They took the dry air guns away, leaving behind 52 steel arteries

In 2021, there were continuous important news about the national railway: the track laying of the Hotan-Ruoqiang railway section in Xinjiang was completed, and the Tarim Railway was closed; the Meizhou Bay Cross-sea Bridge of the Fuzhou-Xiamen Line, the first cross-sea high-speed railway in China, was completed; the world-renowned Ya'an-Linzhi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway was fully started; and the China-Laos Railway was officially opened to traffic.

The completion and construction of these railway trunk lines have extraordinary strategic significance for the "Belt and Road" initiative and national defense.

The rapid development of railways is inseparable from the hard work of generations of railway workers in the Republic of China who "cut roads through mountains and built bridges across rivers". Looking back on history, we are grateful for a branch of the army that has disappeared from the Chinese People's Liberation Army - the Railway Corps.

As early as 70 years ago, they were called "the most determined railroad builders in the world" by the US military.

1

It was repaired from Northeast China to Guangxi and was almost disbanded.

The predecessor of the Railway Corps was the Railway Protection Army of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army formed in 1946. In July 1948, the Railway Protection Army supplemented the Second Line Corps and absorbed more than 1,000 technical workers from the Harbin Railway Bureau to form the Northeast Field Army Railway Column with a force of 18,000. In the Liaoshen Campaign, the Railway Column completed the important tasks of repairing railways and organizing military transportation. After entering the customs in 1949, it began to be directly under the Military Commission's Railway Department and was called the Military Commission Railway Corps.

In the 1970s, on the Northwest Plateau, officers and soldiers of a railway corps overcame the difficulties of lack of oxygen and water on the plateau to build railways. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

After that, the Railway Corps repaired the railway all the way to Guangxi. By the end of 1949, most of the 22,000 kilometers of railways in the country had been repaired, and the Railway Corps immediately started to permanently restore the existing lines.

Railway soldier hero Yang Liandi (formerly known as Yang Liandi) climbed up the 40-meter-high broken bridge pier alone when repairing the No. 8 bridge on the Longhai Railway. He used a small amount of continuous blasting technology to flatten the pier surface and repaired this important bridge on the Longhai Railway. In 1950, Yang Liandi attended the National Combat Heroes Conference with the title of "Climbing Hero" and met Chairman Mao Zedong.

In June 1950, according to the suggestion of the central finance and economics department, the Railway Corps prepared to change from soldiers to workers and transfer to the local areas. At the critical moment of deciding whether the Railway Corps should stay or go, Teng Daiyuan, the Minister of Railways and Commander of the Railway Corps, went directly to see Chairman Mao Zedong and insisted that the Railway Corps should become an "indispensable" branch of the PLA special forces and combat sequence, and should be strengthened to prepare for wartime needs. The Chairman agreed with Teng Daiyuan's suggestion.

On June 10, the Military Commission issued an order to retain the Railway Corps. Just 15 days later, the Korean War suddenly broke out.

The several major railway trunk lines opened by the Railway Corps played an important role at first: the 13th Corps quickly reached the Sino-North Korean border along the Pinghan Line from the Central and South regions, the 9th Corps assembled along the Jinpu Line to continue entering North Korea, and the 19th Corps, preparing for the second batch of participation in the war, was deployed on the Longhai Line on standby, and a large amount of combat supplies was quickly stockpiled on the side of the Yalu River.

On the Korean battlefield, the supplies of the Volunteer Army were transported in sections by rail, car, mule and horse, and finally transported to the front line by manpower. The transportation of bulk materials and heavy equipment must rely on rail. With the US military in control of the air, it was extremely difficult to maintain the railway traffic, requiring the professional support team to have a high degree of organization, discipline and political awareness.

Therefore, the 20,000 railway soldiers who were almost laid off immediately rushed from central, southern and northwest China, followed the 13th Corps into North Korea, and fought a desperate battle with the US military's air superiority.

