It is an Anqing of Anhui.
This article is very comprehensive and recommended.
The Ancient City: Eight Hundred Years of Wind and Rain
Author's signature: Laowu
1. Looking for the memory form of the ancient city
Upstream— —Midstream—Downstream: the three-level drop in the physical geography of the Yangtze River. Anqing is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and is the gateway to the 800-mile Wanjiang River; east-west-south-north: the azimuth coordinates of the national administrative geography. Anqing is located in the middle of the Yangtze River. Bei, located in the southwest of Anhui, an ancient country with oriental civilization, is the only ancient city on the north bank of the thousand-mile river (from Hankou to Nantong in the old days). In other words, it is both downstream and upstream, it is called the east but also the west, south and north at the same time. It is such a city. Do you think it is strange?
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Many years ago, when I was wandering around Ximen Old Street, I often saw several inscriptions of “Jiading Ten Years” (1217) or “Shaoding” embedded in the outer walls of houses. "Renchen" (1232) and other city bricks; now, if you are interested, go to the city museum, visit the visiting scholar Mr. Hu Jiqiao on Taiping Temple Street, or go to the backyard of the antique city boss Cheng's private house on Gongnong Street. I visited a large number of ancient bricks and rubbings with inscriptions. These bricks contain memories that are almost seven or eight hundred years old. The old city wall that has haunted me for many years seemed like a distant dream. When I saw this "city", the city walls, gate towers, pavilions, fences, passes, etc. were gone. The concept of "city" was gone. Only the visible and tangible "market" is left, which makes people remember and ponder endlessly. For me, the large-scale demolition of the ancient city wall in 1958 has since become an intangible memory. Only through the assimilation of local literature and the incorporation and innovation of word-of-mouth passed down by a large number of sages, can I have the opportunity to communicate spiritually with each generation of old city walls and certain time-honored bricks.
In the hustle and bustle of the city, I often ride a bicycle around the "city" alone, hoping to find some shadow of the old city. Go north from the riverside of Songyangmen Shopping Mall at the south end of Yicheng Road, and pass through "Zongyangmen" (East Gate), "Dazhazi", "Xiaozhazi", and "Jianshemen" (Linghumen, Xiaodongmen) , go west through the "Little North Gate" of Linghu South Road (one of the city gate caves, located at the north entrance of Shuangjing Street, exiting the cave gate leads directly to the National Anhui University during the Republic of China), cross the Baizi Bridge Roundabout, and go up to the north of Dekuan Road. At the intersection of the street, take the "Jixian Gate" (North Gate) and look to the northwest at the "Wanguan Gate". When you arrive at the Yulin intersection and then go east, you will see the "Zhengguan Gate" (Bagua Gate, West Gate) and "Yuhong Gate". , "Jinbaomen" and "Tong'anmen", and then pass through Liang Road and Ximen Ferry, then come to Yanjiang West Road and head straight east, pass by "Zhenhaimen" (Shengtang Gate, Dayanmen), and arrive at "Kangji Gate" (Small South Gate), pass the Port Authority Pier, turn a small corner and head north again, returning to the original point of "Zongyang Gate". These 13 city gates (including two gates and one gate opening) are all wall buildings from the Yuan Dynasty to the Republic of China. What kind of city gates were there in the Song Dynasty when the city was first built?
It was a winter 787 years ago. After nearly a year of intensive construction, the Anqing City Wall was successfully completed. Its circumference is 9 miles and 13 steps, the wall is 2 feet high, the base of the wall is 7 feet wide, and the top is 3.5 feet wide. There is earth in the middle, and green bricks are built on both sides to the top. There are 3032 crenels on the top. The area inside the wall is equivalent to 2.7 square meters in today's system. kilometers, the city is slightly circular. There are 5 city gates in the wall: Songyang Gate in the east, Kangji Gate in the southeast, Shengtang Gate in the south, Zhengguan Gate in the west, and Jixian Gate in the north. From this calculation, Anqing's city construction started in 1217 AD, the tenth year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was historically known as "Shankou Song City" or "Southern Song Dynasty Anqing Old City".
The above five city gates have changed from the square gates of Guijiao in Tucheng Village in prehistoric Anqing City (before 1217). They are built into solid brick and stone gates with two-story cornice gate towers. Gate is the name given to the city when it was first built in the Southern Song Dynasty. After generations of wars, construction, additions and demolitions, and natural disasters, the location, title, style, function, etc. of the city gate, as mentioned above, have all undergone great changes.
It should be mentioned that the Wanguan Gate between the west and north was one of the six city gates that Yu Que (1303-1358) painstakingly managed in the Yuan Dynasty. A few years later, it was destroyed by the rebel army. , extended to the early Ming Dynasty, it has gradually become choked, and Wanguan Gate has lost its charm... Today, I just walked around the old city of Anqing, and it didn't take an hour. It seemed like a tourist trip to ancient times.
