In 1994, an honest and humble Villager in Shanxi suddenly became a well-known "tomb robber".
He did not open an ordinary ancient tomb, but a super large "underground palace" known as the "Great Underground Wall", and as soon as the news came out, the whole country was sensational, and countless experts and folk scholars flocked to it.
How did the Zhangbi Ancient Castle in Jinzhong, known as the world's first plug, unveil the mystery step by step? Who left this amazing project?
The Adventures of Shanxi Villagers
In the summer of 1994, Zhang Suiliang, a villager living in Zhangbi Village, Shanxi Province, encountered a troublesome affair, and he wanted to widen the cellar, but because of the "difference of a shovel", he became a "tomb robber".
He had been repairing the cellar that day, but due to excessive strength, he accidentally broke through the soil layer, and suddenly a dark cave appeared in front of him.
Although the unknown cave made him afraid, after all, the treasure was more heartwarming, thinking that there might be some treasure inside, Zhang Suiliang finally gritted his teeth and took the flashlight and probed in.
At that time, it was also rumored in the village that under the ground of Zhangbi Village was a very large ancient tomb, and countless gold and silver treasures were hidden in the tomb.
Although the legend is old-fashioned, in the past few years, countless people have tried to explore the underground tunnels, but they have found nothing.
However, the further he went, the more complicated Zhang Suiliang's mood became.
He found that there were some holes in the walls of the cave, which were obviously placed where oil lamps were placed, and coupled with the fact that he had knocked up and down, the noise in many places was empty, so he felt that the cave was afraid of more than one floor.
And the tortuous and complicated cave also constantly breeds the fear in Zhang Suiliang's heart, and as he continues to move forward, Zhang Suiliang's hands tremble and fear multiplies.
When he wanted to leave, he found that he could not find a way out, and if he continued like this, he would probably be trapped in the hole!
Just when Zhang Suiliang was full of remorse, things suddenly took a turn for the better, and he felt a sudden cool breeze in front of him, as if there were traces of an exit.
After running forward for a while, he suddenly found that on the tunnel in front of him was a pool of water formed by some water flow.
The tunnels on both sides of the waterhole are wells, and along one side of the well, Zhang Suiliang finally climbed out of the tunnel.
But before he could rejoice that he had escaped danger, the villagers who saw Zhang Suiliang climb out of the well in the village immediately exploded.
After hearing only a few words from his mouth, the news that "the Zhang family boy explored the earth-shattering ancient tomb" spread farther and farther, which also made Zhang Suiliang miserable...
Unable to stand the discussion of others, Zhang Suiliang simply sealed the opening of the cellar, locked the door, and went out to work, but he did not want to go to the door not long after he left, and another person came to the door and pounced.
And it is this person who makes Jinzhong Zhangbi Ancient Castle completely famous at home and abroad!
Zheng Guanggen's journey of discovery
This next Zhang Suiliang's exploration journey "baton" is called Zheng Guanggen.
On the surface, he was a cotton mill worker, but in fact he was a folk scholar with a strong interest in local culture.
As a native of Shanxi, Zheng Guanggen knew since he was a child that there were many caves in the surrounding villages, but he did not expect that there was such a big "secret" under the Zhangbi Village.
With a strong interest, Zheng Guanggen found Zhang Suiliang's home, but did not want to explore the underground palace, and hit a wall before it began.
Fortunately, the other people in the village were enthusiastic to guide, and Zheng Guanggen knew that there was not more than one similar cave in the village.
Zheng Guanggen gladly went there, but found that most of the caves were actually just the cellars of each family, not the underground palace he was looking for.
Just when he was at a loss, he suddenly remembered that when he was a child, he seemed to have seen similar stone caves on the surrounding cliffs.
With a nervous mood, Zheng Guanggen came to the edge of the cliff, and sure enough, he saw several inconspicuous caves on the mottled cliff wall.
Out of caution, Zheng Guanggen did not go in immediately, but went back to prepare a lot of traps and exploration tools, which led him down the cliff wall into one of the caves.
When I first went inside, the cave was so narrow that Zheng Guanggen could only bend over, and even in some places there were cracks all over it, which seemed to collapse at any moment.
Although Zheng Guanggen was afraid, he did not stop, but gritted his teeth and walked deeper, as more and more traces of artificial excavation were revealed in front of him, he was more and more certain that this was not a simple tunnel.
