Bai Jizhou | wen
In October 1936, after inspecting the Gongxian Arsenal, Chiang Kai-shek immediately boarded a plane to Xi'an, and the Xi'an Incident, which shocked China and foreign countries, immediately broke out.
The Gongxian Arsenal is a place that people in the Republic of China want to remember very much, and it can be said that it is a must-go place for them to come to Henan. Chiang Kai-shek has made three consecutive occasions, along with a long list of Feng Yuxiang, Wu Peifu, Tang Shengzhi, Xian Yukun, Zhang Xueliang, and so on.
Yuji has published two articles in the series "Unveiling the Secret of the Gongxian Arsenal", which tells you about the intersection of dignitaries and the arsenal of the Republic of China and the internal management of the factory.
1
Arsenal you rob me and the warlords are bustling around
Because the Gongxian Arsenal was an important arsenal at that time and played a decisive role in gaining political capital such as enhancing strength and expanding territory, the military and political forces of all factions took it as the object of contention, and many military and political leaders and government dignitaries were eyeing it.
The arsenal built by Xiaoyi in Gongxian County was initially controlled by the Beiyang warlords and was directly under the jurisdiction of the War Department, so it was called "Gongxian Arsenal of the War Department".
In 1916, Yuan Shikai was killed in the spit of the people, and the Beiyang warlords split into direct and Anhui families. Duan Qirui's Anhui clan manipulated the Beijing regime, and the Gongxian Arsenal became the bag of the Anhui clan.
In July 1920, the two factions of The Zhi and Anhui factions met each other, relying on the American and British Empires, defeated the Anhui clan, controlled the Beijing regime, occupied north China and the Yangtze River Valley, and Wu Peifu stationed troops in Luoyang and included the Gongxian Arsenal in his hands.
In 1926, Wu Peifu's troops lost the Northern Expedition, and the Gongxian Arsenal fell into the hands of the warlord Yukun. In the meantime, Yue Weijun and Zhang Xueliang both had been involved in factory rights.
In 1927, Feng Yuxiang presided over Yuzheng, and the Gongxian Arsenal became his armament warehouse. Between 1929 and 1930, Chiang Kai-shek, Feng, and Yan Zhongyuan fought in a scuffle, and Chiang Kai-shek used a huge amount of money as bait to lure Han Fuyu to strike back, Feng Yuxiang was caught off guard, defeated Gong County, and the arsenal was monopolized by Chiang Kai-shek, subordinate to the Nanjing government and under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and the "Gongxian Arsenal of the Ministry of War" was changed from then on to "Gongxian Arsenal of the Military and Political Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs." Since then, the eleven big characters of "Gongxian Arsenal of the Ordnance Industry Bureau of the Ministry of Military Affairs" have been standing directly above the west gate of the "old factory" and moving south.
During this period, military and political dignitaries who personally inspected the Gongxian Arsenal were: Feng Yuxiang in 1922; Wu Peifu in 1923; Xian Yukun in 1924; Yue Weijun in 1925; Jin Yunlu in 1926; Zhang Xueliang, Feng Yuxiang, and Ji Hongchang in 1927; Tang Shengzhi in 1928; Chiang Kai-shek or his wife Song Meiling in 1934-1936 or three separate inspections by Gonggong. You know, these famous figures in modern history are all in the limelight.
From the frequent struggle between the warlords and the warlords, we can understand that the existence of the Gongxian Arsenal has objectively accelerated the pace of the warlords' struggle for power and profits and the destruction of life.
Of course, in the later war against the Japanese-Kosovar fascism, its advanced ordnance products were also indispensable to the stability of the frontal battlefield.
In view of the important role of the Gongxian Arsenal, the "people" who were able to call the wind and rain at that time were very fond of it. First of all, Chiang Kai-shek, then chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government, visited the Gongxian Arsenal three times after seizing control of the factory, and when he came to inspect the factory for the second time, he transferred Gongxian to luoyang under the management of Luoyang, established the Gongluo Air Defense Command, and sent two anti-aircraft artillery companies stationed outside the east gate of the factory to undertake air defense tasks.
