Without Ganzhou, Gansu is not Gansu.

Without Zhangye, there would be no Millennium prosperity of the Silk Road.

Few cities, like Zhangye City in Gansu Province, were born with the honor and disgrace of a country. We set the time back to the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, and the eyes of the whole country turned to this area of Hexi. If there is no stable Hexi, I am afraid it is difficult to have a far-reaching Silk Road.

Without Zhang Ye, there would be no open arms of China for more than two thousand years.

1. Zhangye not only has Danxia.

Zhangye is most famous for its Danxia landform.

The formation of Danxia in Zhangye is closely related to the plate movement in Himalayan region. Various minerals are deposited and piled up, squeezed and lifted, and then beaten by thousands of years of wind and rain, finally forming a colorful Danxia landform. It is also one of the "China's most beautiful Danxia landforms" selected by many media.

However, in 20 10, this "most beautiful Danxia" failed to form a team with Danxia landform in the south and missed the opportunity to become a world natural heritage. Although this does not damage the beauty of Zhang Ye Danxia, it is inevitable that people will complain.

More colorful than Danxia is the natural landscape owned by Zhangye. Here, you can see almost all the natural landscapes except the ocean.

Today, the jurisdiction of Zhangye City is long and narrow. The Gobi Desert in the north is endless, and the Qilian Mountain in the south is towering and straight. Qilian Mountain is one of the most important mountains in northwest China. The vertically distributed natural belt on the mountain adds diversity to Zhangye.

Alpine forests conserve water, which makes the arid northwest have the basic conditions for life reproduction. Between Qilian Mountain and Yanzhishan, there is a vast grassland with abundant water plants, which is an excellent grazing land and has long been an important horse breeding base for all parties.

There is a saying that "I am not happy to lose Qilian Mountain". Qilian Mountain is a strategic place for all regimes in the era of cold weapons. This is especially true for the Central Plains Dynasty, which lacked horses. In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, 70,000 army horses could be bred on the Damaying grassland. Now it is called Shandan Military Racecourse, which is the second largest racetrack in the world and still provides the strongest horses for the country.

Due to superior natural conditions, nomadic people set foot in Zhangye area very early, where they herded horses and herded sheep, leaving deep nomadic traces. However, this is not Zhang Ye's only talent.

Han Shu said, "The Huns call heaven Qilian." For Zhangye, and even the residents of the whole Hexi area, it is the "water in the sky" that has survived.

Qilian Mountain has huge glacier resources. The melting water of ice and snow gathers into rivers, which creates the possibility for agriculture and human settlement. Qiyi Bingchuan in Qifeng Tibetan Township, Sunan County is also the nearest ornamental glacier in Asia.

Heihe River originated in Qilian Mountain, which is the largest river in Zhangye and the mother river of Zhangye. Oases and plains along the river laid the foundation for agricultural development and made it possible for Zhangye to appear as a city. The encounter between farming civilization and nomadic civilization doomed Zhang Ye to do something extraordinary.

2. Zhang Guoyi, Zhang Ye's name and mission

Luo Jialun, former president of Tsinghua University, left such a poem when he went to Zhangye. In Gansu, there is also a folk saying that "Zhang Ye is gold and Wuwei is silver".

The soil in Zhangye is not as fertile as the black soil in the northeast, and the climate is not as humid and mild as the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Due to natural conditions and scientific and technological limitations of traditional agricultural society, the scale of agricultural activities is limited. However, there is still a developed agricultural civilization here.

In addition, of course, there is Zhang Ye's typical sense of desolation in the northwest border. When Chen Ziang came to Hexi, he left a poem: "The gorge is south of the desert and crosses China." Xiakou (also known as Xiakou) is located in Laojun Township, Shandan County. Xiakou locks and controls Hexi main road. Residents of past dynasties were garrison troops and their families. Even the name Laojunxiang has a generous sense of loyalty to the country.

Chen Ziang was born in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and the gorge he saw was fierce. When Lin Zexu returned from Xinjiang, Manchu was in decline, and what he saw was that "several ethnic groups were barren, like chess pieces", which was completely devoid of the heroism of Ma Zhuang.

Zhang Ye's fate was decided by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, who was one of the emperors with the highest martial arts in the history of China. 11/in BC, in the sixth year of Ding Yuan, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he ordered the analysis of Jiuquan County and the establishment of Zhangye County, hoping to "break the arm of Xiongnu and make China's arm comfortable". It can be seen that at the beginning of Zhang Ye's birth, he shouldered a heavy responsibility and was placed high hopes on it.

At that time, the contradiction between Han Dynasty and Xiongnu was quite deep. Relying on the policy of sharing the same interest between father and ancestor, when Emperor Wudi ascended the throne, he had a good situation of ruling the literary world and a strong national strength, so he hoped to make a difference in the northwest and solve the border problem. In the face of the Xiongnu in Mazhuang, one of the countermeasures of the Han army was to capture the Hexi area, cut off the contact between the Xiongnu and the Qiang people entrenched in the Qinghai-Tibet area, and at the same time open up the western regions to facilitate the unity of the western countries that also opposed the Xiongnu.

The importance of Zhang Ye in the Sino-Hungarian War lies in his geographical position. There is a mountain pass in the middle of Qilian Mountain, called Biandukou, which is more than 3,500 meters above sea level and guards the traffic artery between Mongolia and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Zhangye is just north of Biandukou, and occupying this place can cut off the connection between Xiongnu and Qiang. I have been watching everything, and Zhang Ye is also the only place that takes out Yangguan and Yumenguan to connect the western regions. In any case, the Han army must occupy the Zhangye area.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took Huo Qubing as the general of a title of generals in ancient times, led the army into the Hexi Corridor, and launched two Hexi campaigns, which dealt a heavy blow to the Xiongnu army and the Xiongnu returned to Mobei. With the establishment of "Four Counties in Hexi" as a strategic measure in Han Dynasty, Hexi area began to change from nomadic area to agricultural area.