In order to get more information about the ancient city wall ruins, I walked around the old city clockwise (previously counterclockwise). What I felt now was its simple cultural atmosphere. Based on what I can see, I have selected some interesting stories to share with you: The three characters "Zongyangmen" engraved on the wall of the east gate are written in Yin and are written by Bao Shichen (1775-1775, a famous calligrapher from Jingxian County in the Qing Dynasty). —1855), each character is about 66 centimeters in diameter. I saw a couplet hanging high above its gate: "After passing through the rise and fall of the sea of ??clouds, listening to the morning bells of the wild temple, it was like a dream; I can't describe the changes in the past and present, but the bright moon has shone on me for thousands of years." According to Peng Yulin, the governor of the late Qing Dynasty ( Served in 1862) personally wrote. Not far to the west is Kangji Gate. There was originally a plaque on it: "Jiang Guo Feng Qing", which was given by Tuoyong (in office in 1761), the governor of Anhui during the Qianlong period. Further ahead, we see the Zhenhai Gate again. There is also a plaque on it, named "Haimen Tianzhu" - the meaning of the title comes from the stone carving of "Haimen First Pass" on Xiaogushan in the Yuan Dynasty. Later generations coined the word "Haimen Tianzhu" based on this. "Sunset" is one of the 12 scenic spots in Anqing; some poets have used this as an allusion to "Qin Shihuang's crossing to Zhu" in the "Historical Records": "(where) the sunset has thousands of rays of light, the waves are surging, and the sails are blocked, and everyone seems to be following. "Come on the sun." However, Wang Shizhen (1526-1590) of the Ming Dynasty sailed through Anqing and faced such beautiful scenery. He did say that Wancheng was surrounded by pheasants (zigzag-shaped city walls), and the waves hugged the Guo (city wing). There are mountains inside and outside, the spiritual mist shines widely, and the name of thousands of pines is astonishing as Penglai on the sea. In front of the Zhenhai Gate, tourists stopped unconsciously, but saw another couplet hanging on the city tower: "The sunset shines on the Haimen, the jade flute plays the willows several times; the moon crosses the city gate, and the polygonum flowers plunder the fishing boats at certain times." Nostalgic for the past, the road is familiar, and it is already too late. To the west of the city, you can see the four big characters on the Jixian Gate in the north of the city: "Yicheng Tianqi" (see below for details). When you look up, you can see another ancient pair: "Looking at Longshan in the distance, the Xiongguan ground is thousands of miles away; when you get close to Fengque, you can see the ancient county. There are thousands of families at the head of the river. "Standing at the site of Jixian Gate at the end of Beizheng Street, looking eastward, my thoughts passed by Longshan Road, Anshiyuan, turned to No. 2 Middle School, and headed south... It would be better to collect more ancient couplets. Is it feasible to use the couplets on the pillars to find the remains of ancient buildings? If you don’t have any physical information, you might as well give it a try! Sure enough, through the ink path opened by Mr. Bai Qihuan, an expert on Chinese couplets, we found several ancient buildings on the city wall. Not far to the east beyond Jixian Gate is the Huanghua Pavilion. It was built on the ancient city wall in the north of the city. It used to be the bell tower of Anqing Mansion. It was destroyed during the Republic of China. There is a couplet on the pavilion. You might as well borrow a piece of music: "A few clear tones." The scenery of the mountains is ringing, and the gentle breeze carries the fragrance of rice." Between the No. 2 Middle School and the Health School, another "Hundred Flower Pavilion" was found, built on the northeast corner of the city wall. It should be noted that "this pavilion is not that pavilion". It is not the "Baihua Pavilion" in today's health school, nor the two "Baihua Pavilion" described in "One Hundred Years of Anqing". It is a conjoined building on the city wall. Objects, so I quote them. It is a pity that this pavilion has been destroyed by the Taiping Army's war. It is a new work for future generations and will not be repeated. When I returned to the "Zongyang Gate" in the east of the city, I found another pavilion to read the couplets. There were few historical materials and I felt ecstatic. The couplets were very popular: "The winds of eight Anhui are calm and the four realms are clear, and the waves of a river are steady and carry thousands of sails." Thinking after seeing the couplets. The pavilion was located on the city wall on the north side of "Congyang Gate" (south side of today's Yingjiang District Committee Building), and was named "Caihua Pavilion". It was demolished in the late Republic of China.
