Chapter Twelve: Backbone

  "What is destined to come will come, what is destined to happen will eventually happen!!!"

  When the People's Autonomous Government gave the strongest counterattack to the powers of various countries, when the bulldozer excavator forcibly demolished the Hankou Concession, when the Yangtze River waterway within the autonomous region was controlled... The People's Autonomous Government took countermeasures that ordinary people could hardly imagine against the powers of various countries that had been rampant in China for many years, with the losses of Britain, France and Japan being the most severe.

  Chongqing Wanxian in Sichuan Province was once an important commercial port for both Britain and Japan. It was the first Yangtze River treaty port to be taken over by the People's Liberation Army after they gained control of the two Hu provinces, resulting in the entire middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze being completely closed off, with any foreign ships requiring government permission to navigate. However, what happened next was even more unfortunate - unequal treaties and concessions were all abolished, and the imperialist powers were thoroughly expelled from the autonomous region.

  "Since the Opium War, the powers have never suffered such great humiliation, especially this time the autonomous region, which has always been low-key, stirred up a crazy anti-imperialist frenzy. It would be strange if they didn't counterattack! Not sending troops to invade the autonomous region proves that they haven't lost their sanity yet, knowing that the people of the autonomous region are all on our side. Rashly launching an invasion will only bring disaster upon themselves..."

  Zhang Yu looked at the urgent telegram from Hubei again, and found that cargo ships departing from Chongqing had not been able to leave the autonomous region. More than a dozen British warships were gathered near Jiujiang on the Yangtze River, blocking the free navigation of cargo ships in the autonomous region. However, the commerce departments of Sichuan and Hubei provinces were at an impasse, and the actions of the powers were ignored by Sun Chuanfang.

  "What to do?" Zhang Yu's mind was filled with many thoughts, the most straightforward being to directly send troops to take down Anhui and even Jiangsu, making the Yangtze River an inland waterway of the autonomous region. The powers would no longer dare to make unreasonable demands if they were to be blocked. The least desired option was to resolve the blockade of the Yangtze River through diplomatic channels. Neither the powers nor the autonomous region wanted the Yangtze River navigation to be interrupted, but this method was feasible and required time with some risk.

  The key is that the weakness of the People's Liberation Army has been exposed, if there were enough troops, Zhang Yu would not be afraid of the strong powers' provocative behavior, and the gathering of many warships in the Yangtze River channel is clearly a target for naval aircraft and artillery, but this target is not moving yet.

  On August 29, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Autonomous Region issued a telegram stating that the unimpeded navigation of the Yangtze River is greatly beneficial to the economic development of the surrounding areas. Any force cannot obstruct the unimpeded navigation of China's inland river, the Yangtze River. It strongly condemned the British Yangtze Fleet for obstructing the free navigation of ships and stated that the Yangtze River is an inland river of China, its navigation is under the jurisdiction of China's sovereignty, and no country or force can interfere with it. The telegram demanded that the navigation channel be restored as soon as possible, and the People's Government reserves the right to take further action.

  After the electrification, the 8th Division of the Second Group Army stationed in Wuhan, Hubei Province entered a state of combat readiness. The artillery regiment directly under the division began to build positions and enter a state of alert. The artillery brigade belonging to the Second Group Army began to maneuver within the borders of Hubei to counter the threat from the enemy fleet's guns. The rifles and machine guns in the hands of the infantry were useless, and the most powerful weapon was still the god of war - the big gun. The power of the 155mm field howitzer was not something that a torpedo boat could withstand.

  The army's move was not enough, and the newly formed Yangtze River Patrol and Defense Fleet was the real protagonist. Although it had just been established for a short time, its affiliated five gunboats and three torpedo boats were not to be underestimated. The People's Liberation Army Air Force deployed a bomber division to the airbase in Changde, Hunan Province, while the Naval Aviation dispatched two tactical divisions to the Dongting Lake Naval Aviation Base, which was still under construction. The two divisions brought six main force squadrons, including two torpedo bombers, two dive bombers, and two fighter squadrons, with 60 combat aircraft enough to wipe out the British Yangtze River Fleet composed of shallow-water gunboats and escort vessels, not to mention the air force's bomber division, which could also complete level bombing tasks to destroy those small ships.

