In the vast and sparsely populated Russian Far East, there has always been a mysterious story, and that is the "ghost train". Legend has it that in this empty and desolate land, whenever the wind blows and the rain pours down on the night, there will always be trains that disappear in the wind and rain, and the passengers are nowhere to be seen.
However, in China at the end of the 50s of the last century, something similar happened. A train from Shenyang to Beijing mysteriously disappeared on a rainstorm night with lightning and thunder.
When people found the train, they were surprised to find that there were more than 300 passengers. What happened to this train to get lost? Where do those extra passengers come from?
On July 22, 1959, a shocking news caused an uproar in the Western world: a Chinese train carrying hundreds of passengers mysteriously disappeared during operation.
Although the news was unknown, it quickly spread among the crowd and attracted widespread attention. In the international context of the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union at that time, China's every move attracted much attention.
Many foreign countries are taking a wait-and-see attitude on this matter, expecting an official response from China. However, at this moment, our country is making every effort to search for this mysteriously disappeared train, hoping to find all the crew and passengers and ensure their safety.
Rumors do not change the facts, and we look forward to the truth.
On the evening of July 21, 1959, the 12th train from Shenyang to Beijing suddenly lost contact while passing through the western part of Jinzhou in the Liaoning West Corridor. Because it was summer at that time, it rained continuously in western Liaoning for days, and on the night of the 12th train loss, it rained heavily in western Liaoning, causing floods.
According to the platform staff, the last time the train made contact with the platform was on a bridge called Shihe Bridge. Three large reservoirs near the railway bridge have burst their banks under the impact of the floods, which have washed away the bridge, leaving the fate of more than 600 crew members and passengers on board uncertain.
The damage was severe, and the fate of 12 trains in the flood was uncertain. Despite this, Wang Guangwen, director of the Northeast Railway Bureau, resolutely did not give up the search and rescue work, and the staff of the relevant departments took active action, brought enough supplies, rowed the boat for search and rescue, and dispatched the first air search.
More than thirty hours of anxious work passed, and the personnel of the command office waited anxiously, and finally the news of the rescue came.
First, the good news came: "12 trains have been found!" The leaders quickly rushed to the scene to inspect the disaster situation on the spot, and learned in detail about the thrilling experience of the 12 trains on this rainy night......2. "I command you, retreat under the bridge!" ”
On the evening of July 21, 1959, with a whistle, the 12th train slowly drove out of the platform of Shenyang Station. There were 612 passengers and 32 crew members on the train.
In the drizzle, the sky is getting dark. Just two hours after the start of the car, the rain changed. What had been a light rain suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, and the raindrops the size of beans were frantically banging on the car window under the strong wind.
It was completely dark, and the passengers in the car could only see dazzling lightning flashes in the distance.
When the train driver received instructions from the railway authorities to start driving slowly in response to the increased rain, passengers generally believed that the rainstorm would soon pass. However, when the heavy rain did not stop in the middle of the night, several flashing lights in the distance caught the driver's attention, which was the signal for an emergency stop.
It turned out that the train had already traveled to Shihe Bridge, and the station staff informed that the flood situation on the opposite side of the bridge was severe, and the train was not allowed to move forward for safety reasons. As a result, train 12 stopped at the bridge to await further instructions.
The railway bridge was higher than the river level, which was relatively safe, and people breathed a sigh of relief for a while. In the dark of night, most of the passengers have fallen asleep, and even the driver is immersed in sleep.
Watchmen in the rainstorm: Li Rikui, a train officer, and Zhang Minyuan, the purser, have traveled hundreds of times on this railway line, but they have never seen such a violent flood. The train stopped on the bridge, and the worries in their hearts could not be quelled, and they decided to brave the torrential rain and cautiously get off the train to check the situation.
The scene in front of them made their hearts tremble, and the whole bridge had begun to tremble under the impact of the flood, and the flood water under the bridge was surging and the water surface was constantly **. Zhang Minyuan immediately rushed to the side of the road and tried to contact the railway department to report the emergency, but the heavy rain broke the **line, making it impossible for her to dial**.
Despite this, they did not give up and remained at their posts in the torrential rain, doing their best to protect the safety of passengers and the railway.
When Lee learned that the bridge might not be safe, he decided to take immediate action. He hurried back into the train and ran to the cab as fast as he could, hoping to get the driver to evacuate the bridge as soon as possible.
After all, the safety of the bridge will be directly determined by the strength of the piers, and the stability of the bridge is more stable on the ground. The passengers inside the train were awakened by the sound of heavy rain outside, and they found that the train had stopped and began to feel anxious and uneasy.
Some asked the flight attendants what was going on, some comforted each other, and even some children were already crying. Li Rikui rushed into the cab, shook the sleeping driver awake, and nervously explained to him the dangerous situation in which the train was located.
Since the sound of water and rain outside was so loud, the two almost had to roar to hear each other. What made Li Rikui angry was that the driver showed hesitation. He feared that if he changed the direction of travel without permission, he might be punished by his superiors.
The flood **, the bridge shook, and the lives of more than 600 people in the car hung by a thread. Li Rikui, who was burdened with the risk of punishment, struggled inwardly, but his responsibility for the safety of the masses made him resolutely take out his pistol and order the driver to drive away from the bridge: "In the name of the people's police, I order you to retreat under the bridge!"
