 The local communist party secretary of Jingzhou prefecture, Xue Tan (), asked Li Jinyu () to leave only of grains of monthly rations for each resident of Honghu, and give out the rest.Li refused, arguing that it would at least take of monthly ration to prevent death resulting from starvation.After much argument without any satisfactory result, Li decided to go against his superior's order and allow the local populace to have enough to eat.