To the north of Beijing, there are mountains and mountains, many of which are ancient roads. The ancients said: the avenue is the pass, and the path is the mouth. Gubeikou is located in the northeast of Beijing, unlike Juyong and Shanhai. Although it is a trail, its strategic position is particularly important.
From Youzhou until it became the capital, after Nanjing, Zhongdu, Dadu and Beijing, the ancient road played an increasingly prominent role in Beijing and became a battleground for military strategists. Miyun County Records, a book written in Qing Dynasty, said: "The capital controls the frontier fortress in the north, and Shuntian belongs to Songting, Gubei and Juyong, while Gubei is especially strong." Shun Tian means shun Tianfu, referring to Beijing.
"Lock key by natural barrier, because the mountain garrison. Thousands of snakes are in battle, and ten miles of hooves are heard. " Gubeikou, located in the Yanshan Mountains, is a battleground for military strategists in the past dynasties. It is known as the "lock key of the capital" and is one of the throat fortresses of the Great Wall. Since ancient times, Gubeikou has been known as "the place where the neck and throat of the ground go backward, and the skylight town holds the key and pillow" because of its twin peaks of Panlong Mountain and Wohushan Mountain, and the Chaohe River and Tanghe River pass through the town.
Gubeikou witnessed the change of several dynasties, and it is difficult to count how many emperors were sent. It is hard to tell how many wars have happened; How many stories are there? No one has finished. With the increasing understanding of the Great Wall cultural belt, the author’s desire to explore Gubeikou is growing stronger.
Gubeikou was once called "tiemenguan"
Take National Highway 101, 60 kilometers north from Miyun City, where the Great Wall is cut off. There is a remnant wall on the roadside, with the Wan Li Great Wall Monument and the Ming Great Wall Monument in Hebei Province on one side and the Gubeikou Wengcheng Monument in Beijing on the other. The national highway runs parallel to the big river, and the Chaohe River cuts the mountain in half to separate Crouching Tiger and Panlong. Looking to the west, we leap over the Chaohe River, and the Great Wall on Wohu Mountain is continuous, and the enemy buildings are connected. Close to the river bank, there are two hollow watchtowers, which are staggered up and down, closely connected and unique in architecture. They are vividly called "sister buildings" and unique to the Great Wall of Wan Li. This building was once destroyed, but now it has been restored. To the east, it clings to the cliff, which is the tail of Panlong Mountain.
Standing beside the spacious national highway and looking at the thoroughfare avenue, I can’t imagine how narrow and sinister the terrain was in the past. Jifu Tongzhi, compiled in the Qing Dynasty, said: "Gubeikou is 120 miles northeast of Miyun County, with two cliffs standing, and there is a road in the middle. Only one car passes, and there is a deep stream under it. If it is 45 miles, it is the only way to escape." On both sides of the trail, how the rocks "stand on the wall" and how the boulders "thunder" need to be carefully understood. In the Song Dynasty, when Su Zhe went to the Liao country, he was deeply touched by this place, and wrote the poem "In the Road of Gubeikou": "There is no road around the chaotic mountains, and the path lingers around the long stream. It seems that I am looking for a road in my dream, and I am in the east valley of Xingzhou and the west of Fengzhou. " It describes the scene at that time.
Gubeikou is located in a dangerous place, and several dynasties attached great importance to it. The Jin Dynasty built a city here, and wrapped the gate with iron sheets, which made it stronger, so it was nicknamed "tiemenguan". There is a description in "Scenery of Changping": "The two sides of Sichuan build a wall and set up a platform, and there is tiemenguan under Dongtai, which is often unable to open the key for access." There is a lock on the door, which can’t be closed at ordinary times. This is the boundary between nomadic culture and farming culture, and there are not many contacts. In the early Ming Dynasty, a gateway was built here. "Four Towns and Three Guanzhi" records: "Gubeikou Pass, built in Hongwu Year, connected with Dachuan, Pingman, and all the people rode and rushed." Outside the gate, a urn is built, with a length and width of tens of meters each, and the shape is not very regular according to the mountain situation. Although the area of Wengcheng is small, it is of great military significance in the era of cold weapons. If the enemy wants to break in and close the door, they will have to pay a great price. If they are trapped in the urn, they will be surrounded.
