Here, I will tell you a few stories about Zhan Tianyou.
12 years old to study in the United States
Zhan Tianyou, a patriotic engineer, 186 1 (March of the lunar calendar 17), was born in Nanhai County, Guangdong Province. Father Zhan Hongyuan was a tea merchant, went bankrupt due to the invasion of British and French imperialism, and had to rely on farming to support his family.
Zhan Tianyou heard many stories of resisting British and French aggression from adults when he was young, and he also saw the corruption and incompetence of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, which sowed patriotic seeds in his young mind.
When Zhan Tianyou was seven or eight years old, he was sent to a private school to study. But he is not interested in the four books and five classics, and likes to fiddle with some machinery. He often uses some small screws, pinions and old clockwork to make toys, and also uses mud to pinch boats and cranes. Many friends chase after him all day. On the way to school, he often stands outside the factory, looking at the machines and trucks inside, thinking and thinking, and often forgets to go to school. One day, he looked at the wall clock on the wall at home and lost his mind. Why is the wall clock ticking away? Why are you doing this? Thinking about it, he began to open the wall clock and wanted to have a look. However, when he tried to put it back as it was, he couldn't put it right and was sweating. Although his father was a little angry when he saw it, he took him to the watch shop in the county town and let him carefully observe how craftsmen disassembled watches.
187 1 At the end of the year, Zhan Tianyou 1 1 years old, studied in private schools for more than four years. Father is considering letting him work to earn money after graduating from a private school. At this time, fellow villager Tan Bocun rushed to the South China Sea from Hong Kong, saying that Hong Kong was selecting children to study abroad. Tan Bocun is also a businessman. He saw from an early age that Zhan Tianyou was smart and studious, and he liked him very much. He often uses money to support his family.
Tan Bocun strongly suggested that Mr. and Mrs. Zhan send their children to the United States to take the exam, believing that this is related to their future. Zhan is worried that his son is young, he is not at ease to go out so far, and his family's economic situation is not good. Tan Bocun expressed his willingness to give financial aid and betrothed his four daughters to God bless. Only in this way did we decide to send Zhan Tianyou to Hong Kong to take the examination for studying abroad.
1872, Zhan Tianyou successfully passed the exam, and his father also signed the Qing government's "Gan Jie" to go abroad. The so-called "knot" is a contract, which can be said to be similar to the deed of sale. For example, the Gan Jie stipulates that you must obey the orders of the Qing government, and you will not be responsible for illness or even life and death.
Zhan Tianyou, 12 years old, went abroad for training for half a year. 1872 In July, she boarded a foreign ship to the United States and began to study abroad. At first, he entered a "Northrop boarding school" in the United States to attend primary school and learn English. 1876 He entered Hillhouse Middle School (Qiuwu Middle School) in New Haven, graduated two years later, and was admitted to the Civil Engineering Department of Yale University.
During his study in the United States, Zhan Tianyou studied very hard, paid great attention to physical exercise, and was determined to study science for the early prosperity of the motherland. Of the 120 formal students studying in the United States, only two have successfully completed their university studies and obtained their degrees. Zhan Tianyou is one of them, and his graduation thesis "Research on Wharf Crane" was highly praised.
If you don't use what you have learned, you can't serve your country.
188 1 year, the first batch of China students studying in the United States were recalled to China. At that time, the struggle between westernization and die-hards within the Qing government was fierce. Westernization advocated learning western science and improving China society, while die-hards stuck to the old rules and tried their best to maintain feudal rule. Die-hards Wu Zideng and others repeatedly reported to the Qing government that students studying in the United States did not study well, indulged in playing and socializing all day, and even believed in foreign religions and joined American secret political organizations, which was deviant. The Qing government worried that these overseas students would become passive and endanger the imperial court, and ordered all students studying in the United States to be escorted back to China and put under the control of the local government.
After the students studying in the United States returned to China, Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang received them in Beijing. According to the regulations of the Qing dynasty at that time, students must wear robes and jackets and have long braids. In desperation, Zhan Tianyou took off his suit and put on a robe, but refused to wear a fake braid.
