The eight famous levels known historically as the Luotian Levels are: Pinghu Pass, Songzi Pass, Tongluo Pass, Chestnut Pass, Moss Pass, Qiling Pass (an urn gate pass), Shimen Pass, and Phoenix Pass. This article introduces Matsuko Guan.
At 523 meters above sea level, Songzi Pass is an important pass on the northwest border of Luotian. According to the Luotian Fangzhi scholar Wang Baoxin, this pass was built in the Spring and Autumn Period after the establishment of the ancient kingdom of Jiuzi in Jiuzihe in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and its real name was SongziGuan, and later the sound was changed to SongziGuan. The pass was located 7 kilometers east of the present-day Town of Shengli. To the northeast of Guanwai, it belongs to Wudian Township, Jinzhai County, Anhui Province, and is the end of the sanliba-Songziguan trunk road; it is 79 kilometers south of Luotian County (the old Yilu Road is 70 kilometers away from the county seat).
3 kilometers north of Songzi Pass, there is Xiangluguan Mountain, with an altitude of 923.6 meters, and then to the east are Qianjun Mountain, Shifo Pass, Tongluoguan, and the three provinces of Yanzhi, which are connected to the main peak of Dabie Mountain, Paradise Village. Due to the high mountains, from the north and south roads spiraling up to Songzi Pass, is a 300-meter-wide pass, originally Luotian to Henan and Anhui provinces, into the hinterland of Dabie Mountain. In the 9th year of Qing Xianfeng (1859 AD), the governor of Hubei, Hu Linyi, ordered Luotian to build 17 checkpoints, headed by Songzi Pass. At that time, this pass had "a city tower, more than 100 meters of battlements, 4 stone bases, 3 large barracks, and 1 fort, known as Songzi Guan Xinyika." From Kansai Rishi, Xu Badou Chong built 1 tower, leaning on each other, attacking and defending Sili." In February of the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861 AD), Chen Yucheng, the british king of the Taiping Army, and Gong Deshu, the leader of the Twist army, led a total of more than 80,000 troops to attack Songziguan from Henan Shangcheng, and fought with the Qing soldiers and militia groups for several days.
From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, the Songziguan garrison was defended, and there were also outposts to investigate the smuggling of Huai salt. After the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927, Xiao Fang, Li Tiyun and other Communist Party members from Shierling near this pass established the underground party branch of Songziguan, adhered to the revolution, and developed to the south of Shang (Cheng) (Jinzhai County), established the Red Army armed forces (the 32nd Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army) and then returned to the 25th Army of the Red Army and moved to the north and south. Until liberation, revolutionary battles in the Dabie Mountains often came and went. According to luotian fangzhi scholar Wang Baoxin's "Chronicle of The Six Villages in Huaixi", this is after the defeat of Wen Tianxiang's army at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (1271 AD), and he built a paradise village in Luotian to contact the villages of Lu'an and Qianshan, which are collectively called the Six Villages of Huaixi. Prince Song, who was appointed by Cao Pingzhang and his wife Yingshi, died of grief, and the princess was pregnant. Cao Pingzhang, a descendant of the King of Yan Song, personally escorted the princess to escape into Songziguan, stripped of her armor and disguise, and the princess gave birth to a son at The Age ridge and washed her child in Tang. The concubine died immediately after giving birth, and the crown prince Died in The Moon. After Cao Pingzhang buried the crown prince, he also killed himself. The mountain people mourned Zhongyi, and once built a temple of princes and a temple of generals at this place (the ruins are unverifiable).
In the next issue, the historical stories of Luotian County and famous people will be introduced successively. Stay tuned.
This article is excerpted from "Dabie Mountain- Luotian Tourism" (Editor-in-Chief: Fang Huaguo)