2

Rush to repair the railway and remove the time bomb

North Korea is mountainous and has many east-west rivers. The original 3,800 kilometers of railways were mainly north-south lines, so there were many bridges and tunnels, which were easily interrupted by air attacks. After the outbreak of the Korean War, the railways were bombed and riddled with holes. By the time the Chinese People's Volunteers entered North Korea, only 107 kilometers of them were barely passable.

After the Chinese People's Volunteer Army entered North Korea, they crossed the 38th parallel in one go, and the Railway Corps followed up with full force to repair the railway. By March 1951, 923 kilometers of railway lines had been repaired, and the logistics department began to rush to transport a large number of war materials.

At this time, the number of U.S. combat aircraft in the skies over North Korea increased to more than 1,700, and the primary target was the logistics and transportation lines of the Volunteer Army. U.S. aircraft chased and bombed trains, blocked tunnel entrances, and repeatedly bombed key river bridges. The railway troops tried their best to resist air strikes, protect lines and bridges, and repair and transport. The front and rear areas became battlefields.

At that time, the Soviet Air Force focused on protecting the Yalu River Bridge and the hydroelectric power station. The Chinese Air Force did not participate in the war on a large scale until September 1951. The "MiG Corridor" created by the Chinese and Soviet Air Forces was also north of the Chongchon River. The Volunteer Army not only had no air superiority, but also had very few anti-aircraft weapons. When it entered North Korea, it had only one anti-aircraft artillery regiment.

But our army's fighting spirit was strong and they never backed down. The US military bombed during the day, and the railway troops repaired at night, bombing again, repairing again, bombing and repairing as they went, with the goal of ensuring a certain number of nights of traffic each month, and doing their best to seize the "open night".

In addition to dropping explosive bombs, the U.S. military also dropped a large number of time bombs to interfere with the Volunteer Army's repair of the railway. These time bombs were buried several meters deep in the ground or roadbed, and it was time-consuming and laborious to move them. The time of explosion was uncertain, and it posed a greater psychological threat to people. There was a bomb that exploded during transportation, and one bomb caused 76 casualties among the road repair officers and soldiers.

The reporter who accompanied the army once met an unnamed railway troop commander who was very representative of the style of the railway troop:

The company was ordered to repair the line urgently. A time bomb was exposed on the ground and was on the side of the line. Everyone was afraid and hesitant when they heard that it was a time bomb that could explode at any time. However, the company commander sat on the bomb and said, "I don't believe it can explode. Let's do what we have to do." Seeing the company commander's actions, the whole company rushed up and quickly repaired the line.

With this spirit of "I'll die first", experts in bomb disposal soon emerged among the railway soldiers, specializing in the detonation device of the bomb. Because the bomb could explode at any time, they could only say: they were confident but not certain when they went up to defuse the bomb.

Li Yunlong, a first-class meritorious serviceman and second-class combat hero of the 1st Iron Division, was from Luannan, Hebei. When he defuses the first time bomb, he asks everyone else to leave, but instructs them to keep an eye on their movements. If it explodes, the survivors should sum up their experience. Li Yunlong defuses more than 30 time bombs and trains a large number of bomb disposal personnel.

Zhang Fengwu of the 2nd Iron Division defused more than 60 bombs and died while defusing a time bomb with a double detonator.

Soon, more and more railway soldiers came with a large wrench on their shoulders and tools on their waists, looking for time bombs to defuse.

In the Northeast Railway Engineering Corps under the command of the Railway Corps, there was an ordinary track patrol worker named Guo Jinsheng. He dismantled more than 1,500 bombs of various types in one year, including more than 380 time bombs, and took out 27 tons of explosives alone. He was called the "bomb disposal king" and was awarded the first-class merit. The explosives were sent to the front line to dig tunnels.

This is Guo Jinsheng introducing his experience in dismantling time bombs to his fellow soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army on the Korean battlefield. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

It was the tunnels that made the U.S. military helpless against the positions of the Volunteer Army in the later battlefields. As a result, the U.S. military stopped throwing time bombs.

