Li Desheng's impression
Wang Wenzhong
On the afternoon of September 12, 1981, in room 740 of the Jingxi Hotel, I interviewed Li Desheng for the purpose of writing "Xu Qianqian's Biography". At that time, he was the commander of the Shenyang Military Region, and he entered Beijing to participate in a large-scale military exercise organized by the Central Military Commission in North China. Four years later, Li Desheng was appointed political commissar of the National Defense University. Because of my work, I have many opportunities to meet him, often receiving his instructions face-to-face or accompanying him out to work. I will only pick a few of them and talk about my impression of him.
1
"I am a member of the Communist Party with shortcomings"
April 22, 1990 was a Sunday, and Li Desheng's secretary called me and said that Li Desheng was going to report his thoughts to the party group tomorrow.
I pondered for a moment, because the party day was on Saturday, and there was no organizational life scheduled for Monday. But when I thought about it, the political commissar proposed it, and he must have considered it, so I agreed. In fact, Li Desheng took the initiative to report his thoughts to the party group, which is very rare for senior leading cadres and party members; From another point of view, he did this as the most practical support for the work of the party branch. This is a good thing for me, the branch secretary, and it is also undesirable.
As soon as I put down the phone, I called Xu Shusong, the secretary general, and explained to him Li Desheng's intentions. Xu Shusong said that according to Political Commissar Li's suggestion, the regular office meeting on Monday morning was changed to the afternoon. After I agreed with Xu Shusong, I called Luo Guangming, the leader of the party group, and asked him to arrange a party group meeting.
Since he became the political commissar of the National Defense University, Li Desheng has been living an organizational life in our branch. In the past few years, whenever there is an activity in the party branch or party group, as long as he is notified, he can generally attend the meeting; If I can't attend the meeting due to work, he will personally ask me for leave to explain the situation. When he asked for leave, he put his identity very right, not because of the relationship between the political commissar of the National Defense University and the deputy secretary general of the office of the Political Department, but as an ordinary party member, he asked for leave from the secretary of the party branch. Just this one, he touched me and won everyone's respect for him. But it was the first time that he had taken the initiative to suggest arranging a party group activity.
On the morning of the 23rd, the party group meeting was held on time in accordance with Li Desheng's suggestion. After I explained the situation, the group meeting began.
Among the leading cadres and party members who have lived an organizational life in this group is Hu Eting, director of the Political Department of the National Defense University.
After the group meeting began, Li Desheng was the first to speak.
Li Desheng and Hu Eting, both of whom had to leave their posts to recuperate because of their age, were in this reshuffling of the leadership group. This is where Li Desheng's speech begins. He said: This reshuffling of the leading bodies of large units is a normal system, and we are no exception, and we must implement this regulation of the central authorities and retire from active service. I'm 74 years old and have health problems.
Speaking of which, Li Desheng gave a brief introduction to the adjustment of the school's leadership group. He said: The National Defense University will also transfer a few comrades, and this is a normal exchange. Comrade Ma Weizhi is from the Jinan Military Region and came to serve as vice president; Comrade Liu Cunkang was a member of the Beijing Military Region and was a talented man; when I was there, he was the secretary of the party committee, and he was the director of the Political Department. Comrade Hou Shudong was promoted to vice president, and Comrade Wang Houqing was appointed director of education. Then, Li Desheng talked about himself: I have lived in the army for 60 years, and now I am going to retire from active service, but as a member of the Communist Party, I must wholeheartedly fight for the party's cause all my life. I told the party group that if my conviction is unwavering, the socialist system will also be unswerving and vigorous. Although the party's history has had twists and turns and waves in the past, we have also been affected.
At this point, Li Desheng's expression became serious, and he said: I have wrestled on the "leftist" line and have been expelled from the party.
Speaking of this, Li Desheng looked around at the meeting and told everyone how he was expelled from the party: At that time, I was the branch secretary and advocated adhering to the reporting system. However, the new commissar said that I did not believe him, expelled me from the party, and imprisoned me overnight, which was in 1935. In December 1936, I rejoined the party in northern Shaanxi.
