Here is the story of 6 "two bombs and one star" founders: Tower Courtyard Building 5

In 2018, the children of the tower went to Qinghai 221 Factory to find the footprints of their fathers and took a group photo in front of the memorial wall in the Atomic City Memorial Hall. The names of the 6,500 nuclear industry entrepreneurs inscribed on the memorial wall are blurred. Photo/Courtesy of respondents

The story of Tower 5

Reporter/Angel Bao

"To build an atomic bomb is to repeat the test. The experiment came back to analyze, analyzed and retested. As long as you are not afraid of difficulties, you are more successful than once, and when you are completely successful, the atomic bomb will come out. ”

Diao Junshou, former vice minister of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, repeatedly stressed this point. The old man in front of the reporter of China News Weekly, 105 years old this year, is in a wheelchair, his eyes are no longer visible, and his hearing is difficult. As the second secretary of the party committee of the "Ninth Yuan", he participated in the entrepreneurial construction of the Qinghai 221 base and the Sichuan 902 base, and can be described as one of the only remaining veterans of the nuclear industry, but perhaps due to the nature of the work, the name is almost unknown to the public.

Even their children did not gradually understand the work of their parents until many years later, and realized that the "tower courtyard" where they grew up was a place where "thunder came from the silent place".

Among them, The No. 5 building of the pagoda courtyard is also out of Wang Ganchang, Cheng Kaijia, Deng Jiaxian, Zhu Guangya, Zhou Guangzhao, Yu Min, 6 "two bombs and one star" founders.

Golden Period

The pagoda courtyard is located at the northern end of Huayuan Road in Haidian District. It was chosen because it was sparsely populated and not far from the Xizhimen Railway Station, where the Soviet Union promised to provide samples of the atomic bomb (which were not later provided) for scheduled unloading. The construction of No. 3 Garden Road, which is the office area, and the No. 1 Courtyard of the Tower Courtyard, which is the living area, began construction at the same time in the second half of 1958.

Tayuan No. 1 courtyard is a well-laid rectangular courtyard named after a seven-story octagonal brick tower built in the Ming Dynasty to the south. Eight unit residential buildings were built in the tower courtyard, two buildings in a row, a total of 4 rows, from north to south for Buildings 1-8.

The outer walls of Buildings 1 to 4, which were built first, are yellow, and the surrounding people do not know what kind of unit dormitory this is, and they are used to calling this place "Yellow Building". The Yellow House has a large balcony and a separate bathroom, as it was built according to Soviet drawings, and even a bathtub.

Around 1962, Building 5 was built. Building 5 is the highest-grade decoration in the tower courtyard, with solid wooden floors on the floor and a flush toilet in the bathroom. This building was originally intended for Soviet experts, but because the Soviet Union tore up the agreement and withdrew the experts, the building was mainly allocated to the leaders and experts of the academy.

Diao Junshou's family lives in Room 301, Unit 1, Building 5, and opposite 302 is the home of Vice President Ma Xiang. Downstairs, 201 lives the first vice president Wu Jilin, and 202 is the home of vice president Guo Yinghui. 101 lives with Peng Fei, vice president and secretary of the party committee of the Theory Department, and opposite Zhou Guangzhao, the first deputy director of the Theory Department. He Guilian, deputy director of the theory department, lived in 401, opposite Li Qilian, the backbone of the Lianghang uprising and returning from Hong Kong. Cheng Kaijia, Zhu Guangya, Yu Daguang, etc. lived in the second unit, and Deng Jiaxian, Qin Yuanxun, Long Wenguang and others lived in the third unit.

Wu Jilin's son-in-law, Tang Xinqing, told China News Weekly that after the tower courtyard was built, even until the 1980s, living in Building 5 was a symbol of status. Among them, the easternmost unit is the best position, and the second floor is considered to be the best floor of a total of four floors.