3

"The most determined railroad builder in the world"

In the summer of 1951, North Korea was hit by a major flood that had not been seen in 40 years. A large number of bridges collapsed on our road sections, the lines were destroyed, and more than 20,000 sleepers were washed away. When the losses were heavy and the situation was extremely difficult, the US military "took advantage of the flood" and launched the "air blockade of traffic lines campaign" - 70% of the navy and air force aircraft were deployed to launch a large-scale, high-density destructive bombing of the "triangle area" between Sinanju, Xipu, and Gawju, also known as the "strangulation war".

The railway troops were not forced to retreat a single step by the "strangulation war".

At that time, Yang Liandi was already the deputy company commander. As a technical backbone of the bridge repair, he pioneered the daytime repair work on the Feiliu River Bridge. On the Qingchuan River Bridge, he pioneered the method of building a floating bridge with steel rails. He was the first to ride on the suspended monorail extending to the river surface, tying the steel beams section by section, and successively solved the problems encountered in the repair work.

In 1985, the Korean people built the Chinese People's Volunteer Army Railway Corps Martyrs Monument on Wenfeng Mountain in Anzhou County, South Pyongan Province to commemorate the more than 1,000 volunteer railway soldiers who sacrificed their lives to defend the Chongchon River Bridge. The monument is shaped like two railroad tracks, and an inscription written by Comrade Peng Dehuai is engraved on the back of the monument. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

At that time, wherever repairs were blocked, morale was immediately boosted when they heard that Yang Liandi had come to reinforce. Later, Yang Liandi was selected as a representative of the returning volunteers and met Chairman Mao for the second time. After returning to North Korea, he unfortunately died on the Qingchuan River Bridge one month before the victory of the anti-"strangulation war".

Three days after the Korean War ceasefire, North Korea awarded 12 volunteer soldiers the title of "Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea", the Gold Star Medal and the First Class National Flag Medal. They are Peng Dehuai, Yang Gensi, Huang Jiguang, Sun Zhanyuan, Yang Liandi, Qiu Shaoyun, Wu Xianhua, Hu Xiudao, Yang Yucai, Yang Chunzeng, Li Jiafa and Xu Jiapeng. Except for Peng Dehuai, all of them were combat heroes of front-line infantry companies, and the only logistics hero was Yang Liandi.

After ten months of indiscriminate bombing, the U.S. military came to the following conclusion:

"The Communists showed incredible skill and determination in circumventing damaged rail and road bridges."

"We honestly think they are the most determined people in the world to build railways..."

"Although the coalition air force and navy tried their best to cut off the Communist supply, the Communists still transported the supplies to the front line with incredible tenacity and perseverance, creating a miracle on earth."

After the Volunteer Air Force and four divisions of anti-aircraft artillery units joined the war, the US B-29 heavy bombers were prohibited from flying during the day, and fighter-bombers did not dare to fly low. The arrogance of a single plane daring to break into the air above Jiangqiao and bomb and shoot at will disappeared. By June 1952, facing the tenacious Chinese railway troops and other logistics troops, the US military shifted its bombing focus to North Korea's power plants, warehouses and other frontline targets.

Next, as the volunteer army infantry said: As long as there is food in our mouths and bullets in our guns, and the wounded can be transported, victory is guaranteed.

4

107 km to 1391 km

The offensive and defensive situation in the Korean battlefield was closely related to the logistics and transportation lines. The first five battles were restricted by logistics capabilities, and the Volunteer Army's offensive was limited by time and distance. When resisting the US military's counterattack, they could only adopt mobile positional defense, and suffered heavy casualties under the US military's absolute superiority in air and artillery firepower.

As transportation lines became stronger and stronger and tunnels were invented, the front-line troops were able to implement full-line defense and regain the initiative on the battlefield.

The supply on the front line improved overall. The cooks of the Volunteer Army fried dough sticks at the entrance of the tunnel, indicating that this change in the Korean battlefield had arrived. In the Battle of Shangganling, the 15th Army had stockpiled sufficient ammunition in advance, such as 10 bases of mortar shells (400 rounds per base), which played an important role in the battle for positions and the enemy's counterattack. On the first day of the battle, a heavy machine gun at our No. 3 hidden firepower point on Hill 597.9 fired more than 10,000 rounds of bullets in one day, which was unimaginable in the past.

