Reclamation is a miracle in the history of human land creation, and it is also a spiritual monument that will never go out of style. Haohao soup fights the waves and dares to ask for land to the sea, which is the common memory of several generations of Xiaoshan people, and condenses the Xiaoshan spirit of "running endlessly and standing bravely at the head of the tide", and the "reclamation spirit" can be called the essence of Xiaoshan's contemporary culture.
In the mid-60s of the 20th century, the people of Xiaoshan put forward a sonorous and powerful proposal: "Seize land from the tide and ask for grain from the seaflats". The large-scale reclamation of Xiaoshan County began in October 1965 and ended in December 2007, which lasted 42 years, organized and initiated 33 phases of reclamation, enclosed 546,100 acres of land, and built a Xiaoshan version of the "Great Wall" by the Qiantang River, which was praised by FAO officials as "this is a miracle in the history of human land creation". The resulting "reclamation spirit" is an indelible cultural symbol in the hearts of Xiaoshan people.
"Thousands of troops" rivers and seas
Create the miracle of Xiaoshan
Narrator: Zhou Zhanghao, 85 years old, retired from the former Xiaoshan Reclamation Headquarters.
From September 12 to October 6, 1958, I attended a 25-day training course for key personnel in water conservancy construction sponsored by the Cosmic Red People's Commune. In mid-October, he was assigned to the construction of Fengjialou Hengwan excavation in the Xinwan Management Area, mainly responsible for the construction of the bay surface excavated in the Ganlu Management Area. After more than 20 days of intense construction and excavation, the responsibility section of the Ganlu Management Area successfully completed the task.
In March 1960, when the Dangshan Management Section of the Nansha Embankment collapsed the river seriously and the situation was extremely critical, the leaders of the commune asked me to bring a bedding and clothes and report to the command post to assist the Dangshan Management Area in the collapse of the river. After more than three months of day and night fighting, they threw down a huge amount of stones, and finally suppressed the surging evil tide and kept the embankment of the Dangshan management section. After the rescue of the collapsed river, I was successively sent to participate in the construction of Fang Qianxiao, Kanshan Water Turning Station and Zheshan Bay Gate. It also participated in the reclamation of 25,400 acres of No. 9 Dam.
After 1965, the people of Xiaoshan, who suffered greatly from the collapse of the Qiantang River, set off a large-scale reclamation boom of "seizing land from the tide and asking for grain from the seaplains". Following the successful reclamation of 9,000 acres by the Yinong Reclamation Committee in 1966, in the second half of 1968, the leaders of Guali and Yipeng, who dared to be the first, were moved and wanted to try their hand at blocking the sea and making land. It is jointly organized and implemented by Guali and Yipeng, and technically by the "Guali Reclamation Headquarters" (the predecessor of the Xiaoshan County Reclamation Headquarters) located in Qinglong Mountain. The reclamation headquarters sent me, Ma Xueyun, Zhu Zhongliang, and a few others to take the lead in the preliminary survey of the tidal flats, the determination of elevation, and the fixing of sample piles. From July to November, Guali and Yipeng successively mobilized members of more than 10 communes, with an average daily output of 30,000-40,000 people, to carry out reclamation in two phases, and successfully enclosed 36,000 mu of raw land.
Xiaoshan County's large-scale reclamation of 36,000 acres won the first battle, from the county to the reclamation headquarters, from the engineering construction personnel to all the members who participated in the reclamation and excavation, everyone was high-spirited, energetic, enthusiastic, and the sky, the earth, and the surging tide of the passion, unstoppable. In the spring of the following year, that is, in March 1969, east of the 36,000 mu reclamation - north of the Nansha embankment in the section from Shushan to Toupeng, the Guali reclamation headquarters again organized 16 communes and 1 town in Guali and Yipeng, with an average of 50,000 migrant workers per day, and carried out large-scale reclamation again. My old partners and I once again participated in the construction work in the early and late stages of reclamation. This time, 27,000 acres of land were enclosed. In September of that year, the Xiaoshan County Reclamation Headquarters was established, and I justifiably became a construction worker of the County Reclamation Headquarters.
