Zhang Fu's Reading History of the Song Dynasty (1)

From Chengdu, Genting can be reached in an hour at most. First, expressway arrived in Jintang County, then Tuojiang River on the main road, and then the narrow cement road went up the mountain ... The elements of modernization have been arranged to the top of the mountain. I'm here to prepare for the memorial to Genting Mountain. I have long known the heroic story of Genting Mountain nearly a thousand years ago-this is the famous site of Anti-Yuan Castle in the late Song Dynasty, and it is also one of the defense systems of Bashu Eight Mountain City. Along the long red wall of Ciyun Temple, I walked into the main peak of Genting Mountain, a thorny peak and a deserted stone city-I was heading straight for the ancient battlefield that once killed the sky.

Pay tribute to Genting Mountain

Looking down from the north, the place where the ridge extends should be the "ancient north gate" I am looking for-I thought to myself. Looking around, it is difficult to see the city gate. Struggling forward, looking for a hard low-lying place, next to the grass, an ancient stone gate magically appeared in front of you. It's hard to find it a few meters away. Is the stone gate formed by the mountain deliberately low-key? Is it hidden on purpose? Or both?

I stroked the bluestone that had been mottled by wind erosion, and I knew it was an antique at first glance. The gate of the castle is surrounded by grass, and the fortress made of stone on the precipice outside the gate is uniform. Due to the age, there are some small trees and weeds growing between the cracks, which are particularly eye-catching in the green.

Looking up from the city gate hole, the block letters of the two lines of stone carvings in the middle of the city gate arch are faintly visible, and the handwriting is small and fuzzy. Identify its contents carefully-

Zhong You, the commander-in-chief of the right army in Langli Prefecture, and Si Xiucheng, the general of Tongzhou Prefecture, boosted Kong Xian.

Baoyi Langya County was stationed in the command to destroy the front line, and Xiao Shixian, the deputy governor of Tongchuan government and military forces, repaired the city as the prefect of various armies.

Obviously, this should be the original record when the city was built. Lizhou is the ancient name of Guangyuan, and Tongzhou is today's three stops, all in the corridor north of Chengdu. It can be seen from this record that the two officials who built the castle gate were Kong Xian and Xiao Shixian. In other words, during the period of repairing the city, soldiers were transferred from Guangyuan and Santai.

Just as we were fascinated, another old farmer came over and told us that there was another gate under it. He pointed to the lower right with his finger: "It's just a hundred meters away, it's an urn door." Following the direction of the finger, we bypassed the vertical cliff of seven buddha and walked for about one stop. It was easy to find this equally hidden gate. The urn door is slightly smaller than the north gate and has the same style. Masonry with stones, the stone in the middle of the top of the doorway is engraved with the inscription "Emperor Song Chun has been rebuilt by Shi Yaoan, commander-in-chief of Mid-Autumn Festival". Careful observation shows that there is a embossed lotus leaf cover at the top of the inscription and a embossed lotus base at the bottom.

Genting Mountain is a natural barrier to protect Chengdu.

Standing at the city gate and looking up, you can feel that Genting Mountain is steep and rugged, and it is a natural castle. It is reported that there are only eight gates on this military fortress, and the rest are natural moats. Standing on the top of the mountain, I still can't feel it. The difference in vision is completely different from the conclusion after seeing things.

I can't help sighing to myself that in the era of cold weapons, such a layout has been impregnable.

In fact, there are many impregnable castles like this in Bashu. According to Hu Zhaoxi, a professor of history at Sichuan University, there are four places along the Minjiang River Basin. 2 places along the Tuojiang River Basin; 6 places along the Fujiang River Basin; Along the Jialing River Basin10; 7 places along Tongjiang, Nanjiang, Bahe and Qujiang river basins; There are 14 places in the Yangtze River valley ... In the fifteenth year of Yuan Dynasty, it was recorded that "Chuanchuanping, 83 caves in towns and villages, and 33 caves in Yizhicheng, Quzhou, should be guarded by soldiers, and the rest should be destroyed."

