History of the Aonqiao Troops

Feudal Dynasty

Since the Xia Dynasty, the army has been engaged in engineering operations such as building cities and barriers, erecting bridges and building roads. According to the "Book of Rites of Zhou", there are official positions such as "Zhang Gu" and "Si Dan" in the army of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which are responsible for the construction of city walls, ditches and ponds and related defense matters. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, engineering operations to support military combat operations had reached a considerable scale. The "Six Tao" recorded the names and tasks of the full-time officials in the army who organized engineering operations, as well as the items that the army had to carry when marching to cross rivers, build bridges, build cities, and install equipment. Barrier equipment and tools for civil engineering work, etc. In 257 BC, during the war to annex Han, Zhao, Wei and other countries, Qin built a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River near Puban (now west of Yongji City, Shanxi Province). In the Liao Dynasty, during the siege operations of the army, the logistics troops "carried soldiers in armor and rotated into teams" ("History of the Liao Dynasty: Soldiers and Guards") to carry out engineering operations, and organized rural soldiers to move with the army, specializing in road construction. The matter of fortification. In the Song Dynasty, engineering operations such as building cities and building barriers, building roads and bridges were mainly performed by Xiang soldiers. In the early Yuan Dynasty, professional troops began to appear responsible for engineering support tasks. The army included a "craftsman army" that specialized in loading artillery and ammunition, building bridges, and building roads. Its general managerial title was "gunner marshal". Later, a special army was established to manage pontoon bridges. The "Bridge Sailor Army" that built and crossed the Yangtze River built more than 20 pontoon bridges on the upper tributaries of the Yangtze River when attacking Luzhou. The army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom once consisted of earth camps and water camps. The earth camps were composed of miners from Daozhou, Chenzhou and other places, and were specifically responsible for "privately digging tunnels, placing mines secretly, and blasting city walls." The water camps were responsible for water transportation and combat. and the task of erecting a pontoon bridge. In the late Qing Dynasty, the middle camps of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army were equipped with "long men", with each battalion having a quota of 180 people. They were responsible for transportation and engineering tasks such as building forts, dredging trenches, and building roads. The new army organized engineer battalions (teams), including units for building cities, lightning mines, building bridges, drawing, repairing equipment, and telegraph units. The engineers became a branch of the army.

The Republic of China

During the Republic of China, independent engineering regiments and army (division)-affiliated engineering detachments were established, and engineering schools were opened; some engineering units went to northern Myanmar to participate in the Allied War against Japan Fighting to build the China-India Highway connecting China, Myanmar, and India (the Stilwell Highway, Kunming, China-India Liduo).

On August 1, 1927, the Engineer Battalion of the 20th Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the Engineer Battalion of the 24th Division of the 11th Army participated in the Nanchang Uprising with the troops. When the uprising troops evacuated Nanchang and marched to Guangdong, the engineers participated in the battles of Ruijin and Huichang, and used steamboats to tow homemade bamboo rafts to cross the Han River at Sanheba, Dabu County, Guangdong Province, to ferry the rearguard troops across the Han River, buying time to escape the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. . On December 11, 1929, the 7th Red Army formed by the Baise Uprising troops was organized into an engineering company. In order to adapt to the Red Army's transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare, in May 1930, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Draft for the Organization of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", which stipulated that divisions should be organized into engineering corps. On October 7, the 1st Red Army Corps established an engineering corps (later renamed the Engineer Company) with Anyuan coal miners as the main body in Ji'an, Jiangxi Province. In June 1931, it was expanded into the 1st Red Army Engineer Battalion in Jianning County, Fujian Province, and was later divided into Organized into division-affiliated engineering companies and front army engineering companies. By the end of 1933, engineering detachments had been generally established in the legions, corps, divisions and regiments of the First Red Army. In June 1934, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission established a directly affiliated engineering battalion in Wuyang Town, Ruijin County, Jiangxi Province. From 1933 to 1934, the 2nd and 6th Army Corps of the Red Army (later combined into the Second Red Front Army) and the Fourth Red Army formed engineering detachments. In previous anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns and other operations, the Red Army's engineering detachments used explosives, shovels, picks, and simple tools and equipment to perform tasks such as building bridges and roads, blasting tunnels, constructing fortifications, and setting up obstacles. During the Long March, engineering detachments were mostly incorporated into the advance troops, responsible for road reconnaissance tasks. They used engineering operations to overcome natural obstacles such as rivers, roads, snow-capped mountains, and grasslands along the way; they used bamboo rafts and wooden boats to build bridges and carry out canal crossings to ensure that the main force of the Red Army was able to carry out canal crossings. Crossing the Jinsha River, forcibly crossing the Dadu River, erecting pontoon bridges such as the Yuanshui River, Xiaoshui River, Xiangjiang River, Wujiang River, Chishui River and Jialing River, and coordinating with the infantry to cut through passes and seize passes, ensuring that the troops successfully reach the revolutionary base areas of Shaanxi and Gansu.

