, the "People's Daily" published an editorial, calling for "all aspects of work related to agriculture and rural areas to achieve a big leap forward as necessary and possible within 12 years." The Great Leap Forward thus kicked off.

Perhaps it is because we are hungry and afraid, or we are eager to have enough food to eat. Whether it is China's top leaders or thousands of farmers, they can't wait to put increasing food production in a prominent position.However, good motivation does not necessarily produce good results.Fueled by a false enthusiasm, food production has been reduced to an unrealistic political movement and political game. In November 1957, the Nanning Conference of the Central Committee determined that the grain output in 1958 was 196 million tons. At that time, this figure was relatively realistic, but many people were not satisfied with this, thinking that this did not reflect the power of the Great Leap Forward of Socialism.Driven by some people's eagerness for success, the Chengdu Conference in March 1958 raised this target to 215.8 million tons.After the second meeting of the Eighth National Congress of the Central Committee in mid-June, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed a target of 425 million tons in a whimsical way.We didn't reach that figure nearly 40 years later, which was absurd under the conditions of agriculture at the time.But it was accepted by many people at the time.What's even more ridiculous is that by October 1958, at the Agricultural Cooperation Conference of the Nine Provinces and Cities in Xi'an, someone even put forward a figure that could not be more absurd: the national grain output in 1959 must reach 750 million tons, and strive to reach 1 billion Ton.Maybe some readers can't realize the absurdity of this figure at once, so we might as well make a comparison.By 1998, the world's total grain output was about 1.895 billion tons. The author does not have the figure of the world's total grain output in 1959, but according to the statistics of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, since the World Food Conference in 1974, the world's total grain output has increased by 50%. %, which means that the total grain output in the world was only 11.2 billion tons in the early 1970s. Then in 1959, it was probably only a billion tons. China’s total grain output exceeded the world’s total output. Call it crazy.If we compare it with the domestic situation, China's total grain output in 1996, when it was the highest, only just broke through 500 million tons, reaching 504.5 million tons, but in 1997 it fell back to 492.5 million tons.If my country's total grain production capacity reaches 640 million tons when the population reaches a peak of 1.6 billion in 2030, we can announce loudly to the world that China has completely solved the food problem.Under the conditions at that time, how could the astronomical figure of 750 million tons or even 1 billion tons be produced?What's ridiculous is that these radicals, who don't even respect the basic objective laws, brazenly boast that no matter how much China's grain production increases, it will be enough to gather all the people on the planet to China.

At this time, it was the Chinese who were fanatical and impatient, eager to step into the communist society in one step, "completed the socialist transformation of agriculture" and entered the stage of people's communes in an all-round way.The country's 740,000 agricultural cooperatives were reorganized into more than 26,000 people's communes, and 99% of the peasant households became commune members. At that time, it was generally believed that the people's commune was a transitional form of communism, and it would naturally demonstrate its incomparable power in terms of food production.The release of the "food satellite" opened the prelude to the Great Leap Forward.

On January 3, 1958, Shantou, Guangdong reported that the output of late rice was 3,000 jin per mu. On February 23, Guizhou Jinsha reported a record yield of 3,025 jin per mu. The peasants who suffered from hunger, stimulated by the ideal of eagerly tasting the happy life of communism, unleashed their passion and began to use a kind of illusory empty data and ideal slogans to satisfy the psychology of having enough food, just like a kind of sleepwalking. A trance-like fantasy.From then on, generations of hard-working farmers began to create food production myths that made their ancestors ashamed in the land of China.

