In 1908, the French went to great lengths to move the mountains, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was about to be completed, excited, by its railway company, could not wait to propose to the Qing government, the railway will enter the provincial city of Kunming, urgently need electric lighting, and require the construction of a hydropower station in shilongba, Mantis River.
Figure | This is the earliest hydropower station in China
The Mantis River is the only river channel out of the lake in Dianchi Lake, and 15 kilometers out of Dianchi Lake is Shilong Dam. Here is only more than 40 kilometers away from Kunming, is under the Jiuzi Mountain, the river valley cuts, the slope is steep and rapid, the drop is concentrated, if the hydropower station is built, there is Dianchi Lake in front of the natural regulation reservoir, and then there is a drop of more than 30 meters available, and the conditions are unique. Xu Xiake, a great traveler of the Ming Dynasty, once walked through here, but saw that "the water rushed straight through, or crossed the top of the stubborn stone, or the threat of the channeling stone, gushing over one floor, reverting and jumping on the first floor, and between half a mile, even falling five or six steps, this stone dragon dam also."
Fang Suya, French consul general and representative of the French Railway Committee in Yunnan in the late Qing Dynasty, also visited here, accompanied by Wang Chi, the "King of Qian" in Yunnan. Fang Suya was fascinated by Shilongba and said that it was good to build a hydropower station here. Wang Chi asked what was going on with the hydropower station, so he left a hand and intended to do it himself. Not long after that, Fang Suya left his job and Wang Chi died. But the story of Shilongba is not over, and it continues to be interpreted between the French company represented by Fang Suya and Wang Hongtu, the eldest son of Wang Chi.
The French company's request to build a power station in Mantis River was transferred to Liu Cenfang, the daotai of Yunnan Persuasion, who saw through the French's attempt at a glance, and was nothing more than an inch, with the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and wanted to infiltrate and monopolize the Yunnan electric power industry and further control the economic lifeline of the province. He found Li Jingxi, the governor of Yungui, and tried to show his strength. Li Jingxi was also very resentful of the Actions of the French, supported his own water and electricity, and let Liu Cenfang handle the matter.
At the end of 1908, a notice was posted on the streets of Kunming:
Members of the public of all trade names should note:
There are legal persons who have set up electricity in the Mantis River of the export of Dianchi Lake, which is where the interests and rights of our country and our people lie, and for the industry of strengthening our nation, after preliminary discussion with the Governor's Office of Yunnan-Guizhou, it is proposed that the government and businessmen of this province jointly run it themselves. In view of the government's financial resources, if those who are willing to take shares in the funds raise funds, regardless of whether they are lowly or lowly, they hope to take the chapter from the letter of persuasion and jointly promote the early completion of the telecommunications.
Liu Cenfang is well-intentioned, but somewhat bookish. First, at that time, the Qing Dynasty was about to run out of gas, it was in danger, the country was weak and the people were poor, the people's hearts were unstable, and there was no credibility at all, plus there were countless people in their hearts for this "mantis River electricity", who would be willing to be this unjust leader?
Half a year later, the matter was not settled. Liu Cenfang realized something, so he went to Wang Hongtu, the premier of the Yunnan General Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps because his old father Wang Chi had an explanation before his death, Wang Hongtu and Liu Cenfang immediately agreed, and decided to go out of the mountains to do electricity, and in order to save trouble, the word "official" of "official and business jointly organized" was also omitted, and Liu Cenfang strongly supported it. Wang Hongtu united 19 wealthy businessmen in Yunnan and submitted a report to the Qing government requesting the establishment of Yunnan Yaolong Electric Light Co., Ltd. Li Jingxi received the report that he was "deeply pleased" and immediately approved it, and made a decision that "from now on, no outsiders will be allowed to come to Dian to handle electricity for 25 years."
On the eve of the opening of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, the Yunnan Commercial Office Yaolong Electric Light Co., Ltd. was established, and Wang Hongtu, the "Four Lords of Wang" who donated "Four Pins of Beijing Officials," took the lead and personally served as the general director, and Yuan Jiaguo, the "champion" of Yunnan, also sounded the gong and opened the road, and the grand event was held, Zuo Yixuan, a native of Anhui, was elected as the premier, and Kunming's large and small businesses invested in "Dipping Guang", and soon absorbed 8856 shares of commercial shares, and a total of 88560 yuan of silver was spent on commercial shares, as the first bucket of gold for "start-up".
This is the highest in China: China's first hydropower joint-stock company set up by private funds, and the first national industrial enterprise in Yunnan.
Good things grind a lot, twists and turns. Perhaps it was the notice that offended foreigners and annoyed the imperial court, and in May 1910, as soon as the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was opened, Liu Cenfang was dismissed from his post and "opened for absence and returned home." But Li Jingxi still supported running his own hydropower and did not let the French intervene. Earlier, Wang Hongtu left Kunming to nanjing to participate in the "Nanyang Persuasion Association". Before the trip, he entrusted others to take charge, but everyone was reluctant to come forward, and when the dilemma was in trouble, Zuo Yixuan stepped forward and took "industry to save the country" as his duty, "not worried about difficulties, and allowed it with great and easy feelings", and managed the affairs of the big and small, and the Shilongba project was able to continue.