  The British Yangtze River fleet consisted of more than a dozen ships, including the HMS Gnat, HMS Gannet, HMS Falcon, and HMS Robin. The most representative ones were the HMS Gnat and HMS Gannet, which often sailed in the Yangtze River channel, making it easy to obtain information about them.

  The Wild Duck gunboat had a displacement of only 180 tons, equipped with two 6-pound guns and four machine guns, with a maximum speed of only 13 knots. The Korktev gunboat had a displacement of 645 tons, with two 6-inch guns, one 3-inch gun, and one 2-pound gun, as well as four machine guns. Although the firepower was strong, the highest speed was only 14 knots. Therefore, it is unnecessary for the naval and air forces to mobilize heavy artillery to deal with these small ships. The 100 kg aerial bombs would be unbearable for them, let alone the 500 kg armor-piercing aerial shells or the 800 kg aerial torpedoes. However, the main characters are still the army's guns, and the arrival of the naval and air forces is just a backup measure. Moreover, the naval aviation troops had planned to come to Dongting Lake for training soon, so it was not bad to transfer them ahead of schedule.

  At the time when the autonomous region and the British and Japanese powers were on high alert, the United States and France were just watching from the sidelines, it seemed that everyone's attention was focused on the Yangtze River waterway being cut off. Who would have thought that this was Britain's estimate of the difficulty of the autonomous region? The autonomous region announced that it did not recognize the interests of the powers in China, so Britain would not recognize the existence of the autonomous region either. Moreover, Britain itself did not have the strength and energy to provoke a war, even if the autonomous region was just a local warlord from the mountains. The arrogant British were still licking their wounds from World War I, nursing their painful injuries, they had no intention of offending local forces, especially the popular autonomous government.

  The reason for dispatching warships to block the Yangtze River channel, apart from saving face, is mainly to obtain some compensation, compensation for what the autonomous government has lost, such as the right to open ports and set up factories, free navigation of the Yangtze River, and the arrogance of concessions.

  On the other hand, the autonomous region is extremely unwilling to see the golden waterway cut off and does not want to have an armed conflict with Britain over such a small matter. What meets the requirements of the autonomous region is that various powerful countries recognize the autonomous region's open-door policy and immediately restore the unimpeded flow of the Yangtze River, while what the autonomous region can do is an "equal mutual benefit" opening-up policy, whose connotation or essence is another spatiotemporal republic's "reform and opening-up" policy.

  Moreover, the autonomous region has always had a good cooperative relationship with the United Kingdom. When the former Asia-America Group was moving towards large-scale automobile manufacturing and sales, Europe's Britain was an important sales country for cars and clothing. The outbreak of World War I further strengthened the cooperative relationship between the two sides. With the Asia-America Group as the carrier, the two sides carried out extensive trade in many aspects such as food, clothing, medicine, military supplies, cargo ships, and heavy-duty trucks, with a total trade volume of nearly $10 billion, bringing a solid foundation for the development of the autonomous region, also laying a certain foundation for the final victory of the Allies.

  For the UK, as the main character of this event, it is natural to hope to enter the vast market of the autonomous region and also hopes to expand cooperation in some areas. No one will give up their interests easily. The autonomous region, of course, wants to seek equal status with other countries, and whether or not to allow foreign investment and establishment of factories is an important economic area where the autonomous region does not fear any challenge from foreign companies. As long as it can be done under the premise of following the autonomous region's laws and policies, the autonomous region even hopes that more funds can enter the country for investment, which is beneficial to China's economic development. The fact that China's reform and opening-up led to its rapid rise is a good example. In the end, both sides have their own views and differences, but neither wants to make things worse, so the only solution is negotiation.

