At the foot of Wuling Mountain in Fuling District, Chongqing City, there is a tourist attraction called "816 Project", such a special name, highlighting its unusualness.
Today it is open to all visitors and everyone who wants to visit can go inside and get a glimpse of the spectacular sights.
But as early as 1966, when the 816 Project was born, not only was the 816 Project itself a top-secret military secret, but even the town of Baitao, Fuling, where the project was located, became a top-secret place and erased from the map.
The town of Baitao, which was erased on the map by Zhou Enlai
All this is only because of the true identity of project 816 , the second nuclear material industrial base in New China, that is, the underground nuclear factory that supplies nuclear materials for the manufacture of atomic bombs.
In that turbulent era of the international situation, behind the "816 nuclear project", a top-secret project personally started by Premier Zhou, there is a little-known history and a magnificent poem written by tens of thousands of Chinese sons and daughters with blood and sweat.
One
The historical background of the birth of the "816 Nuclear Project" is that New China was subjected to imperialist nuclear threats and nuclear bullying.
On the will of the army and the combat effectiveness of infantry, the New China People's Liberation Army is invincible, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is the best example.
Armed with backward weapons and relying on difficult logistical supplies, the volunteers defeated the "United Nations Army", including the US army, with their flesh and blood on the icy battlefield of Korea, and cleaned up the so-called old and powerful army.
The U.S. military has deployed its most advanced tanks, artillery, and aircraft, but it has not been able to defeat our army, but they still have one last killer: nuclear weapons.
The embarrassed U.S. military wanted to use nuclear weapons, and MacArthur, a bereaved dog, shouted that he would use atomic bombs to knock China back to the Stone Age, hoping to threaten China.
In the end, the US military did not use the atomic bomb, not because the American people were kind, but the number one opponent of the United States at that time was the Soviet Union, and even if the atomic bomb was used on the Korean battlefield, it could not fundamentally change the battlefield situation.
In the face of the US nuclear threat, New China never succumbed to weakness during the Korean War, and it was New China's resolute attitude that made the Americans weigh it up and abandon the plan to drop atomic bombs.
However, although the Americans did not use the atomic bomb, New China was indeed threatened by nuclear weapons, and it was certain that they would not accept softness or softness.
Moreover, we are suffering from this kind of humiliation, not one day or two days, the Korean War Americans threatened with atomic bombs, the two Taiwan Strait crises or talk about atomic bombs, and at every turn threatened to drop several atomic bombs into China.
The atomic bomb, this mushroom bomb, is like a sword hanging over the head of new China, and the United States, with them and we don't have it, will hold "this sword" all day long to show off its might.
At first, the mainland did not attach great importance to the atomic bomb, until it was threatened so many times by the Americans, and finally understood that having a sword in hand and not using a sword in hand are two different things.
New China loves peace and does not want to use atomic bombs to engage in nuclear hegemony, but if it wants not to be blackmailed by the other side with atomic bombs, it must have its own atomic bomb and establish its own nuclear industry.
Therefore, starting in 1955, New China concentrated human, material, and financial resources to prepare for the establishment of a nuclear industry and to study its own atomic bomb. Soviet assistance played a positive role in the development of the new Chinese atomic bomb, but as relations with Big Brother became cold, a large number of experts withdrew, and even equipment and drawings were taken away.
At that time, the Soviet Union and the United States unanimously believed that New China could not build an atomic bomb on its own.
However, the central authorities have made up their minds to develop atomic bombs even if they can only rely on their own strength to protect national defense and security. Thanks to the day-to-night efforts of a large number of scientific and technological personnel, fighters, and workers, the process of developing nuclear weapons in New China has developed rapidly.
On the other side of the ocean, the United States is secretly investigating all this.
Two
As early as 1955, when New China decided to prepare for the establishment of a nuclear industry, the Americans made a follow-up investigation plan for China.
However, due to the mainland's good secrecy work, the United States could not obtain detailed information, and it believed that the mainland only proposed a plan to establish a nuclear industry, and there was no specific implementation plan.
Since the Kennedy administration came to power in 1961, however, the winds in the United States have changed.
Kennedy
Kennedy's hostility toward the new China far exceeded that of his predecessor, Eisenhower, and there was a great deal of prejudice in his perception of China.
