Wang Lei: The Yellow River ancient crossing Junzijin - Lama Bay

Wang Lei (left) with Liu Kangda

Wang Lei: The Yellow River ancient crossing Junzijin - Lama Bay

The famous radio playwright Liu Kangda sincerely recommends:

"Years And Years: Memoirs and Works of Wang Lei" is a life record and a portrait of the times of a fellow republican. The reason why this book is deeply touching is because Wang Lei's experience as an old intellectual, senior newspaperman and scholar is very rich, and the articles involve a wide range of categories and have heavy content; it is because of his simple and beautiful prose style, which is very vivid and delicate, full of interest; and even more because of his deep feelings of "benevolent people love people" and his clear and firm position of the people, so that the words overflow with "human flavor". Wang Lei completed this book after suffering from cancer, just to tell future generations about the times and life experiences he personally experienced. He, a 50-year-old Communist Party member, condensed his life into words to express his love for his relatives and friends, his juniors, his hometown, and his motherland.

The Yellow River ancient crossing Junzijin - Lama Bay

Located at the western end of 100 miles from the county seat, The town of Lamawan in Qingshuihe County is the southern window of our league to the "Golden Triangle" areas of Hoshi, Baotou and Jungar. It is bordered by the Yellow River in the west, separated from the Yimeng Bridge, forty kilometers away from Jungar, the largest open-pit coal mine in China, and 107 kilometers away from Hoshi; along the Yellow River, it goes up against the water to Baotou 232 kilometers. The town is located in a radius of only six square kilometers, along the east bank of the Yellow River, a bay, backed by three large mountains, the right side is the beautiful Phoenix Mountain, the left side is the tall and handsome skyscraper, and in the middle is the mysterious Yanwang Bi Mountain. At the foot of the mountain, there are two roads, one leading east to the county seat of Qingshuihe, and the other circling along the mountain bay to the west to the Yi league. The Yellow River Highway Bridge, flying on the east and west banks, crosses the Huyi Highway and connects Jungar and Lama Bay. Due to its unique geographical location and natural conditions, Lama Bay has been a distribution center for agricultural and livestock products connecting the northwest and the Central Plains since ancient times, and is a famous water and land wharf in history.

(i)

Lama Bay once had a lama summoning temple, and because it was located in the yellow river, it was named "Lama Bay".

After the temple was summoned, it was moved to Tokto County. According to the Suiyuan Tongzhi, "Lama Bay is known as Lama Bay at the junction of the two counties of Tokto and Qingshuihe,... That is, Gu Junzijin. According to the "Yuan He Zhi" and "Notes on the Water Classics", Lama Bay was called Junzijin in ancient times. Why is it called Junzijin? There is a beautiful legend among the people around the Qingshui River: in the eleventh year of Emperor Huan of Wei, there was a merchant in the south who traveled to the yellow river crossing and became ill, trapped in the stack, and died for several days. The owner of the shop saw the situation, generously donated money, treated his funeral, and buried it next to the ferry. Afterwards, when sorting out the relics of the merchants, it was found that there were countless gold and silver in his horse. The owner did not move anything and collected it on his behalf. Three years later, the merchant's son searched for his father, and the shopkeeper took out gold and silver to return it, so his son thanked the shopkeeper for his virtue and established a township shrine. This matter was known to Emperor Wei Heng, who praised him: "Gentleman also! Subsequently, the ferry port was called "Junzijin" (津, meaning ferry). The "Suiyuan Tongzhi" once described the scene of Junzijin as follows: "Standing on the rock wall, high and hundreds of feet, climbing to the top and looking down, the torrent is terrifying, the sound is thunderous; there are many residents on the shore, ranging from several zhang or tens of zhang from the river; the chickens and dogs on both sides of the strait smell each other, the pastoral planting, the fishing songs reach each other, and the boats are haunted, and there is a great sense of paradise." ”

Since ancient times, Junzijin has been a key jin, but also a key pass, a place where soldiers must fight. In 395, Murong Bao, the crown prince, commanded 80,000 troops to attack Northern Wei, sent troops to Wuyuan, collected millions of hu, and prepared to transport them back. The Northern Wei dynasty ambushed troops at Hetao. When Murong Bao was on his way back, Emperor Wei rushed from Junzijin, rode and attacked, defeating Murong Bao at Sanhepi (present-day southwest of Liangcheng), capturing 40,000 to 50,000 Yan troops, and causing Later Yan to collapse from then on. The Northern Wei unified the north the following year. It can be seen from this that the strategic position of Junzijin is important.

