Go west out of Fuchengmen, and you will reach the model mouth. The model mouth used to be called the millstone mouth, which was named after the excellent millstone made. 1922, Moshikou village became the first village with electricity in the old suburb of Beiping, so the village was renamed Moshikou the next year. The area around Mokou is still the place with the most camels. Xiangzi, written by Lao She, got the nickname Xiangzi Camel because he was arrested by soldiers and then stole three camels to escape.
Out of the model mouth, the ancient road goes west, crossing Yongding River from Sanjiadian to Liuliqu.
Sanjiadian became a village before Liao Dynasty, which was named after three hotels. This is the original plain area after the highway leaves Xishan, so it has become a coal transportation distribution center. Therefore, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Sanjiadian was one of the most lively and prosperous villages on the ancient road west of Beijing. There are five lines and eight factories in the market, and there are more than 200 large and small shops, including twenty or thirty coal factories alone.
This used to be a guild hall. Shanxi businessmen who go abroad for business often pass through this bustling place when they go to Beijing, so they raised funds to build this Shanxi guild hall in the Ming Dynasty.
Yongding River, which winds from the northwest, has been flowing in the west of Sanjiadian Village for thousands of years. It was the largest ancient ferry crossing on the Jingxi ancient road. As early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a wooden bridge was built on the river because of the need of transporting coal. Until 192 1, Beiyang government allocated 300,000 yuan to build the earliest lime bridge across Yongding River designed by the French in Beijing.
After crossing the Yongding River, we arrived at the hometown of stained glass at the foot of Xishan Mountain. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Liuliqu Village was called Liu Li Bureau. In the early Ming dynasty, a large number of glazed tiles were used to expand the capital and build palaces, half of which were produced by the glazed bureau. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing Liulichang was abolished and merged into Liu Li Bureau, which made the fire of glazed tile kiln flourish to this day.
After the ancient road passes through the Liuliqu, it goes all the way to the west. It goes over mountains and mountains, stringing up one ancient village after another, until it reaches Wangpingkou, an important pass on the ancient road of Jingxi. This ancient road from Modaokou to Wang Ping Kou is called Xishan Road North Road. Standing at the top of Wangpingkou Guancheng, overlooking the depths of the peaks, the eternal post road hidden in the jungle of thorns is as dense as a spider web.
In the early years, every autumn, rich people inside and outside Beijing began to buy cattle and horses and went to Xishan Yaotou to buy coal.
Generally speaking, from Fuchengmen, the "Coal Gate", you go straight out of the city and go west, then you are on the road to the West Mountain. The ancient road from Modaokou to the northwest via Sanjiadian and Liuliqu to Wangpingkou is the north road of Xishan Road. The other road runs from Modaokou to the west, across Yongding River via cocoon, and across Fengkouan to Wang Ping Kou, which is the middle road of Xishan Road. According to legend, in the Five Dynasties, there was a warlord named Liu Rengong who took the mountain as the king and became the local emperor. He set up his own home in Yu He County and cut the mountain to clear the way to build this road, so later generations also called the middle road of Xishan Road the Yu He Ancient Road.
In the middle of this ancient road, there is a place called Yuanmen. From the circle gate to the Fengkou Temple in the west, it is a valley 13 miles long, so the locals call it Mentougou, and the name of Mentougou District in Beijing today comes from it.
The round door is named after this street building with a ticket hole. This street building is the gate of Mentougou, and the village formed here is called Mentougou.
Quanmen can be said to be the birthplace of the coal industry in western Beijing. There used to be a saying in old Beijing: there is a mouthful of porridge at home. If you don't go to Mentougou, you will go to the kiln around the circle door.
On the north side of the island, there is an ancient kiln temple According to legend, the 18th of the twelfth lunar month is the birthday of the kiln god, so in the past, on the 17th of the twelfth lunar month, kiln owners of various coal mines shared their wealth and held grand sacrificial activities here. The organization that managed Jingxi coal industry in Qing Dynasty was located in this temple. After 1949, it was once the government residence of Jingxi mining area in Beijing.
The ancient road passes through the ticket gate, and then walks along the valley called Mentougou, and you arrive at Fengkou Temple, the first pass in western Beijing. Dengfengkou closed the city, overlooking the peaks, only to see gold hidden in green hills and gullies. On the hill less than 200 meters southwest of Guancheng, there are more than 100 hoof nests of different sizes. This 13-meter-long path is the densest hoof nest on the ancient road of Jingxi. In ancient times, due to the limitation of drainage and lifting conditions, most of the coal mines in Jingxi were located in the mountainous area west of Fengkou Temple, which made this ancient road in Jingxi run almost all day in summer and autumn. Fengkou Temple, as the only place to pass, is full of horses and chariots, and the hooves of animals keep kicking around, which formed such a spectacle after 700 or 800 years.
There is also a road from Pangcun in Shijingshan District to Xishan in history, which is Xishan Road South Road. This south road joins the middle road halfway and goes straight to Wangpingkou. In this way, the three ancient roads, north, middle and south, merged at Wangpingkou and then continued to extend westward.
The Jingxi Ancient Road used to be a Guanshan Avenue more than six meters wide, all paved with stones. Because the mountain road is steep, a row of standing stones will be planted every one meter to prevent the stones from loosening and slipping, which is also the secret of the long-term stability of the ancient road.
The ancient road passes through the north, middle and south roads and enters the hinterland of Xishan. Wang Pingkou Society is a combination of ancient roads, which can be described as a throat artery, so it is known as "the road to cross the mountain".
