Zhu Jinxi: An Old Party Member Who Never Retires
The Story of Zhu Jinxi, First Secretary of the Party Branch of Zhanzhuang Village, Gangli Township, Weishi County, Henan
Guo Mingzhu, Meng Xiangfu
He once served as political commissar of the Public Security Bureau of Kaifeng County, Henan, and deputy director of the county people's congress. After retiring in 2008, he returned to his hometown of Zhanzhuang Village, Gangli Township, Weishi County, to serve as First Secretary of the Party Branch, leading the local people onto the road of escaping poverty and becoming prosperous. He is Zhu Jinxi, a "Forever Brand, returning-type grassroots cadre."
"We Can't Just Watch the People Live in Poverty"
Zhanzhuang Village is part of the old Yellow River floodplain, covered in sandy wasteland. The whole village has lived off farming for generations, getting by on very little. Once, Zhu Jinxi happened to overhear an elderly villager say, "If I could just eat a pork knuckle, I could die content." It may have been a joke, but Zhu Jinxi took it to heart. He silently resolved that he must find a way to change the face of his hometown and lead his fellow villagers out of poverty to prosperity.
In 2008, after market research and careful thought, Zhu Jinxi judged that pig farming could quickly help the villagers escape poverty. To minimize the risks of pig farming for the households as much as possible, he decided to first work out the experience himself, and promote it once it succeeded. He borrowed money to build a simple pig shed, and persuaded his eldest daughter to build a trial pig farm that could house 150 pigs. Hard work pays off, and combined with favorable pig-farming market conditions that year, more than 100 meat pigs brought in a net profit of nearly 100,000 yuan.
The villagers' enthusiasm was stirred up, and many began raising pigs. Villager Zhu Jinshuan earned 90,000 yuan in one year from pig farming and built a two-story house. Villager Zhu Fude had his left leg amputated high up due to a car accident; with seven people in the family, young and old, life was very difficult. Zhu Jinxi urged him to raise pigs and even advanced the deposit for him, enabling him to pay off his debts and improve his life.
Zhu Jinxi's family did not understand his actions, saying that after retirement he had gone stir-crazy from idleness: "Why give up a good life in the city and insist on going to the countryside to endure hardship?" Zhu Jinxi explained: "Isn't a Party member supposed to lead the people to prosperity? If we just watch the people live in poverty in the village while we Party cadres retire at home to enjoy a comfortable life, that's not fulfilling our duty!"
"This Is All Thanks to Jinxi"
To expand the scale of breeding, Zhu Jinxi made many trips out to visit and learn, seeking advice and experience. After thorough research, Zhu Jinxi decided to cooperate with an enterprise, implementing an operating model of "cooperative + community + company + farming households."
Today, Zhanzhuang Village has built 5 pig farms, with a total investment of more than 7 million yuan. More than 80 households have joined in pig farming, with average annual household income reaching 50,000 to 90,000 yuan. The purebred sow breeding scale at the breeding pig base has also reached 2,000 head, and each year it can provide pig farmers with 3,000 breeding pigs and 20,000 commercial piglets, becoming the largest supply base for breeding pigs and piglets in Kaifeng City.
Once pig farming reached scale, livelihood problems such as difficult transportation and difficult access to electricity for the villagers became prominent. Zhu Jinxi coordinated in all directions and successively raised 300,000 yuan to build the main road outside the village and 10 streets within the village; he also invested 30,000 yuan to upgrade the village's low-voltage lines. In addition, he raised 520,000 yuan on his own to build an 800-cubic-meter biogas digester, provided free of charge for the villagers to use.
"Pig farming and tree planting have brought in money, the convenience road is open, we use biogas and no longer have to spend money on coal briquettes, high-voltage lines have been strung up, and the problem of irrigating the fields has been solved. This is all thanks to Jinxi," the villagers said.
To broaden the people's paths to prosperity, Zhu Jinxi hired experts to plant 500 mu of the Jindong No. 1 jujube variety. In 2015, Zhengzhou Port Area Hongniangzi Fresh Jujube Co., Ltd. signed a 10-year exclusive sales contract with the village. Buyers from Beijing, Shanghai, and even overseas markets such as Japan and the United Arab Emirates all came to Kaifeng to place orders, and the villagers growing jujubes were overjoyed.
?"The Villagers Have It Too Hard, They Need Help"
In 8 years of retirement, Zhu Jinxi led his fellow villagers toward moderate prosperity together. Along the way there was joy and comfort, as well as tears and regrets, but he had no complaints and no regrets.
To raise funds, he mortgaged the properties of himself and his two daughters for loans, sold his son's house, and pledged the payroll bankbooks of himself, his eldest daughter, and his second son-in-law to the bank.
In 2009, Zhu Jinxi's only son fell seriously ill and needed treatment in Tianjin, but he was busy with village affairs and had no time to accompany him. He said to his son: "You know, the villagers have it too hard and need Dad's help. You won't resent me, right?"
The relentless disease still closed in step by step. When Zhu Jinxi, who was away raising funds, headed straight for Tianjin, the hospital had already given up treatment. On the way back, Zhu Jinxi clutched his son's hand tightly, endless sorrow surging in his heart. But no one expected that after handling his son's funeral affairs, Zhu Jinxi threw himself back into work.
Speaking of his future plans, Zhu Jinxi remains full of ambition: with pig farming as the core, develop biogas power generation projects to solve energy problems; use biogas residue as fertilizer to grow grapes and develop high-efficiency agriculture; develop deep processing of organic feed and other related industries to form a large industrial chain...
As an old Party member with more than 40 years of Party membership, Zhu Jinxi keeps the Party's purpose firmly in mind and keeps advancing on the road of leading farmers out of poverty to prosperity.
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