On June 12, 1958, the Satellite Society of Suiping County, Henan Province moved together wheat from 20 mu of experimental fields and released a "satellite" with a wheat yield of 3,530 jin per mu. This "myth" immediately caused "princes" from all walks of life to bow down.Amidst all the voices serving politics, false reports and exaggeration have become a nationwide wave, and food "satellites" from all over the country are competing to release, and the higher and higher they are, the bigger and bigger they are, reaching an appalling and unimaginable level. On June 8, the yield of 5 acres of wheat per mu in Weixing Agricultural Cooperative, Daoping County, Henan Province was 2,105 jin; on June 9, the yield of 1,500-2,000 jin of wheat per mu was reported in Xiangyang, Hubei; Jin; on June 16, the wheat yield per mu in Gucheng, Hubei was 4,353 Jin; on June 21, the wheat yield in Huixian County, Henan Province was 4,535 Jin; on June 30, the wheat yield in Anguo County, Hebei Province was 5,103 Jin... In one month, China's wheat production has increased from more than 1,000 catties to more than 5,000 catties, and it is not so easy to blow up balloons.But the numbers game isn't over yet. On July 18, Henan Xiping Mengjin Agricultural Co., Ltd. launched another satellite, with a wheat yield of 7,201 jin per mu; and on September 22, Qinghai Jianshike Farm came from behind and reported a satellite with a wheat yield of 8,585 jin per mu. Put wheat on the satellite, and rice will not lag behind——On June 26, Guixi, Jiangxi reported that the yield of early rice was 2,340 catties per mu; on July 9, Fujian Lianzhi early rice yield was 3,000 catties per mu; on August 1, Xiaogan County, Hubei Province The reported yield of early rice was 15,000 jins per mu; on August 13, the yield per mu in Macheng County, Hubei was 36,900 jins; False reporting fuels the flames.Some people began to report figures like a myth, saying that "how bold a person is, how much he dares to report." On September 18, Huansa County in Guangxi claimed that the yield of early rice reached 130,434 jin per mu.Pi County in Sichuan announced on the same day that their mu yield reached 824,525 jin. The yield of rice per mu is 820,000 catties. This is no longer dream talk, but pure madness, but at that time, it was published in our party newspaper as an example of "how bold people are and how productive the land is". In order to show the authenticity of its high yield, the usual simple and honest old farmers began to show a bit of cunning.They introduced that the secret to high yield is deep plowing and dense planting, killing dogs and stewing dog meat soup to irrigate the ground, and injecting glucose into yams... Even some scientists were stunned by the astronomical grain yield .They did not dare to doubt the power of the Great Leap Forward, so they had no choice but to find shortcomings in their own way of thinking in order to draw "scientific" conclusions, systematically summarize "the extremely rich experience of large-scale and high-yield creation created by the masses, and carry out extensive publicity and cooperation. Advocate." A famous scientist wrote an article to demonstrate that if plants can use 30% of the light energy radiated to one mu of land, the yield of rice and wheat per mu may reach 40,000 catties.The "satellite commando" composed of 6 students from the Department of Animal Husbandry of Northwest Agricultural University presented the ninth anniversary of the National Day with the method of fast fattening of pigs.They claim that by cutting off the pig's thyroid gland, pig ears, pig tail, and pig thymus, the "four cutting methods" can make the pig gain 19 jin of fat every day. The recognition of ignorance by authority, the combination of science and absurdity, is the greatest tragedy of the times! Mao Zedong, the most pragmatic Marxist, was also fooled by such dreamlike figures. At 16:05 on August 4, 1958, Mao Zedong stepped off the special train and set foot on Xushui County, Hebei Province, a land that claimed to have entered communism. "The crops are growing well!" Chairman Mao was very satisfied with the growth of the crops in the field. "We plan to take 1.2 billion catties of grain in summer and autumn throughout the year, with an average yield of 2,000 catties per mu." Zhang Guozhong, then secretary of the Xushui County Party Committee, reported to Chairman Mao: The county plans to release millet satellites with a yield of 20,000 catties per mu. It is planned to produce 1 million catties of yam satellites per mu. "Our yam seedlings are all brought in by plane." - In order to illustrate the feasibility of their "plan", he emphasized to the chairman. Chairman Mao couldn't help but also opened his eyes wide in surprise: "There is so much food to be harvested! How can you eat so much food in your county with a population of 310,000? What to do if there is too much food?" "If there is too much food, we need to change the machine." Zhang Guozhong replied. "It's not enough to change the machines. It's not just that you have a lot of food. If you change the machines, what should you do if they don't want yours?" Someone said: "We use yams to make