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"Enlai, we must prepare in advance, make a plan, and make a plan that only you and I can know at the current stage. We need a large enough underground project to ensure our nuclear industry and key facilities. "
1966, in Zhongnanhai , Chairman Mao was smoking a cigarette and looking out of the window. He said the above sentence helplessly in a low voice.
Chairman Mao
At this time, Premier Zhou, who was standing opposite, was looking at Chairman Mao with a serious expression. After a while, he nodded vigorously.
Starting from this day, a huge project called "816 Plan" was officially launched. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the project, the country not only consumed huge resources, but also caused the collective "disappearance" of tens of thousands of people and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people. So, what kind of project is such a complicated "816 Plan"? Finally, what is the ending of this project?
816 Project Plan
. The turbulent world
Since the founding of New China, we have been committed to our own development. Internationally, we respect every country’s own choices and are never willing to interfere in other people’s internal affairs. But, however, other countries in the world do not think so, especially the United States and the Soviet Union, who are fighting a Cold War around the world, and the party is fighting against the differences.
China is a socialist country , so it is usually considered to be from the Soviet camp. The Soviet Union itself once thought so, so after the founding of New China in , the Soviet Union provided a lot of industrial and military aid. Against the backdrop of large-scale industrial transfer in the Soviet Union, China's industrial foundation developed rapidly, and the first five-year plan also achieved a successful success.
However, under the surface harmony, what is hidden is irreconcilable contradictions. After the death of the Soviet leader Stalin , Khrushchev came to the forefront. Khrushchev pursued the great power chauvinism, regarded China as his strategic frontier, and often pointed fingers at China's internal affairs. This made Chairman Mao, who longed for independence, unbearable. He had criticized Khrushchev many times. There have been many disharmonious voices in the interactions between the two countries.
In 1959, Khrushchev tried China, hoping to station troops in China and establish the so-called joint military command center with the Soviets as commanders. This obviously violated China's bottom line, and it was a flat rejection by Chairman Mao.
Khrushchev
From then on, Sino-Soviet relations quickly fell to freezing point, and the Soviet Union would withdraw all the experts, as well as the company's managers and relevant technical information that came to support. China's second and third five-year plans have failed to meet the expected indicators.
1963, Brezhnev became the leader of the Soviet Union. His hostility towards China was even more serious than that of Khrushchev. Moreover, Brezhnev's personality is stronger and he is a person who really dares to press the core button . In order to counter the possible nuclear strike against , China began to study our own nuclear weapon more quickly.
On October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb, , exploded successfully in the west, and the Chinese nation finally had its own long sword and shield. However, it is not enough to have an atomic bomb alone. Without a complete nuclear weapons system, we still cannot deal with the Soviet strike.
Also in 1964, another emergency occurred in China's southern coastal areas: the US warship suddenly launched an attack on northern Vietnam, causing considerable losses. The destroyer "Maddox" of the US Seventh Fleet of also immediately invaded Vietnam's territorial waters. The warship exchanged fire with the Vietnamese Navy and sank a torpedo boat in Vietnam. The incident escalated quickly and the war was about to burn into China.
At that time, most of the industries in my country that were related to the lifeline of the economy were concentrated in coastal cities and some inland large cities. If war breaks out, these targets will be attacked at the earliest. Once these cities are paralyzed, China will fall into a huge crisis.
US destroyer
As the trump card of China's strategic counterattack, the atomic bomb is the top priority. Although at that time, my country already had a production and processing base for nuclear raw materials, that is, 404 factory . However, Factory 404 is an above-ground building and is set up in an urban area of Gansu. Once a war really happens, it will inevitably be hit immediately. Once the 404 factory is lost, the newly established nuclear industry will also be destroyed. So after comprehensive consideration, Chairman Mao decided to make a strategic backup for the survival of the entire nation. And this backup is the "816 Project".
2. Strict confidentiality and difficult construction of
Since it is used as a backup of the entire nuclear industry, the confidentiality level must be high enough. In order to avoid leaks, Premier Zhou conducted extremely strict screening of the entire project during the implementation. From site selection to construction, all personnel must undergo extremely strict political review and sign the relevant confidentiality agreement . This kind of political review not only involves the personnel themselves, but also the family and even the family situation must be reviewed.
Premier Zhou
project core technical personnel are selected from universities in society. To give them enough awareness of confidentiality, all personnel must attend a week-long confidentiality course. During the study period, these technicians didn't even know what they wanted to do.
While screening personnel, the site selection work of the project is also being carried out in full swing. According to Chairman Mao’s instructions, the location of the project should be selected in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Gansu and other regions. The surveyors immediately went to these places for on-site investigation and finally determined the address of the entire project: Baitao Town, near Chongqing.
Today's Baitao Town
selects the address here, which is very particular, because Baitao Town has three favorable conditions for large-scale construction projects:
First: a large enough mountain system. Since the foundation of the entire 816 project is a large cave that is long enough and deep enough, there must be a large enough mountain range to carry it. Chongqing is known as a mountain city, and the one that is most lacking is mountains, which is unique in this regard.
Second: Enough water resources. Since it is used as a backup for the entire nuclear industry, water to cool down of reactor is essential. Baitao Town is adjacent to Wujiang , with abundant water, which can fully meet the needs.
Wujiang Water System
Third: sufficiently convenient construction conditions. The 816 engineering system is huge and requires a large amount of building materials, so a large city needs to support it. Chongqing was once China's "capital" and had a relatively developed construction industry system that was enough to support large-scale projects.