The "Cultural Revolution" was Li Desheng's most memorable years. He said: During the "Cultural Revolution," some people criticized me as a "big warlord" or "big party boss," and the "Gang of Four" said that I was against new things, and some people even sued me. Once, Jiang Qing called me in the middle of the night to make a surprise attack. Originally, Hua Nan's appointment as the director of the People's Liberation Army Newspaper was approved at the meeting of the vice chairman of the Politburo, but Jiang Qing insisted that he had not gone through Chairman Mao.
Li Desheng paused for a moment and told us: "I have experienced the test of life and death, the test of difficult environment, and I am politically firm. But I am also self-aware, and I am a Communist Party member with shortcomings. ”
"I am a defective Communist Party member" should be his personal conclusion about his revolutionary life. Is it heavy? Not heavy! Is it light? Not light! Judging from the practice of working under the leadership of Li Desheng for several years, his self-conclusion is just right. Talking about his shortcomings, he said: "poor knowledge, narrow work area", "work is not comprehensive, consideration of problems is not comprehensive", "I have no experience in school work, Principal Zhang has experience". When he talked about his strengths or strengths, he only mentioned one thing, and that was "unity." What should I do if I have no experience working in school? He said: "It is to rely on collective leadership and unity." He said in an accentuated tone: "I didn't do a good job as a squad leader, but I was united, there was no internal friction, and I worked very happily." This is realistic.
Although Li Desheng is in a senior leadership position, what he still remembers is to be grateful to the party. In his speech, he said: "I was born as a cattle herder, and I am able to hold a senior leadership position in the party to this day, thanks to the party's training." Without the party, there would be no my present. ”
Li Desheng's entire speech was simple in language and serious in attitude, and he did not talk about his feats in the revolution, nor did he criticize those who put him in trouble on "trumped-up" charges. The commendability of his speech is that he closely focused on himself, dissected himself realistically, found out his shortcomings, summed up his experience, and listened to it to convincing people and introspective.
Li Desheng (front row, second from right) took a group photo with members of the party branch after attending the democratic life meeting
After Li Desheng spoke, everyone, including Director Hu Eting, spoke one after another. Everyone generally felt that this group would be held well, and it was fortunate that Li Desheng gave us a good start.
2
"I don't know my exact birthday"
This starts with Li Desheng's background.
In the first half of 1995, I accepted the task of assisting Li Desheng in compiling his memoirs. I was in charge of writing about his teenage years, and I had no readily available information, so I had to go to his hometown to collect it. After accepting the mission, my comrade-in-arms Yao Shengli and I set off for his hometown of Xinxian County, Henan Province to conduct interviews.
In order to obtain more extensive information, in addition to Xinxian, I also went to the party history offices and exhibition halls in Xinyang, Guangshan, and Shangcheng near his hometown, as well as some neighboring villages, such as Chaishanbao, which have more than 20 places. Local leaders at all levels were very willing to help and provided us with a lot of convenience. However, due to the age and the lack of information about his origin, I had no choice, so I focused on his birthplace, Li Jiawa.
There, I talked to more than a dozen of Li Desheng's own brothers and elderly people in the neighborhood, and even went to his mother's grave to see the tombstone.
Through the visit, I found out that Li Desheng's grandfather's name is Li Dingxiang, and his grandmother's surname is Guo. He has four brothers in his father's generation, and "wide", "rich", "straight" and "letter" are in the order of ranking. His father is the second, named Li Jiayu, the eldest Li Jiakuan, and the third and fourth are Li Jiazhi and Li Jiaxin. His family's economic situation was at the bottom of the society, the family did not have paddy fields, and his father opened up some wasteland at the foot of the mountain and planted some miscellaneous grains to make ends meet. When Li Desheng was 7 years old, his mother asked him to learn tailoring, but he felt that he was annoyed by listening to the master's nagging in the house all day long, so he walked out of the tailor shop to herd cattle for people. Herding cattle, the wind and rain, although it is a little hard, but he feels that it is very happy to have the opportunity to play with those children who are herding cattle and chopping wood. As a result, herding cattle became his profession, and he worked for five or six years.
Later, Li Desheng's mother was ill for a long time without medical treatment and died in her early 30s. His father died after he joined the Red Army, and Li Desheng said that he was implicated by him. In that year, the Red Fourth Front Army withdrew from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area, and the Kuomintang army made a comeback, occupying the Dabie Mountain area and Li Desheng's hometown, and the Kuomintang army arrested, beaten, and killed the families of the Red Army. His father first went into hiding, but was caught, tortured, and released in a terminally ill state. The man was released, but the house had been burned to the ground by the enemy, and the few pieces of mountainous land had been taken away, and he had to live by working part-time and begging for food. Soon after, he passed away with endless thoughts for his son.