I don't know how long he walked, he suddenly saw a bright light in front of him, squinted his eyes and walked forward, but he didn't want to go to the exit, almost stepped on the air, and there was a cliff in front of him!
It turned out that several caves on the cliff wall were connected, and Zheng Guanggen explored inside for a long time, circled along the tunnel, and walked directly out of another cave entrance.
This exploration experience is somewhat hurried, Zheng Guanggen briefly summarized it, and then began the second exploration, and this time his starting point was a family cellar.
It turned out that the family had also found the entrance by chance, and after Zheng Guanggen drilled down the cellar, he soon found that this was the tunnel he had walked through once before, but this exploration brought him greater gains.
First, as he walked through the tunnel, he discovered the upward opening, thus determining that the tunnel he had walked before belonged to the "second layer".
Secondly, he found a lot of marks of knives and axes in the tunnels, and it was obvious that there had been fierce fighting in the tunnels.
Finally, he gradually groped to several exits of the tunnel and found that the entire Zhangbi Village was actually a sophisticated military fortress.
Don't look at the small area, the ancient military town should have a fortress wall, a fort gate, an urn city, an alley gate, that is a lot.
The more he groped down, the more Zheng Guanggen's heart wondered, who had built such an ordinary village into a military town?
Zheng Guanggen's speculation
Regarding the origin of this bunker, Zheng Guanggen first guessed the Tang Dynasty.
Not only because the statue of the famous Tang Dynasty general Wei Chigong appeared here, it was the place where Wei Chigong surrendered, but also because Tang Taizong Li Shimin once fought Liu Wuzhou here, and traces of this bunker appeared in historical records.
Although Zhangbi Village looks ordinary today, it occupied the main connection between the Guanzhong Plain and the North China Plain during the Tang Dynasty.
The three sides of the ditch and the side of the mountain can be said to be a natural position against the enemy, and the original Tang Dynasty Duke Li Yuan from the Taiyuan area cavalry south here to rest, repairing the bunker can be said to be reasonable.
But Li Yuan did not expect that as soon as he went south, Liu Wuzhou in the north had his mind, not only directly absorbing Song Jingang's army, but also raiding and capturing the Jiexiu area in Shanxi.
In the end, Li Shimin led his troops north to counterattack, and after several confrontations, he defeated Liu Wuzhou.
Although Li Shimin won the battle, the historical record of this battle is relatively vague.
For example, it is written in the literature that Liu Wuzhou's subordinates have "disappeared" many times in the area of today's Zhangbi Village, and later suddenly appeared in this place, as if they had a hiding place.
Because of this, many people in Zhangbi Village and the surrounding areas regard Liu Wu's zhoubu as their ancestors.
At the same time, in Zhangbi Village, there are also statues of Liu Wuzhou, Wei Chigong, Song Jingang and others, which is also a strong proof of this speculation.
In addition to the "Tang Dynasty Saying", Zheng Guanggen also has a guess, that is, "rich businessmen say".
Although the location of Zhangbi Village has greater military significance, it is also remote from the perspective of the distribution of towns at that time.
Because of this, in the past, there were often bandits in this place, not only the merchants who came and went were miserable, but the rich local merchants were plundered and persecuted repeatedly.
If these rich merchants jointly built the ancient castle under Zhangbi Village in order to resist the attack of bandits, it would also make sense, but the speculation in this regard lacked factual basis, so the number of believers was far inferior to the former.
Expert surveys
Zhang Suiliang and Zheng Guanggen's exploration eventually attracted the attention of the expert group, which further unveiled the mystery of the bunker after careful investigation.
First of all, the general design of this bunker is similar to the exploration results of Zheng Guanggen and others, designed from the upper, middle and lower three floors.
Among them, the upper floor is only two meters from the ground, the middle layer is about 8 to 10 meters from the ground, and the bottom floor can reach 17-20 meters underground.
In conjunction with the ambush kiln, the general kiln, the storage kiln, the command kiln, as well as traps, drainage channels and other facilities, it can be said that this fortress can be called "copper wall iron wall", like an "underground world".
Secondly, the passage in the bunker was designed using techniques such as "Qimen Dunjia" and "Six Nongqimen", which were extremely confusing in design.
It is difficult for ordinary people to find the exit smoothly after entering, and if they are not careful, they will fall into the trap, become a prisoner or be in a different place, and the Japanese can be said to have a deep understanding of this.