alcohol." Chairman Mao was still worried: "Every county produces alcohol, so how can so much alcohol be used?" What should I do if there is too much food?The bragging county magistrate didn't seem to have considered this question yet, and none of the people present could answer. They just looked at Chairman Mao and smiled.Seeing this, Chairman Mao cheerfully came up with an idea and said: "We must also consider how to eat food. In fact, it is better to have more food. Members should eat more! It is okay to eat five meals a day." After that, we will spend less time farming and work half a day. The other half will be engaged in culture, science, culture and entertainment, running universities and middle schools, what do you think?" People said in unison: "Good!" Food was Mao Zedong's biggest concern, and now it was easily resolved, so how could he not be very excited.He said to the visiting Khrushchev: "...Only this Great Leap Forward made me completely happy! If the development continues at this speed, there is hope for the happy life of the Chinese people!" Khrushchev was also a man who believed in political miracles. In May 1957, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Soviets, he called: "In the near future, as recently as 1961, catch up with the United States in per capita production of meat, butter and milk." Khrushchev mocked those "cautious" Soviet economists, because they were skeptical that this goal could be achieved by relying on the astonishing increase of these products from several collective farms."How can all this be put into numbers? It's a political miracle," he said. In fact, anything that violates objective laws cannot exist.It is impossible for a person to become fat in one bite, just as the sea cannot become a mulberry field overnight.Solving China's food problem requires a rather arduous journey, and it cannot be achieved by chanting a few slogans and engaging in a few campaigns.Slogans can't fill the stomach, and false reports and exaggerated "food satellites" can't be eaten.Just one year later, we tasted the bitter fruit of mania. Perhaps it is because the Chinese are frightened of hunger. During the upsurge of the "Great Leap Forward", they are no longer satisfied with using so-called high-yield grain satellites that are impossible to realize one after another to support their hungry bellies illusoryly. And hope to be able to eat and eat enough.Isn’t socialism just about letting people have enough to eat?The demands of the masses and the fanaticism of governments at all levels have made them prepare in unison to move towards an ideal kingdom of "communism" where "there is one thing to wear, one thing to eat, one place to be unequal, and one place to be full and warm." Wearing the same clothes and eating the same food was the simplest and most realistic understanding of communism at that time.In order to achieve this goal, people invented the "public canteen": eat without money, eat with an open belly! Therefore, when "satellites" were released in agriculture, in July 1958, public canteens began to appear across the country. In August, the number of public canteens in Henan Province, which started the work first, reached 269,462, and the number of participants reached 35.58 million, accounting for 79% of the rural population. On October 25, 1958, the "People's Daily" editorial affirmed this "communist" "form of eating".The editorial pointed out that the all-round great leap forward in industry and agriculture requires more labor force and higher labor productivity, and requires organization and collectivization.The public canteen is an important place to liberate women's productivity and cultivate members' collective living habits and ideological awareness of collectivism and communism.He also said that "agricultural social canteens promote the development of production and the growth of collectivism" and "are welcomed by the masses." In the era of the Great Leap Forward, everything is fast-paced.For a time, this "communist" "form of eating" spread to all parts of the country. In October 1958, according to preliminary statistics in nine provinces and cities in Northeast China and North China, more than 1.074 million public canteens had been established, and more than 80% of rural households participated in public canteens. By the end of the year, more than 3.4 million public canteens had been established nationwide. The houses, cooking utensils, tables, chairs, and benches of the members were requisitioned without compensation. The livestock and poultry raised by the members were collected and raised in the canteen for free, and the private plots of the members were not spared. Members of Mengjiazhuang Village, Xingtai County, Hebei Province "automatically" took out more than 550 pieces of utensils such as cauldrons and water tanks, and members of 45 households "delivered" 2,700 catties of coarse grains and non-staple food to the cafeteria. "live in community". Public canteens implement a food supply system, which is also the most typical "big pot of rice" in China.Here, "food supply canteens, no matter how big the stomach is", no matter whether the labor force is good or