Liberate Yourself Chapter 31

1

I don’t know when it will start, and people’s smelting of steel in New China will start again. Under the government's order, in a few days, all the large iron gates in our residential area and the iron gates in those small gardens were demolished. Hearing adults say that those iron gates are used to make steel. What is steel? Steel is harder than iron and more useful. Adults can only tell me this.

The adults also said that large-scale steelmaking needed to build a blast furnace, so after the iron door was demolished, the brick wall was demolished. The surrounding walls of my home alley and the opposite Yang home alley were demolished at that time.

On the day when the brick wall was demolished, some middle school teachers and students came and saw that they were pounding against the surrounding wall with their iron rods and hammering them, and then knocked all the bricks into broken bricks. How can those broken bricks build a steel-making blast furnace? I'm still a primary school student, of course I don't understand. But government officials, experts and scholars know these things, and no one has said that it is impossible. This is the absurdity of that absurd age.

At that time, my neighbor Ronghua had completed the task of the school layout: He smashed the broken porcelain pieces into a powder and handed it to the school. It is said that the powder was also used in the steelmaking. Because there was no broken porcelain in his house, Ronghua’s mother had to give him some cracked bowls. So I followed Ronghua like a fart. On the concrete floor in the alley, he smashed it with a hammer. I knocked it with stones. Several porcelain bowls finally became rough porcelain powder.

2

"Everyone smelting iron and steel" is the core of the industry's "Great Leap Forward." In late January 1958, the highest state conference held in Beijing put forward: "In 15 years, we will engage in 40 million tons of steel, 500 million tons of coal, and 40 million kilowatts of electricity." Since then, we have continued to criticize conservative thinking.

On June 21, under the guidance of the "Great Leap Forward" ideology, the Ministry of Metallurgy reported to the central government that in 1959, steel output could exceed 30 million tons, and in 1962 it could reach 89,000 tons. This report was approved for the whole country.

From August 17 to 30, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Beidaihe, and passed the communiqué of the "Extended Meeting of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China called on the whole party to fight for the production of 10.7 million tons of steel." It burned all over the country and even built a small blast furnace in Zhongnanhai, igniting smoke. There are small blast furnaces everywhere in the countryside and cities.

Institutional courtyards, factories, schools, and streets are also involved in the steelmaking boom. 18 universities in 11 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai can make 692,000 tons of steel annually, which is 4.38 times the national steel output in 1949. Jinan’s middle school built 77 small blast furnaces within a week. In Harbin 19 Middle School, 10 young pioneers learn to make iron in 5 days, build a small workshop one day, and install iron making equipment one day and midnight. With the support of young pioneers from the whole school, more than 3,000 pounds of scrap iron were dug out in three days. Into a "Juvenile Satellite Iron Plant", in the middle of July, the first molten iron was produced. This small factory produces enough products for 1,800 tractors a year. A child becomes a smelting engineer in more than ten days, can it be a miracle?

Aunt Zhixian, who lives in the front living room on the ground floor of my house, is the workshop director and party member in the factory. Liban cadres often come to him and ask how to make steel.

Dad Zhixian said that anyone can make steel, and steel making is not complicated. Therefore, under his guidance, a dozen housewives in the alley, led by the cadres of the neighborhood committee, started from scratch, did not understand the technology, lacked materials, and simply built a small blast furnace on the open space of the next door. It was originally a cemetery, and I went there to catch crickets.

But after the small blast furnace was built, it failed to produce steel. It is said that the doctors and nurses of the General Hospital of Shanghai Medical University can't care about the diagnosis and treatment of patients. The second leather factory steelmaking method is simpler. The crucible open hearth furnace they built is to dig a pit in the ground and build it with ordinary bricks and refractory bricks. Eight crucibles can be placed at a time. The furnace does not use coke as fuel. Using chopping wood and ordinary lump coal, the following blower blows, and more than one hundred pounds of steel can be produced in two and a half hours.

Even more amazing is that an office of a handicraft industry society boldly used traditional Chinese medicine to make steel. In a small earthen furnace, the traditional Chinese medicine Huaijiao, chicken stomach and tortoise shell were added. These traditional Chinese medicines can play a role in deoxidizing desulfurization and mediating carbon. Chinese medicine steelmaking is said to have been successfully tested. There was publicity in the newspaper.

3

Why can't those people in our alley make steel?

Now I know that "great steelmaking" is a ridiculous thing that happened in the "Great Leap Forward" movement. There seems to be reason to see these things breaking, but in those days these lies were actually staged. Perhaps it is true to lie a hundred times repeatedly. No one doubts how difficult it is to make steel.

However, something bad happened. The cadres of the residents' committee began to complain that Zhixian's father had no brains.

Although I was still young in the "Great Leap Forward Movement" in 1958, these stories still make me remember. At that time, people's crazy enthusiasm and bizarre invention still can not help but think about it!

