Yu Youtai’s personal experience

Mr. Yu Youtai, Touqiao Township Xian, was born in Tianjiazhuang, Yiguozhou, Anfuzhou, Touqiao Township, Jiangdu County, Jiangsu Province (formerly Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City) in the sixth year of the Republic of China (June 28, 1917) Nanhua Village, Touqiao Town, now Tianjiazhuang, Nanhua Village, Touqiao Town, Guangling District, Yangzhou City). Mr. Yu Youtai's hometown, Touqiao Township, was under the jurisdiction of Jiangdu (today's Yangzhou) in the second year of Hongzhi (1489 AD) in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The predecessor of Touqiao Town was "Wujiaqiao", an ancient town in Jiangzhou in the Ming Dynasty (the site is located in Nanhua, Touqiao Town, today's Yangzhou Village Da Sanwei, also known as Wei Sanwei area), this "largest town in Jiangzhou" where the famous Wu family of Gutouqiao lives together, collapsed into the river in the 48th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, causing the town to be relocated twice. The current site was originally decided, and was renamed "Touqiao Town" based on the ancient bridge "Jiangzhou Touqiao" in the Qing Dynasty (the site is in Touqiao Village, Touqiao Town, Yangzhou today).

Mr. Yu Youtai’s hometown, Touqiao Town, Yangzhou, was originally part of Jiangdu, then Hanjiang, and now it belongs to Guangling. Today's "Touqiao Town, Guangling District, Yangzhou City" was originally called "Touqiao Township, Jiangdu County" in history. Touqiao Township was the administrative jurisdiction of Yangzhou (anciently known as Weiyang, Jiangdu, and Han) during the Ming, Qing, and Republic of China. Mr. Yu's ancestral home The place is located on a sandbank. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was known as "Weiyang'an Fuzhou" and "Jiangdu County Anfuzhou". In the first year of the Republic of China (1912 AD), the island was renamed as a township, and it became known as "Jiangdu County Touqiao Township in the Republic of China". The title appeared. In 1956, according to the "Su Minxin No. 27697" document and the "25th Meeting" of the State Council, a part of the original "Jiangdu County" was analyzed as "Hanjiang County", and Touqiao followed. The county name of "Hanjiang County" was determined by Xie Juezai, then Minister of the Interior of the State Council, after examining historical materials in the 18th year of the founding of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty (AD 598) and is still used today. In 2000, according to the "Guohan (2000) No. 130" document, the original "Hanjiang County" was revoked and the establishment of "Yangzhou City Hanjiang District" was approved, with Touxiao attached. In 2011, with the approval of the State Council and Jiangsu Province, the administrative divisions of Yangzhou City were adjusted again, and part of the original Hanjiang District was merged into Guangling District, with Touqiao once again attached to it to this day. Therefore, Mr. Yu Youtai's hometown "Touqiao Town" belonged to the then "Jiangdu County" during the Republic of China ("Jiangdu County of the Republic of China" is now "Yangzhou City"). The county seat of "Jiangdu County of the Republic of China" is located in the "Guangling District" area in the center of Yangzhou today. ), this is the reason.

Jiushi Touqiao Town is a sandbar on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The island is densely populated and the per capita cultivated land is only about 0.3 acres. Like most local residents, Yu Youtai's family relied mainly on his elders to earn a living and work outside the home, and went from a moderately prosperous life to a state of decline. He lost his mother when he was young and was raised by his stepmother and grandmother. From 1924 to 1930, Mr. Yu Youtai studied in the Central Primary School of Touqiao Town, Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, which was founded by Wu Daguan's uncle Wang Jianren. According to the "Touqiao Town Chronicles", Mr. Yu Youtai (a native of Tianjiazhuang, Nanhua Village, Touqiao Town) Mr. Wu Daguan, who is also a sage in Touqiao Township (the father of Chinese aviation engines, a native of Jiuziwei, Touqiao Village, Touqiao Town, whose real name is Wu Weisheng), is a primary school classmate and childhood friend. According to the history of the countryside, Yu Youtai and Wu Daguan are The two former alumni of Touqiao Primary School and Yangzhou Middle School "... had a pleasant conversation and missed their hometown..." when they gathered in Harbin.

Yu Youtai also did some sporadic farm work after school. His childhood rural life made him familiar with farming, and he also experienced the pain of bending his back and carrying his hands when farming. In addition, the sandbank is surrounded by water, so drainage and irrigation are not timely. Often causing disasters, in his young mind, there was a deep desire to get rid of hard work and change the agricultural environment.

