Why is the third-line project hiding in the largest natural cave?

Recently, since 1964, the central and western regions have launched a large-scale infrastructure construction with war preparedness as the guiding ideology - third-line construction. How many young talents left the big cities with their families and hid in the mountains with their arsenals. Photographer Chen Gang is such a child who grew up with his parents in a third-tier factory in Hunan. In the past few years, Chen Gang has continuously revisited third-line projects in many places, trying to restore that collective memory with images. Today’s story begins with the “big hole” that accompanied him when he grew up.

In Xinshao, Hunan, a factory building about thirteen stories high is hidden under a huge natural cave, which is a bit magical and surreal. It is said that this is the largest natural cave in China's military industrial system. This natural cave is called Swallow Cave.

The entrance to the cave is naturally sunken and covered with natural vegetation above it, making it impossible for planes in the sky to see the entrance and cave. This has been proven by experts and confirmed by many surveys. Inside the cave, each floor has turned into a machining production workshop: stamping and measuring workshop, electroplating workshop, mechanical processing workshop, assembly workshop, etc. Back then, this mysterious arsenal was called Hongri Machinery Factory.

Hongri Machinery Factory, formerly the 544th Factory of the Ministry of Ordnance Industry, was contracted and built by Xi'an Dongfang Machinery Factory. It is a factory that produces artillery fuses. "Red Sun" comes from "East", and "Dongfang" comes from " "Red Sun" is how the name of the factory came about. In January 1967, according to the organization's arrangements, Chen Gang's parents were transferred from Xi'an to Hongri Machinery Factory. Chen Gang was 7 years old at the time.

In terms of layout arrangement, safety and convenience factors are fully considered. The flow of people entering the cave flows in and out from the upper level, and concealed pedestrian culverts and bridges were built for this purpose; the logistics in and out of the cave are handled from the lowest level, and a dedicated logistics corridor was built to prevent reconnaissance and possible bombing by aircraft in the sky.

However, this location selection also has some unreasonable aspects. The water intake point of Hongri Machinery Factory is in a cave in the middle of the factory. People in the factory call it the "funnel". The factory has set up a pumping room there to ensure water for production and domestic use throughout the factory. Due to long-term drinking of directly extracted groundwater, a large proportion of factory workers suffer from stone disease.

Xinshao's poor natural resources have brought great difficulties to the factory's supply of production and living materials. In addition, Xinshao has no railways or expressways, and only Provincial Highway 207 passes through the factory. When cadres and workers go on business trips to visit relatives, they have to go north by train to the Lianyuan Railway Station on the Hunan-Guizhou Railway; for medical treatment or to purchase supplies, they go south to Shaoyang City.

Chen Gang recalled that at that time, military factories were closed kingdoms. The factories were self-contained and had little interaction with the local area. If a child of a family marries a local, there will be a feeling of "lower status". There, people are divided into categories. If you are a "half-household" - only one parent works in the factory - their children will be discriminated against by their peers.

The large conference room and club entrance of Hongri Factory. Chen Gang was born in Xi'an, his parents are technical experts. He followed his parents to Shaoyang Xinshao when he was a child, and moved to Chenxi, Huaihua when he was young. When Chen Gang takes these pictures, what he is most concerned about is the third, second and third generations of his generation and the next generation. Destiny, as well as the space and environment in which they grow.

Employee housing in that year. The house is a two-story building. The first floor is built with red bricks and bucket walls, and the second floor is built with adobe bricks. It is said that it is warm in winter and cool in summer, but it is actually to save construction costs. Chen Gang said that when shooting the film about third-line construction, he was not nostalgic for those difficult days, but wanted to remind everyone not to forget the third-line construction and the people who fought hard like fire.

Workers usually live in a two-bedroom apartment with a family of five or six people. There is no toilet or separate kitchen. The toilet is in a public toilet outside the building. The kitchen is used by several families. There is no running water, and several families in the building only use the faucet in the front yard of the building. "Most of my classmates who were much better than me when I was a teenager are now in poverty. This has a great impact on me." Chen Gang has always wanted to use his camera to record the fate of his generation.