The sparrow is too official, and you don't care when the sky falls.The above poem is a work published by the famous Chinese poet Guo Moruo in the "Beijing Evening News" on April 1, 1958, and the title is "Cursed Sparrow".You're such a bastard bird, jumping everywhere in all your breath.
Committed sins for thousands of years, today and you are always reckoned.
Beat and bombarded the attack, and the last party made the fire burn.
Together with the ** Qi burned out, the four evils are the same in the world.
At the same time as the poem was published, a campaign to encircle and exterminate sparrows from all over the country was also in full swing.
Not only ordinary people have participated in this movement, but even 2,000 teachers and students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including scientific research giants such as Qian Xuesen and Hua Luogeng.
How did this fight begin? What are the consequences?
On February 12, 1958, a document entitled "Instructions on Eliminating the Four Evils and Stressing Hygiene" was distributed to all parts of the country after research.
The directive calls for the eradication of four pests: rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows, within 10 years or less.
As a result, a vigorous "elimination of the four evils" campaign began.
This "war of people and birds" first started to make waves in Sichuan.
At that time, the cadres in Sichuan took the lead in making two standards for the elimination of sparrows: first, the area in charge could not see sparrows flying, could not hear sparrow calls, and there were no sparrow nests; Second, whether in urban or rural areas, those who see two sparrows or less in one day can only be regarded as "basically no sparrows", and cannot be regarded as qualified.
Under such strict standards, grassroots cadres and peasant workers in Sichuan have racked their brains to eliminate sparrows.
In terms of tools, they used all kinds of **, bamboo poles, red flags, firecrackers, stones, slingshots, gongs and drums, horn tubes, washbasins, dummies, straw men and everything that can be used.
Workers, peasants, cadres, students, and fighters, all of whom threw themselves into the sea of sparrows.
For a time, the red flag of the whole Sichuan was fluttering, the gongs and drums were noisy, and the firecrackers were ringing in unison.
In the "battle" with the sparrows, the peasant masses in Sichuan quickly summed up an experience: although the sparrow has wings and can fly, its physical strength is really not good, as long as it keeps chasing them and does not let them land, it will fall down tired after not flying for a while.
This experience was summed up by farmers of the Hongguang Agricultural Cooperative in Pixian County, Sichuan Province, and was vigorously promoted throughout the province by a senior leader in Sichuan at that time.
At that time, in the cities and counties under the jurisdiction of Sichuan, men, women and children went into battle together, as little as tens of thousands, more than hundreds of thousands, holding pots and pans, rattles, muskets and other tools in their hands to drive away the sparrows, so that the sparrows had no place to stay, and the sparrows often could not fly a few ridges, so they were tired and fell off by themselves.
According to the records left behind by some counties and cities in Sichuan, in the 1958 "War to Exterminate Sparrows," more than 100,000 or 200,000 people were dispatched by counties and cities, and they launched an extinction attack on sparrows by adopting various tactics such as digging, poisoning, trapping, beating, smoking, and fatigue bombing.
As recorded in the "Pixian Chronicles", at least 100,000 people were mobilized in Pixian County at that time to carry out a three-day "war to exterminate birds".
During these three days, the school also held a special "finch hunting holiday" to facilitate students to participate in sparrow hunting.
Local cadres have also adopted the mode of assigning special personnel to divide and rotate and subcontract the responsibilities of small groups, and use muskets to cooperate with pots and pans and shouting to carry out bird extermination activities.
In this large-scale organized and disciplined attack, the sparrows hardly had the slightest chance of survival, and in Pixian County alone, more than a million sparrows were wiped out in three days, and the target of "not seeing the birds flying and not hearing the birds" was achieved, at least in some areas.
After the spread of Sichuan Province's advanced experience, similar activities were quickly launched throughout the country.
On April 28, 1958, under the order of the leaders, Shanghai launched an attack on the sparrows in full swing.
This "war to exterminate birds" began at 5 o'clock in the morning, and the commander-in-chief of the battle mobilized almost every citizen of Shanghai.
Since Shanghai is a metropolis, guns are banned for safety reasons, and it is all up to manpower to fight with sparrows. Shanghai is worthy of being the commercial capital, and in this battle fully demonstrated what it means to "fight wits but not strength".
Under the deployment of the commander-in-chief, the citizens held red flags, loudspeakers and other tools, and laid ambushes on roofs, under trees and other areas where sparrows are often frequented.
