One day in the late autumn of 1950, Shao Lizi and Fu Zuoyi were invited to Chairman Mao's residence in Zhongnanhai Yinian Hall, and the two arrived on time. When 55-year-old Fu Zuoyi got out of the car and helped 68-year-old Shao Lizi get out of the car, Chairman Mao was already out to greet him.
The face of history sometimes changes quickly. Just a year earlier, in 1949, Fu Zuoyi had been Chiang Kai-shek's commander-in-chief of the "suppression of bandits" in North China, while Shao Lizi had been a representative of the peace talks delegation appointed by the Kuomintang Nanjing government to hold peace talks with the Chinese Communists. Today, however, both of these men have become Chairman Mao's guests.
How did these two people change so much? Shao Lizi, one of the earliest members of our party, as a representative of the Kuomintang for peace talks in Beiping, decided to stay in Peace and resolutely stand in the people's revolutionary camp led by Chairman Mao and the Communist Party in Peiping, and after the founding of New China, he was appointed as a political commissar of the Government Council; and Fu Zuoyi, a famous anti-Japanese general, also conformed to the trend of history and understood the great righteousness, and in January 1949 led the uprising of the troops, handed over Peiping to the People's Liberation Army in the form of peaceful liberation, and after the founding of New China, he was appointed minister of water resources.
At this time, Chairman Mao saw the two men get out of the car, strode forward, shook hands one by one, and said: "Welcome, welcome, sir and the general are very punctual!" ”
Shao Lizi said very familiarly: "The chairman is a person who cherishes time. ”
Fu Zuoyi said in the tone of a soldier: "Soldiers first regard obedience to orders as their duty, and second, they take the accuracy of time as their life. ”
Chairman Mao smiled and said, "Then let's just go into the house as soon as possible." ”
With that, 3 people came to the door of the living room. The host signaled the guests to advance, the guests humbly gave way, and Chairman Mao had no choice but to say: "The guests do not enter, only the Lord goes first." "Lead in as you speak.
After the host and guest sat down, Shao Lizi found that the four treasures of the literary room on the desk had not been cleaned up, and the ink on the written text was not dry, so he asked: "The chairman is writing?" ”
"Yes." Chairman Mao looked at Shao Lizi with a mysterious look and said.
Shao Lizi looked at Chairman Mao's expression, and before he could react at once, Chairman Mao continued: "I have long known that Shao Lao was a former Qing Dynasty lifter, and in his early years he made a living by selling literature with the contemporary Cao Sheng Yu Youren Elder and others, so I made a charade and wanted to ask you, a Qing Dynasty lifter, to solve it." ”
Chairman Mao viewed a model of the Meishan Reservoir during an inspection in Anhui in 1958
Chairman Mao stood up and took up the rice paper and handed it to Shao Lizi. I saw that there were two big and powerful characters on the top: Zhihuai.
Shao Lizi was selected in the examination of the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1902).
Chairman Mao said to Shao Lizi, "Elder Shao, I am a sequel!" After saying that, he picked up a cigarette, slowly lit it with a match, and took another leisurely sip. Seeing Shao Lizi's serious and confused look, he prompted, "I only have two words in this sequel." He said with his finger on the desk full of the four treasures of the study room.
Shao Lizi had an epiphany and blurted out, "Plan! ”
"Yes!" Chairman Mao said seriously: "Today I invite the two of you to come, that is, to listen to your opinions on the plan for harnessing the Huai River. ”
Originally, between July and August 1950, there was an exceptionally large flood disaster in the Huai River Basin, and the Huai River broke through two major breaches in succession, affecting more than 13 million people in Henan and Anhui provinces and flooding more than 40 million mu of land. To this end, Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai, after consultation, sent Zeng Shan, a political councilor, to inspect and report to the disaster-stricken areas.
Soon after, Chairman Mao received a telegram from Zeng Xisheng, secretary of the Anhui Provincial CPC Committee, to the East China Bureau and the East China Military and Political Committee, and forwarded it to the Central Committee, reporting in detail the losses caused by the breach of the Huai River:
This year's water potential is great, the disaster is not only heavier than last year, but also unprecedented in a hundred years, 20 counties in Huaibei and 7 counties along the Huainan coast have been flooded, and about 230,000 people have migrated due to flooding. More than 31 million mu of land were flooded, accounting for more than one-half of the whole region of northern Anhui. There are more than 22 million mu of no harvest, more than 800,000 houses have been washed away or flooded, and 499 people have died... It is too late to escape, or climb a tree, lose your footing and fall into the water, there is a dead person who is bitten by a poisonous snake in the tree, or the boat overturns the boat and dies...