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The history of city construction in the 20th and 43rd centuries
At the beginning of the 13th century AD, the northern Jin army invaded the south in a large scale, destroyed Guangzhou, and forced In Ezhou, there are many police officers along the way, and the situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is very tight. At that time, Anqing had not yet built a city, and there were only two earthen gates, one in Wankou (5 miles away from Shankou Town, Huaining County), and the other in Yichengdu, Shengtang Bay (today's Anqing urban area). The two gates were 15 miles apart. Huali.
In 1217, in order to fight against the Jin army that marched south and guard Anqing, the gateway to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, it became a strategic hub for the Southern Song Dynasty government to cross south. The military government stationed in Anqing decided to build a war-ready brick city at Wankou (mountain pass), which was known in history as " Anqing Old Town in the Southern Song Dynasty". Fourteen years later, in 1231, the "Old City of Anqing" moved 15 miles east from Wankou, and a brick city was built at Yichengdu, which was historically known as the "New City of Anqing in the Southern Song Dynasty" (today's urban area). Some of the bricks used in the "New City" were dismantled and transported from the "Old City", some came from temples and other buildings in Wankou and surrounding areas, and some were fired in various kilns... This is the process of building Anqing City. Around 1236, when the Mongols came, the government and citizens of Anqing abandoned the city and fled, and once moved to Luoshazhou and Guichi Yangchazhou on the river in the eastern suburbs. A few years later, the situation stabilized, and people gradually returned to Yichengdu, and the new city government once again launched a new round of city-building movement...
In 1260, Ma Guangzu, the highest military and political officer in Anqing, " The city wall was built on the ruins of "New City" (today's urban area). In current terms, his title is: Chief of Military Defense along Jiangnan East Road, Acting Special Commissioner for Grain and Agriculture Reclamation in He County, Wuwei, and Anqing Regions under the Central Ministry of Industry. The initial construction work of Anqing City continued from 1217 to 1260 and lasted for 43 years. It was finally completed and became the seat of Huaining County and Anqing City in the Song Dynasty and the capital of Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. Today's Hangzhou) was the "bridgehead" on the western front, and its military strategic position became increasingly important.
Continuing like this, Anqing City has been through the six dynasties of the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic of China, and New China. Until 1958, when the old city wall was largely demolished, its actual survival time is calculated as 698. (1260-1958), plus the "Old City" and "New City" built successively in the Southern Song Dynasty in 43 BC, the entire Anqing ancient city wall lasts for 741 years (1217-1958)! From 1958 to the present, another 46 years have passed, and Anqing City celebrates its 787th birthday (1217-2004).
3. The creators of "Anqing Speed"
At the beginning of the city's construction, the ingenuity of the city-building forefathers as well as their organizational structure, management methods in building walls, and construction teams and project progress, etc., we have no way of knowing, but we really want to know. Over the past seven hundred years, history has not forgotten it. It indirectly recorded the first high-speed city-building movement for us to analyze and verify.
According to research, in the Southern Song Dynasty more than 700 years ago, the "national" population was only 27.85 million. In order to build the "Southern Song Dynasty Anqing Old City", 5,000 soldiers and civilians were mobilized and requisitioned in the past year. There are 20,000 migrant workers, totaling 25,000 people, accounting for almost one thousandth of the "national" population! Think about it, what a massive project it was back then -
Among the 25,000 people, 5,000 were soldiers and civilians stationed in the field. They were a paramilitary organization. They farmed and practiced in their spare time, and during the war, They were assigned to build the Anqing strategic armament city when they were on the front line or transporting or constructing military projects. Each person should participate in the construction of the city for at least 90 days. The 20,000 migrant workers requisitioned according to household and land properties were assigned to work in rotation every day and rest. No work breaks. In summer, each person can get 6 days off per month, with a half-hour break at noon, and half of it after autumn.
Their leadership and management methods are very rigorous and meet scientific and standardized requirements. They are still widely used by us in various production management links. That is: management is in place, implementation is carried out by people, responsibility is divided into sections, and checks are carried out at all levels. They combined civil servants at all levels (including military personnel and retired personnel) who were transferred, seconded and hired from various departments, taking into account their work ability according to their grade and size, to form a strong leadership team, and then divided the "team" members into 18 management units (excluding the chief and deputy commander), separate implementation, unified coordination and close cooperation. How to understand specific management dynamics? We might as well analyze their organizational structure and it is not difficult to know the management methods of fortification.
Huang Qian (1152-1221), the commander-in-chief of the city building, was appointed as the acting mayor of Anqing City and the director of the Agricultural, Commercial and Military Affairs Bureau.
Xiang Qiang, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of City Construction, title: Zhengqipinguan, First Vice Mayor of Anqing City and Director of the Culture and Education Bureau.
