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Lu Xun said: "There is no road in the world, and more people walk on it will become roads." Yes, in the vast country, there are endless trains full of people who come and go, travel, visit relatives and friends, do business, and do business. The speeding train took people through tunnels, crossed mountain streams, climbed steepnesses, and crossed overpasses, and ran among the mountains and steep mountains.
But do you know where the well-connected railway comes from? Who builds railways in this place with steep cliffs, high cold, oxygen-deficient, wind and sand, and deserted people? Who moves mountains and fills the sea, called "the mountains bow down and the river gives way"? Who builds railways on a small road? Who makes the first footprint of mankind in this place without roads?
The mountains and rivers are evidence! That is a special forces unit that once owned in the Chinese People's Liberation Army sequence - the brave and warlike railway troops!
Railway troops have stepped on the land of the motherland, turned the tide on the sea, conquered forests and seas in the Greater Xing'an Mountains, swallowed mountains and rivers in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, drank sand in the vast sea of yellow sand, and fought snow in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They fought with the Kunlun Mountains and competed for power with the Tanggula Snow Mountains. They sprinkled their youth and passion on the motherland's thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, solidifying them on the railway line that stretched thousands of miles, opening up a path to establish a foothold, a path to prosperity and a path to happiness for the people of all ethnic groups. Their glorious years of fighting against the sky and the earth are still like golden swords and iron horses, and they are as energetic as tigers.
35 years from the establishment of the railway column on July 5, 1948 to the merger of the Ministry of Railways on January 1, 1984, in the war environment, more than 3,600 kilometers of railways were repaired, more than 690 kilometers of railways and more than 430 kilometers of combat readiness roads were built. During the Liberation War, "where the army will fight, the railway will be built"; during the War of Resistance and Aid Korea, a steel transportation line that "can't be beaten, but can't be blown up" was created, ensuring that our army won the victory of the War of Liberation War and the War of Resistance and Aid Korea.
In the peaceful construction, the railway troops responded to the call of the motherland and took small roads to build large roads. They dug roads across mountains, built bridges when encountering water, slept in the open, and basked with rain and wind. From Xing'an Mountains in the northeast to Wuzhi Mountain in Hainan, from the coast of the East China Sea to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, from inside and outside the Great Wall to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, they successively presided over and participated in the construction of 52 railway trunk and branch lines, including Li Zhan, Yingxia, Baolan, Guikun, Chengkun, Nenlin, Xiangyu, Jingyuan, Jingtong, Qinghai-Tibet, Southern Xinjiang, Tonghuo, Gunshi, and Beijing subway construction tasks. Together with national defense, forestry and various special railways, a total of more than 12,590 kilometers of railway trunk and branch lines were built, accounting for about one-third of the total number of newly built railways in the same period in the country, allowing steel avenues to rise and extend on the land of China.
"Sweat melts into thousands of layers of rocks, and wind guns open up thousands of mountains." They used their hard work to condense into crystal paving stones, watered them with blood into rows of strong sleepers, forged them with their muscles and bones to create rails that move forward bravely, paving roads and bridges for the circulation of materials of the country, and "weaving" the beautiful mountains and rivers of the motherland, and making a huge railway network stand up for the Chinese nation in the forest of the world!
"Dare to ask where the road is? The road is at your feet!" The road at the feet of the railway soldiers is a winding and rugged path, a steep cliff and steep mountains and ridges that "the road of Shu is difficult, it is harder than going up to the blue sky", a sand dunes filled with wind and sand, a swamp grassland covered with ice and snow, a primitive wild forest with no trace of people, and there is no road under your feet, and you can break through thorns and drive a road.
After the hard battle of the railway soldiers, you can see "The clouds open and the thousands of peaks come out of Wu Gorge, and the road turns around the Bajiang River flows"; you can see "There is no way around the green mountains, and suddenly thousands of sails are hidden." They used their hands to build a framework for the rise of New China and stood up the indomitable backbone of the Republic with their strong arms.
