As far as the Chinese are concerned, the most important economic activity in 1981 was to crack down on "speculation."

In order to enhance the vitality of state-owned enterprises, the government has adopted a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, the government decree restricts the business scope of small and medium-sized enterprises and private enterprises in the form of legal provisions, and establishes a strict access system, and on the other hand, it sets a threshold in terms of means of production to raise the production costs of small and medium-sized private enterprises and reduce their competitiveness.

At the beginning of the year, the price of steel was raised by 130 percent, the price of coal by 500 percent, and the market prices of various means of production were greatly increased to varying degrees.

The sharp rise in production costs has suddenly increased the production costs of small and medium-sized enterprises and private enterprises by several times, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury for most small and medium-sized enterprises and private enterprises that have just developed for less than two years, and has become the last straw that crushes the camel.

Another major measure is to impose high taxes on profiteering industries, not only to add them, but also to add them.

At this time, many of the billionaires who started their businesses and later became listed in Forbes China encountered the most difficult period of their lives, with production costs rising sharply and many of their original contracts being suspended on the grounds that state-owned enterprises could no longer buy products from township enterprises or private enterprises according to the regulations of their superiors.

The most direct one is to restrict the development of township and town enterprises within a certain scope of the locality, strictly control the transformation of the agricultural population into a non-agricultural population, and control the rural population to go to the cities to work, so as to prevent the cities that have already been under great pressure from returning to the cities to find employment, and being "harassed" by the rural population.

These measures have directly led to the development of many small businesses that have been set up in the past two years to fall into a quagmire, stagnate or simply close down.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the people from the economic investigation team to come to the Chunguang Splendid Pig Farm again.

"You have to be honest about your problems, our policy is consistent, be lenient in confession, and strict in resistance." The head of the investigation team said to the three brothers very seriously.

What kind of confession is lenient and resists strictness, I'm afraid it is confession and leniency, sit in prison, resist strictness, go home for the New Year! The three brothers had already made up their minds, and they dealt with the people in the investigation team, but they didn't say a word of affirmation, which made the other party very angry.

"It's useless for you to do this, cooperating with the political axe work is the only way out, since you haven't done anything wrong, you are not afraid of ghosts calling the door." The members of the investigation team saw that the three brothers did not eat oil and salt, so they said so.

Wang Laosan was a little bit of language art, and replied lukewarmly, "Although I didn't do anything wrong, but the ghost old man knocked on your door, can you get better?" ”

When the people of the investigation team heard this, they were immediately choked back.

This is not the end of the story, the investigation team has not been in the village for half an hour, and a large number of villagers have surrounded the pig farm.

The pig farm uses migrant workers, and there are a lot of them, which directly solves the problem of surplus labor in the village, so many people in the village are rich by relying on the pig farm.

The old men in the village came with sticks to question the inspection team, "We have only been here for a few days, why didn't you come when we were starving?" ”

There are also some young men who work on pig farms who also come to bomb, "We have been beating singles for many years, and we just found a partner, and you will disperse as soon as you come, if this daughter-in-law can't find you, you have to be responsible!" ”

The inventory team suddenly fell into the unbearable people's war, and finally could not stay in the pig farm anymore, so they had to withdraw their troops in disgrace, and because they did not get any negative information about the pig farm, the matter had to be abandoned.

Just like that, the Spring Festival passed in a blink of an eye.

However, the limelight of this clean-up campaign has intensified, and the air in Panshi City is still very solemn, with banners hanging everywhere that read "Crack down on crimes in the economic field," loudspeakers that have not been sounded for three or four years, and hard-line editorials and the like are being broadcast every day.

The small stores in the city that operate hardware and electricity have received a notice from the tax department that the business tax will be raised in the future, from 0.35% in previous years to 6%, and if the problem is not reported, the fine will be twice as high as it is found.

This trick is ruthless enough, many people are confused, the little hard-earned money earned in the past two years may not even be enough to pay taxes, and this business seems to be unsustainable.

As for those unlucky ghosts who were found to be "speculating and disrupting the normal order of the economic field," they were even more miserable, and some of them were directly locked up and sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from five to 10 years, and their illegal income was confiscated.

There was a shopkeeper with a relatively large scale of business, who was restricted by the tax department from going out, and as a result, he rolled up 500 catties of food stamps, 2,000 yuan in cash, and various documents, and even his wife fled out of Panshi City in a hurry without saying goodbye, but unfortunately the public security system of the whole country has already taken action, and in less than a week, he was arrested in a neighboring province and escorted back, and Panshi City also held a public trial meeting for these "opportunistic elements", and he was tied up and detained by Wuhua to accept the criticism and scolding of the masses. He was then sentenced to four years in prison.

In early 1982, the central authorities issued an urgent circular to crack down on criminal activities in the economic field, arresting a number of people who were on the cusp of the market economy for the crime of "opportunism."

In Wenzhou, the birthplace of the private economy, Hu Jinlin, the hardware king, Cheng Buqing, the mining lamp king, Liu Dayuan, the screw king, Li Fangping, the contract king, Wang Maiqian, the thrift king, Ye Jianhua, the catalog king, Zheng Xiangqing, the coil king, and Zheng Yuanzhong, the electrical appliance king, were listed as important targets. This is known as the "Eight Kings Incident".

In fact, the "Eight Kings Incident" is only the tip of the iceberg of this economic purge campaign. By the end of 1982, 164,000 cases of various economic crimes had been filed nationwide, 30,000 people had been sentenced to prison, and 320 million yuan had been recovered. In the more than two years since the "Eight Kings Incident", the pace of Wenzhou and Zhejiang has slowed down a lot. The economic purge caused the private economy to encounter its first cold snap, which greatly slowed its growth momentum, especially in southern Zhejiang and the Pearl River Delta.

The "Eight Kings Incident" is not accidental, and the state has used the political axe machine to contain the "vanguards" of the private sector to break through the old system, which obviously has implications beyond the economy.

It wasn't until three years later that Yuan Fanglie, then secretary of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee, deeply felt that "if the Eight Kings case is not overturned, there is no hope for Wenzhou's economy to be revitalized." He organized a joint investigation team to review the entire case file, and only then were several arrested released on bail pending trial or acquitted, and then their reputations were restored and their confiscated property returned.

It's just that at this time, time has already passed, and things are not people.

For a whole year, Fan Wuxian maintained a very low-key lifestyle, either raising pigs, or planting flowers, or going to the garment factory for guidance, providing Wuzhi Xiaoji with one or two genius ideas, and obtaining corresponding returns, all in all, this year was really depressing.

Fortunately, reform and opening up is really the trend of the times, and this depression will not last long.