bad, they will have enough to eat and drink. , The "flowing water seats" in the cafeteria ensure that members can eat as soon as they come, and leave as soon as they eat.In some places, there was no plan at the beginning of the opening of the canteen, and it was allowed to eat without money within a certain range. As a result, the old farmers who were busy in the fields all day long and lived a life of careful planning and small families began to be a little bit cunning.They visit relatives and friends from time to time, and eat wherever they go.In order to reflect the superiority of collective canteens, some places also require that the canteens do not repeat the same food for half a month, two dishes in the morning and evening, and four dishes at noon, and you can add as much as you eat.According to statistics from a cafeteria, the average person eats 3 catties of vegetables and 2.5 catties of grain each time.For a time, the rural land was full of slaughtering pigs and chickens.At that time, many farmers made this kind of life into a ditty and hummed: "The whole village eats in the cafeteria. There are many delicious and delicious dishes. Once the life is improved in seven days, pigs and sheep will be slaughtered during the New Year." Dreams have become a beacon for people to move forward, and the essence of scientific socialism and communism has been crudely interpreted as an ideal fairyland for small farmers where the whole people eat "big pot rice". So, did the Chinese really step into the paradise of communism through public canteens?We might as well take a look at the situation in Xushui County, which is known as the experimental site of Chinese communism. After Chairman Mao inspected Xushui County, he gave Xushui County a lot of encouragement, and they decided to take the lead in the country again to carry out communist experiments. According to their understanding of communism, it is to change all the collective ownership and individual ownership into the ownership of the whole people, and all property belongs to the collective.All the earth houses and dilapidated brick houses in the county were demolished, and members of the commune were allowed to live in residential areas, so as to achieve the purpose of rural urbanization.Elderly people live in happiness homes, young children go to kindergartens, chickens, ducks, pigs and trees are all owned by the public, even the boxes and cabinets are owned by the public.The pot was smashed to smelt iron, and there was no smoke in every household, so they all went to the cafeteria. Common people's understanding of communism is: Except for a pair of chopsticks and a bowl, which are personal, the rest belong to the public.They came up with a simple yet complex reasoning: communism is communism, that is, everything goes to the public. We don't know if this is human ignorance or the tragedy of communism. In order to show the superiority of this kind of communism, the county party committee announced that the canteens of commune members: "From now on, there will be no money for eating, and you will eat with your belly open." After that, some restaurants that are open to the outside world will not charge money.Money, like waste paper, is not worth "money". But without money, life without money will soon be eaten up. Because there is no plan for eating, everyone eats with their stomachs open, and the waste is serious. Soon, the food in the cafeteria will not be enough. However, in order to show the superiority of this form of "communism", they continue to hold on. In the future, the supply will be gradually reduced and the food standard will be lowered. However, Xushui still has a great reputation, and is still worshiped by the vast rural areas of the country as a pilot site of Chinese communism. Not only have Xushui's practices been followed by all parts of the country, but it has also attracted many foreigners to visit and learn from it.According to statistics, from March to October 30, 1958, Xushui received more than 930 foreign guests from more than 40 countries.Among them are both socialist countries and capitalist countries. They all want to see what China's Great Leap Forward and communism look like. The reporter of the Soviet "Pravda" in Beijing visited Xushui, extended a fluffy thumb, and sent Xushui's "communist upsurge" back to the Soviet Union, the big brother of socialism. After Khrushchev knew about it, he immediately asked a reporter from TASS to come to China to conduct another detailed interview. When the TASS reporter came to Xushui, Xushui's "communism" was in the most difficult period, and there was very little food in the cafeteria.Therefore, after he ate and lived in Xushui for a few days, he came to a conclusion that made the Chinese very dissatisfied: "China's communism is to drink a big pot of clear water soup, which is not as good as the Soviet Union's beef with potatoes." Chairman Mao was very dissatisfied with this.Many years later, he wrote a poem, specifically satirizing the Soviet Union's "roasted beef with potatoes": "I didn't see Qiuyue Lang the year before last, and signed a treaty with three companies. There is still food, potatoes are