Lu Zhen, a doctor who graduated from the Central Party School in July last year, wrote a graduation thesis entitled "Research on Tianjin's Urban Water Shortage and the Project of Diverting Luan into Tianjin (1981-1984)," with a total of 300,000 words, of which a quarter of the pages discussed the important role played by the railway soldiers in this water conservancy project, demonstrating the spirit of the people's army in being selfless, fearless, courageous in dedication, and not afraid of sacrifice.
Dr. Lu Zhen is a post-90s generation, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and a Ph.D. in the history of the Communist Party of China at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He chose the topic of his doctoral dissertation on the "Luan into Tianjin Project", which originated from the railway soldiers.
In 2018, Lu Zhen, as a member of the Chang'an Street Reading Club, met Huang Xuan of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of China Railway Construction in the reading club, and "recognized" the railway soldiers during the exchange. Later, the reading club organized members to visit the "Art and Photography Exhibition to Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of China Railway Construction" and had a better understanding of the railway soldiers. He came up with the idea of writing a railroad soldier for his graduation thesis. In the process of reading the history books of the railway soldiers, I thought that the "last battle" of the railway soldiers to lead the Luan into Tianjin project can best reflect the feelings and spirit of the railway soldiers in overcoming difficulties, sacrificing their lives and forgetting their deaths, and benefiting the people. Later, in the process of extensive and detailed research on the Luan Diversion Project, Lu Zhen took the Luan Diversion Project as the general framework, focusing on the background of the formation of the strategic decision of "Diverting the Luan River to Tianjin", the formulation of the water diversion plan, the launch and implementation of the Luan Diversion Project, and the far-reaching impact of the Luan Diversion Project on the development of Tianjin.
The Luan-Tianjin diversion project, from the Daheiting Reservoir in Qianxi County, Hebei Province to Tianjin City, has a total length of 234 kilometers, and the key project is to dig a 9.69-kilometer diversion tunnel. The Beijing Military Region and the Railway Corps jointly undertook the construction of 5.9 kilometers of tunnels.
In this grand project, the railroad soldiers undertook the most important and arduous part. Dr. Lu Zhen went through a lot of hardships, consulted the materials of the Tianjin Archives, collected the reports of "Tianjin Daily", "People's Liberation Army Daily", "People's Daily" and other newspapers and periodicals on the Luan diversion project, carefully studied them, and felt that the railway soldiers undertook the most difficult project at the time of the military transformation. He was moved by this, recorded and expounded on "seeking truth from facts," and spoke highly of the spirit of the railway soldiers in "digging roads in the mountains and building bridges when encountering waters," which is exactly an integral part of the spirit of the Chinese nation.
In the 35-year history of the railway soldiers, almost all genres, including poetry and songs, news and commentary, calligraphy, painting and photography, have praised his great achievements. However, it is extremely rare to find theoretical monographs that elevate the contributions made by the railway soldiers to the socialist revolution and construction by rushing to repair the railways during wartime and to build them in peacetime, and to elevate them to academic research, dig deeply, and discuss their merits and spirit. During the period of the Railway Army, the current political commentary in the newspapers and periodicals, and after the military reform, the political work cadres as work research or for the evaluation of professional titles wrote papers, most of them paid attention to the timeliness of news commentary and the practicability of guiding the work. In recent years, some teachers and students of colleges and universities related to China's transportation have begun to study the history and culture of railway soldiers with theoretical articles. Such as Diao Chenglin, a teacher from Southwest Jiaotong University, etc. However, Dr. Lu Zhen was the first person to study a theoretical article on a project and its history of the railway soldiers in a long length of more than 70,000 words.
The characteristics of essays and general narratives are that the former is abstract logical thinking, arguments, arguments, and arguments, which are relatively abstract and less readable. The latter remembers people, has characters, stories, is infectious, and is good-looking. The reason why I recommend the excerpt of "Railway Soldiers" in "Research on the Water Shortage in Tianjin City and the Project of Diverting Luan into Tianjin" is that I believe that historical materials are important and rare, and second, I hope that they will be disseminated through the Internet, so that more people can "approach" the railway soldiers.
Lu Zhen is currently working at the Party School of the CPC Sinopec Corporation. When he was choosing a topic for his dissertation, he had lunch with me, and the topic of "railway soldiers" was often exchanged on the phone. He was a promising young man who was full of ideals and had deep feelings for the railway soldiers.
