Chapter 23 22. Growth of Panzhihua

In the third-line construction from 1964 to 1978, the development and construction of Panzhihua was one of the most successful projects, and it was also one of Mao Zedong's favorite industrial projects.Panzhihua is located in the southwest of Sichuan Province, at the confluence of Jinsha River and Yalong River.It was possible to build Panzhihua because of the discovery of large-scale iron ore on this land. At the Central Working Conference in 1964, Mao Zedong himself decided to develop the iron mine in Panzhihua.Under his repeated urging, starting from March 1965, iron ore development and urban construction began on a large scale in 1965.The city, originally named Ferry and renamed Panzhihua in 1987, got its name from a plant called "Panzhihua".Its most important project, the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Works, is known as the "Steel City with Miniature Ivory Carvings" because people built a large-scale factory on a sudden hillside.This city is the epitome of the great industrial transfer in that special era.

The more common name for Panzhihua is "kapok tree".It belongs to the large deciduous trees of the Kapok family. It is light-loving, warm and hot, and drought-tolerant.Panzhihua is a fast-growing tree species, which can bloom and bear fruit in about ten years.Its flowers are brightly colored, and when it blooms in March every year, it looks like a red flame burning a tree among the green leaves. Therefore, some people call Panzhihua a red cotton tree and a hero tree. In a county town at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan, this bright red flowering tree is everywhere. The Jinsha River passes through the city and joins the Yalong River.The Long March of the Red Army once passed through this area, and a Huili meeting was held in Huili County, tens of kilometers away from this small county.When the army finally made its incredible journey across the border, quickly recovered, and finally established a new regime in Beijing, the leaders of the republic turned their eyes back to the very soil they had crossed.One reason for this is the rich iron and coal mines buried beneath the land.

In the end, though, the establishment of a large steel production base in such a remote location was a product of the fear of war by the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1960s, and not just considering its red panzhihua soil. Deep buried iron ore and coal. The setbacks caused by the Great Leap Forward and the heavy blows caused by three years of natural disasters had already given the new regime a painful lesson, and began to pay more attention to agriculture and light industry, which are the foundation of people's survival, instead of emulating the Soviet Union's complete focus on the development of heavy industry. In February 1962, at the enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on the south side of the west gate of Zhongnanhai, Chen Yun, a high-level economic expert of the Communist Party of China, delivered a speech entitled "Current Financial and Economic Situation and Several Ways to Overcome Difficulties".Chen Yun's position as an economic expert in the party had already been established during the base period. He had successfully controlled inflation in the base area, kept the precarious economy healthy, and supported the expansion of the Communist regime.After the Great Leap Forward was thwarted, when Mao Zedong mentioned Chen Yun, he once said: "When the country is in trouble, I think of a good general, and when my family is poor, I think of a good wife. If Chen Yun is in charge of the mess now, it is impossible for these troubles to happen."Chen Yun said: "Increasing agricultural production, solving the problems of food and clothing, ensuring market supply, and curbing inflation are the top priorities at present." We must "put these things at the top of the national plan."

This idea has been approved by most of the top leaders of the CCP.Zhou Enlai also said in the government work report: "We must follow Chairman Mao Zedong's instructions, put agriculture in the first place in the development of the national economy, and arrange economic plans in the order of agriculture, industry, light industry, and heavy industry." But when the head of the State Planning Commission, Li Fuchun, reported to Chairman Mao Zedong on the third five-year plan that would follow this line of thinking, Mao Zedong offered his opinion.Mao's opinions mainly focused on the defense industry and the construction of the third front.Like Chen Yun, Zhou Enlai, and Li Fuchun, Mao Zedong recognized the importance of developing agriculture and light industry. He once said: "Why do you do industry? What do you do with steel? It can't be eaten or worn."

It’s just a strong sense of crisis that Mao Zedong still can’t forget about the defense industry and the third-line construction. “As long as imperialism exists, there is the danger of war. We are not the chief of staff of imperialism, and we don’t know when it will go to war. We must build a third-line industrial base The first and second lines must also develop some military industries. All provinces must have military industries, and they must manufacture their own rifles, submachine guns, light and heavy machine guns, mortars, bullets, and explosives. With these things, you can rest assured.”