After the Japanese occupied the county seat of Jiexiu in Shanxi, the local guerrillas used Zhangbi Ancient Fort as a place to counterattack, and repeatedly used this to attack and kill the Japanese, which made the Japanese Kou fearful.
Although the Japanese eventually found an entrance, they did not dare to go in at all, only to throw grenades into it.
Later, the opening was simply sealed with cement, and to this day there are still many openings that have not been unsealed, or because of too long a time to unseal.
Because of this, the bunker was gradually obscured.
According to historical records, the total length of Zhangbi Castle in Jinzhong should be about 10 kilometers, but as time passed, a large part of the tunnel was blocked.
Today, only more than 1,000 meters have been revealed, and a large number of tunnels remaining buried in the loess soil.
Having said that, experts have also given their opinions on authentic sources.
They believe that there is a high probability that the tunnel did not come from the Tang Dynasty, but from the Sixteen Kingdoms period, which dates back to about 1600.
Because the relevant documents clearly record that during that period, Zhangbi Village was under the jurisdiction of Jiexiu County, and Shuozhou had also sent troops to guard this town, and the underground tunnels of Zhangbi Village may have been built since that period.
In addition, the rich religious culture of the local area also supports this view.
In Zhangbi Ancient Castle, there is not only a strict military defense structure, but also sixteen temples including the Dragon King Temple, the Guandi Temple, the Zhenwu Hall, and the Empty King Ancestral Hall, which are available from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, and their architectural styles are also in line with the characteristics of that period.
Marvelous Zhangbi Ancient Village
No matter what period it was built in, the subtlety of the Zhangbi Ancient Village Bunker is beyond doubt.
From the sky, it is not difficult for us to find that the small Zhangbi Village as a whole has the shape of a dragon.
The stone-carved dragon head inlaid with the South Fort Gate forms the dragon's head, and the main road winding is the dragon's body.
The parallel red strip is the dragon's back, and as for the two pools of water near the South Fort Gate, it is the dragon's eye, so at a glance, Zhangbi Ancient Village is more and more mysterious.
It is said that there is also a seven-star platform outside the former Zhangbi Ancient Castle in Jinzhong, on which there are several locust trees planted to serve as seven strands of dragon whiskers, and also correspond to the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the sky, which has an extraordinary meaning.
However, most of the seven old locust trees were cut down in the last century, and only one remains, never to be in its former glory.
Even so, some people in the village who suffer from headaches and brain fever will come to worship under this old locust tree to seek a speedy recovery.
In addition to ordinary worship, there is also a special "star sacrifice ceremony" in Zhangbi Village.
Whenever it is the twenty-eighth day of the first month, the whole village will gather in front of the Khan's temple, play and sing, and hold a grand sacrifice ceremony to record the various stars.
Like the Nandou Xingjun, the Big Dipper Star Jun, the Nine Obsidian Star Jun, and even the Twenty-Eight Star Star Jun, they are basically listed impressively.
In the last century, this unique ritual was interrupted, but in recent years, under the guidance of some elderly people, the young people in the village have picked up this custom again, and whenever the twenty-eighth day of the first month, the village is particularly lively.
The experts' exploration of the ancient village of Zhangbi has come to an end here, but there are still people who have not given up and are determined to continue to investigate, and this person is the folk scholar Zheng Guanggen that we mentioned earlier.
The results of Zheng Guanggen's exploration
Although at odds with expert opinions, Zheng Guanggen did not give up his views.
In the process of in-depth investigation, he once found a statue in the wall of the North Fort Gate, and he once had high hopes for this statue.
However, after the final investigation, it was found that the statue was not left by the builder of the castle, but was put in by later generations, which also made the investigation of the origin of Zhangbi Ancient Village once again deadlocked.
To this day, the question of who built the underground castle in Zhangbi Ancient Village still has no answer.
However, we believe that in the near future, with the continuous progress of science and technology and the continuous deepening of people's exploration, this secret will be revealed in front of people.
In fact, there are not a few places in China like the underground castle of Zhangbi Ancient Village, which is difficult to explore the origin, and only by promoting technological progress and continuing to investigate in depth can we truly unveil the mystery of history.
In addition, now that Zhangbi Castle has been built into a tourist attraction, interested friends can visit it first, I believe that everyone can reflect the wisdom of the ancients and the charm of ancient architecture in Zhangbi Castle, and maybe there will be a unique discovery of their own.