Figure | Here is China's first hydroelectric generator set
At that time, water and electricity could be run by themselves, and the machine had to find foreigners, but they could not eat "foreign losses". Liu Cenfang and Wang Hongtufei and other idle people have long sent people to Shanghai to find out the details and find out the price. At that time, there were Germany, Britain, France, the United States and other countries that could build hydroelectric generators, and foreign companies in various countries had semicolons or agents in Kunming. France and Britain are eyeing Yunnan and naturally have to exclude them so as not to leave behind troubles. The remaining Germany and the United States, and then sent people to inquire about the truth, through a series of international bidding procedures, and finally signed a contract with the german Regal and foreign agents in early 1910, ordered hydroelectric generators from the German Siemens Electric Company, and hired the German electrical engineer McWard and the water engine engineer Mausdia to preside over the design and construction.
This is China's introduction of foreign advanced technology and equipment, its own development and utilization of hydropower resources, Shilongba Power Station has become the first hydropower project in China to implement global bidding and bidding.
Figure | Shilongba power plant diversion channel
On July 8, 1910, Zuo Yixuan, Mai Huade and Maoshiya rode to Shilongba to survey the terrain. They quickly determined the location and came up with sketches for building dams, diverting water channels, and repairing machine rooms. Zuo Yixuan was more anxious, he came to measure, design, purchase materials, and construct at the same time. He recruited workers from all over the country, and soon he would gather thousands of workers, as far as Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Guizhou in other provinces, and as close as the four townships of Yuxi, Zhaotong, Kunyang, Tonghai, and Kunming in Yunnan.
On April 1, 1910, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was officially opened to traffic, and the "Yunnan Fu Station" at the northern end was in Tangzi Lane, Kunming. Time was running out, on August 21 of that year, Zuo Yixuan was taking advantage of the popularity, and with a single order and a cannon, the Shilongba Hydropower Station started.
Shilongba thus became the pioneering place of China's hydropower industry, and also became China's first "trilateral" hydropower project.
Today, it is difficult for us to imagine the construction of hydropower projects a hundred years ago, Chinese workers have never seen the "Rauschzi" electric lamp, how to build China's first hydropower station? Fortunately, Chinese are used to being bitter, and they are working for themselves instead of for foreigners, so naturally they do not have to "grind foreign workers". The Shilongba "Immortal" monument records the superhuman hard work they paid for the first record of China's hydropower undertakings: Zuo Yixuan "supervised and encouraged skill," "organized conscientiously and led by example," "workers enthusiastically obeyed their orders," "exploded stones in mountains, disregarded dangers, rushed in sections, and carried out vigorously", "all the clerks and workers of all kinds of workers opened their meals every night for four bells, went to work at dawn, and paid every day for the rest of the day", "did not avoid snow, rain, wind and frost, and did not count the annual festivals and weeks". After a year of hard work, a barrage of 55 meters long and 2 meters high with 17-hole gates was erected; a masonry diversion canal with a length of 1478 meters and a flow rate of 8 cubic meters per second was overwatered; a 345-square-meter stone wall tile-roofed water turbine machine room was introduced; and a large steel pipe with a drop of 15 meters was connected.
Seeing that the civil engineering of the power station was almost over, and the generator set of the German Siemens company was also about to arrive, Zuo Yixuan was worried. At that time, Yunnan had no roads, let alone cars, and the turbines, generators and transformer cabinets weighed tens of tons, so how could such a steel behemoth behemoth be transported to Shilongba in the remote countryside?
Whether you are in a hurry or not, the Siemens unit has been transported by sea to Haiphong in Vietnam, loaded with trains, and transported from the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to the railway station next to the Desheng Bridge in Kunming. And Zuo Yixuan brainstormed and had a way. He organized a transport team of 300 people, unloaded the equipment from the train, dismantled it as soon as it could be dismantled, and reduced it into a small one for transportation. The small machine parts are carried by people on horseback, from land to Shilongba. The main machinery parts were "rolled" from Jinbi Road to Daguanlou, and then loaded onto large ships and sailed into the Dianchi Lake route. Medium-sized parts are "rolled" to Desheng Bridge and loaded into small boats, sailing through the Panlong River into Dianchi Lake to meet the big ships. This unprecedented fleet of ships slowly rowed in the inexplicable and astonished eyes of the old Kunming people, dismantling bridges all the way, rebuilding the boats, and finally entering the sparkling and scaly Dianchi Lake, which left a strong mark in the history of water transport in the Panlong River and Dianchi Lake.