During the Liberation War, the railway column showed strong combat effectiveness from the date of its birth. According to the strategic intentions of the Northeast Field Army, it blazed the smoke of war and went along the three directions of Jinzhou, Changchun and Shenyang to repair the war zone railway that was damaged in the war, ensuring the railway transportation of the Liaoshen Campaign, and quickly connected the railways between major northeast cities such as Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, and Jinzhou, so that the train could go directly to the pass. Chen Yun, who was then the deputy political commissar of the Northeast Military Region, said at the opening ceremony of the restoration of the Taozongsonghua River Bridge in the long-term of the Harbin, that the restoration of the bridge "has opened a road of victory for the people of Northeast China."
After the victory of the Liaoshen Campaign, the railway column quickly entered the pass with the Northeast Field Army, and then shouldered the glorious mission of "building the railway wherever the field army goes", ensuring the mobilization of troops in the large corps, the supply of grain and ammunition and the transportation of heavy equipment, and ensuring the victory of the Pingjin Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign, the Crossing River Campaign and other battles.
During the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the enemy adopted front-back pinch-strike tactics on the front-end railways and rear transport lines, and threw a large number of timed bombs, mother-of-blasts, killer bombs and blockbusters on bridges and stations, and was supplemented by uninterrupted low-altitude artillery and dive strafing to crazily destroy and prevent our army's emergency repairs and transportation. The railway corps adopted a piecewise support tactic, concentrate troops to repair as they explode; cleverly use camouflage to confuse enemy aircraft; strengthen air defense firepower, force enemy aircraft to reduce low-altitude bombing; unify the design standards of the bridge, prepare platoons and wooden dragons in advance, and shorten the emergency repair time.
The enemy's "stranger battle" against the intersection of key bridges, stations and railways, the railway soldiers roared over their heads, accompanied by timed bombs that exploded at any time, and under their feet were triangular iron nails deliberately thrown by the enemy, brave and tenacious, fighting day and night. Blast it, repair it; blow it up again, repair it. Although the enemy's mechanisms were all calculated and constantly changed tactics, they "exploded both ends" today, and concentrated on "exploding one end" tomorrow, and showed off all new weapons, which never stopped our military trains from driving on the front line.
One company of the Iron Division, withstood 26 bombings in 76 days and nights. With 99 casualties in the entire company and only 40 left, they insisted on completing the emergency repair task on time; Yuan Xiaowen of the Iron Division, when he was exhausted, he crawled 300 meters with his hands, set up the railway tracks, and blew the last drop of blood, and died next to the rails. The bravery of the railway soldiers to fight to the death made the US military admit that "any railway that has been blown up is rarely repaired within 24 hours." And he also had to sigh: "The railway soldiers are the most determined person in the world to build railways." Van Vritte, commander of the 8th Army of the US Army, also said helplessly: "Although the coalition's air force and navy have done all their strength to try to block the supply of the Communist Party, the Communist Party still transported materials to the front line with a belief in tenacious perseverance, creating an amazing miracle."
Railway soldiers built a "steel transportation line that can't be beaten and cannot be fried." This is the road that the railway soldiers took and built on the Korean battlefield.
From 1965 to 1970, the railway troops once again resisted the U.S. aided Vietnam. In response to the high temperature, rainy, high humidity and stuffy jungles in northern Vietnam, the annual average temperature is 24 degrees Celsius, normal 30 degrees Celsius, and there are indiscriminate bombings on the top and mosquitoes, lees, and poisonous snakes. The railway soldiers carried forward the fine traditions of our army's high internationalism and revolutionary heroism, sacrificed their lives and forge ahead. In the tasks of improving the railway network, anti-bombing and repairing, and quickly building railways and highways, they have created remarkable achievements, ensuring wartime transportation in northern Vietnam.
The railway soldiers built the road during the war had a sharp blade-like light in the military power of New China, piercing the sky and becoming a nightmare for the United States!
