Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

During this process, we must pay particular attention to policy. I've said before that our Party categorizes landlords into different types. All landlords belong to the landlord class. But we need to accurately distinguish these different types of landlords. Different policies apply to different types of rich peasant landlords. How should we manage this? I hope you will reflect on this further as you return home.

The cadres below quickly wrote down Wei Hongjun's words.

Wei Hongjun has already asked three questions.

Each issue was worthy of their long reflection. Therefore, they greatly admired Wei Hongjun for raising these issues. Most cadres only address problems once they arise. However, Wei Hongjun had already begun considering these issues before the land reform began.

They are also front-line rural cadres.

They have worked in rural areas for many years, but they have never thought about so many problems.

Wei Hongjun continued, "I'll ask the fourth question. Everyone knows that our slogan in the Soviet area was 'Strike the landlords and distribute the land.' But comrades also know that in rural areas, in addition to the landlords' farmland, there are also a large number of other types of land. For example, land owned by ancestral halls, temples, monasteries, schools, and government agencies and organizations. What should we do with this land? In addition to these different types of land ownership, rural areas also have a large number of middle peasants and self-cultivating farmers.

What should be done with their land? Should it be treated the same as landlords and rich peasants, or treated differently?

"Secretary, the goal of our land reform is to ensure that those who till the land own the land and to overthrow the rural exploitation system. However, according to our definition, middle peasants and self-cultivating farmers do not belong to the category of farmers who engage in exploitative activities. If we treat them together with landlords and rich peasants, wouldn't that be contrary to our party's policy?"

Li Shaocheng put down the notebook in his hand and expressed his opinion.

However, some people raised objections, saying, "Secretary, I don't agree with Director Li's idea. What we need to do is to ensure that everyone who tills the land owns the land. The purpose of the revolution is to establish an equal society. In this case, rural land reform should be equal. I think the best way is to unify all the land in the village, regardless of who owns it. Then divide the land according to population. This way, everyone will be fair."

"I support this view."

Many people support this view.

Since the purpose of the revolution is to establish a new equal society, the same should apply to the issue of rural land.

Wei Hongjun wrote down their words.

The "right" and "left" sides of land reform—these problems had deep roots. The people Wei Hongjun had recruited for the meeting were representatives of agricultural cadres from the Hebei-Rehe-Chahar Military Region.

But many people have similar opinions.

That is unified distribution and fair distribution.

Chen Tao spoke up, "But there's a problem with this. The middle peasants and self-cultivating farmers in the countryside all have their own small amounts of farmland and don't exploit anyone. We don't have any policies that affect their farmland. When we carry out land reform against landlords, we can say it's because they exploit the landlords. Their existence hinders the development of industry and the construction of a new society. But can we say the same thing about the middle peasants and self-cultivating farmers?"

Wei Hongjun understood that the issues he was discussing now were all problems that had arisen in the history of military reform.

There will inevitably be some debate.

Wei Hongjun didn't expect a decision to be reached after just one or two meetings. After all, there was still six months before land reform began. This gave him ample time to discuss these issues and unify everyone's thinking.

So Wei Hongjun said, "Everyone's opinions make sense. But I hope everyone can start by considering the big picture. The Chairman has said that our revolution is now a New Democratic Revolution. So, during the New Democratic Revolution, what should our land reform policy be? Is it a one-step revolution, or a gradual revolution? Should our land reform directly achieve the goal of "land to the tiller," or should we move towards it step by step? Should our land reform also have primary, intermediate, and advanced stages? Of course, this is just my personal opinion, and you can think about it slowly when you go back."

The CCP's land reform went through several stages.

Wei Hongjun was ready to refine this theoretically, but he didn't say it directly, instead asking everyone to go back and think about it.

"Let me raise my fifth question. Land reform is easy, but how should we deal with rural loan relationships? Even if our semi-self-cultivating farmers and poor peasants receive land after land reform, they will still have many loans that they cannot repay. Our rent and interest reduction efforts will only lower interest rates, but the huge amount of loans will still exist. Even if the semi-self-cultivating farmers and poor peasants still have land, these loans will crush them and prevent them from recovering for many years. How do you think we should deal with these rural loan relationships?"

