Chapter 2 Chapter One

The red Dongjiang River roared angrily, and the torrent flowed through Huiyang and headed straight for the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province.The time was the last week of September 1959. At that time, Huiyang had suffered two catastrophes in the past few months, first the flood in June, and then the harvest failure in August.For the past three days, the scorching sun has blazed hard on the earth, and the weather is humid and stuffy, making it hard to breathe. Apart from Guangzhou, the largest city in Guangdong Province is Huiyang, with a population of 250,000.Guangzhou is 60 kilometers west of Huiyang, connected by railway, and there is another line connecting with Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway at Zhangmutou Station.Fifty kilometers to the south is Hong Kong.

The broadcast announced this morning that the People's Commune in the Huiyang area would be established by October 15th.The stubborn people accepted the news quietly.Unlike last June's rush to harvest and the rush to repair the Boluo Dam, the People's Commune is bound to affect the lives of every man, woman and child in the city.But this is the decision of the top leadership at the Lushan meeting.The last hesitation and doubts have vanished with the wind; the dissatisfaction and dissent aroused by the central leadership over the failure of the local method last year have also disappeared.People's communes have been established in rural areas, and now they need to be extended to cities. This system will be completed before the end of the year.

The Great Leap Forward has been underway for more than a year.There is no doubt that the party will be able to implement it thoroughly. Huiyang is as quiet as a well-managed zoo; all activities are as orderly as an ant colony in an ant nest; the people work as hard as worker bees; the authority of the government is unquestionable. quietly.You can even hear cans crashing in the market.The city is no longer bustling like it used to be; men don't talk more than they need to, women don't stop to chat, and no one trusts neighbors or friends anymore.The Party's invisible eyes and ears are always listening and watching.

This law of silence works well.Either you shouted with everyone, or you followed the crowd in silence, so you shouted for a while and fell silent for a while.If the party so desired, this cry could be transformed into a roar of welcome or applause, or a roar of accusation as mechanized as a record on a gramophone.This is reminiscent of the meeting agenda in the days of warlords: 1. VIP admission. Two, praise softly. 3. The chairman introduces the speaker. 4. Applause. Five, give a speech. 6. Warm applause. 7. The speaker steps down. 8. Continuous applause. There may be some changes, but in general, this model has not changed at all, but there is an unwritten rule in the current procedure:

9. Go home in silence. This last, silent home is not always fully enforced.Occasionally, several people gathered under the big banyan tree by the river, looking at the affluent villages on the other side of the river.There are lychee orchards, orange orchards, vegetable gardens, and some palm and papaya trees.Boluo Mountain and Mount Liufu towering in the distance overlook the low-lying valley.Boluo Mountain is only about five kilometers downstream of the river, standing on the north bank of the river. Our little Napoleon will not let them go. Two militiamen were killed in Boro yesterday.

It is said that he was stabbed to death by a farmer with a rake.But it was never mentioned in the broadcast. Of course not. Well, now it's our turn. If the Party says October 15th, it must be October 15th. All I care about is food.What happened to our rations?Three taels of meat and four taels of oil every month!Will it increase or decrease in the future? You petty bourgeois!I am nothing but a bowl of clean, hygienic rice.For this bowl of rice, I am willing to be an ox or a horse, is that right? Look at this fertile valley.Where did all the vegetables, rice, fish, eggs, and lard go?

There was a quarrel at my house last night.All three of my daughters-in-law received their annual cloth ration.Each has eighteen inches.I think three people combined have more than four feet of cloth that can be put to good use.Enough to make a jacket for a man.But no one would give up her share. Did you see the piles of nails that came in last month? That was a by-product left over from last year's big chain steel. But who wants to use nails for food? These people are the people of Huiyang.All classes are abolished.There are only two classes left: the ruled, those proletarians; the rulers, those insignificant petty bourgeoisie.There is no such thing as a capitalist.Among the ruling class in Huiyang, the most important person is Deng Ping.

