From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the people of the southwest have been looking forward to this railway, and they have been looking forward to this railway for nearly half a century, but they have not seen an inch of railroad tracks. After the founding of New China, the communists completed the railway opening in only two years. This is the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, known as the first miracle in the history of the construction of New China.

The wheels rolled and the whistle blared. Over the past 70 years, the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway is still an important transportation artery between the two cities of Chengdu and Chongqing. Today, freight trains, slow trains and high-speed railways with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour run side by side between the mountains in the southwest of the motherland, making the economic circle of the Chengdu-Chongqing region more open.

Solve difficulties with the spirit of serving the people

In Meishan Park, Neijiang City, Sichuan Province, the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway Road Construction Migrant Workers Monument stands, echoing the "Xinhai Qiubao Road Death Memorial" that has stood for more than a hundred years in Chengdu People's Park, condensing and recording the history of road protection and road construction for the people of Bashu and Sichuan. Success and immortality.

Shu Road is difficult, and it is difficult to ascend to the sky. The people on this land have dreamed for thousands of years that they can get through the sky and travel freely in China. In 1903, the Governor of Sichuan, Xiliang, petitioned to build the Sichuan-Hanzhou Railway, with the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway as its western section. The people of Sichuan and Shu actively subscribed for shares. In 1911, the Qing government announced that "the railway was state-owned" and sold it to Britain, France and other countries. The vigorous road protection movement broke out and became the fuse of the 1911 Revolution. As Sun Yat-sen said, "Without the uprising of the Sichuan Baolu Comrade Association, the Wuchang Revolution would have been delayed by a year and a half."

Later, the National Government restarted the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, but until the founding of New China, the Chengdu-Chongqing line was still a dotted line on the map, and the dream of Sichuan people was still far away.

The Communist Party did not keep the people waiting. Shortly after the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping, then secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over an executive meeting of the Standing Committee of the Southwest Bureau and decided to "build the Chengdu-Chongqing railway, build ships and build docks". The report was approved by the central government, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway became a national strategy.

In June 1950, the construction of the railway started, and people from all walks of life in Sichuan were excited. The person in charge of the Huazhong Steamship Company said: "In the past, the reactionary government used the pretext of building the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, and I don't know how much people's fat and plaster were looted, but only a dotted line was drawn on the map. It is only a few months after the liberation of the Southwest, and the ideal of the people of the Southwest for more than 40 years. , under the leadership of the people's government began to realize."

New China has just been established, and there is a lot of waste waiting to be done. It is also facing blockades and embargoes from Western countries. It is easier said than done to build railways. Some people ask, where do railroad tracks, sleepers, and locomotives come from?

Rely on the local area, work together, draw materials from the local area, and repair the railway! The instructions of the Party Central Committee are clear and powerful. Steel ingots from Anshan Iron and Steel, steel beams from Shanghai, and locomotives from Wuhan are continuously transported to Chongqing. Rails, screws, explosives, cement and other materials are all self-made. People in Sichuan actively donated sleepers, young people donated wood for new beds, old people donated square materials for longevity coffins, and some people also donated camphor and nanmu that have been treasured for many years. A total of 1.29 million sleepers were donated in Sichuan.

Soon, the Korean War broke out, and the main force of road construction was transferred to the north to join the fight against US aggression and aid Korea. The tasks left by them were taken over by unemployed workers recruited from various towns and migrant workers mobilized along the route.

How to manage the 100,000 migrant workers scattered on the 500-kilometer line? Not to mention that there are also hostile forces such as bandits and spies mixed in. Can the railway construction proceed smoothly?

"Many difficult problems must be solved gradually in the spirit of serving the people." According to Deng Xiaoping's speech at the opening ceremony of the railway, leading cadres at all levels turned the process of building the railway into putting the party's policy among the masses. The process of rooting and flowering.

At that time, the party organization was not made public, and the migrant workers depended on how cadres and instructors behaved. When there was not enough food, the instructor put down the bowl first; when the shed was resurgent, the instructor gave the migrant workers more straw to spread; when a landslide occurred, the instructor asked the migrant workers to go out of the hole first, and then they came out last... A good cadre brought out a good road construction team. After the cannons were fired in the tunnels, workers often rushed in to work before the smoke had cleared. Hua Rong and Ling Yunzhu, who participated in road construction in those years, once recalled: "At that time, when others donated planes and cannons to resist US aggression and aid Korea, we had no money, so we had to speed up construction and work to serve the country. Everyone agreed to get off work overtime for half an hour after work, and the class leader roared 'donation'. It's time for the cannons of the planes', so instead of resting, we worked harder, and the half hour was like an automatic conveyor belt now, and the work efficiency was twice as high as that of normal work." Cheng-Chongqing railway engineer Sappho said with emotion: "The people's government made a call to mobilize from the highest government to the lowest government, and hundreds of thousands of migrant workers immediately gathered on the line. In the past, the Kuomintang could not arrest them, but now they are fighting to come, and they will not go back if they do. ."