Under the guidance of Mao Zedong's "Great Line, the Great Leap Forward, and the Three Red Flags of the People's Commune", the "Great Leap Forward" movement was flourishing, and China's industrial agriculture was "moving forward." With the goal of "steel as the main link", China has established the goal of "surpassing the United Kingdom". The "People's Commune" has been fully launched in rural areas, and "tens of kilograms per mu" is no longer a problem. The aunt cadres of the neighborhood committee are not far behind, and they want to put something like "satellite", but there are "strange talents" on the street. Zhixian's father will not make any steel at all, which may become a big problem.

At the time, there was a famous "cultural old man" on the street. He lived in seclusion at home for many years without a work unit. The person in charge of the street went to this house many times, hoping he could "get rid of the disease". The old cultural man finally came out. He told everyone that the newspaper introduced a high-tech steel-making method, "refined urea", which is said to be an advanced experience learned from brother provinces and cities.

I was still in elementary school at the time, and the children in the alley were curious and ran to see them after school.

It was the back alley of the "Festival Alley" where we lived, and several earthen stoves were placed on the swing. A large pot sits on the stove, and a large bottomed water tank is upside down. This is the "boiler" of "refined urea"! The fire in the earthen stove below, the "raw materials" in the "boiler" boiled, and there was a pungent smell in the entire alley.

My family lives in the west wing, and the window on the west side is facing the alley. My mother can only close the window tightly. You must know that the smell comes from those "raw materials", that is, people from public toilets. pee!

Some children and I were also assigned to use shovel to scrape the yellow spots on the urinals in public toilets. This is said to be nitrate, which is also used in steel making.

The cultural old man, when comparing the soil and steel manufacturing methods described in the newspaper, asked the staff to boil the urine of the "boiler" into a white crystalline state, and then put it in a transparent glass bottle and wrap it up. Red ribbon. This is the first batch of "urea" released. The street director aunt led a group of aunts and sisters to beat the gongs and drums to the area to cheer and cheer: this is a response to the party and Chairman Mao’s call to "start the law on their own initiative" to produce "urea" ! -"High Leap Forward" high-tech products!

4

In order to complete this difficult task, Zhixian's father participated in the local steelmaking from beginning to end. He is very dedicated, not afraid of being dirty or tired, and works in good faith: adding fire, adding urine, and constantly using wooden sticks to detect the level in the "boiler". When the "urea" inside is close to dryness, he will become more nervous. With a pungent smell, he kept stirring and observing. He was very worried about burning the "boiler". Ji Hyun’s mother was very worried about the danger of a “boiler explosion”. Ji Hyun’s father whispered: “The explosion cannot be completed, but we cannot bear the danger of burning the cauldron of “18 Mark”! If you fail to accuse you of “destroying the Great Leap Forward”, then the trouble will be even greater.

Later, somehow, the "urea steelmaking" method learned from the newspaper stopped. The residents committee informed Zhixian’s mother that she should return to her hometown immediately, and she should not live in Shanghai. Zhixian's mother cried a lot and mediated. Zhixian's mother finally stayed in Shanghai, but the original plan to promote Zhixian's father as deputy director also failed.

Everything changed, and a row of "boilers" stood quietly in the sunshine in the back alley. Later, these large iron pots were reused: they were broken down into "steel making", the earth furnace was demolished, and rebuilt into a rectangular pool, which was used to form small pools and cultivate chlorella. It is said that these chlorella are feed for pigs, and people in the city will raise pigs. The street director did not make steel, so he decided to develop urban agriculture.

In August of that year, the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee held an expanded meeting in Beidaihe. After the meeting, China started the national steelmaking and the communalization of rural people. In this "Great Leap Forward" movement, various anecdotes occurred, such as eating monkey head bird's nest in the commune canteen, making steel, and adding Chinese medicine.

5

In the "Great Leap Forward", many Communist Party officials went to the grassroots to propagate and portray the bright prospects of the Communist People's Commune. At that time, a deputy prime minister of the State Council made the most specific statement in Suiping County, Henan Province. He said that the People’s Commune benefits from five points:

First of all, there is good food, not just filling the stomach. Each meal has meat, chicken, fish, eggs, and more exquisite food such as monkey head, bird's nest, seafood, etc., are provided on demand.

Secondly, in terms of wearing clothes, all requirements can be met. There are various suits and varieties of clothing, rather than all black and blue. In the future, ordinary clothes will only be used as work clothes. After get off work, people will change to leather clothes, woolen cloth and wool uniforms. When the people's commune keeps foxes, then their coats will be fox fur.

Third, the houses have reached the standards of modern cities. What is modernization? People's Commune. There is heating equipment in the north cabin of the house, and air-conditioning equipment in the south cabin. People live in tall buildings, needless to say, there are electric lights, telephones, running water, radio and television.

Fourth, in addition to runners, passengers and pedestrians have transportation, flights go in all directions, there are airports in every province, and there are aircraft manufacturing plants in every place.

Fifth, everyone has received higher education and education has become universal.

