Wake up（149）

 

149

 

In midsummer, the scorching sun scorched the earth with the highest temperature. The heat was so crazy that the earth was so hot that it was smoking, as if it was on fire, and it was about to melt like chocolate. He Jiafu and Li Tiandao met again, unknowingly, recalling the past, both of them became listless, and only hoped that this scorching summer would pass quickly. Even the flowers, plants and trees in the yard were so hot that they couldn't cheer up and drooped their heads.

He Jiafu and Li Tiandao returned to the house. Hide at home, turn on the electric fan. Only the dogs are still hiding in the shade of the trees to escape the heat, using their own "exclusive trick" - using their tongues to dissipate heat. They are panting like asthmatics. Only that knows, and the branches screamed brokenly; it's really like broken gongs and broken drums shouting for the scorching sun.

He Jiafu still chatted with Li Tiandao about the past.

Li Tiandao still told some news about Xinyang.

News spread that the flight of personnel would inevitably lead to a large number of deaths. So the Xinyang Prefectural Party Committee instructed all counties and cities to set up guards to intercept them and prevent them from fleeing. The villagers set up checkpoints at the intersections, strictly controlled the crossings of the Huaihe River, and intercepted fleeing people. They also set up special shelters and prisons to arrest fugitives at will. Killed in prison. However, there were still a very small number of people who risked their lives across the Huaihe River and fled to Linquan and Funan in Anhui. The local government also heard more or less about the tragic situation on the other side of the river, so they did not repatriate them immediately. After the incident, these people returned to their hometowns, and they have long since changed.

At the same time, Lu Xianwen, secretary of the prefectural party committee, claimed: "It's not that there is no food, but that there is a lot of food. Ninety percent of the people are because of ideological problems." In November 1959, when he was driving from Huangchuan County, When I returned to the prefectural committee, I saw dead bodies on the side of the road, people blocking cars for food, and children abandoned by their parents along the way. He continued to ask the regional public security department to "eliminate the outflow of people within a time limit"; instructed the cadres and militias of the communes and brigades to seal off the villages; asked urban agencies, factories, and business units not to admit people from rural areas; There isn't a bum in the road," and so on. Since then, members of the Standing Committee of the Xinyang County Party Committee have been divided into groups and arranged separately. The four gates of the county are guarded with guns, guards are set up on the main roads, patrols are patrolled along the borders of the county, and incoming and outgoing letters are inspected. Hu Xiuyu, deputy secretary of the County Supervisory Committee, wrote two anonymous letters to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to reflect the situation of people starving to death. Both letters were transferred to the Xinyang County Party Committee. During this period, as many as 12,000 letters were seized, and other senders who were found were brutally criticized.

Li Tiandao said that after the news came out, although the authorities sealed the news tightly, some information still spread to Beijing one after another. At the beginning of 1959, 74 of the 78 dining halls of the Temple Watching Group and the Wangqiao Group of the Yuemei Commune in Shangcheng County had no food for more than two months, and more than a hundred people died of starvation. Xu Xuefu, a soldier and Communist Party member who lives in Linwan Company, Guanmiao Group, Yuemei Management District, Shangcheng County, went back to his hometown to visit his relatives and witnessed the tragedy in his hometown. He reported the situation to Deputy Commissioner Liu of the Xinyang Commissioner three times, and was severely criticized by Deputy Commissioner Liu and other leaders. and threats. On March 5 and 9, Xu Xuefu went to the county post office to send two urgent telegrams to Zhou Enlai, but was sent to the office of Wang Hanqing, the first secretary of the county party committee. Wang Hanqing was furious, saying that Xu Xuefu was "rightist thinking, rightist speech", and instructed to "detain Xu Xuefu immediately, find out the background, and arrest Xu Xuefu". The post office sent the telegram.