Deng Ping, nicknamed Little Napoleon, was a local district committee member. He was short and stout, only five feet two inches tall, which was considered thin even among Chinese people.There is no doubting his high energy.He had thick, black hair cropped in a crew cut, a broad face, and a dark complexion.He's never been mild-mannered, even when he's trying to appease people.As a thirty-one-year-old young man, he holds, or in other words, almost holds the power of life and death for everyone in this area.Perhaps in order to make up for his short stature and young age, he has a neatly trimmed mustache, and often frowns deliberately, maintaining a generally serious and efficient expression.One of his characteristics is that his nose hair is so long that it joins his mustache; whenever he smiles, he shows a row of dirty black and dirty teeth, which makes his face unforgettable.His eyes, no matter whether they are staring at people or wandering around them, coupled with the features of his face, really make people in front of him feel uncomfortable.

Deng Ping had just returned from the morning broadcast.Adjacent to the telegraph room behind the upstairs office was the broadcast studio, a small, cramped, stuffy room.He wiped his head with a white silk handkerchief and held the neck in his high-collared uniform.Deng Ping looked at his watch, it was seven twenty-five in the morning.He spoke for five minutes longer than the usual fifteen minutes, but the subject of the broadcast was important. The weather in autumn tiger at the end of September is humid and swelteringly hot.Deng Ping lit a cigarette and stood in front of the window looking north, taking a breath of fresh air before reporting to his superior Zheng Ji.Zheng Ji was sent by the provincial party committee of Guangdong Province to supervise the establishment of the urban people's communes.Deng Ping knew that the job fell entirely on him.The most important thing is to successfully fulfill his responsibilities, while maintaining satisfactory relations with those of the older generation; his standing in the party depends on this performance.He was worried about his power, and the enormity of the matter, although he knew he could get it done.

The ever-flowing Dongjiang River was below, and in the northwest direction, he saw turbulent dark clouds passing over the river in wave after wave, surging towards the top of Boluo Mountain.There had been a rice riot in Boro, and he mused over the killing of two militiamen. He turned and saw a gun in a glass case.That's what he found in an Englishman who arrived here only the day before yesterday.His name is James.Daye.He did not understand why the Englishman displeased him.What does it mean that he boldly brought a gun into the country as a tourist?It was too reckless.Can he still hope to get out of this thing?His profile was impeccable; he was here for his aunt, Sister Angelica, the last nun to be deported from mainland China.The Englishman will leave with his aunt in a few days.That's why he didn't want to cause diplomatic problems by putting him in jail.He opened the glass case and looked at the gun as if it were a beautiful treasure. He held it in his hand and played with it, and then put it back carefully.