When the commander-in-chief gave an order, the ambush was all out, the red flags were displayed, the gongs and drums sounded in unison, and the voices of the people were boiling. Immediately frightened, he flew around in a hurry.
But what these sparrows never dreamed of was that the commander-in-chief had no last resort, and had already predicted all their reactions, not only placing countless straw men and dummies on the ground, but also arranging troops according to the terrain, arranging a sentry post to drive away sparrows every 10 meters on average.
When the poor sparrows flew, they soon found that they had no place to stay, and that the crowd below did not give them a chance to breathe, and they could only fly until they fell from the sky with all their strength.
The crowd watched closely at the direction of the sparrows with red flags and tools, and when any of the sparrows were too tired to fly, they swarmed up and grabbed them, shouting for victory.
In addition to dealing with adult sparrows, Shanghai also encourages the masses to start from the source, go to the house and trees to destroy the sparrow nest and dig out the sparrow eggs.
According to the newspapers at the time, only four advanced workers in a steel plant in Shanghai, surnamed Lu, father and son, destroyed more than 600 sparrow nests in one day, took out 750 sparrow eggs, and also captured 3 female sparrows who dared to resist stubbornly and protect the sparrow eggs, which greatly dealt a blow to the arrogance of the sparrows.
Under the wise leadership of the commander-in-chief, Shanghai slaughtered 250,000 sparrow eggs and killed more than one million adult sparrows in one day, winning a brilliant victory in the "war against sparrows."
Beijing, as the capital, was not far behind in the "War of Sparrows", led by the senior leaders at that time, and mobilized 3 million people to participate in the action.
The capital's "war of fighting birds" was more meticulous and meticulous than Shanghai's, and the division of labor and arrangements were also more thorough.
In order to win and fight this "war to exterminate birds," Beijing not only mobilized the masses, but also mobilized a large number of sharpshooters, motorcycles, and boats.
In the early morning of April 19, 1958, millions of people, students, and soldiers in the capital were ready to launch a general attack on the sparrows.
At 5 o'clock in the morning, the senior leader gave an order, and the whole army of the million-strong division was dispatched!
For a time, the red flags in Beijing were displayed, gongs and drums sounded in unison, and the crowd was mixed with shouts and shouts.
According to the pre-planned plan, the people rushed to their combat posts and launched a general attack on the sparrows.
On this day, the "General Headquarters for Encirclement and Suppression of Sparrows" not only sprinkled poisonous bait in more than 830 areas of Beijing, but also ambushed a large number of sharpshooters in more than 200 areas where sparrows were infested, and 30 motorcycles also worked part-time to reconnoiter the enemy situation while conveying orders to the General Headquarters.
The commanders-in-chief and deputy commanders of the districts under the general headquarters went to the front line to supervise the battle in a car.
Under the encouragement of the leaders, the red flags of more than 8,700 square kilometers of Beijing were unfurled, and all regions achieved remarkable results.
At the Temple of Heaven, more than 30 sharpshooters were dispatched in unison, killing 966 sparrows in one day.
In Taoranting Park, more than 2,000 residents, young and old, went into battle and wiped out more than 400 sparrows in half a day.
The terrain around Yuyuantan in Haidian District is complex, and sparrows rely on their wings to fly back and forth between the island in the center of the lake and the land.
In order to annihilate these cunning sparrows, Haidian District mobilized more than 3,000 people, borrowed small boats and sharpshooters to advance by land and water, blocking the sparrows on the lake and unable to fall, and countless sparrows died of ** and were so tired that they drowned.
In this "war against sparrows" in Beijing, not only the masses have participated in it, but even the teachers and students of colleges and universities have joined in one after another.
Famous physicist Qian Xuesen, mathematician Hua Luogeng, biologist Zheng Zuoxin and other scientific research experts also joined this vigorous "battle".
It's just that although the scientific researchers have a high IQ, they have no good means and methods to exterminate the sparrows, and can only use ordinary tools to participate in the war like ordinary people.
For example, Qian Xuesen and Hua Luogeng, two scientific research talents, just took the rod to drive away the sparrows with the masses.
Beijing's "Sparrow Extermination War" began at 5 a.m. on April 19 and ended at dark on April 22, lasting three days in full swing.
In these three days, the 3 million people in Beijing exterminated more than 400,000 sparrows, destroyed countless sparrow nests and eggs, and won an unprecedented great victory.
At the same time, the "war of exterminating sparrows" across the country is also in full swing, with a total of more than 1.6 billion sparrows exterminated, and countless sparrow nests and sparrow eggs destroyed.