According to common sense, the new China economy and military level at this time are limited, and if the number one opponent of the United States is to be, it must be another superpower, the Soviet Union. Most of America's elite politicians share this view, and few see New China as the biggest threat.
But Kennedy is a different kind of person, I don't know if he has a keen political sense that ordinary people don't know, good at prejudgment, or just out of his own stubbornness and prejudice, Kennedy as early as the 60s of the last century, the new China as the biggest opponent.
In Kennedy's view, the threat of New China to the United States was still above that of the Soviet Union.
The President's view is so that the CIA naturally goes to its liking, hyping up the "China threat theory" and saying in the document that China's atomic energy program is progressing rapidly and that it is possible to make a big breakthrough in a few years.
Kennedy suddenly could not sit still, he engaged in the "eight precepts of the pig and beat a rake", turned a deaf ear to the United States' repeated nuclear blackmail against new China, and declared that "the ccp's nuclear threat is probably the most serious problem facing the world today." ”
There is a reason why Kennedy has so deliberately played up the "China threat theory."
The Americans have threatened New China with atomic bombs for more than a decade, and they know too well the difficult situation of the victims under nuclear blackmail, and naturally cannot accept that New China wants to have its own atomic bomb.
Moreover, once New China develops the atomic bomb, not only will China's international status rise, but it will also be a shot in the arm for the entire socialist camp, and socialist China's influence will be greatly strengthened.
In order to make the new China's atomic bomb "stillborn", Kennedy racked his brains and tried various methods, some of which can be called madness.
For example, in order to reduce the international influence gained by New China in successfully developing the atomic bomb, the Kennedy administration put forward a "nuclear proliferation program" within itself, that is, to support India in developing nuclear weapons.
The power of nuclear weapons need not be repeated, but the United States is ready to spread nuclear weapons only to suppress China, such a ridiculous and vicious plan, thanks to the thinking of US politicians.
Perhaps the U.S. government itself felt that this was too costly, and once the nuclear weapons technology was passed on, it would turn the world into a powder keg that would explode at any time, which was not in the interest of the United States, so the Kennedy administration finally rejected this plan.
At this time, he has put all the strategic focus on China, and is even willing to "freeze the previous suspicions" with the old rival Soviet Union, hoping to join forces with the Soviet Union to deal with China.
Three
Kennedy sent a delegation to Moscow, hoping to reach an agreement with Khrushchev to impose military and economic sanctions on China, and if he could not get China to abandon the development of nuclear weapons, he hoped to work with the Soviet Union to drop atomic bombs on the Chinese nuclear weapons research base in Lop Nur and burn China's atomic bomb achievements.
In order to get the Soviet Union to agree, Kennedy made his own lucrative terms: As long as you and I solve the Chinese atomic bomb, I can guarantee the denuclearization of West Germany.
The denuclearization of West Germany was one of the Soviet Strategic Goals in Europe, and Kennedy's willingness to do so was a bloody expense. But Kennedy's wishful thinking fell through, and Khrushchev weighed it up and finally rejected Kennedy's proposal.
The Soviet Union disagreed, and the iron-hearted Kennedy decided to go it alone, asking his staff to devise a plan to destroy The Chinese nuclear base by direct military means, a military operation code-named "Outlaws", which included the following:
First, aerial bombardment by the United States;
Second, aerial bombardment was carried out by Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek Air Force;
Third, send spies to China to carry out secret ground attacks.
In addition to these three plans, Chiang Ching-kuo also proposed that the US Air Force airdrop hundreds of Special Forces of Chiang Kai-shek's army to sabotage nuclear bases.
Chiang Ching-kuo's plan initially moved Kennedy, who saw chiang ching-kuo full of confidence and thought that Chiang Ching-kuo's special forces really had two brushes.
As a result, when I asked about it, I learned that since the Chiang Kai-shek clique was defeated and retreated to Taiwan, it had not stopped for a day and had been sending spies to engage in espionage activities on the mainland.
However, Jiang Jun's record was very unsightly, and the spies sent in the past had become turtles in an urn.
Readers who have read the secret agent series I wrote know that ace agents such as Lao Youhua, Liu Quande, and Feng Qizeng began to flee as soon as they arrived on the mainland, not to mention the assassination missions they carried, which was simply a joke, and there were only a few who completed the task, there were none.