At the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da to build the city gates of Juyongguan, Gubeikou and xifengkou. In the 11th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1378), Ming Taizu ordered Xu Da to build Gubeikou Guancheng, build stone blocks on the basis of the Great Wall of Northern Qi Dynasty to enhance the defense capability, and repair Guancheng, large and small gates, beacon towers and other customs facilities, and add two gates, one at the gate of the Great Wall, allowing only one ride and one car to pass; One is located on the Chaohe River, which is called "Watergate Pass". Since then, Juyongguan in the northwest and Gubeikou in the northeast have become two important gateways to Beijing.
Gubeikou is sandwiched between two mountains, which is extremely steep. The city wall is graceful from the mountain and looks like a long dragon, connecting the water gates on the tidal river. The urn will be built at the pass, and even if the gate is not covered with iron, it will still be firmly defended and packed. Standing on Dongtai in those days, you could look down at the whole city and observe the customs. If we could go back in time, we would see too many stories. Back then, many Ming generals, such as the governor, stood on high places, and soldiers lined up on the city walls, beating drums and blowing trumpets, making a loud noise to show their prestige. What a grand scene this is, and it is also very imposing to make a movie.
In the Ming Dynasty, the garrison built enemy platforms on both sides of the Chaohe River and on the city walls. I looked at the old pictures and looked at the top of the cliff on the east side. There was a small mound on the cliff, which was Dongtai. In the old days, Dongtai was tall, because there were five arrow windows in the south, commonly known as the Big Five-Eye Building. The city wall descended abruptly from the mountain, and the crevasse also continued at a large angle, connecting the urn. This section of the city wall next to the national highway is the south wall of Wengcheng, which is east-west, built by blue bricks and wrapped in old brick walls. The disconnection should have been the south gate of Wengcheng. The urn was demolished in the sixties and seventies of last century for building houses. Now the urn is an open space with sand and stones piled up, and you can also park.
One side of Hebei should be the western wall of Wengcheng, which is north-south, built with rubble and bent eastward, with a length of tens of meters and a height of more than two meters. To the north, it should be the west gate of Wengcheng. Both gates are very narrow. Now it is a spacious intersection, and the entrance is Guanmen Village in Hebei Province. There are houses and restaurants on both sides of the street. Going up the hillside to the north, behind the residential houses, there is a city wall, which extends far away. This is the supporting wall of the Great Wall, with ancient bricks and rammed earth inside. The villagers said that it used to be a gateway with three names: closed gate, water gate and water gate hole. These word-of-mouth names illustrate the past situation. Here is not only the gateway, but also the Watergate. Later, I found out that Shuiguan was destroyed in the Qing Dynasty.
In the middle and late Ming dynasty, the military strength gradually weakened, and it was unable to attack, and it turned to defense, paying more attention to the role of the Great Wall. When Qi Jiguang, a famous soldier, restored the Gubeikou Great Wall, he not only kept the Beiqi Great Wall, but also laid city bricks outside it. At the crossroads of the mountain pass, a hollow enemy platform is built, which is three or four feet high and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The gap between the critical points is small and the gap between the easing points is large. So now, by looking at the distance between enemy stations, we can know the critical degree of military intelligence in those days. The deployment of troops is also different: each enemy station has one hundred commanders, who is mainly responsible for killing the enemy, and two deputy commanders, who are in charge of the logistics support of weapons and equipment, five enemy stations have one commander and ten enemy stations have one thousand commanders to direct the battle. The ancients also considered the importance of communication: one or two miles apart, the sound of bells could be clearly heard as a pier, and each pier was watched by five soldiers. Each road is equipped with a beacon officer. If there is enemy situation, it will ignite a bonfire, and it will be spread from left to right. The speed is very fast, and you can see it for hundreds of miles in an instant, so prepare for the battle in time. These military defense strategies can be described as comprehensive and impeccable.
