Comrades-in-arms of the railway soldiers, calligrapher Kong Fanjing wrote the title
I chose to recommend this newspaper, first, the two full-page photographs of "Tanglin Line Forest Railway under Construction" are of high quality; Second, Mr. Chen Yuanmou's newsletter "Railway Soldiers Building the Xiaoxinganling Forest Railway" is very beautifully written.
The content of the photographic version and the newsletter is "Tanglin Railway". The Tanglin Railway is a very small project in the history of the railway soldiers. The railway is located in the north of Heilongjiang Province, starting from the south fork station of Suijia Line, passing through Yichun, Wuying, Dongtang to Datai, and is a branch line for the development of forestry resources in Xiaoxinganling. Among them, the section from the Shuangzi River to the big platform was constructed by the Railway Bureau and the Fifth Division of the Railway Corps. The 5th Railway Division undertook the construction task of 19.5 kilometers from Weiguo to Wuying, which started in May 1954 and opened to traffic on October 6. Due to the urgent transfer of the Yingxia Railway by the troops, the track project was handed over to the Qiqihar Railway Bureau before it reached the standard.
Why did Wang Zhen, commander of the railway corps, and Li Shouxuan, deputy commander of the railway corps, pay so much attention to this inconspicuous project? At that time, the background was that the railway soldiers had just been established as a branch of the army, and the troops had returned from Korea one after another, held party congresses and celebration meetings, and the only projects undertaken were the Baocheng Railway and the Tanglin Railway.
In fact, this "leisurely" time can only be counted by days, that is, in the month (July) reported by the newspaper, the Central Military Commission ordered the railway soldiers to rush to build the Lizhan and Yingxia railways, and the railway soldiers devoted themselves to the vigorous railway construction began the prelude. The "Tanglin Railway" can be regarded as a warm-up for decades of railway "war".
The photographer Liu Jingguo, I don't know about his life. Li Wenxiu was the first generation of photographers of the railway soldiers, and he took important news photos of the railway soldiers in the 50s and 60s, and he left many precious historical pictures for the railway soldiers, which I will introduce in a future article.
This set of photos reports on the construction of barracks, the preparation of ballast, the construction of roadbeds, and the harvesting of timber by the Fifth Division of the Railway Corps (now the 15th Bureau of China Railway). Whether it is the construction environment and people, it is picturesque, vivid and touching. I would like to remind readers in particular that in the early 50s of the last century, that is, in the early years of the "founding of the People's Republic of China," when the commanders and deputy commanders of the railway corps inspected construction sites, news photos were not posted on the first page, nor were they published in an "important position" on the special photo page, but at the end of the inconsequential stage. It can be inferred from this that the "party style" embodied in the news and propaganda at that time.
Chen Yuanmou and his book "Yesterday's Railway Soldiers"
Chen Yuanmou is my old leader. In 1954, at the age of 22, he worked as an officer in the Political Department of the Fifth Iron Division. Later, he was transferred to the Propaganda Department of the Railway Corps to engage in news reporting work, serving as a reporter of the Xinhua News Agency stationed in the Railway Corps, and served as the vice president of the "Railway Corps" newspaper before the military reform, until the newspaper was renamed the "Railway Engineering News", and continued to preside over the work for many years.
I have read a lot of messages and newsletters written by Chen Lao, but I have not thought that he was an excellent "literary youth" in his early years. This article was also published in the "Railway Soldier" newspaper and "China Youth Daily". The headline in the China Youth Daily was "Spring in the Little Xing'an Mountains," and the two newspapers differed only in a few words.
This article has two characteristics: First, it has a strong atmosphere of the times. The environment was harsh, with bark roofs and thatched beds...... But the fighters took bitterness as joy, and the words were filled with pride in building the country. Second, the writing is brilliant. The structure of the article is natural, the dialogue of the characters is vivid, and the description of the environment is realistic, which makes people feel like they are in the scene; If you shoot the construction sites and barracks of the railway soldiers in the 50s, this article is a good "blueprint".
Chen Yuanmou
In the small Xing'an Mountains in the northeast of the motherland, it is overgrown with big trees that cover the sky and the earth. The pale green red pines, larch, ichthyoscale pines and snowy white birches have dense leaves like clouds, thick and straight. In some places, the trees are so dense that you can't even walk, so you have to use a saw and an axe to make a path. These trees are of great importance to our infrastructure. In order to use these precious timber for the socialist construction of the motherland, it is necessary to quickly build the railway into the depths of the forest. In May this year, a certain unit of the railway troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army came to this dense and uninhabited forest.