According to the YuanHe Zhi, Lama Bay belonged to Hebin County, Shengzhou during the Tang Dynasty. In ancient times, the water and grass were abundant and beautiful, and it was the pasture of ethnic minorities in the north, but later it was desertified and there was no grass. Its prosperity and development began in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the government recruited people to reclaim the land, and a large number of immigrants came here from Linxian County, Taigu or Shaanxi in Shanxi, living in ravines such as Jialanggou around Lama Bay. There are five main surnames: Wang, Bai, Wu, Xue, and Dong. At that time, the construction in the town had begun to take shape, in addition to the earliest lama summoning temple, there were also dragon king temples, mountain temples, Guanyin temples, and laoye temples. The old temple built by Xianfeng in three years has a wooden stele four feet long and three feet wide in front of the temple. The inscription bears the donor's name. Unfortunately, this tombstone is no longer in the world. The current seat of the town government is the original site of the Laoye Temple. There is a gray catalpa tree in the courtyard, which is still leafy. Legend has it that a small merchant who sold saplings planted a tsubaki tree and a gray catalpa tree in front of the temple. The Tsubaki tree is dead, leaving only the ash catalpa tree, and its leaves, bark, and seeds can be medicated. Wood is very good, it is an excellent building and furniture material, it can also be used for shipbuilding, mining columns and bridges, and folk use for sleepers and carvings.

Unfortunately, there is only one tree in the whole county. It is a testimony to the rich history of Lama Bay.

(ii)

During the years from Kangxi to Xianfeng, many merchants and craftsmen from the mainland gathered in Lama Bay. The ferry port travels a lot every day, and the business is also very prosperous, forming a veritable grocery distribution center. The main commercial stores are: Yongqing store, Shihede, Tianqing store, Qingyan store, Qingchang store, etc. These shops mainly deal in miscellaneous goods, such as cloth, iron pots, peppercorns, dried ginger and festive fireworks, which are trafficked from Shanxi to the ferry port, and then evacuated to Hoshi and Tuoxian, and some are transported by water to Baotou and Houtao areas. From the Qingshui River to Shanxi, the mountains and rivers are steep and the journey is inconvenient, so the transportation of goods mainly depends on donkeys and mules. These long-distance traffickers are known as "high pick-ups". The Hakka in Lama Bay mainly sell goods that are "highly received" from the mainland. The mode of operation is barter for money or barter. Farmers in the Dzungar area used ox carts to bring charcoal and sell it to shopkeepers in exchange for daily necessities; farmers in the Tuoxian area transported grain, meat, and alcohol here in exchange for coal. Therefore, in addition to dealing in dried and fresh fruits, side dishes, and daily necessities, the shops at that time also sold charcoal and grain, and often stayed in guests, and the business scope was very wide, often operating different commodities with the change of seasons. In addition, there are also those who specialize in coal operations. Lama Bay has few people, and in addition to cultivating a small amount of land, most of the farmers also operate other businesses, mostly those who open charcoal shops. Until the early years of the Republic of China, there were still more than a dozen charcoal shops, transporting and selling up to one million catties per year. Coal bought back large charcoal from Hexi at a price of 500 catties per yuan, and pulled back to Lama Bay to sell it at 300 catties per yuan, and each charcoal shop made a total profit of more than 1,000 oceans throughout the year. Some farmers make a living by waterway, transporting local white clay, graphite and porcelain to Baotou, and then transporting fur goods from Baotou to sell to shopkeepers and transporting them back to Shanxi by "Gao Jieren".

From Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, the commerce, handicrafts and traditional snacks in Lama Bay had developed. The main industries are hotels, workshops, restaurants, medicine shops, pastry shops and so on.

Hotels: All stores retain guests, but all are small-scale, often retaining three or five people. The largest inn in the town is the "Dehouquan" guest house opened by Tian Shan, where some footmen, craftsmen, and high pick-up people often stay.

Workshops: three tank mills, brewing liquor; four powder mills, processing noodles; eight sugar mills, using millet and barley as raw materials for seasonal sugar pressing; six oil mills, processing sesame oil; six "killing and selling", killing pigs and slaughtering sheep to sell meat for a living; a felt mill, the craftsman is called Dai Er, mainly making felt hats, known as "Dai Felt Factory".