Gubeikou was once called "Xiguan", and outside Gubeikou in ancient times, it was a inhabited area of Xi people. In the Tang Dynasty, it was also called "Beikou" or "Hubeikou", and Shanxi also had the same name. Gubeikou has experienced too many wars since ancient times. Northern Qi began to build the Great Wall here. In the Tang dynasty, there were ancient northern guards and soldiers stationed here. Textual research on the old news in the sun: "Tang Shu: Yanle County in Tanzhou has the East Army and the Gubei Second Guard. Beikou, the mouth of the Great Wall. " Gubei refers to Gubeikou, and Shoucapture is the military name for garrison. Beijing in the Tang Dynasty was called Youzhou. Tang Zhuangzong captured Youzhou and sent Liu Guangjun to conquer Gubeikou. Later, when Liao Taizu captured Shannan, he also captured Gubeikou first. The rulers destroyed Liao, defeated Liao soldiers in Gubeikou, and defeated Song soldiers in Gubeikou. When Yuan Wenzong fought for the throne, he stationed troops to fight in Gubeikou several times. Xu Da, a general of the Ming Dynasty, broke into the capital, and Yuan Shundi opened Jiande Gate in the middle of the night and fled to the north. The prince also led the guards out of Ximen and went east to "go through Gubeikou and prosper". By the Ming Dynasty, the northern enemy invaded Gubeikou many times, the most prominent one was in the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), when the Tatar Anda Department of Mongolia broke into Gubeikou, drove south, and arrived at the capital, causing a "great earthquake in the capital", and then went to the Ming tombs in Changping, followed by the tidal rivers in the east, and then went out from Gubeikou. When you enter and leave, you choose this place.
The general’s building left evidence of Japanese crimes
There are many wars in ancient times, and it is impossible to see the remains after a long time, but the remnants of modern wars are still very eye-catching. From the end of Panlong Mountain, along the Great Wall to the east, the General Building is not far away, and there are trails to climb. The Great Wall has been broken, and the walls have collapsed to the top of the mountain in many places, without maintenance, and it is still in the old days. That’s all right. We can look for traces of the past.
Thinking back to 1933, gunfire rang out from War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in North China at Gubeikou. Japanese devils invaded Jehol from the northeast and further invaded Gubeikou and other Great Wall passes to the south. China’s army has four divisions to participate in the Anti-Japanese War, which lasted for more than two months. After fierce fighting, it was forced to withdraw from Gubeikou, which was called the Anti-Japanese War in history and was called "the fierce battle in the fierce battle" by the Japanese side. According to statistics, the Japanese army suffered more than 5,000 casualties and the defenders in China suffered more than 8,000 casualties. Although Gubeikou’s war of resistance ended in failure, as one of the main battlefields of the Great Wall’s war of resistance against Japan, it effectively dealt a blow to the Japanese invaders, blocked the way for the Japanese army to go straight to Peiping and defended Peiping, which was of great significance.
