"Happiness Canal": a red water conservancy project in the Yan'an period

The former site of the Yan'an Zaoyuan Revolution was the site of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from October 1943 to March 1947. During this period, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee continued to lead the rectification movement of the whole party and the large-scale production movement of the military and the people in the Liberated Areas. Inside the old revolutionary site, there is a canal called the "Happiness Canal" (Peizhuang Canal) that flows through the jujube garden. Although the canal is not long, it is a historical witness to the large-scale production movement and the spirit of Yan'an.

It is unreliable to rely on the sky to eat. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is located in the northwest, with less rain and more winds, and is often subjected to drought, the so-called "three years a small drought, ten years a major drought." In addition, the border areas are vast and sparsely populated, and most of the agricultural production still uses quite primitive and rudimentary technologies and tools, so the harvest of the masses here every year is almost entirely determined by the amount of rainfall, which shows that it is unreliable to rely on the sky to eat in this place.

However, trying to achieve the goal of increasing agricultural harvests through the establishment of water conservancy projects is by no means an easy task in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. First of all, from a historical point of view, there have been three times to build water conservancy in this part of northern Shaanxi, but these three times without exception have failed. In the eyes of the local masses, repairing water conservancy costs both labor and money, so it is better to go to the wasteland. Therefore, at the beginning of the construction of the Peizhuang Canal in Yan'an City, the local people were also skeptical about whether this water conservancy project could be effective. Some said: "It is too difficult to repair the water, and it costs money in vain to succeed." Others said, "It's better to sort out a pile of water than to open three or four wastelands and hit more than a mile!" "Some ordinary people even have this attitude, preferring to drop the land rather than share the cost of repairs."

In these cases, in-depth publicity and interpretation become a prerequisite. The government of the Border Region has used many propaganda means to explain to the masses why water conservancy projects are being built and the benefits brought about by water conservancy projects, and at the same time to publicize scientific and technological knowledge to them. Among them, educating the masses with concrete and vivid examples is undoubtedly the only choice for gaining the real trust and support of the masses. The construction of the Peizhuang Canal undertakes the mission of such a demonstration water conservancy project. The significance of building it is to break the erroneous views of the general public on the construction of water conservancy, show it to the masses in the border areas, and tell them that it is not difficult to repair water conservancy. Only by building water conservancy is an important way to prevent drought, and it is possible to increase agricultural income and achieve abundant food and clothing.

The construction of water conservancy should be "everyone's hands". The Peizhuang Canal in Yan'an City was built under the leadership of the Government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and extensively mobilized the masses in the vicinity. In order to build this canal, the Construction Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region still allocated 4,000 yuan in the face of extreme financial difficulties, and assigned Ding Zhongwen, a water conservancy expert in the border area who graduated from the Beiyang Institute of Technology (the predecessor of Tianjin University), to be responsible for the survey and design and guide the local people to build it. Due to the lack of scientific and technological personnel at that time, in addition to Ding Zhongwen, the other workers and peasants who participated in the design and construction were workers and peasants who had no scientific knowledge of civil engineering. Therefore, Ding Zhongwen taught by hand, and eventually everyone learned the scientific knowledge of using instruments and designing dam sites. In the absence of financial resources and modern building materials, Ding Zhongwen worked with everyone to find a way. They overcame difficulties and used local materials, using gravel dams to block water and wooden planks as gates. Under such difficult and difficult objective conditions, the Peizhuang Canal in Yan'an City began construction in August 1939 and completed the main works before the land was frozen in November. After thawing in March of the following year, construction continued, and at the end of April, it was completed and opened to release water.

In addition to direct appropriations, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government also mobilized the nearby masses to invest 2 yuan per mu of land, established the Peizhuang Canal Water Conservancy Cooperative, and was democratically elected by the masses participating in the water conservancy cooperative to serve as the director, accountant, propaganda, organization, engineering and other work of the five members, responsible for the care of the water canal and irrigation and other matters.

In order to improve the utilization rate of the Peizhuang Canal and educate the masses with the "visible" harvest fruits, since 1942, the Construction Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government has also sent technical staff to form the Peizhuang Water Conservancy Management Office, which personally operates the 30-acre farm in Zaoyuan. Due to the good management, it took only 7 months to make a profit of 45,700 yuan.

The first test of the "new type of water conservancy project". The construction of water conservancy is an important part of the development of agricultural production in the economic construction of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and it is also the exploration and practice of the Chinese Communists in using scientific and technological means to protect and transform the agricultural environment in the border areas. Therefore, at the beginning of the construction of the Peizhuang Canal in Yan'an City, it was praised by the New China Daily as a "new-style water conservancy project", saying that "this is still the first test in the border area".

Of course, the exploration and practice of water conservancy undertakings in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region has not been smooth all the way. In fact, less than two months after the completion of the Peizhuang Canal, at the end of June 1940, the counties near Yan'an City were hit by flash floods. "The flash flood broke out, the head of the water was about 2 inches high, and it impulsively pushed tens of thousands of pounds of large stones, and the 2-foot diameter tree was uprooted and rolled down, and the impact was even greater." The surging flash flood directly caused the recently completed Peizhuangqu Dam to be washed away.

Although the Peizhuang Canal was greatly affected by the flash flood this time, with the active efforts of the Construction Department of the Border Region Government and the local people, the construction began again in October of the same year in accordance with the principle of "small expenses and large results". The reconstruction of the water canal this time has drawn lessons from the previous time, and attention has been paid to combining the content of the new law with the specific conditions of the local area and the historical experience of the people, and the water inlet of the water channel has been renovated. With the joint efforts of the military and the people, the new Peizhuang Canal was completed on April 19, 1941.

The "Happiness Canal" is endless. After the completion of the Peizhuang Canal in Yan'an City, starting from Peizhuang, it passes through Miaozui, Mojiawan, Zaoyuan and Houjiagou to Yangjiaya, with a total length of about 6 kilometers and an irrigation area of 1500 mu. As the largest irrigation canal in the Yanzhi Sub-district of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, according to the statistics of the spring of 1943, there were 1072.5 mu of water that could be released, and each mu could increase the income of fine grain by three buckets, and the annual income of fine grain could be increased by 321.75 stones (1 stone was about 50 kg), which solved the vegetable problem of Yan'an Municipal Organs. It should be said that the completion and use of the Peizhuang Canal has made the masses in zaoyuan and Peizhuang areas change "relying on the sky to eat" to ensure harvest from drought and flood, which has greatly benefited the local people, and the Peizhuang Canal is also known as the "Happiness Canal".

It is also driven by the demonstration of the "Happiness Canal" that water conservancy projects of all sizes in the border area have sprung up and developed universally. According to statistics, in 1943, the total water land in the border area was 13,647.6 mu, and the fine grain that increased the income could be eaten by about 10,000 people a year. In general, the construction of water conservancy has greatly increased grain production and basically achieved the goal of self-sufficiency in production.