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Anwen is a small town surrounded by mountains.It used to be the seat of the Pan’an County government.When I arrived at Anwen People’s Commune, I learned that the party committee office of the commune was really had a lot of power and was in charge of many things.At that time, the party and the government were integrated.So were the political and social affairs, and the party committee, in addition to its organizational and publicity department, had the party office as the largest branch.The other branches were the women’s federation, the communist youth league, and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces.Since there was no administrative office, all the specific affairs of the party and government were under the control of the party committee office.The first thing I did was take over the keys to all of Anwen’s offices, and I made all the arrangements for the offices of the leaders and the departments.Even the civil affairs work was managed by the party committee office: marriage and divorce certificates were issued by me.Of course, the more important work was to serve as the facilitator for the organization and people.We should inform the eight administrative areas of the government meetings, run down and check the implementation of the plans, and report to our Dongyang counterpart.
It was a hot time.Everywhere one would see slogans like: “To ride a horse, and wear a big flower.“A day equals twenty years”, “Catch up with the United States and surpass Britain within 15 years”, “The people’s commune is the golden bridge, and communism is a paradise”, so on and so forth.Some leaders thought it too far away and too slow to realize the idealism of communism.In order to strengthen people’s faith and inspire the morale, the slogans were shouted out more often than needed.
At that time, the “Five Winds” （the wind of communism, the wind of vanity, the wind of issuing command, the wind of specialization of cadres, the wind of blind command over production） became common, especially the “wind of vanity”.You could read in the daily newspaper that people were “shooting satellites” all over the country.In such a political atmosphere, it was hard to discover truth from facts, like in the eliminate counter-revolutionaries campaign.I found it hard to adapt to.
One afternoon, I received a call from the office of the county party committee to report the number of people going up to the mountains to chop wood.At that time, everything had to be “done in a big way”, and everyone needed to be mobilized.In the large-scale agriculture, the crops needed fertilizer, so everyone needed to cut wood and grass, and burnt them to create fertilizer.I was very careful to call each district and calculate the numbers.Sometimes it took a long time to get through.I didn’t sleep the whole night and collected statistics on the number of people in each administrative area, the amount of grass they collected and ashes they burnt, and also the typical cases.I reported to the county party committee office early the next morning.
I didn’t expect that the director of the county party committee office had lost his temper even before I finished.“How could this happen? As a flagship commune, the number is unacceptable.” “I had to work all night on this.I called from district to district.” “You’re a bureaucrat!” “You only informed me yesterday afternoon, I immediately called every district, without sleeping at all last night, and reported to you this morning.How can I go in person to investigate, it is impossible!” The director said, “I don’t care.This number is not good!” “I quit! You are a mess!” I dropped the phone.
The office secretary saw that I had lost my temper and hurried over to me.“Director Xu, don’t lose your temper.I’ll handle it.” I asked, “How?” The secretary was from the rural department of the Pan’an County Party Committee, and was very smart.He didn’t reply to me.He picked up the phone, “Director Fang! Don’t get angry, Director Xu didn’t sleep all night and had some physical discomfort.I have some information he didn’t know about.I will report it to you.” Then, he reported on two typical examples:
A couple in their 70s answered the party’s call and went up the mountain to chop wood and grass.They had to walk 40 li for a single trip.They went up and down the mountain four times a day, chopping over 500 jin of firewood and grass; In another production brigade, men and women, old and young, were all mobilized, and burned 10,000 jin of burnt mortar a day.The director of the county party committee office was very satisfied with the two typical cases reported by the secretary.
I asked the secretary: “where do you get this information?” He said, “It doesn’t matter.He won’t come to check.” I said, “How can you make up such a story?” I didn’t expect the secretary to say, “Ah! It’s common practice.” I said, “Good, good, good! You’ll be in charge of reporting to the leaders from now on.You take the office.I’ll go to the districts for investigation.” From then on, I often went down to the districts and hardly went to the office.”
When I went to the districts, I realized the common people had a really bitter life! At that time, large public canteens were advocated, and people were not allowed to cook at home.In some mountain areas where houses were scattered, people walked a few miles to have the meal.When this practice was started, people didn’t have to pay for food, and everyone could eat as much as they wanted.When one production brigade ran out of food, they ran to another for more.Not long after, there was no food to eat, and people could only eat coarse grains, rice bran, corncobs, sweet potato vines and so on.The people were all sallow and emaciated, severely malnourished.Some of the elderly had fallen sick, coupled with hunger, disease and starvation.I was filled with doubt and anxiety: is this what communism is like? The situation couldn’t keep going like this.
Even so, lies kept going.A mass movement was organized in everything.There was rumor that Chiang Kai-shek would launch an attack against the mainland, and that all the people would join the army.Anwen set up a militia division, and I became the deputy division commander.“Taking grain as the key focus” meant that “the whole party should start work on and promote agriculture”, on which even the People’s Liberation Army should focus.One day, I received a notice that the leaders of the provincial military region were coming to Anwen Commune for inspection.It was supposed to be the secretary of the party committee who received them, but he hid away and asked me to do it.At that time, the party secretary of Dongyang happened to be in Anwen.I went to him for help, but he asked me to turn to my own boss for help.I had no choice but to brave it out.I called it in and got the team ready.On the next day, we cut off numerous mounds of rice, and put them together in the field.When the leaders arrived, they began to cut off rice paddy and weighed them for estimation, which resulted in a figure of 6,000 jin per mu yield.I was shocked.It was a total mess.
I went to the commune secretary and told him I quit and would return to farming.The secretary did not agree.He said I was very active in my work, and I would soon become an official party member.At this time, the organization was going through an adjustment and cadres were needed.