ArticleManagerIn the early morning of March 13, 2022, I was shocked to learn that Dong Zhiwen, former member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, former executive vice governor of the Provincial People’s Government, and former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, who had worked and lived in Pingjiang, my hometown, for more than 20 years, and Dong Zhiwen, secretary of the Linxiang County Party Committee and secretary of the Yueyang Prefectural Party Committee, died at 17:56 on the 12th at Changsha Xiangya Hospital at the age of 89. I was in a very sad mood, old tears filled my eyes, and the past appeared in front of my eyes one by one.
Take care of the documents in your arms with your life
Dong Zhiwen, nicknamed Siniu, is a native of Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, born in September 1933. In July 1948, he participated in the revolution in Xin County, he was able and solid, and at the age of 15, he became a correspondent of the eighth district party committee of Xin County.
The southbound army needed a messenger, and Dong Zhiwen took the initiative to sign up and was approved. He put on a military uniform that did not fit well, went home to visit his parents, said goodbye to his fellow villagers, and held a farewell party for him in Xinzhen Village, where the Dong family was located, and his parents also told him to listen to the party and Chairman Mao, do things for the southerners, and win glory for us northerners.
On March 15, 1949, the Xin County Southbound Squadron, led by Qi Shouliang and Zhang Shiyi, marched in line and embarked on the journey south. That night, he arrived at Donghuangshui Village in Yangqu County and camped in the village. At this time, Taiyuan had not yet been liberated, and in order to prevent enemy attacks, sentries were set up inside and outside the village that night. Dong Zhiwen held the documents in his arms and did not close his eyes all night.
After a rapid march, the team reached Shijiazhuang. Camped in Tajia Village on the outskirts of the city and spent 40 days of integration study in the village.
In early May, the southbound squadron left Shijiazhuang and continued southbound. Heavy gunfire was heard from time to time during the march. It arrived on the north bank of the Yellow River on May 4. The wind and sand are thick here, the dust is obstructed, and people cannot be seen clearly from two meters away. Dong Zhiwen carried his backpack, followed Qi Shouliang and everyone to fumble across the rickety pontoon bridge and safely crossed the Yellow River.
Both sides of the Yellow River are full of yellow mud water, and when you need to drink water during the march, you can only drink a few sips of yellow mud water. At this time, our People’s Liberation Army had already fought the Yangtze River and Nanjing was liberated. But Xinyang, Xuchang and Wuhan in Henan remained under enemy entrenchment.
On June 9, the third squadron arrived in Zhengzhou by train from Gong County. They traveled east along Longhai Road in two stuffy tank carriages. At that time, it was the height of summer, and more than 90 people were sitting in the stuffy tank boxes that had once transported military horses, and the smell of human sweat mixed with the stench of horse manure and urine made many comrades breathless. On June 11, he arrived at Xuzhou Station, and the next day he took a train to the south along Jinpu Road. When I arrived at Bengbu, because the railway bridge was blown up by the enemy, I had no choice but to turn towards Hefei, cross the river by small steamboat, and then continue southbound by train…
After more than four months, traversing seven provinces (Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan) and traveling more than 2,000 kilometers, the southbound cadres of Xin County finally reached their destination – Pingjiang County in Hunan Province on July 18, 1949. At this time, Dong Zhiwen became a correspondent of the Pingjiang County CPC Committee, and in July of the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China with honor, becoming one of the youngest party members in the county at that time.
Serve the people of the old district wholeheartedly
From November 1959 to April 1962, Dong Zhiwen served as the secretary of the Party Committee of Fushou Mountain Agriculture and Forestry Reclamation Farm in Pingjiang County and the secretary of the Changshou District Party Committee of Pingjiang County. During this period, he “led people to establish a reclamation farm, which is now the Fushou Forest Farm.” “It has now been established as a national eco-tourism zone. He also led migrant workers to march to the bare Mufu Mountain, planting trees and establishing a Mufu reclamation farm. The author had followed him to fight in the wind and rain on the mountain for several months, and was deeply affected by his barefoot straw shoe hard and simple style. At that time, after a hard time, I was undernourished and fell ill, and Secretary Dong came to see me in Datan with half a kilogram of chestnut biscuits rationed to him, and I was not affected, and said, “You have lost weight like this.” He said, “When you’re sick, you need to add some nutrition.” “He gave me the chestnut biscuits.
The vicissitudes of the sea, changed the world. “Move green mountains to block white water and prevent white water from flowing in vain”, this second half of the couplet, which has not yet been artificially paired, records a vigorous feat of the people of Pingjiang changing the world and changing the world. At the beginning of 1970, 6,000 laborers from all villages in the county were rolled up into Fushou Mountain, reaching 20,000 laborers at its peak. In just 16 months, 4.6 million dams were built to build a 50-meter-high dam. The high gorge flows out of Ping Lake, the water flows as people wish, and the water of Fushou Mountain flows into a new era that benefits the people. How much effort has been put into Secretary Dong!
In October 1964, amid the upsurge of “agricultural science in the Great Village”, the CPC Pingjiang County Party Committee and the county people’s government held an enlarged meeting and made a resolution to “set up water wheel pumps, develop the Miluo River, and build a new Pingjiang”. Dong Zhiwen, then deputy secretary of the county party committee, led the cadres of the county, district, community and team and water conservancy and hydropower workers to fight day and night with the vast number of migrant workers on the small hydropower construction site, regardless of the scorching summer, severe winter, ice and snow. After a year of hard work, he built 21 barrages, 20 water wheel pumping stations, installed 110 water turbines, opened canals and diverted water, irrigated 105,000 mu of land, generated 2,230 kilowatts of installed power generation, and installed more than 200 rice, oil pressing, and milling machinery.
