Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Huai'an: A History Written by Water

A writer scanned the land of Huaiyin and concluded that it is a land floating on water.In fact, the development of every county, city, and district in Huaiyin is closely related to water.Among them, Huai'an, a famous historical and cultural city located at the intersection of the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Qianli Huaihe River, has a particularly long and profound relationship with water. About seven thousand years ago, there was a reed-covered beach at the foot of the ancient city of Huai'an.Archaeologists have dug a large amount of yellow sand, shells and pieces of wood in the sand under the cultivated layer near Huai'an, as well as the huge salt mine discovered later, which can prove that this place was once on the verge of the sea.At that time, the ancestors living on this land chased the rising sun into the sea, worked with stone axes, stone knives, and stone shovels, and fell asleep with the sound of the waves lapping on the shore.The carbonized rice grains, the patterns on the reed mats and the colorful paintings on the pottery all condense the wisdom and sweat of the Huai'an pioneers in diverting water to plant rice, picking reeds and weaving, and making pottery with clay. Huai'an's initial imprint.

History has entered the Spring and Autumn Period.Fu Chai, king of Wu, wanted to go north to fight for hegemony. In order to transport troops and deliver food, he dug Hangou between the Yangtze River and the Huai River.The place where Hangou enters the Huaihe River is called Mokou, which is in today's Huai'an.The torrential river carried foreign civilizations and poured them into the land where Qingliangang culture grew.As time went by, at the selected place where Hangou entered the Huaihe River, a shining city finally stood up. When Huai'an was established as a county, it was called Shanyang County, and it has a history of more than 1,600 years.During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was between Huaiyin and Sheyang, and the territory belonged to the above two counties.In the seventh year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (411), Shanyang County and Shanyang County were established.In the twelfth year of Kaihuang (592) of the Sui Dynasty, the county was abolished, and Shanyang County was changed to Chuzhou, and the state government was still in Shanyang County.In the first year of Shaoding in the Southern Song Dynasty (1228), Chuzhou was changed to the Huai'an Army, in the Yuan Dynasty to the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1342), the Huai'an Army was changed to Huai'an Road, and in the first year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1368), Huai'an Road was changed to Huai'an Mansion. Two prefectures and nine counties, namely Haizhou (now Lianyungang City), Pizhou (now Pi County); Shanyang County (now Huai'an City), Qinghe County (now Huaiyin City, Huaiyin County), Yancheng County (now Yancheng City) , Andong County (now Lianshui County), Taoyuan County (now Siyang County), Shuyang County, Ganyu County, Suqian County, and Suining County.In the Qing Dynasty, it was Huai'an Prefecture, and it still governed six counties in the tenth year of Yongzheng.Local governments such as counties, prefectures, government offices, roads, and the army have all been established in Shanyang County in the past dynasties.In history, there were more than 30 people who were crowned kings and marquises in this place.Both Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty visited here, and it was renamed Huai'an County after the Revolution of 1911.Huai'an is a famous city on the Huai River with a long history.

Huai'an was conceived in water and thrived in water.In the thousand years since Emperor Yang of Sui dug the Grand Canal to replace Hangou, the golden period in Huai'an history has been created.At that time, the Jianghuai River Basin had become the economic center of the feudal dynasty. Relying on the north-south artery of "the water surface is 140 steps wide and connected to the dragon boat", the water transport industry was greatly developed.Due to its location in the center of the main artery, Huai'an has become an important hub for north-south transportation. "All the grain ships from Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Jiangnan end up in Shanyang (now Huai'an)", "enter Huaibei through the end port; the grain ships from Shandong and Henan do not pass through this place", "all of them are far away. about".Huai'an, located at the confluence of the Grand Canal and the Huaihe River, has become a "choke point" with "water administration connected to seven provinces".After the rise of the salt industry, Huaibei Gangyan salt transported from the south was hoarded in the north of Huai'an City, and the salt produced along the coast was also transported to Hebei in Huai'an for approval, and Huai'an became an important salt industry center.During the heyday, as many as 6-8 million stones of grain, 2.8 million dans of salt, and more than 100,000 taels of silver were transferred through Huai'an every year.In the past dynasties after the Tang Dynasty, important officials were stationed in Huai'an to "supervise the water and check".In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the governor's yamen for water transportation was also set up in Huai'an, and the central ministers supervised the water affairs.Industry and handicrafts developed rapidly accordingly.Huai'an cloth was selected as a tribute, and Qujiu ranked among the famous wines in the country.At that time, the Huaian Banzha Shipyard, with as many as 6,000 craftsmen, sent 560 new ships into the canal a year.Merchant ships from other places "pull and pull back and forth", resulting in Huai'an's "mountains of department stores", merchants gathering, and square guild halls everywhere.