"Secretary Wei, can we declare rural lending relationships invalid?"

“Yes, we can abolish rural lending.”

Everyone was talking about it.

Li Shaocheng said from the side, "Secretary Wei, the rural lending problem is indeed very serious. However, if we completely abolish rural lending across the board, it will easily lead to other problems. Some loans between neighbors and relatives are normal loans, and we should not interfere. If they are completely eliminated due to our policies, how will the relationship between them be handled?"

"I agree with Director Li's idea. We need to address the rural lending problem, but we can't do it across the board. I think during land reform, we can cancel all loans made by rich peasants and landlords in rural areas. This type of loan can be canceled without exception. But this won't affect some normal loans."

Chen Tao expressed his views.

Wei Hongjun just smiled.

He did not express his own opinion on the matter, and still asked everyone to go back and discuss it. Then Wei Hongjun continued: "I will now ask the sixth question, which is closely related to our Jirecha Military Region. That is the issue of local cadres and foreign cadres in the land reform. I can say directly that if our local cadres preside over the local land reform, they will be hindered by various personal relationships, which will greatly affect the effectiveness of the land reform. In some places, the land reform may even be superficial. But if the border area directly sends a work team, the problem that will arise is that they are not familiar with the local situation. Moreover, their implementation of land reform may offend local cadres. This will cause conflicts between the work team sent by the border area party committee and local cadres. Once a conflict occurs between them, our work will be affected. Everyone go back and think about whether there is any good way in this regard."

Comrade Xiuyang had a relatively accurate assessment of the situation of foreign and local cadres in Jin-Cha-Ji.

But this is a historical issue that no one can avoid.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Committee, in order to support the development of bases in various regions, required that each base area employ as many local cadres as possible, as local cadres were familiar with local conditions and had many advantages in operating behind enemy lines.

But after the war ended, looking back at these bases, we found that because too many local cadres were employed, a complex web of relationships emerged. It was easy for central government orders to be discounted when they reached the local level.

This is typical local factionalism.

Comrade Xiuyang has noticed this problem.

To successfully implement land reform, local cadres needed to be appropriately suppressed, as they could easily become obstacles to land reform. Comrade Xiuyang's thinking in this regard cannot be said to be entirely wrong.

But instead of finding a solution to the problem, he directly used the work team to suppress local cadres. As a result, the conflict between the two sides increased, and the local cadres refused to cooperate with the work team.

Seeing this situation, Comrade Xiuyang ordered the work team to form "poor peasant groups" in the countryside and use them to deal with local cadres. This was entirely a means of "struggling for power and profit" in the officialdom, not a revolutionary method.

When the work group formed the "Poor Peasants' League," they were too eager to achieve results and paid no attention to its composition. As a result, a large number of ruffians, scoundrels, and proletarian lumpen, as well as members of secret societies, traitors, and puppet soldiers, infiltrated the group. It's nonsense to say that these people participated in land reform.

The entire Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Liberated Area was in a state of chaos.

Wei Hongjun absorbed some of Comrade Xiuyang's ideas in this regard, but he would never choose the same policy as him.

"Comrades, I hope you will all think carefully about the six questions I have raised today, and you can discuss them in groups. If the Central Committee does not ultimately decide on land reform, then these will only be our theoretical discussions. However, if the Central Committee does decide on land reform, then we must be fully prepared. This is because land reform is related to the future of the revolution and the future development of the countryside, and we cannot afford to be careless in the slightest.

Chapter 649 Rural Democracy and Land Reform

"Comrade Shaocheng, Comrade Chen Tao, I've read the report on the implementation of village affairs disclosure in Weichang County. Although it hasn't fully met my expectations, I believe there have been significant achievements."

Wei Hongjun left behind Li Shaocheng and Chen Tao.

Wei Hongjun and Li Shaocheng have been working together since Sheng County, and it has been eight years now, so they are very familiar with each other.

Wei Hongjun still admired Li Shaocheng. Although there had been some problems in his work, some of them quite serious, overall, Li Shaocheng was a very pragmatic cadre.

It is not only pragmatic, but also has a good theoretical basis.