If something happens, I'll take it! At Li Rikui's insistent request, the driver finally pressed the lever and the train left the bridge safely. Everyone was stunned to see that the bridge collapsed in an instant after the train left, and was washed away by the flood without a trace.
3. Frightened, he found that the water under the bridge was abnormal, but he did not know that the three reservoirs near the Shihe Bridge had burst their banks. On the night of the 21st, the train was forced to withdraw to the shore, and the torrential rain relentlessly washed over the lonely train, and the passengers on board also fell into extreme anxiety.
Fortunately, the terrain is higher and there is no danger to life for the time being, but it is pitch black in the dark, and passengers do not dare to get out of the car to seek help. After a torturous night, the hazy daylight finally ushered in, and the sky gradually brightened.
The passengers gathered at the window, looked out, and were amazed to see what was going on outside.
Outside the carriage, the world flooded like an ocean. The flood water was rolling in, and the original villages, houses, and farmland were swallowed up. There are beams, clothes, and furniture floating on the water, and the surrounding villages are probably not spared.
Suddenly, people in the carriage noticed someone struggling on the water outside the window, desperately approaching the train, waving their arms and calling for help. Everyone immediately understood that they were the affected villagers, so they offered suggestions and launched rescue operations.
Some crew members and passengers with good water quality jumped out of the train first, leading the villagers around the train to swim to the train with difficulty. The people on the bus were already waiting anxiously by the doors and windows, and everyone relayed to pull the villagers in the water into the car.
Passengers who couldn't swim searched for sheets and ropes in an attempt to pull nearby villagers up.
When the villagers boarded the train, they wept as if they had been reborn, gasping for their breath and thanking the people on board with gratitude. In just one day, they managed to rescue more than 300 villagers trapped in the floodwaters.
However, it is worrying that the nearby villages are so populous that more than 3,000 villagers are struggling to survive the floods. Looking out of the car window, those in the water are tiny like ants, trying to escape the danger with all their might.
However, because the water was too strong and so fast, the people on the train had tried their best and could no longer reach out to help, and could only watch as the people calling for help in the distance were drowned by the waves, but there was nothing they could do.
Flooding continues, and the safety of trains is seriously threatened. Within a day, the train was forced to move three times to the rear under the pressure of flooding, and finally stopped at a relatively high ground to wait for help to arrive.
Fourth, after successfully rescuing more than 300 nearby villagers, the order in the carriage became chaotic. Villagers were devastated by their lost families and damaged homes, and were devastated in the carriages.
The original 600 passengers on the bus became more and more anxious after a day and a night of waiting. In the chaos, the purser Zhang Minyuan led the train staff to calm the passengers one by one and encourage everyone to wait patiently for rescue.
At the same time, the staff gathered all the supplies on the bus and distributed them to hungry and tired passengers. However, the food in the carriage was limited and could not meet the needs of nearly a thousand passengers.
By noon on the 22nd, the passengers were so hungry that some nearby villagers who had traveled long distances from the flood to find the train had even fallen ill.
In the face of the flood, the party members in the car stepped forward and decisively set up a temporary party branch. Some of them helped the flight attendants maintain order, while others bravely got out of the car in search of food.
In the vast expanse of the flood, most of the grain has been soaked in water and is almost useless. Luckily, they found some flour in the water that was not soaked with water, and these became their precious life-saving food, which they were happily carried to the high ground.
Then, they gathered dry firewood, lit a fire on the high ground, and used the cooking utensils on the cart to burn nearly a thousand hot cakes and distribute them to each passenger. After a hungry day, the passengers burst into tears when they got the steaming cakes.
What's even more exciting is that after being trapped for a day and a night, they heard the roar of *** overhead, and were finally found and rescued by rescuers.
When the news of the 12th train being trapped came, it was immediately reported to the command. Due to the turbulent water and complicated traffic conditions in the place where the train was trapped, rescuers could not immediately carry out rescue operations, so they could only row boats to rescue in batches.
In the next few days, rescuers airdropped urgently needed supplies to the trapped train by ***, ensuring the safety of the lives of the people on board. The leaders of the railway bureau even took a boat to visit the personnel on the train and encouraged them to strengthen their confidence and overcome difficulties.
With the continuous efforts of the rescuers and the insistence of the personnel on board, the trapped passengers were evacuated in batches in an orderly manner. Finally, on July 25, after three days and three nights of hardship, nearly 1,000 trapped people on the 12th train were successfully rescued.
The whole country was boiling, the good news came, the 12th train rescue mission was completed perfectly, and people cheered for the successful rescue of the people trapped on the train. The passengers and the villagers who had taken refuge expressed their deep gratitude to the train crew for their heroic command.
After the train escaped, the false reports of the "ghost train" by foreign media were self-defeating, and this touching Chinese story gradually spread. Thanks to the bravery and benevolence of the staff and passengers, the whole crew was able to escape from danger smoothly and rescued more than 300 villagers affected by the disaster.
This story has emerged many heroes, including the police officer who made decisive decisions, the intelligent and brave purser, the united party branch, and every passenger who reached out in difficulties.
Finally, the 12th train was awarded the honor of "Red Flag Train", and Zhang Minyuan, Li Rikui and others were also commended by the Ministry of Railways.