After graduating from elementary school, he was admitted to the Provincial Yangzhou Middle School (prestigious nearby). Because of his excellent performance, he was exempted from taking the exam and was promoted to high school. At that time, the newly built auditorium in Yangzhou Middle School was titled "Shuren Hall", the eye-catching slogan "Read to save the country" in front of the teaching building, and the teachers' earnest teachings on moral and intellectual education made him gradually and consciously realize that "the rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of every man." ", if you want to serve and save the country, you must study hard and master knowledge; when dealing with people, you must "be true to your words and be resolute in your actions", and "be strict with yourself and be lenient with others." After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering of Zhejiang University, the College of Agriculture of Central University and the College of Agriculture of Jinling University. Based on his inclination towards farming and consideration of his family's financial situation, he decided to go to the College of Agriculture at Central University. This is an important step that Yu Youtai has taken from "saving the country through reading" to "saving the country through agriculture".

When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, he went to Chongqing with the school. He graduated in 1940 and received a bachelor's degree in agriculture with his thesis "Research on Genetic Characteristics of Cotton Fiber". He stayed at the school as a teaching assistant to Professor Jin Shanbao in the Department of Agronomy. He served as an experimental guide for crop science and wheat farming, and soon gave lectures on economic crops, and presided over experimental research on tobacco variety breeding, cultivation and baking. He published several papers in this field and compiled and published the agricultural college textbook "Introduction to Crop Science" , In 1943, he served as a lecturer in the Agronomy Department of Sichuan Institute of Education. Through these years of teaching and scientific research, Yu Youtai has mastered relatively profound theoretical knowledge and practical skills in agricultural biological sciences.

In 1945, he obtained a graduate degree in publicly funded agricultural tools and went to Iowa State University in the Midwestern United States, where he studied under Professor Davidson, the chairman of the Department of Agricultural Engineering and known as the "Father of American Agricultural Engineering". He studied the journey of agricultural mechanization. First, he worked on a nearby family farm for more than two months and learned the operating skills of tractors and major agricultural machinery. Then he devoted himself to intensive engineering courses and research work for his dissertation. In 1947, he completed a thesis titled "Designing and Manufacturing a Small Tractor Suitable for Chinese Agriculture" and obtained a Master of Science degree. After graduation, he went to the southern United States to investigate the mechanization of rice, cotton, tobacco and other crops, and published an article titled "Chinese Agriculture and Its Mechanization" in the American "Agricultural Engineering" magazine. This was Yu Youtai's shift from studying agricultural bioscience to agricultural mechanization. The first academic paper published thereafter. After analyzing the comprehensive situation of China's agricultural production, the article proposes that China's farmland plots and operation scale are too small, which is the biggest obstacle to the development of mechanization. Measures must be taken to promote land concentration, develop rural industry, and guide agricultural labor from planting to the outside world. Transfer and accumulate mechanization funds, predictably pointing out the key issues in realizing agricultural mechanization in our country. Mr. Yu Youtai, a rural sage, rejected the high-paying offer from the famous Brandert Walking Tractor Company in the United States. With the ambition of developing the agricultural mechanization cause of the motherland and "agricultural salvation", he returned to the embrace of the motherland in May 1948 and served as Technical specialist of the Shanghai Mechanical Agricultural Reclamation Division of the Executive Yuan Committee of the Nanjing National Government, and concurrently a professor of agricultural tools at Nantong Agricultural College.

At that time, it was already the third year after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. The Nanjing National Government, regardless of the life and death of the people, launched an all-out attack on the liberated areas established by the Communist Party of China behind the enemy's rear. Prices are skyrocketing and people are struggling to make ends meet. There is no such thing as a "grand project" to change the face of agricultural production. Yu Youtai deeply understood that China's agricultural mechanization career would be impossible to start with the post-war relief materials donated by the Mechanical Reclamation Department. The Northeast Liberated Area has a large land area and few people, making it an ideal place to promote agricultural mechanization. Therefore, I have an urgent desire to leave the south of the Yangtze River and go to the Northeast to devote myself to the construction of agricultural mechanization. During his lifetime, Mr. Yu Youtai cared deeply about his hometown and was grateful for his hometown. He made outstanding contributions to the agricultural modernization of his hometown Touqiao Town and the construction of his hometown. Therefore, he had a great reputation in Touqiao Township, and his popularity and reputation were also very high. In order to commemorate this leader, the people of his hometown An important village sage in the history of Qiaoqiao, a publicity board on the life and deeds of "Chinese famous agricultural machinery expert ------- Yu Youtai" was specially set up on the "Touqiao Citizen Square" located in Hongping Village, Touqiao Town, and was related to There are three other famous Touqiao sages: "Father of Chinese radar---Shu Xingbei", "Father of Chinese aero-engine--Wu Daguan", "Father of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East" Together with the billboard of "Lawyer----Esen", it will be permanently erected on the land of my hometown. From then on, it will be famous in the hometown and will be famous forever.