Although the existing archives of the Gongxian Arsenal do not contain any vague words about President Jiang's inspection, people who came over were still interested whenever they mentioned it.
A memoir reads: One morning in November 1936 (which should be October), the north and south gates of the fuze department of our artillery factory, which were often closed, suddenly opened, when the machines in the workshop roared, and everyone was doing their own work, and this anomaly was not taken seriously.
I was refueling Master Lu Qingwei's lathe and had the privilege of witnessing some little-known history. Suddenly, a figure appeared at the south gate, striding toward us. About two or three meters away from this person, a group of people dressed in Huangni military uniforms, some of them were fast-paced meteors, some were simply trotting in broken steps, and the stars were arching behind them like a moon.
When I looked up again, I saw that this man had come to a place more than a meter away from me. I saw clearly that he was wearing a military hat, a pair of dark glasses under the brim, and a yellow cloak, majestic and solemn.
I thought, how can this person be like this leader hanging in the street? After my brain quickly searched, corresponded, and judged, I decided that this was Chairman Jiang who everyone feared.
Just as I was secretly surprised, the chairman of the committee had already crossed me and walked toward the north gate. In the hundred-meter-long workshop, he only took a few minutes to "inspect" it, and the figure quickly disappeared from my sight.
Because this was a sudden scene, many masters lost their opportunities because they were inadvertent, so after Jiang left, everyone talked about it, and they were all surprised to see the "Dragon Face" in their lives.
Subsequently, when the chairman of the committee "inspected" and asked what the number of the guard brigade in the arsenal was, and the person in charge of the guard brigade of the arsenal casually said that there were more than a hundred people, Chiang Kai-shek was very angry at his vague words, and at that time he dismissed the colonel Jian brigade commander.
Usually, the guards of the arsenal disregarded the personal dignity of the workers, set up an iron fence at the west gate, forcibly searched themselves after work, and were detained and interrogated if there was a slight difference. This time, Jian was withdrawn, the workers clapped their hands and said that they were fast, and the original arrogance of the guard brigade was also curbed.
After chiang kai-shek secretly inspected the Gongxian Arsenal, he immediately flew from Luoyang to Xi'an to urge Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to attack Yan'an, creating a "Xi'an Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries.
The above is just an ordinary worker's recollection of Chiang Kai-shek's inspection of the arsenal, and the account of another guard recruit may give us a better taste of something: he (Chiang Kai-shek) entered the factory from the railway gate in a special car, from the station to the factory, all under martial law, and guarded by veterans of three squadrons. Our nephew of the recruit squad played lanterns, practiced three exercises and two lecture halls as usual, and did not live up to the task of guarding, so he did not see chairman Jiang's honorable countenance.
Unexpectedly, in the early morning of the thirteenth day, the radio of the Third Squadron said: "The chairman of the committee who stayed in Huaqingchi, Lintong, was awakened by the sound of gunfire in the middle of the night, and the entire gendarmerie regiment came out to resist, the regimental commander Jiang Xiaoxian was killed, more than half of the officers and men were killed and wounded, and Yu was captured alive." In a panic, the chairman of the committee could not afford to wear dentures, climbed barefoot and deep waist leather boots, and fled over the wall to hide in a small hole in the middle of Lishan Mountain. When several soldiers from Yang Hucheng's troops searched for him, the chairman of the committee lost his former dignity and said tremblingly: Don't shoot, I am the chairman of the committee, so I saved my life.
The broadcast also said that this was Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, two thieves, who had been instigated by the communist bandits to launch a mutiny.
Chang
At that time, the veterans of our third squadron all spread this astonishing news, and they privately discussed: Chairman Jiang is so powerful that he will lose his front hoof and encounter a mutiny, and nothing else in the world will happen!
The chairman of the military commissar of the National Government attaches such importance to the Gongxian Arsenal, and the Communist Party, which is good at mobilizing the people, will certainly not be indifferent to it.
On January 1, 1932, in order to compete for "double pay", the underground party branch organized the largest struggle in the history of the military industry at that time, and finally won the victory, which had a great impact on the whole country.
