145 years ago today, on September 16, 1880 (August 12, 1880 lunar calendar), the Lanzhou Tweed Weaving Bureau founded by Tso General started construction. September 16, 1880 - The Lanzhou Tweed Weaving Bureau founded by Tso General started construction. This was the earliest machine wool textile factory run by the Qing government in the Westernization Movement. It closed down in 1884. As the leader of the Hunan Army in the late Qing Dynasty and one of the representative figures of the Westernization School, Tso General Tso was also a pioneer in creating industry in western China. The Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau he founded was the cradle of modern industry in the northwest, and the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau he founded was the first wool textile enterprise in China. In the fourth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1865), the West Asian Haohan Khanate Agubai led his army to invade the southern part of our country Xinjiang, and in the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), he established the "Zedshar Khan State" in the southern border. After that, Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to send troops to occupy the Ili area in the tenth year of Tongzhi (1871). At that time, the defense of the southeast coast was very tense, and some people in the DPRK and China advocated giving up Xinjiang and strengthening the coastal defense with all their strength. Zuo Zongtang advocated "the east is the coastal defense, and the west is the blockade defense, and both are equally important." He believed that the southeast coastal defense could not be ignored, but the recovery of Xinjiang was even more urgent. This opinion was approved by the Tongzhi Emperor. In the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), Zuo Zongtang was transferred At that time, the arms of the Shaanxi and Gan armies relied on the Tso General Tang Department, and the arms of the Tso General Tang Department were also "all purchased by Shanghai Foreign Bank, and the value is very expensive. The other military uniforms used... were all made in Hubei Province in the past and transported to Xi'an." Due to the high value and inconvenience of transportation, Tso General Tang decided to build a small arms factory as soon as he arrived in Xi'an, and the Xi'an Machinery Bureau came into being. In order to enable the Xi'an Machinery Bureau to quickly put into production, Tso General Tang recruited a group of trained skilled workers from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, and spent more than 300,000 taels of silver to buy machines to make foreign guns, copper caps, and flowering bullets. As the war progressed, in the eleventh year of Tongzhi (1872), Zuo Zongtang marched into Lanzhou, planning to recover Xinjiang occupied by Agubai and realize his proposition of "sea defense in the east and blockade defense in the west". Because the center of gravity of the war moved to Gansu, Zuo Zongtang dismantled all the equipment of the Xi'an Machinery Bureau and moved it to Lanzhou. It was located in Changjia Lane, Lanzhou, which is now the southwest area of Lanzhou Gymnasium, and was renamed Lanzhou Machinery Manufacturing Bureau. At that time, the cost of building the factory was very difficult, so Zuo Zongtang entrusted Shanghai Hou Fu Road and red-roofed businessperson Hu Xueyan to borrow two silver 4 million from HSBC Bank of the United Kingdom to purchase machinery and equipment. In order to strengthen the technical strength of the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau, Zuo Zongtang on the one hand recruited a group of skilled workers from Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian and other places. On the other hand, he appointed a named admiral Lai Zhen, who had followed him for many years and knew a lot about machines, to preside over the factory affairs. He started to build it, and it was completed and put into production that year. The Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau mainly produces weapons and ammunition. Lai Zhen is an expert in weapons manufacturing. He leads some craftsmen in Guangdong and Zhejiang, as well as foreign craftsmen, and produces it day and night. Products include imitation German breech screw cannons, imitation Italian heavy guns, and imitation German breech seven-shot guns. And improve the domestic mountain-splitting cannons and Guangdong-made shells. The original mountain-splitting cannon was very bulky and required 13 people to cast it. After improvement, only 5 people were needed; the lifting gun was originally three people to put two, and after transformation, it became one person to put one. The manufacturing bureau also produced a large number of copper guides, copper caps, and large and small flowering bullets. Gunpowder for loading bullets and shells was originally imported from abroad, and the freight was expensive. In the first year of Guangxu (1875), the Lanzhou Gunpowder Bureau was established to produce high-quality gunpowder. Guns and guns were equipped to enter Xinjiang. In early May of the first year of Guangxu, Zuo Zongtang was appointed as the imperial envoy, supervised the military affairs of Xinjiang, and began to implement the claim of recovering Xinjiang with full authority. At that time, the high-quality guns and ammunition produced by the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau had reached the world's advanced level of manufacturing technology. These guns and ammunition were continuously supplied to the troops marching into Xinjiang, which played a great role in the just war to wipe out the Agubai regime and defend the territorial integrity of the motherland. It set a precedent for the