When history formed a situation of confrontation between the north and the south, such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, both used the Huai River as the boundary, and the two armies faced each other, and Huai'an became a battleground for military strategists.Wang Qingshu, a poet of the Song Dynasty, once described this: "Pingye surrounded Huaidian, the two cities entered Chuzhou, the throat was closed, and the side buildings were drummed...".When Zhou Enlai described his hometown when he was a boy, he also said in his composition: "Huaiyin, a famous county in ancient times, strangles the hub of the north of the Yangtze River. In the Qing Dynasty, the sea ban was not opened. It is also the channel that people from the southern province must pass through when going north."

Economic prosperity and military competition have promoted the urban construction of Huai'an.According to historical records such as "Book of Jin", "Shui Jing Zhu", "Minutes of Reading History and Fang Yu", the old city of Huai'an was built in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty, more than 1,600 years ago.After renovations in Tang and Song dynasties, the envoys of the Kingdom of Jin saw that "the battlements are newly built, and they are called Silver Casting City".The scale of Huai'an City reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The city was eleven miles in circumference, five hundred and twenty-five feet long from east to west, north to south, and three feet high.There are four city gates and triangular buildings, battlements and arrow windows on the city walls, and three water gates.In the city, with Nanmen Street, Zhenhuai Building, Water Transport Department, and Fuya as the central axis, there are 39 streets, 77 lanes, 20 squares, and 17 buildings.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Shi Wenbing, general of Zhang Shicheng, a peasant uprising army, guarded Huai'an, and built a new city in Beichen Town, more than four miles north of the old city.Xincheng City is about seven miles away, 326 feet long from east to west, and nearly three feet high. There are five city gates, two water gates, and four sub-city.An ancient poem describing the night scene of Chuzhou reads: "Enter the smoke of Chu's house at night, and people are not asleep in the smoke... The shadow of the lamp is half on the water, and the sound of the zither is mostly on the boat...".At that time, there were two cities in Huai'an, the new city and the old city, and the Huaihe River flowed between the cities.During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates, Zhang Huan, the censor of the water transportation capital, built a sandwich city between the old city and the new city.The city has only two walls, east and west. The east wall is 256.3 feet long, and the west wall is 225.5 feet long. There are four city gates and four water gates.Wu Cheng'en wrote a poem describing the scenery of Huai'an at that time: "Wind blowing on the Huai River, thousands of willows are slanting, and high-rise buildings and flying swallows know the prosperity."So far, Huai'an City has finally become a city with a unique structure, where the old city, the new city, and the sandwich city are juxtaposed.

The three cities of Huai'an are connected to rivers and lakes, and the water network is densely covered, which has strong characteristics of water towns.The famous ancient canal, close to the west of the old city and rushing southward, extends two water systems: one is the moat surrounding the three cities, and the other is the ancient Wenqu that was renovated during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.The Guwen Canal, which draws water from the ancient canal to the west, is four to five feet wide and six to seven feet wide. It is built with bricks and paved with stone slabs. building.When the water is rising, it is very interesting to board a boat to enjoy the scenery.Inside and outside the three cities, there are hundreds of large and small lakes and ponds, and the water surface accounts for 34% of the total area of ​​the three cities. "Shuiguangyao and Baiyun are connected", creating a unique scenery in Huai'an.

Wandering in the land of Huai'an today, you can still trace the footprints left by the ancient city in the course of history.The ancient cultural site of Qingliangang, 30 kilometers northeast of the county seat, belongs to the transitional stage from the matrilineal clan to the patrilineal clan, and is recognized at home and abroad as a representative of the culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.It was named after it was first discovered in Qingliangang, Huai'an.After 1951, many jade and pottery wares were successively unearthed here.The Gumokou ruins at the entrance of the ancient Hangou to the Huai River are still preserved. In 1980, dense soil piles were found nearby.Located in the west corner of the city and on the east side of the ancient canal, Wentong Pagoda was built in the second year of Jinglong, Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty.Zhenhuai Tower was built in the second year of Baoqing in the Southern Song Dynasty. There are two-story buildings built on a huge base. It was originally "Qiaolou", about 18 meters high, dominating the city.The ruins of the Governor of Water Transport in the north of Zhenhuai Tower, although the house is destroyed, the foundation and foundation stones are still in the ground; the Huai'an government office in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is located behind the Governor's Office of Water Transport.Today, the sturdy and tall lobby and the second hall are still well preserved, and the momentum is very impressive.In the Qing Dynasty, Huai'an had more than 130 private gardens and public tourist places such as West Lake, Shaohu Lake, Xiaohu Lake, Wanliu Pond, Taohua Yin, Yanzhi Pond, and Longguang Pavilion.Today, Shaohu Park, located in the west of the city and covering an area of ​​140 mu, has been rebuilt. The Dabei Pavilion, Spring Breeze Pavilion, Shaohu Academy, Centipede Bridge and Laojun Palace in the park have basically been restored as they were.