It is precisely because of the above three conditions that Baitao Town "stands out" and becomes the location of the "816 Project". After the site selection of
is determined, the next step is the massive relocation work. Externally, the engineering unit claimed to build a large chemical plant, so it relocated all residents within a radius of 30 kilometers. Even the place name of "Baitao Town" has been erased from the map.
China Engineering Soldier
Immediately afterwards, 60,000 construction workers entered the site. Most of them were soldiers of the 54th Division of the Engineer Army. Their number is 5 groups. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry also sent three construction companies to provide support, responsible for the construction of peripheral engineering. In addition, there are 10,000 people's workers supported by Chongqing and 10,000 technical talents supported by the whole country.
Because there is a provision for confidentiality agreement, they cannot tell their families where they have gone before leaving, or even say goodbye to their wives and children. With the puzzled eyes of their relatives, they crept into the mountains and worked for more than ten years, as if they had disappeared.
China Engineering Corps
"816 Project" is actually a huge cave system.This large cave covers an area of 100,000 square meters and has eighteen large cave rooms. The tunnels and internal passages together have as many as 130. Among them, the main building is divided into nine floors, the tallest cave is 79.6 meters high, and the cave house that houses nuclear reactor is also 69 meters high. In order to take out these caves, the builders almost hollowed out the mountain, and the digging of 1.51 million cubic meters of soil and rocks were enough to build another 0,000-mile Great Wall .
At that time, China did not have enough advanced construction equipment, and these huge caves had to rely on the difficult advancement of construction workers, a shovel and a pickaxe. The hard work and sweat they put in can be imagined.
816 Inside the project, these engineers are like those revolutionary martyrs, not only labor, but also life. From the beginning of the entire project to the final stop, a total of 76 engineers sacrificed their lives. Their average age is only 21 years old. Some of them died from landslides, while others were to protect their comrades. Even those who survived have left permanent sequelae due to years of high-intensity homework.
3. The sudden suspension of work
Since Chairman Mao personally issued and started, the promotion of the "816 Project" has never been disturbed by other factors. However, due to the huge amount of the project, the construction speed cannot be too fast. In 1976, Chairman Mao passed away. When he passed away, he regretted that he could not see the completion of the "816 Project".
Chairman Mao passed away
By 1984, 85% of the construction project had been completed and 60% of the installation project had been completed. It was obvious that with just one more effort, it could be completed. But at this moment, the construction staff suddenly received an order to stop work. The person who issued this order was Deng Xiaoping, the chief designer of reform and opening up in my country, Deng Xiaoping. The reason why he ordered the suspension of work was carefully considered.
First of all, the international situation at this time has undergone tremendous changes. The huge shadow of war back then no longer exists.
Deng Xiaoping
First, on January 1, 1979, China and the United States established diplomatic relations. Since then, not only has the long-term confrontation stopped, but China and the United States have also launched a series of commercial cooperation. Then, naturally, the war pressure that once came from the United States no longer exists.
Secondly, on November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Brezhnev died and Andropov became his successor. The Sino-Soviet relationship has also been greatly alleviated. At the same time, the Soviet Union was deeply trapped in the quagmire of the Afghan war and had no time to launch another war against China. This made the original nuclear war against suddenly disappear. Deng Xiaoping therefore gave his own prediction: There will be no large-scale war in China in the next 30 years.
Deng Xiaoping
At the same time, Deng Xiaoping also learned that the technology of nuclear weapons and nuclear industry in the international field has made rapid progress. The large number of cave rooms that were originally reserved are no longer applicable. New technology has lower costs, smaller construction volume and safer. As China, of course we must align with new technologies.
, while the "816 Project" seems outdated and out of place at this time. From the construction of the project to now, it has spent a total of 740 million yuan. In that era, this was already a huge sum of astronomical money. How much does it cost to continue to build this project? At the same time, how long will it take? Is it cost-effective to spend so much financial and material resources to build a large outdated building? These are all what Chairman Deng Xiaoping needs to consider.
816 internal
At the same time, Chairman Deng, who is extremely sensitive to economic construction, cannot ignore the huge manpower consumed by the project. Many of those construction workers are top figures in related units. They are consumed in this way on the "816 Project", which is obviously better than letting them engage in economic construction.
So, after comprehensive consideration, the "816 Project" was eventually abolished.The key projects built to prevent war finally stopped in the era of peace.
However, at that time, since the confidentiality period of the entire project was still not over, the retired workers and technicians still abide by the discipline of the party organization and kept silent about the work content and location of the past ten years. However, Baitao Town, which has disappeared on the map for 17 years, has reappeared in people's vision and has become the leader in local economic development.
Baitao Town
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, another 17 years have passed. In 2002, the confidentiality period of the "816 Project" had passed, and the veterans of that year could finally say with a dignified view that they were going to build the nuclear project facilities for the country. The large cave, which has been abandoned for many years, has been given a brand new function by the local government - becoming a tourist attraction, telling tourists the story of Yugong, the engineer army moving mountains.
In 2010, the main structure of the "816 Project" received the first batch of guests. Tourists were sincerely admiring when they looked at the hollowed-out mountain. They could not imagine how such a magnificent underground Great Wall was dug up with manpower.
816 project
Now, the main cave of the "816 project" has been selected into the " China Industrial Heritage Protection Directory " and has become a national AAAA-level tourist attraction. In national defense and patriotic education, this huge building carries a more important mission. Although it is speechless, it expresses the efforts China has made for national autonomy back then. Whether it is Chairman Mao who ordered the start of work or Chairman Deng who ordered the suspension of work, it will become a guiding light in history.