The conflict between farming civilization and nomadic civilization almost ran through the whole ancient history of China. The Chinese nation has never been a militant nation. Even Sun Tzu's Art of War says that "a good fighter will defeat the enemy without fighting". The belligerence of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is not so much expansion as attack rather than defense, taking the initiative to attack and hurt the Huns, thus obtaining a peaceful environment. Four counties in Hexi, including Zhangye, are the direct products of this strategy.

The territory in the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty looked like a huge dumbbell, and it was the narrow Hexi Corridor that kept the dumbbell from breaking. The opening of the future Silk Road will also be built on a stable Hexi Corridor.

3. Gansu

There are many ancient city sites in Zhangye.

When driving in Zhangye area, you will always meet a broken and brown earth wall in Lu Yu. They may have been an important town in Hexi and a battleground for military strategists, but now there are only remnants. The drought in the northwest has preserved these ancient cities and let us see the vicissitudes of history with our own eyes. But in the eyes of Zhangye residents, the ruins are the traces of their ancestors' difficult survival.

Time arrived in the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and a giant Qu Mengxun from Lushuihu of Xiongnu established Beiliang in Hexi, with its capital in Zhangye. Although Ju Qu Meng Xun was a Hun, the Northern Liang regime accepted the Han culture, attached importance to agriculture, and promoted Buddhism, resulting in unprecedented cultural prosperity.

During the Western Wei Dynasty, Zhangye changed its name to Ganzhou, which weakened the sense of mission endowed by its original name, but added a little stability with pleasant soil and water. This kind of good morality can't stop Chengtou from changing the law of Wang Qi. All previous dynasties attached great importance to the strategic position of Hexi and dared not neglect it.

Emperor Yang Di visited Hexi, and Zhangye was the most important stop. The king, who has always been driven by passion, is going to climb Yanqi Mountain, meet the envoys of 27 countries in the western regions, and try the glory that kings in previous dynasties have never enjoyed. According to historical records, the grand occasion at that time was "angry riding and swallowing dozens of miles to show China's victory".

Chen Ziang, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote to the imperial court, talking about the importance of Hexi to the stability of the frontier, and especially put forward the significance of Ganzhou grain to the safety of Hexi, saying that "the life of Hexi now hangs in Ganzhou". At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the central government quickly lost control of Hexi area. Uighurs rose to occupy Ganzhou, and their descendants were Yugur people living in Gansu.

Zhang Ye's position reached a new height in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty initiated the provincial system and named a new province in the northwest of Ganzhou and Suzhou (now Jiuquan, Gansu), which is the source of the name of Gansu Province today. Ganzhou was the capital of Gansu at that time.

War is always the most obvious word in Zhang Ye's resume. In Qing dynasty, Ganzhou was used as an important supply base in northwest China for several times. During the War of Liberation, the First Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army marched into Gansu from Qinghai, broke through the occupation of Zhangye by the border ferry, and then liberated Gansu and Xinjiang.

The challenge of the natural environment is greater than the political and military influence. Zhangye people have been struggling in the yellow sand oasis, and despair and hope are common sights.

Most of the ancient cities in Han and Tang dynasties were located in the lower reaches of rivers, while later generations chose to live in the middle reaches of rivers. This led to water shortage downstream and the city was soon abandoned. The desolate scene brought by human retreat, yellow sand attack and land desertification seems to be most in line with people's impression that "the desert is lonely and the long river sets the yen". Heishuiguo Site in Ganzhou District of Zhangye City is one of the victims of the "serial killer" Huang Sha. According to historical records, this is the location of Laoganzhou. At that time, after Sui Jun retreated, the ancient city was "covered by sandstorms overnight after departure". It shows the power of sandstorms in northwest China.

Zhang ye, never close your arms.

Both war and sandstorm can delay Zhang Ye's progress, but they can't really stop her.

The most unique thing about Zhangye is its geographical location. As soon as the war ended, Zhangye quickly became an important town on the Silk Road. Grain, silk, jade, melons and fruits, and porcelain are constantly transported on the Silk Road. Until today, Zhangye is still the only place for road and railway traffic to Xinjiang and Central Asia.

Plaques are hung on the four sides of Zhangye landmark Bell and Drum Tower, namely: East: Jincheng Spring Rain; West: Guan Yu Xiaoyue; South: Qi Lianxue; North: Juyan ancient animal husbandry. Different scenery in all directions makes Zhangye a hotbed of communication and integration. Zhang Qian, Xuanzang, Kyle Polo and other iconic figures in the history of Chinese and foreign exchanges have all been to Zhangye.

The trace of integration is also reflected in all aspects of Zhangye people's lives. It has been one of the Buddhist centers in northwest China since ancient times. The Horseshoe Temple Grottoes Group was excavated in the Sixteen Countries Period in Wuhu, and it is large in scale. It can also be ranked in the forefront in Gansu Province, which has Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and Tianshui Maijishan Grottoes.

Zhangye people have the comfort and satisfaction of farming people and the boldness of horseback people. They love mutton and are addicted to noodles. The dining table of Zhangye people is the product of farming and nomadic communication. What's more, wheat is also an exotic crop introduced from the western regions.

Zhang Ye is constantly changing in the process of opening up and integration, and bit by bit becomes him today. This is a small town, shouldering the important mission of security, but also experiencing a backward situation. Today, this ancient city is still "the embrace of Zhang Guo", but it is not for blockade, but for opening.

reference data

Xiao Chunlei's China Border Town

(Japan) Chen Junmou, Maeda's masterpiece, translated "Historical Geography of Hexi".