Li Desheng only heard the news of his father's death in 1947. At that time, Li Desheng served as the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Sixth Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army. When the troops returned to Dabie Mountain, passing by his hometown, he went to Lijiawa to see his father, but he didn't expect to see the wild grass on his father's grave. He became a brigade commander, but his father did not share in the joy.
Some of the above content was talked about by Li Desheng; Some of them are Li Desheng who told a shadow, which is not exact, and we went to his hometown to interview to further confirm it; There are some things that Li Desheng doesn't know at all.
Only Li Desheng's date of birth, we did not find an answer during the interview. When I came back to explain to Li Desheng and his wife Cao Yunlian, they only confirmed that they belonged to the dragon and the comparison of the months of the lunar calendar (April) and the Gregorian calendar (May), and wrote these in their memoirs. The exact date of his birth is not determined. I thought about it for a moment, and it wasn't surprising. He has such a family, such a life experience, and in such a social environment, with no food and clothing, and his parents are poor and sick, how can he still be in the mood to celebrate his child's birthday.
I've had this happen to me. When I participated in the writing of "Xu Xiangqian's Biography", Xu Xiangqian only knew his lunar birthday, and I didn't know what day the Gregorian calendar was. When I was writing the "Tang Liang" entry for the Encyclopedia of China, I went to interview Tang Liang, whose childhood experience was worse than Li Desheng's. When his father died, he was in debt and his mother was desperate, so she reluctantly sold the two-year-old little Tang Liang (formerly known as Tang Changxian, alias Tang Changming) to others to bury his father. With such a background, where will he remember his birthday? When Tang Liang later wanted to celebrate his birthday, he didn't know anything, so he chose his birthday on the Dragon Boat Festival. When I asked him why, he said, "You always have to eat something good during the holidays, even if it's your birthday." Later, Tang Liang's birthday was set for June 13, 1910.
Li Desheng said, "I don't know my exact birthday," and I put that into his memoirs.
3
"Let's go to the street to pay New Year's greetings"
February 5, 1989, the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, the small month, is actually the Chinese New Year's Eve. In the afternoon, the organs were all on holiday, and the staff finished handling the affairs of the unit and were busy with their own New Year's affairs. I got home, prepared the noodles and stuffing for making dumplings on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, found a change of clothes, and was about to go to the bathhouse to take a bath when the phone rang. When I picked up the phone and listened, it turned out that it was Political Commissar Li Desheng who had personally called, and he asked me to accompany him to the street to pay New Year's greetings.
As soon as Li Desheng said New Year's greetings, I casually asked: "Political commissar, New Year's greetings are all arranged on the first day of the new year, and there are no arrangements today." At that time, I was the deputy secretary-general of the office of the Department of Political Affairs, responsible for mass work and external relations. Arrangements have been made for visits, New Year's greetings, and condolences to localities during the Spring Festival, and have been reported to the leaders of the school and relevant departments, and carried out according to the division of labor.
Li Desheng interrupted me and said, "Arrangement is arrangement, let's go for a walk first!"
I still find it a little difficult: first, I don't want to go. In the past few days, in order to arrange to participate in the Spring Festival activities inside and outside the school, I have been very busy, some school leaders have participated in group meetings, some school personnel have participated in amusement evenings and garden activities, and there are also people who have gone to various theaters and stadiums to watch performances and competitions, and so on. These activities, on the surface, are festival entertainment, but in fact, every invoice, dispatch, and organization are very strict. What's more, since 1986, demonstrations have been held in various places under various names, and some slogans have been directed at the central government. Therefore, in organizing activities within the military, the participants must not only have a broad mass character, but also be absolutely reliable, ensure safety, and not allow any problems to occur. I just sent out the tickets for the 30th night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, arranged the car and the team leader, wanted to take a shower, and also arranged the New Year at home. At this time, Li Desheng is going to visit again, and I really don't want to go. The second is that the local units are on holiday, and the units only stay on duty, so who will we go to pay New Year's greetings?
