The Qinling Mountains lie in the central part of China, from the south of Gansu in the west, through the south of Shaanxi to the west of Henan, the main body is located in the south of Shaanxi Province and the north of Sichuan Province at the junction, in an east-west direction, about 1,500 kilometers long. It is an important watershed between the river system and the Yangtze River system.

To the north is the fertile Guanzhong Plain, and to the south is the narrow Hanshui Valley. The main peak of the Qinling Mountains, Taibai Mountain, is 3767 meters above sea level, and the mountains are mostly folded and faulted mountains.

It has always been said that Qinling is revered as the dragon vein of Chinese civilization.

In the 20 s, after the Kunming-Fangchenggang Kunming-Fangchenggang railway, which went directly to the sea, was built, the Kunming-Guizhou railway, followed by the Chengdu-Kunming railway, the Chengdu-Chongqing railway, and the Chengdu-Yi railway.

In 1931, the Guangzhou-Nanning railway was opened to traffic, and in 1932, the railway from Nanning to Hunan was repaired to the junction of Huguang and Guangzhou.

After the reunification of the whole country, the large-scale construction of highways and railways has been put on the agenda of the most important political axe, and in order to build a new China and make the first five-year economic plan a blowout, transportation must be one of the places where great efforts need to be made the most. Looking at the whole country, the southwest has the best transportation, in addition to the railway system that runs through the whole southwest of the country, the construction of highway hubs is also very complete, especially in Sichuan and Yunnan, especially developed. For example, in Sichuan, there are three expressways alone, Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway, Chengdu-Mianyang Expressway, and Chengdu-Yibin Expressway. After more than five years of construction, the Kunming-Yibin Kunyi Expressway, which was finally opened to traffic in 1932, was finally opened to traffic, and the highway could go all the way to Mianyang. This also means that the construction of basic roads in the entire southwest has completely come to the forefront of the country, and even the small half of the western region has a huge economic lever -- transportation.

After all, this is a great achievement that Zhang Shusheng has achieved only after nearly 20 years of construction in the southwest.

In addition to the best traffic in the southwest, the traffic in the southeast and north is very good, the terrain is flat, the geological composition is not complicated, and it is suitable for rapid road construction. However, the original highway system is not backward, and most areas in the southeast and north can be connected to counties and counties, and the new transportation construction will be the same as in the southwest, and towns and towns will be connected to roads within the five-year plan. That is, before 1939, it was guaranteed to synchronize with the southwest, and in the northern region, the southeast region, and the coastal area, the towns and towns were all connected to highways. In terms of railways, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway will be renovated, renovated and opened to traffic in five years. The old Jinghan Railway built from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway that is about to be completed are difficult to meet the needs of the new China. On the whole, the construction is not difficult, mainly the renovation project, the amount of the Guangdong-Hanzhou railway is only less than a quarter, and the rest of the work will focus on the reconstruction and the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge.

In addition to the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway to ensure that the whole line is open to traffic, the Wuhan-Hanjing Railway, the Hanjing-Shanghai Railway, and the Longhai Railway, which will be built on the basis of the original Zhengtai Railway, will be another major artery for construction + transformation (Lanzhou, Gansu-Lianyungang, Jiangsu).

Finally, the Lanzhou-Urumqi railway line will be the latest railway line to open to traffic, because the construction of the whole line is also very difficult, and there is no railway foundation, it is expected to be opened to traffic until the last year of the first five-year plan.

In this way, it seems that the number of new traffic projects in New China is huge, and there are many projects, but in fact there are only: Baocheng Line, Lanxin Line, Longhai Line need to make great efforts, and the others are either transformed or connected to a certain section between the two cities.

The simultaneous construction of key railways is a kind of large-scale gesture that reflects the determination of the political axe to build. Compared with the liberation of later generations, the amount of work is about doubled. However, these three railway lines, except for the Baocheng line, which is too dangerous and difficult to use a large number of local people to participate in the construction, the Lanxin line and the Longhai line can use a large number of local people to participate in the foundation construction and transportation. You must know that at the same time, Soviet Russia used almost the same method when building roads, frantically digging roads and building foundations in front, and transporting rails and sleepers in the rear to start laying. This speed is extremely staggering. Especially on the densely populated Longhai line, the construction speed of the railway will be very fast. Relatively speaking, the Lanxin line will be much slower.