Behind this, the railway troops and logistics forces are doing their best to provide support.

Shi Fumin, the squad leader of the 1st Railway Division, inserted a wrench into the fishplate and the rail, held on with both hands, and endured severe vibrations for an hour and a half, allowing 18 heavy trains to pass smoothly during emergency repairs. He was awarded first-class merit and the title of second-class hero.

After the victory of the Battle of Shangganling, the US military had no more options on the front line.

In order to prevent the US military's last resort - landing from the coast behind us, the Volunteer Army urgently needed to build a cross-country railway between Guicheng and Yinshan. Deputy Commander Hong Xuezhi said: To put it more seriously, without this railway, if the enemy lands from the west coast, it will be difficult for the front-line troops to survive. Chairman Mao Zedong saw the overall situation: "As long as we are ready, victory will be ours", and instructed that the Guiyin Railway must be completed in April 1953.

Under such circumstances, another predecessor of the Railway Corps, the 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th railway engineers formed in China, rushed to North Korea (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th divisions of the Railway Corps were already in North Korea). The 100,000 railway soldiers braved the bombing of American planes and fought tenaciously on the frozen land. It took only 60 days to build this important 129-kilometer-long 92-bridge communication line. It was a full month ahead of schedule, and every day ahead of schedule could deliver 30,000 tons of supplies and a whole division of troops to the front.

The United States had run out of military solutions, and on July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed at Panmunjom.

During the nearly three years of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the Railway Corps endured 190,000 bombs dropped on the railway lines by the U.S. military, paid the price of 1,336 deaths and 2,989 injuries, and extended the open railway mileage in North Korea from 107 kilometers to 1,391 kilometers at the time of the armistice.

Finally, the Americans were surprised to find that less than a week after the armistice, North Korea's railway had been built into Kaesong, the site of the armistice negotiations. This was the extremely tenacious Chinese railway troops declaring their final victory to their opponents.

5

"Repair spirit, fighting attitude"

In 1954, the Railway Corps was formally established, with General Wang Zhen as its first commander. The serial numbers of the original Railway Corps' 1-11 Divisions (the 8th Division was established in 1958) remained unchanged.

The first new line built by the railway troops after returning to China was the Lizhan Railway, which starts from Litang, Guangxi in the north and ends in Zhanjiang, Guangdong in the south. It is the only access to the sea in the southwest region and an important trunk line connecting Hainan Island and the South China Sea to ensure foreign trade.

Chairman Mao asked Wang Zhen to repair the road with "the spirit of emergency repair and the attitude of fighting", and the key was to be fast.

As soon as Wang Zhen took office, he moved the military department to the Lizhan Railway site. Some cadres in the department complained a lot, saying that the leadership of other military branches was in Beijing, but we were in the mountains, like a guerrilla force, and looked shorter than others.

Wang Zhen laughed: Our army is formed by guerrilla warfare. The railway troops will build railways to the Himalayas in the future. Are we afraid of competing with others?

The 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th and 11th Divisions of the Railway Corps and the Independent Bridge Regiment arrived. Once the blasting blast was fired, the momentum was unstoppable. The entire line was opened in 9 months instead of the original 12-month construction period.

On July 1, 1955, at the ceremony celebrating the opening of the Lizhan Railway, Wang Zhen sat in the locomotive of the first train from Litang. He worked as a train fireman when he was young.

The Lizhan Railway from Litang, Guangxi to Zhanjiang, Guangdong was officially opened on July 1, 1955. The picture shows the first passenger train slowly leaving Zhanjiang Station amid the cheers of the people. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

However, the railway soldiers who built the railway could not see this exciting scene, as they had already moved to Jiangxi. Because at the same time as the Lizhan Line, there was also an important Yingxia Railway (Yingtan, Jiangxi to Xiamen, Fujian) that was surveyed and designed. In February 1955, the construction of the Yingxia Railway started, and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, and 11th Divisions of the Railway Corps and the Independent Bridge Regiment gathered in the mountains of Fujian and Ganshui to cut peaks and drill rocks, and move mountains and fill the sea.