Zhao Shanbu, Inspector of Section A of the City Building Management Office, is the eighth-rank official of Huaining County. Zheng Ying, Inspector of Section B of the Management Office, is a ninth-grade Anqing City Public Procuratorate judge. Inspector Zhao Shanxuan of Section C, from the eighth grade to the Criminal Police Brigade Captain of Anqing City GA Bureau. Section D Inspector Wang Li, from the eighth rank, is the second deputy mayor of Anqing City and the secretary-general of the government. Inspector Zhang Sizhi of Section E, acting as the director of the Management Committee of Songyang Town (a town directly under the municipal government) from the eighth level. Section F Inspector Chai Guoan, 28th rank military attache, director of Taizhou Religious Affairs Administration, Zhejiang Province. Inspector Li Qi of Section G, the 35th rank military attache, is the newly appointed Minister of Armed Forces of Taiping Prefecture. Section H Inspector Zhao Shili, from the eighth rank to the fire brigade captain of Anqing City Police Force. Inspector Dai Gu of Section I, 43rd rank military attaché, commander of Taihu County Customs and Defense Battalion. Inspector Zhou Yu, section J, is a civil servant in Huaining County, Anqing City, from the ninth rank. Inspector Chen Rong of Section K is a national registered scholar; alternate officer Wang Ren is a non-staff national scholar. Inspector Xiang Gongrong of Section L, local establishment scholar and distinguished guest.
The above are the general persons in charge of the 12 sections (departments) of the city wall. They perform the duties of inspectors, report to the chief and deputy commander-in-chief, and are directly ordered to be dispatched by the city-building headquarters. . In addition, there are 6 specialized fortification raw material supply offices, engineering departments and chief engineers. For example: Bu Shifu, the inspector of wood and bamboo fuel charcoal supply, and the first deputy director of a certain department on Southeast Road, a military attache, was the general manager of the lumberyard in Anqing City (his administrative title was equivalent to the level of deputy commander-in-chief of city construction). Yang Chuan, the inspector of city brick firing management, was promoted to the eighth grade Anqing Municipal Law Chief. Yu Longli, Supervisor of the City Brick Firing Management Office, is a non-staff scholar. Murong Shun, secretary of the General Headquarters and head of the Finance and Food Supply Department, was secretary-general of Susong County ZF from Jiupin. Yin Chun, the company commander of the trench company directly under the general headquarters, is under the unified management department of Chizhou Bricks, a certain military attaché. Wang Xian, commander of the barracks company directly under the General Headquarters, is a military attaché and former engineer soldier of the Huainan East Road (Yangzhou) Military Region Headquarters. Chief Engineer Zhang Chaozong, 43rd rank military attache, Minister of Armed Forces of Anqing City.
It can be seen that among the 18 management offices (sections), the project quality and project (operation) progress supervise each other and develop in a coordinated manner. The general headquarters is responsible for solving the problems of each office (section) It is a power organ that implements rewards and punishments, dispatches, supervises, and supervises conflicts. It also serves to connect and make up for the artificial cuts caused by the subordinate relationship between the 18 work units, reflecting the completeness, unity, and integrity of the project. Human subjective initiative explores human potential and mobilizes the enthusiasm of all sectors of society and surrounding "neighbors". On the 300th anniversary of the city, even the 100-year-old mother-in-law and her family came to express their gratitude. The affinity between men, women, old and young, coupled with the scientific organizational structure, made the city-building army work hard. In a state where there was no mechanical power at all 787 years ago, manpower Resources are still important. This construction team of the Southern Song Dynasty set a record of "Anqing speed" in the history of ancient Chinese city construction!
A brief history of city construction in the Fourth and Six Dynasties
The "Old City" and "New City" of Anqing in the Southern Song Dynasty, built under the leadership of Huang Qian, were both destroyed by war in a short period of time. The "Anqing Speed" created by thousands of people collapsed in front of the war machine. That was because people fled their homes in a hurry and abandoned the city walls for their own safety. Later historical facts have proved that under some historical conditions, when people are on the wall, the "human wall" will join forces to resist the fire of war outside the wall; under other historical conditions, when people are removed from the wall, the "human wall" will always be separated again. Wounded by war and even by natural disasters.
Overviewing the history of city construction in the Six Dynasties, the entire process can be summarized in 10 words: "construction, surrender, water, repair, burning, war, month, cutting, demolition, and preservation."
Jian: The city was built in the Song Dynasty. It has been mentioned above and will not be repeated.
Jiang: Jiangcheng in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty.
