Chapter Seventy Steel Capital
Along the Yangtze River, heading towards its source from Sichuan Province into Xikang Province. Until arriving at the Jinsha River basin, in a valley here, an industrial miracle is being nurtured.
Early this morning, Chang Longqing finished his simple breakfast and arrived at the factory area. As he walked, he looked at the towering blast furnaces and buildings under construction, feeling deeply moved. Who would have thought that two months ago, this was a slope covered with bushes, which local villagers called Nong Nongping? Now, earth-shaking changes are taking place here.
Chang Longqing was most happy about one thing, which was walking from the dormitory area to the factory area and admiring the changes here every day. A huge blast furnace had been set up here, and several factories were under construction. Through the partially exposed roof, it could be seen that workers were already installing machines in these unfinished factories. The hard work of tens of thousands of workers day and night was the main driving force behind the changes happening here. Chang Longqing thought back to the changes over the past two months, and he still had a feeling as if he was dreaming.
Today, there is an important task waiting for the chief designer of Panzhihua Iron and Steel Industrial Group Co., Ltd. - blast furnace ignition experiment.
Chang Longqing is a native of Jiang'an County, Sichuan Province. After graduating from Peking University in 1930, he worked at the North China Geological Survey Institute for two years. Due to his outstanding work performance and identity as a Sichuanese, he was invited by Lu Zuofu, president of the West China Academy of Sciences, to serve as the director of the academy's geological institute, thus beginning his career in mineral exploration within Sichuan Province.
In September 1937, just as the full-scale war against Japan began, Chang Longqing unexpectedly discovered conditions for metal mineralization in the Huili area while investigating the Jinsha River cutoff in the Xichang region. He then walked from Huili to Sanhui Village, proceeded upstream along the Jinsha River, crossed the river by boat at E'guo, and passed through Midi, Domaokan, Majiazi, Renniitian, Nongnongping, Baguanhe, Mianhuadi, Lengshuixi, Yanbian, and Yanyuan. During his journey, he discovered iron ore in the rocks exposed in the river at Domaokan.
Based on this geological survey, Chang Longqing published a book titled "Geology and Mineral Resources of Ning's Seven Counties" and named the rock layer that formed the Panzhihua deposit as the "Yanbian Formation". He identified the Yanbian Formation as containing magnetite and hematite. Due to this discovery, in July 1939, the Sichuan Provincial Construction Department appointed Chang Longqing as a geological expert and standing committee member of the Xichang Economic Construction Design Committee, responsible for industrial design.
But at that time, the National Government was not even talking about industry. The four cities with a deep industrial foundation were occupied by Japan one after another, and their industrial equipment was dismantled and transported to the rear in the midst of war. After decades of hard work, the foundation that had been laid was once again lost. So for more than a year, Chang Longqing made many plans, but they were all empty talk. It wasn't until this August that an air force officer came to see him, and flew him from Chengdu to Chongqing on a plane. At that time, He Junci, the deputy director of the Equipment Department, met with him, and after a day of secret talks, he packed his bags and arrived at the place where he had prospected for minerals a year ago.
The reason that attracted him to this sparsely populated Panxi Valley was the grand blueprint planned by He Junci, who asked him to design a steel plant in Nangongping, including smelting plants, iron ore mines, coal mines, dressing plants, coking plants, power plants and many other factory areas and transportation lines. This was a new challenge for him. Moreover, He Junci provided him with a lot of reference materials, including photos of existing factories. More importantly, although Chang Longqing had already drawn a map of the nearby mineral deposits, He Junci actually gave out another detailed topographic mineral map, with a scale of 1:100,000, not only marking the distribution and quantity of mineral deposits, but also indicating the composition and characteristics of each type of mineral deposit, which made Chang Longqing extremely surprised.
According to this mineral map, there are numerous iron ore deposits in the surrounding area, most of which are accompanied by titanium and vanadium ore. In addition, there are rich reserves of chromium, gallium, niobium, nickel, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, platinum and other rare precious metals. Among non-metallic minerals, coal has a reserve of 708 million tons, crystalline graphite has a reserve of 15.4 million tons, talc schist has a reserve of 20.98 million tons, solvent limestone has a reserve of 295 million tons, metallurgical dolomite has a reserve of 363 million tons, cement sandstone has a reserve of 11.94 million tons, refractory clay has a reserve of 10.32 million tons, silica feldspar has a reserve of 16.5 million tons, granite has a reserve of 83.75 million cubic meters, and marble has a reserve of 53.99 million cubic meters. It can be said that it is a super-large treasure house. Now, 90% of China's steel needs to be imported, if a steel base can be established here, it will be a strong support for China's war efforts. All this attracted him, who had a patriotic passion burning in his heart!