When Chairman Mao saw that "there was a place where a poisonous snake had been bitten by a poisonous snake in a tree," he could not bear to look any further, and the rolling tears could no longer be controlled and dripped on the telegram. Chairman Mao picked up a red and blue pencil and slashed two horizontal bars under the "death of a poisonous snake bitten in a tree."
At this time, the secretary Tian Jiaying came in to get the documents, and Chairman Mao could not wipe away his tears and said to Tian Jiaying: "I, a man, will shed tears when I see the poor suffering. "If we can't eradicate the Huai River, then we are still communists!"
Shao Lizi
Chairman Mao wrote in a telegram:
Zhou (Note: Zhou Enlai): Please ask the Ministry of Water Resources to make a limited-day guidance plan. Send me a read. The plan must be completed in August, approved by the Council of State, and construction begins in early autumn. How, hope to do it.
From July 20 to September 21, Chairman Mao wrote four letters of instruction to Zhou Enlai in successive telegrams on the water disaster and the situation in Huai'an. These 4 letters, full of rapid melodies, sounded the clarion call of the new China's governance of Huaihuai, and embodied Chairman Mao's endless affection of caring for and caring for the masses and sharing hardships with the masses of the people! In accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions and calls, a group of leading cadres, experts, scholars, and college students from the civil engineering departments of colleges and universities throughout the country rushed to both sides of the Huai River; two divisions of the People's Liberation Army put down their steel guns, took off their collar badges and badges and drove them to the zhihuai construction site; the people of the three provinces of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu actively participated in the management of Huaihuai; in less than 4 months, 2.2 million soldiers and civilians gathered on the QianliHuai River and began the great feat of harnessing the Huai River.
Chairman Mao was well aware that eradicating the Huai River was a major project and a very scientific task. How can we take fewer detours in the process of curing Huaihuai? Chairman Mao decided to carry out large-scale investigation and study, and at the same time, he must also mobilize all favorable factors to serve the management of Huaihuai. Listening to the opinions of Shao Lizi and Fu Zuoyi on the plan to control the Huai River was one of the measures taken by Chairman Mao.
Fu Zuoyi first briefed Chairman Mao on the process by which the Ministry of Water Resources formulated a plan for harnessing Huaihuai, and then solemnly said: "Under the leadership of the premier, our Ministry of Water Resources is further studying and perfecting the plan for harnessing the Huai River. ”
"I have read the premier's report on the management of the Huai River," Shao Lizi continued Fu Zuoyi's topic, "I am a person who came here, so I agree with the premier's statement that the disaster on the Huai River every year was caused by Chiang Kai-shek blowing up the Yellow River embankment at the mouth of the garden to prevent the Japanese army from going south." This is because the sediment of the Yellow River destroyed the huai river's original ability to store and discharge floodwaters. ”
"In Shao Lao's words!" Chairman Mao said very sincerely, "When Elder Shao was the King of Xijing, as soon as my Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, I listened to the local people's beautiful rumors that you were the contemporary Dayu. ”
Xijing is the "Jing" of the capital of the feudal dynasty, which means the capital city in the west. In the history of our country, Xijing usually refers to chang'an, the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties, present-day Xi'an. Xi'an is also the city that has been using the name of "Xijing" for the longest time.
Chairman Mao called Shao Lizi the King of Xijing, referring to Shao Lizi's chairmanship of Shaanxi Province in the Nationalist government. That was the second time after Japan launched the "9.18" incident, Chiang Kai-shek went to the field, sent Shao Lizi out of Shaanxi, sat in Xi'an, and controlled the troubled northwest region on Chiang Kai-shek's behalf. During the 5 years of his reign in Xi'an, Shao Lizi led the people of Shaanxi to govern the Yellow River, and it was very effective, and it was passed down by the local people as the dayu of water management. It was precisely because Shao Lizi had such a special political experience that Chairman Mao listened to his opinions on the governance of Huaihuai. Naturally, Shao Lizi also thought of this. However, when he heard Chairman Mao praise his exploits in harnessing the Yellow River in this way, Shao Lizi modestly said one after another: "The people are too prestigious, too prestigious!" ”
This is a migrant worker transporting earth and stone at the Baisha Reservoir construction site in Yu County, Henan Province (photographed in 1951).