  When both sides sat down calmly to negotiate on a series of issues in Hankou, the peace from Beijing was no more. After the Zhili-Anhui War, the Zhili clique and Fengtian clique jointly controlled the central government. The expansion of British-American influence in China and Japan's frustration formed a sharp contrast. Japan, unwilling to accept defeat, chose to directly support the Fengtian clique, but the carefully prepared war between the Zhili and Fengtian cliques ended with Zhang Zuolin's defeat and retreat.

  After the defeat of the Fengtian clique, he began to "lie in wait and taste the gall" to prepare for a fatal blow against the Zhili clique. After Wu Peifu took control of the central power, he implemented his dream of unifying China by force, but this move was opposed by various forces. Except for the autonomous regions that had already declared independence, Chen Jiongming, the new leader of the Guangzhou military government, and Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin all strongly opposed it. The powers were even more unwilling to see a unified China, so a great war was inevitable.

  At the time when the People's Autonomous Government was working hard to abolish the privileges of foreign powers in China and eliminate concessions, a farce of scrambling for power and interests was staged in the north. This is indeed a ridiculous comedy that cannot be ignored. Here, they are still loudly proclaiming that national sovereignty cannot be violated and ethnic dignity cannot be trampled on, and for this purpose, they spare no effort to introduce government policies and regulations to achieve their goals, and even mobilize the military to make corresponding preparations. However, on the other hand, warlords are fighting each other, just to see who can grasp the heart of Beijing, the central government's charm is really too great and tempting.

  But the negotiations on this side continue to negotiate, and the battles on that side continue to fight. Since they are all warlords, each has their own gains and losses, and it's just a matter of different approaches. However, the turmoil and chaos in the situation will not affect too many people, life will go on as usual, and no one will stop eating or sleeping because of endless disputes and fighting. The construction of various autonomous regions is also continuing.

  "There is a place, it spans the Daxue Mountains to the west, borders the Erlangshan Mountains to the east, connects to the Daxueshan Mountains to the north, and reaches the Jinsha River to the south. It was once the Yanbian Hall of the Qing Dynasty and is now Panzhihua City, a key industrial city under construction in Sichuan Province, an autonomous region named after a deciduous tree."

  "The sunshine in Panzhihua City is just like the local kapok tree, which blooms flowers before growing leaves in spring. The bloomed flowers are big and red, just like the passionate fire of Panzhihua's sunshine..."

  When people first arrive in Panzhihua City, they will be amazed by the valley surrounded by mountains, where the sun is like a fierce fire burning the earth. The dry weather rarely brings cool breezes, and after looking around, one can quickly get an intuitive impression of Panzhihua - that is, the high mountains and deep valleys, with small basins intersecting each other. It is in such a region, where the four seasons are dry and indistinguishable, that a steel city rises from the ground.

  The autonomous region's steel production base is located in Guangxi, with the largest enterprise being Liuzhou Steel. Along the coastal line of Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and Beihai, a number of steel mills have been established relying on iron ore from Hainan and Australia. Later, during the expansion and construction of the autonomous region, Wuyang Iron and Steel Plant was established in Wuyang County, Sichuan Province. The autonomous region's steel production and consumption are basically balanced, but with the large-scale infrastructure construction in Shaanxi-Gansu, Lianghu and other regions, the consumption of steel continues to grow. The high dependence on US Federal Steel Corporation is not what the autonomous region wants, so it is necessary to build a large steel base in the second-tier area. Therefore, as early as 1922, led by Li Siguang, some technical personnel from the Mineral Resources Development and Management Bureau of the Ministry of Land and Resources conducted surveys and on-site development and utilization feasibility studies on mineral resources in Panzhihua area.

  Before that, China Water Resources and Hydropower First Group had already set its sights on the rich hydropower resources in Panzhihua area. The development and utilization of these resources were originally intended to provide electricity to the Chengdu Plain area in the future. However, the survey results by Li Siguang and others made the First Group extremely excited, and the reason was very simple: building a large steel base in Panzhihua was feasible.

