Former village Party secretary Zhang Xiudai: burned out the flame of his life for the villagers' escape from poverty

Former village Party secretary Zhang Xiudai of Majia Village, Guxian Town, Yuechi County, Sichuan

Burned out the flame of his life for the villagers' escape from poverty

Xiao Yong, Sun Weitie

"This old pal of mine worked himself far too hard"

"Secretary Zhang, yesterday I finally moved into my new home. You said you would come to my house to drink at the housewarming feast, but you left us instead..." On September 29, 63-year-old Zhang Zhongcheng, an impoverished household in Group 2 of Majia Town, Guxian Town, Yuechi County, Guang'an City, Sichuan Province, shed tears at the grave of Zhang Xiudai, the former village Party branch secretary. On Zhang Xiudai's cadre personnel record there was only one entry: secretary of the Majia Village Party branch since 1985. For more than 30 years, the flame of his life burned on this barren land of Majia Village, warming the villagers' hearts in their fight against poverty, until he fell ill from accumulated exhaustion and died of illness.

"This old pal of mine just worked himself far too hard, otherwise he wouldn't have gone so soon," sighed Zhang Fangwu, the village director who had worked alongside Zhang Xiudai for more than 20 years.

In June 2014, a new round of poverty alleviation actions was launched across Yuechi County, and Majia Village was designated a provincial-level poverty-stricken village. At a mass meeting, Zhang Xiudai told all the villagers the news. The villagers did not pay it much attention. That was understandable: they had grown used to poverty and were afraid of it. "Many households enjoying the five guarantees, many sick people, many earthen houses, many people who have run off, and only little money in the villagers' pockets." Village director Zhang Fangwu summed up the villagers' hard days of earlier years as "four manys and one little."

Keeping the cadres of the village Party branch and village committee behind for a meeting, Zhang Xiudai threw down a harsh vow: "If the villagers don't escape poverty, you can cut off my head!" Zhang Xiudai, who had served as a soldier, had a vigorous and resolute style. Going from village to household, he visited every family to seek the villagers' views on poverty alleviation. After gathering the problems reported by each household, he delivered them to the leaders of the assisting units at the town, county and city levels and asked for support.

Zhang Xiudai convened another mass meeting and gave the villagers a reassuring pill: "This new round of poverty alleviation is unprecedented in strength. We must seize the opportunity and roll up our sleeves and work hard. If the support policies from above cannot be delivered in the village, then you can move into my house." That day, long-unheard applause rang out in the village meeting room. From then on, Zhang Xiudai became firm in his belief that Majia Village's tomorrow would be better, and he worked day and night.

?Not acting as "master of the house," handling matters with an even hand

In targeted poverty alleviation, accurately identifying poor households is the foundation.

At a village committee meeting, Zhang Xiudai asked everyone to speak up: Which households are poor? By what specific method should poor households be identified? The village cadres all looked at one another but did not say a word. Behind the silence was Majia Village's complex web of relationships. "Which village cadre doesn't have a few poor relatives? Who doesn't want to be a poor household and enjoy support policies?" said Zhang Yong, deputy secretary of the village Party branch, frankly.

Zhang Xiudai knew these little calculations all too well. To solve complex matters, for so many years Zhang Xiudai had stuck to one principle: village cadres should only serve as the "backbone," not act as the "master of the house," and in everything they must "hold the bowl of water level." How was that done? For identifying poor households, Zhang Xiudai laid down two rules: first, the masses choose and evaluate for themselves; second, village cadres are strictly forbidden to lobby the masses. Through two rounds of voting, Majia Village finally identified 44 poor households. After the list was posted publicly, not a single person raised an objection.

Building and renovating houses involves much money and many matters. Whether skimming off the top or showing favor to acquaintances, for a few village cadres with selfish motives this was a "good opportunity." This year, Majia Village was to relocate 14 households for poverty alleviation. Zhang Xiudai laid down two more rules: first, how much policy subsidy each household gets must be clearly posted publicly; second, for house construction the village would not designate a contractor, and who to hire to build would be decided by the villagers.

Some relatives who refused to believe in his strictness, while drinking at his home, proposed wanting to contract projects in the village and help villagers build houses, but Zhang Xiudai rejected them one by one. During the building process, the village committee and the villagers each kept a set of accounts, and every brick, every beam and every bag of sand was recorded clearly. When villager Zhang Junhui was building his house, a bag of cement cost 5 yuan more than for others, and Zhang Xiudai insisted on finding the contractor and cutting the price down. To ensure good housing quality, Zhang Xiudai invited technicians from the town quality inspection station to assess the work, and only after they passed it would Zhang Xiudai sign off.

In just a few months, the new houses of 14 households in the village rose from the ground, and villagers who had lived for decades in shabby mud-tile houses joyfully moved into new homes.

????Fighting the tough battle, charging bravely forward

In July this year, Zhang Xiudai collapsed from illness once again. He secretly resolved: poverty must be eliminated by the end of this year, the battle against poverty has entered its countdown, and even if it means braving "a hail of bullets," he must charge forward! To escape poverty and become prosperous, the key is to find the right industries. This is the simplest of truths, yet putting it into practice is not easy.

In order to get an accurate read on market conditions, Zhang Xiudai ran to Chongqing and Guang'an again and again. Which region, in which season, what agricultural products were in great demand and commanded high prices, he understood all of it clearly. "What industry to choose cannot be assigned by directive; it must be market-oriented, demonstrated by experts, and voluntarily decided by the villagers." The village held mass meetings, where villagers discussed when they had opinions and debated when there were disputes, and finally selected three major planting industries - lotus root, rattan pepper and blood orange - along with chicken farming.

In order to benefit the impoverished people to the greatest extent, Zhang Xiudai decided to promote a brand-new chicken-raising model: the village set up a breeding company, lent laying hens that had entered the egg-laying period to poor households to raise, and gave them feed on credit. During the raising process, if a laying hen died unexpectedly, the loss would be shared by the poor household and the company; if an epidemic struck, the loss would be borne by the company.

Once the direction was set, hard work and practical effort were still needed. On July 19, Zhang Xiudai fainted in bed. Just as he was preparing to go to the hospital, Pu Tianzhi, the village women's director, called: "The chicken farm is about to receive 3000 chickens. Who will go receive them?" Zhang Xiudai put down the phone, took his wife Long Chunhua, and together with Pu Tianzhi stood guard at the entrance of the chicken farm, checking each chicken as it arrived and rejecting more than 100 weak and sick ones. After being busy for another three days, he finally went to Yuechi County Hospital to be hospitalized.

Now, the "poverty-alleviation chickens" keep laying "prosperity eggs." Zhang Yang, a poor household member who lost his left hand, keeps 1500 chickens at home. After all these years, this year he finally managed, by raising chickens, to give his three children and his elderly mother a good life. More than 40 poor households in the village have joined the ranks of "borrowing chickens to lay eggs," and their average annual income is estimated to reach 40,000 yuan.