Li Tiandao turned on his mobile phone and found relevant information and reports in the favorites column:

After the State Council received the telegram, under the instruction of Premier Zhou Enlai, the Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, Yang Fangzhi, instructed: "Please investigate and report to the People's Committee of Henan Province." The food situation is known, and a series of measures have been taken." "The province does not know about the food problem in the mall, so it will immediately report to Shangcheng County for investigation." The second reply to the Office of the Secretary of the State Council: "The food problem in the shopping mall has been solved. Since last winter, several people have died of old age and sickness, but none of them died of starvation. Because the ideological problem has not been completely solved, some people still have opinions. Special area People have been sent to the place to understand and deal with it.” In response to the call from the State Council, the provincial, prefectural, and county committees tried their best to conceal or downplay the serious situation of people starving to death in the shopping mall, and even believed that the problem was reported to the superior because the ideological problem was solved. Not thorough. On April 2, the eve of State Department investigators arriving in Xinyang, the Xinyang Prefectural Committee wrote the "Notice on the Death of the Temple Visiting Group of the Yuemei Commune in the Mall due to poor living arrangements", acknowledging that what Xu Xuefu said was basically true, and checked the occurrence of The reason for this situation is that on the one hand, excessive food was collected, and on the other hand, grassroots cadres were afraid of being labeled as rightists and did not dare to report the real situation of food shortage.

In February 1960, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent a director to Xinyang to inspect the disaster situation. Zhang Shufan, who was suspended, was reinstated and accompanied him to Xixian County and Huaibin to inspect the disaster situation. Wherever he went, there were mourners everywhere, and his eyes were bleak, and many villages were uninhabited. The director asked Zhang Shufan if the disaster was serious and whether there were any dead people. Zhang Shufan replied that there were, and there should be many. Just because I have been criticized since September 1959 and I don't know the situation in the whole region, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 people died of starvation. The director felt that the situation was serious and immediately went to Beijing to report. At the same time, the Ministry of Health also received a telegram jointly sent by the Henan Gushi County Party Committee and the provincial medical team, about the illness and disaster in Gushi County that had killed more than 50,000 people.

After hearing the report, the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs immediately reported to Xi Zhongxun, Secretary-General of the State Council, and Xi Zhongxun then reported to Dong Biwu, Secretary of the Central Supervisory Committee. At this time, the Ministry of Health also forwarded the telegrams from the Gushi County Party Committee and the Provincial Medical Team to the Central Supervisory Committee, and the Xinyang incident was initially revealed.

In April, Wu Zhipu said to Lu Xianwen, some people died in Xinyang, you should sum up your experience and lessons, write a report to the central government, and review it. Don't worry about it. Don't investigate. The investigation of the dead is not clear. The more you investigate, the more you investigate. Let the secretary of the county party committee estimate and report it. In July, the Henan Provincial Party Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Xinyang Prefectural Party Committee in Jigongshan. Lu Xianwen made a review, and Ma Longshan, secretary of the Guangshan County Party Committee, was arrested and brought to justice to "account to the Central Committee."

At the same time, Dong Biwu sent Li Jian and Li Zhenghai to Xinyang to investigate, but the investigation was obstructed by the Henan provincial government. According to preliminary investigations, more than 700,000 people died of starvation. The investigation team returned to Beijing and reported to the main leaders of the Central Supervisory Committee and the Central Organization Department.

Li Tiandao sighed: Perhaps, it was only at this time that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was noticed.

On October 21, 1960, four cadres from the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Supervisory Committee submitted an investigation material on a large number of starvation deaths and serious violations of law and discipline by cadres in Xinyang, Henan Province. On the 24th, Li Fuchun presented it to Mao Zedong. On the 26th, Lao Mao gave instructions: "Please Liu and Zhou will watch it today, and discuss how to deal with it in the afternoon." An Ziwen, deputy head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee, reported the situation to Zhou Enlai, and Wang Congwu, deputy secretary of the Central Supervisory Committee, presented the Xinyang incident to Zhou Enlai. Written report. On the 26th, at the meeting of the principal leaders of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in the four regions of North China, Central South, Northeast, and Northwest China convened by Mao Zedong, “everyone was very shocked” after the head of the Henan Provincial Party Committee reported the Xinyang incident. Zhou Enlai then convened an emergency meeting of the State Council for discussion, and decided to set up a central working group, with Wang Congwu as the head, Xu Zirong, the vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security, and An Ziwen, the vice minister of the Organization Department of the Central Committee, as the deputy heads, and went to Xinyang for further investigation.