The east side of the second phase of reclamation of 27,000 mu of land began to rise in a large area, and its elevation has reached a height that can be reclaimed. The leaders of the command headquarters saw it in their eyes and moved in their hearts, believing that the opportunity could not be lost and that the time would never come. It was decided to build an embankment and dam north of Toupeng to Xinwan Ding Dam in November of the same year to carry out the third phase of large-scale reclamation after the north of Baihu Mountain. As a reclamation construction worker, it is natural for me to insist on taking the lead, defending the position, and managing the follow-up to ensure that the newly built reclamation embankment is safe and sound. In this reclamation, Xiaoshan County organized a total of 13 members of the big communes, 70,000 migrant workers at sunrise, and successfully enclosed 52,000 acres of land. So far, Xiaoshan County has been reclaimed on a large scale for three consecutive periods, and successfully recaptured 115,000 acres of land from the "Sea Dragon King".
In 1969, to the east of 52,000 acres of reclamation, there was a large area of tidal flats silted up, and the reclamation conditions were very mature. In November 1970, the Zhejiang Provincial Revolutionary Committee decided to implement the siege by the military and the people in two sections, starting from November 20 to 25, 1970. From the start of construction on January 15, 1971 to the completion of the construction on the 25th, an average of 70,000 people were produced every day, and 97,140 mu of land was enclosed, known as "100,000 mu encircled by the military and civilian alliance".
After the encirclement of this phase of the battle of thousands of troops and horses, in the northeastern area of the reclamation, close to the deep river, the newly built embankment was on the cusp of the storm, and it was the place where the tide rushed. The water depth outside the embankment has been minus 4-5 meters above the elevation of Wusong for a long time, which is a very critical situation, if there is no Ding dam that can resist the tide, the surging tide will empty the new embankment at any time, and the entire reclaimed land will be destroyed in one fell swoop. Therefore, rescue construction is imminent, and dams and caissons must be built immediately to protect the embankment. To build the dam, it is necessary to drill a caisson first, so that the caisson can take root at the bottom of the river. But under the rough water, conventional caissons simply cannot be implemented. The construction team worked together, overcame all kinds of difficulties, and under the guidance of superior water conservancy experts, created a new fortress to conquer the tide - "floating caisson". The "floating caisson is inserted into the bottom of the river", and then a 200-meter-long and 5-meter-wide all-stone dam is built at the upper mouth of the caisson. With the two treasures of Zhenjiang, caisson and Ding dam, the newly built embankment can be impregnable, and the new land can be safe and sound. Through the use of advanced "floating caissons", a national-level problem in the history of water conservancy was finally overcome, and a strong stroke was written for the reclamation of Xiaoshan.
In the early spring of 1973, the construction of the Xiaoshan Riverside Drainage and Irrigation Station kicked off. This is the largest project I have ever experienced, with more than 1,000 people working in various types of work, and the construction site is operated in three shifts. There are more than 10 people in our construction team, and I am the team leader. The construction work is complicated, and I can't rest normally, and sometimes I just fall asleep late at night, and I encounter problems in the project, and I am often awakened by a rapid knock on the door. We put on our shirts and pants and quickly arrived at the scene to deal with the emergency. The main project of the riverside drainage and irrigation station was completed in April 1975 and is the largest drainage and irrigation station in Hangzhou, covering an area of 23 acres and a construction area of 6,670 square meters. There are 14 holes with a net span of 4 meters inside and outside, and the total diameter of the hole is up to 56 meters, which is a comprehensive water conservancy project integrating irrigation, drainage and shipping. I worked at the riverside irrigation and drainage station for three years and two months.
The water conservancy and reclamation of Xiaoshan are in the same line, and the world-famous Xiaoshan reclamation is derived from the water conservancy first. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the construction of water conservancy and reclamation projects in Xiaoshan has made great progress, and the achievements have attracted worldwide attention.
The spirit is passed down from generation to generation
Gather all forces to "enclose" a new world
Narrator: Zheng Jianfeng, Secretary of the General Party Branch and Director of the Village Committee of Qunwei Village, Yinong Town.
In 2006, when I was 36 years old, I went to work in Qunwei Village. Prior to that, I was the deputy general manager of Hangzhou Zixiang Food Group Co., Ltd. At the beginning of my tenure, Qunwei Village had millions of yuan in debt, and it was difficult to pay even the salaries of village cadres at that time. At that time, Qunwei Village was nicknamed "Poor Wai" village by the villagers. As a native of Qunwei Village, I feel that I should pay for this land, which is a feeling.
