The Yinshan Mountains, which stretch across central Inner Mongolia, are like a giant dragon, blocking north-south traffic, and since the Qin and Han Dynasties, it has become a natural barrier for the Central Plains Dynasty to resist the attacks of the nomadic regime in the north. In the Yinshan Mountains, there are ditches and ditches, which also become a passageway for communication between the north and south of the Yinshan Mountains. Among them, the centipede dam, located in the northern part of present-day Hohhot and administratively subordinate to Wuchuan County, is a large passage of north-south traffic in the Yin Mountains in history.
In ancient times, centipede dams were not called centipede dams, but "Baidao" or "Baidaoling". And its name, according to the Song Ren Leshi's "Taiping Huanyu Record", records that the White Road is in the north of Yuanyang Town, "to the mountain when the road has more than a thousand steps, the soil is as white as stone gray, far away from a hundred miles to see it, that is, Yinshan Road also." In the Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan's "Notes on the Water Classics", the "White Road City" is mentioned. It is also said that the Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty once built a palace on baidaoling, "the palace is on the north of baidaoling, its city is rounded and square, the four gates are viewed, and the only hall in the city is only the tai hall." In the historical records, according to the author's view, the earliest record of "White Dao" was in the fourth year (419) of The Northern Wei Emperor Taizong Tuoba Taichang. Book III of the Book of Wei contains its events: Tai Chang 4 December "癸海, Western Tour, to the clouds, beyond the White Road, north hunting wild horses in the humiliation of the Lonely Mountain". The specific location of the Mountain is unclear, but it should be in the territory of present-day Wuchuan County.
The period when Bai Dao appeared most frequently in historical records was also in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which in addition to the above-mentioned records of The Northern Wei Emperor Taizong's "Yue Bai Dao", Bai Dao City, Bai Dao Palace, etc., there were also some records such as "Zhen YunZhong and the unification of the Bai Dao Military", "Yu Bai Dao South Three Licang", "White Road Guard" and so on. Of course, several battles in Baidao are also recorded, including the battles of the Northern Wei and the Worm (i.e., Rouran), as well as the battles of the Northern Wei government and the destruction of the Six Han Tombs.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Bai Dao is still frequently found in historical records, such as the three years after Emperor Wen of Sui opened the emperor, yang Shuang the Prince of Wei fought with the Turks in Bai Dao, and was greatly broken; in the fourth year of Emperor Taizong of Tang (630), the Tang generals Li Jing and Li Ji (i.e., Xu Shixun) led more than 100,000 troops to join Bai Dao and greatly broke the Eastern Turk Jieli Khan, which also led to the surrender of the Eastern Turks to Tang.
Of course, in times of war, the White Road was a military artery, and in the more long-term peace years, the White Road also became an important channel for political and economic exchanges between the north and south of the Yin Mountains. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the Eastern Turks descended to The Sui, and the Turks "either entered the Great Wall in the south, or lived in the White Road, and the people's sheep and horses were all over the valley." In the Tang Dynasty, the Tang and the Uighurs carried out a large-scale "silk horse trade", and Bai Juyi's "Yin Shan Dao" poem Yun: "Yin Shan Dao, Yin Shan Dao, Qiluo Dun Fei Shui Quan is good." Whenever the Rong people send horses, there is no grass on the side of the road. Yuan Shu's "Yin Shan Dao" Yun: "Buying Ma Yin Shan Dao every year, ma dead Yin Shan Is empty." The "Yin Shan Dao" here may also refer to other passages in the Yin Shan Mountains, but from the white road recorded in the Taiping Huanyu Chronicle, "that is, the Yin Shan Road", it cannot be ruled out that at least it should include the white road.
As for when Bai Dao was renamed "Centipede Dam", the earliest information I have seen is Qianlong's "Shanxi Tongzhi", its cloud: "Centipede Dam at the mouth of daqing mountain moraine, Tongwa La land." In addition, during the Kangxi Dynasty, Jin Shi Chu Dawen's "Collected Works of Cunyan Lou" also said: "Jisheng Ledu to reach the big and small Red Mountain Pass, centipede path centipede dam" Yunyun, then at the end of the Qing Dynasty Kangxi and Qianlong years, Baidao was renamed Centipede Dam.
Centipede Dam Entrance
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army organized an ambush at Centipede Dam and eliminated more than 80 Japanese troops.
White Road (Centipede Dam)
The above 4 pictures are downloaded from the Internet, thank you! The following three photos were taken by the author when I went to the intangible cultural heritage town of Moni Mountain. The town is located in the white road area.