Dear emperors, first look at the aerial picture of Liaocheng, surrounded by water on all sides, if it is the era of cold weapons, how many soldiers can you command to break through?
There is a bridge section in the "Water Margin", after Song Jiang destroyed Zengtou City, he would set up Lu Junyi as the lord of the cottage according to the last words of the Heavenly King Chao Gai. The people did not accept Lu Junyi, and Song Jiang said that east of Liangshan Po there were Dongping Province and Dongchang Province, and whoever took a city with Lu Yuanwai would be the lord of Liangshan. Song Jiang drew middle East Pingfu, and Lu Junyi drew Middle East Changfu. The Northern Song Dynasty really had Dongping Province, that is, Yun Prefecture, which was governed by present-day Dongping County. However, the Song Dynasty did not have Dongchang Province, and Lu Junyi actually attacked a lonely city, and Dongchang Province was next door to Liaocheng In Dongping Province.
Liaocheng is located in the western part of Shandong Province, when it comes to strategic towns, everyone is likely to first think of Xuzhou in Jiangsu, Xiangyang in Hubei, and Hanzhong in Shaanxi, in fact, the strategic position of Liaocheng is equally important. Liaocheng is located on the banks of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, bordering Hebei Province to the northeast, Henan Province to the southeast to the "arrow", and the three cities of Dezhou, Jinan and Tai'an to the east. In particular, it is worth mentioning that tens of kilometers east of Liaocheng is Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, and there is no dangerous mountain fortress between the two cities. And not far southeast of Liaocheng is the majestic Taishan Mountains. The ancients commented on Liaocheng in this way, "Dongchangfu is located in the plain, there is no famous mountain and river to block, the weight of transportation in various places, mostly Dongchangfu as the main road between the north and the south." ”
If we change the map from a provincial topography map to a national topography map, you will find that Liaocheng does have extraordinary strategic value. The North China Plain, which is located at the junction of Hebei and Shanxi and Henan provinces, is relatively narrow in this section of the plain, because Taishan is not far to the east. Between Anyang, Puyang and Taishan in Henan, there is a very obvious plain corridor, and Liaocheng happens to be stuck at the gateway of this plain corridor. This is what the ancient strategists said, Liaocheng controlled Wei Prefecture (魏州, in modern Yuancheng County, Handan City, Hebei Province) and Xiang Prefecture (in present-day Anyang, Henan) in the west, which can be called the hinterland of the world. Out of the north of Liaocheng, the North China Plain is fan-shaped distribution, out of Dezhou above is Cangzhou, and then Cangzhou is the capital, it can be said that Liaocheng is the gateway of the capital on the southern front defense.
The Song Dynasty did not have Dongchang Province, called Bozhou, and was also the seat of Bozhou. It was not until the early years of the Yuan Dynasty that Bozhou was renamed Dongchang Road and the Ming Dynasty was renamed Dongchang Province. Although Liaocheng did not become the capital of a sub-provincial city in the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty still attached great importance to Liaocheng, and the ancient city of Dongchang is a proof of the glorious history of Liaocheng.
Since Liaocheng is an important military town, those who want to compete for Hebei and Shandong must first compete for Liaocheng. For example, at the end of the Sui Dynasty, Yu Wenhua and after killing the Sui Emperor Yang Guang, became emperor, and was defeated by the Tang Dynasty general Li Shentong, Yu Wenhua fled to Liaocheng County to protect himself. Yu Wenhua and Wang Bo, who sang the anti-Sui song "The Death Song of the Liaodong Wave", joined forces to defend Liaocheng, and after the Tang army retreated, Dou Jiande, the king of Xia, led troops to attack Liaocheng, attacked Liaocheng to kill Yu Wenhuahe, and honored Empress Xiao, these events that affected history all occurred in Liaocheng.
After the Northern Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains, liaocheng's strategic position did not decline much, but the Song court faced a serious problem, that is, the flood of the Yellow River. Liaocheng is not far from the north bank of the unruly Yellow River, and as long as the Yellow River breaks, Liaocheng will suffer. In the third year of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song (992 AD), the Yellow River broke through, and Liaocheng, which was the seat of Bozhou, was destroyed by the merciless water, and the seat was moved to Xiaowu Ferry, also known as Xiaowu Tomb. In the third year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song (1070 AD), the relevant authorities began to build tucheng here. At the same time, people also dug a lake on the basis of the original city moat in Liaocheng, that is, Dongchang Lake. Dongchang Lake covers an area of 4.2 square kilometers and is three to five meters deep. The ancient city of Dongchang lies quietly in the warm embrace of Dongchang Lake.
The ancient city of Dongchang covers an area of about 1 square kilometer and was built on a large scale in the fifth year of Ming Hongwu (1372 AD). The circumference of Dongchang Ancient City is about 3.5 kilometers, the height is 11.7 meters, the base thickness is 11.7 meters, and the top width is about 6.7 meters. The outer walls of the ancient city of Dongchang were made of hard masonry, and then the inner city was rammed with triad earth. Dongchang Ancient City also has a beautiful nickname, called Phoenix City, because the shape of this ancient city is very similar to a phoenix spreading its wings.
In the genius design of the Ming Dynasty, the ancient city has four gate towers, the east gate is called Chunxi, the west gate is called Qingyuan, and the south gate is called Zhengde, and the three urns are twisted doors, and the south gate is to the east, which looks like the head of a phoenix. The west gate and the east gate are built to the south, looking like the wings of the phoenix, the north gate is called Xuanwu, naturally rushing north, like the beautiful tail of the phoenix, shaped like a phoenix, hence the name.
In the seventh year of the Wanli Calendar of emperor Myōshin (1579 AD), when Zhang Juzheng was still in power, it was such an ancient city that built as many as 2,700 battlements and 27 enemy towers. Because the four gates are surrounded by water, they have all built water gates and suspension bridges, as long as the city is full of food, the city's troops can defend the ancient city, and it is very difficult for the enemy to attack. For this Phoenix, some local people proudly said: "We have a Phoenix city here that will never fall." ”
Because the ancient city of Dongchang in Liaocheng has complete facilities and is also the middle port of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, in the Qing Dynasty, where the canal economy was developed, Liaocheng was known as "the throat of Cao Bang, the elbow of tiandu", and it was one of the nine major commercial ports along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which can be called Yangzhou in jiangbei.
Judging from the aerial picture, such a city, let's see, how many soldiers do you need to attack the city, and how can it be broken?