Restaurants: Most are seasonal and open from March until during the freezing period. There are not many local people, and some people from today county go to the ferry to sell roasted wheat and flour skins.

Medicine: There are two companies: "Shandeyong" and "Deshengyong". There is a mr. zaitang in the shop, who also diagnoses and prescribes medicines for medical treatment. Lama Bay has a famous folk old Chinese medicine practitioner named Wang Xuekai, who is the third in his family, and is honored as "Mr. Three", born in 1881 and died in 1966 at the age of 85. Mr. San's medical skills are superb, and his treatment and medicine are not limited to his predecessors, and he often uses miscellaneous, unilateral, and test prescription dialectics. Living in Lama Bay, Mr. San is well-known for his medical treatment for the people on both sides of the Yellow River, and there is an endless stream of patients seeking medical treatment from him. Tuzuo Banner, Jungar Banner, Helin County, Baotou City, Hoshi City and Houshan Area all came to visit and returned satisfied. In 1931, Suiyuan held the Chinese Medicine Examination, and the three gentlemen ranked first in the list. Since then, Mr. Three has been famous for hundreds of miles.

Pastries: There are five or six. The most famous is the pastry shop opened by Yan Zhixing. He made twist flowers, hemp leaves, and oil spinners, which were slightly higher than others. In particular, the "set of cakes" of the Mid-Autumn Festival is well-known in places such as Hu, Bao, To, and Jungar. The set of cakes is composed of large to small pulp mooncakes, twelve for a small set, representing the twelve months of a year; twenty-four for a large set, representing the twenty-four solar terms of a year. And each cake has a taste, divided into several kinds of meat and vegetarian salty and sweet. The main raw materials are peach kernels, peanuts, sesame seeds, melon seeds, rock sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, date paste, fruit material, green and red silk and so on. Unfortunately, this traditional set of cakes has been lost. Food with local flavor is a major advantage, and in the construction of small market towns, excavating and inheriting traditional foods undoubtedly has broad prospects.

In addition, there are more than 20 small traders who set up stalls and pick up and sell in Lama Bay. They deal in small commodities such as needle and thread, soybeans, sesame seeds, and sugar. From the above introduction, it can be seen that lama bay town at that time was full of shops, prosperous trading, setting up stalls and picking burdens, shouting and selling along the street, and it was very lively. Villagers in the yaogou area and the surrounding hills often come here to buy things, called "lower street".

However, since the 1930s, from the Qingshui River to Lama Bay, the war has been raging, the fighting has been fierce, the military brigades have been frequently stationed, and the shops of various businesses and households in the town have been overwhelmed, causing a heavy burden to the people of Lama Bay. In particular, after the Japanese invaded Lama Bay, the people of Lama Bay were even more plunged into the depths of the water, and the scene of hundreds of industries withering and ruining vientiane gradually appeared in Lama Bay.

(iii)

After liberation, the people of Lama Bay revived their old business, and under the leadership of the party and the government, they worked hard to rectify their homeland, so that the town gradually recovered its vitality and began to prosper. Especially after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Lama Bay has become increasingly prosperous and full of vitality. At present, the town has thirteen administrative villages, sixty-seven natural villages, 3,158 households, and 12,875 people. The total area is 196 square kilometers, and the cultivated land is 42,000 mu. At present, there are nine village and town enterprises, with 968 employees, 91 shops in handicrafts, processing, repair, food, commerce, and service industries established by individuals and consortiums, and 293 professional households and key households engaged in construction, transportation, breeding, and planting.

In April 1985, the Qingshuihe County Party Committee carried out a comprehensive system reform of Lama Bay with the content of "decentralization, contracting, invigorating and prosperity". Small market towns gained autonomy, let go of their hands and feet, and opened up new paths. Gratifying changes have taken place in the spiritual outlook of the people of Lama Bay and in the economic construction of the market town.

Farmer Qiao Genshan raised 130,000 yuan on his own, purchased more than 40 kinds of wood and some equipment, and set up a carpentry processing plant on May 1, and thirty farmers who did not leave their hometowns went to work in the factory with joy. According to the needs of the local people, the wood factory has introduced technology and improved the furniture style, which has contributed to the beautification of life.