Wu Jilin and Guo Yinghui, who live on the second floor, are both elders of the Ninth Yuan. In 1957, the Central Committee decided to set up a special agency for the development of nuclear weapons in the Second Machine Department, that is, the Nuclear Weapons Bureau, which was called the "Ninth Bureau" to the outside world, and soon after established a nuclear weapons research institute under the Ninth Bureau, which was called the "Nine Institutes" to the outside world. At the time of the establishment, there were initially only three people - General Li Jue, director and director of the bureau, Wu Jilin, who was in charge of scientific research, and Guo Yinghui, who was in charge of administration, and started from scratch.

In March 1964, the Ninth Bureau, the Ninth Institute and the Qinghai 221, which were actually trinity, were renamed the Ninth Research and Design Institute of the Second Machine Department. Li Jue served as president and first secretary of the party committee, and Diao Junshou served as second secretary. Later, although the institution and name changed repeatedly, "Nine Courts" became a customary name that has been used ever since.

The pagoda courtyard is like a small society, with its own children's primary school and kindergarten. At that time, there were already May 1st, 61st, 71st, 81st and 11th primary schools in Beijing, so the Children's School of The Pagoda Courtyard was called Jiuyi Primary School and Jiuyi Kindergarten, and the organ was also called Jiuyi.

Jiuyi Elementary School is a T-shaped red brick mixed three-story building. At that time, the primary and secondary schools were all wooden blackboards and light bulbs, but here was a rare glass blackboard at that time, and the fluorescent lights were as bright as day. After the withdrawal of Soviet experts in 1960, the workload of Russian translators who graduated from many universities plummeted, and several of them were transferred to their children's schools as teachers. Diao Li's homeroom teacher is a Russian translator. There were only about thirty people in the class, and Cheng Kaijia and Zhu Guangya's daughter were in this class.

The tower courtyard is very peculiar. Almost every family is a mother with a few children, and most of the fathers are in Qinghai. Outsiders are curious about this mysterious courtyard, which some people jokingly call "widow's house". Peng Kangkang, the daughter of Vice President Peng Fei (later renamed Li Kang with her mother's surname), remembers that every child in the courtyard has a key hanging around their neck, and this key can open the doors of several families! Forget to bring the key to find other children to help, as long as you try a few, you will be able to open.

In the memories of many tower children, the memories of the first half of the 60s are golden. The weather was colder then than it is now, with heavy snow in the winter and no spring. There are many big trees in Beitu City, like a forest. Surrounded by farmland, the summer frogs chirp one after another, interspersed with the cries of cockroaches and grasshoppers, and the large cornfield outside the courtyard wall is blown by the wind, and occasionally the cooking smoke of the farmhouse is seen.

The staff of the Ninth Yuan were all top personnel from all over the world, and the people of the Ninth Yuan took the order issued by Deng Xiaoping to go all over the country and transfer as many people as they needed. The master of the canteen, Yu Agen, was once a chef and a first-class labor model at the Jin Jiang Hotel. In addition to scientific researchers, there are many senior technicians. Zhou Zhixing's father was an eighth-class electric welder, and after being transferred to the Ninth Courtyard, the whole family obtained a Beijing hukou and was also assigned a two-bedroom house in the Pagoda Courtyard.

Football is a traditional sport in The Tower. The children in Building 5 played the football the best, the building teams were not their opponents, and they were unbeaten outside. The main reason for this remarkable record is that the team's main players, Li Qilian's twin sons Li Weimiao and Li Weixiao, the brothers later played in the Beijing team.

The children in the tower courtyard also played Go, and they played with adults. Diao Rui heard that Uncle He Guilian upstairs played Go well, so he went to the door to ask for advice, and every time he was defeated. His little friend Gu Xiaoyun often asked Deng Jia to play chess first, and recommended him to go too. One day, he knocked on the door to challenge, Deng Jia was first lenient, and those who came did not refuse. After a few sets, there are wins and losses. He remembered that Deng Jiaxian, regardless of whether he won or lost, he was smiling.