In 1275 AD, Fan Wenhu (? - 1301), the last mayor of Anqing appointed by the Southern Song Dynasty, was afraid of the Yuan army, so he specially prepared wine and went to Kublai Khan in Jiujiang to write to Prime Minister Boyan of the left to accept his surrender. , and handed over the city of Anqing to the Yuan army. In April 1956, Fan Wenhu's coffin tomb was unearthed at the sugar factory construction site in Qipanshan, giving people at that time the opportunity to see the "honorable face" of the capitulators.
Water: the water city of the Yuan Dynasty.
From 1353 to 1356 AD, Yu Que, the highest official of Anqing City, and Han Jian, the military governor of the Yuan Dynasty, organized the military and civilians to dig three long trenches for the first time to divert river water to surround the city.
The first trench leads north from Songyangmen Bridge to Jixianmen and is discharged by the Great Lake. The second trench starts from Tong'an Bridge, passes through Taiping Temple, wraps around Bagua Gate, and joins the long trench at Zhenhai Gate, Kangji Gate and Songyang Gate. The third trench flows from the No. 1 Pharmaceutical Factory, Dekuan Road to Nanzhuang Ridge, and the Textile Factory to Dahu. In addition to the three trenches, there is a wooden fence surrounding the city wall, which raises the height of the city wall to 2 feet and 6 feet, and the depth of the moat to 1 feet. Six 3-story archery towers are built around the city wall to strengthen the military defense capabilities of the city wall.
Repair: City repair in the Ming Dynasty.
There are many historical records about the city building in the Ming Dynasty. The first time it occurred in the late Yuan Dynasty, it is counted as the "Ming Dynasty" because Zhu Yuanzhang was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Before Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he once attacked and abandoned the city. In August 1361, after Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Anqing again, he changed Anqing Road in the Yuan Dynasty to Ningjiang Prefecture in the early Ming Dynasty, and soon it was renamed Anqing Prefecture, that is, Chang Yuchun, the general of the Ministry of Life, repaired the Anqing city wall. In 1374, Zhu Yuanzhang started a large-scale construction project in his hometown of Linhao (Fengyang) and planned to build a central capital. He issued an edict to more than 1,300 cities across the country to donate soil, bricks, and stones voluntarily, and used nearly one million military and civilian labor to build the "imperial city." Under its influence, Zhao Haode, the prefect of Anqing, and Yan Qi, the magistrate of Huaining, also ordered a comprehensive overhaul of the Anqing city wall in order to show their political achievements. The city bricks in the museum now have the words "Si Li Hai was made a craftsman Duan Zirong in the seventh year of Hongwu" (1374), which is a relic from the overhaul of that year. After that, in 1390 and 1539, the Anqing city wall was repaired to a corresponding extent. In 1622, the city wall underwent another major repair. This was confirmed by the discovery of a batch of city bricks with the words "Made in the Second Year of Tianqi" (1622) when the city wall was demolished in 1957. In the early years of the Republic of China, a monument to city building in the Ming Dynasty was discovered in the Linghu Tea Pavilion, with the four characters "Yicheng Tianqi" written on it. The full title of the official who built the city is engraved in front of the stele: "The imperial envoy rectified Anchi and other departments, supervised the army and military preparations, and managed money and food. The post passed the Jiangxi governor's envoy, the right counselor, and proposed punishment according to the history of the inspection department; directly under the jurisdiction of Anqing Prefecture, Pi Yingju; the same Zhi Kang Liangxian; general judge; Xue Zhiyuan; Huaining County Magistrate Huang Peixuan. "According to the research of Jiang Yuanqing, Jin Xingcun and Jiang Fang, the older generation scholars in our city: Ming Dynasty. In the eighth to ninth years of Chongzhen (1635-1636), Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong moved to various prefectures and counties in Anqing. In order to strengthen the resistance, Shi Kefa, Pi Yingju, Huang Peixuan and others repaired the weak points around the city, especially the towers around the north gate. , the battlements were raised, the surrounding horse paths were widened, and four enemy towers were built; in order to prevent cavalry from breaking through, wooden fences were dredged and built along the outer moats of the city wall... After the completion, this "Yicheng Tianmo" monument was erected on Jixian Gate. (Later it was moved to Linghu, which is the place mentioned above).
Burning: Burning the city in the early Qing Dynasty.
In April 1645 AD, Zuo Menggeng, the son of the late Ming marshal Zuo Liangyu, left Wuchang General Army Camp and arrived at the foot of Anqing City. On the seventh day of the lunar month, he broke into Anqing City, set fire to and looted the city, and burned all the moats and wooden fences. , the five watchtowers on the city wall were also burned down, "there was a mutiny in the city, and fires were set on all sides". Wang Zhixin, the co-prefect of Anqing Prefecture, was killed, the prefect Fu Mengbi and the official Chen Jishan escaped, and the governor of Anqing Zhang Liang was captured alive (minor note: Zhu Sizong, Ming Dynasty) Youjian established the first governor in Anqing in 1637). In the flames soaring into the sky, the city of Anqing was scorched and suffered heavy losses. What is quite surprising is that Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing army within a month due to his father's sudden death. When the Qing army entered the city in June, they ordered the prisoners of war to repair the city wall... Five years later, the crenellations of the city wall were built by the Song Dynasty. Every 4 were combined into 1, and 758 were built; 5 additional towers, 16 forts, 6 gunpowder houses, 16 huts, and 238 city houses were built on the city wall. Many gun muzzles.