"I think they have their reasons." Chairman Mao said frankly, "I also felt new after listening to it. Only afterwards did someone tell me that Elder Shao attached great importance to the water conservancy of the Yellow River, personally presided over the construction of the two major canals of Jinghui and Luohui, and built the Longmen Gate Gate and the Fengling Ferry Project. I think this is the reason why the people still circulate the story of Shao Lao's water treatment! ”
"The chairman has passed the prize!" Shao Lizi said very politely, "At that time, I was the chairman of Shaanxi Province of the National Government, and it was my responsibility to govern the Yellow River. Besides, how can the little things I have done be compared with the projects of the Communist Party and the Chairman today that want to eradicate the Huai River? ”
"What Elder Shao did at that time seems to be precious now!" After counting Shao Lizi's achievements in harnessing the Yellow River, Chairman Mao added: "Today, I invite Elder Shao to come for two purposes: First, I want to hear your opinions, and second, elder Shao, you can leave Beijing for on-the-spot investigation. Then again, this is the mystery of the sequel I wrote. ”
Shao Lizi has been in politics for decades, and from Sun Yat-sen to Chiang Kai-shek and other political dignitaries have been obedient from time to time, and some of them have personal relations. However, I have never met a leader like Chairman Mao who is good at doing his work. Therefore, he said convincingly, "Rest assured Chairman, I intend to make the trip immediately." ”
"No, no." Chairman Mao hurriedly waved his hand to stop it, "Now the Huai River is fighting floods and providing disaster relief, not when people of Shao Lao's age go." ”
"So when will I make the trip?" Shao Lizi asked.
"Again." Chairman Mao pondered for a moment, "At that time, I will definitely write a letter for Elder Shao, in order to be magnificent!" ”
"Rest assured, I will live up to the Expectations of the Chairman!"
After talking with Shao Lizi, Chairman Mao said to Fu Zuoyi very politely: "General Fu, you are the first minister of water resources of New China. ”
"I will implement this important instruction of the chairman as soon as possible."
"I have so many important instructions." Chairman Mao shook his head slightly, "These days, because the water disaster in the Huai River is so serious, I think about many problems, and it seems that if we want to change the face of poverty in our country, we must first vigorously promote water conservancy." If those of us who can turn the floods of thousands of years into profit, it will benefit the people and our merits will be immeasurable! ”
"Yes, yes!" Fu Zuoyi also nodded in agreement.
Fu Zuoyi
On August 25, 1950, Fu Zuoyi presided over the first meeting of the Ministry of Water Resources to control Huaihe, and determined the basic policy of eradicating the Huai River: both storage and drainage, and taking into account both upstream, middle and lower reaches. On November 3, Fu Zuoyi made a report on the management of the Huai River at a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
On March 17, 1951, Fu Zuoyi personally inspected the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Huai River for the first time, which lasted 49 days, and when he inspected the rolling river on the tributary of the Honghe River in the upper reaches of the Huai River in the territory of present-day Wugang City, Henan Province, Fu Zuoyi saw that it was very suitable for the construction of an artificial reservoir between the two mountains, and with many years of experience in water control, he immediately decided to build a dam at that location, which is the famous Shi floodplain reservoir. At the end of June, after inspecting the Huai River, Fu Zuoyi reported the inspection to the Government Council in detail. In July, Fu Zuoyi presided over the second meeting on the treatment of the Huai River and determined the second annual project for the treatment of the Huai River.
The above article said that Fu Zuoyi "relied on many years of experience in water control", where did this come from?