The last time he came here, it took Chang Longqing two months to get here because there were almost no roads and everything had to be done on foot. However, the trip from Chengdu by hoverbase in August only took Chang Longqing a few hours, accompanied by many colleagues and other engineers. The Military Commission has ordered local governments to terminate their contracts with them, and they are now officially employed by the Steel Group affiliated with the Air Force. When Chang Longqing arrived at Nong Nongping, it was already bustling with activity. The air force had already mobilized more than 20,000 migrant workers and over 10,000 workers and transported them here, where they set up temporary housing, waiting for work to begin.
Seeing a busy construction site, Chang Longqing and his fellow engineers and experts felt a different scene in Sichuan. Perhaps some people who studied in the Soviet Union during the first and second five-year plans can find that this is similar to the Soviet Union's large-scale construction method. Everyone felt the passion bursting inside, and they couldn't help but be full of energy.
A rough industrial plan was quickly drawn up, as the design drawings provided by Chang Longqing were very consistent with the current topographic survey results, so that everyone only deleted the parts that are not needed or difficult to construct on those design drawings. Even a group began designing the Chengkun Railway, which will pass through the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group and become a lifeline connecting Chengdu and Kunming, and multiple highways are also being designed, all of which benefited from the draft design drawings provided by Chang Longqing, who knows where he got these first-hand materials, actually Chang Longqing was not clear either.
As September arrived, the floating base came again several times. Although he had taken a ride on the floating base before, Chang Longqing still felt excited every time he saw this magical airship take off and land. The few hours spent on the floating base gave him confidence in defeating the Japanese invaders for the first time, which was unprecedented. Chang Longqing was proud of China's advanced technology, which was exactly the purpose of their scientific work to make the country strong. Chang Longqing wrote in his diary: "God-like craftsmanship!"
The several trips to Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group brought him more surprises, with various mechanical equipment being unloaded. Indeed, there were all sorts of them, some marked in Russian which was relatively easy to understand, after all, the Soviet Union's support for China is well-known. However, those marked in German and English were more puzzling. The main equipment on the blast furnace had obvious English markings, and it was clearly second-hand goods. Germany had provided aid to China, but that was before the full-scale outbreak of the war, and mainly military equipment. Britain and the United States had not formally aided China, especially Britain, which was still at war. So where did the Chinese Air Force get these devices from? Every time he had some free time, this question would involuntarily appear in Chang Longqing's mind.
This is China's steel capital, and the speed of construction here is called the "steel capital speed". There has never been such a fast construction speed in the world. With sufficient resources guaranteed, one factory after another was quickly built up, and even some unfinished factories began to install mechanical equipment. At the same time, several mines are under initial construction, and simple roads connecting the mine to the industrial zone have also started work. The sound of blasting is heard everywhere, and the construction site is filled with dust and people coming and going. In the evening, the precious diesel was used for temporary power generation to support the workers' overtime rush to build progress.
By October, the design of the steel plant in Nangongping had basically taken shape. Today was an important day for the ignition of the blast furnace, and it was a day that Changlong Qing must attend. He appeared on the rostrum, dressed neatly. The ignition went smoothly, and the first batch of crushed iron ore mixed with coke and limestone was poured into the blast furnace through the charging port. A fierce fire burned in the blast furnace, and the iron ore was reduced to molten iron, which flowed into a nearby tank. Under human traction, the iron tank would be placed in the open hearth furnace for secondary refining, after which steel could be produced. He Juncai, as a special guest, watched the first production process on the rostrum. Although he didn't understand all of this, later generations' news broadcasts often showed such scenes, highlighting the importance of steel to a country - something he understood. Moreover, as the director of the Air Force Economic Management Bureau, the Panzhihua Steel Group was an important link in his heavy industry chain, and he had to devote a lot of energy to it.
"Congratulations!" He Junci tightly grasped Zhang Longqing's hands, he could see that the engineer in front of him had achieved a lot in the past two months, China's intellectuals were very powerful.
"Thank you for Director He's strong support, I am deeply honored to be able to join this historic construction work." Chang Longqing keenly realized the importance of his actions to the war effort. Chang Longqing only saw the industrial aspects, but in fact, the air force also attached great importance to military defense here. Not only did the Fourth Flying Group list this place as one of its main protection objects, but two anti-aircraft companies were also deployed on several nearby hills. Even the First Marine Brigade sent a company to be responsible for the encirclement of the core area, while the outer areas were handled by local security teams.
For He Juncai, time is tight and work is busy. In addition to Panzhihua, several industrial bases are under construction. With the knowledge of history and geography in later generations, plus the possession of a floating base, He Juncai has confidence that through the Air Force Economic Management Bureau, he can launch a new takeoff for Chinese industry.
The fourth day of National Day ~ preparing to return to Beijing.
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