Wake up（54）

 

Chapter 10 Fighting

 

54

 

When Wu Qiankun and He Jiafu communicated, what they talked about most was the past events of the Lushan Conference.

The Great Leap Forward that shocked the world in China stemmed from the continuous political suppression, campaigns, brainwashing of the people, and even the rightists who were "sealed" by the whole people after "liberation". Anyone who spoke the truth would suffer Criticism and rectification, the whole society has no opposition, checks and balances, and even the noise is gone, all the imperial autocracy that only acts on the will of the Holy One.

A direct manifestation of the destruction of astronomical numbers of human lives by the "Great Leap Forward" is that the tyrannical power and brutal suppression drove the vast number of peasants and devolved rightists to continue to carry out high-intensity, ultra-extreme forced labor, resulting in severe physical exhaustion and extreme lack of nutrition. Supplies, resulting in chronic death of life exhaustion; even the violent means of killing many people to search for the life-saving rations of farmers, but they are not allowed to flee famine to beg for food, help each other, and some are not even allowed to go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables or put seals to seal the door. Forcibly confined to the village to starve to death.

In that extremely difficult era, most Chinese people lived in hunger and fear for a long time, especially during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, the vast rural areas almost regressed to the serf era 2,000 years ago, and Chinese society has become a society. Large prisons—strict household registration system and meticulous social control deprive the people of the most basic freedom of life, especially the peasants are firmly bound to the land, and the people's communes manage the peasants in captivity like livestock. Coupled with the ideological restraint that goes deep into everyone's most private heart, even if it is just a word of shouting that you are hungry, you may easily cause trouble to your upper body, ransacking your home, criticizing, parading in the street, kneeling and punishing, beating, etc.

Forced labor and private prisons are disguised as labor reforms. Many rural cadres can arrest people at will and even beat them to death. Severe restrictions on communication, speech and even intercepted outgoing letters block the connection between farmers and the outside world. Without a certificate issued by an authority Going out, even fleeing famine and begging for food, you have to be arrested as "blind migrants" and "rogue criminals". Once you find a farmhouse emitting smoke, you will be criticized and severely punished. A pot of clear soup, and a series of punishments such as "withholding food" if you are slightly dissatisfied or offended... A student in Qin'an County, Gansu Province said he was hungry and was arrested and sentenced to eight years of labor reform. Wu Detong, a farmer in Guangshan County, Henan Province, was so hungry that he uttered a word of dissatisfaction and was beaten to death. A farmer surnamed Wang in Shangcheng County was so hungry that he stole wheat and was forced to chop off his hands by the team leader; a woman in Wenxiaoyuan, Nanwa Dazhewu, Guanmiao County, was burnt alive by team officials who poured kerosene and struck a match .

From July 2 to August 1, 1959, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting in Lushan, Jiangxi, and then the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held from August 2 to 16. The topic of the early stage of the meeting is to sum up experience and correct mistakes. Focus on discussing the 19 issues raised by Mao Zedong, including the situation, tasks, system, propaganda, comprehensive balance, mass line, cooperation area relations, public canteens, rural primary markets, production teams as accounting units, etc. At this meeting, Chairman Mao Zedong of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China mobilized the whole party to complete the production task of the Great Leap Forward as soon as possible. Li Rui, the recorder at the time, believed that the Lushan Conference was indeed a bit like a "meeting of gods" at the beginning.

On the way to Mount Lushan on June 29 and in his speech on July 2, Mao Zedong believed that the general situation is that the achievements are great, there are many problems, and the future is bright. He asked the participants to sum up the experience and lessons and unify the understanding of the whole party under the premise of fully affirming the achievements. .

Mao Zedong pointed out that one of the main lessons of the Great Leap Forward was that there was no comprehensive balance. In the past, the national economy was arranged in the order of emphasizing, emphasizing, and agriculture, and the sequence determined in "On Ten Major Relationships" was not implemented. The national economic plan should be arranged in the order of agriculture, light and heavy, and heavy industry should serve light industry and agriculture.

On the afternoon of July 10, Mao Zedong made a speech, talking about the situation, unity and other issues. Emphasizing that the general line is correct, from the overall point of view, the relationship between achievements and shortcomings is still the relationship between nine fingers and one finger, refuting the statement that the gains outweigh the losses.

However, on July 14, Peng Dehuai, Marshal of the People's Republic of China, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Minister of National Defense, wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in response to the problems that existed objectively at that time, stating his views on the left-leaning mistakes and their actions since 1958. Comments on lessons learned.

Peng Dehuai wrote to Mao Zedong and said: "The outstanding contradictions we are facing in the construction work at present are the tensions in all aspects caused by the imbalance of proportions. In terms of its nature, the development of this situation has affected workers and peasants, and urban areas. The relationship between different strata and among the various strata of peasants is therefore also political in nature.... It is generally more difficult to correct these "leftist" phenomena than to counteract right-leaning conservative thinking. This is what our party's historical experience shows. Proven."

In Peng Dehuai's letter to Mao Zedong, he first affirmed that the policy of the "Great Leap Forward" in 1958 was correct, but then Peng Dehuai pointed out the problems of the "Great Leap Forward": "The trend of exaggeration has generally grown", "the fanaticism of the petty bourgeoisie, make us prone to the mistakes of the left". Peng Dehuai said in the letter: "In the capital construction in 1958, it seems that some projects were rushed too much, part of the funds were scattered, and some projects that must be completed were delayed. This is a shortcoming." "In 1959, not only did not Slow down the pace a little bit, control it properly, and continue the Great Leap Forward, so that the phenomenon of imbalance has not been adjusted in time, and new temporary difficulties have been added. The achievements and lessons learned in the past six months are of great benefit to further educating all comrades in the party. The purpose is to distinguish right from wrong, improve thinking, and generally not to pursue personal responsibility. On the contrary, it is not conducive to unity and is not conducive to the cause.”

On July 14, the meeting issued the "Agreement Records on Various Issues at the Lushan Conference" (draft), and the "Three Red Flags" policy was affirmed again, while pointing out some policy deviations in the "Great Leap Forward".

On July 16, Mao Zedong printed and distributed it to all members of the meeting under the title "Comrade Peng Dehuai's Opinion Letter", asking for "comments on the nature of this letter." He himself did not make any comments on this letter. The meeting then turned to a discussion of the letter. On the same day, Mao Zedong sent Huang Kecheng, Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, up the mountain to attend the meeting.

A rare political storm thus filled the whole of China.