Marching through the dense forest, the comrades were happy and proud of the richness of the motherland. One of the warriors said to me, "What a forest this is! It's so dense and so thick, if you don't turn sideways, you can't even drill into it. You see, there is a forest in front of you, and there is also a forest in the sky, and the motherland is awesome! I said, "Yes!" Otherwise, how could Chairman Mao ask us railway soldiers to build roads! He said, "Yes." Look at this tree, it grows big and straight, how good it is to be a factory pillar. How many machine buildings will be built, how many bridges will be built, and how many railways will be laid to be built when so many big trees are transported! "From the moment they saw the forest, the heroic warriors fell in love with it. They connected this treasure that could not be seen at a glance with Angang, Fuxin, and Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge!
In May, in the south of the motherland, spring flowers have already bloomed. However, in the forests of the Little Khing'an Mountains, the green Tangwang River has just thawed, the ice and snow are still stubbornly resisting the arrival of spring, and many ravines are still frozen with thick ice. There are no homes, no houses, everything has to be built by the hands of the warriors. Of course, there are difficulties. The frozen ground was covered with deep layers of rotting leaves, gadflies and mosquitoes flew in swarms, ponds smelled of bursts, and the forest roads were uneven and muddy. In the freezing season, the frozen soil is a good road, but now, when the sun shines and the ice melts, it becomes a soft road, and the wheels of the big trucks drive by, and the wheels get stuck in the mud puddle and can't roll. This is the biggest difficulty in transportation, therefore, tools, materials, fresh vegetables, etc. cannot be transported to the construction site.
The warriors endured insect bites, tread the damp earth, knocked down the dense trees with axes and saws, shoveled off the fallen leaves and bunches of roots, filled in the foundations, and the houses were erected. There was not enough oil paper and grate mats to build the roof, so the felled pine bark was peeled off in pieces and replaced; If there is no iron nail, change the big one to the small one; If there are no bricks, they are woven with tree strips; If you don't have enough tools, you can do it with your hands. The climate in the forest is unpredictable, and there are often four seasons in a day: spring, summer, autumn and winter. At noon on a sunny day, it was unusually hot and humid, and there was no wind. However, when the fog rose in the green forest sea that night, the temperature dropped and people had to wear cotton clothes. When the comrades went up the mountain to cut down trees and repair houses, they were often hit by heavy rain, and their clothes were soaked, and they had to dry under the heavy rain. The mood of the fighters was pleasant. They said: "The rain will not penetrate our zeal for building the motherland. ”
"The mountain is our mountain, the forest is our forest, we open the road of happiness with our own hands, and we plant the flowers of happiness with our own hands!"
This is the will of the warriors, relying on the hands, wisdom and labor of the warriors, in a short period of time, in the green forest, along the crooked Tangwang River, patches of tents and houses were erected. Those delicate barracks were surrounded by tree strips, some of them were braided with diamond-shaped lattices, and tender green rattan were led, and colored plaques were tied at the doors, and the red "August 1st" military emblem or flying doves of peace were hung. On both sides, there are also stickers that read: "Participate in socialist construction, build forest railways, defend world peace, and build the borders of the motherland." "In the homes of these warriors, beds made of tree strips were lined up, covered with thick hay, and the blankets were laid out in a single bed, and the coke was broken. They said: The big brothers who fought on the Kang-Tibet Plateau slept on tightrope beds, and we also slept on spring beds! Some rooms are also filled with bouquets of flowers picked in the forest! They also opened up the stadium with their own hands, and built a library and materials room out of pine bark. In the library, there are People's Daily, China Youth Daily, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art, People's Liberation Army Pictorial, and other novels and books. There is also an allegro written by the warrior Ma Guiliu here: The railway warrior is strong-willed,
Build a railroad to the mountains.
The deep mountains and forests are boundless,
Where are the people and inns?
With our two hands,
The barracks are to be built.
You cut down the tree, I pull the vine,
He carried the soil and put the foundation of the house.
Walls are built without bricks and stones,
Sawed down the timber on all four sides.
There are no tiles on the roof of the house,
Peel off the bark and lay it on top.
Bed with a layer of fine hairy grass,
Sleep softly at night.
Get up in the day and go to the construction site,
Happy singing resounded all over the mountain.
These heroic soldiers built the barracks, and then put into more intense construction projects, with hard work to welcome the spring of Xiaoxinganling.
On April 3, 1954, the Fifth Division of the Railway Corps was stationed in Xiaoxinganling to participate in the construction of the section from Weiguo to Wuying of the Tanglin Railway.
The construction troops carried out a competition and overcame difficulties, and the Tanglin Railway was laid and opened to traffic on October 6, 1954.
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