War: The battle city of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Over the years, whether scholars or villagers have written about the "Taiping Rebellion's Anqing Defense War" in official history or in nonfiction, it has almost become a household name. This article will briefly focus on the issue of "War City".
The battle city during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should be described in two parts: the front part is for the Taiping Army to attack the city, and the rear part is for the Taiping Army to defend the city.
Attack on the city: In the early morning of February 18, 1853, Zeng Chunfa of the Taiping Army led a vanguard of 50 people into the city on a ladder, opened Kangji Gate, Zhenhai Gate and Bagua Gate. The Taiping Army took advantage of the momentum and entered, killing the governor. Jiang Wenqing seized various supplies and 189 Qing cannons. On September 25 of the same year, Yi Wang Shi Dakai led 6,000 people to Anqing, raised the city wall by 5 feet, closed the main gates in the east, west and north, leaving only Kangji Gate in the south for entry and exit. Soon, a small gate was opened in a half-moon-shaped castle outside Songyang Gate to communicate with the outside world. They also successively built watchtowers inside and outside the city such as the Yingjiang Temple Fort and the South Gate, and built earthen walls along the Huanghua Pavilion and Mashan lines of the North Gate and West Gate, which were known as "Zicheng" in history. Eight years later, Zeng Guofan entered the city and demolished them.
Defending the city: In March 1860, Zeng Guoquan led more than 10,000 troops from the 13th Battalion of the Hunan Army to attack Jixian Pass, and Zeng Guofan began to formulate a siege plan. At that time, the Qing troops that successively marched into the surrounding areas of Anqing included: Deputy Governor Duolong'a's 10,000-horse infantry, Chief Envoy Li Xuyi's more than 10,000 infantry soldiers, Bao Chao's 6,000 infantry and cavalry guerrilla divisions, Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi's more than 10,000 Xiang brave soldiers In addition to the thousands of naval forces commanded by Peng Yulin and Yang Zaifu and the Taiping rebels under Wei Jun, the total number was more than 50,000. The Qing army cooperated with water, land, horse and infantry and worked step by step. On August 2, the deployment completed the encirclement of Anqing City. In this encirclement situation, the two armies faced off for 18 months. The Qing army dug two ultra-wide and ultra-deep trenches (some say three) outside the northwest gate city, covering 70 miles. They defeated more than 200 small wooden boats of the Taiping Army on the water of Linghu Lake, and drove away more than 200 armed wooden platoons of the Taiping Army at the mouth of the Anhui River. , fought 4 major battles with the Taiping Army such as King Chen Yucheng who aided the city, and fought more than 100 medium and small battles, cutting off the connection between the soldiers and civilians in the city and the outside world. Therefore, after the war, Zeng Guoquan was nicknamed "Zeng Tie Tong" - describing his siege of Anqing City as tight as an iron barrel. Eventually, the city ran out of ammunition and food, and the Taiping Army fell into a desperate situation of isolation and helplessness. On August 16, 1861, another Taiping rebel general, Cheng Xueqi, led his troops to break through the three forts outside the North Gate City, and proposed to Zeng Guoquan to dig a tunnel to the root of the city wall in Mashan, Ximen. The tunnel was dug on September 4, and at 4 o'clock in the morning on the 5th (some say around 8 a.m.), the traitor Cheng Xueqi led his men to climb up the northwest city wall along the tunnel and loaded it with explosives. "With a loud roar, the city wall was torn apart." There was a gap of dozens of feet, and the bricks, stones and soil rushed into the sky along with the gunpowder smoke, and the Qing troops howled and rushed into the city through the gap" ("History of Anqing·Anqing Defense Battle"). After the Qing army entered the city, more than 20,000 men, women, and children were killed. The river was filled with headless corpses. Even the two foreign ships "Governor" and "Carthage" were blocked, making it difficult to move forward. The Qing army spent 170,000 kilograms of gunpowder and 500,000 rounds of lead in this siege, and the siege lasted 18 months. The offensive and defensive battles inside and outside the city were unprecedentedly brutal. The city was whimpering in the bloody storm, and the trauma caused by the human war was indescribable...