I didn't convince Li Desheng, put down the phone, and according to his idea, quickly called the street office. The street office is on holiday, and there is only one doorman. I told him that Li Desheng, political commissar of the National Defense University, was going to pay New Year's greetings to you, and that he should immediately notify the director and secretary to come to the neighborhood office. He was about to explain to me, but I interrupted him and told him in a firm tone: "Hurry up and inform the leaders and let them participate as much as possible."
Half an hour later, I took Li Desheng to the Qinglongqiao sub-district office.
That afternoon, the weather was sunny and sunny, and you could feel the atmosphere of the New Year when you walked on the road. The yard of the street office was very clean, but empty, except for the attendant who accosted Li Desheng with a smile, there was no second person. When I was in a hurry, a person hurriedly came in from outside the gate, and when I asked, I learned that he was the deputy director of the street office, and he had rushed from home after receiving a call from the doorman.
The deputy director of the neighborhood office was very enthusiastic and let us into the conference room of the neighborhood office. Li Desheng sat down with a smile, and the deputy director hurriedly explained that he did not know that the political commissar was coming today, and that the director, secretary, and other leaders were far away and could not come, so he asked Political Commissar Li to forgive him.
As they were talking, two more men and a woman came in, carrying fruit and sugar cubes in their hands, and when they entered the house, they hurriedly put them on the table. Obviously, this was arranged by the deputy director, and the efficiency is quite high. Li Desheng watched them busy and smiled. When they were done, they sat down beside the deputy director embarrassedly. According to the deputy director, they are the two section chiefs of the neighborhood office.
What Li Desheng talked to them about was some specific things in the streets. How many workers are there in the street, how many households are in the whole street, how many people are there, how many factories and how many schools there are. Speaking of the school, the deputy director showed a proud expression and said: "Our Qinglongqiao street is very small, but it ranks first in the country in cultivating and transporting talents, and the senior cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels in the country are all from Qinglongqiao, and the senior generals of the People's Liberation Army are also from Qinglongqiao."
Li Desheng listened attentively, and at first he didn't react, but when he looked at me and at a few people present, he suddenly understood, laughed, and even said: "Yes, yes, the National Defense University and the Central Party School are all under the control of your Qinglong Bridge." After a pause, he said, "So, I came today, first, to pay New Year's greetings to you, and then to accept the leadership of my parents."
Harmonious, natural and peaceful conversations are one of the characteristics of Li Desheng. When his subordinates, even if they are soldiers or ordinary people, when they see him for the first time, they will inevitably be a little restrained, at a loss, and even panicked, he can use a kind, easy, and even humorous tone to make you relax and let you state your opinions freely.
After chatting for a while, Li Desheng stood up and said, "Today I came to pay New Year's greetings to you, to all the employees of Qinglongqiao Street, and to all the citizens of Qinglongqiao Street." With that, he walked out of the conference room. Walking to the doorman, he walked into the duty room and shook hands with the doorman to say goodbye.
After coming out of the Qinglongqiao Street Office, we went to the Academy of Forestry Sciences. When Li Desheng was sent back to the dormitory, it was almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the bathhouse was closed, and I couldn't take a bath, so I had to boil a pot of water by myself, wipe my body, change my clothes, and say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.
After the fifth day of the first lunar month, Li Desheng's New Year's greeting itinerary began again. On the morning of February 11, I went to the Capital Iron and Steel Company; On the afternoon of February 13, he went to the Xishan Experimental Forest Farm and the Camouflage Regiment of the Engineer Corps of the General Staff; On the morning of February 14th, I went to the beautiful environment service company.
This year was very tense, and then I thought about it, it is also very meaningful to accompany a high-level leader like Political Commissar Li Desheng to greet others.
Just after the Spring Festival holiday, an unexpected thing happened. On the morning of February 20, Secretary Fan, who was next to Li Desheng, called me and said: Qinglongqiao Street has come to ask for money. The reason is that on February 3, the "Beijing Evening News" published an article saying that Li Desheng had raised 20,000 yuan for Qinglongqiao Street, and they wanted to take the money away. Secretary Fan said that there was no such thing as raising 20,000 yuan. Li Desheng was not very happy after reading the report, and wanted to explain it to the reporter of the "Beijing Evening News" to clarify the matter. As soon as I answered the phone, I handled it immediately. After learning about the situation at the Beijing Evening News, it was learned that the reporter who wrote the article was from the Propaganda Department of the Haidian District Party Committee. Then I went to the Propaganda Department of the Haidian District Party Committee to find Minister Zhang. Minister Zhang was very serious and immediately said: The report is untrue and wrong, please report to Political Commissar Li, we must seriously deal with it, and do a good job in the work of the Qinglongqiao Sub-district Office.
