In July 1944, in accordance with the orders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Northern Bureau and the Forward Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, an anti-Japanese advance detachment in western Henan was formed with Pi Dingdu as the commander and Xu Zirong as the political commissar, leading more than 1,700 people to advance into western Henan.
In just one year, the anti-Japanese base areas in western Henan formed a trend of burning the prairies, recovering more than 20,000 square kilometers of national territory, establishing 6 special administrative offices and 26 county-level anti-Japanese democratic regimes, and becoming one of the 19 anti-Japanese revolutionary base areas in the country during the Anti-Japanese War.
One
The headquarters of the anti-Japanese advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army in western Henan was stationed in a village called Tian Chongwan.
Tianchongwan Village is located at the junction of Mi, Deng, Gong and Xing counties, and its strategic position is significant. In the summer of 1944, more than 200 members of the Japanese puppet regime in Mixian County were entrenched in Tianchongwan and often went down the mountain to suppress the anti-Japanese forces. On the night of December 21 of that year, Pi Dingjun led his troops from Gongxian County and marched rapidly to the foot of Wuzhiling Mountain. A tentative attack was launched that night, and after finding out the enemy's situation, the offensive route was determined. At 5 o'clock in the morning of the 22nd, the troops launched a fierce attack on the enemy in three directions, and the enemy took advantage of the dangerous terrain to strafe the anti-Japanese detachment with machine guns, and our troops suffered heavy casualties. In the face of a strong enemy, our army sent two sharpshooters to defeat the enemy machine gunners and occupy Tianchong Bay.
There is a mansion of the landlord's family with a history of more than 300 years in the village, which is the former site of the headquarters of our army.
The owner of this mansion was once a well-known landowner in the entire western Henan region, known as "Wang Lao Liu". It is said that his real name is Wang Hu, he is a subordinate of Li Zicheng, after conquering Luoyang, he got a batch of treasures from the palace of Zhu Changxun, the then Fu King, so he left the rebel army with these treasures and returned to his hometown to build this manor.
This Wang manor was once a landmark building in Xinmi City, and the owner of the manor is the Kang million family in the west, and is called the two major families of Xinmi. In the later period of the Anti-Japanese War, it was used as the garrison of the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese advance detachment in western Henan, which was the headquarters of a detachment and the first special office in western Henan, and also an important center of the Eighth Route Army's troops in the Songluo area. It played an important role in opening up anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, controlling the hinterland of the Central Plains, and blocking the westward advance of the Japanese army.
This manor was built in the early Qing Dynasty, has a history of more than 300 years, it is built by the mountain, a total of five or six courtyards, more than a dozen rooms inside and outside, divided into the main room, the wing room, the hall room, the ear room, the courtyard also has a kitchen and a social animal pen, hundreds of houses are made of stone, so after hundreds of years of ups and downs, it is still well preserved.
Two
The name of the person who built this mansion was Wang Lao Liu, who was named after the sixth in the family. Because he had experienced the war, when he built this mansion, he paid great attention to preventing bandits, and the style of the manor was therefore different from the elegant and poetic manor in the Jiangnan area, but it was solid and practical, and the biggest feature was that the windows were very small, and the whole was built with large stones and adobe. The interior of the room is connected by a staircase, which is also made of stone. Each room is connected by a coupon door, which looks spacious and bright, and the ticket door is an arch.
Don't be small this kind of stone house built up of big stones and adobe, its construction process is not simple, the stone has to be milled first, and each surface is polished neatly, this process is very time-consuming, such as Wang Lao Liu's large-scale stone house, the workload is even more frightening. The inside of the house is also full of mechanisms, and there are two escape passages alone. Next to the stairs of this mansion, there is a secret passage that leads directly to the hillside outside, and next to Wang Lao Wu's bed, there is a smaller secret passage, which is convenient for Wang Lao Wu to escape directly when he sleeps at night.
In the middle of the two secret passages, there is also a small secret room. The entrance to the secret room is very hidden, and it is closely connected to the escape tunnel. It is said that this secret room was used by Wang Lao Liu to put important property, which was not only hidden, but also convenient to take away directly when escaping.