Lama Bay Supply and Marketing Cooperatives is a collective unit, and in recent years the profit has not gone up. After the reform, they mobilized the masses to voluntarily invest in shares and expand their liquidity. In the month of May 1985, net sales and net profit reached an all-time high, compared with the same period last year, net sales increased by 57,500 yuan, and net profit increased by 3,600 yuan. The masses have actively invested in shares, and the share capital has reached more than 30,000 yuan, and the individual with the largest number of shares has reached 5,000 yuan. It can be seen that the people of Lama Bay have indeed begun to get rich.

They make full use of the local superior geographical conditions and rich resources, open a wide range of roads, and actively carry out various processing industry production. Lama Bay is a long-established and famous flower and fruit town. The fruit output ranks first in the county, and there are more than ten varieties of mountain apricots, red dates, sea red, plums, begonias, betel nuts, apples and so on.

Among them, sea red is the most unique, purple red thin skin, light yellow thick flesh, sour with sweet, sweet and fragrant, rich in nutrition, high economic value, therefore, has become the unique "sea red town" of our league.

Here, behind the front and back of each house, on the side of the village head road, ditches and ridges, and mountain ravines, there are sea mangrove trees planted everywhere. In autumn, the frosted sea red is red and full of branches, just like the little red lanterns hanging like stars in a festival. Speaking of sea red seeds, there is an ancient legend in the local hometown: in ancient times, the water and grass here are abundant, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the mountains are full of sea red seeds, and the colors are red, yellow, white, green, purple, and seven seven forty-nine colors. One day, Taishang Laojun took the sacred cow, pulled the sacred plough, dug the Yellow River, came to Lama Bay, saw that the hedgehog flowers blooming on the mountain were very beautiful, and stopped to watch it carefully. After the old man was full of happiness, he drove the cattle forward to continue to open the river. He took a few steps, and suddenly thought, such a beautiful flower, rare in the sky, difficult to find on the ground, why not pick a few plants and bring them back to the Heavenly Palace to dedicate to the Jade Emperor? So, it turned around, pulled out a few large and gorgeous hedgehog flowers into the god bag, and reluctantly left. Who knows, when Lao Jun plucked the flowers, he pierced his fingers, and a drop of blood spilled on the land, and since then, the sea red fruits here have changed from forty-nine colors to a single red, and after frost, the red has purple and crystal glitter. The mountains were stained red, and the village was red, becoming a red mountain village.

Folklore is beautiful. The people of Lama Bay, who have lived for generations, have looked forward to their lives becoming more and more prosperous like the sea red children. This wish can only be realized today under the leadership of the Communist Party. The annual output of the township is more than one million catties of sea red. In the past, people carried it by hand and shoulder to shoulder, drove a horse-drawn carriage, pushed a cart, and transported Haihong to various places for retail. Now there is no need to worry about not being able to sell, Lama Bay Fruit Factory is to seize this resource advantage to rise. This factory mainly produces Guodan peel, specially hired an associate professor in Tianjin as a consultant, breaking through the difficulty of blister plastic, producing beautiful and transparent, neat and exquisite, and deeply loved by customers in plastic box packaging. At present, their main product Guodan pi has been marketed to Beijing, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Gansu and other ten provinces and cities.

In addition, the state-owned factories in Lama Bay are Lama Bay Power Plant and Supply and Marketing Processing Plant. Among them, the power plant prepared in 1966 was officially completed and put into operation in November 1970, with 169 employees. The plant has a construction area of 6,400 square meters, installs two steam turbine generator sets, with a total capacity of 3 kilowatts, and an annual power generation capacity of 5.21 million kWh, in addition to supplying electricity to the region, it also supplies electricity to two Dzungel coal mines. Township enterprises include Lama Bay Agricultural Machinery Factory, Cement Factory, Prefabricated Factory, Brick and Tile Factory, Fiberboard Factory and Food Factory. Among them, the Lama Bay prefabrication plant mainly produces cement poles, and now adds hollow floor slabs, mainly for the initial construction of the Dzungar Coal Mine.

Lama Bay Ferry has been a way to make a living since ancient times. The Yellow River water transport occupies an important position in the transportation of the whole county. According to the newly revised "Chronicle of the Qingshui River Hall", in the heyday of the Yellow Transport, the wooden sailing ships of various ferries, including Lama Bay, could reach 300. In 1957, Lama Bay established the "Victory Wooden Sailing Cooperative", with a number of 392 people, 64 wooden sailing ships, and a total tonnage of 2,000 tons. In 1960, it was renamed the "Shipbuilding Team". In order to ensure the safety of the lives and property of the shipwrights, the higher-level transportation department allocated 150,000 yuan to carry out the trench project of the Yellow River channel in 1962, which promoted the development of the Yellow Transport Work. By 1963, the volume of yellow transport reached 10,000 tons of kilometers. The Lama Bay Ferry Port gradually realized the realization of tugboat transport, and by 1972, the total water transport reached 3.77 million tons of kilometers, and since then, due to the rapid development of land transportation, the water transport business has been decreasing. By 1980, there were only two sailing ships, with a load capacity of 70 tons and a total of more than 6,800 tons of cargo.

