Today, many people will sing the song "Little Poplar": "A small poplar grows next to the outpost." Deep roots, strong and strong, watching over northern Xinjiang... Little poplar, little poplar, it is long and I am long, with me to guard the border defense..." Leaving aside the touching story behind this song, some people may think that this is a personified metaphor, and it is impossible for the little poplar to guard the border like people. However, what we want to say is that in ancient times in our country, trees did guard the border like people, and they were successful.
Let's start with General Mengtian, who says that after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he sent the general Meng Tian to build the Great Wall, starting from Lintao and ending in Liaodong and stretching for thousands of miles. What's on this Great Wall? It was definitely not just an old elder's defensive line that could be seen today, and the soldiers guarding it. On this border, there should still be trees, and there were quite a few later.
In 218 BC, General Meng Tian led an army of 300,000 to the Hetao area, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and in one fell swoop, he recovered the vast area north and south of hetao, and set up 34 counties (44 counties). Today, it is difficult to say the specific location of these counties, and can only give a general geographical location, that is, with Ordos, Baotou, and Bayannaoer in Inner Mongolia as the center, along the east and west wings of the Yellow River. The Qin army planted no trees in these places, the historical records do not tell us, but it is interesting that many tree-related place names appeared in these places later, such as Yulin and Yuzhong, which are still called today.
These place names cannot be ignored, they tell people more than just historical information. Let's start with the two place names of Yulin and Yuzhong. Yulin is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Province, Yulin, ancient name "Shangjun", began in the Spring and Autumn Warring States, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty nine-sided important town "Yansui Town" (also known as Yulin Town) station. Yuzhong is a county under the jurisdiction of Lanzhou, Gansu Province. It is said that this place is related to Mengtian, when the Mongol general "took the river as the realm, the stone as the city, and the elm as the plug", and later had the name Yuzhong. In 2018, a statue of Montien was built here to become a landmark of local culture.
The name of the tree can be passed down for such a long time, at least it can show that there should be many trees in these places, so it is called a place name. It is well documented that among the 34 or 44 counties set up by General Mengtian, there have also been "big places" such as YulinGuan and Yulin County. Yulin Pass is also known as Yu Guan. In the third year (583) of the Sui Kai Emperor, on the west bank of the Yellow River northeast of present-day Zunger Banner in Inner Mongolia. Abandoned at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Tang Zhenguan was restored in the thirteenth year (639) and later abolished. Yulin Commandery (Yulin Commandery) was renamed Sheng Prefecture in the third year of the Sui Dynasty (607), with jurisdiction over 3 counties of Yulin, Fuchang, and Jinhe, and its seat of government was in Yulin (on the mesa on the south bank of the Yellow River where the 20th urban and rural area of inner Mongolia Jungel Banner was located).
It can be seen that these places called "elms" have a lot of elms, but how these elms came from, history seems to have only given us some "weak" answers. In 127 BC, the Han Dynasty recovered "Henan Land", and Wei Qing was ordered to "restore the sai of Mengtian during the Qin Dynasty". In present-day Inner Mongolia's Jungar Banner and the Yuxi Ancient Fortress north of Shenmu and Yulin Counties in Shaanxi, Wei Qing not only repaired the Great Wall there, but also the "Guangchang Yu" along the Great Wall, lengthening and widening a border plug formed by the large-scale planting of elm trees in the past, greatly enhancing the Han army's defensive capabilities in this area.
Although not very obvious, people can already see the role and significance of trees on the frontier at that time. Yuxi Gusai, also known as Yulin Sai. It is said that this place is also named after MengtianBei took the present-day Hetao Land and was named after "tree elm as a plug". The "Chronicle of General Wei" also says that when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Wei Qing took the river loop again, and the army marched "according to the old sai of Yuxi". After winning the war, General Wei Qing planted trees here on a large scale, of course, not for the sake of what we call greening today. Here, the trees can "guard the frontier" like people, but for many years, they have been neglected.
The real "edge guarding" role of the tree, the more detailed record is the history of the Song Dynasty. Because the Song Dynasty fixed the capital of Henan, there was basically no danger in the northern defensive line, so at the beginning of the establishment of the regime, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, called on the people to plant trees throughout the country, especially in the frontier, and gave the people a lot of preferential policies. He also issued many special edicts, requiring the whole people to plant trees and protect trees, including the "Edict on Persuading the People to Plant Trees", "the Edict on Planting Elm Willows and Suitable Wood for the People of Yanhe Prefectures and Counties", and the "Edict on Prohibiting the Cutting of Mulberry Dates".
In this regard, the Song Dynasty historian Wang Mingqing said in the "Record of the Aftermath of the Wave": "The north-south boundary around the Waqiao is specially planted with elm willows, and the middle path can only accommodate one ride." "Waqiao Pass is in the southwest of present-day Xiong County, Hebei Province, the terrain is flat, there is no danger to defend, Khitan soldiers often come and go here, obviously, the "defensive forest" here has played a military role.
The one who spoke more bluntly was Song Zhenzong. At that time, he ordered people to plan and draw the "North Elm Willow Map", which was later fully built as the general plan of the military defense forest, and the "Song Hui Zhi Manuscript" recorded his views on the defense forest: "This can be substituted for deer antlers. "Antlers are a defensive weapon, and they are divided into infantry or cavalry. The first is to tie together many sharp and strong branches or trunks, named because of the shape of antlers, also known as reject antlers; the second is to sharpen the logs and cross them to prevent cavalry from attacking, which can be moved, also known as rejecting horses.
This is the position of the "defensive forest" in the heart of the Song Emperor, and it does have military implications and roles. According to the "Long Passage of The Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian", by the time of Emperor Renzong of Song, the imperial court also ordered that "from the west of Baozhou, where there is no pond water, plant a wide range of trees, and limit the enemy horses at different times." It can be seen that at that time, not only the tree was planted, but also the "soldier", and the tree stood together in a fixed posture, more or less completing the mission of the "soldier". Clearly, the frontiers of the Song Dynasty have achieved the goal of making everyone in the forest.
Perhaps, when we say this, everyone thinks it is a bit "weird". The fact is that the Song army with few horses is not conducive to fighting against the Khitan minority in the north in the plains, and planting trees in the frontier is likely to turn the plains into jungle operations, and the chances of victory will be greater. The equipment and habits of the army, as well as the area outside it, will largely determine the victory or defeat of this army in the war, and the cavalry of the northern nomads will be unstoppable once they enter the plains, and it is clear that the trunk of the tree is more useful than the human body at this time.
In this way, the trees on the frontier are actually "soldiers" in wartime, and the poetic imagination and expression of the artists who sing "Little Poplar and I Guard the Border Together" should be more precisely a restoration of the essence of things. However, history is always very interesting, let the tree restore the essence of the tree is also a soldier, he is the people are very revered Zuo Zongtang, he "newly planted willow three thousand miles, attracted the spring wind to the jade pass", so that the tree really became a tree, more responsible for the role of greening and wind and sand fixation. Therefore, Zuo Zongtang is also known as the "first person to green the northwest". History, from more than 2,000 years of Qin and Han to the late Qing Dynasty, has drawn a beautiful circle with a long time. (Wen | Lusheng)