A Miracle Created by a Grandiose Wish--Zhuzhou's Early History of City Building (VIII)

Tap water is a symbol of urban modernization, which is indispensable to urban production and life. Tap water, which seems to be commonplace today, was a novelty in China in the 1950s. At that time, many enterprises in Zhuzhou were very inconvenient to get water, which brought a lot of difficulties to the production and life. 331 factory leaders found the mayor Wu Zhankui in March 1954, and proposed to build a tap water system for their factory. He said that this was not only a need for life, but also a need for production, like heat treatment, surface treatment, etc., which required a large amount of fresh water. As soon as the mention of industrial needs, the city leaders immediately acted positively. 1954 June 12, Wu Zhankui traveled to Changsha to ask for help from a senior person, because the senior person had just built a new factory in Changsha. Because this person in Changsha has just built the first water plant in Hunan, he was the then provincial architectural design institute engineer Xie Bingnan. After Xie Bingnan arrived in Zhuzhou, all the major enterprises scrambled to find him, wanting him to design the tap water system for their units. In the end, Xie Bingnan proposed that since Zhuzhou is an industrial city, there are many enterprises that need tap water, so why not just build a large tap water plant for unified water supply, which can reduce construction and operating costs. Wu Zhankui immediately agreed to Xie Bingnan's proposal, decided to use enterprises and *** joint investment, *** unified management model to operate. But when Xie Bingnan began field visits, new problems have come. Zhuzhou is not a mountain that is water, not water that is mountainous terrain for the construction of urban water has inherent shortcomings. But the difficulties did not deter Xie Bingnan, he spent 103 days, and finally designed a set of suitable for Zhuzhou terrain characteristics of the tap water program, called "synchronous water delivery mode". 1954 September, Zhuzhou municipal party committee specially invited the Soviet Union city construction experts to come together to discuss Xie Bingnan's program, and the results of the Soviet Union on the spot on the spot to suppress the experts, who praised the The program was greatly appreciated. Finally, the site of the water plant was selected at the upstream of the Zhuzhou section of the Xiangjiang River, on October 1, 1954, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the National Day, the first phase of the Zhuzhou Water Plant was officially ground-breaking, and on January 10, 1956, which was a milestone day in the history of the city, after 14 months of intense construction, a 15,000-ton per day water plant was completed, and Zhuzhou became the second city with piped water in Hunan Province. Zhuzhou became the second city in Hunan Province to have running water. With a city water system, Zhuzhou could legitimately be called a modern industrial city. On March 23, 1956, Zhuzhou was upgraded from a county-level city to a prefecture-level city. Although Zhuzhou has made remarkable achievements in industry, Zhuzhou's urban construction has always lagged behind industrial development. No way, Zhuzhou City *** funds are used in industrial construction, other aspects are able to save on the province, even the mayor Wu Zhankui want to give the city *** each dormitory screen proposal, are in charge of finance, vice mayor Ma Jinzhuo refuted back, the reason is that there are mosquito nets and also what screens? A sentence is hard to dislike Wu Zhankui speechless, think carefully, the city *** so little money, save a little is a little it. At that time, the accommodation conditions of the employees of the enterprises were also very difficult, the shortage of funds of the city *** simply can not take a penny to help employees improve housing conditions. Brick factory production of bricks are used to build a factory building, the workers will use their spare time and mud to build walls, with the trees cut down to do beams, pillars, furniture, peeling down the bark of the roof to do tiles. When building a house, and so the first layer of mud solidified the next day and then paste a layer, and so on, so that the house built instead of more solid. Soon, a small courtyard in Hunan style was built around the factory. The tools they used were so simple and the life was so hard, which shows what kind of *** the builders of Zhuzhou used at that time to push Zhuzhou forward. Due to the over-emphasis on industry and neglect of urban construction, Zhuzhou city leaders also received a memorable criticism: in 1953, Zhuzhou city built the city's first highway - Construction Road. Construction Road runs through Zhuzhou from north to south, and is the main road of the city. For several years thereafter, it was the only highway in Zhuzhou. Many enterprises located in the suburbs did not even have a regular highway leading to the city, and some of their employees could only walk along the railroad line. In October 1958, Marshal Chen Yi was passing through Zhuzhou and specially got off the train to see the construction of Zhuzhou. Municipal Party Committee Secretary Ma Zhuangkun and Mayor Wu Zhankui accompanied all the way, when the car drove to the construction of the South Railway Station on the South Road in front of the railroad, coincidentally met with a train, their cars were blocked by the train and could not move forward. Marshal Chen Yi due to time constraints, did not want to delay too much time in Zhuzhou, so asked Wu Zhankui whether there is another way around? Wu Zhankui was embarrassed to say no. Although Chen did not criticize, but Ma Zhuangkun and Wu Zhankui is anxious to sweat, a moment really do not know what to do. In February 1959, Dong Biwu, Luo Ronghuan, Nie Rongzhen, Tan Zheng and other national leading comrades to visit Zhuzhou, accompanied by Wu Zhankui, they inspected the 331 plant, coal washing plant, hemp spinning factory and carbide factory. At this time, Marshal Nie realized that the cars kept going back and forth on the