After liberation

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the engineering army entered a new stage of development. In March 1951, the Engineer Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was established.

On August 11, 1955, it was renamed the Engineer Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Chen Shiju and Tan Shanhe successively served as commanders; Huang Zhiyong, Tan Furen, Li Zhen, and Wang Liusheng successively served as political commissars. After it was renamed the Engineering Corps, it immediately started to open schools, establish and improve scientific research institutes, and adjust and reorganize the army. In September 1953, the Army's engineering corps was divided into three professional units: engineering, pontoon, and construction according to their tasks. On October 15, 1955, the Corps of Engineers redefined the numbers and sequences of the Engineer Regiment, Ark Bridge Regiment, and Construction Regiment based on the development of the troops, and placed some of the Corps of Engineers troops under the organizational leadership of the military region according to their tasks. In May 1961, the Engineering Corps Architects were established. Subsequently, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China twice added positions to the engineering corps and the military region engineering corps to form and enrich the construction force and help Vietnam build roads and coastal defense projects. By the end of 1965, the engineering corps (detachment) had grown to more than 490,000 people.

During the period from 1967 to 1975, the engineering corps gradually streamlined its construction troops according to changes in tasks and developed its pontoon and bridge troops accordingly. Part of the construction troops were assigned to the organic leadership of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, the Second Artillery Force and the General Logistics Department, and the other part of the construction troops was reorganized into infantry and garrison troops. In 1975, the State Council and the Central Military Commission decided to transfer the engineering construction troops responsible for national defense industrial projects and civil airports, highways and other construction tasks to the capital construction engineering corps. At the same time, some construction groups were reorganized into pontoon bridge groups.

In order to meet the needs of the modernization of the army, after 1976, the engineering corps continued to streamline the construction troops and focused on the development of engineering corps and pontoon bridges in accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China on reducing the army quota and adjusting the establishment system. troops, and accordingly develop camouflage and field water supply engineering units. By 1985, the engineering regiment had increased 2.5 times, and a camouflage regiment and a water supply engineering regiment were successively established. On September 16, 1982, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China decided to downsize the Central Military Commission and the military region engineering corps leading organs into the General Staff Headquarters and the engineering corps department of the military region headquarters respectively. In 1985, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China decided to integrate most of the engineering regiments into the group army to strengthen the team's engineering strength.

Since 2000, the PLA's Zhouqiao troops have been given a new mission to engage in flood prevention and disaster relief. In the series of articles about our army’s war history materials and war memoirs, most of them describe groups of heroes who charge into battle and individual heroes who shine with a halo. Today, the author devotes a chapter to introduce to friends an unknown military branch--Apon Bridge. force. Everyone may have witnessed their style in their daily training, but few people know how our Arkbridge soldiers fought in the earth-shattering self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.

The unit I want to introduce is not, strictly speaking, a regular pontoon unit in the engineer sequence. Instead, it is an infantry company temporarily assigned the task of crossing the river and has become an outstanding unit. The ferrying and boating detachment made a great contribution to our army's crossing of the Red River.

After the Army's 39th Division arrived in the theater, it engaged in enthusiastic combat training according to the unified deployment of troops by superiors. According to the planned combat plan, the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of our 39th Division assumed the task of the Sharp Knife Company. While the commanders of the entire company were racing against time to conduct combat training, the 6th Company received orders from their superiors to change the attack company from the Sharp Knife Company to the Crossing River Support Company. The shocking bad news stunned the passionate commanders and soldiers of the 6th Company. They couldn't figure it out. The lice on their bald heads---it was obvious: a cow's head turned into a cow's tail!

According to our army’s combat plan, this combat mission is guaranteed by the Arkbridge troops. However, if our tens of thousands of vanguard troops on the Western Front want to cross the river right under the enemy's nose, they must use stowaway means. Equipment can be supplemented, but the specialized pontoon and bridge troops cannot meet the needs of crossing the Red River and Nanxi River. Superiors required each unit to arrange a certain number of troops to conduct river crossing support training to ensure that tens of thousands of our leading troops on the western front could cross the river and Nanxi River.

After all, since the combat mission has been issued, as a soldier, you can only execute it unconditionally without any willingness or unwillingness.