During the interview, Li Hongzhang sat upright and saw these international students standing upright with their legs crossed, neither bowing nor bowing. Especially when he saw that Zhan Tianyou had no long braid on his head, he lost his temper and shouted, "No conscience, no father, no gentleman!" After that, I left and ordered these international students to wait for distribution.
Some international students, for their own future, want to find a good job, so they try their best to entrust people to find ways to send money and gifts, but Zhan Tianyou refuses to worship dignitaries. Finally, he was sent to Fuzhou Naval Academy to learn to sail, which was totally irrelevant. Zhan Tianyou's patriotism cooled, and he felt that he might as well go home. Persuaded by his good friend Yan Fu, Zhan Tianyou went to Fuzhou. After that, Zhan Tianyou worked as a pilot officer in Fujian Navy for seven years after returning to China, and taught English in Bo Guan Xue and Guangzhou Land and Water Teachers College.
1887, Zhan Tianyou married Ju Zhen, the fourth daughter of Tambocun, but she was very depressed. What is the future? When can I serve my country?
When Zhan Tianyou was eager to serve his country, his old classmate Mou wrote to him from Tianjin and asked him if he would like to go north to China Railway Company to be an engineer. He agreed happily.
Determined to devote himself to the railway cause
1888, Zhan Tianyou went north to Tianjin at the invitation of Mou to become a railway engineer. He was very excited. From then on, he decided to devote himself to the railway industry, serve the country and win glory for the country. One of his wishes is that the railways in China should be built by China people themselves.
At that time, China had begun to build railways, but all of them were built by foreigners at their own expense. Zhan Tianyou saw that China people could not build their own railways on their own land, while the railways built by foreigners were used to sell foreign goods and plunder products. Zhan Tianyou sighed!
Before going north, Zhan Tianyou went back to his hometown to visit his parents. Relatives are glad that he has a new job in the north.
When passing through Shanghai, Zhan Tianyou made a special trip to Wusong to mourn the ruins of the Songhu Railway. This is the first railway built by Britain in China. 14 years ago, when it was opened to traffic, it shocked the foolish and stubborn Western Empress Dowager. She thought that this behemoth's motorcycle, spewing smoke and dragging a long dragon to rumble, "destroyed the Feng Shui of the Qing Dynasty", so she ordered to buy it back from the British with 182000 silver, dismantle all the locomotives and tracks, transport it to Taiwan Province Province and sink into the puppy lake. How stupid and disgusting!
When Zhan Tianyou arrived at China Railway Company, he saw that this company was nominally a "government-supervised business office", a company of China, but actually controlled by British imperialism. China businessmen suggested that the China Railway "should be built by China people rather than foreigners; It is better to cultivate from the government than from the people, but it is not adopted. Due to the corruption in the Qing Dynasty and the poverty of the country, the railways in China were all built by foreigners, with loans from foreign imperialists and led by foreign engineers. Zhan Tianyou is very wronged. He firmly believes that sooner or later, China's railways will be built by China people themselves.
Zhan Tianyou led the construction of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
Zhan Tianyou was appointed as the chief engineer and organizer of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
After arriving at China Railway Corporation, Zhan Tianyou successively participated in the construction of Tangxu Light Rail (later extended to Tianjin) and the internal and external railways of Shanhaiguan. However, the power to build roads is controlled by foreign engineers, and Zhan Tianyou always goes deep into the construction site to organize workers to construct. It was not until May 1905 that the Qing government ordered the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. Zhan Tianyou was appointed as the chief engineer and general manager. The day has finally come when China people build their own railways.
Why did you build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway at that time?
Some businessmen have repeatedly asked to build a railway to the northwest. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is a channel to communicate with the northwest. It can not only exchange tea, silk and paper from the mainland for fur, camel hair, cattle and sheep in the northwest, but also is very important for guarding the northern Xinjiang. The benefits of repairing the railway have already appeared. It is not only convenient for Jetta, but also can make a lot of money.