On November 6, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting to listen to An Ziwen's report on the Henan issue. According to Tao Zhu, the first secretary of the Central South Bureau, about the situation learned by the working group: One-third of the province's areas have lost a large number of people and animals, the productivity has been greatly damaged, and the relationship between the party and the masses has been greatly damaged. Guangshan, Gushi, Huangchuan and other counties in the Xinyang area were devastated. Many villages in Huaidian Commune in Guangshan disappeared, and there were only more than 30 people left in a team of 90 people.

After attracting the attention of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in December 1960, the Xinyang Prefectural Committee reported to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that:

According to preliminary reports, Zhengyang County originally reported that more than 18,000 people died last winter and this spring, and now the preliminary number has reached 80,000; Xincai County originally reported that 30,000 people died last winter and this spring, and the number has now increased to nearly 100. Ten thousand. The communes and brigades that were considered good in the past are now exposed to serious problems. In Xiping County, only Erlangmiao Commune was found to have serious problems. Now there are 13 communes in the county. Except for Chengguan Commune, which has relatively minor problems, the other 12 communes have serious problems. In the Chayashan People's Commune of Suiping County, only 600 people were reported dead in the past, but now nearly 4,000 people have been reported dead, accounting for 10% of the total population, and some teams died as high as 30%. All kinds of horrific counter-revolutionary atrocities occurred in almost all counties and communes. According to the preliminary exposure materials, not only the rural areas were serious, but also the cities, factories, government agencies, schools, shops, and hospitals were very serious. Of the 12 middle schools in Guangshan County, 8 middle school principals had blood debts. In Chengguan High School and Junior High School, 28 teachers and students were initially reported to have been beaten to death. Suffering great devastation, life is extremely difficult, really "ten rooms are empty, and the family is poor."

Li Tiandao chatted with He Jiafu about the later events of the incident:

After reading the investigation report of the Central Working Group, Lao Mao severely criticized the cadres in Xinyang, saying that the Xinyang incident was the result of counter-revolutionaries taking power. He proposed that the Xinyang area should carry out remedial lessons of the democratic revolution and completely eliminate the remnants of the Kuomintang and the landlord class.

Lao Mao defined the Xinyang incident at a meeting of heads of central bureaus at all levels and said: "The Xinyang incident was a rampant revenge by the class enemy. .” And then infer that there will be such problems everywhere in the country, but the degree is different. State President Liu Shaoqi also stated that the landlord class in Xinyang was restored, the Xinyang incident was a counter-revolutionary incident, and the reason why the rich and corrupt and the remnants of the Kuomintang were rampant was because the "democratic revolution was not complete", and the people of Xinyang should be liberated a second time.

In November 1960, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Li Xiannian, Wang Congwu, Xu Zirong, Tao Zhu, Wang Renzhong, etc. to Xinyang to carry out the "democratic revolution make-up class" campaign. Cadres from the Central Committee and Henan Province presided over the Jigongshan meeting, saying that the Xinyang cadres were not good enough. The central government transferred 452 cadres from various ministries and commissions, the Henan Provincial Party Committee transferred 1,844 cadres, and the Xinyang Prefectural Committee transferred 1,483 cadres to rectify the Xinyang area. , and also trained more than 8,000 former cadres, specially trained more than 5,000 people, and fought and criticized more than 10,000 people. 983 people were dismissed from their posts, investigated and disciplined for reflection, and 275 people were arrested and brought to justice.

In the winter of 1960, the Henan Provincial Party Committee reorganized the Guangshan County Party Committee and dispatched a working group to correct the mistakes of the "Five Styles" (communist style, exaggerated style, blind command style, cadre specialization and forced order style). In December, the Xinyang Prefectural Committee issued a report to the Henan Provincial Party Committee and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with the following sentence: “Because the landlords and rich peasants ‘missed the net’ during the land reform and ‘infiltrated the revolutionary camp in large numbers’, ‘implemented The restoration of the counter-revolutionary class', 'the feudal forces have made great mischief', resulting in 'extremely difficult lives for the masses'...'. During this period, eight county party secretaries in Xinyang were arrested. Except for Guangshan County party secretary Ma Longshan, whose death sentence was commuted to "death with reprieve", the others were sentenced to 2-3 years in prison.

