"The backbone writers of the Henan Miscellaneous Literature Association approached the Red Flag Canal"
Selected works of wind collection activities (13)
Tianhe Hongqi Canal
Liang Yaoguo
An artificial heavenly river, a monument of the times.
In that era of extreme scarcity of materials, why did Linxian County, Anyang City, Henan Province (now Linzhou City) raise the manpower, material and financial resources of the whole county to build the Red Flag Canal on the thousands of peaks and thousands of miles in Taihang Mountain? With such doubts, when I walked into the Hongqi Canal Memorial Hall and saw the reproduction of a tragic scene, everything understood.
This is a true story that happened in the 60s of the 20th century, Sangerzhuang, Linxian County: the father-in-law set off early in the morning with a bucket, walked back and forth for dozens of kilometers, and only picked up a load of water when it was dark. The filial and sensible new daughter-in-law went out to greet her and took the pick, but she accidentally spilled two buckets of water, and the whole family could only borrow water to eat. The new daughter-in-law, who had just passed the door for three days, hanged herself because she blamed herself for a while.
According to historical data, in the 514 years from the first year of Ming orthodoxy (1436) to the founding of New China (1949), there were more than 100 natural disasters in Linxian County, including more than 30 major droughts. At its worst, the tragedy of "cannibalism" occurred.
In order to solve the problem of draft water for the people of Linxian County, officials of all dynasties have made efforts, such as the Tianping Canal planned and built by Li Hanqing, the governor of Lu'an in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Xie Gong Canal organized and built by Xie Sicong, the magistrate of Linxian County in the Ming Dynasty.
The above information and historical materials were read from the series of books donated by the Hongqi Canal Institute of Clean Government Education, and the other was seen during the visit to the Hongqi Canal Memorial Hall.
In 1959, Linxian County suffered another severe drought, and all four rivers in the territory were cut off and dried up. In the face of such a harsh living environment, Comrade Yang Gui, then secretary of the county party committee, issued a call to the people of the county to "rearrange the rivers and mountains of Linxian County" with great courage, and scientifically studied the possibility of "bringing Zhang into the forest". In February of the following year, the project officially started, and it was named "Red Flag Canal", which means "holding high the red flag and moving forward".
With admiration for the people of Linxian County and awe of the Red Flag Canal, we boarded the bus to the "Youth Cave" scenic spot. On the bus, Wang Minmin, a teacher from the Hongqi Canal Anti-corruption Education College, concisely told us about the background and heroic feats of the construction of the Hongqi Canal, which made us, writers from all over the province, have a strong desire to see Tianhe, the "eighth wonder of the world".
If the mountains do not turn, the water is turning, the water is not turning, the clouds are turning, the clouds are not turning, the wind is turning, and the wind is not turning, and the heart is turning.
Suddenly, Na Ying's lyrics burst into my mind at the right time. Outside the car window at this moment, the majestic Taihang Mountain, the lush secondary forest, and the primitive and simple slate houses can be described as one step at a time, and the scenery is different.
The bus slowly stopped at the entrance of the scenic spot.
As soon as I got off the car, I found that the trail to the depths of the scenic spot was designed very chic, and in appearance, it was like a red ribbon dancing in the wind, which was extremely eye-catching; Walking on it, you can not only overlook the Guzhang River in the canyon, but also look at the big trucks at the foot of the mountain on the opposite bank to reach the end and enter and exit the two provinces of Henan and Jin.
Climbing a steep slope, the main trunk canal of the Hongqi Canal is like a giant python without its head and tail, and it appears on the mountainside in front of you. The canal water flows silently, nourishing the industrious people of Linxian County and nourishing the dry land of Linxian County.
Walking on the nearly one-meter-wide embankment, I heard Mr. Wang Minmin say that when the Hongqi Canal was built, five problems needed to be solved first: first, a special period, three years of natural disasters; Second, there is a lack of funds, and the county finance only has 3 million reserves; third, lack of food; Fourth, there is a lack of technology, and there are only 28 water conservancy technicians in the county; Fifth, to find a water source, we must go to Pingshun County, Shanxi Province to divert turbid Zhanghe water.
Secondly, how to solve the problem that a lot of cement, explosives, lime, and tools are needed to repair the canal? The answer is that if there are conditions, we must go up, and if we do not have the conditions, we must also go up. So, the cement was made by itself, the explosives were prepared by themselves, the lime was burned by themselves, and the tools were made by themselves. It was under such arduous conditions that tens of thousands of canal repair troops resolutely drove up the construction site dozens of kilometers long.