It is a pipe dream for these people, called special forces, to be in fact secret agents, responsible for destroying the nuclear base in Lop Nur . At that time, the nuclear base will not be destroyed, and the United States will still be involved in international disputes, which will outweigh the losses.
Chiang Ching-kuo
Therefore, Kennedy sternly rejected Chiang Ching-kuo's proposal, telling him to go back wherever he came from and not to meddle in this matter.
Chiang Ching-kuo's plan was rejected, but Kennedy seriously considered several of the "outlaw" plans, and the paranoid was once ready to press the nuclear button on China.
The Chinese side was not unaware of the wolf ambitions of the United States, and since Kennedy intended to drop atomic bombs on Lop Nur, Zhou Enlai decided to carry out a top-secret operation to ensure the development process of the mainland's atomic bomb.
Four
This top-secret operation is the "816 nuclear project".
At the time of site selection, the central government took into account that the mainland's industry is mainly concentrated in large cities and coastal areas, and once the enemy launches a large-scale military operation, it will cause heavy damage to the economic lifeline of the mainland, so the 816 nuclear project was selected in Chongqing, which is located in the southwest region of the rear area.
Project 816 is a nuclear plant in which water-cooled reactors are to be built to extract nuclear raw materials. Therefore, the site selection should meet the conditions of convenient concealment and strong air defense capabilities, and the cooling of nuclear facilities also requires a large amount of cold water, and there must be a river next to it.
After careful investigation, Baitao Town, Fuling, Chongqing, which is on the verge of the Wujiang River and backed by Wuling Mountain, has become the target site.
In 1966, Premier Zhou Enlai personally approved the approval, and the 816 Military Industrial Cave officially broke ground.
In order to keep it secret, Zhou Enlai directly ordered that Baitao Town be erased from the map, and it was not until decades later that the project was declassified and Baitao Town reappeared on the map.
Beginning in 1967, tens of thousands of PLA fighters and engineers came to Baitao Town, an isolated place where they "did not tell their parents and their wives and children", and only claimed to carry out their missions and could not disclose any information, just like the Lop Nur nuclear base.
Three regiments of the 54th Engineer Division, which departed for Irikawa in February 1967, disappeared from the army and were tasked with the construction of the 816 nuclear project as a unit code-named "8342".
Soon after, a regiment that participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Vietnam and a regiment that built the Jiuquan base were all rebuilt; they had already made great contributions and were the merits of New China, but they did not have time to commend them, and they did not have time to meet their families, so they once again plunged into the mountains and joined the construction of the "816 Nuclear Project."
This work is a full eight years, when the young and immature young soldiers first came, when they completed the task and left, their faces had some vicissitudes, and they dedicated their most beautiful youth here and threw sweat.
During the construction of the 816 nuclear project, many stories of song and tear were born.
At that time, there were a pair of brothers, both working in the 816 nuclear project, one in the army, the other in the workshop, they wrote letters for two years, in which they said that they were outside the project construction, did not say the specific location.
It wasn't until the two brothers met by chance one day at the construction site that they learned that the two had been working in the same place and hugging and crying.
There are also many engineers in the 816 nuclear project, who have left their homes and endured loneliness, but have never revealed their work to their families.
Veterans who participated in the construction of the 816 nuclear project returned to their hometowns
Even if some people complete the task and leave the 816 nuclear project, they still consciously keep this secret. It was not until later declassified by the state that they took their families to the site of the 816 nuclear project and told their families about the secrets that had been sealed for decades.
Such a touching story is staged almost every day in the 816 nuclear project, and the Chinese daughter from the north and south of the world responds to the call of the motherland and devotes herself to the construction of the 816 nuclear project and dedicates her youth to national defense construction.
According to statistics, 60,000 people have participated in the construction of the project, including PLA soldiers, engineers, technicians, local migrant workers, factory workers, they come from different units, have different identities, and now they are only striving for one goal: to build the 816 nuclear project and defend the country.
The engineering team did not have advanced equipment, they used explosives, sapper shovels and rock drills to dig up thick rock formations little by little, in order to rush the work, soldiers and workers worked day and night, three shifts to dry.
In harsh environments, many people suffer from lung disease, so as many as a hundred people are sacrificed. Not far from the project, there is a martyrs' cemetery with 74 martyrs buried in it.