In January 1986, Li Desheng delivered a speech at the inaugural meeting of the National Defense University.
4
"Let's go see Yu Zuomin and Yu Zhenliang"
In 1987, before the convening of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the whole army was conducting education on socialism with Chinese characteristics. At that time, there was still a lot of discussion about reform and opening up in society and even within the military. As the leader of the political work of the National Defense University, Li Desheng cannot but think about the methods and ways of doing ideological and political work.
On the evening of May 4, Li Desheng came to me and said, "Let's go see Yu Zuomin and Yu Zhenliang."
Yu Zuomin was the secretary of the Daqiuzhuang Party branch in Jinghai County, Tianjin, and Yu Zhenliang was the secretary of the Doudian Party branch in Fangshan County, Beijing (now Fangshan District). At that time, both of them were pioneers who had made outstanding achievements in rural reform. They were having a meeting in Beijing, but I didn't know where they lived, so I said to Li Desheng: I don't know where they live, so I have to find out first.
Li Desheng said: No need, I know.
So, I rode with him to the city.
Yu and the two lived in the guest house of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
When meeting Yu Zuomin and Yu Zhenliang, Li Desheng said: The National Defense University is engaged in socialist education with Chinese characteristics, and you are very specific there, and the students are preparing to visit and study, and the main idea at present is the issue of understanding the central policy. The visit takes one day, leaving early and returning late, in phases and batches. The two farmer entrepreneurs readily agreed. Yu Zuomin said to Li Desheng: You can do it after the 6th, I will be at home on the 7th and 8th, and you can eat at my place at noon, it doesn't matter how many people there are. Then, he proudly told us: I have agricultural mechanization, rural urbanization, and agricultural industrialization; 16 people farmed, producing 150,000 kilograms of grain per capita.
That's it.
On May 9, Li Desheng's secretary called me and said that Li Desheng was going to Doudian and asked me to arrange it first. Therefore, I went to Doudian with Secretary Zhang of the school office and made arrangements for the route, content and safety and security work of Li Desheng's visit. Due to the interview between Li Desheng and his husband Zhenliang on the evening of the 4th, things were arranged smoothly.
On the 10th, I accompanied Li Desheng to Doudian.
There was also a small episode on the way. On the 9th, the driver of my road exploration asked the convoy dispatch room to be replaced, but I didn't remember the road carefully, and Secretary Zhang didn't come, and when I walked to a fork in the road, I couldn't say for sure. But the driver kept asking, so I pointed in a random direction, but I went wrong. I got out of the car and explained the situation to Li Desheng, and when he heard that he had made a mistake, he said humorously: If this is a war, you won't take us to the enemy's side.
After arriving at Doudian, Yu Zhenliang was not at home and went to the city to make a report, which had been reported to Li Desheng. We were briefed by a deputy secretary.
Doudian, belonging to Fangshan County, is located in the southeast of Fangshan County. Although it is a plain, the natural conditions are not superior, and it was not rich in the past, and suffered three major floods in 1919, 1929 and 1939, as well as locust plagues in 1953 and armyworm plagues in 1965. These floods and insect plagues have caused huge losses to Doudian, so there is a saying that "the streets are broken and the town is poor".
After the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it was different, in the environment of reform and opening up, the party branch secretary Tong Zhenliang had a thorough understanding of the central policy, explored the way of "moderately large-scale operation", and adhered to the comprehensive management mode of focusing on industry and agriculture and developing agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline and fishery in an all-round way.