The Qing government decided to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but both Britain and Russia wanted to seize the right to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. What shall we do? In this case, in order to avoid trouble, the Qing government proposed that China engineers should build it instead of foreign engineers. British imperialism believes that China will borrow money from him to build the railway anyway, and he should not worry about controlling the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. China, on the other hand, thought that the Russians would definitely be unable to repair the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, so he had to ask for help. Some foreign engineers even threatened that the engineer who can repair the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has not yet been born! There are also many discussions in China that Zhan Tianyou has built such a dangerous railway? How many railway engineers can he find in China? It has also been asserted that it is possible to build a small railway in Zhan Tianyou, but the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway will certainly fail.
When Zhan Tianyou was planning to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the Western Empress Dowager had a whim and ordered to build the Wanshou Mountain branch line in early October of that year, asking her to take the train to the Summer Palace for her birthday. In less than five months, it is difficult to build the Wanshoushan branch line. Zhan Tianyou had to crustily skin of head and led the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and the Wanshou Mountain branch line. Soon, Zhan Tianyou completed the design and survey of Wanshoushan branch line, but it was very difficult to complete it, and it was impossible to complete it on the first day of 10. The Western Empress Dowager heard about this situation and agreed not to build the Wanshou Mountain branch line. Zhan Tianyou breathed a sigh of relief and could concentrate on building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.
Zhan Tianyou chose the trench sealing line.
The most difficult thing to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is the section from Nankou to Qinglong Bridge. The main reason is that the steep slope of the mountain requires the construction of a long tunnel. Zhan Tianyou, as the chief engineer, rides a donkey every day and personally takes engineers and technicians to the field for investigation. No matter how bad the weather is, sometimes windy and sometimes rainy, he always runs around the rugged mountain road with his benchmark and measuring instruments on his back. When the rainstorm hit, he hid under the cliff with everyone. After the weather cleared up, he continued to investigate and suffered a lot.
Zhan Tianyou led engineers and technicians through difficulties and obstacles, and surveyed three routes before and after. One is the Guangou line. This line runs from Nankou to Chadao City, with a total length of 22 kilometers, passing through Juyongguan, Qinglong Bridge and Badaling. There are cliffs everywhere, steep roads, large quantities of work and limited transportation. The second line is the Jehol Line, which bypasses Badaling from Qinglong Bridge, turns to the northeast, and passes through the Ming Tombs to Yanqing. Although the length of this line is 15km, the slope is gentle and there is no need to dig a tunnel as long as Badaling. However, it is time-consuming and expensive to build a dedicated road for transporting materials. The third road is the now-built Fengsha Line, which runs from Xizhimen to the west, bypasses Shijingshan, passes through three stores and goes out to Zhangjiakou near Shacheng. This route is ideal, but the mountain is steep and the slope is small. However, 65 tunnels need to be built, and the project cost is high. After repeated comparisons, Zhan Tianyou finally adopted the Guangou Line.
Double locomotive "Z" word line
The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway runs through the mountains with a steep slope. According to the international design method, every time the railway rises 1 m, it will pass a slope of 100 m. In order to shorten the line and reduce the cost, only 33 meters of slope need to be built for every increase of 1 m in the line designed by Zhan Tianyou. However, steep slopes make it more difficult for trains to climb mountains. Zhan Tianyou spent the whole day thinking about how to get the train up the hill smoothly.
One night, Zhan Tianyou thought hard about how to climb the train and didn't rest until late at night. His wife and daughter accompany him to draw and design. It was late at night, the room was very cold, and my daughter's fingers were a little stiff with cold. She accidentally dropped the cold scissors on the ground. Zhan Tianyou woke up from deep thought when she heard the noise. He looked at the scissors that had fallen to the ground and suddenly shouted, "Yes! I see! " His wife and daughter are puzzled. Zhan Tianyou said happily, "The railway in Badaling can be repaired like scissors. When the train climbs back and forth, it can't climb over the mountain. " Later, the Qinglong Bridge section of the railway was zigzag, and it was easy for the train to climb up the mountain. Locals call this section of railway "Scissors Ridge".
Overcome difficulties and dig a tunnel
190565438+February 12, Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway officially started. In Fengtai, Zhan Tianyou personally swung a sledgehammer and scored the first spike. Thousands of people cheered and congratulated. The first railway built by China people themselves, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, started construction.