The Yingxia Railway was fully opened at the end of 1956. It is the first railway in Fujian Province and its importance is self-evident - the end point of the railway is the Taiwan Strait front line.

Before 1958, Fujian had no navy or air force. After liberation, it had been harassed and bombed by Chiang Kai-shek's aircraft. The issue of air force entering Fujian was a long-standing issue. After the Yingxia Railway was opened to traffic, fighter aviation began to enter Fujian's frontline airports. A large number of artillery, armored troops, naval torpedo boats and other personnel and equipment were quickly deployed to the front line via the Yingxia Railway, resulting in the famous "8.23" bombardment of Kinmen by 10,000 people.

[Note: Fighter aviation is an aviation force equipped with fighter planes to destroy enemy aircraft and cruise air attack weapons.]

In 1962, in order to combat Chiang Kai-shek's large-scale landing, a large number of troops entered Fujian to prepare for war, and the Yingxia Railway operated at full capacity.

Starting from these two new lines, the Railway Corps entered their own normal state: fighting in large-scale troop groups and living a guerrilla life - moving in all directions, fighting continuously, sleeping in the open air, and experiencing extreme hardship.

At the same time, the 2nd, 7th and 9th Divisions of the Railway Corps and the Independent Bridge Regiment participated in the construction of the Baolan Railway (construction began in October 1954 and operation began in October 1958). The Baolan Line is the second railway channel between North China and Northwest China, and has great political, economic and national defense significance.

6

The wind gun pierces through the mountains

The Railway Corps is a technical branch of the military that has always attached great importance to technological progress and equipment construction. When returning from North Korea, the entire Railway Corps had only more than 3,000 machines and vehicles of various types. Since then, there has been a significant increase every year. By the 1970s, the number of construction machinery and equipment reached more than 37,000 units and more than 19,000 vehicles.

The working methods of the railway troops are also constantly changing. In the 1950s, earthwork was mainly done manually. In the 1960s, manual labor was gradually replaced by bulldozers, scrapers, and dump trucks, achieving semi-mechanization. In the 1970s, mechanization was basically achieved, and track laying also developed from manual track laying to track production and mechanized laying.

However, the period from the 1960s to the mid-1980s was the period in which the Railway Corps made the most brilliant achievements and made the greatest contributions, but it was also the period in which they suffered the most sacrifices.

This is because each country has its own national conditions and each land has its own topography. During this period, the Railway Corps undertook the construction of many of the most difficult railway trunk lines in China.

The artery of the "Third Line" construction, the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, is known as the "World Geological Disaster Museum". Along the line, there are earthquake zones, mudslides, rock bursts, underground rivers, quicksand, landslides, underground water... The complexity of the geological structure and the difficulty of construction are rare in the world. The 1st, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th Divisions of the Railway Corps and the Independent Machinery Regiment and the Automobile Regiment participated in the Chengdu-Kunming Railway Campaign. On the 1,100-kilometer Chengdu-Kunming Line, an average of two railway soldiers died for every 1 kilometer.

In the 1970s, workers in the dangerous rock and stone treatment area of ​​the Wusi River Maintenance Section of the Xichang Branch of the Chengdu Railway Bureau eliminated hidden dangers on the cliffs on both sides of the railway to ensure the safety of trains. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

After the Chengdu-Kunming Railway opened to traffic in 1970, it was called by the United Nations "one of the three great miracles of mankind's conquest of nature in the 20th century" (the other two were the US Apollo moon landing and the Soviet Union's first artificial satellite).

In addition to making the greatest sacrifices in peacetime, many railway soldiers have permanent physical pain. A few years ago, some elderly people in the southwest were found to have late-onset silicosis during physical examinations. This disease is asymptomatic in early years, but when it occurs in later years, it will cause unbearable pain. These sick elderly people have served as railway soldiers, most of whom are wind gunners, and they have been out of the dust for more than 40 years.