  After a thorough investigation with reliable data, the results of Li Siguang's investigation are very credible. Panzhihua has 7 billion tons of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore, with more than 400 million tons of associated titanium reserves, hundreds of millions of tons of associated vanadium reserves, and more than 700 million tons of cobalt reserves. There are also large amounts of rare and precious metals such as chromium, gallium, scandium, nickel, platinum, etc., with rich reserves.

  What is even more valuable is that the region has a coal reserve of about 700 million tons, and large reserves of crystalline graphite, pyrophyllite, solvent limestone, metallurgical dolomite, cement sandstone, refractory clay, and silica feldspar. For the construction of the steel industry, the much-needed iron ore and coal are both available here in abundance. Moreover, the region belongs to the Jinsha River and Yalong River water systems, with two rivers running through the entire territory, and the developable hydropower installed capacity is nearly 7 million kilowatts. During the survey of resources, China Water Resources and Hydropower Construction First Group has started construction on the Second Dam Hydropower Station. Thus, the necessary power supply for building a steel city has also been solved. Therefore, the Ministry of Land and Resources determined the plan in early 1923 and assembled more experts to conduct detailed verification work.

  The first secondary factor limiting this region is that it is a barren land, except for the workers who came to build the Second Dam Hydropower Station, there are only eight households of indigenous residents in the local area, and they are all hunting households. Before the start of the hydropower construction project, the Chengdu-Kunming Highway in Sichuan Province's basic highway network had already been used by China Water First Group to develop the Second Dam, and a large number of heavy trucks had made the cement road bumpy, it is obviously impossible to build a large steel city on this basis.

  If there were a powerful railway, the last major trouble would be solved, but at that time, all three major construction groups of China Railway had construction tasks. The Chengkun Railway was really too difficult to build, and the Third Group was the most capable of undertaking this task. Immediately after completing its current task, the Third Group would immediately start building the Chengkun line. However, before that, the best solution was still to repair the Chengkun Highway to improve its carrying capacity and trafficability.

  "Looking around the world, industrial development processes in countries such as Pittsburgh in the United States and the Ruhr region in Germany require powerful railways or shipping to support heavy industry. However, the construction of Panzhihua Steel City is an exception. Faced with the huge steel demand and heavy construction tasks in the future, the autonomous region cannot wait.

  Liao Songqi, chief engineer of Sichuan Province's basic highway network construction project, has a deep impression of the renovation work on the Chengkun Highway. Since the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Land and Resources decided to build Panzhihua Steel City, the Chengkun Highway suddenly became the busiest construction project in the province. Of course, upgrading and transforming the power grid along the Chengkun Highway is necessary to meet the electricity demand of the steel base before the Second Dam Hydropower Station generates electricity, especially during the construction period. Although this project does not have a grand momentum, its importance is self-evident."

  The highway construction project, which lasted for nearly five months, was completed in the second half of the year. The renovated highway can fully meet the needs of large-scale transportation of 8-ton cargo trucks and also allow 20-ton heavy trucks to pass through for the construction of the steel plant. At this time, the site selection, layout, design and other work for the main factory and infrastructure were all completed one after another, and the construction of the Panzhihua Steel Base finally reached a critical moment.

  On June 24, the Panzhihua Steel City Construction Command was established by the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Water Resources and other departments. The command quickly set up departments for material transportation and supply, talent allocation, living security, technical research, etc. Among them, the first to act were more than 400 transport vehicles, which transported a large number of materials from Chengdu along the Sichuan-Guizhou line into Panzhihua surrounded by mountains. The most important thing in the early stage was the engineering vehicles needed for basic construction, and living materials were also very important.

  "Scorching sunshine brings high temperatures to the people working on the ground. The roaring excavators and bulldozers are working crazily at the construction site, with a scene of flying sand and dust everywhere. After a day's work, my body is covered in dust and my mouth is full of mud. That was tough, I really don't know how I survived back then..."