The agricultural production of Lama Bay relies on the warm and humid microclimate formed on the banks of the Yellow River, and the frost-free period averages 145 to 160 days, which is rare in our league. The lowest temperature in winter is January, with an average temperature of -11 degrees Celsius, and July is the hottest month, with an average temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.

Topographically, Lama Bay is a low-lying hilly area with little undulation on the surface, making it an ideal farming area for the whole county. The Yellow River flows seventy kilometers through the territory of the Qingshui River, and only Lama Bay is the easiest to divert water for irrigation. Due to the pleasant climate and fertile land, the products here are very rich, including cash crops, white hemp, garlic, and various northern fruits; food crops, wheat, millet, yams, beans, etc. It can sow two crops a year and is one of the main grain producing areas in Qingshuihe County.

Historically, the prosperity of Lama Bay originated from the ferry port, which was the hub of Hoshi, Baotou and Jungar. Therefore, the prosperity and development of the southern window of our league is still premised on the development of Jungar. In 1983, the Lama Bay Yellow River Highway Bridge was put into construction, which has a total length of 416 meters and a width of 12 meters. After two years of meticulous construction, it was cut and opened to traffic on August 13, 1985. Undoubtedly, the completion of the Yellow River Highway Bridge in Lama Bay, especially for the further prosperity and development of Lama Bay, is of great significance.

According to the Inner Mongolia "Technology and Economic Herald", the Jungar Coal Mine has been proposed by the American Berketh Civil Mining Company and the Berketh International Service Company, and the Sino-US International Engineering Company held a board of directors in Shenzhen on December 13, 1984, and decided to invest 2 billion yuan to undertake the construction of the Jungar large-scale open-pit coal mine and supporting facilities, and to introduce 260 advanced technologies from the American Berkeley Company. To this end, the Inner Mongolia Department of Communications has laid 107 kilometers of asphalt secondary roads in Hu and La, and will also build the Hu and La railways. At the beginning of 1985, the Inner Mongolian government made another decision to develop the Yellow River, and in 1985, it first resumed the 232-kilometer navigation of the Section from Baotou to Lama Bay, using existing ships for trial navigation and gradually launched operations; opening up the channel from Lama Bay to Hequ in Shanxi; and building supporting port terminals with two to three berths in Wuhai, Baotou, Lama Bay and other places.

It can be seen that with the large-scale development of Dzungar, the golden age of lama bay small market towns is coming, and great development and prosperity are just around the corner, and the future is immeasurable.

(Originally published in 1985 "Reform and Construction of Small Towns in the Ukrainian League")

Wang Lei, born in 1947, is a 50-year-old member of the Communist Party of China. In 1968, he went from Beijing Tongzhou Luhe Middle School to Liangcheng in Inner Mongolia to join the team. Since then, he has been engaged in journalism for nearly 30 years, successively serving as an editor and reporter, editor-in-chief and president of "Wulanchabu Daily" and "Beijing Civil Affairs Daily", writing more than one million words of news, reportage and literary and art criticism. For a long time, he has gone deep into the grassroots, paid attention to the fate of the people, praised the heroes of reform, and revealed social problems, which has been loved and supported by the local people and valued by the leadership. Advocates and excels at writing reportage and journalism in prose style. He has won more than 30 journalism awards in Inner Mongolia, North China and the whole country.

Liu Kangda, playwright. He is a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association and a senior research librarian of the Tongzhou District Cultural Center (retired). Member of Beijing Senior Title Review Committee. He has created nearly 30 radio dramas such as "Canal Man", "Naked Son of the Republic", and "Mine Clearance Hero Du Fuguo", and won 15 "Five One Project" awards from the Central Propaganda Department and more than 20 Chinese and international awards. Published the 1.3 million-word "Liu Kangda Drama Collection". He was awarded the title of "Labor Model" in Beijing, and his biography was compiled into the Dictionary of Chinese Dramatists.