Hongji Yang, a member of the Communist Party of China, served as foreman, workshop director, and deputy director in Shenyang Heavy Machinery Factory. He was honored as a National Advanced Producer in 1956, 1959 and 1977, and was elected as a delegate to the 10th and 11th National Congresses of the Communist Party of China.

Hongji Yang is an outstanding technical and management expert in China's metallurgical field who has grown from a front-line worker. In the 1950s, he broke the convention that open hearth furnaces could only smelt carbon steel and pioneered the smelting of alloy steel in open hearth furnaces, ensuring the urgent needs of production. In the mid-1970s, he overcame technical difficulties and smelted high manganese steel in an open-hearth furnace, significantly reducing electricity consumption and creating another miracle in open-hearth furnace smelting. In the 1980s, he successfully developed oil separation equipment to control pollution and used coal tar instead of heavy oil for steelmaking, saving 500,000 yuan annually. With a number of major breakthroughs, he has strongly supported enterprises in increasing production, reducing consumption, improving quality and enhancing efficiency, making significant contributions to the country's industrial construction.

Before 1954, neither Hongji Yang nor steelmaking furnaces of Shenyang Heavy Machinery Factory were well-known. Before Hongji Yang became the furnace manager, the open-hearth furnace could only smelt ordinary carbon steel. The alloy steel castings and forgings required for heavy-duty factory products have to be smelted in electric furnaces. There are only two electric furnaces in the factory, and the output is low. Even if they work overtime, they still cannot meet the production needs. Hongji Yang refused to listen to the evil. He was determined to break the traditional framework that open-hearth furnaces could only be used to smelt ordinary carbon steel but not alloy steel.

Breakthrough and innovation are no easy tasks. Electric stoves consume “refined grains”, while open stoves consume “coarse grains”. The open hearth swallows ore, while the electric stove chews scrap steel. Some people are in favor of Hongji Yang plan to smelt alloy steel in an open hearth, while others are skeptical. Some people say, "How could rice grow on naturally saline-alkali land!" Hongji Yang, relying on his own experience, carefully analyzed the differences between the two types of furnaces and the conditions required for smelting alloy steel. Under his organization, multiple measures such as the bottom of the iron oxide furnace were adopted, and alloy steel was eventually produced. Not only did they pioneer a new path for smelting alloy steel in an open hearth, but they also significantly reduced the time for steelmaking and steel tapping, increasing efficiency by more than 20 times at once.

The year 1962 was a very important turning point for Hongji Yang. Shenyang Heavy Machinery Factory cannot do without cold-rolled rolls. Whether it is the production of crushers or hobbing shears, this core component is indispensable. At that time, the "big brother" of the Soviet Union suddenly changed its expression and stopped giving us the products for which we had signed contracts. This predicament exceeded the limit that the factory could bear. Facing the difficulties, Hongji Yang once again showed his stubbornness. It's better to have something oneself than others. Relying on others is unreliable. To solve difficulties, one has to rely on oneself. The National Development and Reform Commission has issued an order for heavy industry factories to test refrigerated rolls on their own. The core of the problem still lies in the raw material issue of alloy steel. The raw materials for alloy steel can only be smelted in an acidic open hearth furnace. Hongji Yang accepted the task. He thought that even if it meant "bowing his head to the ground and bending his back from exhaustion", he would still complete it.

To ensure normal production conditions, if the refractory magnesia bricks on the top of the steelmaking furnace fall off, they must be picked up first and then repaired. The major overhaul also begins by picking up the magnesia bricks that have fallen from the top of the furnace to the bottom one by one. Hongji Yang has done this assignment countless times. It should be noted that even a steelmaking furnace with a temperature of 1,800 degrees Celsius during normal steelmaking can reach as high as 500 degrees Celsius during major cooling overhauls. Hongji Yang dressed in the asbestos steel-making suit he had worn for over a decade, picked up the grass bag soaked in water and draped it over his head. He put on the pair of tattered gloves and, under the cover of the cold air from the blower, took a leap forward and jumped into the burning furnace. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... When he counted to 17, he held two magnesia bricks and rushed out of the furnace. Then, one after another, Communist Party members, League members and workers rushed in and out. No one could stay in the furnace for as long as 17 seconds. When most people reached four numbers, regardless of whether they had taken the bricks or not, they all ran out of the furnace. Not to mention the high temperature, even the magnesia bricks that fell from the furnace top weighed as much as 34 pounds each. The open hearth furnace has been repaired, and the molten steel has come out. Its chemical composition and physical indicators have all met the design standards. This is an epoch-making announcement. The history of relying on imported cold-rolled rolls has come to an end.

Even to this day, people still often associate the scene of Hongji Yang, wearing an asbestos steel-making suit and with a water-soaked straw bag over his head, rushing into a 500-degree high-temperature steel-making furnace with the touching scene of the iron man Jinxi Wang, braving the severe cold of minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius, fearlessly jumping into a mud pool covered with thin ice and stirring the mud with his own body. People are still marveling and being moved by it.

In 1974, the whole country launched a major "mining war", and the output of mining equipment at Shenyang Heavy Machinery soared. As a result, the demand for high manganese steel castings with strong wear resistance also increased. This type of steel was originally smelted in electric furnaces. At that time, due to insufficient power supply, only 3 to 4 furnaces could be smelted each day, which was far from meeting the demand. Under Hongji Yang organization, they overcame numerous technical challenges and produced high manganese steel in an open hearth furnace. Moreover, for each batch of high manganese steel produced, 25,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity can be saved compared to smelting the same amount of steel in an electric furnace, creating another miracle of an open hearth furnace. In 1976, Shenyang City supported the construction of "Liaohua". He led an engineering team composed of 32 factories and 24 professional teams from the whole city to "Liaohua". A large spherical tank with a diameter of 22.4 meters was successfully welded there in accordance with the technological standards of advanced industrial countries. In 1982, the factory carried out the treatment of phenol water pollution at the cold gas station. It was he who took the lead again. He successfully developed an oil separation device, controlled the pollution, and recovered 90 tons of waste oil from the sewer, saving 300,000 yuan in sewage discharge fees each year. He also organized the workers to use the by-product coal tar from the gas station to replace heavy oil in steelmaking, saving 500,000 yuan each year.

       Hongji Yang, who has been closely associated with steelmaking furnaces throughout his life, has created one miracle after another with his diligent study and the indomitable spirit of "not listening to evil and never being crushed". On October 12, 1996, Hongji Yang passed away forever. Before his death, he kept saying, "I want to take a look at the open hearth." Nearly 20 years have passed, but people still remember that he was a warrior made of special steel whose heart was hotter than the fire in the furnace.