This place is the Huaihai region centered on Xuzhou, and its central area is a circle surrounded by several cities in the following figure, although the area is only 20,000 or 30,000 square kilometers, less than one-third of jiangsu province, but China's main pure Han dynasties, such as Western Chu, Han, Cao Wei, Liu Song, Nan Qi, Southern Liang, Hou Liang, Southern Tang, Daming and other major founding groups of the nine dynasties, all come from this place, this is now both a heating and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other magical places.
It can be seen from this that in Chinese history, although most of them were unified from the north to the south, and the victors in the confrontation between the north and the south were mostly northern regimes, the founders of the Han Dynasty were mostly from Huaihai, the region where the north and the south met.
First: Huaihai's geographical location is important.
If the map of China is compared to a rooster, then the Huaihai region is the heart of this rooster, where the bloodline of my Lord of China lies. It is located in guanluo (traditional political center), Youyan (the political center of the northern frontier), Jiangnan (the financial pillar) of the three important areas of the connection, but also the south of the Jianghuai, the north control of Yanji, the west of the Bisi; the Yellow River from west to east, the Zha River (that is, the canal) from north to south, all of which are combined here, so it is not only the major hub of China's waterways, but also the main road of China's land routes, and it is actually the capital of China's strong country, the big state of Guqiu, the shape of the east, and the key point of the north and south.
Xuzhou TV Tower
Therefore, the position of Huaihai is really crucial, and whoever occupies it first will have the advantage; therefore, when these Han dynasties first rise, they will be able to get the land of Huaihai first, or the support of the people of Huaihai first, which will naturally achieve more with less; for example, in the great determination of our new China, the Battle of Liaoshen was only the foundation, and the Battle of Huaihai was the key. According to incomplete statistics, over the past four thousand years, there have been more than 1,000 written records of the wars in Huaihai, more than 400 on a large scale, and more than 200 with great influence, which is the most frequent place for wars in all parts of China.
Pictured: heart
Figure: The distance between Xuzhou, the central city of Huaihai, and the surrounding 7 municipalities,provincial capitals/sub-provincial cities
Second: Huaihai's unique popular sentiment
Because the Huai River has often flooded since ancient times, so the soil is thin, and the people's morale is tied to the water and soil, so the people of Huaihai are very strong, the residents are good warriors, plus the geographical location here is very important, often the soldiers are in chaos, so there are many displaced people, so the "Book of Han" says that the people here are "anxious and dedicated to themselves, the land is thin and the people are poor, so they are good thieves." And the Qing Dynasty's "Xuzhou FuZhi" said that here "its customs are good and brave, and the showmanship is very handsome, and the sloppy person is also tough and difficult to tame." "In short, most of the people of Huaihai are fighters with a very rebellious spirit, and there are very few obedient people with honest duties, and these people are social unstable elements if they use the wrong place and the wrong time, but using the right time in the right place can save the people of all people, continue to survive for the survival of the Chinese nation, help the crisis, and achieve a great cause!"
Therefore, although huaihai has always had a weak economic development, it has a prosperous talent, and the emperor will be especially close to the Taoist ancestors. For example, Pei County has Liu Bang, Xiao He, Cao Shan, Zhou Bo, Fan Duo; Feng County has Taoist ancestors Zhang Daoling and Zhang Lu; Suqian has Xiang Yan, Xiang Liang, and Xiang Yu; Xuzhou has Song Wu Emperor Liu Yu, Southern Tang Liezu Li Fu, Southern Tang Dynasty Lord Li Yu, Eastern Wu Xiang Zhang Zhao, Liu Gaozhi, Liu Yuxi, Fan Zhongyan, etc.; Bozhou has Zhang Liang, LaoZi (Woyang County), Zhuangzi (Mengcheng County), Cao Cao, Cao Ren, Xiahou Huan, Xu Chu, Hua Tuo, Chen Laozu, etc.; the famous Lanling Xiao clique has walked out of the Southern Qi Emperor Xiao Daocheng, Liangwu Emperor Xiao Yan, etc., There were many foreign relatives of the Sui Dynasty and ten prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty; in the Huaixi region such as Chuzhou Bengbu, there were Lu Su of the Three Kingdoms of Eastern Wu, Huan Wen and Huan Xuan fathers and sons of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, as well as Zhu Yuanzhang, Guo Zixing, Xu Da, Lan Yu, Mu Ying, Li Shanchang, Tang He, Chang Yuchun and so on of the Ming Dynasty.
Xuzhou Overlord Stage
Unfortunately, although the Huaihai region is densely populated, has developed transportation, and has a prosperous talent, due to perennial wars and floods, there are many saline and alkali land and weak infrastructure, and the economy has not been able to develop. As a result, this golden area between the two rich provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu has now become one of the few underdeveloped areas in the east of China; so some people on the Internet have proposed that it is better to set up a separate province in the Huaihai region to stimulate its economic potential.
In fact, these ancients have long thought of it, and they have done it long ago, such as Xuzhou in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty was changed to a prefecture, so it was Liu Bang's hometown fengpei and Xiang Yu's hometown Suqian, Zhu Wen's hometown of Zhongshan, Liu Yu and Li Fu's hometown of Xuzhou City, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown Fengyang all included it, even if it has a rudiment of Huaihai Province, it is said that the people of Xuzhou Province at that time were quite "conceited with this", and the so-called "Imperial Township" was just like this.
Xuzhou Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty
In the late Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xiao, the last Chinese ruler and industrialist, put forward the "Xuzhou Provincial Council of the Jianhang Province" in 1904, advocating the establishment of provinces in "taking Xuzhou as the moon of the stars, east to Haizhou, west to Shangqiu, south from Sizhou, and north to Yishui, including the forty-five prefectures and counties where the four provinces of Suzhou, Anhui, Lu, and Yu meet, and he believed that the establishment of provinces in Huaihai was "to change the scattered land as a key point"; that is, to integrate the places where the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui could not reach, and to change the edge as the center, so as to facilitate military training, work-study, trade, and industry. Guard against imperialist aggression. As shown in the following figure:
Of course, the Late Qing Court eventually dismissed the proposal on the grounds that the four provinces were also involved in disputes, and the matter was never abandoned.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to gain a firm foothold in the Central Plains and consolidate the perfection of The North Nanjing Road, the Wang puppet regime specially established a puppet Huaihai Province, the provincial capital of Xuzhou, and appointed Hao Pengju as the governor of the province. It administers 23 cities and counties, with an area of 50,000 square kilometers and a population of about 13 million. This Wang Jingwei probably had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he had to include Cao Cao's Bozhou enclave and gather the land of Longxing.
Of course, by August 15, 1945, the Japanese invaders surrendered, and the pseudo-"Huaihai Province" existed for only a year and a half before dying.
Later, after liberation, the economist Yu Guangyuan also proposed a similar idea to Huaihai Province, but also due to many objections, it ended without any problem, and by May 7, 2010, the integration of the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone was finally officially launched, and the eight major Huaihai cities of Xuzhou, Suqian, Shangqiu, Jining, Lianyungang, Zaozhuang, Huaibei and Suzhou finally embarked on the national strategy.
The core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone
As for whether this Huaihai Province can really be completed in the future, this is actually not important, as long as everyone works hard to develop, I believe they will be able to catch up with the economic pace of southern Jiangsu and Ludong.