These railway projects began rapidly after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1933, especially the Baocheng Line, which directly mobilized the railway engineering army in the former southwest. Due to the railway foundation of Guangyuan-Chengdu, the entire Baocheng line is divided into two general directions of Guangyuan and Baoji at the same time. In order to ensure the progress of the project, New China began many industrial layouts in Baoji during the same period, such as Baoji Iron and Steel Base and Baoji Cement Plant, Baoji Locomotive Factory, etc., and in the direction of Guangyuan is simpler, a large number of excellent steel in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, ready-made rails, cement and even ready-made culverts and other centralized loading to the north, therefore, the progress of Guangyuan direction is the fastest, take the method of starting construction at the same time, half a year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was repaired from Guangyuan to Yangping Pass, straight to Luoyang, this speed is very scary, The railway mileage of more than 140 kilometers was completed in only half a year. But the premise is that the huge industrial base, construction machinery and more than 60,000 railway road construction troops in the southwest are mobilized. Although this is not comparable with the highest record in later generations, a construction group started multi-line construction and repaired thousands of kilometers a year, but it is a record in China at this time. After all, the road from Guangyuan to Lüyang is also very difficult to walk. The Baocheng Line, which was repaired in more than five years in later generations, also took five years to open to traffic. At the same time, the construction machinery, technology and materials of the Baocheng line are much more advanced, and the line survey does not take too long, and the superior has issued the most detailed construction drawings that have been reviewed and compared on the spot.

That was in 1931 when Zhang Shusheng sent a batch of detailed survey data of the Baocheng Line to the Ministry of Communications, only saying that it was a route map bought from a foreign road construction scientific team, and the Ministry of Communications organized personnel to conduct on-site re-testing and comparison for three months, which proved to be reliable and effective.

Lu Zheng is a reporter of the Bashu Daily, and since he received the task arranged by the newspaper to cover the Baocheng Line, he rushed to Guangyuan alone, and after meeting his assistant and local guide Pei Yingming, he quickly set off to get on a locomotive transporting road construction materials and went to Luoyang through Yangping Pass.

"Lao Bei, I heard that the difficulty of building this Baocheng Line is the first in China or even Asia?" Before coming, Lu Zheng made up a lot of information about the Baocheng Line, but there were very few, only knowing that this Baocheng Line was a national first-class key project, and tens of thousands of road construction workers could not even rest in winter, and they also fought on the front line of road construction in the cold winter.

He also found out from news reports that the Baocheng Line is a railway costing nearly 400 million new yuan, using the electrification design of the whole line, in order to consider the ecology, increase the speed, and shorten the railway mileage, the method of making more holes + building bridges has been adopted. Among them, overseas Chinese donations reached nearly 50 million.

Among them, there is also a data, the construction project in the direction of Guangyuan on the Baocheng Line, the construction machinery alone concentrates about 30% of the machinery in the southwest, which is a very large number.

"Yes, it is difficult to build, just one Qinling Mountains will make it difficult for people to the sky, not to mention the whole of Asia, look at the whole world, and there are not many railways of such a first-class difficulty." Pei Yingming was originally going to open a travel agency, but after receiving newspaper reporters for a long time, he turned into a special media guide.

The two were talking, and the sound of locomotives moving forward at night could be heard outside, not too loud, and this was the benefit of electrified railways. Although electrified railways appeared in foreign countries in 1879, in China, the construction of electrified railways in such a complex place as Qinling is a big test of new China's railway technology, but at present, at least Chengdu all the way north to Luoyang, has allowed locomotives to pass.

Soon after dawn the next day, the locomotive that only pulled a few rails passed the Yangping Pass, and arrived at Luoyang an hour later, the two got off the car and began to set off towards the depths of the real Qinling Mountains.

After another half a day of traveling, the two finally entered the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains, the altitude was getting higher and higher, and the mountains were becoming more and more dangerous.

"Lao Lu, you can't go any further, the place in front of you is the place where the mountain is opened."

Lu Zheng and Pei Yingming got off the rail car, stood halfway up the mountain, and could see the hill one kilometer ahead, the road construction team was playing the cannon hole in the steep halfway up the mountainside, and occasionally there was a rumbling cannon sound, and then they saw the boulder splashing and falling into the abyss.

"Although the design of the Pou Seng Line is mainly based on the design of multiple tunnels and bridges, many places still have to adopt the design of winding up and down the mountain, turning around and turning around, obviously the distance between the two mountain ranges, it takes more than half an hour."

Pei Yingming raised his hand and pointed to the mountainside in front of him, and he could see that many road construction workers were busy on the mountain road, and there were many cars, carriages, and rickshaws coming and going on the mountainside road.

Although there is no snow in Qinling today, it has rained heavily a few days ago, and the verdant mountains can be seen covered with nearly half of the snow, but even so, the road construction work has not stopped.

Around Lu Zheng and his family, the railroad tracks were being laid, and many workers of the Southwest Railway Bureau were lifting the railways from the rail motor vehicles, or unloading them from the cars, and then laying them on the roadbed that had been completed and tamped. The land-based pebbles are all covered with a thick layer of snow. According to Pei, the pebbles were pulled up from the valley's streams.

"It's a lively scene."