Lu Zhen's doctoral dissertation was serialized several times. For the convenience of the reader, the footnotes of the historical sources cited in the paper are omitted.
The first part, the most critical diversion tunnel project to choose the construction team, the railway soldiers because of their glorious history, dare to fight and win, the construction experience of the battlefield, the defeat of the crowd, won the "first choice".
Who will carry out the construction: the determination of the tunnel construction team
Considering that there are many projects to bring Luan into Tianjin and the task is very arduous, the preparatory group for the introduction of Luan decided to conduct a thorough investigation with the relevant construction units to understand the organizational and management level, the quality of the construction team, the technical equipment ability and the construction reputation of these construction units, so as to better assign the tasks to the construction units according to the characteristics and requirements of the project.
Among them, digging mountains and opening holes is the most arduous task in many construction projects.
According to Liu Min, commander of the Eighth Division of the Railway Corps, who participated in the project to divert water from Luan to Tianjin, recalled: "Comrade Li Ruihuan strategized, scientifically predicted, organized a group of people to study carefully, and finally decided to ask the troops to undertake the heavy task of digging a diversion tunnel. This was confirmed by Li Ruihuan. Li Ruihuan said that he has a secret to leading the construction, that is, to find the army when encountering difficulties. He humorously said: "The Beijing garrison, the railway troops, and the engineering troops have all solved my difficulties and saved my driver. This time, it was the People's Liberation Army that entered the war and saved Tianjin. ”
In fact, the Ministry of Water Resources has made different recommendations on who should participate in the tunnel project during the decision-making process. On the issue of construction, Qian Zhengying, minister of water resources, proposed in Tianjin that "the 419 detachment of the Ministry of Water Resources' infrastructure engineering corps should dig the tunnel," and said that "the 10-kilometer tunnel can be completed in a year and a half after listening to the railway soldiers, and it is estimated that it will not be completed."
On May 28, 1981, the Ministry of Water Resources' Infrastructure Engineering Corps and the 61st Detachment sent a letter requesting to undertake the construction of the tunnel. In the letter, they pointed out: "It is inappropriate for Tianjin to entrust the construction of the tunnel to the railway soldiers, and described their superior conditions for undertaking this project. They believe that by undertaking this project, they can "ensure quality, save investment, ensure the construction period, and have fewer contradictions with all aspects."
Regarding the participation of the 61st detachment of the Ministry of Water Resources in the construction of the tunnel, in addition to the self-recommendation of the 61st detachment, the Ministry of Water Resources also believes that it is more advantageous for the 61st detachment to carry out the construction.
The Tianjin Municipal Government took the Ministry of Water Resources' opinion seriously. In fact, the Tianjin municipal government has long had its own considerations about "who will carry out the construction". As for which unit to choose to carry out the construction, the available materials show that the Tianjin Municipal Government initially thought of the railway troops.
The reason behind this, Liu Min, commander of the Eighth Iron Division, has explained: "From the war years to the period of peaceful construction, every time we encounter difficulties, the troops are standing up and charging into battle, our department participated in the earthquake relief in Tianjin in 1976, rescued the victims, built temporary housing, and rushed to repair the salt field of Tianjin alkali plant, which left a deep impression on the people of Tianjin, and the railway soldiers opened roads in the mountains and built bridges in the water, and they were dealing with tunnels and rivers for decades. As for Liu Min's explanation, other witnesses also mentioned it in interviews.
For example, Wang Chaoying, a propaganda cadre of the 40th Regiment of the Eighth Division of the Railway Corps, said in an interview: "At that time, the Tianjin Municipal Government had feelings for the railway soldiers, and the railway soldiers also had feelings for the people of Tianjin. Moreover, part of the organs of the Eighth Iron Division are already in Tianjin. Therefore, Li Ruihuan still hopes that the Eighth Iron Division will do it. ”
In addition, Zhang Mingquan, an instructor of the 38th Regiment Company of the Eighth Division of the Railway Corps, further added in an interview: "The Eighth Iron Division is relatively good at digging tunnels, and tunneling is the strength of the Eighth Iron Division. In the past, many tunnels that were difficult to dig were undertaken by the Eighth Iron Division. ”
However, in addition to the above factors, in fact, if we look at it more deeply, it is mainly the spirit of "not being afraid of hardship and not afraid of death" embodied by the railway troops that "moved" the Tianjin Municipal Government.