Many children in the tower courtyard have memories of playing Go with Deng Jia first. Some people recall that when the Tangshan earthquake occurred in 1976, everyone went to the Jiuyi Kindergarten in the courtyard to hide from the earthquake, and Deng Jia first laid down the battlefield in the aisle, holding a cigarette in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, smiling and greeting all opponents. After winning the game, he will smile happily at his opponent and look at him with a look of self-sacrifice.

Diao Rui's mother is the secretary of the theoretical department branch, and there are often young people from the theory department who come to talk with her about work and heart, and also talk about the difficulties at home, the confusion of marriage and love, and so on. Diao Rui said that the party affairs work at that time was like this.

The Theory Department of the Ninth Academy is the real place where the dragon and the crouching tiger are hidden. Liu Jie, then director of the Second Machine Department, once said that the faucet of nuclear weapons was in the Second Machine Department, the faucet of the Second Machine Department was in the Ninth Academy, and the faucet of the Ninth Machine Department was in the Theory Department.

The Theory Department has the famous "Eight Directors". Director Deng Jiaxian, Deputy Directors Zhou Guangzhao, Huang Zuqia, Qin Yuanxun, Zhou Yulin, Jiang Zepei, He Guilian, Yu Min. There are many intellectuals who think about it, everyone in science has their own specialties and theories, and everyone's personality is also very strong, and they will even blush and have a thick neck when arguing about problems, but after the work plan is determined, they will give up their own opinions and work together to complete the task.

Diao Rui said that at that time, the atomic bomb attack emphasized the strength of the collective, called "multi-way exploration." "You prove that a path is wrong and a result, because you avoid others from taking this road again. Now doing scientific research, this situation is very difficult to appear, some people will say that you did not work and did not work. But in those days, this failed exploration was also called achievement. ”

In the hearts of the people of the Ninth Academy, Huang Zuqia, who has made great contributions to the research of hydrogen bomb theory, is such a great explorer. Although he was not later awarded the title of Two Bullets, the people of the Ninth Yuan respected him immensely.

The years of the Cultural Revolution

The idyllic tower courtyard life ended in 1966.

After the "Cultural Revolution" began, it seemed that overnight, everything changed. Xu Jinge, who had lived and worked in the tower courtyard all his life, remembered that one day, a notice was posted outside the commissary, which was a list of the residents of the tower courtyard with a landlord-capitalist component, and her grandparents were also among them. Her grandfather could not bear the humiliation of the Red Guards, attempted suicide by cutting his throat, and was sent back to his hometown. The three of them were picked up by their parents to the Qinghai 221 base and left the pagoda courtyard.

Peng Kangkang remembers that Zhou Guangzhao's home on the door was raided, and her playmate Zhou Ying was crying alone in the messy home with the door open. Wu Jilin's house upstairs is also a mess. His mother committed suicide, his wife was too stimulated, her spirit became abnormal, and Peng Kangkang often saw children in the courtyard bullying her. Both the Wu family and the Peng family were driven out of Building 5 and rushed to live in the West Bungalow.

In 1968, the Ninth Yuan was transferred from the Second Aircraft Department to the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, and the whole structure entered the army series. The compound began to be militarized, and every morning at 6 a.m., at 2 p.m., and at 10 p.m., the military trumpets of getting up, going to work, and turning off the lights would be heard.

In 1969, most of the people in the pagoda went to the May 7 cadre school in Shangcai County, Zhumadian, Henan, or the newly built 902 base in Sichuan. The courtyard became empty. The "tower" of the tower courtyard was also demolished in this year, because the tower courtyard production brigade wanted to build a pigsty, and there were no bricks.

The whole tower courtyard was moving, and a small truck was turning around in the tower courtyard to collect waste, all books. Chen Changhao's thick, hundreds-page, large-scale Russian-Chinese Dictionary, fifty cents a piece.