In 1982, Doudian basically realized the whole process of mechanization of agricultural production. The 347 hectares of land in the village can be planted with only about 10 laborers, with a yield of more than 50 kilograms per mu. At the beginning of the reform, when it became a trend to divide the land into households, they did not divide the fields into households, but concentrated the surplus labor force to develop village-run enterprises. When we visited, there were more than a dozen enterprises, including meat factories, dairy farms, chicken farms, as well as garment factories, brick and tile factories, etc., which laid the foundation of Doudian's industrial structure. At that time, the canteen in their village was very well developed, and the villagers could not cook at home, or make their own non-staple food in the canteen, and they did not need to pay cash, they could keep accounts, and settle the accounts at the end of the year. The villagers are very satisfied with this article. A year before we visited, Tian Jiyun, then Vice Premier of the State Council, went to inspect, and after listening to the report, he said to Yu Zhenliang: Doudian is taking the road of common prosperity and is worthy of the prototype of a modern new countryside.
Li Desheng was very interested, and after seeing Doudian, he was taken to the county party committee by the leaders of the Fangshan County Party Committee to have a discussion, and also saw the Shihua Cave, and lunch was arranged by the Fangshan County Party Committee at noon. Li De usually didn't like to drink alcohol in his life, but after hearing that the liquor was produced in Fangshan County, he also tasted two glasses.
Li Desheng did not go to Daegu Village, but after 14 May, according to his instructions, the students, instructors, and cadres of the organs went to visit in batches. Seeing the changes that have taken place after the reform and opening up of Daegu Village has touched my mind a lot. Later, Yu Zuomin, the leader of Daegu Village, moved into the class room, which touched my thoughts even more.
Yu Zuomin is a person who dares to think and do. He has some famous sayings that make people listen to it very coolly, such as: in the past, Daegu Village was very poor, and he said "I would rather eat bran for three years than marry Daegu Village"; When summing up the tortuous experience of rural development in the 30 years since the founding of New China, he said that "class struggle is the key link, the people are panicked, grain is the key link, and the poverty is very poor"; When introducing the experience of unified management, he said that "Daegu Village is a unified operation, with professional people and no professional households", and added, "We are unified to get rich, not to package production to households"; When talking about the benefits of contracting, he said that "layer by layer, layer by layer, everyone has autonomy". At the beginning of the reform, in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the whole village, when balancing various relationships in the village, Yu Zuomin had a remark that made people feel fair and warm, he said: "The honest and honest do not let him be angry, the naughty and mischievous do not let him jump out of the circle, the shrewd and capable let him play to his heart's content, and the sloppy and slapping horses do not let him get cheap." When he bowed down in front of money, he said unabashedly: "Look up and look forward, look down at money, only by looking at money, can you look forward." In practice, he applied this idea to the fullest. When the power of Daegu Village was concentrated in his hands, he openly said to the masses: "Everyone who blows his own tune listens to my trumpet, and if he does not listen to my trumpet, he does not want any of them."
After Yu Zuomin gathered the party, government, and financial power of Daegu Village, he had no fear. He is lawless, and without scruples, he substitutes words for the law and defends the law by example; He arbitrarily disposed of the assets of Daegu Village, wanted to take a luxury S L 60 Mercedes-Benz bulletproof car, and sat in it with just one sentence; He wanted to live in a luxurious small western-style building, and in just one sentence, his followers built him a small "Zhongnanhai", surrounded by glazed tiled roofs, a "communication room" for entering and exiting the gate, and a doorman on duty day and night; When he felt that there was a security risk, he also carried eight bodyguards with him, and established a armed economic police and security team of more than 10 people. Yu Zuomin has become a veritable "owner" of Daegu Village.
One day in April 1993, Yu Zuomin, his son and his subordinates, a total of eight people, were arrested and moved into a class room. In August, Yu Zuomin was sentenced to 20 years in prison for harboring, obstructing official duties, offering bribes, illegal detention, and illegal control.
After hearing the news of Yu Zuomin's arrest, I reported it to Political Commissar Li Desheng. At that time, he was not surprised, probably knowing about this from the central government a long time ago, and after hearing this, he just smiled and said simply: What can be done then, the national law is ruthless.
5
"Responsible for the country and responsible for nurturing the next generation"
On the morning of August 6, 1987, Li Desheng came to me to explain several things.
One is to engage in joint construction with the "Oriental Civilization Management Institute" (the military and the people jointly build spiritual civilization).
The author and Li Desheng (right) pose for a group photo
At that time, Li Desheng had an idea that the National Defense University was located in Haidian District, and there were many colleges and universities in Haidian District, and it would be great if the National Defense University could jointly build with these colleges and universities to share data, data, and research results. When Li Desheng was thinking about this matter, a leader of the "Oriental Civilization Management Institute" came to him, and he was very happy and asked me to do it.
