The construction process of Hongqi Canal

The Hongqi Canal takes the Zhuozhang River as its source. A dam is set up at the Houbi fault in Shicheng Town, Pingshun County, Shanxi Province, and the water from the Zhang River is introduced into Lin County, Henan (now Linzhou, Henan). To lead Zhang into the forest, Lin County must face several problems:

1. Special period (three years of natural disasters)

2. Funds (the fiscal reserve is only 3 million (gold)

3. Grain (only 30 million catties)

4. Technical issues (there are 28 water conservancy technicians in the county, the highest academic qualification is a secondary technical school graduate)

5. Water source (in order to ensure the water supply, a dam must be built in the upper reaches of the Zhang River in Shanxi to divert water). The migrant workers who built the canals took matters into their own hands and tried every means to solve the housing problem. Everyone couldn't find a suitable place, so they slept under the cliff or in the crevices of the rocks. Some built stone nunneries, some dug cave dwellings, some built bunks in the open air, and slept on stone slabs without roofs, beds, or fires. Gathering thatch as bedding grass, it really covers the ground and the sky. A few pieces of cloth hold it up, which is the headquarters for commanding thousands of troops. During the 10 years of canal construction, no matter how difficult it was to live in, no one on the entire construction site built a house with the money spent on canal construction.

The migrant workers brought their iron bars, shovels, and trolleys to the construction site, and used these primitive labor tools to start such a major project as the construction of the Red Flag Canal.

A large amount of lime was used to build the Hongqi Canal, and the lack of lime supply became the main obstacle to building the canal. The headquarters mobilized the masses to recruit experts for burning lime throughout the county. Yuan Shuquan, the ash-burning king of Dongyao Commune, volunteered to burn lime. Heshun Commune, based on the original Shuquan ash-burning method, created the open kiln rock-fill ash-burning method. One kiln can burn 400 kilograms of lime, which completely solved the problem of difficulty in using lime on the construction site.

After the problem of lime was solved, the problem of explosives appeared again. So the county party committee and government recruited explosives manufacturing talents from the county's 580,000 population. After assessment and selection, the personnel were determined, the factory was set up, and the problem of explosives was solved.

To set up a cement factory, you must first have technical talents. I heard that there is an old man in the Snow Mountain Brigade of Hejian Commune. He once worked as an engineer at the Taiyuan Cement Factory and is now retired at home. The staff of the headquarters worked tirelessly and walked more than 90 miles over mountains and ridges to invite people to their homes. With infinite respect for the people in his hometown, the old man went down to the mountain to prepare the cement factory regardless of his old age. He dedicated his light and heat to ensure the smooth progress of the canal construction. The total investment in the Hongqi Canal project was 56.11 million. The total investment is 125.04 million yuan, of which the state investment is 46.25 million yuan, accounting for 37%, and the community investment is 78.78 million yuan, accounting for 63%. 70,000 people participated. During the 10 years since the construction of the Red Flag Canal, 81 cadres and people sacrificed their precious lives. The oldest among them is 63 years old, and the youngest is only 17 years old.

In the 10 years since the construction of the Red Flag Canal, many heroes have emerged. After receiving the task of designing the Hongqi Canal, Wu Zutai, the chief designer of the Hongqi Canal, was not afraid of hardships and dangers and traveled over mountains and ridges to conduct on-site surveys. During this period, he encountered huge changes such as his mother's death and his wife's sacrifice in saving lives, but he still did not stop his work and insisted on working on the front line of the construction of the Red Flag Canal. On the afternoon of March 28, 1960, Wu Zutai heard that there was serious soil falling from the crack in the roof of Wangjiazhuang Tunnel. She went deep into the tunnel to check the danger. Unfortunately, she was hit by a huge boulder that fell from the roof of the tunnel, killing her at the age of 27.