Gao Jiyi, Director of LOCO of Bac Ninh Railway

On November 5, 2005, at the autumn auction of the Beijing International Hotel, a small commemorative medal was auctioned for 880 yuan. On June 24, 2010, at the spring auction of The Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai, the same commemorative medal was sold for 6900 yuan. Some people will ask: Why is this medal worth nearly 10 times the premium in five years, and is it really worth so much money?

As a collection, the price of the medal is not considered for the time being, but it is valuable as a cultural relic, because it is inextricably linked to many historical events and figures. Let's take a look at the medallion, which has the text "Bac Ninh Railway Football Team March Day Victory Medal 1937" and Chen Juesheng's side portrait cast on the front, and the text "Chen Juesheng, director of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration, presented the 26th year of the Republic of China" text and the Bac Ninh Railway logo on the back.

Chen Juesheng (1899~1937), a native of Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, studied in Japan in his early years, graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, and after returning to China, he first served as a teacher at a normal school in Shanxi, a section chief of the Department of Education, and a secretary of Yan Xishan, and then followed Song Zheyuan, commander of the 29th Army, and successively served as a major general adviser, a general counselor of the Pingjin Garrison Headquarters, a chairman of the Jicha Transportation Committee, and the director of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration. Chen Juesheng was proficient in Japanese and had close relations with Japanese soldiers such as Doihara, and was a typical "pro-Japanese faction" who was a typical "pro-Japanese faction." Somehow, in December 1937, the director of the Chen Bureau was poisoned by the Japanese in Baoding. Why did the Japanese turn their faces and kill this "old friend", some people speculate that the award of the commemorative medal of "Bac Ninh Railway Football Team Victory in Japan" is one of the causes of Chen Juesheng's death.

In fact, Chen Juesheng was in charge of Beining Road from January 1936 to the end of 1937, when he was poisoned by the Japanese, and he served as the director for less than two years. During his tenure, in addition to issuing a commemorative medal with a raised eyebrow, he had no remarkable achievements and was a historical figure worth not mentioning. However, the "Bac Ninh Railway Football Team" and "Director of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration" appear on the commemorative medal remind the author of a deceased person worth remembering and remembering, he is Gao Jiyi.

Gao Jiyi (1890~1963), zi renxuan, a native of Liaoyang, Liaoning, was a member of the Han Army. Gao Jiyi's family was poor at an early age, and he came to Shenyang alone at the age of 10 and worked as a shop assistant. In 1909, he successively studied at the Fengtian Army Accelerated School and the Army Surveying and Mapping School of the Three Eastern Provinces, and stayed on to teach with excellent results. From 1919, he served as a regimental deputy and battalion commander in the Northwest Frontier Army. In May 1921, he was transferred to the post of Colonel of the Mengjiang Economic Envoy (Zhang Zuolin). After that, he successively served as deputy director of the 1st Regiment of the Guards Brigade of the Inspector of the Three Eastern Provinces (Zhang Zuolin), director of the Deputy Officers Division of the 2nd Echelon Headquarters of the Fengjun East Road Army, deputy director of the 27th Division (Division Commander Zhang Xueliang), commander of the 17th Regiment, chief of the General Affairs Department of the Aviation Department, and director of the Deputy Officers Division of the 1st and 3rd Combined Forces Headquarters of the Zhenwei Army.

In 1925, Gao Jiyi participated in Guo Songling's anti-Fengbing advice and served as the brigade commander of the 19th Brigade, but was dismissed from his military post after the defeat. In 1926, he went to Kaiyuan to run his own automobile company. In the summer of 1927, the young marshal Zhang Xueliang remembered his talents, reactivated Gao Jiyi, and entrusted him with important tasks, and he successively served as the director of the deputy officer department of the 3rd and 4th Front Corps Headquarters, the chief of the Fengtian Police Department, the vice chairman of the Northeast Transportation Commission and the Beining Railway Bureau (Management Bureau? Bureau Chief and other important positions.

Gao Jiyi, who was born in the Feng Army, first with the old marshal (Zhang Zuolin), then with the "devil" (Guo Songling), and then with the young marshal (Zhang Xueliang), his experience can be described as a life of fighting horses and horses, nine deaths. The three words "Gao Jiyi" are concerned by the Chinese people, mainly because there are two important experiences related to him.

The first experience - he was ordered to shoot Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai

On the afternoon of January 10, 1929, the young marshal Zhang Xueliang could not stand the harassment and harassment of Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai, and urgently summoned Gao Jiyi, then the police commissioner's confidant, into the palace and said to him: "Yang and Chang have deceived people too much, opposed Yi Zhi, and obstructed reunification, and I order you to execute them immediately." At eight o'clock in the evening, Gao Jiyi and Tan Hai, the deputy of the guards, led six guards to shoot Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai at the Tiger Hall of Zhang Shuai's Mansion. The "Yang and Chang Incident" shocked the whole country, and the notice of the publicly announced crime had the signature of the prosecutor, and "Gao Jiyi" was also well known to the Chinese people.