The Diao brothers all went to join the queue, and at the end of the year, they returned to Beijing to help their mother pack up their things and go to the May Seventh Cadre School, and before leaving, they went to visit their uncle Peng Fei. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Peng Fei joined the "Anti-Enemy Death Squad" of the Shanxi New Army, which was considered to have historical problems and was subject to isolation and examination, and later contracted a high fever and did not retreat, before being released home, which was already in the advanced stage of lung cancer. My uncle told them to work well and follow the party according to the party. The day after arriving at the cadre school, the news of his death came.

Huang Zuqia, deputy director of the Theory Department, and Qin Yuanxun were both assigned to cadre schools. When China's first artificial satellite was successfully launched, Qin Yuanxun actively explained the knowledge of artificial satellites to the villagers, and his eldest son Qin Chaobin also made a "three-stage rocket" with several two-kick cannons to launch demonstrations by the pond. Qin Yuanxun said that he will also design artificial satellites.

At that time, Huang Zuqia's son, Huang Shuo, listened to his thoughts and thought, this person can really talk big. Artificial satellites are the country's high-end technology, how can we compare with these ordinary people in our schools? Years later he learned that these people were really not ordinary people. It wasn't until the end of the "Cultural Revolution" that he learned from his mother that his father, who was "engaged in physics," was engaged in atomic and hydrogen bomb research, and that Uncle Qin Yuanxun was a mathematical prodigy.

In 1972, Huang Zuqia ended his cadre school life, first went to Sichuan, then returned to Beijing, moved into Building 6 of the Tower Courtyard, and shared a unit with people. In 1975, Deng Xiaoping presided over the implementation of the intellectual policy. The Huang family moved to the third floor of Unit 1 of Building 5.

Wang Ganchang originally lived in the expert building of the Academy of Sciences, and after going to Sichuan to work and then returning to Beijing, the original house in the Academy of Sciences was gone, and he moved to Building 5 of the Tower Courtyard. Later, after becoming the deputy director of the Second Machine Department, he moved to Building 22 of Muxidi. The yard of Building 22 was small, and he exercised every morning around the courtyard wall, and one day he was knocked down by a cyclist, broke his leg, and was bedridden. He was in good health, but he died not long after. "It's very sad that an old scientist who has contributed so much ended up with such an accident." Diao Rui said.

In 1976, Wu Jilin was critically ill, and his son-in-law Tang Xinqing rushed back to the pagoda courtyard from other places.

Tang Xinqing graduated from the Department of Automatic Control of Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1961 and was assigned to nine "five rooms" to do automation control work. After the construction of the Qinghai 221 Factory, he moved to Qinghai with the Ninth Bureau and the Ninth Institute (except for the Theory Department). He went to the factory library every week, and over time, he became acquainted with Wu Jilin's eldest daughter, Wu Changjiu, who managed internal materials in the library, and married in 1966. In 1969, the 221 factory entered the military management period of the "Second Zhao" (Zhao Qimin, head of the military control group, and Zhao Dengcheng, deputy leader of the group), wu Jilin, Peng Fei, Yuan Guanqing and other factory leaders, as well as experts such as Yu Daguang and Chen Xuezeng, were detained for examination, and Tang Xinqing was also imprisoned for a year. In September 1972, Wu Jilin was allowed to return to Beijing for medical treatment.

Tang Xinqing recalled to China News Weekly that from his marriage to Wu Jilin's death, his family was always not together for 10 years, and the whole family had never had a New Year dinner together, so he did not spend much time with Wu Jilin. After Wu Jilin's death, he remained in Beijing. Since the Ninth Institute could not arrange the work of so many people, he went to work in the Nuclear Weapons Intelligence Office of the Second Aircraft Department. Remembering his father-in-law's instructions before his death, he has been living in the tower courtyard with his wife and two children, taking care of his sick mother-in-law.

At that time, the Wu family had moved from 201 to 202 on the other side, and guo Yinghui's family was reversed. Tang Xinqing heard his wife say that this was because Wu Jilin's mother committed suicide at home, and the family could no longer bear the stimulation.

Soon, Guo Yinghui was transferred to the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and moved away from the tower. Deng Jiaxian's family moved from unit 301 and moved into this house.

