On the May Day self-driving tour of the Three Gorges, the first stop is Gezhouba in downtown Yichang.

Compared with the crowded Three Gorges Dam and Xiling Gorge scenic spots, Gezhouba has very few tourists and seems very deserted.

But this is okay, you can quietly enjoy the scenery and watch the ships passing through the locks. When you're hungry, you can go to the nearby Gezhouba Central Market for some delicious food.

01

Seeing a big ship reminds me of a past event

When I was eating watermelon on the shore of Gezhouba, I saw a ship full of water coming out of the Three Gorges. with cars on board.

This boat is the largest boat we saw in Gezhouba, so we took some photos.

At that time, I felt that the name of this boat was Minpu, which was a very cultural name.

After returning from travel, I was curious and checked the situation of the freighter Minpu, and found that there was very little information online. But they discovered a piece of dusty history, a great achievement created by the people of Yichang during the Anti-Japanese War, and a major event that profoundly affected Sichuan.

The former Min Pu Lun was one of the founders of this great achievement.

02

The final battle of the Yangtze River Retreat

On October 26, 1937, Xie Jinyuan led eight hundred warriors to defend the Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai and cover the The troops retreated. This marked the end of the Battle of Songhu and the fall of Shanghai was inevitable.

On November 19, the Nationalist Government announced that Chongqing would be its companion capital. Obviously, under Chiang Kai-shek’s grand strategy of exchanging space for time, the fall of the Yangtze River Delta region, including the capital Nanjing, was a foregone conclusion.

Prior to this, various strategic materials and personnel along the coast had begun to be transferred to Sichuan.

This is the Yangtze River Retreat.

At that time, Sichuan’s transportation with the outside world could only rely on Yangtze River shipping. As a result, Yichang, which guards the mouth of the Three Gorges, has become a chokepoint.

When the Battle of Wuhan broke out on June 11, 1938, more materials and personnel rushed to Yichang, forming a large-scale congestion in Yichang.

Lu Zuofu, general manager of Minsheng Company, wrote to Chiang Kai-shek on August 23, saying that there was a backlog of more than 70,000 tons of goods in Yichang. By late October, the backlog of goods reached more than 90,000 tons, and more than 100,000 refugees were stranded.

The Yangtze River Retreat has reached a critical moment: Yichang, as the final destination, not only faces oppression from the Japanese invaders, but the dry season of the Yangtze River will arrive in December, and shipping will be stagnant.

Whether these strategic materials and personnel can be successfully evacuated safely, retaining more strength for China, and winning more weight for the war of resistance, Yichang will become the key to the success or failure of the great retreat.

03

The dangerous shoal is difficult and the task cannot be completed

Although the Yangtze River waterway was still the main way in and out of Sichuan until the middle of the last century, this road It is extremely difficult and dangerous.

Natural rivers cannot be smooth all the way. Reefs and dangerous shoals have become the biggest obstacles to shipping.

In particular, there are three famous dangerous shoals in the Three Gorges area, which are the bottlenecks of the entire waterway.

Coincidentally, they are all in Yichang. Counting from Yichang to Badong, they are Kongling Beach, Qingtan, and Xietan.

The key reason why Yangtze River shipping cannot sail during the dry season is that the dangerous shoals are difficult.

Among the three dangerous shoals, Qingtan is the most difficult to navigate.

In the era of wooden ships, ships capsized in Qingtan almost every day. The ship Du Fu took to Shu was pierced by rocks at the bottom here. It must have been thrilling at the time.

For this reason, Du Fu called Qingtan "the most dangerous place in the Xiajiang River" in "Enter Sichuan".

In the era of mechanically powered ships, crossing Qingtan was also a high risk. For example, the first Chinese-operated ship Shutong in Xiajiang ran aground and capsized here.

The existence of dangerous shoals has led to a huge gap in transportation capacity between the upper reaches and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so a large amount of materials and people were stranded in Yichang.

It is estimated that in late October 1938, it would take at least a year to transport the materials and personnel accumulated in Yichang to Chongqing.

But the time left for them is only about 40 days.

This is an impossible task.

04

United as one, we create miracles

As early as the dry season in the winter of 1937, a crew member named Duan Gaozhi proposed a three-leg voyage:

Doing so can greatly increase the efficiency of ship use, thereby increasing the speed of cargo turnover.

However, the segmented transportation plan was opposed by the Ordnance Industry Administration, and military supplies needed to be transported directly to Chongqing.

In addition, as the situation became tense, a large number of people gathered at the freight office to compete for ship positions, and the transportation work at the port was greatly disrupted.

This resulted in a large backlog of materials and personnel in Yichang.

On October 23, 1938, Lu Zuofu was ordered to go to Yichang to supervise transportation matters. The first order he issued was to "stop negotiations" in order to "handle transportation."

Lu Zuofu convened a meeting with relevant personnel overnight and formulated a strict transportation plan.

Thanks to this series of effective measures and the efforts of tens of thousands of workers along the Yangtze River in Yichang, by the time the dry season came in early December, the backlog of materials and personnel in Yichang had been evacuated into the Xiajiang River.

Although the subsequent transportation from the Yangtze River coast to Chongqing still lasted for a while, the impossible task was finally completed.

The people of Yichang also paid a huge price for this. In the Minsheng Company alone, 177 people died, 76 were disabled, and 16 of the 22 ships were damaged or destroyed.

The Yichang Great Retreat is also known as the "Dunkirk of Chinese Industry."

Another thing to remember is that from April to December 1938 in Yichang, more than 15,000 children were transferred to the hospital.

Under the Federation of Child Care, which specializes in receiving and raising children, there are 61 child care homes in Japan (including Yan'an Child Care Home). In 1938, there were 29,486 children in the country.

05

History is a river that continues to flow

According to records, Minpu Lun participated in the Yichang evacuation that year and was a member of the 20th Minsheng Company. One of two ships. However, more detailed information is not available.

In 2019, a total of 160,000 passengers passed through the Three Gorges Hub, with a cargo volume of 147 million tons.

The three dangerous shoals sank into the deep water as the Three Gorges Dam impounded water. The once difficult and dangerous Yangtze River route has become a smooth road.

The towns along the Three Gorges have all changed their appearance, and some have even completely disappeared in the long river of history.

The results of the Yangtze River Retreat also indirectly shaped today's Sichuan and Chongqing.

At that time, most of the industrial and cultural essence and elites in China's coastal areas entered Sichuan along the Yangtze River. Although many left after the war, such as the opening and closing of the Southwest Associated University, they also left a rich legacy for Shu.

For example, the supplies rushed to be shipped in the last forty days included modern industrial equipment such as the Luzhou Chemical Plant and the Chongqing Steel Plant, which became the cornerstone of Sichuan's modern industrial system.

History is a river that continues to flow. No moment is the same. What remains unchanged is the passage of eternity, but some things should not be forgotten.

Life is a journey, and meeting is fate.

Thank you.