To the east of Wangpingkou, there is a small Anjiatan village. Not only produces coal, but also a famous casserole producing area in the suburbs of Beijing. Today, in this abandoned village, we can still see that the roofs of many houses are paved with cinders left over from casserole burning. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a saying in Beijing that "casserole cooks and firewood is measured". It is said that because of this rumor, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the Yuan Dynasty was too poor, so he sealed the former capital to the fourth prince Judy. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know that casserole is a pot made of sand and soil, which tastes delicious when cooked; "Measuring firewood" refers to coal.
Out of Wang Ping's mouth, after winding for more than forty miles on the mountain road, I arrived at Zhaitang. As early as the Zhenguan period in the Tang Dynasty, it was built on a mountain, and monks in the temple cooked porridge to do good deeds, hence the name Zhaitang.
Starting from Zhaitang, the ancient road turns from west to northwest and passes through Chuandixia Village. Under the Chuanjiang River is a village in the suburbs of Beijing that can best preserve the style of villages in the Qing Dynasty. Nowadays, almost every family here opens an inn and hangs wine flags, just like an ancient road station, which makes people feel like they were in yesterday.
The ancient road goes up the mountain from the lower north side of the bottom of Sichuan, passes through Tianjin Pass, exits Bashan Pass, enters Huailai Basin in Hebei Province, and then goes far away. To the northwest, you can go to Inner Mongolia via Xuanhua and Zhangjiakou. To the west, you can cross Yuxian into Shanxi. As a result, the ancient Jingxi Road connected the Imperial Capital in the east and the Great Wall in the west, which became an important road for Beijing to go west in the past.
Nowadays, the modern road has taken away the cars that used to come and go on the ancient road of Jingxi. Because it is located in the goaf of Mentougou coal mine, for the sake of safety, some villages in mountainous areas have all been relocated since the end of 1970s. Many villages, large and small, condensed by the prosperity of the ancient road in the past have also become broken walls with the abandonment of the ancient road. The ancient road lost its function as a road, and everything around it was flatly abandoned by people.
Time to go back has lived for hundreds of years. At that time, in Beijing, it was just dawn, the distant mountains were near the water, and there was silence. As soon as the city gate was opened, business trips came and went, camel bells rang ten miles away, and horses and mules neighed. Stores welcome delivery, caravans come and go. The mountain belongs to human voice, and the water belongs to camel shadow. Such an ancient road map of Jingxi can only be sealed in the memory of history forever. There are many mountains in the north and west of Beijing. Usually, the mountain range east of Juyongguan and directly along the coast of Bohai Sea is called Yanshan Mountain, and a part of Beijing area is also called Du Jun. To the west of Guangou, the south passes through Juma River and reaches Taihang Mountain, the western hill of Beijing.
The vast western hills have been the western border of Beijing since ancient times, and many dynasties have set up borders here to resist enemies from the west.
The West Mountain stretches for more than 200 miles from north to south, and the depth from east to west reaches 100 miles. In the eyes of feudal rulers of past dynasties, he was the right-hand man of Qianshan Arch. However, Xishan, as a natural barrier of the imperial city, is not an insurmountable natural barrier. The Xishan mountain range is only one or two kilometers high, and there are many passes in the mountain valleys, so the Great Wall has been built here for generations. However, the Xishan Great Wall is not completely connected, but the Great Wall built intermittently at the pass. In steep places, mountains can be used as barriers. In this way, the pass of Jingxi has become the top priority of defense.
Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xishan began to set up passes in areas where roads were difficult to defend and easy to attack. Avenue is the gateway and path is the entrance. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties alone, there were 22 passes in Xishan, which were internal and external thoroughfares in peacetime and military fortresses in wartime. Each level has a related city. The ticket gate in the middle passes through goods, horses, chariots and pedestrians, and the small holes on both sides are used to store weapons.
The great wall along Badaling in Juyongguan is the outer Great Wall, which is heavily guarded, while the western part of Beijing belongs to the border of the inner Great Wall, and the soldiers are just guarding it. The emperors wanted to take advantage of the Great Wall to keep the enemy out of the country, but the Great Wall defense line was broken twice in 1449 and 1550. For the first time, Ming Yingzong, a personal expedition, even became a captive of the Mongolian army, known as the "rebellion" in history. From then on, the Ming king did not dare to slack off and began to vigorously strengthen the defense of Xishan.
Tianjin Pass was called an "important" external entrance in the Ming Dynasty. It is located at the junction of the ancient road into Beijing and the Inner Great Wall, and it is the first border for Xishan to defend against the invading enemy in the northwest. The Ming army set up a danger here first, and then built a beacon tower on Huangcaoliang, the commanding height northwest of Tianjin Pass.
There are seven beacon towers on Huangcaoliang at an altitude of 1700 meters, which have been well preserved so far. Beacon towers are connected by city walls, forming a strict defense system. At that time, there were nearly 1500 beacon towers along the Inner Great Wall.
Not only that, the area along the river east of Tianjin Pass is a throat. There are two mountain passes and one water mouth along the river city, and the topography of Xishan Mountain is the most dangerous valley. In addition to the watchtower, the Ming court also built castles here and set up thousands of garrisons, with more than 2,000 people at most. Another castle was built in Zhaitang, on the south side of the river, opposite to the main city along the river, called Zhaitang Vice City. The vice city of Zhaitang and the main city along the river have formed a horn, which is convenient for mutual reinforcement in wartime.
In the past, the emperors in the Great Wall of the Forbidden City were able to sleep and eat peacefully. When the iron wall stood on the steep mountains, the barrier was closed again.