Only the people's government can lead the people to happiness

On July 1, 1952, the entire Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was opened to traffic. The farmers along the route were all elated. On the banners they gave to the road construction workers, they wrote: "Chairman Mao is here, and so is the train!" "The people's government has built our happy road!" Songs like this can be heard everywhere: "The people's government Love the people! The kindness of the Communist Party cannot be overstated!" "The people's railway is built by the people! The people's railway is protected by the people! The people's country will last forever".

The cheers and laughter of the common people fully demonstrate that the Communist Party has done a great deed that won the hearts of the people. Chen Yun, then vice-premier of the State Council and director of the Financial and Economic Committee, said: "The two-year economic investment of the Central People's Government has made the people of the whole country feel that only this government is a government that serves the people; only this government can Lead the people of our country to happiness." He Long, then vice chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, said: "This is the first railway in China built entirely with its own equipment, and the people of the Southwest regard it as the starting point for prosperity and happiness." Zhang Lan, chairman of the Democratic League, said in the congratulatory message: "The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, which has been longing for decades, can be successfully opened to traffic on the 31st anniversary of the Communist Party of China, which fully proves that the people of Southwest China can achieve greatness under the leadership of Chairman Mao. Strength, to achieve today's victory success."

Play a huge role in the take-off of the regional economy

"Southwest China is the number one transportation, and it's easy to do things with railways." Nearly seventy years later, Deng Xiaoping's words still echoed in his ears. The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway has profoundly changed the pattern of Southwest China in terms of politics, economy and transportation, and it still plays a huge role in the development of the regional economy.

On January 22, the test flight of Chengdu Tianfu International Airport was successful. The jet fuel used was delivered by the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway via the airport fuel supply line as early as two weeks ago. In the future, the aviation fuel needed after the airport is put into operation will also be transported by the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. The old railway and the new international aviation hub are connected together in such a special way.

In 2021, 86-year-old Yang Shixian has been doing ticket sales at Chengdu Railway Station for decades. She told reporters that the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway has been very busy. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the conductors changed their shifts, it took an hour or two to count money. After the reform and opening up, the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway has become the main channel for the masses to go out to work.

"There are 82 ticket sources in Ziyang, and more than 200 people just squeezed in." In 1995, Wang Zeyun served as the conductor of the 51/52 train from Chengdu to Guangzhou via the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. Responsible for pushing people into the car before closing the door.

Yin Zhujun, who used to be a conductor on the K194 train from Chengdu to Guangzhou via Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, said that passengers returning to Sichuan were dressed in fashionable clothes, delicate makeup, and pop songs played on cassette recorders. The spring breeze of reform and opening up quickly blew to the southwest inland by train.

When the epidemic hit in 2020, Zizhong County Yinshan Hongzhan Co., Ltd., the largest edible alcohol manufacturer in Southwest China, quickly switched to medical alcohol production. For a time, the Yinshan Town Station of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway became more busy: more than a thousand tons of grain raw materials used to produce alcohol were unloaded here every day, and more than a thousand tons of alcohol were transported to all parts of the country by car.

Sand and gravel in Jianyang, steel in Neijiang, automobiles in Yongchuan, white sand in Jiangjin... The relevant person in charge of the freight department of China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Corporation said that the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway will deliver 26.2 million tons in 2020, plus several times this amount. The number of arrivals makes this old railway an important guarantee line for the economic development of the Chengdu-Chongqing region.

life will get better

On December 24, 2020, the Chengdu-Chongqing Intercity Railway reached the standard and improved its quality and speed. The driver Li Zhigang played the loud bagpipe and drove the G8608 Fuxing EMU from Shapingba Station to Chengdu East Station. From this day on, the Fuxing EMU with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour shortened the space-time distance between Chengdu and Chongqing to 62 minutes.

This is Li Zhigang's proudest moment. His grandfather, Li Hongsheng, was the first person to sound the whistle when the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was opened. His father, Li Guofang, experienced several eras of steam locomotives, diesel locomotives and electric locomotives. From 30 kilometers per hour to 350 kilometers per hour, three generations of train drivers have witnessed the historical changes of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and the miracle of the rapid development of China's railways.

70 years ago, Sichuan's transportation mainly relied on inland shipping and post roads. From Chengdu, it took a week to travel along the Minjiang River through Leshan to Yibin, and then along the Yangtze River through Luzhou to Chongqing. The Chengdu-Chongqing railway shortens the travel time to a dozen hours. Today, Chengdu and Chongqing have formed a "one-hour access circle", and several high-speed trains and high-speed trains run every hour, connecting the two places tightly into a circle.

At that time, the strong organizational ability displayed by the new Chinese government in the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway made people believe that life would be better and better if they followed the Communist Party. People are convinced: "The brave and industrious Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, can use their own strength to build their country well."

Today, the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, the Chengdu-Suizhou-Chongqing Railway and the Chengdu-Chongqing Intercity Railway are running side by side between Chengdu and Chongqing. In addition, the Chengdu-Wanzhou high-speed railway has started construction, and the Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway has also entered the stage of feasibility study pending approval. In the new era, the continuously dense railway network demonstrates the leap of China's comprehensive national strength. Looking back at history, the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, which has greatly enhanced the prestige of the party and the people's government, is still shining brightly, inspiring today's people to stay true to their original aspirations and continue to move forward. Editor/He Yuting