Originally, before the founding of New China, Fu Zuoyi led water control many times and made great contributions to the cause of water conservancy. On December 28, 1931, Fu Zuoyi was appointed by the Nationalist government as the chairman of Suiyuan Province, actively reorganizing the army and economy, eliminating banditry, rectifying taxation and finance, dredging rivers and canals, and developing industrial and agricultural production, which was also the beginning of Fu Zuoyi's water management. In the winter of 1939, Fu Zuoyi organized the headquarters of the deputy commander of the Eighth Theater in the Hetao area of Huanyuan Province, commanding 100,000 regular Kuomintang troops. At that time, although the Hetao area was a grain-producing area in Yanyuan Province, due to the backwardness of the water conservancy project, grain production was far from meeting the needs of the military and the people. Fu Zuoyi took the opportunity of going to Chongqing for a meeting and hired water conservancy expert Wang Wenjing to serve as the director of the water conservancy bureau of Yanyuan Province, and with fu Zuoyi's support, vigorously carried out water conservancy construction. Whenever the water conservancy project needed the help of the army, Fu Zuoyi would draw personnel from the troops, and the regimental commander would personally lead the team to do the work in pieces and complete the task on schedule. In this way, the 100,000 Kuomintang regular army led by Fu Zuoyi also became a 100,000 water conservancy army. According to historical records, in 1941, Fu Zuoyi sent troops to help the local construction of water conservancy, digging a canal to divert the Yangjia River water to the land, and later, people named this canal "Chance Canal" to express their admiration for Fu Zuoyi. In 1943, Fu Zuoyi put forward the slogan of "attaching equal importance to the management of the army and water management", and greatly promoted water conservancy, with the army as the mainstay and civilian workers as the supplement, excavated the revival canal and improved the water diversion facilities in Wuyuan and Yanjiang counties. From 1941 to the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, Fu Zuoyi led his troops to dig 850 kilometers of trunk canals more than 15 meters wide and more than 5,000 kilometers of branch canals more than 3 meters wide, and also made full use of the river canal to breed carp to supply the market. During Fu Zuoyi's reign, the Hetao area was known as "Plugging the Upper Jiangnan". In the summer of 1945, Fu Zuoyi invited the yellow river water conservancy commission survey team to hetao to conduct a series of surveys of the yellow river flow rate, falling waves, and riverbed changes from Shizuishan in Ningxia to Houtao, accumulating valuable first-hand information on the treatment of the Yellow River. This shows Fu Zuoyi's concern for water conservancy undertakings.
Perhaps it was because he had once controlled water, so after the peaceful liberation of Peiping, when Chairman Mao asked Fu Zuoyi what work he was willing to do in the future, Fu Zuoyi replied without hesitation: "I think that I can no longer work in the army, and it is best for me to return to the Yellow River Loop and do some water conservancy construction work." Chairman Mao said, "Are you interested in water conservancy?" The water conservancy work surface of the Yellow River Loop is too small, can you become the minister of water conservancy in the future! Wouldn't that make a more of a difference? Fu Zuoyi's work after the founding of the people's republic was thus determined. It was precisely because Fu Zuoyi had accumulated "many years of experience in water control" before the founding of New China that Chairman Mao listened to his opinions on the treatment of Huaihuai.
In the second phase of the project to control the Huai River, migrant workers worked at the Banqiao Reservoir construction site in Biyang County, Henan Province.
In May 1951, in accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions, Shao Lizi, as the head of the "Central Inspection Group for The Governance of Huaihuai," led a total of 32 responsible persons of various democratic parties and relevant departments of the Central Committee to inspect the construction sites in the three provinces of northern Anhui, Henan, and northern Jiangsu, as well as Nanjing, Shanghai, and Haining. A pennant inscribed by Chairman Mao himself, "We must repair the Huai River," closely followed Shao Lizi's whereabouts, which Chairman Mao had specially written for this inspection. After Shao Lizi returned to Beijing, he wrote an inspection report to Chairman Mao. A few days later, Chairman Mao personally called Shao Lizi: "Elder Shao's report has been read, and I think it is very good and in line with reality. The central authorities have studied and decided to declare war on the floods from the Huai River first. ”
From the winter of 1950 to the spring of 1954, the Huai River Basin carried out a major campaign every year, carried out four phases of the Huai River Control Project, carried out 12 million people, built 6 reservoirs, more than 10 flood storage areas, dredged the main tributaries of the river, built the Huai River levees, and achieved major victories in the initial battle of Huaihuai.
The fiery scene of the treatment of the Huai River once made Fu Zuoyi say with great emotion:
Everything I saw was full of strength and hope. Relying on the leadership of the Communist Party, the people's government is deeply rooted in every corner, every piece of land, and the depths of everyone's heart, so the strength of the people's government is unshakable.
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