cooked, and beef is added. No You have to fart, try to see the world turned upside down." What about the situation of public canteens in Dazhai, which was once a national rural model? There are two canteens in Dazhai. During the year when the canteen was opened, the members only ate white flour dumplings 8 times, steamed buns 4 times, oiled fruit 1 time, pancake 1 time, ramen noodles 1 time, and rice dry rice 4 times.Most of the rest of the time, I can only eat corn bread, sour rice, and rice porridge.It is said that the public canteens in Dazhai are relatively well-run in the local area, and they were once promoted as a model throughout the county. Does the office canteen really liberate productivity and liberate women as the editorial said?In the words of Dazhai people: "There are four costs to running a canteen: wasting food, wasting charcoal, wasting labor, and wasting time." Soon, public canteens in most parts of the country were unsustainable.A hunger spread rapidly over China... The public canteen started vigorously and disappeared quietly. After 40 years, when we bring up this past event again, we want to tell people a truth: the problem of food for the Chinese is not an easy task, and it must be solved by down-to-earth.Any opportunism is doomed to failure. Chinese who are over 50 years old now, looking back on this past, can't help feeling like a dream, while young people living in the 1990s will feel how absurd and ridiculous the actions of their parents back then, it is simply unreasonable! It is impossible to turn back the long river of history, but if we follow the development of history to trace the track of the year, we will learn many lessons and enlightenment. The man-made "food satellite" and the myth that meals in public canteens are free are nothing but bubble gums that are desperately inflated, and will eventually blow up. In August 1958, the Ministry of Agriculture reported a total of 1 trillion jin of grain output reported by the provinces (my country barely reached this figure until 1996). However, food shortages have begun across the country, and serious food shortages have occurred in many places.But this has not attracted people's attention, and false reports and exaggerations have not yet restrained.Finally, the national total grain output was determined to be 250 million tons in 1958, 255 million tons in 1959, and 185 million tons in 1960. Zhou Enlai was well aware of the dangers of such mixed figures, and urged the relevant departments to investigate, but the actual figures were far from the truth. In 1958, it was actually 200 million tons, in 1959 it was 195.05 million tons, and in 1960 it was only 143.5 million tons, a decrease of 51.55 million tons or 26.4% from 1959, and 190,000 tons less than the 143.69 million tons in 1951. China's grain production went backwards for 9 years amidst the hustle and bustle of the Great Leap Forward. The "food satellites" have been blowing up one by one, but the actual grain production has been declining, and the Chinese are beginning to feel that their stomachs are not rich. At the end of 1958, a considerable number of rural areas experienced rice shortages. In the spring of 1959, there was a widespread food shortage across the country.There are more than 30 counties in Hebei Province that are short of food, and 10 counties are seriously affected.Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin are even more urgent.At that time, the grain stocks in these areas could be sold for 7 days in Beijing, 10 days in Tianjin, almost no rice stocks in Shanghai, and 8 to 9 days in Liaoning.If the grain is not transferred in time, the consequences will be disastrous. The central government had to admit: "In the past two months, the grain imported from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Liaoning has not been enough to sell, and the stock has almost been emptied. If a batch of grain is not rushed immediately, there is a danger of being out of stock. .” The satellite figure of 100,200,000 jin per mu can only be talked about and published in newspapers, but it can't satisfy people's hunger.China had to tighten its belt to tide over the difficulties.There is a serious shortage of food in rural areas, and the per capita ration standard is only about 300 catties, and urban residents have also reduced their supply. In 1960, the national per capita grain ration was 91 kg less than that in 1957, and the consumption level of the national residents was 13.6% lower than that in 1957. The per capita grain consumption dropped from 406.12 catties to 327.24 catties, a decrease of 19.4%.The country is short of food rations for about 30 million people a year. In May 1960, the provinces that should transfer grain only transferred half of the plan, while the sales volume of grain increased greatly. On May 28, the central government issued an emergency instruction on the distribution of grain. On June 6, the central government issued the "Emergency Instructions on Allocation of Grain to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Liaoning". There is no rice stock, and Liaoning only has about 8 days.In order to solve the national food shortage, the