In April 1979, the Ninth Yuan held a rehabilitation conference for Wu Jilin, Peng Fei and Yuan Guanqing.

Yuan Guanqing was also the vice president of the Ninth Yuan in the early days of the establishment of the Academy, who was persecuted and imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution, and died unjustly in 1973. After Yuan Guanqing's death, the old leader Li Jue told his family that in fact, after building 5 was built, he left a set for Yuan Guanqing, who refused, saying that it was still left to experts and scientific and technological personnel. The Yuan family has been living in Building 2.

The last old resident

In the early 1980s, Yu Min's family moved to Unit 3, Building 5, Unit 201. The two families who had originally shared the house were transferred to another building in the tower courtyard, and the house was divided among his family.

At the beginning of 1965, in order to break through the hydrogen bomb theory, 31 people from the "Light Nuclear Theory Group" of the Atomic Energy Research Institute, with Huang Zuqia as the leader and Yu Min as the deputy leader, were transferred to the Ninth Academy. As a result, the well-known "Eight Directors" gathered in the Theory Department. However, at that time, Building 5 was already full, and Huang Zuqia and Yu Min could not live in it.

When Yu Min's family first moved into the tower courtyard, they lived in Building 7 and shared a house with another family. In 1969, Yu Min and his family went to the Sichuan 902 base, and after returning to Beijing in the early 1970s, they moved to Building 3. It is a two-bedroom apartment with a very small living room of more than sixty square meters.

Yu Xin's impression of his father's work when he was a child was that there were often people in the family. At first, he always wanted to go up and listen, and his father threw him out, but there was no one in the courtyard to play with him, he could only stay outside the building, so he especially did not like people from home when he was a child.

Yu Xin was most impressed by Uncle Deng Jiaxian, who felt that he was particularly amiable. "He's under a lot of pressure. He is characterized by a high academic level and a very democratic level, so he can mobilize the enthusiasm of all people, which is not something that ordinary people can do. Yu Xin told China News Weekly.

He Wei, a disciple of the Pagoda Courtyard, once recalled that during the Cultural Revolution, he was in the second grade of primary school, and his teachers often told them stories of class struggle. Once I went upstairs to play with children, the road was too Min's house, saw Yu Min and Deng Jiaxian's two uncles were muttering in the corridor, saw him immediately and alertly went downstairs. When he went downstairs to go home, the two men were still standing in front of the garbage road that was always smoky and dusty, muttering, and he quietly monitored them from the door of the building, but unfortunately they were soon discovered, and they ran away in fright.

After the Cultural Revolution, the leadership of the Ninth Yuan began to disperse.

In 1968, Vice President Guo Yonghuai died in an aircraft crash, in 1972 Vice President Peng Huanwu was transferred to the Deputy Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 1978 Wang Ganchang was transferred to the Deputy Director of the Second Machine Department and director of the Institute of Atomic Energy.

Among the directors of the Eight Congresses, Deng Jia was first transferred to the academy as the president, Zhou Guangzhao was transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huang Zuqia was transferred to the Beijing Normal University, and Qin Yuanxun and Jiang Zepei also left successively. Among the original eight directors, four were engaged in physics and four were engaged in mathematics, and only Yu Min, Zhou Yulin, and He Guilian remained, and only Yu Min was engaged in physics.

"A lot of capable people have left the theory department, and the 'people above' have also left. At that time, society said that 'it is better to make atomic bombs than to sell tea eggs', which is a real thing. Yu Xin said.

In the early days of reform and opening up, the eighth-level workers of the Ninth Academy of Sichuan made their own electric fans to generate income. These fans run without sound at all, unlike the fans sold in the market that spin and buzz.

In the 1980s, Yu Minben also had the opportunity to go. At that time, Qian Sanqiang went to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, talked with him several times, and hoped that he would go, but Yu Min considered that he still wanted to do a new generation of nuclear weapons, and between national interests and personal interests, he once again chose to stay.

