Haojiaqiao Village, located in Zhangjialing Town, Suide County, Shaanxi Province, is an ordinary village deep in the hills and ravines of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, under the leadership of the Suide Prefectural Committee, and in response to the call of the party Central Committee and the government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, democratic politics, rural transformation, development of production, and support for the party and the army were extensively carried out, and other activities to save the country against Japan and the country were extensively carried out; in particular, they performed prominently in the large-scale production movement, forming advanced and touching deeds of "villages and villages studying Haojiaqiao, and everyone learning from Liu Yuhou," and was hailed as a "rural model" of the Suide sub-district.
Since the central government arrived in northern Shaanxi, it has encountered "the greatest difficulties." After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered a stalemate stage, the economic situation in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region took a sharp turn for the worse, and serious economic difficulties began to appear in the second half of 1940. Regarding the severity of this economic difficulty, Mao Zedong once recalled: This was the "biggest difficulty" encountered by the CPC Central Committee in the five years since it arrived in northern Shaanxi. "We once got almost no clothes to wear, no oil to eat, no paper, no vegetables, no shoes and socks for soldiers, and no cover for the staff in winter... Our difficulties are enormous." The main reasons for this serious economic difficulty are: First, the "sweeping" and "clearing of the countryside" by the Japanese Kou in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region have directly posed a positive threat to the economic development of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region; second, the Kuomintang has continuously created "friction" incidents in the border areas since the advent of the stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and has imposed an economic blockade on the border areas in an all-round way; third, the number of party, government, and military personnel who have separated from production in the border areas has increased sharply, and the supply of grain has been extremely difficult; fourth, serious natural disasters have occurred repeatedly in the border areas, and grain harvests in many areas have failed year after year. In addition, in October 1940, the Nationalist government suspended the eighth route army's salaries, causing the army of about 500,000 people to suddenly cut off economic resources, further aggravating financial and economic difficulties.
In order to overcome this sudden difficulty, Mao Zedong personally conducted an in-depth study of the financial and economic problems of the border areas, holding that the root cause of the problem was the lack of economic development, which was related to the idea of emphasizing the military over the economy that prevailed inside and outside the party at that time. To this end, Mao Zedong stressed the importance of economic development on many occasions, and regarded "developing the economy and guaranteeing self-sufficiency" as the general policy for carrying out the campaign of production and self-help and the center of all future work. Mao Zedong particularly stressed the extreme importance of conscientiously doing a good job in economic work in the overall situation, saying: "We must make food and eat, and we must pay attention to economic work. Talking about education or study without economic work is nothing more than empty talk. In this context, from 1941 onwards, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region officially launched a large-scale production movement with the task of increasing grain production as the central task.
Haojiaqiao Village has carried out large-scale agricultural production initiatives. In February 1940, after the liberation of Suide, the first township office of Shaping District was located in Haojiaqiao Village. Haojiaqiao village has more than 120 farming households, 677 people, a total of 2137 acres of land (about 3-5 acres per embankment), per capita land 3.15 acres, in normal years, the average annual rations of less than 1.5 stones, is a typical poor village with many people and little land. Soon after liberation, Haojiaqiao Village established a democratic regime, under the leadership of liu Yuhou, a township senator and communist party member, actively responded to the call to launch a large-scale production movement, took various measures to actively develop agricultural production, and by the beginning of 1943 it had changed from a poor village to a relatively wealthy village.
Haojiaqiao Village mainly adopts the following measures in the development of agricultural production.
The first is to carry out rent reduction and interest rate reduction. Due to the relatively late liberation, the agrarian revolution did not take place in suide all over the region, including Haojiaqiao Village, and a large amount of land was still occupied by the landlords, and the peasants were exploited by the landlords at high rents, and their lives were generally impoverished. In the second year after liberation, Haojiaqiao Village set up a rent reduction and interest reduction task force to seriously carry out rent reduction and interest reduction, reducing the original rent rate of nearly 50% to 20%-35%, and the income of lessors after rent reduction should not exceed 40% of the harvest. This measure alone has increased the income of farmers by more than 20 percent.
