Where to Find Ancient Hongze (III) Hanhuai Weir

The unification of the world by Qin was a great event in ancient Chinese history. However, the Qin Dynasty was a short-lived dynasty, the Qin Empire was established in 221 BC, and was destroyed in 207 BC by the rebel army of today's Su Bei people, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.

This was followed by a six-year period of Chu-Han hegemony between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, with Liu Bang, the Duke of Pei, eventually taking over the world and establishing the Han Empire.

The Han Dynasty had an administrative system of counties alongside the feudal system. During the Han Dynasty, the area of Hongze Lake where Hongze is located was under the jurisdiction of Surabaya County (later Linhuai County) and Surabaya State, and Huaiyin County was also known as Huaiyin Houguo for a period of time.

In the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (201 BC), Han Xin, one of the "Three Heroes of the End of Han Dynasty", was relegated to the position of Marquis of Huaiyin from the King of Chu, and Huaiyin became a fief of Han Xin. In the 11th year of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (196 BC), Han Xin was killed by Empress Lu and Xiao He on the charge of treason, and the Marquisate of Huaiyin was abolished and still called Huaiyin County. As for Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, nowadays there are Han Xin's hometown, the Bridge of Crossing Husband, Han Hou Temple and other monuments in Chuzhou and Huaiyin districts of Huai'an City to be searched and admired.

About Linhuai County, according to "Han Shu - Geography Zhi", Linhuai County was established in the sixth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (117 years ago), with Xu County as the county seat, and 29 counties under the jurisdiction of Xu County, Huaiyin County, Fuling County, Suiling County, Xuyi County, etc. The county is located at the center of Huai'an City, and the county is located at the center of Huai'an City.

The city of Linhuai County in the Han Dynasty was located in the area of Half Town, northwest of today's Hongze Lake and south of Sihong County. At that time, the Hongze area was under the jurisdiction of Huaiyin County and Fuling County under the rule of Linhuai County. Fuling County City and Fuling Lake were on the west side of the present-day Hongze Lake embankment, and Fuling County governed parts of the present-day counties of Hongze and Xuyi.

During the Dahan period, the Hongze Lake area was already very prosperous. The Huai River, Surabaya River, Bian River, Yi River, Shu River and other rivers flowed through here, and such convenient water transportation conditions made the area densely populated and prosperous cities on both sides of the Huai River.

At that time, on the left bank of the Huai River, there were Linhuai County City (the capital of the ancient Xu State), Suiling County City, and Siyang County City, and on the right bank of the Huai River, there were Xuyi County City, Fuling County City, and Huaiyin County City, etc. At the intersection of the Surabaya River and the Huai River, a new city, Sizhou City, also began to rise.

During the Han Dynasty, the prosperity of the Hongze Lake area should be inseparable from the confluence of the Bian River, Surabaya River and Huai River here.

Bianhe River, anciently known as "Ancient Bianshui", "Danshui", "Ancient Bianqu", "North Bianshui", "North Bianhe", "North Bianhe", "North Bianshui", "North Bianshui", "North Bianshui" and "North Bianshui". It is also known as "Ancient Bianqu River", "North Bianhe River", and belongs to Yishu Surabaya system, which is an important tributary of Surabaya River.

The Bian River flows from Landlord Dang Ditch in the northwest of Kaifeng City, Henan Province, through Kaifeng, Qixian County, Minquan, and connects with Steru Ditch in Minquan, Shangqiu City, and flows into Ningling, Suiyang District of Shangqiu City, and Liangyuan District. And northeast through the southern border of Caoxian in Shandong Province flows into the northern border of Yucheng, east through the north of Xiayi, the north of Yongcheng, and then through the north of Xiaobei in Anhui Province, flows into the western border of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, and joins the Surabaya water in the north of Xuzhou City.

The area where Bianhe River flows is the center of the rule of several generations of Central Plains regime since Xia Dynasty, and the water transportation of Bianhe River is very important in the case of underdeveloped land transportation at that time.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Bianhe River was the most important transportation channel. Only in terms of the amount of grain transportation, it reached hundreds of thousands of stones in the early Western Han Dynasty, and increased to four million stones in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and reached six million stones at most. Because of the impact of the Yellow River, the other rivers of the Honggou water system have been silted and abandoned, but only the Bianhe River, although also affected, can still maintain navigation.

At that time, Bianhe River not only took the responsibility of a canal, but also transported food to Guanzhong from Jianghuai Basin, which was known as the granary of the world, by connecting with Surabaya and Huaihe River, and also transported soldiers and a large number of other military materials in the war time.

Bianhe River not only carries important transportation tasks, but also provides water for irrigation of farmland along the way. Therefore, the Eastern Han Dynasty also paid much attention to the management of Bianhe River. In the fourth year of Chuping of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty (193 A.D.), when Chen Deng was the captain of Xuzhou Dinong, Bianhe River was "fully chiseled and irrigated, and the round-grained rice was abundant, and it became a fertile land".

Mention of the late Han Chen Deng, now the people of the Hongze Lake area is not strange, because now the success of the Hongze Lake embankment, the founder is the late Han Chen Deng.

Chen Deng, word Yuanlong, Xiapi Huaipu (now Lianshui County, Jiangsu Province) people. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, wars were on the verge and grain and wheat were expensive. In order to strengthen the army and feed the people, the state carried out a large-scale work of tuntian.

Because the Hongze Lake area is located in the Huaihe River basin, it enjoys the reputation of "ripening in Jianghuai and Huaihe, the world is sufficient". In the fifth year of Jian'an of the Eastern Han Dynasty (200 AD), Chen Deng, who was awarded the title of governor of Guangling County for advising Cao Cao to kill Lu Bu, thought that the soil and water around Huaiyin and Fuling counties in the Hunze Lake area were fertile, and as long as the dikes were built properly, the droughts and floods could be saved.

In order to prevent the east bank of the Huaihe River, Fuling Lake, Naiwu Lake, Wanjia Lake east of the flood, Chen Deng led the river workers to build from the old dam head of the Wujiadun to the Xishunhe town of the 30-mile-long dyke and weir, and took the name of the defense of the Huaiyan, because of the dyke in the area of the village of Gaojiayuan, so it is also known as the Gaojiayuan, the defense of the Huaiyan laying the foundation of the present day Hongze Lake Gaojiayuan dyke.

(The account of Chen Deng's defense of Huaihuai on the embankment of Hongze Lake)

(The stone work embankment beside the embankment of Xishunhe River)

In the territory of Hongze District nowadays, in addition to the Gaojiayan section of the embankment of Hongze Lake which has left the mark of the Han Dynasty, the thousand-year-old head of the embankment, the old town of Jiangba, has a large number of relics of the Han Dynasty to be found.

In 1987, through the joint archaeology of Huai'an City Museum and Hongze County Culture Museum, about 50,000 square meters of ancient Han Dynasty residential sites were discovered in Pengcheng Village, Jiangba Town, while archaeology found a large number of ancient Han Dynasty tomb clusters here, and unearthed many artifacts from the Han Dynasty.

The Han residential sites of Han Dynasty in Han Huaiyan and Jiangba Ancient Town are representing those ancient cities that were submerged under the water of Lake Hongze, and telling the world today about the prosperous side of the Hongze area at that time during the Great Han Dynasty.