From these figures, we can see that during the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many castles and forts all over Sichuan. These fortresses are connected end to end. From the northern and western Sichuan to the eastern and southern foothills of the basin group in the southern and eastern Sichuan, a net is formed against the main rivers in Sichuan to stop the Mongolian army from advancing eastward.

These fortresses have a common feature: relying on danger and relying on foreigners, controlling the rush, and convenient transportation, which is conducive to attack and defense; The water source is inexhaustible, and the grain and grass are constantly flowing; Using local materials, the construction is convenient. In other words, the mountain is steep, but not too high. Generally, the height difference relative to the ground is 100 m to 500 m. Such a fortress can paralyze the enemy on the surface, which often makes it difficult for the enemy to climb the simple traditional siege ladder. The top of the fortress is flat, suitable for garrison and civilians to live in, and many fortress mountains have springs, which are close to rivers, so as to facilitate the exchange of needed goods between fortresses and make up for logistics.

Gentingshan Castle is the nearest fortress to Chengdu Plain. Its function is not only to spy on Chengdu, but also to seize Fujiang River outside Jialing River, so as to prevent Mongolian troops from using Jialing River as the ship owner in an attempt to attack Chongqing downstream.

How are these castles all over Sichuan laid out? How is it made? Who is the decision maker? Can it effectively resist the ravages of Mongolian iron hoofs?

Before figuring out these problems, there is an important historical figure that we need to remember. His name is Yu Jie.

Yu Jie's defense system

Back in time,/kloc-At the beginning of the third century, a Mongolian fighters named Genghis Khan was unstoppable and ravaged half of Asia. After Genghis Khan's death, his descendants Wokuotai Khan, Mongolian Khan and Kublai Khan continued to exchange galloping cavalry and artillery for blood and conquest. The autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves, which made the resisters yield and caused great shock and destruction to the eastern and western civilizations.

In the second year of Chunyou (1242), in April, the Mongolian army arrived at the gates of Chengdu. This news made Zhao Yun, the fourteenth emperor of the Song Dynasty, sleepless: "It is urgent to save Shu today. I discuss Shu with the second and third ministers every day." Li Zong was worried that the western Sichuan Plain was a "treasure house of the Southern Song Dynasty". Now, "the loss of tax revenue from the main rich counties in western Sichuan" and "the country is embarrassed by Japan" ... have become a major concern. Defending Sichuan, the granary and cornucopia, is the unshakable bottom line of the Southern Song Dynasty. How to raise it? Who will live up to the mission? At this critical moment, Yu Jie entered Li Zong's field of vision.

Who is Yu Jie? We might as well have a brief understanding of Yu Jie, Yi Fu and qi zhou (now qi zhou, Hubei). When I was a child, my family was poor and destitute. There are talents who can help the country and the world, and their lifelong ambition is to make contributions. In the third year of Jiaxi (1239), he led the army to fight against the Mongolian army in Bianzhou and Yin He, and was promoted to be the staff of the executive control department of Huaidong. In October of the first year of Chunyou (124 1), together with Du Gao, the commander-in-chief of Huaixi, he led a boatman to fight fiercely with the Mongolian Chahan army in Anfeng (now Shouxian, Anhui) of Huaihe River for 40 days, thus lifting the siege of Anfeng.

Therefore, Li Zong made an exception and announced his audience in Beijing. In the second year of Chunyou (1242), in June, Zhu approved Yu Jie as Sichuan propaganda officer, commander and Chongqing magistrate (equivalent to the current Minister of National Defense and Sichuan Governor).

During this period, the Mongolian army, which was unstable in Sichuan, aimed to test the defense of the Southern Song Dynasty, but it did not expand the results. Wang Shixian, a Mongolian army, was stationed in Guangyuan, a major town in northern Sichuan. After attacking and harassing Chengdu from time to time, he immediately withdrew. This gave Yu Jie, who had just arrived in Sichuan, a chance to breathe.