He is a cadre who is capable, has a theoretical basis, is high-level, and can also do practical work.

Chen Tao needs no introduction.

He is an intellectual and a graduate of a normal university.

The cultural foundation is quite good.

Moreover, he was able to go from school to the countryside and do solid rural work for so many years. Chen Tao is a true intellectual because he is willing to bend down and truly participate in labor and truly put it into practice. Many so-called intellectuals like to show off their knowledge, boasting about how they know everything about astronomy and geography. They always feel that their talents are not being recognized, that they have not met their mentors. They complain all day long, but are unwilling to truly do anything. Such intellectuals cannot compare to people like Chen Tao.

What the revolution needs is intellectuals like Chen Tao, and the future construction of the country also needs intellectuals like Chen Tao.

Li Shaocheng said, "Secretary Wei, rural village affairs transparency has not achieved the expected results and is far from what we initially considered. I have discussed the reasons with other comrades. Comrade Chen Tao believes that the reason we haven't achieved the desired results is that there are some problems in the way we treat farmers."

"Talk about it."

Wei Hongjun looked at Chen Tao.

Chen Tao said, "Secretary Wei, I'll be frank.

"Democracy, democracy, means letting people speak."

"Secretary Wei, I think we tend to overdo things when working in the countryside. We expect too much of our farmers, or perhaps we overestimate their abilities. We always think we're giving them rights, but we forget that they've endured two thousand years of feudal oppression. They've received little education, and they're unfamiliar with the changes in the outside world. There's a lot they don't understand. Although our base has announced many new policies, their implementation has been far less effective. Many of our farmers have become accustomed to their current lives, and many of the values ​​passed down through generations are deeply ingrained in them. Giving them rights won't change them. They don't realize they're their due, and as a result, what we want to give them is taken away by others."

“You mean, given the farmers’ current situation, the government is willing to give them many rights, but they can’t accept them?”

"Yes."

Chen Tao nodded.

Wei Hongjun kept thinking about Chen Tao's words in his mind.

Chen Tao said: "Secretary Wei, let me give you an example of the village affairs disclosure in Weichang County. Our first step of village affairs disclosure was successful, especially the disclosure of the village's economic accounts was done very well. However, when we wanted to further promote village affairs supervision, many problems arose. The purpose of our village affairs disclosure is to organize farmers to supervise the public village economic data and implement supervision of grassroots governments. This is the right we give to farmers themselves, but the farmers who actually participate are not the farmers we hope for. Because the farmers we hope to join are either illiterate or honest and decent. They don't know how to fight for their own rights, nor dare to fight for them. Those who are willing to come forward are actually those rural ruffians who do nothing all day. We have done work, but there are still too few farmers willing to stand up."

"And the marriage regulations we promulgated in the base area were well-written, but difficult to implement there. The rural people saw our marriage regulations as heresy. The production relations in the rural base area hadn't changed, nor had the rural education system. Everyone was still bound by outdated ideas. For a while, we gave them rights, but they couldn't keep them. Or perhaps they didn't consider them their rights."

Wei Hongjun understood what Chen Tao meant.

Everyone has their own rights.

Farmers are no exception.

The government agencies in the Eighth Route Army base areas rolled out new policies one after another. However, many of these policies remained superficial. Wei Hongjun asked, "So what do you mean?"

Chen Tao said: "Secretary Wei, my idea is that compared to giving our farmers rights through policies, what we should do is educate our farmers and let them safeguard and fight for their own rights. Only in this way can they truly understand what their rights are and their rights can be preserved. The base area is currently in a relatively stable stage. The literacy campaign in the base area is in full swing. At this time, we should send more cadres to publicize our policies and organize these farmers. The emphasis should be on telling our farmers what their own rights are. They should defend their rights with dignity and fight for their rights boldly. As long as we organize a few more times, they will gradually become familiar with it.

Wei Hongjun nodded slightly.

What is revolution?

Those who are pushed and forced to revolt will never be as motivated as those who are willing to revolt and support the revolution from the bottom of their hearts.

A true revolutionary should consciously participate in the revolution from the bottom of his heart.

The same is true for farmers.