After the vigorous "Sparrow Hunting Campaign" in 1958, the sparrows in China were swept away.
According to the memories of some elderly people, at that time, there were sparrows in North China, and sometimes you couldn't see a bird in several villages.
Because it was a large-scale dispatch to fight sparrows and dig birds' nests at that time, there was no way to distinguish which ones were sparrow nests and sparrow eggs, and many people saw that bird eggs and bird nests were all destroyed.
This radical approach caused a lot of damage to the bird population at that time, resulting in a situation where there were no birds flying in the sky for quite some time.
Now we all know that sparrows are actually omnivorous birds, they eat not only food, but also insects and weed seeds, killing them all is actually doing more harm than good.
Moreover, birds are the natural enemies of insects, and in that "swept away" situation, many innocent birds have also been impacted.
And in a complete food chain, if there is no bird suppression, the result must be a variety of agricultural and forestry pests.
In the spring of 1959, insect infestations broke out in some cities, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, and all the leaves on the green trees in the cities were eaten up by the pests.
In the same year, pests of varying degrees also occurred in farmland across the country; Pests such as bean worms, mealworms, peach heartworms, and longhorn beetles not only eat crops, but also cause a large area of trees to die, causing very serious losses.
Zhu Xi, director of the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Feng Depei, Zhang Xiangtong, researchers of the Institute of Physiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and biologist Zhang Zuoxin and other scientists noticed this situation, and they understood that the sparrows could no longer fight, otherwise it would cause more losses.
So they joined forces and wrote materials to "rehabilitate" the sparrows under pressure, trying to eliminate the sparrows from the "four evils" by making suggestions to the high-level.
Zhang Jinfu, who was the secretary of the party group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at that time, was very touched after reading the materials of the scientists.
On November 27, 1959, Zhang Jinfu wrote a report on the sparrow issue and submitted it to the high-level management.
In the report, he said: "Scientists generally agree that the benefits and harms of sparrows vary depending on the place and time; Some biologists prefer to mention the elimination of finches rather than the elimination of sparrows. ”
Zhang Jinfu's report and the materials sorted out by the scientists were transferred by Hu Qiaomu to ***, and after reading it, he wrote instructions: "Zhang Jinfu's report is printed and distributed to all comrades. ”
In March 1960, when drafting instructions on sanitation work for the Chinese Communist Party, he proposed: "Don't fight sparrows, replace them with bed bugs, and the slogan is 'get rid of rats, bed bugs, flies, and mosquitoes'." ”
So far, the sparrow, which has been chased and beaten for more than a year, has finally been "rehabilitated" and regained a glimmer of life.
In the eyes of many people now, the "finch campaign" of the year seems ridiculous. But the origins of this movement are not as simple as everyone thinks.
First of all, there is the issue of living conditions.
Around 1958, China's grain production was seriously insufficient, and many places did not have enough to eat at all. In that case, food can naturally be saved.
As an omnivorous bird, sparrows do have a habit of stealing food and fruits.
Now that everyone has enough food and clothing, they think that it is nothing to eat a little, but in the situation when it was still relatively common to have no food to eat, eating that "a little" was enough to sentence them to "death".
The second is the issue of the social environment.
At the Agricultural Conference in 1955, the chairman first proposed that sparrows were one of the "four pests". However, in the years that followed, there was some controversy among biologists about whether sparrows were "pest birds".
On January 18, 1957, Zhou Jianren, who was then the vice minister of education, published an article entitled "There is no need to doubt that sparrows are harmful birds" in Beijing**, pointing out that "sparrows are harmful birds, and harmful birds should be extinguished without hesitation".
Zhou Jianren is not only the younger brother of Mr. Lu Xun, but also a biologist, and his definition is undoubtedly authoritative.
Whether sparrows are "pest birds" was originally an academic question, but for a certain period of time, it was raised to the height of politics by people with ulterior motives, resulting in many people not daring to speak out if they had opinions in their hearts.
At that time, the high-level officials were busy solving food shortages and other national affairs, and they had no time to delve into the trivial and professional question of whether sparrows were "harmful birds", so it caused the mighty farce later.
Looking back on the past, we should take history as a mirror, and while maintaining the in-depth implementation of the scientific outlook on development, we should also be vigilant against people who do not care about it! We must not give them another opportunity to deceive and deceive the superiors and subordinates, and stir up the wind and rain ......