It must be noted that the third-tier regions referred to here are different from the divisions of first-tier cities, second-tier cities, and third-tier cities that are popular today.In "Third Front Construction: Western Development in the War Preparation Period", the author Chen Donglin explained: "The third front area refers to the special period from 1964 to 1978, when China's borders were determined according to their strategic importance (that is, they were invaded by foreign enemies) Possibility) to shrink inland and draw the area formed by three lines. The first-line areas include provinces and regions located in the coastal and border areas, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Shandong, etc. The third-tier areas include Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai, which are basically inland provinces, and the inland parts of Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Hubei, and Guangxi provinces , A total of 13 provinces and regions are involved. The southwest and northwest regions are commonly known as the third-tier region, and the hinterland of each province close to the mainland is commonly known as the minor third-tier region. The second-tier region refers to the intermediate zone between the first-tier and third-tier regions, such as Jiangxi and Anhui.

Mao Zedong never forgets Panzhihua.At the Central Work Conference in 1964, Mao Zedong said: "The development of the third-line construction must first build the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Industry Base and the associated transportation, coal, and electricity. The construction must be fast, but not sloppy. Panzhihua can't be done. , can’t sleep. If you don’t engage in Panzhihua, I’ll ride a donkey there for a meeting; if you don’t have money, use my royalties to do it.” Mao was further disturbed by the Vietnam War in August 1964.A fierce naval battle took place between the U.S. fleet and the Vietnamese Navy, and then the U.S. Seventh Fleet began large-scale bombing of North Vietnam. On August 5th, Mao Zedong stayed up all night.At 6:00 a.m. the next day, he commented on the Chinese government’s statement against the U.S. invasion of Vietnam: “We are going to war, and my actions will have to be reconsidered.” Long-cherished wish: Riding a horse to investigate along the Yellow River.

But it's obviously not just the actions of such a poet that need to be reconsidered, but the economic construction and diplomatic strategy of the entire country.Subsequently, at the meeting of the Central Secretariat on August 17 and 20, Mao Zedong told his comrades to prepare for possible aggressive wars launched by imperialism.The meeting decided, "We must first concentrate our efforts on building the third front, and provide guarantees in terms of manpower, material and financial resources." "Sanxian" thus became the most frequently used noun at that time. Then, the construction of the third front from 1964 to 1980 began. "For as long as 16 years, during the time spanning the three five-year plans, the state invested 205.268 billion yuan in the central and western regions, mainly in 13 provinces and autonomous regions (accounting for 39.01% of the total national infrastructure investment in the same period, more than 1953 from 1964 to 1964); the builders of millions of workers, cadres, intellectuals, officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and tens of millions of migrant workers, in the context of 'preparing for war and preparing for famine for the people' and 'good people and good horses on the third front' Under the call of the times, 1,100 large and medium-sized industrial and mining enterprises, scientific research units, and colleges and universities were built in Togo, including those that were later called the western spine: iron and steel metallurgical bases such as Panzhihua, Jiuquan, and Jinchuan, and large steel plants such as Great Wall and Shuicheng. , Chengdu-Kunming, Xiangyu, Sichuan-Guizhou, Yangan, Qinghai-Tibet (Xige section) and other main railway lines, Gezhouba, Liujiaxia and other hydropower stations, Jiuquan, Xichang Aerospace Satellite Launch Center, Liupanshui, Weibei Coal Base, Guizhou, Hanzhong Aviation Base, Western Sichuan Nuclear industry bases, shipbuilding bases in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, oil and gas fields in Sichuan, Jianghan, Changqing, and Zhongyuan, conventional weapons industrial bases in Chongqing, western Henan, western Hubei, and western Hunan, China's second automobile factory in Hubei, Dongfang Electric Machinery Factory, Dongfang Steam Turbine Factory, Dongfang Boiler Factory and other manufacturing bases, Southwest China Institute of Physics, China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute and other scientific research institutions." Chen Donglin said in his book "Third Front Construction: Western Development in the War Preparation Period".

