In the previous article, the author talked to you about a series of stories about the changes in the urban areas of various prefectures in Henan Province, such as Luoyang City, Xinxiang City and so on. Today, we talk about Wuyang County in Henan Province. Wuyang County belongs to Luohe City, while Wuyang County's "brother", Wugang City, belongs to Pingdingshan City. In the long river of history, Wugang City and Wuyang County are under the administration of Nanyang. Around the ownership of Wuyang County, 4 cities repeatedly competed. So why is this happening? Today, we're going to talk about that.
First of all, let's talk about the basic situation of Henan Province. Henan Province is one of China's largest population provinces, one of the major grain provinces, according to the data of the Seven Census Statistics, the total population of Henan Province is close to 100 million people, ranking third in the country. Henan Province is China's large grain province and the main grain supply base in China. Wheat, in particular, is supplied to many provinces in Henan Province. A considerable part of the country's steamed buns, ham sausages, dumplings, tangyuan, etc., come from Henan Province.
Henan Province has a total of 17 prefecture-level cities under its jurisdiction, namely: Zhengzhou City, Kaifeng City, Luoyang City, Pingdingshan City, Jiaozuo City, Hebi City, Xinxiang City, Anyang City, Puyang City, Xuchang City, Luohe City, Sanmenxia City, Nanyang City, Shangqiu City, Xinyang City, Zhoukou City, Zhumadian City. Each prefecture-level city has a different number of districts, counties, and county-level cities under its jurisdiction.
Among the counties and county-level cities, Wuyang County and Wugang City belong to "brothers", and the two counties and cities are one family. However, according to the current division, Wuyang County is under the administration of Luohe City, and Wugang City is under the administration of Pingdingshan City. Decades ago, Wuyang County and Wugang City were successively under the administration of Nanyang and Xuchang. So, for the sake of Wuyang County, why do the four prefecture-level cities repeatedly compete?
During the reign of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the division of Henan Province was further formed, dividing various provinces and directly subordinate states. In the mid-17th century, the Qing Dynasty gradually eliminated the various regimes of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the forces of the peasant rebel army, and established its rule over the whole country. And according to their own needs, they have adjusted the divisions of each province and formed a regional pattern of 18 provinces. In Henan Province, various prefectures have been established, namely: Kaifeng Province, Chenzhou Province, Guide Province, Zhangde Province, Weihui Province, Huaiqing Province, Henan Province, Nanyang Province, Runing Province, Zhengzhou, Ruzhou, Xuzhou, Shaanzhou, and Gwangju.
Among them, Nanyang Province has the largest jurisdiction, which is related to the topographic structure of Nanyang, and Nanyang City belongs to the basin structure, similar to the scaled-down version of the Sichuan Basin. Nanyang Prefecture administers 2 scattered prefectures and 11 counties, namely: Dengzhou, Yuzhou, Nanyang County, Nanzhao County, Tanghe County, Biyang County, Zhenping County, Tongbai County, Neixiang County, Xinye County, Huaichuan County, Wuyang County, and Ye County. According to the division at that time, Wuyang County was under the administration of Nanyang Province. During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, Nanyang Province had a high status in Henan Province.
In 1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China entered the stage of warlord chaos. Henan Province belongs to the land of four wars, with high grain production and a large population. Various warlords attacked each other, causing serious damage everywhere. Coupled with the rampage of bandits everywhere, as well as the breach of the Yellow River and the large-scale drought. In the 1930s and 1940s, the lives of the masses in various parts of Henan were very difficult. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the end of the large-scale war, China entered a period of post-war reconstruction, resumption of production, development and construction.
A series of important projects were built in Zhengzhou, Luoyang and other places in Henan Province. At the same time, a series of special districts have been divided into various parts of Henan Province, such as Nanyang Special District, Xuchang Special District and so on. From this time on, in view of the fact that the jurisdiction area of Nanyang Special Area is too large, it is not easy to manage from the perspective of transportation and communication. Wuyang County, which is under the jurisdiction of Nanyang Prefecture, is under the administration of Xuchang Prefecture. The jurisdiction of Xuchang Prefecture is very large, reaching 15 counties and cities, namely: Xuchang City, Xuchang County, Changge County, Yanling County, Linying County, Luohe City, Chencheng County, Wuyang County, Ye County, Xiangcheng County, Yu County, Yu County, Yu County, Baofeng County, Lushan County, Linru County.
Industrial construction requires coal, oil and other resources in the Pingdingshan area of Henan Province. Very impressive coal resources have been discovered. In order to better exploit these resources, in 1954, Henan Province set up the Pingdingshan Coal Mine Preparatory Office. In 1956, it was upgraded to Pingdingshan Mining Area. By 1957, it was upgraded to a flat-topped mountain-level city. In 1964, Pingdingshan City was renamed Pingdingshan Special Economic Zone. At this time, the jurisdiction of Pingdingshan was not large, and the surrounding counties were under the management of Luoyang Special District and Xuchang Special District.
In 1968, the Pingdingshan Special Economic Zone was renamed Pingdingshan City. At this stage, the "original" Wuyang County was under the administration of Xuchang Special District. Some townships in Wuyang County have discovered abundant iron ore resources. With these townships as the center, a complete set of industrial systems such as iron ore mining and processing were rapidly formed. In the late 1960s, after all the special districts in the country were renamed as districts, Xuchang Special District was renamed Xuchang District, and the jurisdiction area basically did not change.
In 1973, in view of the importance of this area, Henan Province set up a special Wuyang Industrial District Office (county level). At the same time, the 6 townships in Wuyang County were assigned to the management of the Wuyang Industrial District Office. In 1977, the Wuyang Gong district office was assigned to the management of Pingdingshan City and renamed Wugang District. However, this period was not long, and in 1979, Wugang District was re-assigned to the management of Xuchang District. At the end of the 1970s, China's economy began to develop at a sustained and high speed.
In order to meet the needs of economic development, the various areas under the jurisdiction of Henan Province began to be adjusted to prefecture-level cities. The jurisdictions of some of the original prefecture-level cities began to be further expanded. In September 1982, Wugang District, which was under the jurisdiction of Xuchang District, was placed under the administration of Pingdingshan City for the second time. In January 1986, The Xuchang district was abolished, and the county-level city of Xuchang and Luohe were upgraded to prefecture-level cities. Xuchang County, Changge County, Yanling County, and Yu County in the former Xuchang Area were placed under the administration of Xuchang Prefecture-level Cities.
Xiangcheng County and Yu County, formerly from Xuchang District, were placed under the administration of Pingdingshan City (in 1997, Xiangcheng County was again assigned to Xuchang City). Wuyang County, Linying County, and Yucheng County in the former Xuchang area were placed under the administration of Luohe City. In September 1990, the Wugang District of Pingdingshan City was abolished and a county-level city of Wugang was established. By this time, the zoning pattern of Wuyang County and Wugang City had been completely formed. The two counties and cities belong to the "brothers", but they are under the administration of the two prefecture-level cities.
Counting from the Nanyang Special District and Xuchang Special District in that year, the four prefecture-level cities repeatedly competed for Wuyang County. Eventually, Wuyang County was split in two. In fact, in the divisions of various parts of Henan Province, several areas are very interesting, such as shangjie district in Zhengzhou City, Jili District in Luoyang City, and so on.
There are many more stories about the adjustment of regional divisions in China, and the author will talk to you slowly in future articles.