Moon: Moon City in the late Qing Dynasty.
On September 11, 1861, Zeng Guofan stationed in Anqing. At the beginning of the next year, he renovated the devastated city wall. At the same time, a new moon city was built from near Guojiaqiao (some say Sifang City) opposite Mashan in the northwest to the river bank, and two city gates "Jinbao" and "Yuhong" were opened on the moon city. In 1894, Governor Nie Jizhen opened Tong'an Gate to the south of Jinbao Gate. After measurement, the area of ??Yuecheng is 0.95 square kilometers. Including the old city, the total area of ??the city is 3.65 square kilometers. At this time, the Anqing City has changed from a round city in the Song Dynasty to a square city in the late Qing Dynasty due to repeated construction over more than 600 years and the straightening of Yuecheng in the west.
Cut: the city of the Republic of China.
History entered the Republic of China period, and the great rivers and mountains were divided into "mountains" by many warlords. The old city of Anqing was not immune. The walls were arbitrarily torn apart by the government and the people, and the Japanese army bombed and harassed them. When liberation was approaching, the old city turned into a multi-sectioned snake lying in limbo.
In the early 1920s, a municipal road was built, which is now the entrance to Renmin West Road in front of the municipal hospital gate. A gap was opened in the old city wall for people and vehicles to pass, and a wooden gate was nailed to the opening. , which is opened at regular intervals and is sometimes called the "big gate".
In 1922, when Xu Shiying was the governor of Anhui Province, the official opened a gate at the foot of the "Little East Gate" of Baoshan Temple (to the left of the current Wei School gate) and named it "Linghu Gate". There is a gate but no building, and it was soon renamed "Jianshe Gate". In 1930, in preparation for the Fourth Central China Games to be held in Anqing, the municipal authorities spent 15 days opening a road in the east of the city and named it Central China Road. The west end of the road was the entrance to the city wall. The gap in the demolished city wall was as wide as the roadbed (12 meters) and connected with today's Xiaosu Road. It was called "Xiaozhazi" at the time. In 1932, Wu Zhongxin, Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Government of the Kuomintang, erected an archway at the gap of "Dazhazi" and inscribed on the west side: "kaiwuchengwu" (opening all things to become the world's task). In 1934, Liu Zhenhua, Chairman of the Kuomintang Provincial Government, also inscribed four words on the other side (east side) of the Dazhazi Archway: "Dazhazi Vertebral Wheel" (meaning the founder), and at the same time fired a batch of city bricks. The words "Anqing Military and Civilian City Defense Committee, built in the 23rd year of the Republic of China" were embedded to repair some gaps in the east and northeast of the city to defend against the Red Army troops coming from Qianshan. Ten years ago, the base of the city wall of the stadium was also dug into a jagged "cat hole" by citizens who took shortcuts... According to a 1949 map of Anqing City at hand, the moon city on it has completely disappeared. There are 21 sections of passages (including city gates and gaps) between the city and outside the city. On average, there is a gate or gap every 200 to 300 meters. The biggest feature of the old city during the Republic of China was: division - whoever wanted to dig holes, whoever was happy divided it up.
Demolition: demolished cities in the 1950s.
As we all know, the 1950s were a turbulent time, with "weekend labor for cadres", "voluntary labor for Communist Youth League members", and the "Patriotic Pact" of street residents, among the activists. "Challenge", "Response", etc. from time to time (including groups and individuals), the Soviet Big Brother's "Saturday voluntary labor" communist lifestyle infected everyone, as long as there is an order from above, men and women Young and old alike are scrambling to build socialism “more quickly, more cost effectively”. The old city wall of Anqing, which has stumbled through the dust of history, is regarded as a feudal remnant of old China and a thorn in the side of the "New China". "The two imperial walls of Beijing have been demolished. What are we waiting for?" So, a flood of people swarmed towards the city wall, wielding shovels, hoes and rakes. People carried them on their shoulders and carried them on their carts. The broken ones are used to pave the roadbed; the good ones are carried home by everyone. Whether they are used to build tile houses, small steel-making furnaces, repair courtyard walls, or build pig pens is up to you. The bricks have been removed, but there is still so much soil? Those who can be pulled away will be pulled away, and those who cannot walk will be pushed to the moat nearby. Woohoo! The wall fell and everyone pushed it! In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a shortage of road construction materials, and many roads were paved with city wall bricks. So, how many "brick roads" were there in the urban areas of that era? According to the author's preliminary statistics, 9 roads with a total length of 5,050 meters were paved with brick ballast at that time. In addition to the brick ballast roads recorded in writing, there were also reconstruction of small streets and alleys, compaction of house foundations and yards, and landfilling. The dimensions of the trench, etc., are no longer known exactly. “Tearing down a city tower is like removing a piece of my flesh, peeling off the bricks of the outer city is like peeling off a layer of my skin” (1957 Liang Si idiom). I can't find it anymore, but my body and head are in a different place, the blue bricks of the ancient wall! Soul is here, peace is here, my Wanjiang civilization summoned by ancient times!