The city wall in front of us was damaged in pieces, which was destroyed by gunfire. Then we searched the brick carefully and found a dense small round hole, which was the bullet hole left by the machine gun, showing the fierce battle. Looking carefully among the weeds in the mountains, whether there are clothes hanging, it was left by Guan Linzheng, the teacher of the 25 th division of the 17 th Army, who was charged before and was injured by grenades; Check on the loess to see if there is any blood left, which was shed when Wang Runbo, head of the 145 th regiment, died. The senior generals of the China garrison took the lead, and the battle was so fierce that you can think of the tragic degree of the battle …
The General Building is square and divided into upper and lower floors. There are four arrow windows in the north and south of the building, and three arrow windows in the east and west. On the wall of the west gate, there is a text brick with the words "Building a wall road in the five years of Wanli" written on it. This is the building construction time and production mark of that year. After searching in the building, I found the handwriting on the north wall: "occupied by the 17th infantry company". The locals said that it was carved by Japanese devils, and the Chinese characters were written stiffly. In the strokes, a ferocious laugh was read. The Great Wall of China recorded the temporary pride of the Japanese and the history of aggression, which can never be erased. There is a round hole in the second floor roof, which was blown up by shells. There is a brick ladder to climb the enemy building, and the arrow window is often damaged. Looking at this big hole from above, it is in the middle of the top of the enemy building. It is said that it was caused by plane bombing. At that time, there was no precise guidance, and only flying very low could the bombing be so accurate. If so, we can see how rampant the Japanese devils were at that time. China’s army is poor in weapons and equipment, and it is building another Great Wall with flesh and blood.
Standing on the top of the general’s building, you can see the mountains in all directions. Along the mountains, you can see the opposite Wohu Mountain to the west, and Gubeikou City is also at the foot of the mountain. To the east, you can see the Twenty-four Eye Tower, which is the easternmost watchtower of the Great Wall of Panlong Mountain. It is at the commanding height, divided into three floors, and the top floor is surrounded by a crib, with 24 arrow windows, commonly known as the Twenty-four Eye Tower. It is said that Qi Jiguang used to work there. The twenty-four-eye building in front of us is incomplete, leaving only one wall standing on the wall. The earthquake in Qing Dynasty collapsed and was blown up by Japanese devils during the Anti-Japanese War. Cannonballs can only destroy the wall, but they can’t stop time and space. Qi Jiguang, once known as a famous anti-Japanese soldier, has a spirit in the sky, and he must stand a gun immediately and wipe out a thousand troops. After hundreds of years, he can join forces with Guan Linzheng to fight against the Japanese pirates and leave a good name.
There is a chariot army at Beiguanying Pass.
In the past, there were heavy troops stationed in Gubeikou, and the barracks were in the city. There is a small town under the city wall, which is called Beiguan Camp and the Second Gate. The ancients said: Tun troops say camp. There is a camp city 1 mile south from Wengcheng, and keep close to the pass. This castle is about 170 meters long and 150 meters wide, forming a rectangle. Now there is no south gate, and only the residual brick with white ash jointing is left on one side. There is a monument to protect cultural relics next to it. The west gate is reserved more, the wall is about 3 meters high, and the white-gray brick joints are very neat. There are also remnants of the East Wall. There are many hutongs in the city, the one facing the west gate is called the main street, and the one facing the south gate is called the cross street. Villagers not only live in the ancient city, but also outside the city, and also divide the streets. Outside the city is Nanmen Street, which is covered with houses on both sides.
The south gate faces the Jade Emperor Pavilion. Jade Emperor Pavilion is generally the tallest building in the castle. The city is small, and it is built on the wall of the north city without a separate pavilion. Jade Emperor Pavilion is the commanding height of the whole city, where you can see the mountains and the Great Wall in the north. The brick steps are old, and the worn pits show age. The Jade Emperor Pavilion has been repaired recently, and the doors, windows, beams and columns are decorated with new oil. The local people said that there is also a small old temple in the city, which has been demolished. Because of the high terrain, the Jade Emperor Pavilion was once a warehouse for storing goods and was preserved. There is also a relatively complete north city wall on both sides of the east and west, which is about tens of meters long and built with rubble, which is as high as the platform of Yuhuang Pavilion.