The railway troops, which are favored by the Tianjin Municipal Government, are in fact a very legendary unit. Take the Iron Eighth Division, for example, which was formerly known as the Independent Bridge Regiment. In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, this unit braved the enemy's wanton and indiscriminate bombardment, rushed to repair and build railways day and night, defeated the enemy's air superiority and flood disasters, broke the blockade, ensured front-line operations, and created a "steel transportation line that could not be broken and bombed continuously." Van Vliet, commander of the U.S. 8th Army, once frankly said: "Although the air force and navy of the coalition forces tried every effort to cut off the supply of the Communists, the Communists still achieved an amazing miracle by sending supplies to the front with incredible tenacity and perseverance." "Entering the period of socialist construction, the railway troops still opened roads in the mountains and built bridges in the water, making great contributions to socialist construction. Behind the brilliant resume, the railway army is essentially a labor force. They have been digging holes, building roads and building bridges in remote, inhospitable and sparsely populated places for many years in extremely difficult conditions. Marshal Ye Jianying once spoke highly of this: "Digging roads in the mountains and building bridges in the water, there is no danger in front of the railway soldiers; At a critical juncture, the spirit of "not being afraid of hardship and not being afraid of death" on the railway soldiers is undoubtedly what is urgently needed to "lead Luan into Tianjin" to dig mountains and open holes.
However, what is interesting is that although the available materials show that at the beginning, the Tianjin Municipal Government decided to have the railway soldiers carry out the construction by the railway soldiers after comparing them with the 61 detachment, but soon after Li Ruihuan decided to have the railway soldiers carry out the construction, he hoped to pull another unit to work side by side with the railway troops. This unit is the Beijing Army stationed in Tianjin, which participated in the Tianjin earthquake relief together with the railway soldiers.
As for why it is necessary to pull another unit to participate in the construction at the same time, Li Ruihuan gave the reason: "It is better to have an opposite, which can speed up the progress." This statement just reflects Li Ruihuan's characteristic of consistently being good at using dialectics in making policy decisions and turning contradictions and struggles into a driving force for pushing things forward.
As for how Li Ruihuan got in touch with the troops stationed in Tianjin, Wang Xiaojing, commander of a certain battalion of the troops stationed in Tianjin, recalled: "At that time, I was the battalion commander of Unit 52859, and our troops wrote in their petition for war: For many years of garrisoning Tianjin, the troops have always wanted to do something good for the people of Tianjin that urgently needs to be solved, and this will be of great benefit to implementing the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee, improving the relations between the military and the government and between the army and the people, and strengthening unity. We must undertake the big project in Tianjin. ”
After receiving the letter of request from the troops for the construction of Luan, the party committee of the Beijing Military Region agreed to the troops' request to take the initiative to apply for war. According to Yan Tongmao, head of the troops stationed in Tianjin, after the Beijing Military Region received a report from the Tianjin garrison, Qin Jiwei, commander of the Beijing Military Region, expressed his support for the Luan diversion project. In addition, Wang Jiaxiang, deputy commander of the PLA stationed in Tianjin, also specifically mentioned that the PLA had a close military-civilian relationship at that time.
After the troops stationed in Tianjin made up their minds to participate in the Luan Diversion Project, Deputy Division Commander Zuo Erwen went to Tianjin on September 18, 1981 to receive the construction task of "Bringing Luan into Tianjin". After Zorwin returned to the unit, he immediately reported to the divisional party committee on the process of receiving the task. The party committee of the division agreed with his statement and designated him to be in charge of the project. After receiving the unanimous support of the commanders of the troops, the commander-in-chief Li Ruihuan discussed with Liu Min, the commander of the Eighth Iron Division, and cut out a section of the Luan tunnel, about a quarter, and gave it to this infantry division.
On September 23, 1981, the Tianjin Municipal Government convened a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and made a resolution, deciding that the tunnel project would be jointly undertaken by the Eighth Iron Division and the 66th Army (troops stationed in Tianjin): the 66th Army would undertake the 2.4-kilometer tunnel to Henghe, and the 8th Iron Division would undertake 5.6 kilometers of tunnels and 1.7 kilometers of culverts.
As for the above-mentioned construction candidates finally finalized by the Tianjin Municipal Government, the materials show that the central government is quite satisfied with this. In September 1981, Gu Mu, vice premier of the State Council, said at a forum: "The central authorities are very relieved that the central authorities have entrusted this task to Tianjin, and Tianjin has handed over the main tunnel task to the army to complete, which is more reliable." ”
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