  Looking back on the scene of the initial infrastructure construction, Yu Linhao, the old general manager of Panzhihua Iron and Steel Base Construction Engineering Company, felt a sense of nostalgia. From June 1923 to September 1, 1927, the construction of Panzhihua Steel Base had gone through more than four years. At this time, there was no longer the dust flying everywhere and the roar of machines as before. Instead, busy technical personnel were preparing for the first high-temperature smelting of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore in human history. Except for the steel plant area, the once barren land had also been built with buildings and streets. In addition to many local builders from Sichuan who settled here, construction personnel and their families from Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places had also settled down. They dedicated their four years of youth to the present-day China Panzhihua Steel Group, and their future years would continue to strive for it.

  "Where there are factories, there will be workers; where there are people, there will be business opportunities. With merchants coming from all over, the lives of builders will become rich and varied. The once desolate wilderness has now risen to industrial prosperity and commercial prosperity. Due to Panzhihua's vigorous steel city construction movement, nearly 800,000 people have come to Panzhihua, which is probably more than the total population of this area in the past few decades."

  "Now, the Second Dam Hydropower Station has been put into use, and the surging river water has been transformed into a powerful electric power input to the Sichuan power grid. The Panzhihua Steel Group is also making its final preparations for production. For those who are preparing to take root in Panzhihua, there are already over 200,000 people. I believe that in the near future, when the Chengdu-Kunming Railway under construction is completed and opened to traffic, when the Panzhihua Airport is put into operation, when the Panzhihua Steel Group produces batch after batch of high-quality steel and heavy rails... this place will inevitably become another major industrial city in the southwestern region!" Mayor Jin Lianjiang said this when he was interviewed by reporters from People's Weekly and People's Broadcasting at the completion ceremony of the main steel plant of Panzhihua Steel Group in Nongnongping.

  "In the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo and arrived at Panzhihua. Seeing that Panzhihua had high cliffs, steep walls, and no vegetation, he sighed to the sky - 'This place lacks food and grass, it's dangerous to station troops.' Then he quickly withdrew his troops back to Chengdu.

  However, today's Panzhihua is different. We have a steel group preparing for production, as well as a passenger bus station, hotels, commercial streets, convenience supermarkets, vegetable markets, hospitals, schools, etc. The rise of the steel group will drive tens of thousands of people to transform this wilderness together, until it becomes a shining pearl on the banks of the Jinsha River.

  Because this is Panzhihua! Our builders have never waited for ten thousand years, only competing in the morning and evening!!"

  September 10, 1927, on a precipitous mountain slope, in a valley that cuts across the mountain range, deep within a ring of mountains, was once a wilderness rarely visited by humans. Today, China's Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group, with an initial engineering design annual output of 2.5 million tons of steel, will become a major steel group in Southwest China with an annual output of tens of millions of tons after the completion of all construction periods.

  Before that, the largest steel group in the autonomous region was China Liuzhou Steel Group in Guangxi Liuzhou. The 14 years of wind and rain have established its leading advantage in steel smelting and casting in the autonomous region. The annual output of iron, steel and steel materials has long exceeded 10 million tons. It is a backbone force in various constructions in the autonomous region. However, with the expansion of the autonomous region's territory, the increase in various engineering constructions, and the growing demand for military and civilian use, its limited capacity clearly needs help, and China Panzhihua Steel Group is undoubtedly the best partner.

  At 6:08 pm on the tenth day, the first heavy rail of Panzhihua Steel was delivered to the market after passing the inspection. It will be transported to the Chengkun Railway, which is under intense construction, with a batch of companions. The Second Dam Hydropower Station provides powerful power for Panzhihua Steel, and Panzhihua Steel will forge strong steel for China's iron and steel industry. In the initial plan, Panzhihua Steel's main task is to continuously provide high-quality rails for the autonomous region's railway industry. With the gradual upgrading of smelting technology, it will soon become another major steel supplier in the vast market of the autonomous region, and it will also support China's rise with an indomitable steel backbone.