Liu Shaoqi
In order to sum up the experience and lessons of this strike and, even more to enhance the consciousness of the broad masses of workers, Liu Shaoqi, who was mainly in charge of the workers' movement, specially published an article on March 18, 1932 entitled "The Experience and Lessons of the Strike Struggle of a Certain Arsenal", summing up the causes, circumstances, results, and lessons learned from the workers' strike in Gongxian Arsenal.
He pointed out from a lofty height: "We have to explain to the workers that wages do not make ends meet because prices are high; the reason for the rise in prices is imperialist aggression and the destruction of warlord wars. Therefore, in order to relieve the workers themselves of their hardships, it is necessary to expel imperialism and eliminate warlord wars..." pointed the way for the workers' movement that was booming at that time.
2 Naguan foreign military engineers are under the vertical management of the Military Department
When the arsenal first started construction, there was a shortage of talents, and only more than a hundred workers were transferred from other military enterprises in the country. As the scale expands, the number of people increases day by day.
After the "918" incident in 1931, the three northeastern provinces fell under the iron hooves of the Japanese and the Koso, and a large number of senior employees of the Shenyang Arsenal could not bear the humiliation of the subjugation of the country, and they entered the customs one after another, angrily defecting to the military enterprises in the interior to contribute their talents, and the staff of the Gongxian Arsenal was able to soar to more than 4,000 people.
According to a statistics in July 1937, the Gongxian Arsenal (old factory) at that time had 4452 workers and 210 employees, a total of 4662 people, which can be described as a large number of talents; when the ordnance branch (new factory) started on February 1, 1936, there were more than 900 employees, and the guards alone were equipped with 300 people, paying special attention to safety and security work.
Although the arsenal is crowded, the composition structure is nothing more than that of employees, technicians, workers, apprentices, and small workers.
According to the recollections of those who came over, most of the staff at that time were southerners, and northerners rarely asked for help; technicians were divided into "military specialty" and "Tongji" and "factions" of "soldiers."
The "Military Specialist" faction is Li Waitchen's protégé (Li Waitchen, a graduate of Harvard University in the United States, served as the principal of the Ordnance Engineering College of the Military and Political Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and wrote many monographs on the manufacturing technology of guns and bullets and national defense knowledge), and was relatively young.
The "Tongji" school graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai, and is relatively mature from experience to age, with old qualifications and relatively high salaries; among the workers, those who are skilled and called "craftsmen" are either southerners, or northeasterners, or Hebei people, that is, there are no Gongxian people.
There are many locals in Gongxian County who work in the factory, but due to the generally low cultural quality, it is rare to become a clerk or craftsman, most of whom are small or temporary workers, engaged in dirty, heavy, dangerous and tired chores, and receive the lowest salary.
When it comes to labor treatment, there is a hierarchical difference between employees and workers. Official information shows that the monthly salary at that time: the factory director 400 yuan, the director 300 yuan, the director 300 yuan, the technician has 120 yuan, there are also 60 yuan range, the workshop leader 30 yuan, the craftsman 27 ~ 30 yuan, the apprentice 6 yuan, the small worker 7 yuan 2 corner.
But some people recalled that the monthly salary of the factory director was originally 600 yuan, and the small worker was only 6 yuan, which was exactly 100 times. When Feng Yuxiang was in power, the factory director was reduced to 400 yuan, and the small workers were upgraded to 7 yuan 2, narrowing the gap, and the labor enthusiasm of ordinary workers was generally high.
If you want to know the gold content of the currency at that time, a memoir states: I was a (early) small worker, with only six oceans a month. Although it is very low, it cannot be compared with the chiefs, but it is much stronger than farming, and many people who have no way dare not have this luxury! At that time, the white rice noodles were only four cents a pound (500 grams), and I could buy back three bags of high-quality flour (150 pounds) a month, which was eye-catching.
Due to the special type of work, the arsenal at that time was well organized and was under the vertical leadership of the Military and Political Department's Ordnance Industry Bureau. The daily affairs of the factory, such as product development, production arrangements and even gun maintenance, must be reported in a timely manner and approved before they can be carried out.