The 6th company’s river-crossing support mission is to transport an infantry regiment and a reinforced battalion to safely land on the other side of the river in Vietnam before the battle begins. This is an arduous, difficult and glorious task. At this time, it was an ordinary task for the professional pontoon troops. For the infantry unit who fought hard, this became a new subject, that is, they must be able to swim in the water and be able to maneuver. The boat is steered, and the water training is carried out just like the predecessors who crossed the Yangtze River back then. Everyone becomes the "Baitiao in the Waves" and the "Three Ruan Heroes" among the heroes of Liangshan.

While unifying the ideological understanding of the cadres, the commanders and fighters of the 6th company conducted ideological transformation education for the soldiers of the whole company, mobilized the commanders and fighters of the whole company to improve their awareness, and overcome the "infantry is an engineering soldier, and good steel is not used on the blade" and The misconception that "if you don't understand technology and have no experience, you might be able to discredit Lian Shi". Through education, the commanders and soldiers of the whole company deeply realized that crossing the Red River was the first battle of our army to punish the Vietnamese army. Whether the vanguard troops can be successfully transported to land on the beach is the key to whether our army can win the first battle. To break through the natural obstacle of the Red River, one must not only fight against the rapids and waves, but also be ready to fight the Vietnamese army on the other side at any time. The success or failure of the task will directly affect the overall situation of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. The superiors' entrustment of the river crossing support task to the 6th Company is a sign of their trust in the 6th Company, and it is also a severe test for our company with a glorious tradition.

Lu Hongxi, the instructor of the 6th company, said affectionately to the cadres and soldiers of the whole company: "Crossing the river is a new topic. We have no skills and no experience. We have unclear enemy conditions and unclear water conditions, so it is difficult to complete the task. However, We have the correct command from our superiors, strong artillery cover, sufficient river-crossing equipment, the support of our brother troops, and the concerted efforts of the entire company. We are absolutely sure to complete the mission." After in-depth ideological mobilization, the whole team was convinced! The spirit of the company's commanders and soldiers took on a new look. The cadres and soldiers expressed their determination and mission. They were determined to race against time to master the river crossing skills, resolutely complete the river crossing task, win glory for the motherland, and make new contributions to the people.

They carefully studied the experience of their brother units during the pre-war training. Company Commander Wen Junfang led key cadres to the brother company to observe and learn on site, and held training competitions in the entire company to master the techniques of driving boat machines and rubber boats. In response to drowning deaths in some troops, all company officers and soldiers are required to be scientific and safe during training, overcome paralysis and carelessness, and train according to operating procedures.

During the training, company commander Wen Junfang was both the commander and the trainer. He took the lead in learning boating techniques with the soldiers and solved training problems at any time. Driven by the company cadres and backbone party members, the entire company practiced hard and skillfully. Within a few days, 50% of the people in the company, except the cooking squad and the artillery squad, learned how to operate the boat machine, and 100% of the people in the company learned to operate the boat machine. Seventy percent of the officers and men learned to paddle rubber boats. Every cadre is a well-rounded person who can hold meetings, plan, drive, and troubleshoot common faults.

In order to make the preparations for crossing the river more detailed, all the soldiers of the 6th company used their brains and everyone made suggestions. They formulated corresponding measures based on the terrain and water conditions of the crossing area and possible situations. Countermeasures. Combat formation was carried out based on the ideological, system and technical conditions of the entire company to ensure the completion of combat missions. In case of possible machine failure, they prepared manually supported Song poles; to protect the landing troops in the event that the boat could not rely on them, they prepared Springboards and wooden piers; in order to ensure that the boats can carry out combat missions at any time, they conduct safety and technical inspections of river crossing equipment every day. Everything is ready and only the east wind is needed.

On February 16, the battle order from the military front command was issued. 6 After receiving the battle order, the entire company was mobilized for battle, requiring all company cadres and party members to step forward at critical moments in the battle; calling on Communist Party members and Communist Youth League members to play a vanguard and exemplary role in the battle. , strive to join the party and make meritorious service. The commanders and fighters of the entire company expressed that they would never disappoint the party and the people's entrustment and make contributions to the motherland and the people in the battle!

At 21:30 that night, the smuggling operation began.

At this time, the water of the Red River in the darkness suddenly changed. The water depth dropped by nearly 1 meter, forming a 15-meter-wide silt tidal flat and a 30-meter-wide shallow water area on the river bank. People participating in the ferry had to not only get on and off the boat, but also A springboard should be built, and the carrying capacity of the boat should also be reduced. The boats that were originally scheduled to be transported by the river crossing troops were temporarily moved by the pontoon bridge troops themselves. At this time, it was raining lightly in the dark night sky, and the river bank was very muddy and difficult to walk on, which made it very difficult for the 6th company to carry the river crossing equipment. In this kind of weather and environment, the cadres of the 6th company had a clear division of labor and each had their own responsibilities. Company commander Wen and deputy company commander were responsible for transporting the boat maneuvering machine, and two political cadres: the instructor and deputy instructor were responsible for transporting the rubber boat.

