Typography 丨 Sunny day
Edit 丨 National Film Documentary
In the past, China's rural areas will have the habit of digging cellars, the first can preserve food, the second cellar in winter warm and cool in summer can also let people survive the cold and heat, especially in the northern rural cellars are very common.
In June 1994, a farmer named Zhang Suiliang in Shanxi was preparing to dig a cellar at home, and when he dug deep to expand the cellar area, he found a complete "underground world".
Zhang Suiliang couldn't help but explore, and found a number of wells in this "underground world", some of which had dried up and some of which could still be used.
The well is connected to many passages, and Zhang Suiliang observed inside for a while, and when he came out, he found himself outside the village, and he was lost in the underground world.
After this news spread, it aroused the interest of many archaeologists, and after the investigation of experts, it was found that the layout of this village corresponded to the twenty-eight stars.
What are the secrets of this village? What is the purpose of the huge underground tunnels?
Zhang Suiliang explores the "underground world" and is almost lost
The village where Zhang Suiliang lives is called Zhangbi Village, and the whole village is built on the mountain. The old man in the village said that there was an ancient tomb underground, and someone had also explored it before, thinking that he might find ancient treasures, but they were all empty-handed.
Everyone has curiosity, Zhang Suiliang is no exception, after thinking clearly, he decided to explore again. Entering through the entrance of his own cellar, the tunnel was very dark and he could not see his five fingers.
Although he was carrying a flashlight, Zhang Suiliang walked very slowly because he was not sure whether there was danger in the tunnel. When he first started exploring, Zhang Suiliang thought that this was the tunnel dug during the war, but when he looked closely, he realized that his idea was wrong.
Because the walls and top of the tunnel are secured with stone bricks, this is obviously a planned underground tunnel that took a long time. Digging tunnels during a war is temporary, and it is impossible to do so.
As he walked deeper and deeper, the dark and silent environment would cause a lot of mental pressure on people, and Zhang Suiliang began to feel a little irritable in his heart, at this time he calmed down his emotions.
Combing through the places I walked in my mind, the wide passage can be parallel to two people, and the narrower places can only pass through one person. According to their own height, it is judged that the height of the passage here is not more than one meter eight.
There are many recessed pits on the walls on both sides, and the distance between each pit is about the same, if this is an ancient built passage, the role of the pit should be to set fire to illuminate.
Zhang Suiliang did not stop, and then he had a surprising discovery, the passage in front of him was a downward slope, and there was a second floor here. Building such a complex passage underground requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and while being surprised, Zhang Suiliang also wants to find out the secrets here.
According to the old man in the village, this underground passage has existed for a long time, and it is likely that there will be a risk of collapse, but Zhang Suiliang still decided to go to the second underground floor to see.
Slowly walking down, Zhang Suiliang just walked along the passage, and whenever he encountered a fork, he did not make a mark, thinking about what would happen at the end of the underground passage.
Just as he was walking slowly, Zhang Suiliang suddenly realized a very serious thing, he was lost underground. For a while, Zhang Suiliang's heart was very panicked, if he really couldn't go out, wouldn't he be starving to death?
Zhang Suiliang began to gasp for breath, feeling that someone around him was staring at him, but when he looked in one direction, he could only see endless darkness. If Zhang Suiliang can't stabilize his emotions, he is likely to "drive himself crazy", and accidents may really occur at that time.
Zhang Suiliang could no longer walk calmly, he accelerated his pace, and after a while he felt a heavy dampness and coldness, he couldn't help but shiver, which made Zhang Suiliang calm down, and his heart was also afraid for a while.
After stabilizing his mood, Zhang Suiliang slowed down his pace, he touched the damp wall and continued to walk, did not go much distance, in a trance Zhang Suiliang seemed to see that there was a point of light in front of him, at first he thought it was his own dazzle.
After walking another distance, Zhang Suiliang made sure that he had not misread it, and walked in to see that it was a well. This was not the first well he had found, but it did allow Zhang Suiliang to see a well of hope, and when there was light, the water surface would reflect the light spots.
At this time, Zhang Suiliang's mood was also much better, he thought that his position should be under the village, after resting for a while next to the well, Zhang Suiliang continued to walk forward, and soon after he found the exit, after coming out he saw that he was on a small hill in the village, just blocked by a lot of weeds.
