In 1909, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was opened to traffic, and then the Zhangjiakou-Suiyuan section of the railway began to be repaired. Chang Geng, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, wrote to the Qing court, requesting the construction of the Northwest Railway, extending the Zhangsui Railway to Baotou Town, and building the railway between Lanzhou and Baotou, with the southern line from Lanzhou to Lingzhou, and the northern line from Lingzhou to Baotou, connecting the Beijing-Zhangtou Railway. However, due to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the plan to build the Baoning Railway was also terminated.

In the winter of 1916, the Ministry of Communications of the Beiyang Government sent Lin Jing, a senior engineer, to Suiyuan, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces to survey the route, and used Jingsui Road as the design route for the north, south and central roads to enter Xinjiang. In 1918, the Beiyang government sent Shao Shanlu, a railway expert, to survey the railways of Suining, Gansu and New Provinces, with a total length of 2,600 kilometers and a survey map.

In 1920, the Beiyang government signed a package loan agreement with the German and Austrian governments, and after the first batch of loans of 500 million marks was received, Duan Qirui, who had not been too wealthy, finally had a much better life. According to the agreement, at least 70 percent of the money will be used for the development of transportation, industrial and mining, electric power and other infrastructure projects, and the Suiyuan-Baotou, Suiyuan-Kulun, Baotou-Lanzhou and the continuation of the Longhai railway will be the first batch of railway construction projects.

1927 year. In the process of railway construction, the Sino-German-Austrian joint delegation also began to conduct geological scientific investigations along the railway. The Northwest Scientific Expedition departed from Beijing along the Pingsui Railway to Suiyuan Province at that time, and arrived at Baotou, the starting point of the expedition, the next day. And set up a headquarters here.

On July 2, 1927, the northern expedition arrived at the foot of Baiyun Obo Mountain. In the light of the setting sun. The unique blue-black peaks of Baiyun Obo attracted the attention of Ding Daoheng, who had just graduated from the Department of Geology of Peking University, and it seemed that there was some mysterious power calling him.

Early the next morning, Ding Daoheng left the station and headed for Baiyun Obo alone. At the foot of the mountain, in a small ditch washed by the flood, he saw a large amount of mineral sand. After careful identification, many of them are rich in iron ore. Later, he described the experience: "At the foot of the mountain, the ore accumulates and the higher it goes, the purer the mineral is. After reaching the top of the mountain, he saw a large area of iron ore outcropping, and the main mining area of Baiyun Obo was discovered. Immediately, Ding Daoheng wrote a letter to inform the headquarters of this heavy discovery. At that time, it was predicted that "this place will become a great source of rich ore in China." "Over the next few days. Ding Daoheng made some preliminary investigations of the main mining area of Baiyun Obo and finally determined that it was a large iron ore deposit. He then wrote the "Suiyuan Baiyun Obo Iron Ore Report", estimating that the reserves of Baiyun Obo iron ore are about 30 million tons. He also said: "The construction of a steel enterprise near Baotou should have a deep relationship with the transportation of the northwest, and its importance is not only in the economic aspect. ”

At his request, Ding Wenjiang, director of the Beiyang Government Institute of Geology, personally led a team to organize a special geological team to conduct a careful investigation of the minerals in Baiyun Obo again, and finally confirmed that the iron ore reserves in this area were about 100 million tons. In addition, there are other mineral resources: "The largest iron ore discovered in China so far." ”

This discovery immediately attracted the attention of the high-level political and business groups of the Beiyang government, and the Beiyang consortium headed by Duan Qirui raised more than 1,200 yuan after negotiations. It also borrowed 15 million yuan from Austria, and a large iron and steel complex with an annual output of 250,000 tons, the Northwest Iron and Steel Company, was established, and construction began in 1929.

The Austro-Hungarian Carlsen Iron and Steel Group undertook the design and technical support of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company and most of the equipment manufacturing, and the coal washing, coking, plant transportation, electrical repair, telecommunications, refractory and other projects supporting the ironmaking and steelmaking processes were also started, and at the same time, the construction of the Baiyun Obo iron ore mine also began.