Most of the Hongqi Canal is built on the inaccessible mountainside, and in order to save time, people eat and live on the construction site. Three meals a day, cook and eat by yourself. Living, let alone paying attention to it, everyone either sleeps under the cliff, or sleeps in the stone hermitage, or simply lays on the ground in the open air. Harsh environment, difficult conditions, 70,000 canal repair army, 81 cadres have died here, the oldest is 60 years old, the youngest is 17 years old, the chief designer Wu Zutai is one of the representatives.
Wu Zutai, a native of Yuanyang County, graduated from the Yellow River Water Conservancy College in Henan Province, and participated in the engineering design of the Hongqi Canal. In order to draw out the blueprint for the construction of the Hongqi Canal as soon as possible and ensure the smooth start of the project, he and his colleagues worked together to brave the hardships and dangers, climb over the mountains and mountains, conduct field surveys, carefully design, and in a relatively short period of time, took out the "Preliminary Design Book of the Linxian County Irrigation Project". During this period, Wu Zutai suffered the death of his father and the great changes of his wife's sacrifice to save people, endured grief, never stopped the work in hand, and always insisted on the front line of the construction site. On March 28, 1960, Wu Zutai heard that the crack on the roof of the Wangjiazhuang tunnel was serious, and when he went deep into the cave to check the danger, he was unfortunately hit by a collapsed boulder, which took his life at the age of 27.
I'd rather fight hard than suffer. It is through the unremitting struggle of thousands of builders who gave up their small homes and took care of everyone like Wu Zutai, that among the lofty mountains and mountains, the Hongqi Canal was extended inch by inch, and then extended......
Walking on the winding embankment, do you pay attention to the stele under your feet covered by iron boxes and glass covers? The iron box is cast with such a paragraph: when the canal was repaired, in order to ensure the quality, the responsibility tablet was engraved. This section was repaired by which commune and which village, it is clear at a glance, if something goes wrong, it goes without saying that it is your responsibility. This method is more effective than any letter of responsibility.
Walking on the winding embankment, have you noticed the old blast holes left on the cliff face? You might as well imagine how you wield a hammer with a rope tied to your waist and hung on a rock wall? How to buttress drilling? You must know that Taihang Mountain is hard quartzite, and a hammer smashes down a white spot, even on flat ground, a steel drill may not make a blast hole, let alone on the mountainside that is not strong. Therefore, every old cannon hole left behind is a monument to the heavens and the earth.
Walking on the winding embankment, have you noticed the group of "Iron Maidens" who perform hammer wielding? In fact, when the canal was being repaired, such Iron Maiden commandos abounded, and they were the same as strong male comrades, no matter how hard and tiring and dangerous the work was, they could afford to let it go, and they really played the role of half the sky.
Walking on the winding canal embankment, have you noticed the sign next to it, which was left by the old secretary Yang Gui when he returned to Lin County in the summer of 1990, "Ten Gifts":
Generations of ancestors lack water and look forward to water,
The Hongqi Canal brings water from the Zhanghe River.
The reservoir holds the water of the valley,
The Hongqi Canal is filled with reservoir water.
Watering the ditch and reservoir pool to release water,
One canal of water can top two canals of water.
Leveling the land and watering it reasonably,
Everybody comes to save water.
The key is to keep the canal and water well,
Lin County is no longer worried about water shortage.
"Ten Gifts" is not only the expression of the old secretary's heart, but also the hope for the future of the Red Flag Canal.
After turning a slow corner, the long-awaited entrance to the Youth Cave immediately appeared in front of you. Youth Cave is one of the throat projects of the main trunk canal of Hongqi Canal, the hole is 616 meters long, the hole is 5 meters high, the hole is 6 meters wide, more than 19,000 cubic meters of excavated stones, more than 130,000 pieces of work have been put into construction, because the hole is built by more than 300 young people, so it is named "Youth Hole".
At that time, the builders were only supplied with six taels of grain per person per day. In order to fill their stomachs, the commandos either went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables, or went down to the river to fish for water and grass, so as to satisfy their hunger, many people got edema, but still with the spirit of Yugong moving mountains, insisted on fighting at the construction site, and repaired the canal. After one year and five months, the Youth Cave was finally opened in July 1961.
The completion of the Hongqi Canal has not only changed the appearance of drought and water shortage in Linxian County, but also effectively promoted the development of industrial and agricultural production, improved the people's living standards, and laid a solid foundation for the construction of a new socialist mountainous area.
Today, the Hongqi Canal has been announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Today, Hongqi Canal is rated as a 5A-level scenic spot.
Today, the spirit of "self-reliance, hard work, unity and cooperation, and selfless dedication" has become the precious spiritual wealth of our party and country, just like the spirit of Jiao Yulu and the spirit of Dabie Mountain.
Conceived in the wind and rain, growing in the burning of passion, and growing in the brave responsibility, we will write a more wonderful chapter of the Central Plains under the encouragement of these spirits.
(Source: Anyang Rong Media Client)