Beiguan Camp is now called Shangying. Gubeikou village is too big, so three neighborhood committees have been set up, and the upper camp is one. Because it is in the north of the village, it is called Beitou neighborhood Committee, just like the establishment of a town. Outside the south gate, there is a foundation of a house, which is built with stones dozens of centimeters high and covers an area of tens of square meters. Plants are planted inside, and neither demolition nor building is carried out. It turns out that this used to be the barracks of Japanese devils. After the Anti-Japanese War, Gubeikou was occupied by the Japanese until Japan surrendered in 1945. It has been preserved for many years, and now the stones are neatly laid, which should be intended to protect and let the physical objects remember the history of Japanese aggression.
In the 11th year of Hongwu (1378), the Ming army built a castle under Panlong Mountain. The city wall is built on the top of the mountain and across the mountain. It twists and turns with the mountain, showing an irregular polygon, and the ancient map is drawn into a hexagon. Tang Shunzhi, a poet of the Ming Dynasty, used a poem as a metaphor: "All the cities are in the depression of mountains, and the Guanshan of this city is the Bird’s Nest. It’ s a thought-provoking warrior here, and the sky is high and Wan Li is singing. " The description of the bird’s nest shape is extremely vivid. Guangxu’s "Miyun County Records" is recorded as a "triangular prism", which may be close to reality.
The city is huge, with a circumference of 4 miles and 310 steps. Step is a unit of length in the Ming Dynasty, and one step is about 5 feet. In this way, the wall is nearly 5 miles long. The city wall is 5 meters high and has three gates: east, south and north. There are three gates in the city, because the city is polygonal, the east and south gates are not in the positive direction, the south gate faces southwest, and the east gate faces southeast. The three gates form a triangle. The city wall is also special. It is steep and made of rocks, gentle and based on strips of stones, and covered with blue bricks. Because of the mountain, the bricks and stones are shared, and there is an effect of "there is no city inside, but there is a city outside". The castle was planned and built by Xu Da, a general of the Ming Dynasty, and became a military defense command center, where troops were stationed for defense. In Jifu Tongzhi, Gubeikou City is also called Yingcheng, and it is described as "standing on the top of the mountain, which is extremely steep", which shows the grandeur of the situation.
If you want to see the grandeur of the city, you should go to the south of the city, where the terrain is low. Standing on the side of the road, you can see the walls on both sides undulating on the mountain, with different heights and intermittent. In imagination, this may be one of the places where the ancients viewed the city. At that time, the city walls were integrated and stood in the mountains, blocking the mountain pass, which was really spectacular.
The south gate of the ancient city is 3 feet high, and a gatehouse is built on it. There is a stone plaque on the ticket door. There is a stream flowing in the south, and a water gate was built. There is still a wall on the side of the city gate. Looking up from a low place, the residual wall stands upright and is built on rocks, which makes it even more tall. Outside the south gate, there is a pavilion with the inscription "Monument to the Battle of Gubeikou in the Great Wall during the Anti-Japanese War", which was inscribed by He Luli in July 1997 to commemorate the arduous battle against the Japanese aggressors in 1933. Now the south gate is just an intersection. You can turn into the city by sticking to the rocks.
Climbing all the way to the north, I saw the North Gate, which is called "the North Gate Slope, also called Yingcheng" in the annals. There is a gatehouse on it, which is even more tall. I don’t know if the road was elevated when the North Gate was rebuilt because it was called the North Gate Slope in the annals. There is a Great Wall monument next to the city gate, which reads "Gubeikou Town". There is a urn outside the city gate. According to the records, the urn gate opened on the northeast side, facing the Yaowang Temple, and was destroyed by Japanese artillery fire invading China in 1933. The north gate was also destroyed. There is a top stone on the north side to provide tourists with as many physical objects as possible.
Yangling Temple was built by Liao people.
