Chapter 29 10. Surveying the Yellow River Flooding Area for Anti-Japanese War and Disaster Relief

What is a yellow flood zone? In May 1938, the Chinese army failed in the Sino-Japanese Xuzhou Battle.Out of purely military considerations, the Kuomintang High Command decided to bombard the Yellow River Dati with heavy artillery at the Huayuankou east of Zhengzhou, causing an artificial breach.The yellow water poured out and flooded the land between Henan and Anhui. People call this flooded area the yellow flood zone.It is about 800 miles long and 60 miles wide. In the winter of 1940, Cheng Qian transferred to Chongqing to work.The Tianshui camp was changed to the Xi'an General Office of the Kuomintang Military Committee.The director of the office was first Xiong Bin and then Jiang Dingwen.I am still in ambush in the hall, serving as the name of the Senate.

In the summer of 1941, on behalf of the department, I participated in the investigation team of Huang Flood.This organization is organized by the Xi'an General Office, the Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee, the first and fifth theater command headquarters, and representatives from the Henan and Anhui provincial governments.The representative of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission served as the director, and I served as the deputy director.The headquarters of the regiment is located in Zhoujiakou, Henan Province.The task is to find out the water regime and disaster situation in the Yellow River flooding area, so as to facilitate the deployment of anti-war work and disaster relief work.

In the early autumn of 1941, members of our survey team and several technicians set off from Zhoujiakou by sailboat.Go upstream along the banks of the Yellow River and arrive at Xinzheng County after a few days.Along the way, I saw that there is no fixed edge on both sides of the Yellow River.When the water is full, it can go westward for more than 10 miles, submerge fertile fields and collapse houses.In order to prevent floods from flowing westward, farmers built earth dams, but they were intermittent, not connected, uneven, and could not prevent flood irrigation.To the north of Xinzheng, near the mouth of the river, the current is turbulent, and the sailboats are going upstream too slowly.We walked to Zhengzhou by land.The original plan was to go to Huayuankou to survey the entrance and measure the velocity and flow.The river defense force told us that Huayuankou was under the control of Japanese artillery fire and could not go forward.We were more than 20 miles away from the gate, and heard the roar of the rolling yellow water, and the roar of the Yellow River: "Down with the Japanese wild wolf, and give me back my great rivers and mountains."

We returned to Xinzheng, took a wooden boat, entered the yellow flood zone, and went down the river. We saw many villages and towns surrounded by yellow water and turned into isolated islands.Most of the villagers went out to escape the famine; the remaining old, weak, sick and disabled lived on grass roots and bark to satisfy their hunger, and their lives were very pitiful!We surveyed to Xunmukou, the boat entered from the Beizhai Gate and left from the Nanzhai Gate, a north-south street, washed into a big river by the yellow water.We surveyed to the north of Huaiyang, and the boat rushed forward on the sorghum ears.I reached out and pulled up an ear of sorghum, and saw that it was almost ripe.The grain that was near the mouth was swallowed by the yellow water again. I felt very sorry for the starving farmers: We surveyed Zhengyangguan, Anhui Province, a famous town along the Huaihe River, surrounded by floods on all sides. It has become a "undersea dragon palace".Our boat sailed in from the west gate and stopped in front of a hotel.We went into the hotel and took a rest.Since we hadn't eaten green vegetables for a few days, we told the boss: fry two plates of green vegetables for us for dinner.The boss said: If you don’t eat vegetables, you can eat fish to fill you up.I went to the street to look, and there were no vegetable sellers, but there were many fish sellers.A live carp weighing two catties costs only 20 cents and 5 cents.After several months of on-the-spot investigation by all team members and technical staff,

We have completed the survey mission.In the survey report, in addition to explaining the flood situation and the living conditions of the victims, we also talked about the political, economic, and military conditions in the Yellow Flood Area. On the west bank, from Xinzheng, Henan Province to Jieshou, Anhui Province, a large lift was built.If this proposal is realized, there will be the following benefits: (1) large areas of land to the west of the Yellow River Flooding Area will not be submerged; (2) disaster victims can be relieved by using work as relief; ; (4) Dati can be used as a transportation road, which is conducive to the prosperity of the economy of the Yellow River flooding area.This suggestion was adopted by the government at that time, and it was realized.Play an active role in fighting wars and disaster relief.