As the Internationale puts it, there are no saviors. Farmers want to defend their rights, fight for their rights, no matter how much others push them. If they don't know how to defend their rights themselves, even if they are given rights, they won't use them, won't defend them, and will ultimately lose them.

In fact, if you look closely, many problems in land reform are related to this.

The peasants did not understand the significance of land reform and its impact on them. If they had fully understood its significance and actively participated in it from the very beginning, there would have been no need for the land reform work teams to use harsh commands to push it through.

Comrade Xiuyang saw the positive side of the peasant movement for land reform, but did not consider what would happen next.

Because many farmers did not understand their rights, it was very difficult to get them to actively participate in land reform in a short period of time. However, in order to complete the land reform as quickly as possible, Comrade Xiuyang recruited a large number of rural lumpen proletarians and a group of ruffians to join the "Poor Peasants' League."

These scoundrels were originally a nuisance in the countryside, but when they were allowed to participate in the land reform and even given the power to carry out the land reform, the land reform turned into "looting, smashing and robbing", and the situation became extremely bad.

If the vast majority of ordinary farmers in rural areas knew what rights they should have, how to fight for their rights, and actively participated in the land reform movement, then many problems of the land reform movement could be easily solved.

It all comes down to the issue of farmers' education.

"How is Comrade Chu Yan's work?"

"His work is quite effective. Since taking charge of literacy work, their literacy team has lived and ate in the countryside. Not only do they carry out literacy work, but they also regularly share stories and explain policies to farmers. Comrade Chu Yan has made contributions to the current success of our village affairs transparency efforts. However, centuries-old concepts can't be solved overnight with a literacy campaign. Comrade Chu Yan has proposed a suggestion for addressing the current problems with village affairs transparency. He believes that supervision of village affairs transparency can currently involve a small number of educated people from middle and rich peasant families. Comrade Chu Yan's point is that educated people from middle and rich peasant families are better than those rural ruffians."

"So what do you guys think?"

Li Shaocheng didn't let Chen Tao speak, and spoke up himself: "I agree with Comrade Chu Yan's idea. Given the current rural situation, we want to continue to deepen the openness and supervision of village affairs. This is an inevitable contradiction. It will be difficult for the farmers we hope to stand up to truly stand up in a short period of time. Unless we end the current implementation of the openness and supervision of village affairs. Otherwise, we must weigh it when making a choice. Compared with the lumpen proletariat or scholars from landlord families, we take a step back and choose some scholars from middle peasants and rich peasants to participate in village affairs supervision. This is a method suitable for the current rural situation. Or we can completely choose scholars from middle peasant families.

Wei Hongjun smiled.

I understand that Li Shaocheng spoke up in order to take the pressure and responsibility on himself.

After all, compared to Chen Tao, Li Shaocheng's rank and status were much higher, and he was also an old colleague who had fought side by side with Wei Hongjun for many years. Even if their ideas were wrong, Li Shaocheng could take the responsibility.

Wei Hongjun doesn't care about this.

Wei Hongjun didn't blame Li Shaocheng for being so willing to protect his capable subordinates. Instead, he admired him. So he nodded and said, "We can give it a try. Comrade Chu Yan has a lot of ideas."

After thinking for a while, he said to Li Shaocheng and Chen Tao, "We have signed a peace agreement with the Kuomintang. Now many people in the base area believe that there will be no more fighting and that we want peace. But I can tell you directly, I don't believe it at all. The battle between us and the Kuomintang reactionaries is a life-and-death struggle, and there will be no middle ground. It's just that the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression has just ended, and many people are exhausted after eight years of fighting. Most people in our country want peace. That's why we have this peace agreement between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. But you are all front-line cadres and should understand the current situation better than anyone. We just fought a battle with Fu Zuoyi, and the 129th Division also fought against Yan Xishan. Not to mention the Northeast, where both sides are gathering troops for battle. The peace between us and the Kuomintang reactionaries will not last long, probably only a few months or half a year. As long as the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party becomes tense again, promoting land reform in the base area is inevitable. I convened this agricultural work conference to prepare for future land reform.

Of course, I can't say this directly, so I discussed it with you two in private."