After more than three years of construction, the Northwest Iron and Steel Company began to put into operation at the same time as the opening of the Suixin Railway, and with the construction of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company, Baotou currently has nearly 300,000 people. It replaced Guisui and became the largest city in Suiyuan.

As the Spring Festival is approaching. The Baotou railway station is even busier, with business travelers from northwestern Gansu, Mongolia and Xinjiang gathering to return home. These small businessmen in Shanxi, Zhili and Beijing, who have been away for a year, are now preparing to go home for the Chinese New Year and reunite with their relatives.

In January 1935, before the Spring Festival, the first phase of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company was completed, and the largest special steel production workshop in China was also put into operation. The products of the special steel workshop are mainly used for military purposes, as the chief of the army, Xu Shuzheng made a special trip to Baotou to participate in the commissioning ceremony of the 30-ton steelmaking furnace in the special steel workshop of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company. The special steel smelting workshop has introduced the advanced electric furnace steelmaking technology of Hungarian Linz Iron and Steel Group, and is equipped with a 30-ton and a 15-ton steelmaking converter, which can produce most of the world's high-quality alloy steel, which is enough to support the current domestic military production.

"Mr. Cloyn, how long does it take to make such a furnace of steel?" Xu Shuzheng put on a pair of sunglasses, stood on a high platform and watched the beating fire, and asked the chief engineer of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company, the main equipment of the Northwest Iron and Steel Company came from the two major steel groups in Austria and Hungary, and Clone was the chief engineer sent by the Austrian side.

"Including the preliminary preparation, it takes about 2 hours to smelt each furnace of steel." "Such an electric furnace can produce 210 tons of high-quality steel per day, or about 60,000 tons per year," Eckerd replied. Shogun, after the entire special steel production plant is put into operation, it will become the second largest specialty steel producer in Asia after Japan's Yawata Steel. ”

"Can this steel be used to make guns?"

"There is no problem, as long as the production process and raw material ratio are strictly followed, we can make a barrel as good as Skoda."

"Brother Zhongcai, what is the maximum caliber of artillery that the Baotou Arsenal under construction can manufacture?" Xu Shuzheng turned around and asked Jiang Tingzi, director of the Ordnance Industry Administration behind him.

"105 mm, but the Hanyang Arsenal and the Fuzhou Naval Arsenal can make 150 mm cannons." Jiang Tingzi said that he was an expert in the ordnance industry, and he was responsible for the relocation of the Dexian Arsenal and the expansion of the Baotou Arsenal.

Xu Shuzheng did have a sense of urgency, although the visit of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor temporarily suppressed the arrogance of the Japanese army and Soviet Russia, but there was intelligence that the Japanese side was currently in contact with Soviet Russia and might want to join forces to attack China.

In accordance with the armament plan drawn up by the Austro-Hungarian advisory group, the Beiyang Government decided to invest 1.5 billion yuan in five years to strengthen military preparations, mainly to expand the scale of production of steel, metallurgy, fuel, chemical industry, and other raw materials related to the military industry in the western region, and to establish a number of automobile, aircraft, radio, mechanical, and ordnance manufacturing plants in the western region, and to relocate the Fuzhou naval base to Qinzhou.

In this era, the output of steel represents the strength of the country, although domestic steel production has developed rapidly in the past ten years, has reached 2.5 million tons per year, but compared with Japan, especially Soviet Russia, there is still a big gap.

According to the plan, the new steel plants in the western region are mainly the Chongqing and Zhuzhou iron and steel plants in Hunan, and the other is to expand the production scale of the Wuchang Iron and Steel Plant, the Taiyuan Iron and Steel Plant, and the Baotou Iron and Steel Plant. (A good event for pie in the sky, cool mobile phones are waiting for you!) Follow the ~ point / Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter qdread can be), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to the qdread WeChat public account! (To be continued) R466