What are Zhan Tianyou’s stories?

Zhan Tianyou hated imperialism since he was a child and was determined to devote himself to the revitalization of China. In 1872, 12-year-old Zhan Tianyou went to the United States to study. He studied hard and returned to China in 1881, where he devoted his life to China's railway industry. Every railway built in my country at that time was filled with his hard work and sweat. . He traveled in the wild mountains all year round, eating and sleeping with the workers, sleeping in the open air; he never bowed in front of foreign engineers, and created great achievements that made the imperialists sigh. Today, my country's railways extend in all directions, develop rapidly, speed up and speed up, and are accelerating towards modernization, and the entrepreneur and pioneer of my country's railway industry is Zhan Tianyou. His patriotism, hard work and dedication will forever inspire future generations. We must follow this great patriotic engineer and work hard to realize a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and build a modern and prosperous motherland.

Here, I will tell you a few stories about Zhan Tianyou.

Goed to study in the United States at the age of 12

The patriotic engineer Zhan Tianyou was born in Nanhai County, Guangdong on April 26, 1861 (March 17 of the lunar calendar). His father Zhan Hong was originally a tea farmer. The businessman went bankrupt due to the invasion of British and French imperialism, and could only rely on farming to support his family's livelihood.

Zhan Tianyou heard many stories from adults about resisting British and French aggression since he was a child, and also saw the corruption and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty rulers, which sowed the seeds of patriotism in his young mind.

When Zhan Tianyou was seven or eight years old, he was sent to a private school to study. However, he was not interested in the "Four Books" and "Five Classics", but liked to play with some machinery. He often makes toys out of small screws, pinions, and old springs that he picked up, and he also makes ships and cranes out of mud. Many friends chase him and play with him all day long. On the way to school, he often stood outside the factory, watching the machines and trucks inside, pondering over and over again, often forgetting to go to school. One day, he was lost in thought while looking at the clock on the wall of his home. Why does the wall clock keep ticking? Why do you do it? After thinking about it, he started to take apart the wall clock to see what was going on. However, when he tried to install it as it was, he couldn't do it no matter how much he fiddled with it. He was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. When his father saw it, although he was a little angry, he took him to a clock shop in the county and asked him to watch carefully how the craftsmen disassembled and assembled the clock.

At the end of 1871, Zhan Tianyou was 11 years old and had been studying in private school for more than 4 years. His father is thinking about letting him go to work to earn money after he finishes school. At this time, fellow villager Tan Bocun hurriedly came to Nanhai from Hong Kong and said that young children were being selected to study abroad. Tan Bocun is also a businessman. He saw that Zhan Tianyou was smart and studious when he was a child. He liked him very much and often used money to support his family.

Tan Bocun strongly advised Zhan Xinghong and his wife to send their children to take the exam to study in the United States, believing that this was related to their children's future. Zhan Xinghong was worried that his son was young and would be uneasy about traveling far away like this. Moreover, the family's financial situation was not very good. Tan Bocun expressed his willingness to financially support and betrothed his fourth daughter to Tianyou. Only then did he decide to send Zhan Tianyou to Hong Kong to take the exam for studying abroad.

In 1872, Zhan Tianyou successfully passed the exam, and his father also signed the Qing government's "Ganjie" for overseas travel. The so-called "Ganjie" is a kind of contract, which can be said to be similar to a contract of sale. For example, the "Ganjie" stipulates that you must obey the orders of the Qing government and will not be held responsible if you suffer from illness or even life or death.

After half a year of training abroad, 12-year-old Zhan Tianyou boarded an ocean liner bound for the United States in July 1872 and began his life of studying abroad. At first, he went to primary school in the United States and learned English at a "Nosoub Boarding School". In 1876, he entered Hill House High School (Hill House High School) in New Haven. He graduated two years later and was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering at Yale University.

While studying in the United States, Zhan Tianyou studied very hard and paid great attention to physical exercise, determined to study science to make the motherland prosperous and strong as soon as possible. Among the 120 government-sponsored students studying in the United States, only two successfully completed university and obtained a degree. Zhan Tianyou was one of them. His graduation thesis "Research on Wharf Cranes" received high praise.

Learning is useless and there is no way to serve the country.

In 1881, the first batch of Chinese students studying in the United States were recalled to the country. At that time, there was a fierce struggle between the Westernizers and the die-hards in the Qing government. The Westernizationists advocated learning from Western science and improving Chinese society, while the diehards stuck to the old ways and tried every means to maintain feudal rule. Diehard Wu Zideng and others reported to the Qing government many times that students studying in the United States did not study hard and indulged in socializing all day long. They even believed in foreign religions, joined secret political societies in the United States, and were deviant. The Qing government was worried that these overseas students would become villains and endanger the court, so it ordered that all students studying in the United States be escorted back to the country and handed over to the local government for control.