Bao: contemporary city protection.
The debate over the "demolition or preservation" of the existing ancient Chinese city walls has been around for a long time. Famous ancient architecture experts Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, Chen Zhanxiang, President of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society Luo Zhewen, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences Wu Liangyong, cultural figures Zheng Zhenduo, Yu Pingbo, Feng Jicai, Lao She, Shu Yi, and international architectural master IM Pei, etc., strive to protect China's The ancient city walls and ancient buildings should not be destroyed; Hua Lanhong, another ancient architecture expert, former Beijing mayor Peng Zhen, deputy mayor Wu Han, and members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Ye Gongchuo, Chen Gongpei, Liu Dingwu, etc. advocated that " The old walls should be torn down.” The demolition of the Beijing city wall is related to the fate of more than a thousand ancient city walls across the country. Premier Zhou Enlai of the Government Affairs Council was thinking... At this time, Mao Zedong, the supreme leader of the Republic of China, spoke. In January 1958, at the 14th Supreme State Council meeting in Nanning, Mao Zedong said: "I feel uncomfortable looking at the houses in Beijing and Kaifeng.
Antiques must not be bad, nor must they be too good. Beijing demolishes the archways and digs holes in the city gates. This is a political issue." "The city walls in Nanjing, Jinan, and Changsha have all been demolished. The old houses in Beijing and Kaifeng are the best. All turned into new houses." At the Chengdu Conference in March, Mao Zedong also said: "Beijing should follow the example of Tianjin and Shanghai in demolishing the city wall." On April 14, 1958, Zhou Enlai conveyed the spirit of the State Council meeting and proposed: "According to Chairman Mao's instructions "The urban landscape of Beijing should be completely changed in the next few years." (The above paragraph is quoted from "City Chronicles" by Wang Jun, chief reporter of Xinhua News Agency, published by Sanlian Bookstore in October 2003). Since then, there has been an upsurge in socialist urban construction. It spread across the country, and Beijing's inner and outer ancient cities were demolished on a large scale... Overnight, the news spread across the country. Shanghai, Nanjing, Tianjin, Beijing, Jinan, Changsha... the urban "big brothers" were all demolished. , "little brother", what are you waiting for? The same is true for the whole country, and the same is true for Anqing. As a result, the climax of the demolition of the ancient city wall in Anqing occurred in 1958... Now, Ieoh Ming Pei warned in an interview with Xinhua News Agency chief reporter Wang Jun. Said: "Don't tear down the city wall! It is ideal to keep the inside of the city and build high-rise buildings outside. This is what Paris did... In 1950, Beijing lost a good opportunity. The government gave up the development model of separating old and new construction proposed by Liang Sicheng and other scholars, and instead simply The development direction is to transform the ancient city. In the process, it is wrong to demolish city walls and build ring roads, causing the city's development to lose control and continuity. "I'm talking about Beijing, but it's Anqing that's involved. The debate about "demolition versus preservation" also happened in Anqing... In Anqing, after a generation of local sages and people from all walks of life worked hard, two sections of Anqing's ancient city wall were finally preserved intact. :
The section of the ancient city wall is located on Yuhong Street at the west end of today's Sifang City. The wall is 230.5 meters long and unevenly damaged; the height is 7 meters, the bottom is only 1.9 meters, and the wall width is 0.6 meters. ~0.7 meters, the slope ladder modified by later generations divided it into three sections: 66.5 meters, 71 meters, and 93 meters. However, two thousand years later, this section of the city wall had been damaged by heavy rains, artificial development, and the erosion of the surrounding man-made environment. It is beyond recognition.
The other section is the northwest wall assembly of today's "Anhui Province Second Prison". It is about 45 meters long and 5.2 meters high. The cross-section is trapezoidal, 1.6 meters wide at the bottom and 1.6 meters wide at the top. 0.6 meters wide.
The crenellations on the two sections of the city wall no longer exist, and the neat and perfect joints have disappeared. Fortunately, last year, the developers completed the construction of Yuhong Street and Sifang City. The residential buildings in the area have been developed into beautiful residential complexes. Under the attention of major media in the city, the developers have comprehensively restored the ancient city wall of Yuhong Street to "repair it as it was before", along with the "Yuhong Gate", crenels and beautiful hooks. In February this year, Anqing Daily reporter Yang Leiping clicked the shutter for it, and its beautiful image will remain in history.