Kang Sheng, an alternate member of the Politburo at the time, also planned to write a couplet: "Communism is paradise, and the People's Commune is a bridge." First, build the bridge of the People's Commune and cross it to heaven.

Xushui County, Hebei Province, is a banner of the canteen of the big office, leading the slogan "Don't eat money". The county has more than 64,000 households, a population of 320,000, and 248 agricultural cooperatives. In the "Great Leap Forward", 1,777 public canteens were established in the county, and 285,000 people went to the canteen to eat, realizing the canteenization of the whole county. In order to adapt to the needs of different jobs and tasks, 1,410 canteens for field battles, 119 canteens for children, and 248 canteens for the elderly have been established. Every household donated the saved food to the canteen for free. Later, the People's Commune Bridge stood on the 9 million square kilometers of Chinese land, and public canteens were blooming everywhere.

6

However, I have never seen such a good scene since I dreamed of in my childhood. What the People's Commune will see in the future is a picture completely opposite to the paradise in the dream. At that time, let's not talk about eating monkey heads, bird's nest, seafood, my poor family can't even drink porridge.

During the Great Leap Forward, the canteens in Shanghai’s cities were different from the rural villages where they did not need money for meals. Although the open-mouthed canteens were eaten, the residents’ canteens in the city not only had to collect money, but also had to pay for food and oil. Its main purpose seems to be to liberate the labor force and free the housewife from the pots and pans, so that he can participate in the movements of the Great Leap Forward without any worries.

The "Great Leap Forward" is comprehensive and education is no exception. At the Chengdu Conference in March 1958, Ke Qingshi proposed that all people should become college students for 15 years. In September of the same year, Liu Shaoqi said in Henan: New methods should be adopted to set up factories and education. The new factory can also run a school, recruit a group of middle school students, and take classes here. A factory is a university, reading a few hours a day and doing a few hours of work, the factory is the school, and the school is the factory. Coming out in the future, both as a university graduate and as a skilled worker, this is also a condition for the transition to communism.

Chengguan Town, Fangcheng County, Henan, has a total population of 11,000 people. Within a few months, it has built nine technical colleges such as Comprehensive Red College, Health, Dramatic Music, Dance and Teachers College. Various industrial and agricultural universities and red colleges have sprung up and were born.

From July to October 1958, during the "Great Leap Forward", Kang Sheng visited the schools in Beijing and Henan Province to inspect the progress of the "education revolution" as the deputy leader of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. At Beijing Normal University, he said: Normal University has two major tasks: running schools and factories. A large school can run from elementary school to middle school to university. In 1958, at least 100 such schools should be established. As to whether there are conditions, he doesn't care. Since agricultural production can be "how bold are people and how much land is produced", can it not be possible to run schools "how bold are people, how many can be done"?

Regarding the evaluation of professors, Kang Sheng has a high opinion in the "Great Leap Forward". When he inspected Beijing Agricultural University, he clearly instructed that the school should have at least five brands: schools, factories, farms, research institutes, and agricultural bureaus. It is better if you can hang a dozen brands. Professors should be rated according to the yield of the crops planted. Those who produce 1,000 kilograms per mu can only be professors of grade 5, two grades of two kilograms, three grades of three kilograms, two grades of four kilograms, and one grade of five kilograms.

 "Among other characteristics, the distinguishing feature of China’s 600 million people is one poor and two white. This bluff looks like a bad thing, but it is actually a good thing. The poor is thinking about change, to do. To revolution. A piece of blank paper, no burden, easy to write the latest The beautiful text is good for drawing the latest and most beautiful pictures." This is a passage from Mao Zedong in 1958.

In the spring of that year, the radical policy with the slogan "Great Leap Forward" began to have a clear form under the call of great leaders. "One poor, two white" is a shameful word, but in the eyes of Mao Zedong, who is fighting against the earth, this is exactly the advantage of China, because "a piece of blank paper has no burden." Therefore, Mao Zedong concluded with his unique romanticism: China "catch up with the bourgeois power in industrial and agricultural production, it may not take as long as previously thought."

7

In the second year of the beginning of the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, the people of the country ushered in the radical years in which the three red flags of the General Route, the Great Leap Forward, and the People’s Commune were flying high. In the past few years, most people have a taste of hormone hyperactivity. The slogan of that year seems really incredible. What is "how bold is the man and how productive is the land?" The yield per mu of grain is falsely reported as two or three kilograms, and a prominent academic committee member believes that the sunlight can hit the surface. As long as 30% of the sunlight is used, the yield per mu may reach "more than 20 times more than two thousand kilograms!", his science The calculation makes the potential yield per mu accurate to 58,500 kg. It is said that his article also caused high-level concerns: "What can I do if there is too much food?"

At that time, the Chinese literary scene was even more lively, with colorful and colorful warriors singing and dancing.

    All Chinese people live in slogans and deception. My youth also cultivated my belief in slogans, and also taught me to speak boldly. For the ridiculous slogan that now seems to be ridiculous, no one dared to object at that time-because this is "sport"! This is politics!