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After the end of the Korean War, in order to break the maritime blockade of the US authorities and the Kuomintang army's invasion of the mainland and consolidate the defense of the Southeast sea, the railway soldiers followed Chairman Mao's instructions and quickly opened the two railways, Li Zhan and Yingxia in a combat manner.
Lizhan Railway is repaired quickly. Survey, design and construction, concentrate troops and deploy the entire line. The railway soldiers are united, with high morale, steaming everywhere and busy, shortening the construction period of 23 and a half months stipulated by the state to 12 months.
Yingxia Railway "passes through mountains", "moves mountains" and "reclaims sea".Commander Wang Zhen personally led the working group into the Daheshan Tunnel, which was standing against the sky and was as hard as iron. He fought with the wind and snatched the wind like cadres and soldiers, and studied and improved the construction methods, boosted morale, and increased the craft efficiency by more than tripled. He opened up this natural barrier Wuyi Mountains 118 days in advance.
The construction troops boldly adopted the directional blasting method, increased the amount of medicine, and moved mountains and filled valleys. 234 tons of explosives were placed at one time, and three hills were blown up in one shot, flattening the peaks such as Daiyun Mountain.
Reclaiming sea is a real feat on earth. Railway soldiers ride small boats and fight against the sea. I feel dizzy and vomiting, completely ignored; the wind is fast and the waves are high, and I keep throwing rocks. A row of towing belts and quick stone throwing methods were created, which forced a long dike of 5 kilometers long and 19 meters wide to cut the waves and jumped out of the sea.
A white jade belt floating between the blue sea and the blue sky is like a wanderer on the sea being pulled into the warm arms by the motherland's mother stretched out her huge arms. This achievement of "moving mountains and filling the sea" was commander-in-chief Zhu De, the founding marshal, personally wrote a big word to guard Haiti in Xiamen forever, and will shine on the achievements of the railway troops for thousands of years!
develops Daxinganling and opens the green treasure house. New China needs a large amount of construction materials, and Daxinganling has Wanshan timber for development, and all this needs to be achieved by building a railway. In 1964, the state organized the Greater Xinganling Battle. The burden of the Nenlin Railway fell on the railway soldiers who overcame difficulties.
This is a high-altitude "forbidden zone" that is difficult to get involved. During the Japanese imperialist occupation, in order to plunder forestry resources, he broke into four times and failed to gain a foothold, mainly because he could not survive the cold nights of the Greater Khingan Mountains. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country developed twice, but both returned in vain.
Difficulties are also placed in front of our railway soldiers. The freezing period here is 8 months, with the lowest temperature reaching minus 57 degrees Celsius, thousands of miles of ice, snow falling, silver covered with silver, and ice is clear, it is an endless large ice cellar, "Dripping water turns into ice, spitting into nails", "Kick the door with feet, and sacks with water."
The vanguard troops are moving in early winter, and the ice is snowy. They are marching in danger, shaving through difficulties, wielding axes and pickaxes to clear roadblocks, cutting down shadows, their hands are frozen and cracked, their feet are swollen, their noses are frostbite, no one complains, no one falls behind, and they "kill" a passage from the primeval forest without roads.
Railway soldiers invented the "earth fire dragon" and settled their home here, breaking the convention of "summer comes in and winter comes out". It is cold in winter and warm in summer. It has to face the trap of eating people and countless bloodthirsty gadflies. At night, there are black mosquitoes and small bites, roaring above the head. After working hard during the day, I will find the gentle dreamland at night. There are dense forests along the way, and animals are everywhere, and it is deserted. Survival is still difficult. How can I build a road! The railway soldiers have lived there for eight years.
The difficulties in construction are naturally no problem. They set up their homes and constructed, constantly exploring and practicing, and gradually accumulated a set of construction methods in severe cold climates. Taking advantage of the rapid freezing of high and cold, the bridge culvert foundation is excavated by the "freezing method" of freezing layer by layer and peeling ice layer by layer; the bridge piers are poured with low-temperature and early strength concrete, or stir-frying with iron plates and scalding to make sand and gravel materials heat up and then stir-frying; the "tower head" is reversed in the construction of swamps to reduce the workload of changing the soil after spring melting; a wind barrier wall is set up to guide the cold wind into the foundation pit, cool down and promote freezing, solve the problem of foundation pit seepage, etc. Although the method is rustic, it works very well. In the face of these railway soldiers who are not afraid of difficulties and are good at creating, no difficulties or difficulties are a problem. They built the Nenlin Railway with their passion and youth.