The second experience - he was appointed to take charge of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration

In March 1929, Zhang Xueliang appointed Gao Jiyi as vice chairman of the Northeast Transportation Commission and director of the Fengyu Railway Bureau. In view of the fact that the whole country had been unified after the change of the northeast and the Guanwai Railway was still under the jurisdiction of the two railway bureaus of Jingshan and Fengyu, it was really impossible to say, so the young marshal sent Gao Jiyi to Nanjing to discuss with the Ministry of Railways the merger of the road bureau.

When it comes to the history of the Bac Ninh Railway, it can be traced back to the Tangxu Railway in 1881. Tangxu Road was later built to the east and west, and by 1907 it became the "Beijing-Bong Railway". In 1928, the capital was moved south to Beijing and renamed Beiping, and the Beijing-Feng Railway was immediately renamed "Pingfeng Railway". In 1929, Fengtian Province was renamed Liaoning Province, and the Ministry of Railways of the Nanjing Government renamed the Pingfeng Railway to "Bac Ninh Railway".

On August 23, the eighteenth year of the Republic of China (1929), Sun Ke, minister of railways of the National Government of Nanjing, issued Decree No. 693 of the Ministry of Railways, appointing Gao Jiyi as the director of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration.

Although Gao Jiyi was born in the military, he was a Confucian general, full of strategy and quite a talent for management. At the beginning of his term of office, Gao Jiyi began to reform the road bureau from top to bottom. For example, he advocated the elimination of old bureaucratic habits and the construction of a commercial Bac Ninh Railway. Soon, he presided over the business meeting of Beining Road, and the then mayor of Tianjin, Cui Tingxian, and Fu Zuoyi, on behalf of Shi Huayan and hundreds of financial and commercial figures in northeast and north China, were invited to attend. Since then, Gao Jiyi has drastically implemented a series of new business policies, such as improving passenger vehicles, rectifying the Tianjin East Freight Yard, opening up an out-of-tunnel market, handling intermodal transportation with Hong Kong and Shanghai, opening up the construction of Huludao Port, and adding aquatic refrigerated trucks on the Tanggu-Pingjin railway line

In his tenure as director, Gao Jiyi not only grasped the main business and promoted the development of the Bac Ninh Railway, but also did not forget to seek the well-being of employees and contribute to the locality.

I feel that the staff of the Road Bureau have been working hard all year round, and there is no place to relax after being nervous. It was decided to use the fine of 500,000 yuan paid by the Kailuan Mining Bureau for overloading coal transportation to build a hospital, dormitory, and an internal garden for railway workers. Gao Jiyi originally planned to dredge the water system, build mountains and landscaping, and repair pavilions on the 200 acres of land he purchased. However, with the progress of the project, attracting many People from Jinmen to come to visit, and later two high-ranking officials donated the vacant land of the neighboring garden, Gao Jiyi changed his original intention, "in view of the embarrassment of the Great Jinmen, there is no place for public proper recreation", he decided to divide the adjacent Bening Road Bureau into a vacant land, and changed the internal garden into a park facing the people and open to the outside world, so far, the total area of the park has increased to 600 acres.

Gao Jiyi assigned Xu Ji, the general affairs director of the Bac Ninh Railway Bureau, who was proficient in horticulture, to be responsible for planning. Xu refers to the layout of Beiping Central Park and other layouts, so that there are long corridors and pavilions in Ningyuan, forming a pattern of back mountains and water, elegant and quiet. Gao Jiyi took Zhuge Wuhou's phrase "tranquility and distance" and named the park "Ning Garden". Ningyuan is located in the northeast of Tianjin North Railway Station, not far from the Beining Railway Administration, and was built by the Beining Road Bureau, so it is also known as "Beining Park".

The main buildings of Ningyuan Garden are Zhiyuan Pagoda, Jiuqu Scenic View, Deyue Tower, Huxin Pavilion, Diecui Mountain, Changguan Tower, Mandarin Duck Pavilion, etc., and there are auditoriums, libraries, theaters, swimming pools and other facilities, and there are also small zoos and aquariums in the northeast of the park. Construction began in July 1931 and was completed in September 1932, with its chic architecture and elegant environment, which not only made it a famous garden in North China, but also greatly enriched the cultural life of Tianjin citizens. Beining Park still preserves a stone stele commemorating the construction of Ningyuan at that time, and the inscription is as follows: "On the new day of September of the 21st year of the Republic of China, Gao Jiyi of Liaoyang wrote and wrote a book".

