In May 1918, Sun Yat-sen resigned as Grand Marshal.
At this time, Sun Yat-sen used his leisure time to sum up revolutionary experience and put forward many grand plans for building China.
The proposal to develop the water resources of the Three Gorges and build the Three Gorges Dam is in this plan.
One
In Chinese history, the Three Gorges was a place very prone to extremely large floods. According to the historical records, there will be a huge flood almost every hundred years.
The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" records that by 1870, the Three Gorges had another huge flood, and the torrential rain fell for more than ten days, reaching seventeen days.
Therefore, the high water level, wide range and long duration of this extraordinary flood have made this year's flood the strongest in the history of the Three Gorges.
To this day, if we travel to The Zhangfei Temple in Yueyang, we can still see the inscription of that year.
Sun Yat-sen has stayed in the ocean and has contacted and studied advanced water conservancy knowledge abroad, so he knows very well that if he can make good use of the water resources of the Three Gorges, he can not only solve the problem of flooding, but also make it an energy source.
However, according to the situation of the warlord melee at that time, it was obviously unrealistic to implement this goal.
Two
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, the United States took a fancy to the economic value of the Three Gorges and wanted to take the opportunity to promote its own "golden dollar diplomacy" policy.
"Gold-dollar diplomacy" is the use of economic means to seize the economic lifeline of other countries, making them deeply dependent on the United States and unable to break away.
Although the Kuomintang at that time did not see through this conspiracy and signed a construction contract, the construction of the dam was again stranded because of the war.
It was not until after the founding of New China that the construction of dams was once again put on the agenda, and many experts began to study them day and night.
It was just that the national strength and technology at that time could not build such a large dam, let alone how to deal with the rapid flow of the Yangtze River, and the problem of asymmetry between the mountains on the left and right of the dam could not be solved.
In addition, there are issues such as funding, land acquisition and relocation of nearby residents that need to be solved.
However, under the firm confidence of the state, these problems have been overcome one by one, and finally construction was officially started in 1994, 28 years ago.
However, many people do not know that at the voting meeting of the "Three Gorges Project" resolution before the start of construction, Guo Laixi, Li Yuguang, Liao Wenquan and other 9 experts refused to sign the plan for the construction of the dam and gave two reasons.
Three
First of all, the fine sand, coarse sand and various pebbles in the Three Gorges River are mixed together, and if it is not the rapid flow of the Yangtze River, it is difficult to wash away these sediments that are easy to cause blocking the river.
Once the dam is built, the sediment brought down from upstream accumulates more and more, eventually blocking the river channel and raising the riverbed, causing an even greater disaster.
Secondly, according to the standards of the project, once the dam is completed, it will form a reservoir with a total area of about 1100 kilometers and a storage height of about 173 meters.
If there is a war, according to military thinking, the dam will certainly become the primary target, and once the dam is blown up, the consequences will be unimaginable.
In fact, the 9 experts are very professional, and their concerns are also very reasonable. But 28 years have passed, and the concerns of these experts have not occurred.
It turned out that the reason why the voting meeting was launched was because such a huge project would definitely require groups of experts from all walks of life.
There were many people, there were many research groups, and the backward technology at that time naturally could not be fully shared, and it was difficult to do everything.
Therefore, the significance of the voting meeting is that the research results of all study groups can be combined, and finally all people vote on whether to pass or not.
Of course, after Guo Laixi and 9 other experts refused to sign and raised 2 questions, the project team immediately studied and quickly gave a solution.
Four
For the problem of silt blocking the river channel, the most advanced "storage and drainage method" at that time was adopted. Of course, since the implementation process is very complicated, it will not be elaborated on here.
The safety is that the dam itself is designed to withstand a once-in-a-lifetime super-mega-flood. If the 10% firmness is increased on this basis, it is completely resistant to the blows of conventional weapons.
Therefore, when these two problems were solved, the project was officially carried out.
Today, the Three Gorges Dam has been in operation for 28 years and has made great contributions to flood control, shipping, drought control and power generation.
Behind this magnificent achievement, countless scientific experts silently paid, which led to the completion of the Three Gorges Dam and allowed countless people to enjoy its benefits.