He went back to his desk and sat down to look at his watch.It was only seven thirty-five and ten minutes before he had to report to Zheng Ji.Although Deng Ping was keen to know how the provincial party committee felt about his broadcast, he knew he had to be calm.He was alone in the room, just enough to calm himself down.The two secretaries, Comrades Liu and Mao, were in another room through which all visiting guests had to pass first. Deng Ping was a man of strict discipline who had undergone the harshest test during the Communist Revolution.A young man who is only thirty-one years old has already been promoted to an important cadre in a big city.In 1950, when he was only 22 years old, he participated in the public trial and abuse of landlords who struggled, and also participated in the Three Antis and Five Antis Movements from 1952 to 1953, and participated in the He also survived the humiliation and torture of the petty bourgeoisie and the purge of extreme rightists in the party in 1955.He saw with his own eyes the great turmoil and changes that the People's Commune brought to the countryside: the people of the whole area could mobilize to cull the sparrows, then rush to build the dams under Liufu and Boluo Mountains, and then rush back before the crops were washed away by the flood Grab the crops.He can call the rural district committees within a 20-kilometer radius near Huiyang︱Boluo to issue orders, and he knows that his orders will be absolutely obeyed. During the purge of the party in 1955, he had been afraid.The purge was his concern, and the liquidation struggle against the landowners and middle-class shopkeepers was not his concern.In the accusation and counter-accusation between him and Lin Kui, he won; but his best friend and colleague Lin Kui was exiled to Xinjiang to reclaim the swamp of Kukunur, and he has never heard of Lin Kui since then. Quiet news.This incident made Deng Ping's wife very angry.Lin Kui was his classmate; they were always close, and Lin Kui often went to Deng Ping's house for dinner, sometimes three or four times a week, and they clapped their hands and laughed at each other's mistakes, and shared their thoughts together. each other's aspirations, read and discuss together the secret directives given to them by the Central Committee or the Red Banner.Lin Kui is tall, thin and slender just like Deng Ping is short and dainty.Lin Kui was probably the only real friend he ever had. How can you beat your best friend with a lie and gather evidence against him?Deng Ping's wife, a young worker, questioned him. Shut up.If I don't do this, I will be the one who is reclaiming wasteland in Kukunur today, not him. But at least he didn't lie to you.She likes Lin Kui very much.As a result his wife left him.He felt that he had been condemned by his wife. That purge of the party taught him a lesson.He took it as his motto: Better left than right, a rule adopted by many of his colleagues.In the contradiction between many considerations of people's humanity, such as deciding whether to exempt the real sick and old people from hard labor, and the strict implementation of the plan drawn up by the Central Committee, he preferred to choose the left.He himself had denounced many right-leaning elements who were sent to labor camps in Northeast China and Xinjiang for being too gentle with farmers. That's a perpetual dilemma.Ruthlessly climbed to the top of power or suddenly humiliated; became a core member of the party, or, like Lin Kui, was sent to a labor camp.The iron-like discipline of the party has penetrated into the depths of his soul.Now, the Guangdong People's Committee has sent Zheng Ji to see how well he can manage the organization of the people's commune. Deng Ping stared at the report on the Boluo rice riot in his hand, read it carefully so that he could present a clear and concise report to Zheng Ji later, and briefly glanced at the facts about the British arrival here. He stood up, pulled his clothes, and went in to see Zheng Ji with the file. Zheng Ji once participated in the 100,000 Li Long March to Yan'an.In his fifties, lanky and frail, his soft voice can make the young and strong Deng Ping tremble.Zheng, who was actually a generous man, turned to him kindly and asked him how happy he was to see such an energetic and motivated young man carrying out the party's socialist plans. Did you sleep well last night?Comrade Zheng? Very good, Comrade Deng. When deciding on a room, I personally tried the bed juku.Please let me know if there is any inconvenience. I just told you, I slept well. I am very happy.Did you hear my broadcast this morning?I'd love to know if you like it and if there's anything I've missed. No, I think you're doing just right.The announcement of the people's commune system should be firm.You are doing it right.Except for the last paragraph where you ask the people to cooperate, you should expand and emphasize the common interests of the party and the people.In short, when you said that, you seemed a little passionate. Yeah?I'm sorry I'll do better tomorrow. At a time when we are surrounded by imperialist invaders, it's time to emphasize the unity between the people and the party. I heard that two militiamen were killed in Boro.How is the report on this matter? The young district committee member told him.Two policemen of the local People's Self-Defense Force were killed.Comrade