Just what Lu Zheng saw, it was a construction site of tens of thousands of people, and the huge and steep Qinling Mountains did not stop these hard-working road builders, and as soon as the heavy snow stopped, the road construction work quickly resumed.

"Let's go, let's go ahead."

The two of them then proceeded, along the mountainside, through the mountains and mountains. After a while, they came to a temporary rest place for workers, which was also a place for workers to stay on the mountain.

In a huge woodland that had been cleared, there were about two hundred simple tents, military green, much like the military tents that Lu Zheng had seen. There were no adults in the tents, but many children could be seen running around, playing in the snow and warming their hands.

In the huge camp, there was a sound of reading.

"The gate of heaven interrupted the opening of the Chu River, and the blue water flowed eastward to this point. The green hills on both sides of the strait are opposite each other, and the lonely sail is said to be on the side......"

"Little guy, you're still reading on a cold day, isn't it cold?"

Lu Zheng turned to a big tent, but saw a **-year-old girl sitting in front of a charcoal basin reading a book, her expression was focused, and it was not until the voice sounded that she noticed that outsiders were coming.

"Not too cold." The girl pointed to the charcoal basin, and was a little silent in the face of the stranger. Lu Zheng walked to the tent and saw that on the small bed not far behind the charcoal basin, there was a little guy who was wrapped tightly, about two or three years old.

"What's your name? Uncle, can you read your textbook? ”

"Hmm...... My name is Ye Xiaojing. ”

"Don't worry, uncle won't get dirty, haha." Lu Zheng took off his gloves, this child obviously went to school in other places, he was familiar with this kind of textbook, and now the whole country is using this kind of textbook. Although education in New China is free, there are many places where it has no choice but to do so, and in schools, simple education and frugal education have always been very good. The children originally read an ancient poem "Wangtianmen Mountain", a textbook for the third grade of primary school.

Perhaps because of the education she received at school, the girl was not afraid of life, and answered a few questions, it turned out that these children were all children of road construction workers. The workers were busy building roads and did not have time to go back to the nearby city to visit their children, so the political axe sent the children to the workers' gathering point during the winter vacation, and returned to school to continue their classes after the Chinese New Year. The children of these railway workers, due to the long-term absence of their parents, usually live in the school, so they can study with peace of mind and have no worries about food and clothing.

When Lu Zheng asked him where his father and he were currently working, she stood up, walked to the edge of the camp, and pointed to the cliff opposite. The two of them are in a team, and they are responsible for drilling holes in the cliffs all day long.

"Uncle, Dad said that when the railway is completed, we can take the train to Xi'an to see the ancient city wall."

Lu Zheng nodded, very moved, the child finally had a winter vacation, but he could only get together with his parents at night.

"Xiaojing, what do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I want to be a railroad worker."

"Why?"

"When my parents are old, I can continue to build roads, so that when they are old, they can take the train to Lhasa and see that Lhasa is beautiful in the textbooks."

Lu Zheng's eyes were slightly moist, according to Pei Yingming, due to the special period, there are now many cases where parents are railway workers, and many people are destined to spend their lives fighting in the wilderness, just to make the transportation of New China extend in all directions.

The railway workers couldn't say much reason, so they had to tell the child that after the railway was repaired, they would be able to go to Xi'an to see the ancient city wall, while the child thought that in the future, if he repaired the railway, he would be able to let his parents go to Lhasa to see it.

After saying goodbye to Ye Xiaojing, the two continued to walk down the mountain, and saw many soldiers with guns in the distance.

"That is the prisoner of war, in the direction of Guangyuan of the entire Baocheng Railway, in addition to more than 50,000 Chinese workers, there are more than 40,000 prisoners of war, who do the hardest and most tiring work."

Looking from the direction of Lu Zheng, in the direction of the valley below, you can see densely packed ants working in person, using their labor to atone for their crimes in the war.

"Nationwide, more than 400,000 Chinese soldiers and more than 300,000 arrested armed expatriates are participating in labor reform, and they are all present on the railways alone, from the Longhai Line to the Baocheng Line."

In the following week, Lu Zheng and Pei Yingming stayed on the Qinling Mountains, looking at the lively construction site in the Qinling Mountains, this kind of construction far away from the hustle and bustle, deeply moved by Lu Zheng, this is not the first construction site he has interviewed, as a reporter of the Bashu Daily, he has visited dozens of large and large construction sites, these construction sites that were listed as key projects during the first five-year plan period, have moved him, but only the road construction workers of the Baocheng Line have deeply moved him.

"After this interview mission is completed, it is time to go to the construction site of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, and I should write more press releases to reflect the bitterness and dedication of these road construction workers who are far away from people's sight, so that the whole nation can remember their contributions to the rise of New China."

Lu Zheng decided that he would devote his career in the past few years to recording ordinary laborers.

(To be continued)