The development of small hydropower has promoted the improvement of industrial and agricultural production and people’s living standards in the county, and has embedded countless “night pearls” in the mountainous areas, shining with brilliant brilliance.
On July 30, 1966, the autumn air was crisp and the sky was clear. Tan Zhenlin, then member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, led more than 120 secretaries in charge of agriculture, provincial and municipal party secretaries and leaders of water conservancy and power industry departments who attended the National Agricultural Mechanization Conference in Wuhan to drive to Pingjiang and went straight to the Qingchong Water Wheel Pumping Station to visit and inspect.
In the evening, a meeting was held in the courtyard of the Pingjiang County Party Committee. Listen to the brief reports of Dong Zhiwen, secretary of the county party committee, and Rong Aiquan, deputy secretary of the county, on the situation of the county’s large-scale small hydropower and industrial and agricultural production. Tan Zhenlin finally said: “Everyone can compare with Pingjiang and sum up their own lessons. What Pingjiang can do, all provinces and places with similar natural conditions to Pingjiang should do. ”
After Vice Premier Tan and his entourage inspected the construction of small hydropower in Pingjiang, Dong Zhiwen, secretary of the county party committee, and Hong Songtao, county magistrate, followed the instructions of Vice Premier Tan and provincial and municipal leaders, looked for gaps in the face of honor, exploited their strengths and avoided their weaknesses, organized comprehensive surveys by professional and technical personnel in water conservancy and hydropower, scientifically formulated a medium- and long-term development plan for small hydropower construction and development in accordance with local conditions, highlighted key projects, concentrated forces, and fought a war of annihilation. By the end of 1968, the county had built a total of 422 water wheel pumping stations, installed 524 units, invested 2.197 million yuan, put into operation 1.91 million, irrigated an area of 150,000 mu, driven 117 sets of mechanical and electrical equipment, with a capacity of 2,602 kilowatts, and installed 463 sets of machinery such as rice pumping, oil pressing, and milling. Subsequently, with the efforts of the whole county, large-scale backbone power stations such as Baishui, Xujiadong, Dajiangdong and Huangtang were built. More than 30 township-run power stations, 29 village-level power stations and 26 small power stations run by groups and households, have been built. The scale of small hydropower construction is getting bigger and bigger, and delegations from Romania, New Zealand, Vietnam and other countries have visited China to visit the construction of water wheel pumps in Pingjiang. The experience of small hydropower construction in Pingjiang has been promoted abroad.
Dong Zhiwen has been with the people of Pingjiang for 21 years, from taking over government building, democratic reform, resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, to developing the economy, culture and education, unifying finance and economy, and building water conservancy… Nothing is meticulous, hands-on, truth-seeking and pragmatic, close to the people and loving the people, known as the “Jiao Yu-style county party secretary”.
Persist in self-revolution and be strict with oneself
Dong Zhiwen insisted on self-revolution and was strict with himself. They are very strict with themselves and their families and children in all aspects, and never make any specialization. When he went to work in Linxiang, his family lived in a few bungalows in an old abandoned kindergarten, no different from ordinary cadres. His lover, Chu Ruiru, served as a deputy county magistrate in Pingjiang County, and after arriving in Linxiang, he only served as the party branch secretary of a small factory. The organization department has repeatedly proposed to implement policies for her, at least to arrange a position in the bureau, but Dong Zhiwen still insists that she work in the factory from the perspective of the overall situation. Her daughter, who was fifteen or sixteen years old, was supposed to rest at home during the summer vacation, but mobilized her to go to the countryside to support the double robbery. The conditions in the countryside are very poor in all aspects, and the task of double robbery is very heavy, with the scorching sun on her head and the sludge on her feet, and she has been working for more than ten hours, but she insists on working until the start of school and returns to the office. Seeing that little Dong Ying was dark and thin when he returned, the cadres of the organs were all moved by Dong Zhiwen’s spirit of strictly demanding his children. He denies himself and never accepts any money or goods from the cadres and masses. A cadre brought a laji to his house. He was not at home, and his daughter Dong Ying took it, but did not pay. After Dong Zhiwen found out, he paid according to the price.
Dong Zhiwen insists on strict requirements for dealing with people. The work has achieved results, and he owes, first of all, to the collective leadership and comrades working on the front line; When something goes wrong, he always takes the initiative to take responsibility and never fights for merit. It is precisely because Dong Zhiwen is strict with himself, so there is an awe-inspiring righteousness in his body. Although he never disciplined people casually, when he encountered major problems of principle, he dared to grasp and manage them, and was not afraid of offending people. When the county party committee decided to prepare for the establishment of Zhongshan Lake Farm, the person in charge of the party committee of Dinghu Commune, which is adjacent to Zhongshan Lake, began to have a unclear attitude and did not cooperate well, Dong Zhiwen immediately called the person in charge and asked him whether he supported or did not support the county party committee’s decision to build a new Zhongshan Lake farm? Dong’s stern attitude shocked this comrade greatly. Since then, he has changed his negative attitude in the past and supported the preparation of the farm from all aspects, so that Zhongshan Lake Farm was successfully completed in a short period of time.
Dong Zhiwen’s outstanding work in Linxiang has won high praise from the party and the people. After 1972, as an excellent leading cadre, he was organizationally arranged to serve as the secretary of the Yueyang Prefectural Party Committee, and many of his touching examples have been passed down among the cadres and masses to this day.