Majiang River in front of Mawei Town is a tributary of Minjiang River. "The water is clear and solid, and it can be as deep as 12 feet, and the tide is twice as high." place
Mawei, located on the north bank of Majiang River, is more than 100 miles away from the mouth of Minjiang River. There are many islands along the river, and the peaks climb the river. "For decades, foreign ships and plywood boats have often docked in Haikou, and non-locals and foreigners who have lived in the port for a long time cannot reach the provincial capital on their own."
40 Li is not a long distance. For the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, who works in Fuzhou, the supervision work of the Maritime Bureau is not hard. In this way, it seems that Fujian Shipping Bureau and China's famous Far East No.1 Shipyard have both settled in Mawei.
A few months later, Zuo was transferred by the court to Shaanxi and Gansu to put down the rebellion. Shen Baozhen, the son-in-law of Lin Zexu, was chosen by the Westernization Minister who was in power in modern history to handle maritime affairs instead of him. A few months later, when Shen Baozhen came to Mawei Town alone to discuss the compensation for land expropriation with the villagers, he didn't expect the court's plan to meet with fierce opposition from the villagers. Even though the imperial court provided generous compensation, the villagers were reluctant to sell nearly 600 acres of land zoned to the shipyard.
In a rage, Shen Baozhen, who was driven out of the village by the rubble, transferred several gunboats and stopped at Majiang, threatening the villagers to hand over the perpetrators, otherwise they would attack the village with fire. In the end, after slashing and killing two villagers who took the lead in the accident, the farmers accepted the conditions set by the court and the construction land was expropriated.
In addition to Shen Baozhen, Zuo also chose the French officer Riyige. After the two sides signed the labor contract, Riyige took a group of carpenters, blacksmiths and locksmiths he found in his own country across the ocean and came to a strange ponytail. For them, this is more like a paradise. These young skilled workers who lived a poor life in Europe were given preferential treatment by the Qing Dynasty. Their monthly salary is as high as 1000 Liang per day, which is dozens of times that of a senior official in the Qing Dynasty, and ordinary workers also earn more than 200 Liang per month. Decades later, when their contracts expired, these people returned to France. They changed from penniless at first to nouveau riche and bought land and stocks in France.
The Bureau of Maritime Affairs officially broke ground on February 23rd, 1866, and Shen Baozhen took office in July the following year. According to Riyige's record, "The first batch of workers in the factory saw a river with neither foreign machines nor tools ... The only small house in the field became a forging workshop, and the two iron furnaces in the house immediately lit a fire and started work with China's hammer. The first nail was made here. " The 65438+1960s was the era when the Qing Dynasty wholeheartedly pursued economic reform, and the Prime Minister's yamen was established. As the Minister of Affairs, he was in charge of foreign affairs, trade, customs, training the new army, Wentong Museum, and also engaged in road construction, mining, manufacturing and other affairs, which set off an upsurge centered on economic construction. From 1866 to 1869, the gross domestic product (GDP) keeps a high growth rate of about 10% every year. In this context, mawei shipyard, with a population of 2,000-3,000, has risen rapidly on the banks of Ma Jiang, covering an area of 600 mu, with complete facilities and grand scale, ranking second to none in the Far East.
In the following 30 years, mawei shipyard built 40 ships for the Qing Dynasty, accounting for 70% of the domestic total at that time, and set up the first naval fleet-Fujian Navy, which equipped a large number of ships and generals for the two naval divisions of Beiyang and Nanyang. During this period, the three naval divisions of the Qing Dynasty experienced the Sino-French Majiang naval battle and the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese naval battle respectively, and it was understandable to lose to the French teacher who taught him how to build a ship and build an army. However, losing to the Japanese navy, which is also just starting, makes Chinese people feel ashamed. 1907, the Qing government ordered the bleak shipping bureau to stop shipbuilding.
19 1 1 year, the revolution of 1911 was surging. Under the turbulent situation, the shipbuilding industry has been neglected, and mawei shipyard once became a scrap iron seller. "Three or five craftsmen are unkempt and the dishes are bleak." Until 1949, another 30 years passed. With the change of political power, mawei shipyard fell into the cycle of smashing-repairing-smashing. During this period, a * * * changed nearly 20 leaders, built warships, built merchant ships, and even built the first plane in China.
1950, when the PLA entered Mawei, the shipyard was desolate and overgrown with weeds. Only the dilapidated workshop of a turbine workshop and the dock full of mud remind people that there was once the glory of "the first shipyard in the Far East". After four years of labor, millions of bricks and dozens of tons of scrap steel were dug out of the ground by workers, and several unexploded shells left on the original dock grass were also removed. Zhou Decheng, an old worker, said: "The bricks we picked alone have built four ***70 dormitory buildings and three rows of 36 offices."
After liberation, Fujian became the front line to Taiwan because of the problems in Taiwan Province Province, which was not suitable for large-scale military enterprises. Since then, silt has accumulated in the river, and there is no hope for mawei shipyard's revival.
These bricks and scrap steel are the few valuable things left by the shipyard. Some of the huge buildings in mawei shipyard were destroyed by war, and some collapsed due to wind and rain erosion. All we can see now is the engine workshop built by the French. The shipbuilding drawings and experience accumulated by skilled technical workers and generations have vanished.