Yuan, who is in charge, has woken up from a coma in the hospital.Last year, when ten acres of forest in the Boluo area were cut down to be used as fuel for large steel chains, it aroused the indignation of the local people.Many of the people who helped build the dam were recruited from nearby areas.When the order to cut down the trees was given, a special team started cutting trees in neighboring villages without going into the mountains.There was a rift between locals and foreigners.The matter was settled when Deng Ping ordered the action team to start cutting from higher areas.Today the wives of farmers in Boro complain of a lack of fuel.This year is the harvest season, and the farmers have about two months' worth of food left over; while the party has to meet a certain shipment quota, a Russian ship is now waiting at the port of Hong Kong.Farmers complain, and they get nothing but promises and promises. Yesterday's food looting riot was actually provoked by a mouse.On a rainy day, an old farmer found that the roof of the barn was leaking, and there were traces of voles outside the barn.The millet seems to have changed color and rotted.The millet is ruined, which makes the old farmer's blood rush.Every grain of millet represents the sweat on the farmer's forehead.The old feeling of wastefulness is still very tenacious.The old farmer went to report to Comrade Yuan, the administrator, and Comrade Yuan assured him that there was absolutely no problem with the millet.After a while, he called three or four more people and persuaded Comrade Yuan to let them go into the barn to have a look.A glance is enough; the corn is swollen and darkened; some of it has sprouted in the September temperature.A young farmer couldn't hold back any longer, grabbed the pole by the wall, and knocked down the administrator with a rake.The rest of the peasants ran away as if they had seen a ghost.A large group of people gathered outside.The crowd was so angry that men and women rushed in, and when they saw something that could hold things, they took it to grab the grain.When the militiamen arrived, they arrested four or five people. One of them, an old woman, was left behind with a basket of rice from the government.So yesterday two militiamen were stabbed to death with a rake from behind. How are you going to deal with this matter?Zheng Ji asked. I feel very sorry that this happened.I hope Comrade Zheng can give me some instructions. No.I want to hear your opinion. Deng Ping said solemnly: Acts of resistance must be stopped.Farmers should be sanctioned.I can tighten my rations, or increase the tax on loquats and oranges.This will be a warning to them that such things must not happen again.My concern is millet.I plan to go to Boluo to investigate in person, and send a company of militiamen there. If the millet is really broken, the person in charge of management must be punished or dismissed. You mean Comrade Yuan? I think so, unless you strongly object, Comrade Zheng.I think that another person should be sent in his place; this will also appease the people's anger. Things like this happen all the time, Zheng Ji said.There have also been riots in Guangdong that looted cafeterias. When everyone was hungry and could not find food, they broke into the kitchen all the way.Things like this are understandable.They are not really anti-party.There are similar examples in Pingshan. I have been in touch with Hirayama State Farm.People's minds change very slowly.Lihua told me that last week everyone ate chicken. Who is Pear Blossom? She is the captain of the women's labor team.I got confidential reports that almost all the chickens in the city were gone.Because it is said that the urban people's commune will be established soon, every family will start to kill the chicken and eat it, so as not to become the property of the commune.I really don't know when the people will learn to adopt a proper social attitude? Zheng Ji pondered for a moment, don't worry, the end of the world is not here yet.We must form communes.This is your responsibility.You said that an Englishman came yesterday.What is he doing here? I'm about to tell you. Deng Ping handed the document to Zheng Ji.The CCP office in Hong Kong granted him a visa for three weeks.Name: James.Daye.Age: Thirty-two.Height: 5 feet 8 inches.Hair: brown.Birthplace: Sussex, England.Occupation: Manager of a British firm selling transistor radios, home appliances, and other sundries.From 1948 to 1951, he lived in Beiping. From 1949 to 1951, he served as a part-time lecturer at the Sino-Northern United Language School and also a lecturer of European art at Yenching University.According to the information, he is friendly to the Chinese people and fluent in Chinese.He has a lively personality, likes to socialize, has a pleasant disposition, and is well-groomed.Ideology: Unknown.Purpose of trip: Escorting his aunt, Sister Angelica of Huiyang Church, to leave the People's Republic of China. We found a gun in the pocket of his coat, which he was holding in his hand.I have registered the number of the pistol.I don't understand why he took a pistol on this trip. What did he say? He said it was for self-defense.Shall I show it to you? Deng Ping went out and brought the pistol.Zheng took it and looked at it carefully. This is a specially built Wilson 38.In the hands of a good shooter, it's a deadly thing. Pretty, don't you think?