government had to formulate a series of extraordinary measures. At the end of July, the supply of grain and non-staple food across the country was tight, and many places began to implement the method of supplying food stamps in the catering industry.Beijing's method of liberalizing grain purchases can no longer adapt to the situation. Therefore, the central government agrees that Beijing also adopts the method of distributing food stamps. On September 7, the central government issued the "Instructions on Lowering Rural and Urban Grain Standards", which pointed out that in 1960, the country experienced more severe spring droughts, floods and other disasters than in 1959, and stipulated that the rural ration standards should be lowered.In the area south of the Huaihe River, the average annual raw grain per person is 365 catties, and in places with good harvests it is 380 catties; in the area north of the Huai River, the annual raw grain per person is about 300 catties.Reduce urban supply standards. Except for employees who work in high temperature, high altitude, underground work and heavy physical labor, each person must lower the standard of food rations by about 2 catties per month. The Chinese suffered from hunger again.A considerable number of workers, students, and residents suffered from edema due to malnutrition. From October to November 1960, more than 10% of the people suffering from edema were in 9 universities in Chongqing, 13.5% in 14 universities in Taiyuan, and 35% of the cadres in Shandong Finance Department.If this is the case for university teachers, students and government officials, the situation in rural areas can be imagined. In the spring of 1959, starvation, fleeing from famine, and edema generally appeared in rural areas across the country, and even a large number of abnormal deaths occurred in a considerable number of rural areas. With the frequent occurrence of natural disasters and the sudden reversal of the Soviet Union, food shortages became increasingly serious. Intensified, starvation began to strike most of the Chinese.According to statistics at the time, the average ration of rural commune members was 309 catties in 1959, which dropped sharply to 189 catties in 1960, and then dropped to 148 catties in 1961, which was lower than the minimum life-sustaining standard of 250 catties.The phenomenon of starving to death that we fear most has finally happened. In the winter of 1960, the Xinyang Prefectural Committee of Henan Province reported to the Central Committee that more than 80,000 people died in Zhengyang County and nearly 100,000 people died in Xincai County.In the People's Daily, which first released a "food satellite" with an output of 3,530 jin per mu, 4,000 people died in a commune in Chayashan People's Commune in Suiping County, accounting for 10% of the total population, and in some groups it was as high as 30%. On the Chinese population statistics table, there were only two years of decrease, namely 1960 and 1961. In 1959, the total population of the country was 672 million, which was reduced to 662 million in 1960 and 658 million in 1961, a net decrease of 23 million in two years. If the normal net population growth rate is added, the abnormal population from 1959 to 1961 The number of deaths and the number of fewer births is around 40 million. In 1960, the national population death rate rose from 14.59‰ in 1959 to 25.43‰, an increase of 14.63 percentage points from 10.8‰ in 1957. "If a mu produces 100,000 catties, the common people will starve to death."Recalling this period of history, we cannot but feel sad.Unrealistic and blind advances, coupled with serious natural disasters, have once again pushed the Chinese into the claws of hunger. The open-minded Mao Zedong made a self-criticism for this: "I am directly responsible for the mistakes made by the central government, and I am also responsible for the indirect ones, because I am the chairman of the central committee." "I should be the first to be responsible."He admitted that we still have a lot of blindness in socialist construction. In 1958, Mao Zedong was still thinking about "what to do when there is too much food", but in 1959, Mao Zedong began to think about "how to live when there is little food". On April 29, he sent a letter to cadres at all levels of the province, prefecture, county (city), commune, brigade, and team, specifically talking about: "The issue of saving food must be paid close attention. Quantities are based on people. Eat more when you are busy. Eat less when you are free, eat dry when you are busy, half dry and half thin when you are free, mixed with sweet potatoes, green vegetables, radishes, melon beans, taro and so on. This must be paid close attention to. Every year, we must harvest, store, eat and use three Matters (collection, management, and food) must be grasped very tightly...within 10 years, all high-profile talk must not be made, because speaking is very dangerous." Together with his people, Mao Zedong tightened his belt and finally got through the storm. We are proud to have such a leader who cares about the people! We are also blessed to have such a leader who loves the people!