Cheers for "Red Flag Canal" ‖ Yuan Zheng

Cheers for "Red Flag Canal"

Yuan Zheng

On the evening of November 3, 2021, directed by Kang Ning, starring Yu Zhen and An Yuexi, Zeng Li, Xu Guangyu, Ma Dongyan, Li Qinqin, Kou Zhenhai, Liao Jingsheng, Du Yuegang specially invited to star, Xu Zhinuo, Jing Le, Chen Che, Intoxi, Xu Shendong, Yu Siyuan starring in the TV series "Red Flag Canal", which aired the finale on cctv1.

Stills from the TV series "Red Flag Canal"

After watching this TV series, my mood could not be calmed for a long time, I always felt that I had not watched enough, and I wanted to continue to watch. It wasn't until footage of other programs appeared on the TV screen that it was known that "Red Flag Canal" had indeed finished.

Some people may say that whether it is a novel, a feature film or a TV series, it is higher than life. In my opinion, the TV series "Red Flag Canal" has both a "higher than life" side and a "life-derived" side. Set against the background of the great drought and water shortage in Linxian County, Anyang City, Henan Province in 1959, the drama tells the story of the Linxian County Party Committee leading the people of Linxian County to unite and cooperate, overcome difficulties, and build the "Red Flag Canal", reproducing the contemporary version of "Yugong Moving Mountains", praising the Chinese nation's spirit of self-reliance, hard struggle and indomitable perseverance, guiding the audience to relive the real historical miracle, paying tribute to national heroes, and has profound ideological and educational significance.

The Hongqi Canal was built in the 1960s by the people of Linxian County under extremely difficult conditions to divert zhangzhang into the forest from the mountainside of Taihang, which is known as the "Artificial Tianhe".

According to historical records, from the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1436) to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, a total of 514 spring and autumn periods, More than 100 natural disasters occurred in Linxian County, and more than 30 major droughts were harvested. Sometimes there are years of drought, the rivers dry up, and the crops are not harvested. Historical records and folklore have severe droughts that "cannibalism" occurred five times in 514 years.

Li Hanqing, the governor of Lu'an in the Yuan Dynasty, planned to build the Tianping Canal, and Xie Sicong of Zhixian County, Lin County, Ming Dynasty, organized the construction of the Xie Gong Canal. However, these projects have only solved the water problem in some villages, and cannot fundamentally change the water shortage in Linxian County. At that time, the county's cultivated land area was 985,000 mu, but only 12,400 mu of watered land, grain production was very low, and the people's lives were very difficult.

In 1949, the whole territory of Linxian Was liberated. Subsequently, the county people's government organized the construction of many water conservancy projects, which alleviated the difficulty of water use to a certain extent.

Since 1957, water conservancy projects such as the Hero Canal, the Qihe Canal and the Nangudong Reservoir BowShang Reservoir have been built successively. However, due to the limited water source, it is still unable to solve the problem of large-scale irrigation.

In 1959, Linxian experienced an unprecedented drought. All four rivers in the territory have been cut off and dried up, the canals that have been built have no water to draw, the reservoirs have no water to store, and the people in mountain villages have to go far to get water to eat. After many discussions, in order to solve the water problem, it is necessary to find new and reliable water sources and build canals to divert water into Linxian County. However, there is no such water source in Linxian County, and the county party committee shifted its water-seeking eyes to the outside of Linxian County, thinking of the water-rich Muddy Zhanghe River.

On October 10, 1959, the Linxian County Party Committee held a meeting and decided to divert the water from the Muddy Zhanghe River to Linxian County. Yang Gui, then secretary of the Linxian County CPC Committee, issued a call to "rearrange the rivers and mountains of Linxian County" and specifically studied the project of "bringing Zhangzhang into the forest." The project decided to start in February 1960, when the county had only 150 acres of arable land, 3 million yuan of reserves, and 28 water conservancy technicians during the natural disaster.

In February 1960, the people of Linxian County began to build the "Introduction into the Forest" project. After consultation and consent between the two provinces of Henan and Jin, it was later approved by the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power entrusted by the State Planning Commission.

From March 6 to 7, 1960, the Linxian Committee for The Introduction of Zhangzhang into the Forestry Committee held a plenary meeting in Panyang Village, at which the project of introducing the Zhangzhang into the forest was officially named "Hongqi Canal", which means to hold high the red flag and move forward.

The Hongqi Canal project began in February 1960 and was fully completed by July 1969, which lasted nearly 10 years. The project leveled a total of 1,250 hills, erected 151 aqueducts, excavated 211 tunnels, built 12,408 various buildings, dug up 22.25 million cubic meters of masonry, and the total length of the Hongqi Canal was 70.6 km (From Shicheng Town, Shanxi to Rencun Town, Henan), and the main canals and tributaries were distributed throughout the city. According to calculations, if these earthen and stone barriers are built into walls with a height of 2 meters and a width of 3 meters, they can run through the north and south of the motherland, bypass Beijing, and connect Guangzhou with Harbin.

In 1974, the first film screened by the People's Republic of China when it participated in the United Nations General Assembly was the documentary "Red Flag Canal".

In the 1970s, the Spirit of "Self-Reliance, Hard Work, Unity and Cooperation, and Selfless Dedication" that was formed during the construction of the Hongqi Canal was a valuable spiritual wealth and played a very important role in encouraging us to "forge ahead into a new era and start a new journey" today.

An excellent film and television work will always resonate strongly among the audience. It is reported that since the launch of "Hongqi Canal" on October 17 in the prime time of the CCTV comprehensive channel of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, the highest real-time rating of the Maoyan platform TV is 10.138%, and the real-time rating of the national live TV broadcast on the Cool Cloud Platform has reached 10.0022%, ranking first in the country!

Today, the Hongqi Canal, located in Linzhou City, Anyang City, Henan Province, has become a national 5a-level tourist attraction, a national key cultural relics protection unit, and is known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World".

Written on November 4, 2021

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