However, Zuo Yixuan could not be allowed to breathe a sigh of relief, and the more difficult road was still ahead. The fleet turned from the mouth of the sea into the Mantis River, stopped at the flat post, and the people carried the parts ashore with seven hands and eight feet. From here to Shilongba there are still 7 kilometers, in front of all the village paths, thorns, ravines, pedestrians are still difficult, not to mention the transport of dozens of tons of behemoths?
Still, there is a way. Zuo Yixuan first sent dozens of people to play the forward to open the road pad, this side of the machine parts to the roller, the front by more than 20 buffalo pulled, the back dozens of people pushed and pry, there are dozens of people on both sides to pull to support, in order to prevent the machine parts from overturning and falling. In this way, inch by inch, step by step, it was difficult to move uphill, and it took a whole month and a half to transport the parts safely to Shilongba.
An average of 156 meters per day! Probably this is the most transportation in China or the world.
Figure | In the early years, the machine room and foreign engineers of the Shilongba power plant
Today, there is still a stone bridge behind the Shilongba power station, and it is said that the power generation equipment was "rolled" from this bridge. I wonder if when the foreign machine weighing dozens of tons came from afar a hundred years ago, did it use this appearance to welcome distant visitors? It was originally a way to let the hard-working peasants return to the countryside, and the wandering wanderers who were in charge of nostalgia for infinite excitement, but it carried the impact of modern industrial civilization and became a witness to the turbulent but unyielding history.
During the construction of the power station, when the water rose, work had to be stopped; the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was damaged, the cement could not be transported, and the work was stopped; together with the Republican Revolution, the German engineers could not grasp the direction of the wind, and took the train on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to run to Hanoi in Vietnam to hide, and stopped work for more than 4 months... All of these are irresistible "negative" factors. Moreover, because the project was arduous and the transportation was inconvenient, the Germans profited from it, and the company's share capital could not make ends meet, almost halfway abandoned, and had to rely on loans to continue construction. The shareholders and Zuo Yixuan faced difficulties and were not discouraged, "one drum, keen to drive forward, only hoping to go hand in hand, and not giving up the difficulties and obstacles".
Figure | This is the earliest hydropower industry couplet in China
In April 1912, after one year and nine months of construction, the Shilongba Hydropower Station was finally completed, 27 years earlier than the famous Northeast Fengman Hydropower Station in China, which was the first hydropower station in China in the true sense and the first commercial hydropower station in China. Twenty-four years after the construction of the world's first hydropower station in France, China's hydropower industry began with the Shilong Dam in Kunming, where the first generation of Chinese hydropower workers was born.
Figure | Shilongba power station in Siemens magazine, Germany
In the January 1927 issue of Siemens magazine, Vol. 7, No. 1, "Yunnan Province, China's First Hydropower Station," he wrote: "Modern industrial facilities are still rarely found in the interior of China's great power. However, we believe that, because of its extremely rich natural resources and its population of 400 million, the development of industry must be seriously considered. Ordinary Chinese are more conservative than any of its people, clinging to the things of their ancestors. Therefore, it is difficult for them to accept innovations that can improve the simple life they have been accustomed to since their ancestors. But in the remote hinterland of this country, away from the tide of world trade and isolated from Western culture, there are also people who are ready to introduce Western technological achievements to their own land... This project in Yunnan Province is the first hydropower station to be built and operated in China..."
In the early years, the Shilongba Hydropower Plant had an installed capacity of 2×240 kilowatts, and the 22 kV transmission line transported electric energy to Kunming, and entered xiaoximen through Tule, Changpo, Bijiguan and Majiezi, with a total length of 34 kilometers. The substation that entered the city was located in the pond at the foot of Xiaoximen City, near today's Dongfeng Building, which was called "substation" at that time. The height of its voltage and the length of its lines were the highest in China at that time.
The Shilongba power plant brought the first rays of modern industrial light to the citizens of the ancient city of Kunming. It was the early morning of May 28, 1912, in the Cuihu Haixin Pavilion and the city's three arches, Golden Horse Fang, Biji Fang and other places hung dozens of 500-watt incandescent lamps, Kunming four townships men and women of all ages competed to watch the lights, a moment of gathering, lively. The order to start the machine was transmitted by telephone from the Cuihu Lake Pavilion to the Shilongba Power Station, and as soon as the lights were turned on, the city lit up, illuminating several lively places in Kunming as bright as during the day, and I don't know who was excited and shouted: "The moon is coming!" For a while, "since the coming month" has spread throughout the city, becoming the earliest name of electric lamps in Kunming, and Kunming people have also become the first Chinese to use "domestic hydropower" to light electric lamps.
Today, the dams, ditches, canals and factories of the Shilongba power plant are still there, and they have been listed as national key cultural relics protection units. A German Siemens generator installed that year is still running to generate electricity, the original machine room is the first workshop of the Shilongba power plant, in front of a monument, about 5 meters high, read: "China's first hydropower station."
Source: "Old Kunming Old Words Old Photos , Those Trades" Kunming Planning and Construction
Editor: Yang Jinjia
Editor: Kang Bishu Yang Jinjia
Final Judge: Van Dan