It is the tens of thousands of Chinese daughters who have used their blood, sweat and wisdom to create the world's first nuclear military giant hole in the depths of the mountains, which is another great miracle of new China created by the people.
In order to build this project, the engineering team hollowed out the entire mountain, dug out more than 1.5 million stone squares, piled up into two mountains, if you use them to pave the road, it can reach more than 1500 kilometers, equivalent to Hefei to Haikou, Beijing to Chengdu.
The project covers a total area of 45.2 hectares, with an area of 104,000 square meters, 18 large cave chambers, the largest with a height of 79.6 meters, a vault span of 31.2 meters, an area of 13,000 square meters, and 140 roads, guide holes, branch holes, tunnels and shafts.
There is also a river channel inside, which can divert the water from the Wujiang River and ensure the water supply of the factory.
The purpose of the 816 nuclear project is to prevent the enemy's nuclear weapons strike and ensure that the process of atomic energy research on the mainland is not interrupted.
Therefore, the plant of the 816 nuclear project is in the deepest part of the cave, and the top cover of the plant can reach 200 meters, which is enough to resist the impact released by the explosion of the 1 million tons equivalent hydrogen bomb and the damage of the 8-magnitude earthquake.
If the enemy carries out a nuclear strike against China and destroys the nuclear base in Lop Nur, the 816 project is a fire, a hope, and a barrier to continue to develop nuclear weapons.
Five
However, the international situation is changing rapidly, and just when the US government is mad and preparing to launch a nuclear strike against New China to prevent China from developing nuclear weapons, Kennedy, the initiator, was assassinated.
The new president, Johnson, is also hostile to the new China, but the change of power and the coming of the general election have forced him to be busy with internal affairs and has no time to take care of him for the time being, and military operations against China's nuclear bases have to be shelved.
On October 16, 1964, the roar of the sky resounded over Lop Nur in Xinjiang, and the first atomic bomb of New China exploded successfully, and it was like a thunder in the East, awakening the whole world.
Even though the Americans had been mentally prepared for this, when they learned that New China had actually developed an atomic bomb, THE US government officials were still quite shocked and surprised.
At this time, if it wants to destroy China's nuclear forces, it can only start a full-scale war, but the Us military is afraid of the volunteer army in the Korean War, and the United States has no confidence in victory in another big war with China.
In the years that followed, the U.S. government proposed many more military action plans against Chinese nuclear facilities, but none dared to put them into practice.
As China's international situation improved, the country made strategic adjustments, and in 1984, the 816 underground nuclear project was suspended. When the construction was stopped, the main body of the project was more than 80% complete, and it would be ready to start in another year.
This is a pity for the 816 nuclear project and for those who have worked hard for it. However, the suspension of the 816 nuclear project is a manifestation of the improvement of China's external environment, which is good news for New China.
Moreover, the suspension of the 816 nuclear project is also partly technical. The 816 underground nuclear project was built to resist the nuclear strike of the United States and ensure the development of the atomic bomb, but the development speed of new Chinese military science and technology exceeded everyone's expectations.
By the 1980s, the new China's atomic and hydrogen bomb technology tended to mature, and its military strength rose steadily, becoming one of the world's military powers, in this case, the practical value of the 816 nuclear project was greatly reduced.
The construction goal of the 816 nuclear project is to strengthen national defense strength and defend the country, and the reason for stopping the construction of the 816 underground nuclear project is precisely that China's national defense strength is enough to defend the Chinese nation from foreign aggression, and the new China, which is struggling to seek independence in the cracks, has become an important force in the international political arena.
The 816 underground nuclear project is not superfluous, and its construction is the firm determination of New China to resist foreign enemies and the precautions of the Party Central Committee in the complex international situation.
If you just look at the results and think that the 816 project is unnecessary, it is an afterthought, if Kennedy was not assassinated, what if the United States really carried out a nuclear strike against China at that time?
What's more, although the 816 nuclear project was stopped, it was not abandoned.
Today, project 816 has been transformed into a scenic spot, and the volume and structural beauty of it have amazed architects, praising it as "buried deep in the mountains" and its beauty.
The 816 nuclear project is also a national defense education base, which carries the mission and dedication of generations of Chinese sons and daughters in the last century, and witnesses the new China from weak to strong, which is the most vivid patriotic education lesson for Chinese teenagers in the new era.
From this perspective, the value and significance of the 816 nuclear project are immeasurable.
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