As soon as Yu Jie took office, he brainstormed and kept in mind Zhuge Liang's method of employing people, that is, "a good minister is near, and a villain is far away". With the golden waist card specially presented by Li Zong, he can put aside his shortcomings and boldly reform.

According to his geographical environment, Yu Jie built a fortress by the mountain and stored food in the fortress. At the same time, the state government is located in the fortress, guarding the water by the mountain. Once the Mongolian army attacks, the military and civilians retreat to the fortress and stick to it. These fortresses are connected with each other, and in case of war, they can respond from a distance. Minimize the harm of Mongols. When the Mongolian offensive is eased, the regular army and the rebels will move out of the fortress and harass each other, so that the enemy will eventually be forced to retreat because of the exhaustion of food and grass.

Just like medieval European castles, the difference is that these castles can cooperate with each other at any time under the command of a unified military command. So even powerful Mongols can do nothing.

Yu Jie's strategic vision is very unique. He ordered the Yuxing Department stationed in Jiading to open up wasteland in Chengdu Plain and use the fortresses of Jiading and Genting to remotely control Chengdu. The army has two functions in the reclamation field on the plain, which can not only stabilize the people's hearts, but also contact the local government.

"There is no police at the border, and the southeast garrison is withdrawn." Yu Jie set up education, neglected education, built city walls, and made rewards and punishments clear, so that "the erosion of Shu naturally saw the official ceremony of the Han Dynasty again." After just eight years of governance, Sichuan recovered its former calm and prosperity and became an important "tax source" in the Southern Song Dynasty. The strong synergy has made the Mongols "afraid to approach the enemy, and they will be big at the age of 18."

"Since ancient times, the famous star has been like a beauty, so that the world will not see white hair." It is that when Jie gradually realized his dream of "recovering all the land in Sichuan in ten years and then retiring", his "backyard" was on fire-Yu Jie's policy directly affected the interests of Genting fortress and An, and Yao colluded with Sichuan Prime Ministers Xie and Xu Qingcuo, who were involved in political affairs in the DPRK, and fell backwards, attacking Yu Jie for "monopolizing power and being at a loss". In addition, Yu Jie thought that he had done a good job, and he often failed in his daily memorial.

In the first year of Song Baoyu (1253), Song Lizong called Yujie back to Korea. Yu Jie of honest and frank fell ill in a rage and committed suicide by taking poison. Sichuan people listened, "I'm so sad, I lost my parents."

Yu Jie's sudden death is undoubtedly good news for Meng Jun. According to the rough statistics of later generations, Yu Jie fought the Mongols 36 times in Sichuan, the enemy cowered in several strongholds, and a large number of fertile fields were under the control of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Yu Jie's military ability has also been praised by later generations, saying that his defense system is "one of the most outstanding creations of Chinese civilization to resist the invasion of Mongolian cyclone." It is precisely because of this defense system that the Mongolian army swept across Asia and Europe and later advanced into the south of the Yangtze River, but it was always difficult to "beat" the situation in Sichuan.

Due to the proper defensive strategy of the fortress, the Mongolian army could not attack the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from eastern Sichuan. We had to turn to western Sichuan to conquer Dali in Yunnan. Its purpose is not only to expand the territory of the empire, but also to invade the diplomacy and vast areas of the Southern Song Dynasty from the southeast of Yunnan after occupying Dali.