The second is to reform agricultural production and straighten out the relationship between land lease and tenant. Haojiaqiao Village only grows one crop a year. Summer crops (spring planting and summer harvest) yields are low, with a maximum of no more than six buckets; autumn crops (spring planting and autumn harvest) yields are high, up to more than one stone, almost double the height. As a result, the proportion of summer crops sown is low, less than 10%. But this also brings problems: because of the shortage of summer grains, people do not have enough to eat, and the autumn crops are neglected, resulting in a decrease in autumn crops. To this end, Haojiaqiao Village has reformed agricultural production, expanding the sown area of summer crops to 575.5 yuan, an increase of nearly 17%. At the same time, it is stipulated that the tenant of the land is prohibited from collecting rent on the summer crops, which is very beneficial to both the tenant and the tenant.
The third is to organize a change of labor team. The work change team is an old and popular labor mutual aid organization based on individual economy in rural China. It is generally composed of several peasant households, through artificial or animal worker exchange, collectively taking turns to cultivate for each family, and paying according to the principle of equality and mutual benefit. Haojiaqiao village has few livestock, only 6 ploughing cattle and 35 donkeys, but the labor force is relatively sufficient, and the organization of the work team can improve labor efficiency. The village organized all the peasant households and set up 9 groups, with a total of 144 people in the whole village, except for the part-time business or frequent short-term work, 113 people participated in the change of work, more than 94%. Through the mutual assistance of work changes, the crops in Haojiaqiao Village were generally weeded 4-6 times, and the grain production was generally increased by about 20%, and a number of "hoeing heroes" such as Liu Yuhou, Wang Dexiang, and Hao Guangsheng emerged. Their attitude towards their crops is like that of those closest to them.
The fourth is the reclamation of land by immigrants. Haojiaqiao Village has many people and little land, and there is no wilderness to open. In order to solve the problem of the living difficulties of the poor in some areas, and in response to the call of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region on the reclamation of the land by migrants, 23 poor households were actively mobilized to yan'an to reclaim the famine. In less than two years, these immigrants have reclaimed an average of 40-50 hectares of land and become increasingly prosperous. After Hou Shengzhi, who originally lived in poverty and depression, immigrated to Yan'an to reclaim the famine, in just a few years, there were more than 70 plots of land, two cows, a donkey, two horses, and two long-term workers, living better than the rich families in Haojiaqiao Village. He praised the Communist Party as good every time, "Such a good public house really made our poor people in the past turn over one by one." ”
Fifth, organize women who have the ability to work. "Good aunt spinning thread at home, good Hanzi South Road to open up production!" Loving labor and opposing laziness has always been the fine tradition of Haojiaqiao Village. All 135 all-labored women in the village who can spin yarn participate in spinning, and they are all middle and upper-class spinning experts, with an annual spinning of about 150 pounds. In addition to spinning, most of them also participate in the work of beating the field and raising the field, and engage in agricultural and sideline production activities such as raising chickens and feeding sheep. Income from production is basically equal to that of male labourers, and some female labourers are also rated as spinning heroes.
The above-mentioned measures to carry out large-scale agricultural production in Haojiaqiao Village have been fully affirmed and highly praised by Xi Zhongxun, the new secretary of the prefectural party committee. In February 1943, after Xi Zhongxun was appointed secretary of the Suide Prefectural Party Committee, in order to implement the work policy of "developing production and ensuring supply" put forward by the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong, he personally led an investigation team to Haojiaqiao Village for a 44-day investigation. Xi Zhongxun keenly found that the development of agricultural production in Haojiaqiao Village is very representative, and all walks of life are at the forefront of the large-scale production movement in Suide, and many experiences are worth promoting in the large-scale production movement. Especially when he learned about Liu Yuhou's deeds, he was touched by Liu Yuhou's spirit of leading the peasants in the village to work hard in order to let the villagers live a good life. At the suggestion of Xi Zhongxun, the Suide Prefectural Committee awarded Liu Yuhou the title of model party member and labor hero, and carried out the activity of "learning from Haojiaqiao in villages and villages, and everyone learning from Liu Yuhou" throughout the region, vigorously promoting Haojiaqiao's experience and setting up a banner for the large-scale production movement in the whole region. Driven by the demonstration of Haojiaqiao Village, the whole district of Suide set off the climax of the large-scale production movement, and in addition to paying the national food in full, it also solved the problem of feeding 520,000 people in the whole district. In 1944, Xi Zhongxun personally awarded the title of "Rural Model" to Haojiaqiao Village.