When the Yingxia Line was being built, Wang Zhen personally went into the tunnel to fire a pneumatic gun. After he came out, he ordered that tunnel soldiers be given two taels of soybeans per day, and pneumatic gunners be given an egg and one tael of milk powder per day. This rule has been implemented ever since. It is worth mentioning that in order to ensure the supply of soybeans, after the Yingxia Line was completed, Wang Zhen rushed to Heilongjiang to open the Nenjiang Farm. The first batch of pioneers were retired railway soldiers. Later, the Great Northern Wilderness became the Great Northern Granary.

Looking back at the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, it crosses mountains and valleys, and is densely covered with bridges and tunnels. Not to mention that the conditions were not met at the time, even if there were large-scale machinery, it would not have been possible to fully use it. The railway soldiers relied on steel drills, sledgehammers, explosives and air guns to dig tunnels.

A tunnel soldier uses a pneumatic drill to dig tunnels. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

When drilling holes with air guns, water must be injected according to regulations to reduce the concentration of rock dust and prevent silicosis. However, there are many cases where there is no water in the mountains. In order to speed up the progress, the railway soldiers did not hesitate to sacrifice their health and went up to dry the air guns.

Liu Xianquan, the commander of the Railway Corps, had repeatedly told the soldiers not to use dry air guns but water air guns. The soldiers also understood the dangers of using dry air guns, but military orders were as firm as a mountain and the construction progress could not be delayed. Moreover, even if the Chengdu-Kunming Railway could wait, the construction of major bases such as aerospace, cutting-edge weapons, equipment manufacturing, and steel and nonferrous metals in the Third Line could not wait. Using dry air guns was a common phenomenon at the time, and it was the responsibility and dedication that the Railway Corps made for future generations.

When the famous mathematician Hua Luogeng was guiding the optimization method for the Guiyang-Kunming Railway (construction started in August 1958 and put into operation in December 1970), he visited the Meihuashan Tunnel several times and sighed, "I can solve mathematical problems, but I can't solve the railway soldiers' loyalty to the Party and the people." After that, he also wrote a poem to praise the railway soldiers: Don't be afraid of difficulties and obstacles, don't be afraid of deep water and hard rocks. Ten thousand mountains have been drilled through, and the triumphant song goes straight to the sky.

In 1978, Vice Chairman Ye Jianying commented on the outstanding achievements of the Railway Corps: "They cut roads through mountains and built bridges over rivers. There are no obstacles in front of them. They sleep in the open air and endure rain and wind. There are no difficulties in front of them."

Soon after, in 1984, according to the instructions of the central leadership, the Railway Corps was disbanded and all soldiers were converted to engineering. The divisions of the Railway Corps are now the 11th to 20th Bureaus of China Railway Construction.

In 1984, the Railway Corps was collectively demobilized and merged into the Ministry of Railways. This is a farewell photo of the Railway Corps to the August 1st Army Flag (file photo). Photo: Xinhua News Agency

During the 35-year journey, more than 8,000 railway soldiers died and more than 59,000 were injured or disabled.

They took away the dry air guns, but left behind 52 steel arteries, including Lizhan, Yingxia, Baolan, Chengkun, Nenlin, Xiangyu, Jingyuan, Qinghai-Tibet Phase I, and Southern Xinjiang, with a total length of more than 12,000 kilometers, accounting for one-third of the newly built railways in the country at that time. They also left behind the "Railway Soldiers' Ambition in All Directions" that once resounded through the majestic rivers and mountains, the plateau Gobi, and the snow-capped mountains and forests:

"Carrying the baggage and the gun,

The majestic team marched forward.

Comrade, if you ask me where I am going,

We want to go to where our motherland needs us most

…

Comrades, take great strides forward.

The railway soldiers have great ambitions! "

Text | Xu Dulu

Editor | Xie Fang, Outlook Think Tank

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