In order to practice its railway as the "precursor of culture", Gao Jiyi, who has always emphasized the social function of the park, also actively used the park's facilities to expand Tianjin's cultural and sports undertakings. He loved Peking Opera, and invited the railway staff ticket holders who originally lived in a simple bungalow in Zerenli, Dajing Road, Hebei Province, to the Ningyuan Auditorium, established the "Beining National Opera Society", and allocated funds to purchase equipment and xingtou.

Gao Jiyi loved martial arts, and after the Tianjin County Guoshu Museum, he established the Beining Guoshu Association to call for physical fitness and save the country. He was enthusiastic about sports, founded the Bac Ninh Sports Association, organized football, basketball, volleyball, and tennis teams, and participated in various competitions in Tianjin. Among them, in 1932, the "Gao Jiyi Cup" football competition was organized, which caused a sensation in Tianjin. Swimming and skating competitions are also held at the swimming pool and golf course in Ningyuan.

To say that Zhang Xueliang sent Gao Jiyi to the head of the authorities, he really found the right person, because he was indeed not shallow with the railway. In the early years, when Gao Jiyi was studying in the officer class of the Railway Management School, because of his great physique, quick movements, and outstanding intelligence, he was nicknamed "Old Gao Modifu" (transliteration of the English locomotive locomotive) by his classmates. Later, the school, from teachers and directors to servants and miscellaneous servants, greeted them with nicknames, and rarely called them by their big names. Gao Jiyi was not half displeased, gladly accepted and often joked: "If he is old and long," he should be worthy of the name." This means that if one day I can actually get on the train, it will be worthy of the name.

Many years later, I did not expect gao Jiyi's words to come true, although he could not personally drive the train, but the entire Bac Ninh Railway was under his control. What is more interesting and coincidental is that the railway workers under the command of Director Gao are not highly educated, and those who can speak foreign languages are even rarer, so the workers often use Chinese pronunciation to read English words, and the locomotive is referred to as "Lao Gao". This is exactly what the old high is called "loco", the train is "old high", "loco" manages "old high", which is old high.

During his time at the helm of the Bac Ninh Railway, Gao Jiyi also contributed to the construction of Huludao Port. At the beginning of Zhang Xueliang's administration of northeast China, one of the major events planned to be done was to start construction of a port on Huludao. In the autumn of 1929, Sun Ke, the minister of railways of the Nationalist government, inspected the railway line in Bac Ninh and met with Zhang Xueliang in Shenyang, and Sun Ke expressed support for Zhang's proposal to build a port. After many consultations between the central government and the local authorities in the northeast, it was decided that the funds would be borne by the Bac Ninh Railway Bureau, and at the same time there would be a port affairs office in the bureau, and the director Of the Bureau, Gao Jiyi, would also be in charge of port construction affairs.

On January 24, 1930, Gao Jiyi and Tao Pushi, the general representative of the Dutch Port Company, signed the "Contract for the Construction of Huludao Seaport" in Tianjin. On July 2, 1930, the groundbreaking ceremony of Huludao Port was held, and more than 700 military and political dignitaries and guests from all walks of life, including Zhang Xueliang (commander of the Northeast Border Defense Army), Wu Tiecheng (representative of the Ministry of Railways of the National Government), Zhang Qun (mayor of Shanghai), Cui Tingxian (mayor of Tianjin), and other military and political dignitaries and guests from all walks of life attended the ceremony. There were eight procedures for the opening ceremony, the third of which was a long speech delivered by Gao Jiyi, chairman of the Northeast Transportation Commission, director of the Beining Railway Bureau, and head of the Huludao Hong Kong Project. In 1931, the "9.18" incident broke out, the three northeastern provinces fell, and the port construction project of Huludao was forced to stop.

On March 17, the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), Gu Mengyu, Minister of Railways, issued Decree No. 1277 of the Ministry of Railways, approving the resignation petition of Gao Jiyi, director of the Bac Ninh Railway Administration. On April 20, the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), Gu Mengyu, Minister of Railways, issued a letter of appointment from the Ministry of Railways, appointing Gao Jiyi as an adviser to the Ministry of Railways.

In the spring of 1934, Gao Jiyi founded Fufeng Farm in the western suburbs of Beiping. After the "July 7 Incident", Gao Jiyi was arrested by the Japanese gendarmes, tortured, and forced to take up a false post. On the eve of liberation, Gao Jiyi participated in the work of persuading General Fu Zuoyi and contributed to the peaceful liberation of Peiping.

In July 1963, Gao Jiyi, the former loco director of the Bac Ninh Railway, died of illness in Tianjin at the age of 73.

Gao Jiyi (1890~1963)