Folk scholars explore the dark passages
Zhang Suiliang found authentic things at home, which soon spread in the village and spread to the ten miles and eight townships. This incident intrigued Zheng Guanggen, a cotton mill worker and a folk scholar.
Zheng Guanggen is not a native of Zhangbi Village, but he has heard that There are many caves in Zhangbi Village, and he did not expect that there is "another heaven and earth" under these caves, so Zheng Guanggen decided to investigate Zhangbi Village after retirement.
In the autumn of 1994, Zheng Guanggen retired and laid off, and he came to Zhang Suiliang's residence in Zhangbi Village, but got a disappointing news, Zhang Suiliang blocked the entrance to the cave, and the family also worked and lived outside.
Zheng Guanggen could only ask some questions about the cave, and the villagers said that it was not only Zhang Suiliang's family that had the cave entrance, but there were many in the whole village. This surprised Zheng Guanggen.
In order to investigate the matter, Zheng Guanggen began to observe the entire zhangbi village, where the villagers dug a lot of caves and cellars to store vegetables and other food. It's just some ordinary cave cellars. That was not the purpose of his investigation.
Zheng Guanggen recalled that when he was a child, he had seen a bottomless stone cave, but because he was too young to go in, he always remembered this matter, maybe the cave entrance was not sealed.
Thinking of this, Zheng Guanggen went to the outside of Zhangbi Village, and sure enough, he found the cave entrance. He then began to prepare tools for the expedition, making a lot of torches and some clues in case of emergency.
Zheng Guanggen lit the torch and walked into the cave, after walking through a passage, the space inside became very large, like a hall, there were dense cracks in the soil layer under his feet and overhead, after seeing several deeper cracks, Zheng Guanggen was worried that there would be a possibility of collapse at any time.
However, Zheng Guanggen did not stop, still walked deeper, the passage behind the "hall" was very complicated and curved, and slowly he felt that it was difficult to breathe.
Zheng Guanggen did not panic, he knew that this was because the air in the cave was not circulating, and then he looked at the walls on both sides and found obvious traces of artificial excavation.
Because the passage is too complicated, Zheng Guanggen also lost his sense of direction, and Zheng Guanggen found a lot of forks along the way, and if he goes back now, he can't go out. So he could only follow the feeling.
However, Zheng Guanggen was not particularly worried about whether he would be trapped underground, he put the torch close to the walls on both sides, and did not find anything special, after walking for a distance, Zheng Guanggen felt a cool breeze.
He realized that he was not far from the exit, followed the direction of the wind, and sure enough, he saw the bright light, and when he reached the mouth of the cave, Zheng Guanggen was surprised to find that this was not the exit, because there was no road outside and it was a cliff.
Zheng Guanggen thought for a moment, maybe he had already crossed the village to the other side, and every hole in the cliff wall was interconnected. Zheng Guanggen took out the clue and carefully climbed out of the cave entrance.
This time Zheng Guanggen was trying, so he decided to enter the cave for the second time, and in the village he found out that the cellar of a family had also opened up the underground tunnel.
Zheng Guanggen then entered the cave from here, this time he carefully observed the environment of the cave and found that there was a dark hole in his head, and he determined that he was in the second layer of the cave.
After walking for a distance, Zheng Guanggen found that there were many marks of knives and axes on both sides of the wall, which should be that people in ancient times had a battle in the cave, which was likely to be a military fortress, in order to determine his own thoughts, Zheng Guanggen returned to the ground in the same way.
He noticed that there was a tall wall on the south side of Zhangbi Village, and after consulting the relevant information, Zheng Guanggen knew that this kind of wall was called a fort wall in ancient times, and the exit on the south side of Zhangbi Village was called a fort gate. Zhangbi Village is not large, so why build such fortifications?
Zheng Guanggen went to the north of Zhangbi Village and found a city wall and a city gate. What does this mean? In fact, in ancient times, this structure was called urn city, and only important towns were built.
In addition, there are also alley doors in the alleys on both sides of the main road of the village, and as long as the door is closed, there is no way to go. Zheng Guanggen's thoughts immediately returned to ancient times, and he thought that Zhangbi Village must have been a very important military town before.