I talked to the leader several times before I understood his intentions. The "Oriental Civilization Management Institute" wants to solve the problem of insufficient school buildings by using the campus of the National Defense University in the form of joint construction, or in other words, after recruiting students, he will come to the National Defense University to teach. That's a big question. First, the National Defense University is a military unit, and its cadets are all active military personnel, and it recruits young people from society, and if these young people who have not been trained enter the barracks, it will directly affect the teaching order of the National Defense University and the management of the entire barracks. Second, the National Defense University does not have idle school buildings for them to occupy for a long time; Third, I have never figured out what the "Oriental Civilization Management College" is and where it is located. Every time I talked to the leader, he asked me to go to a place and didn't mention that I was going to visit their school, which made me a little confused.
After I reported what I learned to Li Desheng, he was also a little uncertain and said, "You can learn more about the situation." This joint construction was not done, so it was put down. Later, the leader of the academy never came to me again, and there was no information about the "Oriental Civilization Management Institute". I asked the Education Bureau and the answer was: there is no such college.
The second thing is to solve the problem that the children of the teachers and staff in the school cannot go to high school after graduating from junior high school.
Li Desheng said: Children who are not admitted to school must be helped to solve them. He said: If the children's work is not done well, it will distract the energy of cadres and teachers. If the child is in high school, it is always better to solve it personally, and it will always be better to come forward organizationally. A portion of the cadre welfare expenses can be taken out. He also said: This should be an important thing to grasp, to do the work of improving the enthusiasm of the teaching staff, this is a pipeline.
On August 8, Li Desheng called me again and said: For the children who graduated from junior high school and did not go to high school, we must find a way to implement it, so that they can go to school and do something good for everyone. He repeatedly emphasized: we must pay close attention to implementation, do a good job in counseling, and do a good job; If you can't cope with it, you must work hard seriously, be responsible for your children, your parents, the country, and the next generation. Parents should be in charge, schools should be in charge, children should not be left in society, not to engage in temporary work, and organizations should help solve problems.
In accordance with Li Desheng's instructions, I went to five or six relevant middle schools with the staff of the cadre department and the office, and I also used my position as a deputy to the Haidian District People's Congress to consult with the leaders of the Haidian District Education Bureau on many occasions.
The crux of the matter is money. Li Desheng said: You can contribute a little money to the welfare fee. When I reported this instruction to the leaders of the Political Department and the leaders of the Cadre Department in charge of welfare, they felt very embarrassed. At that time, the welfare fee at the disposal of a second-level department was only a few hundred yuan, and children who were not admitted to high school had to pay at least 10 yuan for 1 point to go on to higher education, and 10 yuan for 10 points. There are more than a dozen of our children in school who have not been admitted to high school, some are one or two points short, some are twenty or thirty points, or even more, and this is all bought with money, and the burden is too heavy. When I consulted with a leader of the Haidian District Education Bureau, I repeatedly stated Li Desheng's words and asked him to seriously understand Political Commissar Li's urgent feelings for the sake of his children. The leader said: Political Commissar Li's mood is also our mood, why don't we want our children to have a school to study, but there are no conditions, and the social pressure is great, if it is a dozen or so children of your National Defense University, I can solve it for you. The question is, there are many children in junior high school in society who are facing the prospect of leaving school, and their parents want their children to go to high school, what should they do? If you don't have a threshold, it's even harder to do your job.
For the sake of Li Desheng's face, we paid a little money to the relevant schools, and in addition, the leaders of the Education Bureau coordinated with various schools to give a little discount and help solve the enrollment problem of several students. Although it didn't solve all of it, I think it was a great success. Among the few children who have not been solved, some of them have poor academic performance, the children themselves do not want to lie on the desk, the parents have no confidence, and the school is even more reluctant to tie these children to the classroom.
Two weeks later, when I went to report to Li Desheng with the results of my work, he heard that the key was money, and he had nothing to say. There was helplessness and relief on his face.
I have been in contact with Li Desheng for several years, and I deeply feel that he is an amiable elder and a leader who is very good to work with. However, what I respect more is his responsible spirit of caring for the grassroots, caring for the people, being generous and tolerant, and putting the cause first.
Source: Night Reading Celebrity Memories
Author: Wang Wenzhong