The "History of the Chu Shijia" says: "King Xuan of Qi built the Great Wall on the top of the mountains, east to the sea, west to Jeju, more than a thousand miles, to prepare for Chu." ”
This is the relevant record of the famous Great Wall in ancient China. Strictly speaking, the South Great Wall is recorded here, which is different from the well-known North Great Wall. We are familiar with the Northern Great Wall built by Qin Shi Huang and the previous Han Zhao Wei and other states, which was mainly used to guard against northern nomads.
In addition to the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty also built the Great Wall on a large scale, like the Great Wall we can see now, most of which was built during the Ming Dynasty. In ancient times, productivity was low, every brick, every tile, was transported by hand, and it was extremely difficult to build such a huge Great Wall on top of the lofty mountains. The total length of the Ming Great Wall is 8851.8 kilometers, while the Qin, Han and early Great Walls are more than 10,000 kilometers, with a total length of more than 21,000 kilometers.
So, many people wonder, is it useful to spend such a huge amount of manpower and material resources to build tens of thousands of miles of the Great Wall? Is the effect big? Even the Qing Emperor Kangxi bluntly said that the Great Wall was useless:
Since Qin built the Great Wall, the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties have often repaired it, but in fact, is there no boundless trouble? At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers of our Taizu Commandery drove straight in, and all the roads disintegrated, and they could not be done. It can be seen that the way to keep the country is only in the cultivation of virtue and peace.
Kangxi believed that even if the Great Wall was built, it would not be able to solve the border troubles, and the ethnic minorities would come to rob them, which could not be stopped. His grandfather, Emperor Taiji, crossed the Great Wall many times, invaded the Central Plains, and even hit the city of Beijing.
In fact, the Great Wall plays a great role, far beyond people's imagination! The Great Wall not only affects China, but Western scholars have pointed out to the point that the Great Wall has affected the world pattern and harmed Europe.
The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Khitan, Qiang, Jurchen, Mongolian and other northern nomads, none of whom had a fixed residence, set up tents and moved with the steppes. The social productivity of nomadic people is low, often not enough to eat, not good at sleep, and the Central Plains is rich in products and rich in land, so the northern nomads naturally rob the Han people.
In the face of the nomadic people in the north who have come and gone without a trace, the Central Plains Dynasty is very headache, even if they defeat them, they will not be able to catch up, they cannot be eliminated, and next time they will come to rob. This made the Central Plains Dynasty helpless. Later, the Central Plains Dynasty built the Great Wall at the border pass, blocking most of the border, leaving only a small amount of land that could be passed, and only needed to guard the pass.
Because of the existence of the Great Wall, if the nomadic people want to invade our territory, they need to go around a large circle to come over, which increases the cost of the invasion. These nomads could not grab the money of the Central Plains, and in order to fill their stomachs, they turned to Europe.
According to relevant European historical records, a group of "incomparably powerful enemies of unknown origin" suddenly appeared in the European plains. They were all cavalry, invincible, burning and plundering everywhere, and the countries of the European plains had no power to fight back. Round after round of attacks on Europe by these minorities, the common people of Europe were miserable, and even the mighty Roman Empire was subject to the iron horses of the Huns. These nomadic peoples are The Huns, Turks, Ruorans, Mongols and other ethnic groups.
According to a paper published by Boston University professor Barfield, "Dangerous Frontiers: Nomadic Empires and China." Professor Barfield talked about the role of the Great Wall and China, arguing that the steppe nomads, unable to be self-sufficient, wanted to survive only by war and robbery, and needed to constantly plunder the food of the farming peoples to maintain their livelihood. However, China has built the Great Wall on the border, and most of the nomadic people are afraid and have no choice but to move west.
And European countries do not have the Great Wall, can not stop the nomads' iron horses, naturally miserable. Therefore, Professor Barfield of Boston University in the United States pointed out to the point that the "Great Wall of China" has harmed European countries. He believes that the existence of the Great Wall has indirectly affected the pattern of Eurasia and even the world, causing European countries to suffer from the aggression of nomadic peoples.
For example, the Xiongnu, who had been strong for hundreds of years, moved west into Europe after being blocked by the Great Wall, and beat the European Ostrogothic and Roman Empires to the ground. Another example is the Khitan and Turkic, after being defeated by the Central Plains, retreated to West Asia and Europe, where they flaunted their might. The Mongols, not to mention, Genghis Khan and his descendants launched three western expeditions in a few decades, destroying the countries of Khwarazm, Chincha, Poland, and Egypt, which europeans called "God's Whip". (The Mongols were not hindered by the Great Wall, they fought on two fronts and attacked Europe.) ）
In short, after these nomadic peoples were blocked by the Great Wall of the Central Plains Dynasty, they turned to Europe, and Europe did not have the Great Wall, so they achieved rich results. Therefore, the Great Wall of China is very useful, it can keep the nomadic cavalry out of the door, at a very low cost, to ensure the safety of the Han people in the Central Plains. However, the American scholar Barfield pointed out to the point that the "Great Wall of China" objectively and indirectly harmed Europe and made it suffer from the ravages of nomads.