It is not easy to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. The mountain is high, climbing and digging holes, and there is no mechanical equipment. Needless to say, the powerful people in the Qing court made things difficult for foreigners. Zhan Tianyou was faced with many difficulties and internal and external attacks. However, Zhan Tianyou, who is patriotic and determined to devote himself to the railway industry in China, is fearless and firmly believes that the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway will be built.
Breaking into the noble's grave, the railway leads to the south exit. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway has finally started, but there are many difficulties. China was very backward at that time. There are no machinery for building railways, and there are no vehicles for transporting railway tracks. After construction, the first rail was transported to the construction site by Zhan Tianyou and the workers pushing the flatbed car. When the railway was laid to Guang Jia cemetery in Qinghe town, it hit a hard nail. It turns out that the owner of this Guang Jia cemetery used to be the Golden State Daotai and married the granddaughter of Prince Gong Zaize. Relying on the influence of the royal family, Guang Jia hired people to lie on the tracks to stop them from being laid. Near the cemetery of Guang Jia, there are also the tombs of the father of Empress Dowager Cixi, the tomb of King Zheng and the tomb of eunuchs. Avoid left and flash right, the railway can't cross. Prince Gong insisted on changing the route and offered a reward of silver. Zhan Tianyou refused to agree. He thought it was a bribe in disguise. He would rather resign than change his route. Just then, Prince Gong came back from overseas and was attacked by revolutionaries. He was too scared to go out and had no intention of asking about Guang Jia. Guang Jia had to allow the railway to pass outside the cemetery wall, but he suggested that in order to protect the geomantic omen, a small river must be dug nearby, and three officials were sent to set up a memorial and a monument to commemorate it. The construction team members think it is unreasonable. In order to build the railway, Zhan Tianyou promised to send someone to pay homage to Guang Jia's grave, but ignored the matter of erecting a monument. Overcoming many difficulties, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway won its first battle and opened to traffic at Nankou on September 3rd 1906.
The 4-hole tunnel was successfully dug. After Nankou was opened to traffic, Zhan Tianyou led engineers to start the most difficult section of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway-digging a four-hole tunnel in Guangou area.
The four-hole tunnel includes Juyongguan, Wuguitou, Shifosi and Badaling Tunnel, with a total length of1645m, of which Badaling Tunnel is 109 1 m, followed by Juyongguan Tunnel, with a total length of 367m.
Juyongguan Mountain is very steep and the rock is very thick, so it is very difficult to dig a tunnel. In order to speed up the construction progress, Zhan Tianyou adopted the method of two-end chisel. Zhan Tianyou personally taught chisels how to drill holes and cut explosives. When the hole was dug to tens of meters away, the spring water at the top of the mountain penetrated badly, and the soil in the hole could not be filled with explosives. Without a water pump, Zhan Tianyou led the workers to carry buckets to drain water. In order to prevent the collapse of the two walls and the top earthwork, the engineering team built a side wall and arch with cement, and also built a ditch to drain the accumulated water. In this way, Juyongguan Tunnel was finally drilled in April 1908.
Badaling tunnel is the longest (109 1m). It is impossible to dig such a long tunnel from both ends at the same time. Zhan Tianyou dug two shafts in the middle of the tunnel, and both shafts dug in two directions at the same time, so the whole tunnel was divided into three sections. In this way, two vertical shafts drill holes in two directions at the same time, and both ends of the whole tunnel also drill into the tunnel at the same time. Accelerated the progress of the project. However, there was no equipment at that time, such as transporting workers up and down wells, transporting equipment and explosives, transporting earth and stone, and accumulating water. Because there is no elevator, people have to stand at the wellhead with pulleys and lift it manually. There is no exhaust fan in the tunnel, and the air is dirty, so Zhan Tianyou set up a fan at the wellhead to send fresh air into the tunnel through iron pipes. Zhan Tianyou thinks of the workers everywhere and works underground with them. He always takes the lead and is supported by the workers. 1908 May 12, Badaling Tunnel Excavation.
Soon, two other tunnels were drilled. On September 24th, 1909, Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was opened to traffic, which became a brilliant page in the history of railway construction in China.