After the students studying in the United States returned to China, they were received by Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang in Beijing. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty at that time, students must wear long robes and mandarin jackets, and have long braids on their hair. Out of helplessness, Zhan Tianyou took off his suit and put on his robe, but refused to wear fake braids no matter what.

During the interview, Li Hongzhang was sitting upright. He saw these foreign students standing straight with their legs crossed, neither bending down nor bowing. Especially when he saw that Zhan Tianyou had no braids on his head, he lost his temper and shouted loudly. He said: "Apostate, without a father or a king!" After saying this, he walked away and ordered these foreign students to wait for distribution.

Some international students, for the sake of their future and a good job, try their best to ask others to find connections and send money and gifts, but Zhan Tianyou refuses to pay homage to the powerful. Finally, he was sent to Fuzhou Naval Academy to learn how to sail a sea-going ship, but his knowledge was useless and irrelevant. Zhan Tianyou's heart to serve his country was half cold, and he thought it would be better to go home. Under the persuasion of his friend Yan Fu, Zhan Tianyou reluctantly went to Fuzhou. Since then, in the seven years since Zhan Tianyou returned to China, he has served as a pilot in the Fujian Navy and taught English at the Guangzhou Museum of Education and the Guangzhou Marine Division School.

In 1887, Zhan Tianyou married Juzhen, the fourth daughter of Tanbo Village, but he was very depressed. His studies were of no use. What was his future? When can you serve the country?

When Zhan Tianyou was unable to serve his country and was very depressed, his old classmate Kuang Sunmou wrote from Tianjin and asked him if he would like to go north to work as an engineer for the China Railway Company. He asked for it, so he happily agreed.

Determined to devote himself to the railway industry

In 1888, Zhan Tianyou went north to Tianjin at the invitation of Kuang Sunmou and served as a railway engineer. He was very excited. From then on, he was determined to devote himself to the railway industry, serve the country, and bring glory to the country. One of his wishes is that China's railways should be built by the Chinese themselves.

At that time, China had already begun to build railways, but they were all built by foreigners paying for them. Zhan Tianyou sighed when he saw that the Chinese could not build their own railways on their own land, but the railways built by foreigners were used to sell foreign goods and plunder the products!

Before going north, Zhan Tianyou made a special trip back to his hometown to visit his parents. His relatives were happy that he had a new job in the north.

While passing through Shanghai, Zhan Tianyou went to Wusong to pay homage to the remains of the Songhu Railway. This is the first railway built by Britain in China. Fourteen years ago, the ignorant and stubborn Queen Mother of the West shocked the ignorant and stubborn Queen Mother when it was opened to traffic. She believed that this huge locomotive, puffing out smoke and dragging a long dragon rumblingly, "ruined the Feng Shui of the Qing Dynasty", so she ordered 180,000 yuan to be used to build the train. Two taels of silver were bought back from the British, all the locomotives and rails were dismantled, shipped to Taiwan by ship, and sunk into Dagou Lake. How stupid, how abominable!

After Zhan Tianyou arrived at the China Railway Company, he saw that the company was nominally a "government-supervised commercial office" and a Chinese company, but in fact it was controlled by British imperialism. Chinese businessmen proposed that China's railways should be built "from the Chinese rather than from foreigners; and from the common people rather than from the government." However, this was not adopted. Due to the corruption of the Qing Dynasty and the country's poverty, China's railways at that time were built by foreigners, borrowed from foreign imperialists, and led by foreign engineers. Zhan Tianyou was indignant. He firmly believed that China's railways would be built by the Chinese themselves sooner or later.

Zhan Tianyou led the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway

Zhan Tianyou was appointed as the chief engineer and director of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

After Zhan Tianyou arrived at the China Railway Company, he successively participated in the construction of the Tangxu Light Railway (later extended to Tianjin) and the railways inside and outside the customs. However, the power of road construction was in the hands of foreign engineers. Zhan Tianyou Tianyou always goes deep into the construction site and organizes workers on the spot. It was not until May 1905 that the Qing government ordered the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. Zhan Tianyou was appointed chief engineer and director. The day has finally come when the Chinese will build their own railways.

Why was the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway built at that time?

