Chapter 10 On stage, I sing as I wish...

  Lead-colored clouds, goose feather-like snowflakes fluttering and falling like white silk, Qinglong County town gradually submerged in the snowy sky.

  The office is very warm, on the windowsill, two pots of tiger skin orchids are emerald green and dripping with dew.

  Hao Baishan sat on the long sofa in the waiting room, flipping through the materials on the table with some confusion and incomprehension. This was what Lu Zhong had asked him to look at - the municipal party committee's response to Qinglong County's report on the work of withdrawing from society and building a township.

  Ma Weiguo, the secretary, and others reportedly went directly to the provincial capital from the city hall. This report was submitted by Lu Zhong, the county magistrate. The municipal party committee's response was extremely swift. Under the formal approval of the municipal party committee in bold font, the two large characters "Agree" were written in Secretary Duan Zhongyuan's own handwriting, which was particularly powerful and forceful.

  Even more, the materials also included a letter written by Zhongyuan Secretary to the Qinglong Party and government officials.

  The original text of the report by Lu Zhong, the county head, is also available. It mainly concerns suggestions for the withdrawal of Ma Touying and Qing Wa two communes to establish a township. In the report, an in-depth analysis of the current situation of Ma Touying and Qing Wa two communes was conducted, proposing that individual production teams in these two communes be allowed to continue developing collective economy as one of the explorations of agricultural economic development during the primary stage of socialism.

  Looking at this report, Hao Baishan couldn't help but feel a slight shock. County Magistrate Lu Zhen, was there a mastermind behind him? This writing style wasn't ordinary, it was tough! How could it be written by someone who graduated from junior high school and joined the army?

  The report also made sharp comments on the pros and cons of the past commune economic model, believing that there were two fundamental reasons for the failure of the commune movement. Firstly, it did not follow the objective economic laws, blindly pursuing high speed and high indicators, using political movements to guide economic development, resulting in various evil consequences such as exaggeration and false reporting, making it impossible for the central planning department to have an objective understanding of the national economy. Blind optimism led to the satellites being launched higher and higher, ultimately leading to irreparable damage. Secondly, it did not follow the objective law that production forces determine production relations. Under the extremely low level of production forces, the social relations of production were forcibly changed, and the collective ownership was implemented for the sake of collective ownership. This artificially imposed production relation would inevitably end in failure.

  As for the internal failure of the commune to form a competitive mechanism, and the widespread existence of lazy behavior among members due to opportunism; reasons such as over-exploitation of rural cooperatives' surplus value for industrial development are also important factors that make it difficult for cooperative organizations to sustain themselves in the end.

  The report made an affirmative evaluation of some achievements of the people's commune, such as the report mentioned that from 1958 to 1978, this collective economic organization contributed tens of billions of yuan in agricultural surplus to the city and made indelible contributions to the country's heavy industry strategy.

  The report finally concludes that although the people's commune movement thirty years ago was proven to be wrong by history, with the development of agricultural technology, such as advances in seed engineering, various agricultural machinery and new fertilizers, etc., the level of productive forces has been greatly improved. In the foreseeable future, the superiority of cooperative collectivization economy will be demonstrated, and the inefficient small-scale peasant economy will eventually be eliminated by history.

  So, in Wushan Economic Development Zone, retaining the agricultural cooperative collective economy pilot is very necessary and a practice of our party's exploration in various aspects during the new historical period of socialist construction.

  Hao Baishan slowly flipped through this material.

  Hao Baishan knew that, nationwide, villages retaining large-scale collective economies were not uncommon. Hao Baishan was aware of a place called Nanjie Village where this was the case. Although collective economies existed, it was only because there was no clear conclusion on how to proceed with reforms at the central level, and locally, policies were often decided by the will of party and government leaders.

  As for the theoretical level, it is a mess, and few people dare to touch it. Like Lu Zhong's analysis of one, two, three, four, the object of analysis is even more the term "commune economy" which has almost become a forbidden zone now. This requires not only a certain level of theoretical accomplishment but also extraordinary courage.

  But this report, Hao Baishan had to admit, is indeed of a very high level. At least, he himself could not have written such an article, nor would he dare to try.

  Zhongyuan Secretary, I heard that he is very powerful and has a keen insight into new things. He is also a steadfast practitioner of promoting reform, so he was entrusted with high hopes to take the helm in Wushan.

  In the midst of the nationwide fervor for implementing output-based contracts in rural areas, Lu Zhong independently proposed retaining the production team as a unit of rural collective economic cooperation organizations. He also wrote tens of thousands of words to argue his case, which is no wonder that it caught the attention of Secretary Zhongyuan, who even sent a handwritten letter asking all cadres in Qinglong County to study and discuss the part of the work report related to the withdrawal of Ma Tuo and Qing Wa societies and the establishment of towns.

  Regarding the major section of the report that analyzes the Commune Movement, Secretary Yuan thought it was not suitable for public release and suggested instead to conduct an academic discussion in the form of internal reference.

  Of course, Secretary Duan also pointed out in the letter that he does not necessarily agree with Comrade Lu Zhong's views, but what he agrees with is Comrade Lu Zhong's spirit of daring to explore. He hopes that all cadres in Qinglong County will take root at the grassroots level, go deep into the grassroots level, take the interests of the people as the fundamental starting point, conduct more research, closely contact reality, and make suggestions for the development of Qinglong and Wushan.

