In The thousands of years of Chinese civilization, fierce collisions and wars are inevitable. In the long course of history, there have been many places in China where soldiers and families must contend, such as Xiangyang, Jingzhou, Xuzhou, Shouchun, etc., all of which are extremely important places for geographical location. Since there are places where soldiers and families must fight, and of course there are also places where soldiers do not fight, Fujian is a more typical one.
Fujian Province, referred to as "Min", the provincial capital Fuzhou, is located in the southeast coast of China, surrounded by mountains and seas, the terrain is high in the northwest, low in the southeast, and the mountainous and hilly area in the territory accounts for more than 80% of the total area of the province, known as "eight mountains, one water and one field". Fujian Province has a total land area of 121,400 square kilometers and a population of 41.54 million (2020).
From the topographic map, the biggest feeling of Fujian is that there are many mountains, not ordinary ones, and there are continuous mountains everywhere. Between the west and Jiangxi Province is the Wuyi Mountains, which are more than 500 kilometers long and have an altitude of about 1,000 meters, from the junction of Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces (Xianxialing) in the north, and in a northeast-southwest direction to the junction of Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces (Lotus Mountain).
Between it and Guangdong are also lofty mountains, there are Wuyi Mountain, TortoiseShell Mountain, Boping Ridge, etc., and the border area with Zhejiang Province in the north is also a series of mountains. Fujian is also home to the peaks of mountains, such as Taimu Mountain, Vulture Peak Mountain, Shanling Mountain, Daiyun Mountain, Boping Mountain, TortoiseShell Mountain and so on.
There are so many peaks, it can be described as three feet flat, the terrain is high and dangerous, you can imagine how difficult the road is. There is a widely circulated saying in Fujian: "Shu Dao is difficult, and Min Dao is more difficult than Shu Dao." In the case of relatively backward transportation methods in ancient times, it was extremely difficult to cross the Wuyi Mountains from Jiangxi to Fujian.
There are mountains and water, and the valleys between the mountains flow with rivers, but most of them are short and turbulent, mostly called streams, and some are called rivers, such as the most famous river in Fujian Province - the Minjiang River. Fujian's mountainous and watery geographical environment can be said to be an excellent place today. However, in ancient times, due to the lack of enough arable land, it was impossible to produce enough grain, and it could only be described as a relatively harsh living environment. Compared with the surrounding provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong, Fujian has significantly less arable land.
Picture - Fujian Tulou
Without arable land, without food, it is impossible to feed a large number of people. Cultivated land and population were important resources in ancient farming society, and these are the ones that forces from all sides are fighting to grab, and Fujian, which lacks cultivated land and population, naturally does not have much attraction. Fujian is full of mountains, all of which are difficult mountain roads, and it is quite difficult for marching and fighting. Among other things, logistics supply alone is a big problem, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources, but the benefits are not large. After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, the southern conquest of Baiyue was subject to the terrain of Lingnan, and the logistics could not keep up, and the loss of troops was broken.
In ancient times, China's center of gravity was basically in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins in the north, and most of the threats faced by the Central Plains Dynasty came from nomadic forces in the north. Even in the chaotic era of the division between the north and the south, most of the main battlefields were located in the Central Plains, and places such as Xiangyang, Xuzhou, and Hanzhong, which were extremely important for soldiers and families, naturally appeared in the north. The location of Fujian is relatively far from the Central Plains Dynasty, and it does not affect the overall situation of hegemony, and naturally there are few people fighting.
In the chaotic world, fujian only had some weak separatist forces, such as the state of Min during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Although it is weak, it has also existed for about fifty years, mainly because there is no land for the land, no grain for grain, no people for people, difficult roads for mountains, difficult to attack and defend, and the forces on all sides have little interest in it. Geographer Gu Zuyu said: "Fujian is located in the corner of the sea, and the terrain is difficult and dangerous. If Fujian fights for the world, Fujian's military strength and money and food will not be enough to achieve this goal. ”
For all parties in the struggle for hegemony, after the rest of Jiangnan is taken care of, the last remaining Fujian will naturally be at peace without a fight. For example, at the beginning of the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was no use of a single soldier and a pawn in the Northern Song Dynasty, and finally the remaining Wu Yue State in the south and the Qingyuan Army (Quanzhou and Zhangzhou) in one part of Fujian directly surrendered, and did not even fight.
Of course, in ancient times, when land power was the main position, Fujian was indeed indisputable, but with the advent of the marine era, Fujian by the sea became extremely important.