The Baolan Railway, which runs through the three provinces and regions of Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu, can connect Baotou Steel, the Hetao District of the "South Desert Granary", the Helan Mountain Coalfield, the Yinchuan Plain of the "South Jiangnan" and the Jincheng Lanzhou, but it must pass through the desert area and fight against the desert.
The railway soldiers are overhead with a scorching sun, and surrounded by an endless desert, with thousands of miles of bare feet. There is no grass, water, or roads here. The winds of level 10 are frequented by, huge sand dunes flow at will, the yellow sand rolls, the sky is dark, and we cannot meet each other at a distance.
The roadbed built today will be covered with quicksand tomorrow. The water needs to be transported dozens of miles away, so I have to wash my face, wash my feet, and wash my laundry. He often eats in the wind, "eats all the sand" and "swallows two taels and five taels of sand every day, which is not enough in the morning to make up for it at night."
During the scorching sun during the day, the stars in the desert are everywhere at night, and the cotton coat is thin in cold weather, how bitter it is! Even the camels who followed the army were exhausted.
Under such harsh conditions, after repeated experiments, the railway soldiers finally found effective methods such as planting trees along the line, setting sand barriers with straw and paving stones on the road shoulders, subduing the wind and sand, and realizing the heroic oath of "swallowing the wind and drinking the yellow sand today, and hanging the rainbow grassland tomorrow."
uses the Guizhou-Kunming Railway to connect the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and then build the Kunming Railway along the edge plate collision fault zone of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to connect the Yunchuan. Later, the Xiang-Yu Railway connects the Bashan and Shu water with the Central Plains, laying the country's military industry and heavy industrial system in the inland depth of the motherland. This is the strategic decision of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee. To build the third line, roads must be built first. This most basic and difficult infrastructure project fell on the railway corps again.
Take the Chengdu-Kunming Railway as an example only to see how the railway soldiers build roads for the country. The Chengdu-Kunming Railway, which travels through the thousands of rivers and mountains of Sichuan and Yunnan, is located on both sides of the Dadu River and Jinsha River. The mountains are high and deep, the rivers are strong and the flow is fast, and the lines are roundabout and overlapping. After passing through the area, there are "fire ditches" with temperatures as high as 40 or 50 degrees Celsius, snowy mountains with year-round snow, and earthquake areas with intensity of 7 to 9 degrees. The mountains are staggered, the rocks are broken, caves, underground rivers, faults, quicksand, gas, and rock explosions are all available. The arduous project and the complex geology are rare in the history of road construction in the world. Draw dense tunnels in the mountains and ridges that can be called "geological museums". Some areas are connected by bridges and tunnels, some areas are connected by tunnels, and some areas are winding and circling, with diverse shapes. Railway soldiers have become sculptors of alien tunnels.
If there is no road at the foot, you will walk all the wilderness. The railway soldiers will bring ropes to climb cliffs, cliffs, and overlook the mountains and rivers. If the machinery and equipment cannot be reached, they will dismantle the equipment into parts and work together to carry it up the mountain. If there is no electricity, carry the mountain with your shoulders and hands and pull the big electricity up the mountain; if there is no place to live, you can cover the roof of the cow's felt and wooden boards as walls, or live in the canyons, or build nests on the top of the cliff. There are dangerous rocks and cliffs above your head and foot stepping on the abyss; or there are mud and water flowing all over your face and body fighting deep in the tunnel; or there are towering bridge piers hanging their hearts high in the sky.