Each boat-operating machine weighs more than 500 kilograms. From a distance of less than 20 meters, a small rubber boat can weigh more than 200 kilograms, making it very difficult to carry. With the hard work of the cadres and soldiers of the 6th company, they transported various equipment for crossing the river and transported 18 boat-operating machines and 14 rubber boats to various river crossing points in just one hour. After the river crossing started, the muddy water on the bank of the Red River made it difficult to see out of the hand in the rainy night. It was an excellent opportunity for our troops to sneak across. In order to ensure that the combat troops boarded the boat safely, the cadres and soldiers of the 6th company took the lead in jumping into the cold river water and organized the soldiers. They helped the combatants get on board. When the first batch of boats from the 6th company set off, Deputy Instructor Xiao Yongxue found that a rubber boat was washed down more than 200 meters by the rapids. He jumped on the boat and personally steered the boat to lead the boat group, and our leading troops were swept away. Shipped to the other side. Several outstanding party members and backbones in the company set an example. During the operation of crossing the river, he was calm and composed, not afraid of hardship or tiredness. His rowing movements were coordinated, fast and steady, and he transported as many as 23 boats, setting a record in the 6th company.

It is raining, and sweat is mixed with rain. The commanders and fighters of the 6th Company bravely fought against the enemy and fought continuously to and from both sides of the Red River. Since it was a stowaway operation, the local command did not allow the boating machine to be turned on, so the boat had to be supported by rowing poles, which was very physically demanding. In particular, the movement resistance of the assault boat is greater than that of rubber, making it very difficult to operate. It is often pulled by the rapids for hundreds of meters. The cadres and soldiers paddled poles hard and tried their best to reduce the deviation of the landing point. The boat could not dock in the shallow water near the shore in Vietnam; in order to prevent the comrades in the leading attacking force from getting their clothes and equipment wet, the soldiers of the 6th Company jumped into the river and pushed the boat with their hands and shoulders to try to get the boat as close to the river bank as possible. Where they could not reach the shore, they carried the combatants to the shore on their backs. When they encountered the steep part of the river bank, the soldiers of the 6th company held the river's long leather and the bow of the boat to let their comrades step ashore on their backs. Several strong backbones each carried 120 or 30 comrades ashore. . The commanders and fighters of our leading attack force who landed on a foreign land looked at the boatmen of the 6th company in the river; their hearts were full of gratitude, and they shouted loudly: "Brothers, you have worked hard, we want to learn from you. , thank you for the victory report!”

The heroic boat sailors of the 6th company fought hard for nearly five hours and successfully completed the combat mission of ensuring the advance attack force to sneak across the Red River, providing a great service to our western front troops. They won the first battle and made outstanding contributions; they also wrote a glorious page in their heroic history. From the Red River to the Nanxi River, our army smuggled nearly two divisions of troops across the river. After the task of transporting across the river was completed, the soldiers of our heroic 6th company went into a new battle. The "8·12" extremely serious fire and explosion accident in the dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai Company in Tianjin Binhai New Area caused heavy casualties. In order to rescue the wounded, the rescue road was opened. A certain Zhouqiao unit in the Tianjin Garrison District quickly assembled and rushed to the scene for rescue.

On the evening of August 13, 2015, the Zhouqiao troop convoy encountered numerous bus jams on its way to the Huanhai Expressway. It originally wanted to take a detour, but the road conditions ahead were unclear after the diversion. Later, some local fellows heard that the soldiers were going to the scene of the accident for rescue, and volunteered to drive ahead to lead the way, so that the Zhouqiao troops finally arrived at the site of the explosion on time and successfully built the bridge and paved the road.

At 7:35 on August 14, a certain boat bridge unit in the Tianjin Guard District opened the fire rescue channel overnight within the expected time. Before 8 a.m., the rescue passage into the core area of ??the explosion had been completely opened, and large rescue machinery could enter.

During the whole night of rescue operations, in order to open up this road to life, the soldiers overcame many difficulties such as small explosions at the scene and achieved victory.

Before these two fire rescue passages were opened, the original rescue passages were relatively difficult to pass. Because when the explosion occurred, many stacks, containers, and containers collapsed and became blocked. Officers and soldiers of a Zhouqiao unit in the Tianjin Garrison District received orders at 23:30 on August 13 to prepare for the start of work. After midnight on the 14th, they officially began to repair the rescue channel closest to the central fire scene. More than 400 officers and soldiers used heavy excavators and other professional equipment to carry out operations. After continuous hard work by officers and soldiers, at 7:35, good news came from the scene: a 6-7 meter wide passage had been completely connected, and large rescue equipment could already enter the core area of ??the explosion.