Facing the north gate is a group of temples, including Guandi Temple, Yaowang Temple and Bodhisattva Pavilion, which are built on a high platform, commonly known as "two steps and three temples". The Yaowang Temple is three wide and two deep. It was built in the Ming Dynasty to pray for health. Guandi Temple and Yaowang Temple are built side by side, and the area pattern is similar to Yaowang Temple, which means to bless the castle. Guanyin Bodhisattva Temple is on the steps. On the other side of the steps is the Longwang Temple for good weather. There is a theater in the temple, which is still old. It is said that Cixi once watched the play here. There is a glass screen wall outside the theater. Is it because of the light of the royal family watching the play here that the glass building materials are used on the screen wall? Note on the wooden sign of the temple: Guandi Temple and Yaowang Temple were demolished in 1966, and only the mountain gate and theater of Guandi Temple were spared.
Although the temples and temples are newly built, there are old bricks on the brick floor of the new building under the porch in front of the Yaowang Temple, which are two old things of the Qing Dynasty specially preserved during the construction. Standing in the temple, you can see the ancient city walls when you look up. The walls are covered with yellow moss, which is extremely rare. The ancient city walls were always rainy and weathered, leaving many black marks, and the yellow moss was more ancient. If you look closely, there are many gun holes left on the wall, which is the evidence of the Japanese aggressors’ bullets.
There is also a temple of God of Wealth outside the Wengcheng, which was built in the first year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1821). It enshrines Bigan, Fan Li and Guan Yu. The Temple of the God of Wealth was used as the warehouse of the production brigade during the Cultural Revolution, which kept its original appearance. The old things were extremely rare and have been repaired.
Further north, there is Yangling Temple. Yang Linggong, Yang Ye, also known as Yang Jiye, was a famous soldier in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the shrine was built by Yelulongxu, the Emperor of the Liao Dynasty. Let the Khitan soldiers follow Yang Ye’s example to ease the contradiction between the soldiers in the Song Dynasty and unite the people in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, Su Zhe was deeply moved by this shrine. In his poem, he said, "Driving is for the Central Plains, and enjoying it can make foreign countries respect." It is difficult for many heroes to admire their opponents. The temple was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, and Guangxu’s Shuntian Fuzhi recorded: "Yangling Gongci, in Gubeikou, worshiped the Song and Yang industries, which existed in Liao Dynasty. In the eighth year of Ming Hongwu, Xu Da was rebuilt; In the seventeenth year of Chenghua, Xu Chang, the warden of the town, commanded Wang Rong to rebuild it and gave it the name Weiling Temple. " The temple was once given a gift, and it was built many times in the Qing Dynasty. During the Republic of China, General Feng Yuxiang was stationed in Gubeikou and rebuilt. Yanglinggong Temple was also built in 1963. In the early days of the "Cultural Revolution", the statue was destroyed, and the mountain gate and the front and back halls were demolished. In 1993, it was rebuilt as it was.
Looking from one end of the hutong, you can see Yangling Temple. On the outer wall of the mountain gate, "Wei Zhen Bian Guan" is written, and on the east wall, "Qi Zhuang Shan He" is written, each word is about 1 meter high, which is extremely eye-catching. The shrine is small, exquisite, simple and solemn. Two into the courtyard, divided into two layers of the hall, gray tile hard top, there are left and right wing. The front hall is dedicated to Yang Linggong and his eight sons, with a plaque "Really Invincible" hanging on it, which is written by General Feng Yuxiang. There are two pairs of couplets on the doorpost, which are very interesting. One is: "Pan Shi has no burial place so far; The Yang family has a ancestral hall since ancient times "; The other pair is: "Why do you need to write a book and be angry; Its own fairness is in the world. " The back hall is dedicated to the women generals of She Taijun and Yangmen. There is a couplet on the doorpost: "Yang Jiajiang who is loyal to serving the country is earth-shattering; Loyal-hearted’s heroine twisted Kun ". Nowadays, on September 14th of the lunar calendar every year, local people hold a three-day temple fair on Yang Linggong’s birthday. There are singers, yangko dancers and vendors, and people from hundreds of miles around come to catch the temple fair, which is very lively.