In order to save time, they used primitive tools such as hammers and steel brazing to open a tunnel of nearly kilometers. The more you dig, the more complex the geology is, there are hard and hard rocks, and there are mud that collapses at once. Sometimes it is the "Flame Mountain" at more than 40 degrees, making people sweat. After a row of running, water will surge in the cracks in the rocks, as if they suddenly enter the "water curtain cave", which is cold and bone-black. In order to save time, the tunnel was opened as soon as possible. After the firecrackers were fired, the railway soldiers rushed in with thick smoke. In order to save time, they often turned off the water guns when drilling, did not wear masks, and went barefoot with rolling smoke and dust. They were covered with dust in their lungs, sweat on their heads, and dust on their faces and bodies, forming mud. They just kept going day and night, day and night. This is the way for the railway soldiers to fight with their lives!
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Qingdao Railway is the first plateau railway in my country to lead to the roof of the world. There was once a Western saying: "As long as Kunlun Mountain is there, the railway will never reach Lhasa." Yes, the altitude here is 3,600 meters, and the oxygen content is 60% of that in the mainland. When passing through the Tanggula Mountains, it dropped to 50%.
is located in the northern Tibetan Plateau from Hargai to Nanshankou. It has a larger temperature difference, long winters, harsh climate, sparsely populated areas along the route, backward economy, scarce supplies, and difficult construction. The machinery in the hands of the railway soldiers was very shabby, and they could only dig inch by flesh and blood, pull out one cart, and repair it one meter inch by one.
In the 4009-meter Guanjiao Tunnel of the "bottleneck" project, many faults are cut here, stone is broken, and groundwater gushing day and night, up to more than 10,000 tons. In the 1950s, the railway bureau started construction, but it was shut down during economic difficulties.
After the railway corps started construction, it took one and a half years to clean up in the early stage, and more than 130 large and small landslides were dealt with. The biggest difficulty is that the air is thin, the matches cannot be matched, and the lighter cannot be used. Almost every day, people fainted in the cave, helped them outside the cave, and then turned around and entered the cave to work.
There was a huge landslide in the tunnel, blocking 127 people at once, and even Premier Zhou was alarmed. Inspired by the slogan of saving people first, leaders at all levels led their troops to overcome dangers, overcome difficulties, and finally got rid of dangers. The Guanjiao Tunnel experiences landslides every 30 meters on average, and a soldier is sacrificed every 80 meters. More than 50 railway soldiers are sacrificed in a Guanjiao Tunnel. Their youthful blood will always freeze on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Blood and danger are not just Guanjiao Tunnel. Railway soldiers also need to penetrate mountains like frozen by sea water on the plateau, connecting them with bridges and tunnels, or traveling along the valleys on the frozen soil. The vast salt lake has dense karst caves, granite-like rock salt, and sponge-like salt land that is soft and will sink when it shakes a little.
Railway soldiers bravely accepted the challenge of the salt lake, lived in salt blocks to build a "Salt Palace", withstood the extremely strong corrosion of salt brine, ate dehydrated vegetables transported from other places, breathed the salty air, and started a tenacious battle to control salt with sand and stones day and night!
They first used machinery to compact the surface salt crust, then dug out the salt crust and backfilled the sand and gravel, squeezed the dense sand piles to treat the base, and then paved the roadbed on the lake surface. The soldiers called such a roadbed a "sand pile salt bridge" with invisible piers. Under such difficult conditions, the construction troops drove 57,000 dense sand piles in the 32-kilometer salt lake area and 57-kilometer super-heavy salt-bearing land area, dug out salt crusts, and backfilled 64,000 m2 of stones and pebbles. This is a rare "Salt Bridge" with no crystal piers in the world that is rare across the vast salt lake.
Feng Volcano not only has thin air, but also has a severe cold climate. It is known as the "ice and snow warehouse". It is the most difficult frozen land area in the construction test team. This is "June snow, July ice, and the four seasons of the year are not clear". The situation changes rapidly, and the winds are often howling and heavy snow is flying.