"Jinwu leads Chu guests to travel more, the magnificent first state in the southeast".Admiring Huai'an's culture and scenic spots, immigrants and poets flock here in droves.Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Du Mu, Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, Su Dongpo, Qin Shaoyou, Shi Naian, Wu Jingzi and some other shining figures in the corridor of Chinese literature have all left their footprints here.The great dramatist Guan Hanqing visited Huai'an and wrote the world-famous novel "The Injustice of Dou E", the famous novel was born here and completed in Huai'an.On this land, Han Xin, the famous general in the early Han Dynasty, Mei Cheng, the author of the famous Han Fu "Qi Fa", Wei Pu, the calendar calculator in the Northern Song Dynasty, Liang Hongyu, a heroine, Wu Jutong, a febrile disease expert, Guan Tianpei, a famous anti-British general, etc. A large number of outstanding sons and daughters.Our beloved Premier Zhou was born in this land of outstanding people and spent his childhood here.

Most of the relics of outstanding figures of past dynasties in Huai'an have been preserved and restored.Han Xin, who founded the Han Dynasty for four hundred years, has renovated the ruins of his hometown, such as the Kuoxia Bridge, Diaoyutai, and Piaomu Temple; Walking into Liang Hongyu's ancestral hall, you can see the heroine's demeanor when he fought against Jinshan; looking up at Wu Chengen's former residence at the bottom of the river, it seems to hear it silently narrating the ups and downs of this literary master's life and the hardships of creation; The cemetery of Guan Pei in the eastern suburbs of the city and the ancestral hall of Guan Tianpei in the east street of the county in the city can make people relive the tragic scene in history; lingering in front of the bookstore where Liu E wrote will also give people a lot of beneficial enlightenment.The former residence of Zhou Enlai in the West Consort Lane of Zhenhuai Tower has become a national key cultural relic protection unit, and it has been revered and cherished by millions of admirers.

Everything has two sides.Water brings vitality to Huai'an, and once brought disaster to Huai'an.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yellow River flooded and invaded the Huaihe River. Two large streams competed for a river channel. The Huaihe River was supported by the Yellow River, and the drainage was not smooth. It accumulated between the ancient Huaiyin and Xuyi, and flooded into Hongze Lake, threatening Lianghuai.The course of the Huaihe River was silted up by a large amount of sediment carried by the Yellow River, and the original water system was destroyed.During the flood seasons of 1569 and 1570, the peak of the Huaihe River reached a height of 1.5 or 6 feet, and the level of the water was 7 or 8 feet.Huai'an, Siyang, Huaiyin, Lianshui and other places were flooded for more than 70,000 hectares.In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, when the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River again, houses in Huai'an collapsed, corrupt officials lied about and withheld money from relief, and the people lived in dire straits, starving and dying everywhere.During the rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries, a flood in 1931 engulfed 10 million mu of farmland and 7,000 lives in northern Jiangsu, and drove more than 3 million people from their homes. "Down Gaojiayan, Huai (an) and Yang (zhou) two prefectures will not meet."At that time, the city of Huai'an was almost sailable.

"The up and down of the canal is the key point, and the adjustment of publicity and prevention requires geniuses."In 1951, Premier Zhou formulated the policy of "boosting storage and drainage" and personally planned and excavated the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu, which started construction on the newly reborn land.Mao Zedong inscribed the words "We must repair the Huai River" on the east diversion sluice of Huai'an City, which was also the oath of 1.3 million migrant workers.Since then, water conservancy facilities have sprung up in Huai'an, where the Subei Irrigation Canal and the Grand Canal meet.Huai'an Water Pumping Station 1 and 2 were completed in 1974 and 1979, connecting the Yangtze River in the south, the canal in the north, the Yellow Sea in the east, and Hongze Lake in the west.The water pumps of the two stations started at the same time, and within 24 hours, all the accumulated water of about 700,000 mu of farmland in the four counties including Huai'an in the Baima Lake area could be drained.The Huai River is abundant, and it can provide irrigation for 2.6 million mu of farmland in the east of the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu; when the drought is raging, it can also draw the clear flow of the Yangtze River to subdue demons and monsters.Between Turnshui Station and Yundong Gate, there are also Huaian Ship Lock and the newly repaired double-track ship lock.Two giant-like automatic control buildings stand opposite each other; herringbone-shaped hydraulic lever gates, like two giant iron pincers, lock the canal.The double-track ship lock can ensure the double-track passage of 2,000-ton cargo ships all year round, which greatly facilitates the north-south water transport. Today, a modern water conservancy hub with Huai'an Turnshui Station as the core, including more than 20 water conservancy buildings for flood drainage, waterlogging, irrigation, power generation, transportation, etc., is standing on the land of Huai'an, which is deeply imprinted with historical car marks.Those who came to Huai'an for a visit visited the site where the ancient Hangou entered the Huaihe River - the ruins of Mokou and the ruins of the governor's yamen for water transportation in Huai'an City. Isn't it the three milestones in the history of Huai'an?The ancient port once heralded the rise of Huai'an; the establishment of the Governor's Office of Water Transport symbolized the rise of Huai'an in the feudal era; and the majestic water conservancy project will call for the new revitalization and rise of Huai'an!