Some businessmen have repeatedly requested to build a railway to the northwest. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is a passage connecting the northwest. It not only allows the exchange of furs, camel hair, cattle and sheep from the northwest with tea, silk, paper, etc. from the interior, but is also important for guarding northern Xinjiang. The benefits of building railways have emerged. It is not only convenient and convenient, but also profitable.

The Qing government decided to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, but Britain and Russia both wanted to compete for the right to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. What to do? Under this situation, the Qing government proposed to use Chinese engineers instead of foreign engineers to avoid trouble. British imperialism believed that China would have to borrow money from him to build the railway anyway, and would not worry about controlling the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway; imperialism and Russia thought that the Chinese would definitely not be able to build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, and would have to ask for help. Some foreign engineers even threatened that, Engineers who can build the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway have not yet been born! There is also a lot of discussion within China about whether Zhan Tianyou ever built such a dangerous railway? How many Chinese railway engineers can he find? Some people also asserted that Zhan Tianyou was okay with building a small railway, but building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway would definitely fail.

When Zhan Tianyou was making intensive preparations for the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the Queen Mother suddenly had a whim and ordered that the Wanshoushan branch line be built before her birthday on the first day of October that year. She would take the train to the Summer Palace to celebrate her birthday. . It is difficult to build the Longevity Mountain branch line in less than 5 months, which is not easy said than done. Zhan Tianyou had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and the Wanshoushan Branch Line at the same time. Soon, Zhan Tianyou completed the design and measurement work of the Longevity Mountain branch line, but it was very difficult to complete it and it was impossible to complete it on the first day of October. After the Queen Mother of the West heard about this situation, she actually agreed that there was no need to rush to repair the Wanshoushan branch line. Zhan Tianyou breathed a sigh of relief and could concentrate on building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway.

Zhan Tianyou chose the Guangou route.

The most difficult part in building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is the section from the south entrance to Qinglong Bridge. The main reason is that the mountain is steep and the slope is high, and a long tunnel needs to be built.

As the chief engineer, Zhan Tianyou rides a donkey every day and personally conducts field surveys with engineering and technical personnel. No matter how bad the weather is, sometimes with strong winds and sometimes with constant rain, he always carries a benchmark and a measuring instrument, running on the rugged mountain paths. When the heavy rain hit, he hid under the cliff with everyone, waited for the weather to clear, and continued the survey, suffering a lot.

Zhan Tianyou led the engineering and technical personnel to go through many hardships and survey three lines successively. One is Guangou Line. This line is 22 kilometers long from the south entrance to Chadao City. It passes through Juyongguan, Qinglong Bridge and Badaling. It is full of cliffs, steep slopes and dangerous roads. The amount of work is large, but the transportation capacity is limited. The second line is the Rehe Line, which runs from Qinglong Bridge around Badaling, turns northeast, and passes through the Ming Tombs to Yanqing. Although this line is 15 kilometers long, the slope is relatively gentle, and there is no need to dig a tunnel as long as Badaling. However, it will require a dedicated road to transport materials, which is time-consuming and expensive. The third road is the now completed Fengsha Line, which goes west from Xizhimen, bypasses Shijingshan, passes through Sanjiadian, and exits the mountain near Shacheng to Zhangjiakou. This line is ideal, but the mountain is steeper and the slope is small, but 65 tunnel holes need to be built, and the project cost is relatively high. After repeated comparisons, Zhan Tianyou finally adopted the Guangou line.

Double locomotive "zigzag" line

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway passes through high mountains and steep slopes. According to the general international design method, for every 1 meter of railway elevation, it must pass through a 100-meter slope. In order to shorten the line and reduce costs, the line designed by Zhan Tianyou only needs to build a 33-meter slope for every 1-meter increase. However, the steeper the slope, the more difficult it will be for the train to climb the mountain. Zhan Tianyou spent all day thinking about how to make the huge train drive up the mountain smoothly.

One night, Zhan Tianyou was thinking hard about how to climb the train, and he still didn't rest until late at night. His wife and daughter accompany him in his drawings and designs. It was late at night and the room was very cold. My daughter’s fingers were a little stiff from the cold and she accidentally dropped the cold scissors on the ground. Zhan Tianyou heard the noise and woke up from his meditation. He looked at the scissors that fell on the ground and suddenly shouted: "Yes! Yes!" His wife and daughter were baffled. Zhan Tianyou was very happy and said: "The railway at Badaling can be built like a scissors. With the train climbing up and down, wouldn't it be possible to cross the mountains?" Later, the Qinglong Bridge section of the railway was built in a zigzag shape. The train climbed the mountain easily with twists and turns. The locals call this section of the railway "Jianzi Ridge".