The institutional setup of the "old factory" is: one person who is the main supervisor (and then changed to the factory director) and two people who are the deputy supervisors. It is divided into two divisions, general affairs and public works, each with a director. The General Affairs Department has jurisdiction over the three departments of clerical, business and accounting, as well as two departments of inspection and medical affairs. The Public Works Department has engineering offices and six production plants.
From the data that the guards and soldiers of the ordnance branch factory account for one-third of the employees, it can be predicted that the "new factory" as a whole is subject to military control, and the whole factory is like a heavily fortified barracks. Its production management adopts an effective factory director responsibility system, that is, the factory director's linear management and functional department management are combined, and the linear management is the main model. Its advantages such as centralized power, clear responsibilities and ease of command are obvious.
From 1921 to 1938, the responsible persons of the "old factory" were: Jiang Tingzi (general office), Liu Zhaodong (general office), Xie Tianxiang (supervision), Li Wentian (supervision), Yu Ying (supervision), Wu Ruizhi (supervision), Shang Desheng (supervision), Lü Mingui (factory director), Chen Wanqing (supervision), Huang Bi (factory director), Wu Kerun (factory director), Mao Yike (factory director), Li Waitchen (factory director).
Among them, there are: Jiang Tingzi and Liu Zhaodong, Wu Ruizhi and Shang Desheng. The director of the "new factory" in GongXian was Wu Qinlie, who was personally appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the fourth-level factory director and hung up the rank of major general.
These noble "factory director" level figures, like Wu Kerun Xingwu, were born in a few phenomena, and the rest had a skill, and they all occupied a certain weight in the military industry at that time.
Jiang Tingzi (1873~?) Jiangsu Wujin people. In December 1901, he graduated from the Beiyang Army Artillery Academy. In January 1902, he was sent to Japan to study the Army, and in November 1904, he returned to Japan after graduation and worked in the Army.
In February 1914, he was appointed to the Military Department of the Gongfu. In May, he was appointed as the director of the first office of the command office. In August, he went to Shandong to handle negotiations between China, Japan and Germany. In 1915, he was appointed Superintendent of the General Affairs Department of the Arsenal Affairs Office. He was sent to investigate and choose the address of the new army arsenal, and selected the factory to be built in Xiaoyi Town, Gong County, Henan Province, and immediately began to raise funds.
In February 1917, he was appointed as the director of the Preparatory Department of the Gongxian Arsenal. In September 1921, the Gongxian Arsenal was completed, the Preparatory Office was abolished, and the Gongxian Arsenal was formally established, and he served as the general office of the Gongxian Arsenal. Under his unremitting efforts, Gongxian Arsenal finally became the most advanced large-scale military enterprise in China after eight years.
In July 1924, Liu Zhaodong of the Henan Governor's Reform Commission was made the General Office, but because the War Department did not agree, he was reinstated as the General Office in February 1926. He resigned in the spring of 1927.
Huang Bi (1887~1931) was a native of Yongxing, Hunan, who went to Japan in 1913 to study, and graduated from the Military Creation Department of Tokyo Imperial University in Japan with a bachelor's degree in engineering.
In 1923, he returned to China and worked in the Arsenal of the Three Eastern Provinces and the Arsenal of Gongxian County. After 1924, he worked in the Ordnance Research Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, acting director and concurrently serving as a senior class instructor. Later, he was hired as an engineer at the Shanghai Arsenal and director of the Artillery Factory. In December 1928, he was appointed a full-time member of the Ordnance Industry Research Committee. He is a translator of the book "Ballistics Outside the Cannon".
In the autumn of 1930, he was appointed as the director of the Gongxian Arsenal. At the beginning of his post, the factory affairs were complicated and complicated, and he worked hard to make the factory affairs gradually rational. After a long time and a long period of time, he was physically and mentally haggard, and committed suicide in the Gongxian Arsenal on the night of June 13, 1931.
Because of his sympathy for the suffering of the workers and his concern for the life of the grassroots during his tenure, after his death, the workers of the whole factory raised funds to purchase a cemetery for them and buried them in Xiaoyi Nanling (now the Area of Bauhinia Tree Mall opposite the Gongyi Film Theater), and erected a monument to his tree and commemorated it forever.