On the north side of the mansion, there was originally a storeroom with piles of miscellaneous items. During the period when the anti-Japanese advance detachment in western Henan was stationed here, this warehouse was converted into the operating room of a field hospital. If you come to visit now, you can see a medicine cabinet in the operating room, which contains a lot of traditional Chinese medicine, and a medicine box with a red cross logo underneath, and a couplet written in front of the operating room: medicine has no ordinary grass, which can save all diseases and rejuvenate; Medicine has a secret recipe that can make all people live longer.
On the east side of the house is the kitchen of the house. There was a shed on the side of the kitchen, which was next to the courtyard wall, and one side of the fence was made by the courtyard wall, and three walls were enclosed with gravel. These low walls were built with gravel blocks in layers, and the four corners were built with stones with four high pillars, and the sheds were covered with thatch, where the landlord's family raised pigs and cattle.
The most distinctive feature of this mansion is that its walls are all made of large stones, and the surface of the walls is smoothed and then painted with paint made of ash and straw, although it is inconspicuous, but it is so strong that even a rifle bullet cannot penetrate it. What's even more rare is that these materials are all locally sourced, which greatly saves construction costs.
The construction of this mansion did not use modern building materials such as steel and cement, so how did it survive 300 years of wind and rain without falling? It turned out that the walls were not made of pure loess, but glutinous rice syrup mixed with straw, wheat straw and lime as a binder. This adhesive has excellent adhesion and low cost, and the house is built to be safe and secure.
The winter is very cold in a region in western Henan, and this mansion adopts a double-layer stone wall, which is relatively thicker and tighter, easy to keep warm, ensure the temperature in the house, and achieve the effect of warm in winter and cool in summer.
Three
On September 1, 2015, the mansion of Wang Laowu, a large landowner located in Tianchongwan Village, was transformed into the "Central Plains Yuxi Anti-Japanese Memorial Park" by Xinmi City, which was open to all people. It is reported that it is also the most complete preserved anti-Japanese war site park in Henan Province.
The memorial park began construction in October 2013, covering an area of 2.5 square kilometers, with the former site of Pi Dingjun's work as the center, and built a memorial square, a tourist service center, the headquarters area of the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese advance team in western Henan, the anti-Japanese democratic government area in Mibei, the anti-Japanese independent regiment area in Mibei, the field hospital area, the outreach training ground area, the revolutionary history exhibition area of Xinmi City, and the exhibition area of the revolutionary struggle history in western Henan. There are 46 exhibition halls and more than 1,200 objects and pictures.
According to media reports, the memorial park is a key red tourist attraction in Henan Province with a planned area of 4 square kilometers, maintaining the original appearance of the old site of the anti-Japanese base, the anti-Japanese democratic government, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the field hospital, and more than 30 landscapes such as the memorial square, the development training ground, the physical exhibition hall, and the tourist experience center. Among them, the physical exhibition hall collects old objects such as military uniforms, military backpacks, and helmets worn by Japan in those years, comprehensively, truthfully, objectively, and impartially reproduce the historical facts of the people of the Central Plains who persisted in the War of Resistance and fought bloody battles.
Although this mansion of a large landowner is very much in the Central Plains and a lot of thought was put into its construction, it is still much shabby compared with the manor of Liu Wencai, a large landowner in Sichuan.
Four
Liu's Manor is located in the ancient town of Anren County, Dayi County, west of the Chengdu Plain, which is composed of two parts: the old mansion and the new mansion, the old mansion part is dominated by Liu Wencai's mansion, and a group of buildings formed by the ancestral house, Liu Wenyuan, Liu Wencheng, Liu Wenzhao and other mansions are relatively concentrated. The exhibition hall of Liu Wenhui's former residence, known as the new mansion, is an independent corner and corresponds to the old mansion.
Liu's Manor Museum covers an area of more than 70,000 square meters, with a construction area of more than 20,000 square meters and 545 houses. The museum has a rich collection and a variety of shapes, and there are hundreds of kinds of art decorations.
