In the summer of 1958, the waters of the Yellow River were connected to the ground and gushed east. Clouds were strewn on both sides of the river, torrential rains poured down, and a level 8 storm lifted the turbid river high and threw thousands of tents on the shore into the air.
In the midst of the fog, I heard an earth-shattering noise, and a bridge was blown apart by the storm, and it fell down in the air, and then it was swallowed away by the huge waves.
Bridges collapsed, warriors fell into the water, traffic was disrupted...
This is the second disaster after the zhengzhou railway bridge rupture on July 17, and China's north-south traffic has once again been suspended!
One by one, the emergency calls flew into the Zhong-Nan-Haixi Flower Hall, and all the calls condensed into one message: the engineering troops failed to build the bridge!
The reason for the failure was soon found out, the bridge-building motorboats and other equipment were imported from the Soviet Union, they had been used in the Don, Volga, Dnieper, Danube, but not suitable for the Yellow River, especially not suitable for the Yellow River during the flood season.
Although the Soviet motorboats had 90 horsepower and the engine was 300 revolutions per minute, because the sand content of the Yellow River was as high as 28%, the speed of the steamboats could not reach the maximum speed, and the force used to pull up the door bridge was far from enough.
The engineering units also quickly realized that no river in the whole Soviet Union had a flow rate of more than 4 meters, and it was completely impossible to take their equipment to the Yellow River to build a bridge.
At that time, the whole country had a common wish: we must conquer the Yellow River!
If the Yellow River can't build bridges, then what bridges will China build? Moreover, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Pearl River, the Canal, these four major water systems must be built bridges!
Chen Shiyu, commander of the engineering corps, Huang Zhiyong, political commissar, and Hu Qicai, deputy commander, could not sit still, and the three of them expressed their attitude to their superiors: "We will definitely build the Yellow River Bridge!" ”
Hu Qicai, a famous general of the generation on the battlefield, stepped forward at this critical moment in the era of peace, and with his extraordinary courage and boldness, he provoked the heavy responsibility of the commander-in-chief of the bridge and was fully responsible for the bridge.
On August 8, on the same day, Chen Shiyu and Huang Zhiyong returned to the engineering headquarters. After Hu Qicai sent them away, he held an emergency meeting and vigorously arrested six things in a row:
The first is to determine the preparation time for three days, and it is impossible to complete the military law.
The second was to ask the Navy to support the steel cable, make and drop 400 stone cage anchors. The stone cage anchor is a unique skill taught by the Yellow River Gonggong, one per ton, which is filled with stones and thrown down to ensure that the door bridge can be fixed in the rushing rapids.
The third is to strengthen management, perform their respective duties, fail to complete their tasks, and handle them according to law.
The fourth is to seize the fighter planes and ensure that the bridge will be built before the next flood peak arrives.
The fifth is to change the original bridge plan, change the three boats to two boats, and use two motorboats to push a door bridge.
The sixth is to rush to build a river beach road and add 400 meters of passage at each end of the pontoon bridge.
On August 11, the clouds cleared, a round of scorching sun rose in the sky, and the sunlight baked the turbid Yellow River like a natural fire, and the smoke suddenly flew up on the river.
Hu Qicai gave an order and launched this special battle!
The so-called door bridge refers to a bridge that has been prepared for a long time, usually 8 meters of 1 door bridge. A section of the Jiemen Bridge is connected to a pontoon bridge that crosses the river and the sea, which can march, fly cars, and even pass through tanks and artillery.
The transportation and fixation of the door bridge is the key to the success of the bridge, and it is also the focus of Hu Qicai's two eyes.
One steamboat top push door bridge failed, and neither did two steamboats!
The water of the Yellow River rises in the sky, and one wave can overturn a warship, what are two motorboats?
Not to mention that it is during the flood season when the water of the Yellow River is rushing and roaring. It swept up the dead branches and leaves, reed weeds, cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules in the upper reaches of the great river, and entangled almost all the propellers of motorboats.
At this time, the Yellow River was like an evil dragon that turned over the river and stirred up the sea, determined to shake off all the trivial things on the scales.
"All down the river!" Hu Qicai's eyes were red, only to see him shout, he led four thousand soldiers to jump into the viscous Yellow River, in the chest-deep Yellow River, one person and one steel cable, pulling the tall and majestic door bridge up the river inch by inch...
On the Yellow River in August, the sun is like a leather whip, whipping everyone's skin and flesh. The soldiers were roasted like the bottom of a pot, not to mention that there was a steel bar on each arm!
On that day, I don't know how much blood and sweat flowed down the steel wire into the river, of course, there was also a share of General Hu Qicai...
The warriors could not bear it and persuaded, "Commander-in-Chief, go up!" Leave it to us. ”
Hu Qicai narrowed his eyes: "I don't go up, I can't get up today, I will go with the water of the Yellow River!" ”
The 100 gate bridges were finally pulled onto the bridge axis.
The 400 stone cage anchors were also successfully dropped one by one!
The pontoon bridge, which is about 1,000 meters long, extends from both sides to the center of the river, and it is almost impossible to stuff several telescopic door bridges in the middle. Once the telescopic gate bridges entered the bridge axis, a rainbow would fly on the Yellow River of Fang Lao.
More than 4,000 men cheered in unison, and the hope of success baked every heart.
However, at this critical moment, Hu Qicai ordered the troops to stop and all go ashore to rest.
Although this man was the deputy commander of the lieutenant general who had distinguished himself in battle, the more than 4,000 soldiers still had to ask: Why did they stop at this time?
Hu Qicai's answer was: "First, the lighting at night is not good; second, the troops are extremely tired; third, morale is not equal to science; fourth, for the sake of quality, I can't let this bridge drop a person or fall off a car!" Do you understand? ”
"Understood!" 4,000 "mud balls" jumped out of the Yellow River with their snow-white teeth and rushed into their tents.
Under the supervision of Hu Qicai, they ate and drank enough that night to recuperate.
At about 10 o'clock on August 12, the engineering unit sent the last telescopic door into the bridge axis, completing the last arduous project in the pontoon bridge erection - the pontoon bridge blocking work.
Since then, the 1050-meter-long pontoon bridge and the 2837-meter shore beach road have been completed, and after the Tang Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, the third artificial pontoon bridge has changed the Yellow River Graben into a pathway.
"It's a miracle!" The Zhong-Nanhai Xihua Hall called Hu Qicai and said, "This special battle you commanded is really a great miracle, but don't be proud!" ”
"We are not proud," said Hu Qicai, "but I am going to take a trip with the Soviet adviser, who has asserted that we cannot stand up, and I want him to see..."
At 10:30 a.m. on August 12, the first car drove up the Yellow River pontoon bridge, and in the car sat Hu Qicai, the deputy commander of the engineering corps, who was refreshed, and the general adviser of the Soviet engineering corps in China.