Mao Yike (1892~?) Zhejiang Huangyan people. Graduated from The German Institute of Technology. In November 1928, he was appointed chief of the Supervision Section of the Ordnance Industry Department, in charge of the delivery of the products of each factory, the internal administration of each factory and the purchase of raw materials. In December, he was appointed as a full-time member of the Ordnance Industry Research Committee of the Ordnance Industry Bureau.
In December 1933, he was appointed as the director of the Gongxian Arsenal. Ordered to Germany to import the Mauser rifle design and a complete set of prototypes, the factory began to prepare in August 1934, and officially put into operation in 1935. With the approval of Chiang Kai-shek, director of the Bureau of Ordnance Engineering, Yu Dawei reported to Chiang Kai-shek that it was named "Zhongguan" (also known as the 24-year style), and the standard was set as a standard for promotion and manufacture in all arsenals across the country.
In October 1937, as a member of the Ordnance Engineer, he led technicians to order machines from the United States, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland.
In June 1946, he was transferred to the Department of Technology of the Bureau of Arms Engineering. He resigned in October 1951.
Li Zhichen (1891~1959), Zi Boqin, a native of Hengshan, Hunan. In 1919, he graduated from the Department of Military Engineering of Imperial University of Japan with a bachelor's degree in engineering. In 1921, he went to the United States for further study, and in June 1923, he received a doctorate in metallurgy from Harvard University.
In 1924, he was appointed director of the Hunan Iron Works, and later concurrently served as the chairman of the administrative committee (i.e., the president) of Hunan University. After the private Xiongxiang Iron Factory was transferred to the government office and became the Hunan Iron Factory, due to the poor quality of the rifles it built, the phenomenon of misfire often occurred, so Li Waitchen presided over the factory administration.
After taking office, Li Zhichen added examination rooms and laboratories, starting from the study of experimental materials, improving the quality of the rifle, so that the quality and output of the rifle were greatly improved.
In December 1927, he was appointed director of the Ordnance Research Office of the Shanghai Arsenal, and in less than a year, he led his subordinates to complete the design of simple guns and grenades, anti-aircraft guns, 57 mm anti-aircraft guns, special mortars, 37 mm infantry guns and 75 mm field guns, 45 mm mortars, as well as the initial velocity and chamber pressure measurement of various guns built by the factory.
These research results were compiled into the "Report of the Ordnance Research Office" and printed and distributed to the competent authorities and relevant factories.
In November 1928, he was appointed chief of the design section of the Ordnance Industry Bureau, in charge of the uniformity of the gun and ammunition system, the design and statistics of weapons, the construction of arsenals and the distribution of raw materials for weapons. In December, he was appointed as a full-time member of the Military Engineering Research Committee.
In October 1933, he was appointed Director of the Resources Division of the Bureau of Arms Engineering. In September 1934, he was appointed as the principal of the Military Engineering College of the Ministry of Military Affairs.
In July 1937, he was appointed as the director of the Gongxian Arsenal. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, gongchang moved to Chenxi, Hunan, renamed it the eleventh factory of the Ordnance Industry Bureau, and still served as the director of the factory, which improved the production and management of the factory.
In the autumn of 1943, the Ministry of Military Affairs and Politics made a great contribution to his "impartiality and special achievements in products."
In September 1946, he was promoted to Deputy Director of the Department of Ordnance. In 1947, he was appointed deputy head of the Chinese delegation to Japan, responsible for handling The matter of Japanese compensation to China.
Li Zhichen has conducted in-depth research on the manufacturing technology of guns, artillery and ammunition, and has authored monographs or articles on national defense knowledge, such as "The Foundation of National Defense Construction," "The Essential Map for Improving Military Engineering," "Ordnance Manufacturing," "Comparison of Weapons in China with Weapons of The Great Powers," "The Development of Weapons Manufacturing in China and Its Present Situation," "The Trend of Modern Guns," "The Manufacture of Artillery," "The Status Quo of Guns in the World," and "TheOry of Gun Construction."
Yu Ji copyright works, reprint please WeChat 80276821, or Weibo private message "Yu Ji", please send an email to the [email protected]
Yu Ji, the spiritual food of Henan people around the world!