Archaeologists conduct expeditions and there are astonishing discoveries
Soon after, a professional archaeological team came to Zhangbi Village to investigate, the area of the village is about 12,000 square meters, the underground tunnel is actually divided into three layers, the total length of tens of thousands of meters, is a three-dimensional network structure.
With the progress of archaeological work, it was determined that Zhangbi Village was a military fortress in ancient times, with a castle on the ground and a secret passage leading to all parts of the village underground, which means that Zhangbi Village has a glorious history.
The first layer of the dark passage is 2 meters from the ground, the second layer is about 10 meters from the ground, and the third layer has reached a depth of 20 meters, so it is very difficult to build the "underground world".
In order to meet the needs of combat and life, there are general's cellars, command cellars, traps, wells, ventilation vents, drainage channels, etc. underground, although the internal passage structure is complex, but it is accessible in all directions.
The person who designed the secret passage should learn from the qimen dungeon art, because people who are not familiar with the secret path are easy to get lost in it, which plays the role of "ecstasy array".
In addition, the setting of the trap is also very clever, such as a trap with a "captive kiln", that is, there is a hole in the second floor responsible for observation, if there is an enemy rushing to the trap position on the second floor, there will be a soldier to activate the mechanism, so that the enemy falls to the "captive kiln" of the third layer.
In fact, the most surprising thing for experts is the layout of Zhangbi Village, in the south of the village placed a stone dragon head, on both sides of the dragon head is paved with red stones paved path, can be seen as a dragon whiskers, the north-south street in the village is the dragon body, in this street is also paved with three red long stones, in addition to the dragon head near the two sides of a pond, overlooking Zhangbi Village is like a dragon, can plan a village into such a look, I have to say that the design of the ancients is really ingenious.
In addition, in zhangbi ancient castle, you can see the temple of the three religions of Confucianism and Buddhism, and there is even a khan temple. Among the many temples, there is a Buddhist temple that is very special, which is not dedicated to Rulai or Guanyin, but tian Zhichao, who became a Buddha in the northwest legend, who was the first person in the Han Chinese to become a Buddha, and the dharma name is the Empty King Buddha.
In addition, the layout here is very exquisite, combining the ancient feng shui astrology, and the layout corresponds to the twenty-eight stars. In addition, a locust tree can be seen outside the village of Zhangbi Village, and it is said that there should be 7 locust trees here, known as the Seven Star Terrace, but for various reasons in history, 6 locust trees have been cut down.
The clues found by the above archaeologists make people wonder who the builder is? The figure who knows astronomy and geography should not be an obscure person.
Experts in Zhangbi archaeology have a unified answer, that is, the ancient castle here is a building of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, with a history of more than 1600 years.
In order to uncover the mystery of Zhangbi Village, he not only consulted various materials, but also visited the people of nearby villages and summarized two more reliable statements.
The first theory is that the Zhangbi Ancient Castle built by rich merchants, Zhangbi Village is located in the middle of nowhere, the Emperor of Heaven is far away, there are many mountain thieves and bandits here who often rob the people, and the rich merchants also suffer heavy losses, so they built a tall city wall defense.
The second theory is that Zhangbi Castle is related to the warlord Liu Wuzhou at the end of the Sui Dynasty, because many local elders claim to be descendants of Liu Wuzhou's army.
After Li Yuan captured the capital of the Sui Dynasty, Liu Wuzhou took the opportunity to capture Taiyuan and Jiexiu. Li Yuan then asked Li Shimin to send troops to recover the lost land, and Liu Wuzhou's army was defeated and could only retreat to Zhangbi Village.
At that time, Liu Wuzhou had a major general named Wei Chigong who refused to accept defeat, but was still defeated, and Li Shimin ordered the pursuit of wei Chigong's remnants, but Wei Chigong and the army suddenly disappeared in Zhangbi Village. Therefore, the huge dark passage under Zhangbi Village also has something to do with this.
However, all this is just speculation, in the end who built the Zhangbi Castle, there is no accurate answer, and this is also the charm of archaeology, I believe that one day can uncover many mysteries in history.