During the "Erzhao" period, there was a problem with the cold test of explosives, and the military control personnel suspected that someone had committed sabotage, and Deng Jiaxian and Yu Min both entered the "study class." The military control group told Yu Min that you only need to admit that this is not a technical problem, and there is no need to say anything else; later, you took a step back and said that there was no need to admit it, as long as you did not speak, you would pass the pass.

"At that time, he could withstand the pressure in that environment and dared to pat the table with the Military Control Commission." He said, you are arresting me, and I must not agree with your opinion, because your opinion does not conform to the laws of science and is not possible. He said that if he had admitted it at the time, he would have passed the test well, and there was nothing wrong with him, but it could not stand the test of history.

There were more and more people in the tower courtyard, and the house was getting more and more tense. The bungalows where the commissary and the food shop were located were demolished and a building was built. In short, everything that can be demolished is demolished, and the places that can be built on the floor are covered. When Yu Xin played football with his friends when he was a child, the football stadium of Jiuyi Elementary School built two tall towers. Around the middle of the 1990s, the tower courtyard slowly changed from a unit staff dormitory with a relatively single staff to a large miscellaneous courtyard.

The old residents gradually moved away from the pagoda courtyard and moved to the Wanliu area. After 2000, Yu Min's family also moved over, counting as one of the last residents to leave.

In 2012, Yu Xin's mother died. Yu Min used to travel a lot on business, and most of the burden of the family fell on her mother alone. "My father has always felt guilty, and because of the busy work and the pressure, he feels indebted to my mother." Yu Xin looked at his father's sadness and worried that he would not be able to live alone, so he moved with his family. Day and night, he began to understand his father more deeply. Some things that I didn't understand before have slowly come to my senses.

Yu Xin had the impression that if no one disturbed him, his father could read a book for a day and sit from morning to night. The habit of secrecy he developed from his youth has not changed. Write something, or do the math, and when you're done, the paper will be torn apart.

Yu Min loved to watch Peking Opera and kept ordering the magazine "Chinese Peking Opera", from the inception of the magazine in 1992 until his death. He used to go to the theater to see the play, and Deng Jiaxian, He Zuoxiu and a few other people went to the door of the theater to wait for the ticket refund, everyone had the secret of waiting for the ticket, basically can wait. When he was young, he loved to play bridge, and an uncle once told Yu Xin that your father played bridge very well, and he knew which round and who played each card.

Yu Min was reluctant to write something or leave something behind. Because he has always stressed that nuclear weapons are a cause for millions of people, it is necessary to unite and cooperate closely, and if it cannot be complete and accurate, it is better not to write.

Yu Min has been engaged in national defense science and technology work, serving as a consultant to relevant departments. An uncle told Yu Xin that some people are consultants who care about not asking, and your father is "asking for care."

One of the most regrettable things about Yu Min in his later years is that he did not do anything original in his life. From the perspective of Yu Min's personality, he has always wanted to engage in basic theoretical research and does not like to engage in applied research, but the country needs it, and can only be duty-bound. When Qian Sanqiang talked to him that year, he said that the hydrogen bomb could go out, but he did not expect that it would be more than fifty years.

In January 2019, Yu Min passed away. Yu Xin did not return to the pagoda courtyard.

Tang Xinqing still lives in Building 5, 202. In the autumn and winter, his wife's cerebral infarction was severe, and he was admitted to the geriatric hospital, and he lived alone. Across from him in 201, Mrs. Deng Jiaxian still lived there. At the age of 92, she also lives alone, and every day the milk delivery staff will deliver her ordered milk to her doorstep.

The exterior walls of the tower houses have been newly painted with yellow paint, becoming a veritable "yellow building", and only Building 5 still maintains the original brick red appearance. The buildings appeared to be in tatters, with wires crisscrossed and protective fences messy. Only the balcony of 201 was unsealed, completely unguarded, and the bicycle that Deng Jia rode to work at that time was still on the balcony.