first time in 37 years since the Opium War that domestic weapons were used to defeat foreign invaders. After Zuo Zongtang was transferred from Shaanxi and Gansu, he said with the governor Yang Shiquan, "The cannon flowering seeds were all the first-hand managers of Lai Town, and they were helped to conquer Suzhou. More than 1,400 flowering seeds were used. If it wasn't for the establishment of self-control at that time, it would have been scarce and could not be used. In the cities of Xinjiang, the speed of recovery is the second, only the four western cities have obtained more than a hundred large and small gun emplacements, and the rest are empty cities. It is necessary to add arrangements, and the old guns recovered by Yili are not suitable, how can the Russians keep the guns and give them to me, and it will be difficult in the future. My brother saw that the town of Yulai found out how many guns were stored, and it is necessary to add a few more. Each gun requires about five or six hundred guns. Fang Mishu is in urgent need, so this manufacturing cannot be stopped. Shangxi told the town to rush to build the artillery, store it for distribution, and prepare the flowering guns. "In the 32nd year of Guangxu (1906), the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau moved to a small warehouse on the south of Wudu Road. In the 5th year of the Republic of China (1916), it was moved to the Gansu Gongyuan, which is now the Second Hospital of Landa University. Zhang Guangjian, the overseer of Gansu, titled "Gansu Machinery Bureau" on the doorstep and continued to produce guns and ammunition. In the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), after the National Army entered Gansu, the Gansu Machinery Bureau entered its heyday. There are thousands of employees. It can imitate Czech-style, Hanyang-made guns and other guns, as well as light and heavy machine guns and mortars. In the 31st year of the Republic of China (1942), it was moved to Tumenmun. The factory site became Gansu College Hospital. In the 35th year of the Republic of China (1946), Gansu College was expanded into National Lanzhou University. Ganyuan Hospital was changed to Landa Hospital. After liberation, it was successively changed to the Affiliated Hospital of Lanzhou Medical Zuo Zongtang's development of northwestern industry was developed on the basis of the arms industry established by the needs of the war. But he did not limit the arms industry to the production of weapons, but developed it into a civilian industry according to the situation and local conditions. After the large-scale military operation in Xinjiang ended, he deeply felt that in order to consolidate the northwestern frontier defense, it is necessary to vigorously develop the northwestern local economy. Therefore, he took advantage of the unique wool resources in the northwest and established the Gansu Weaving General Administration on the front road of Changjiaxiang and the site of the original back camp. The first Sino-foreign cooperative factory was very difficult to set up at that time. Zuo Zongtang commissioned Hu Xueyan to buy more than 1,200 pieces of machinery and equipment from German merchants in Shanghai, and it took a year to transport them to Lanzhou. He also hired more than a dozen craftsmen from Germany, selected factory apprentices from Ding Yong in Shaanxi and Gansu, and trained the first batch of industrial workers for Gansu. In Zuo Zongtang's opinion, using the specialty wool in the northwest to develop the wool textile industry is a cause that benefits the country and the people. He said: "Today's apprentices are the choice of craftsmen at different times... With the wool produced in China, the wool woven in China is generally sold in the mainland. The Gan people enjoy their own benefits, while the clothing brown is far from being sold in the provinces." On September 16, the Guangxu Sixth Year (1880), the Weaving Bureau started construction. The completion of the Gansu General Administration of Weaving is a major event in the history of modern industrial development in our country. It is the first wool textile factory in the history of our country and one of the two tweed factories in Asia. It is also the first cotton mill in our country opened by Li Hongzhang in Shanghai. It is also the first Sino-foreign cooperative factory in the history of our country. It is of great significance in the industrial history of modern China and even Asia. The weaving bureau produces 10 to 14 turnips a day. Zuo Zongtang saw that the woven cashmere was thin and fine, beautiful and durable, not worse than that of foreigners, and was very happy. In the winter of that year, he brought the wool textiles produced by the Gansu Weaving Bureau to Beijing, which aroused the interest and praise of all parties, and also attracted the attention of some countries with more developed industries in modern times. The British sent people to the Gansu Weaving Bureau for inspection, and published the inspection report in the Shanghai "Zi Linxi Daily". After the liberation of Lanzhou, the Gansu Weaving Bureau was changed to the second wool textile factory in Lanzhou. The establishment of the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau and the Gansu Weaving Bureau made modern industry shine in the always isolated and backward Lanzhou area, breaking the silence of the feudal economy in Lanzhou, and made the ancient Lanzhou begin to enter the palace of modern industry. It played an important role in promoting the transformation of the social and economic structure of Lanzhou and the entire northwest, as well as the development of social economy and the progress of civilization. Inside the Weaving Bureau Lanzhou Weaving Bureau