They ignored the serious alpine reaction, their hair fell off, their dizziness, shortness of breath, chest tightness and weakness, their nails were sunken, their hearts expanded or even shifted, and they continued to experiment, and received extremely valuable scientific data on plateau railway construction. The railway soldiers fought tenaciously, overcame physiological limits, and finally conquered the Kunlun Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, built the railway to Lhasa, and dedicated the world's highest altitude railway to the world, winning honor and pride for the motherland and the people!
How has the magnificent been a poem in the 70 years of the People's Republic of China? Because countless builders compete to win, the railway troops are among them. Their achievements in building mountains and rivers have been shining and glorious.
Friends, when you are traveling through the subway railway line of the motherland, have you ever thought of the road builders back then? When you rely on the railway line to make a fortune, have you ever thought of the railway soldiers back then? When you are traveling and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way on the train, have you ever thought of how the railway soldiers back then built in this unparalleled restricted area under this infinite scenery? More than 8,000 railway soldiers sacrificed their lives in the "paving rack", how many good men's wind gunners are there? Suffering from silicosis, how many good men are injured and disabled, how many unknown combat heroes are there, who selflessly devote their best youth in their lives to the railway construction cause of the motherland!
Some people may say, "I spend money to buy tickets, and it is natural to take a bus." Friends, I will pay you a double or triple salary. Are you willing to go to Daxinganling, where minus 40-50 degrees Celsius to build a railway? Are you willing to go up the cliffs to build the Xiangyu Railway and the Chengdu-Kunming Railway? Are you willing to go to the southern Xinjiang and Tibet where people are rarely seen and have severe oxygen deficiency?
Some people may say, "The imperial grain you soldiers eat and the state allowances you receive should work hard for the country." I can tell you that precisely because we are the People's Liberation Army of China, "a red heart is worn on the head, and the red flag of revolution is hung on both sides." The interests of the motherland are above everything else, and the interests of the people are above everything else, we are brave and tenacious and not afraid of sacrifice. We ate sorghum rice, corn kernels, dried vegetables, and chard. The monthly allowance was 6, 7, 8 yuan (6 yuan in the first year, and so on). At that time, we could only buy some daily necessities such as envelopes and paper.
Our lives are also valuable, and life is only once, but our lives belong to the motherland and the people.If any private owner asks us to work like this and exchange our lives for their interests, I’m sorry! It has only revitalized the country's economic and resource context, and has opened up the world to the outside world for many ordinary, ordinary mountains, remote areas and backward villages, allowing them to live a good life of adequate food and clothing, getting rid of poverty and becoming rich, and bringing real and affordable vicissitudes and great changes to the local area!
Perhaps with the development of technology, people will take the maglev train and cross the vacuum tunnel under the sea to experience the more exciting outside world, but don’t forget that it is the railway soldiers who built the framework for the rise of New China with their hands, laying a solid foundation for today’s high-speed rail development. Railway soldiers are the starters and founders, so how can they forget the well digging person when they drank water?
"It is difficult to walk, it is difficult to walk, and there are many misaligned roads. Where are you now? There will be times when the wind and waves will be broken, and the clouds will sail across the vast sea." The railway soldiers used their passion to burn their years and built steel avenues with their youth and blood. The great spirit of the railway soldiers forged also guided the life path of the vast number of railway soldiers. After the retirement of the railway soldiers, some of them re-learned their skills and started their businesses hard; some of them faced the loess and were engaged in agricultural labor; some of them dragged the frostbite, sprains and other disabled people who fell in the construction of the troops and made difficulties in their bodies, but they were proactive in their life, indomitable, and hard-working, and achieved brilliant results in all walks of life.
"I laughed to the sky and went out. How could we be weeds?" Although we are already in the 60s, our old horses know the way, our old horses are in the stable, our old horses neigh, our old preconceived, our old generals know our soldiers, our old generals are getting stronger, let us unite around the Party Central Committee and follow President Xi to forge ahead on the road of the new Long March!
Author: Wu Fengxiang
Editor: Fang Yingxin "White Langqing"
Source: Xinhua No. Bai Langqing