Overcoming all difficulties and dangers to build the tunnel

On December 12, 1905, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway officially started construction. In Fengtai, Zhan Tianyou personally drove the first road spike with a sledgehammer. Thousands of people cheered and congratulated. Construction of the first railway built by the Chinese themselves, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, started.

Building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is not easy. There are steep mountains and steep mountains, climbing uphill to drill holes, and there is no mechanical equipment. Not to mention, the high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the Qing court were making things difficult to stop him, and the foreigners were making rumors to undermine him. Zhan Tianyou was faced with numerous difficulties and dangers, and attacks from both inside and outside. However, Zhan Tianyou, who was patriotic and determined to devote himself to China's railway industry, was not afraid and firmly believed that the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway would be built.

Forcibly break into the noble tomb, and the railway leads to the south entrance. Construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway finally started, but there were many difficulties. At that time, China was very backward. There was no machinery to build railways or even vehicles to transport rails. After the construction started, Zhan Tianyou and the workers pushed the first rail to the construction site on a flatbed truck. When the track was laid to the Guangjia Cemetery in Qinghe Town, it hit a hard nail. It turns out that the owner of the Guang family cemetery was once a Jinzhou Daotai and married to the granddaughter of Prince Gong Zaize. The Guang family relied on the power of the royal family to hire people to lie on the tracks and block the laying of the tracks. Near the Guang family cemetery, there are also the tomb of the Empress Dowager Cixi's father, the tomb of King Zheng, and the tomb of the eunuch. Dodge left and right, and the railway cannot pass. Prince Gong insisted on rerouting the railway and was willing to pay him money. Zhan Tianyou was not willing to agree. He thought it was a disguised bribe and would rather resign than change the route. At this time, Prince Gong was attacked by the Revolutionary Party after returning from overseas. He was too frightened to go out and had no intention of interfering with the Guang family's affairs. The Guang family had no choice but to allow the railway to pass outside the cemetery wall, but they proposed that in order to protect Feng Shui, a small river must be dug nearby, a third-rank official should be sent to set up a memorial ceremony, and a monument should be erected to commemorate it. The members of the engineering team felt that this was an unreasonable fuss. In order to build the railway, Zhan Tianyou agreed to send people to pay homage to Guangjia Cemetery, but ignored the matter of erecting a monument. After overcoming many difficulties, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway won its first battle and was opened to the south entrance on September 3, 1906.

Four tunnels were successfully dug. After the south entrance was opened to traffic, Zhan Tianyou led the engineering staff to start the most difficult section of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway - digging a four-hole tunnel in the Guangou area.

The four-hole tunnel includes Juyongguan, Wuguitou, Shifosi and Badaling tunnels, with a total length of 1,645 meters, of which the Badaling tunnel is 1,091 meters long, followed by the Juyongguan tunnel, which is 367 meters long.

The mountains in Juyongguan are very steep and the rocks are very thick, making it very difficult to dig tunnels. In order to speed up the progress of the project, Zhan Tianyou adopted the method of chiseling from both ends. Zhan Tianyou personally taught the chiselers how to drill blast holes and place explosives. When the cave was dug dozens of meters into the cave, the spring water from the top of the mountain penetrated so much that the mud in the cave made it impossible to place explosives. There was no water pump, so Zhan Tianyou led the workers to carry buckets to drain water. In order to prevent the two walls and the top of the earth from collapsing, the engineering team used cement to build the side walls around the arch and built ditches to drain away the accumulated water. In this way, the Juyongguan Tunnel was finally dug on April 12, 1908.

The Badaling Tunnel is the longest (1091 meters). 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. Both shafts were dug in two directions at the same time, dividing the entire tunnel into three sections. In this way, the two shafts are drilled in two directions at the same time, and both ends of the entire tunnel are drilled into the tunnel at the same time. Speeded up the project progress. However, there was little equipment at that time, such as transporting workers up and down the shaft, transporting equipment, explosives, and removing earth, rocks, and accumulated water. Since there was no elevator, we had to use a private windlass set up at the wellhead and lift it manually. There was no exhaust fan in the tunnel and the air was dirty, so Zhan Tianyou set up a fan at the wellhead and sent fresh air into the tunnel through iron pipes. Zhan Tianyou always considers the workers and works underground with them. He always takes the lead and wins the support of the workers. On May 12, 1908, the Badaling Tunnel was opened.

Soon, the other two tunnels were opened one after another. By September 24, 1909, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was fully opened to traffic, becoming a glorious page in the history of China's railway construction.