Our Yinong Town is the birthplace of the first large-scale encirclement and land reclamation in the history of Xiaoshan. When you walk in Yinong, you will find that many villages carry the word "wei", such as group enclosure, three circumference, and Minwei. The name of our Qunwei Village means "the people are fenced around". Qunwei is a complete reclamation land, which can be said to be a land infiltrated with the sound of the Qiantang River. It was reclaimed by our fathers who tried every possible way, went through thousands of hardships and dangers, and endured countless hardships. I also have a deep understanding of the hardships of enclosure. My father was also a member of the Waitu army. My father was on the construction site, braving the wind and snow, eating dried radishes and pickles, drinking salt-alkali water, and living in a simple shed. This "reclamation spirit" has deeply touched me and has inspired me for many years.
Reclamation brings us not only a kind of material wealth, but also a kind of spiritual wealth. I believe that the spirit of hard-working, perseverance, innovation, and "daring to drink saliva" is infiltrated in the bones of every Qunwei villager. As long as we can make concerted efforts and carry forward the spirit of "picking up and reclamation", the appearance of the Qunwei Village will certainly be completely changed.
After taking over the work in the village, I revitalized the stock and transformed the idle old hall in the village into a standard factory building for leasing to enterprises, and at the same time made full use of the policy to win the development of 8 acres of village-level collective economic reserved land. In this way, it can increase the income of the village by 400,000 yuan per year. By 2008, our village-level collective economic income had reached nearly 700,000 yuan; In 2010, it exceeded 1.5 million yuan; In 2023, our village-level collective economic income will reach 6.01 million yuan, of which the operating income is 4.55 million yuan.
In the encircled villages, where "the masses of the people have surrounded me," I firmly believe in the simple truth that "we the masses have power." There is a working method called "YYDS" in our village, which we have made after years of exploration and practice by relying on the masses. The specific meaning of this practice is that the masses discuss (Y), the masses examine (Y), the masses supervise (D), and the masses say (S). Relying on the masses and believing in the power of the masses can also be said to be the enlightenment brought to us by the encirclement and cultivation of fields.
In recent years, Qunwei Village has won many honors such as "National Civilized Village", "National Rural Governance Demonstration Village" and "Zhejiang Province Good Governance Demonstration Village", and has also been rated as an outstanding unit in the province's clean and honest construction. You walk in our Qunwei Village, the blue waves are sparkling, the houses are scattered, Qunwei is the first beautiful village in the whole region to pass the acceptance, or the first administrative village in the whole region to promote the "whole village photovoltaic". I think that these achievements are just like those of the past, relying on the participation of the masses and the strength of the masses. The masses play an important role in rural governance and development.
Over the years, with everyone's efforts, Qunwei Village has become a well-known beautiful, wealthy and happy village, which is very gratifying to me. Over the years, I am especially grateful to the villagers for their trust in me. I have always felt that the voice of the masses is the solid direction of our hard work. Every morning at 7 a.m., I usually walk around the village to listen to the villagers' thoughts, see what is going on in the village, and then start a new day's work.
Now, the Hangzhou Asian Games has been successfully held for one year. On September 20 last year, the 19th Asian Games Torch Relay in Hangzhou was held in Hangzhou, and I was honored to be the 166th torchbearer in the torch relay run. Passing on the torch, I am thinking that our "spirit of reclamation" and "spirit of Xiaoshan" should also be relayed in this way, injecting a steady stream of impetus into the development of our Qunwei Village and our Xiaoshan.
The tide of the Qiantang River is rolling forward, witnessing the process of forging ahead from generation to generation. A few decades ago, tens of thousands of Xiaoshan people "gnawed" the sandy tidal flats with their flesh and blood. Those blood and sweat have condensed into the land under their feet, turning hundreds of thousands of acres of tidal flats into fertile land, and the "spirit of reclamation" nourished by them is still shining brightly.
If the fire is not extinguished, this hard work, this hard work, and this innovation illuminate the road of Xiaoshan's development and draw a colorful map of the spirit of the times. From the "spirit of reclamation" to "four thousand", "four robberies" and "four dares", Jida has finally become the Xiaoshan spirit of "endless competition and courage to stand at the head of the tide", standing up the backbone of Xiaoshan people in the new era, and condensing the powerful force of forging ahead on a new journey.
If you don't forget, there will be an echo. At present, the whole region is setting off a big discussion of "re-invigorating the spirit and deepening the reform", we are moving forward with our original intentions, recalling the past, looking at the present, and looking forward to the future.