In November 1960, Premier Zhou Enlai was entrusted by the Central Committee to draft the "Emergency Instruction Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning Current Policy Issues Concerning Rural People's Commune" (referred to as "Twelve Articles"), one of which clearly stated for the first time that farmers should be allowed to retain a small amount of private land and family business.

Li Tiandao looked up an abnormal death data on his mobile phone:

The death toll reported by the Xinyang Prefectural Party Committee to the Provincial Party Committee was 380,000, and the death toll according to the Xinyang local chronicles was 483,000. Li Jian and Li Zhenghai, who were directors of the Central Investigation Team at the time, reported 1.05 million to the Central Committee. On January 13, 1961, the Xinyang region reported the last statistics to the central government, which showed that the total population of the region was 8,086,526. From November 1959 to October 1960, the number of deaths was 1,070,321, accounting for 13.2% of the total population. In 2012, researchers from Nanjing University included the unborn population due to the famine and the outflow population due to the famine into statistics, and analyzed that the Xinyang incident caused a population loss of about 1.25 million in the region.

"How to be held accountable and held accountable?" He Jiafu asked.

Li Tiandao found the answer on his mobile phone: After the Xinyang incident was revealed, Wu Zhipu was forced to review to the central government three times. He admitted that the number of abnormal deaths in Xinyang area was more than 1 million, and admitted that he had "committed a serious crime against the people of Henan". However, Wu Zhipu was not punished. severe punishment. After the start of the Cultural Revolution in August 1966, a big-character poster titled "Wu Zhipu Killed by Thousands of Swords" appeared in Zhengzhou University. 'Guangshan Incident'". After that, Wu Zhipu, who went to work in Sichuan, was taken back to Henan by the revolutionary masses to criticize him, and finally died in 1967. In 1979, Wu Zhipu was officially rehabilitated. On the afternoon of January 24, Deng Xiaoping personally rehabilitated Wu Zhipu and presided over a memorial service in the auditorium of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing. The eulogy announced: "All the slanderous and false words imposed on Comrade Wu Zhipu should be completely overthrown, and Comrade Wu Zhipu's reputation should be completely rehabilitated and his reputation restored." dedicated his life."

Lu Xianwen, secretary of the prefectural party committee of Xinyang area and the first political commissar of the military division at the time, was charged with dereliction of duty by the Henan Higher People's Court in Yu Fa Xing Yi Zi No. The crime was dealt with lightly, and he was sentenced to three years in prison, from November 16, 1960 to November 15, 1963. Lu Xianwen rejoined the party in 1975, and became the principal of Henan Baiquan Agricultural College (now Henan Institute of Science and Technology) in 1979, and resumed the treatment of senior officials at the deputy department level. He died of illness in 1993 and enjoyed the treatment of retired cadres. After the Cultural Revolution, he appealed for redress many times, but was criticized by Hu Yaobang by name.

History is a play. After watching a depressing drama, the actor who plays the traitor is often beaten by the audience. Although the crimes he committed were, of course, imaginary, they still provoked great grassroots outrage. This is one of the most notable manifestations of the mental state of the grassroots group, and it also clearly shows how easy it is to give hints to the grassroots. For grassroots, false and true work almost as well. The ignorant grassroots clearly show a tendency to discriminate between true and false.

The various institutions in the world have no fixed advantages, and in themselves, they are neither good nor bad. Because under certain historical conditions, the rulers only have different ways of controlling the people.

History has repeatedly told us that the controlled grassroots group may always be unconscious, but this unconsciousness itself may be one of the secrets of its power. In nature, the behavior of creatures that absolutely obey instinct will be so complicated that wise men can't believe it. Reason is a recent human being, too imperfect to reveal to us the laws of the unconscious, much less to replace it. In the behavior of grassroots groups, the unconscious part accounts for a large proportion, while the rational part accounts for a small proportion. The unconscious is still at work as an unknown force. It is even more difficult to wake up the grassroots group who are trapped in ignorance.

At a certain point, the grassroots won't remember who the repeated deceiver is, they'll eventually believe in it, and that's why political advertising can be surprisingly powerful.

Brainwashing education will neither make grassroots people more moral, nor will it make them happier. It can neither change their ignorant instincts nor their natural fanaticism, and when they are brainwashed by bad guides, the ignorant The harm to society far outweighs the good.

He Jiafu and Li Tiandao had nothing to say.