  Upon reading Secretary Zhongyuan's letter, Hao Baishan suddenly realized that Secretary Zhongyuan might have a liking for cadres like Lu Zheng, who are bold and dare to do unconventional things. If Secretary Zhongyuan was already in power in Wushan when Lu Zheng was causing trouble in Guangning, it's possible that Lu Zheng wouldn't have been ousted at the time.

  Lu Zhong saw Hao Baishan turn to the last page of the materials and said, "Baishan, what do you think? Secretary Zhongyuan's letter, my intention is not to pass it on."

  Hao Baishan was taken aback, looking at Lu Zhong in shock. This was the perfect opportunity for the new county magistrate to establish his authority in front of all the cadres in the county, so why give it up?

  Lu Zhong smiled and said, "As for the reasons why it's not suitable to be passed on, I will report to Secretary Zhongyuan. This matter is now up to you, don't spread it around." Quietly keeping a few large teams wouldn't be a problem, but if they made a big fuss about it, the Qinglong Village's work of building a new countryside might become a focal point of debate in the ideological struggle between political factions, and he himself would get deeply embroiled in this theoretical struggle. His small body couldn't withstand such a huge storm.

  Hao Baishan could only nod silently at this time.

  Lu Zhong lit a cigarette and said, "The preliminary work for the withdrawal of Ma Touying and Qingwa Commune to establish a township has begun. The masses are all very calm. Among them, several grassroots cadres in Ma Touying have done meticulous work, which is indispensable! I personally think that Zhao Pingfan has been keeping in touch with those big teams that disagree with the division of land."

  Hao Baishan exclaimed, "Ah!", and an image of a young cadre with an ordinary appearance but piercing eyes appeared before his eyes. "I know him, isn't he the deputy director of Ma Touying Commune?"

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly and said: "My opinion is to nominate Zhao Pingfan as the secretary of the party committee of Ma Touying Township after the merger. Otherwise, I'm worried that those big teams will make trouble."

  Hao Baishan finally understood why Lu Zhong had called him over and fell silent for a moment.

  Lu Zhong also didn't speak, got up and came to the windowsill, silently looking outside.

  The office door was lightly knocked, and two young cadres in Lenin suits came in. The one walking in front with a fierce look in his eyes was recognized by Xiao Pingtou as Hao Baishan, the head of the county discipline inspection commission's supervision department, Lei Yongsheng. Lei Yongsheng was one of the four top officials under the secretary of the discipline inspection commission, Wang Baogang. During the Cultural Revolution, he had been the leader of the school's rebel faction and was said to have beaten university teachers until they were half-dead. As a graduate of a prestigious university, after graduation, he had even entered the organization department in Beijing, at which point his future looked bright. However, suddenly he was sent back to his hometown and demoted to this remote rural area.

  But in Qinglong, Lei Yongsheng was still notorious for liking to bully people, and many cadres were afraid of him.

  Nowadays, three other generals under Wang Baogang have all stepped down, and only Lei Yongsheng remains unshakeable.

  On the surface, Wang Baogang was desperately protecting him, but in reality, Hao Baishan had heard that this guy held certain county committee leaders' handles, and if he moved him, he would be afraid of getting involved too much. That's why he could retreat unscathed from this political storm. This man may not have a high rank, but he was indeed an official who made people see ghosts, whoever saw him would get a headache.

  "County head, we've come to ask Comrade Pan Dishui to go with us to the Discipline Inspection Commission to verify some issues. What do you think..." In front of Lu Zhong, the fierce light in Lei Yongsheng's eyes seemed to have dissipated a lot.

  Lu Zhong nodded slightly: "Yeah, Secretary Bao Gang has called me, go ahead."

  Hao Baishan's eyes widened in surprise, "What's wrong with Gu Pan Shi?"

  Hao Baishan is clearer than anyone else that the director of the government office, Qu Ding Shi, was promoted by Tan Wusi, the executive vice county magistrate. He is a nail in Tan Wusi's mouth in the government. With Qu Ding Shi controlling the county government office and the loyalty of the heads of various departments and bureaus, Tan Wusi's control over the government mouth is likely to far surpass that of Lu Zheng, the new county magistrate.

  Hao Baishan also heard that, Huo Pan Shi had been making sarcastic remarks about the new county magistrate's educational background and his origins as a foolish soldier in the office behind his back, which gave Lu Zhong a very bad impression.

  Now the Secretary of Defense and Tan Wusong, Wang Zhensheng and other several standing committee members are all in the provincial capital, how did Qi Panshi suddenly have an accident?

  Does Lu Zhong know what's going on behind the scenes? Does he have his own ears and eyes in Qinglong, or is he completely in the dark?

  Now, taking advantage of Ma Weiguo and others being absent, Lu Zhong County Magistrate, is this going to be a fire in the backyard?

  Could it be that from the halt of the golf course project to Secretary Wei's trip to the provincial capital, everything was related to this young new county magistrate in front of him?

  Hao Baishan suddenly broke out in a cold sweat as he thought about it.