Panzhihua is the product of this period and the most colorful and eye-catching achievement.It is also a third-line construction project that Mao Zedong and the top leaders of the CCP paid the most attention to. In August 1964, Mao Zedong once asked Li Fuchun why the construction of the third front was so slow.Li Fuchun replied that the geographical conditions of the Panzhihua area are complicated, exploration will take time, we lack funds, and we need a meeting to study the investment plan for the third-line construction.Obviously, all these rational reasons put forward by elite planning bureaucrats cannot be understood and accepted by romantic poets and revolutionaries. Mao Zedong immediately refuted the highest planning bureaucrat in China, using my salary if I have no money!

The location of the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Industry Base was also determined by Mao Zedong.There must have been differences in the location selection of the early industrial base.Some people think that Panzhihua is located in a mountainous area, with little flat land, inconvenient transportation, sparsely populated, and too desolate. Therefore, it is recommended to choose an iron mining area with convenient transportation and large cities as support. "After investigation, the central working group rejected most of the sites that have neither iron nor coal resources, or occupy a large amount of cultivated land. Only Jiuli in Leshan, Niulangba in Xichang, and Longping in Panzhihua can be considered. Cheng Zihua and the central government Relevant departments and experts tend to choose Nongping in Panzhihua, because there are rich iron ore resources, more coal resources and Jinsha River water resources, and it is close to forest areas, and it is not far from the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, which is about to start construction, The Liupanshui coal base in Guizhou is relatively close, and it does not occupy farmland. There are two opinions on the location of the iron and steel base. Comrades from the Southwest Bureau and the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee also have their own reasons. Nonglongping is a small hillside island facing water on three sides. It is only 2.5 square kilometers. There is no precedent in China or even in the world for the establishment of a huge steel base on such a narrow and uneven terrain. However, he was very dissatisfied with this hesitation. Based on the simplest common sense, he judged that Panzhihua has iron and coal, so why not build a factory there?The nail is nailed to Panzhihua!

On November 1, Li Fuchun and Bo Yibo led various central ministries and commissions, as well as the heads of Sichuan and Yunnan provincial committees to the Panzhihua construction site to inspect the terrain of Nonglongping.Li Fuchun joked: "I know you have just started construction and there is nothing to see, but this is the place that Chairman Mao cares about most. We must take a look first, otherwise he will come on a donkey." Li Fuchun's final decision included the establishment of a Panzhihua special zone directly under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province; the construction of Panzhihua was a separate plan, and funds and materials were directly allocated by the central government; Panzhihua also pursued the principle of production first and life later.As a result, Panzhihua became China's first special zone after being approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council in February 1965. Panzhihua, which was favored by Mao Zedong, has also become the favorite of many high-level CCP officials.When Deng Xiaoping inspected the third line and arrived in Panzhihua, he commented on it: "This place is blessed by nature."; Zhou Enlai coordinated the allocation of materials from various provinces to Panzhihua. It is said that after Deng Xiaoping looked at Nongning Ping, he said wittily, "Let's make this place level."Nonglongping originally had only 2.5 square kilometers of flat land, but the construction of a steel plant with an annual output of 1.5 million tons requires at least 5 square kilometers of flat land.Therefore, after experiments, Chinese designers proposed a stepped design plan. After large-scale explosions, the "Nong Nong Ping" was flattened into four large steps and 23 small steps. The layout is cleverly arranged on these steps.The layout of this large enterprise is called "ivory microcarving", which is amazing. In June 1993, Panzhihua Iron and Steel Works was renamed Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group Corporation.Simultaneously with the steel plant was the city that was also renamed Panzhihua. When the city was established in 1965, the city was named Dukou (when Dukou City was renamed Panzhihua in March 1987), the "Panzhihua Urban Construction Chronicle" stated, "At that time, the construction policy of 'production first, life after' was implemented, and the urban area was actually A big construction site."The city had no sidewalks before 1980; it only started to have street lights in 1973, and now it is a bustling city with a population of one million. They even listed special tourism as an industry to be developed in Panzhihua.This rapidly growing city is just like Panzhihua, which can bloom and bear fruit in a short period of time, and the flowers are dazzling. The final question about the third-line construction is whether it constitutes a waste in China's economic development.When Mao Zedong personally inspected the train going south in 1965, he once asked the person in charge of the Tianjin government in Tianjin: "Will the construction of the large third line and the small third line be a waste? Will it be turned into water?" The answer he got at that time was: : "No, even if the enemy does not come, it is also useful from the perspective of economic construction."