A piece of history

In the fifth year after Jie's death, that is, the sixth year of Baoyu (1258), Mongolian soldiers attacked the Song Dynasty-Huaidong front line in four ways, and Mongolian army Li Chao attacked Haizhou (now Donghai County, Jiangsu Province) and Lianshui Army (now Lianshui County, Jiangsu Province); In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Mongolian Kublai Khan and Zhang Rou attacked Ezhou (now Wuchang, Hubei); Mongolian Lord Khan Mongo led the main elite to attack Sichuan in four ways; At the same time, Meng Ge ordered Uriyangqatai Army of Yunnan to March into Hunan from the rear of Ezhou to cooperate with Kublai Khan to destroy the main military force of the Southern Song Dynasty in Central China. In February (1259), Meng Ge led 40,000 Mongolian troops to Fishing City, ready to launch a final attack on Hezhou, the first fortress in Sichuan in the Southern Song Dynasty. Unexpectedly, after a long attack, Khan died of illness.

Meng Ge's younger brother Kublai Khan succeeded Khan, changed his country name to Yuan, and officially became the emperor of Yuan Empire. Kublai Khan personally led the army to set foot on the territory of Sichuan again like revenge. With Yu Jie's warning, the hearts of the Song generals were shaken. Liu Zheng, the governor of Luzhou, gave an example. In fifteen counties of Luzhou, 300,000 households surrendered to Mongolia. With the fall of this important fortress, Chengdu and Chongqing are in jeopardy.

In fact, under the authority of Longquan Mountain, Genting Mountain in the geographical sense is just a mediocre generation, but it has made great achievements that future generations admire. Its humanistic influence has made ancient and modern literati stop to worship. There are so many lives and stories dyed with life, but the greatness of Genting Mountain is revealed from the simplicity of every grass and tree.

Today, only the broken castle gate stands here, witnessing the rise and fall of scenes. In this twilight, the light of new civilization seems to light up the half-bright and half-dark windows of western huts. Who knows, in this land, once gave birth to colorful? After the tyrannical thunderstorm, who remembers the cuckoo crowing in the last season?

Although it has been embedded in the deepest part of history by the blade of time, this immortal place is so far inaccessible that many people who have been here have no time to take care of it. Even if I visit occasionally unfortunately, I will only appreciate some old antiques with appreciation ... All these active or passive contempt will not affect the glory of Genting Mountain.

Lu You, a famous patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, left numerous famous pieces of moxibustion in his life. From the poems he wrote to Genting Palace since childhood, we can still see his deep worries-

Although plain clothes is a success, it is not a dust for Beijing Road. Jump to Genting and want to call Fei Xian.

The flying fairy can't scream, and the wild monk's meaning is very true. After frying the tea, the boy picked up his salary.

I have little money, and I am poor when I go out. My pants are tied, so sad.

Although I stayed here for a while, I forgot to moan when I lost my joy. So, the stream is back, and I miss the perch in the evening.

The last sentence in the poem, "thinking about perch at the end of the year", expresses the pain of homesickness. As you can imagine, Genting Mountain in Lu You's era has the taste of "wind and rain, water is cool".

An inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood. In the long history of China War, Genting Mountain is just a vivid historical slice, but through this bloody "slice", we see the original bloody history.

Brief introduction of the author

Zhang Fu, a member of Chinese Writers Association, is an expert enjoying special allowance from the State Council, an expert with outstanding contributions in Chengdu, and the first top ten journalists in Sichuan Province. Deputy editor-in-chief of Chengdu Business Daily, master tutor of School of Literature and Journalism, Sichuan University. He is good at reportage and humanities and historical prose, and has published various works. Yuben Among them, the documentary literature "The Guest Book of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence" won the Bronze Award of the 6th National Book Binding Art Exhibition, the 10th "Five One Projects" Award of Sichuan Province, and the first prize of "Sichuan Book Award". "World Hakka" (co-author) won the first prize of the sixth "Five One Project Award" in Chengdu. The editor-in-chief is Chengdu Soul Book Series (15, published by Sichuan People's Publishing House and Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House), and the deputy editor-in-chief is Cultural Tianfu Series (* * * 12).

(This article Source: WeChat WeChat official account "Zhang Fu Research")

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