No matter who walks into Liu Wencai's manor, they will be shocked by it, and then deeply impressed. Although the manor is a traditional brick and wood structure, it absorbs the architectural characteristics of typical castles and churches in the West, with a combination of Chinese and Western styles, exquisite carvings and square layouts, which shows the profound influence of Western culture on the architectural characteristics of inland western Sichuan during the Republic of China. Rectangular, square, trapezoidal, diamond-shaped and other shapes, each building has its own characteristics, very luxurious and luxurious.
The architecture of Liu's Manor inherits the traditional architectural heritage of western Sichuan, and introduces the characteristics of Western Gothic architecture, and finally forms a unique architectural style of the manor, showing distinctive architectural cultural characteristics. The gatehouse of Liu's Manor is contrary to the traditional form of hanging flowers and highlights the Western-style characteristics, with two tall main entrances, spire shapes, and vertical upward Ionic columns.
In terms of space treatment, the manor is mainly based on the courtyard as a unit, and expands vertically and horizontally according to the actual needs to form a closed layout with many courtyards. The west side of the vestibule is the hall house, the two sides are the Chinese and Western style living rooms, the west side of the atrium is the ancestral hall, the north and south are the housing and longevity hall, the west side of the back garden is the Buddhist hall, and the north and south are the guest rooms. In addition, there are independent courtyards such as the Miss Building and the Employment House. The eight courtyards are connected through courtyards, patios, cloisters, and mezzanine passages.
Liu's manor's wood carving, stone carving, brick carving and other decorative craft skills, exquisite and exquisite, solid and practical structure, and also through pottery, gray sculpture, clay sculpture and other decoration skills, through symbolism and literary means, meaning peace and auspiciousness.
What is even more rare is that Liu Wencai's manor is full of pavilions and pavilions, carved beams and painted buildings, various lattice window grilles, and carved door wisps are engraved with birds and beasts, strange flowers and plants, auspicious Bogu and other patterns for artistic decoration.
There is a small courtyard in Liu Wencai's manor, which is the famous "rent collection courtyard". The clay sculptures inside are vivid and realistic, showing the process of exploitation of the peasants by the landlords. The clay sculpture group is divided into seven parts: rent delivery, rent inspection, wind valley, bucket, accounting, rent forcing and resistance. The 114 figures are arranged in turn in the 118-meter-long verandah of the courtyard. Under China's thousands of years of feudal system, the cruel exploitation of the peasants by the landlords, and the tragic song of the proletarians without land and resources, all of them are deeply shocking.
What's even more unbelievable is that Liu Wencai's manor actually has a chilling and terrifying water prison. It is built underground, surrounded by thick stone walls, and is divided into two levels, the upper level is a cistern, and the lower level is a cell, which can be submerged when the mechanism is opened. Water prison is a form of torture. Although people who are imprisoned in water prisons will not suffocate to death in a short time, they will not be able to sit down and rest in water prisons, and within a few days, their bodies will fall into the water and drown. No matter how strong the perseverance is, if you persist for a few more days, your whole body will be soaked, and you will eventually drown.
In one corner of the manor there is a beautiful lady building, also known as the "embroidery building", which is a building rather than a lady's courtyard. The young lady lives upstairs all the year round, even though the carved beams and paintings are rich in material resources, but the deep locked high walls are also accompanied by many resentments and youthful sighs. This embroidery building is not only closed by everyone's beautiful women, but also a heart yearning for freedom and broadness.
The treasure hall of Liu's manor can also open the eyes of every visitor, where the treasured jade, silverware, porcelain, calligraphy and painting, etc., each piece is incomparable. The ivory carving is exquisite and perfect, and the "nine-layer openwork jade dragon pattern with seat ivory ball" is wonderful, and it is a gift from Sun Yat-sen to General Liu Yujiu, the commander of the Third Army of the Sichuan Army and a member of the Old League. The United Kingdom coffee cups, Japan exquisite disks, and traditional Chinese art are integrated with Western elements.
In the long river of history, these high-walled compounds hidden in the green trees have witnessed the changes of the years and the reincarnation of fate all the time. The past has passed, leaving only a luxurious estate and endless comments from posterity.
Resources:
Dahe.com: "Central Plains Henan West Anti-Japanese Memorial Park Opens in Xinmi"
Tourist Information Network: "Raiders of the Ancient Mansions of the Landlords of the Anti-Japanese Memorial Hall of Tianchongwan Village"