Ruins of the National Salvation Army Arsenal at Sanchakou

　　The Sanchakou National Salvation Army Arsenal is located to the southwest, not far from the current Sanchakou Town Government. Established on the China-Soviet border, the Sanchakou Arsenal was initiated in May 1932 by Meng Jingqing, a senator of the National Salvation Army, with the approval of Commander Wang Delin. It was funded through donations raised by the Chamber of Commerce and the Farmers' Association. Initially, the arsenal had one four-horsepower gasoline engine, one lathe, and a small set of tools including pliers, hammers, and files. The workforce started with just thirty workers. Its main piece of equipment, the lathe, was dismantled and transported from the Ning'an Flour Mill by Meng Jingqing. Meng was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and served as the Party branch secretary within the National Salvation Army. Publicly, he was known as a senator. He had been a student at Harbin Institute of Technology and possessed knowledge of mechanical cutting and lathe operation. During the struggle, he realized that if the Communists were to resist Japan, they needed their own army, and for an army, an arsenal was essential. Therefore, he strongly advocated for using the dismantled equipment from the Ning'an Flour Mill — which had been seized by the National Salvation Army from Japanese puppet assets — to establish the arsenal. After its establishment, the factory expanded from initial workshops for machinery, gunpowder, casting, forging, and carpentry to include a garment workshop. The number of workers grew to over two hundred, making it the logistical hub for the National Salvation Army. The factory director was Wang Hanqing, and the military representative was Li Fengshan. Daily production included forty-eight sacks of hand grenades and more than thirty mortar shells. The local people of Sanchakou actively contributed funds and materials to the arsenal. They delivered collected Japanese shell casings and explosive remnants to the factory, and even donated old copper coins from the Republic of China and Qing Dynasty eras to be used as shell casings. The arsenal remained operational until January 1933, when Japanese forces captured Dongning County.