same highway, so he said to Mayor Wu in the car, "Why do you keep going on this one road? I'm a soldier, I don't know anything about city construction. But I know that if in case of war, the enemy blows up this road in your city, your whole city will be paralyzed. The next time I come to you, if it's still this one road, then I'm going to criticize you." Wu Zhankui said with a red face, "Welcome Elder Dong and the marshals to visit Zhuzhou again in the future, as long as I am still the mayor, I will definitely plan to repair several roads to ensure that I don't go back and forth the same way." Nie Shuai's words woke up these few buried in the development of industry and full of enthusiasm for young people, since then the city *** systematically built along the river road, the people's road and other roads in the city, and gradually formed a circular road network in the city. Just built when the construction of the road The aforementioned "stingy" vice mayor Ma Jinzhuo also had a generous move: the end of 1953, the provincial *** Zhuzhou often need to take into account the reception of VIPs (mainly Soviet experts and ***), it was issued to Zhuzhou, two high-level Huasha car. At that time, Zhuzhou was a gravel road except for the construction road, and many newly built factories could not be driven in by small cars. And then the municipal party committee leaders also feel that they do not deserve to sit in such a high-level sedan, so Wu Zhankui found Ma Jinzhuo discussion, ready to leave a Huasha sedan for VIP use, take another sedan to exchange a second-hand jeep. Unexpectedly, this is obviously a loss-making business even got the support of the mayor of Ma. In this way, a second-hand jeep has become the municipal leaders of the tool. But also because of this jeep, they were several times 331 factory guards stopped in front of the factory. Because at that time often have VIP to visit 331 factory, every time to go to the city leaders have to be accompanied. 331 factory guards always put the Warsaw sedan in, but the worn out second-hand jeep to stop, they always think that this car is not with the VIP a piece, because of how to look at these two cars are not "match". In the end, only after contacting the factory and explaining the situation did the gate guards let it go. Since the gatekeeper on duty was not the same person each time, this misunderstanding occurred many times. The First Zhuzhou Municipal Committee By 1961, the 10th anniversary of the founding of Zhuzhou, it had grown from a small town with a population of 7,000 to a heavy industrial city with a population of over 100,000 people. In the beginning, those five young men came to Zhuzhou, which was like a blank sheet of paper, with the ambition of "*** Geller" and the mandate of the old secretary Yang Difu, and began to paint the most beautiful pictures in their hearts. Their paintboxes were filled with revolutionary romanticism, and every line and color they painted was new. Then, more and more young people came to this white paper to participate in the creation of this picture. They came from all over the world, speaking in southern and northern dialects, with the rallying cry of supporting the construction of the motherland ringing in their ears. A group of immigrants who came to Zhuzhou integrated their respective growth into Zhuzhou's bloodline, and Zhuzhou began its journey to grow into one of the country's top 100 cities. By 2018, the built-up area of Zhuzhou had reached 145.82 square kilometers, with a population of 1.2 million in the main urban area. Time flies like an arrow, the years go by like a shuttle, more than 60 years have passed, and the penniless town of Zhuzhou back then has gradually blurred in people's memories and become a memory that is difficult to reproduce. The builders who created more than 100 "New China's Firsts" have grown old, but Zhuzhou is still young, and the industrial legend of Zhuzhou is still going on. Today, the story of Zhuzhou Construction Road is over. Finally, I would like to talk about my original intention of writing this series of stories. In China, a country with 5,000 years of civilization, Zhuzhou, with a history of only a few decades, is really a very young city, relatively lacking in cultural heritage. Zhuzhou city has been focusing on the Yandi culture in the promotion of traditional culture, but I always felt that Yandi was too far away from us, and it was hard to arouse people's ****ing feelings. Later, I saw many articles and videos on the early history of Zhuzhou on the Internet, and was gradually moved by the *** years. However, due to the lack of publicity, many native Zhuzhou people are unfamiliar with this history. From Yang Difu, the proposer of the ambition, to Wu Zhankui, the technician Tang Xinding, to the Soviet expert and Xie Bingnan, who was full of wisdom, these strangers and even anonymous people have been moved by the history of the city. These strange, even nameless heroes should not be buried. The early history of Zhuzhou's founding, full of *** and rich in legend, is truly worthy of every Zhuzhou person's understanding and inheritance. So, I decided to collect these fragments, systematically organize them, and then let more people know through the self-media platform. During the creation of this series of stories, I am often moved by the stories and characters inside *** surging, and even difficult to sleep. This also makes me realize that even if a true story is dusty for a long time, it still has the power to move people's hearts. Zhuzhou is a city of immigrants, and in later decades, many people came to Zhuzhou one after another. Zhuzhou has opened its heart to welcome them. According to some statistics, Zhuzhou is the second most colorful city for immigrants in China, except for Shenzhen. The first generation of immigrants came here to support the construction of the motherland. Those great years, those bitter, spicy and sweet, should not only stay in their memories, should be passed on from generation to generation. Their entrepreneurial spirit of pioneering and hard work is the most valuable spiritual wealth left to the city.