The Vanished Guard City
Jiwei in Huayuan was once the seat of the Yongshui Hall government. Historical records show that in 1368, the year Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in the Ming Dynasty, Chongshan Guard and Chongshan Guard Thousand-Household Office were established here. This was the first guard and office institution set up by the Ming Dynasty in the Xiangxi region. Why was this guard named after Chongshan? The reason is that the "Book of Documents · Canon of Shun" records: "Exiled Gonggong to Youzhou; banished Huandou to Chongshan; drove the Sanmiao to Sanwei; executed Gun at Yushan. After dealing with these four criminals, all under heaven submitted…
Jiwei in Huayuan was once the seat of the Yongshui Hall government. Historical records show that in 1368, the year Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in the Ming Dynasty, Chongshan Guard and Chongshan Guard Thousand-Household Office were established here. This was the first guard and office institution set up by the Ming Dynasty in the Xiangxi region.
Why was this guard named after Chongshan? The reason is that the "Book of Documents · Canon of Shun" records: "Exiled Gonggong to Youzhou; banished Huandou to Chongshan; drove the Sanmiao to Sanwei; executed Gun at Yushan. After dealing with these four criminals, all under heaven submitted." The Chongshan mentioned is verified to be located within Yongding (Dayong), where Huandou's tomb is buried. The Chongshan Guard in Huayuan was probably named after the Chongshan recorded in ancient texts. The purpose of establishing the Chongshan Guard was also to "forever maintain peace and tranquility." This also indicates that the Jiwei area was long a center of Miao settlement in Xiangxi. However, before the Ming Dynasty, the Jiwei area was under the jurisdiction of the Xizhou Tusi for a long time. In order to prevent and monitor the Tusi and Miao people from rebelling, the Ming Dynasty established this guard government.
After the Chongshan Guard was established, that same year a rammed earth city wall with a circumference of 4 kilometers was built, 5 meters high, 8 meters wide at the bottom, 3 meters wide at the top, with a horse path in the middle. Four gates were set up in the east, west, south, and north. This city was called the Old Guard City.
The Old Guard City did not last long. Due to repeated attacks by the Miao people, after only 30 years, the Ming troops defending the city quietly withdrew using the stratagem of "sheep hooves beating drums, hungry horses shaking bells." Later, in the eighth year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1730), because the Old Guard City was destroyed, the Yongshui Brigade was established in Jiduoping in the western suburbs of Jiwei. Two years later, the Yongshui Hall was established. In 1733, under the auspices of Yongtai, the Tongzhi of Yongshui Hall, a New Guard City was built in Jiduoping. The city was made of stone, 4 meters high, 4.3 meters wide at the base, and 1.6 kilometers in circumference. Four gates in the east, west, south, and north and five gate towers were also set up. The stone city was completed in 1735. For more than half a century thereafter, the New Guard City in Jiwei remained the seat of the Yongshui Hall government.
The Qing government initially set up the hall in Yongshui with the wishful thinking of strengthening its rule over the Miao people. To this end, they had 16 large characters carved on a stone wall by Chaoshui Stream: "The sage is kind and pacifies the distant, coming west with authority; you Miao are civilized, and the ghosts and demons disperse like clouds." But the Qing Dynasty did not expect that the flames of Miao resistance would burn so fiercely. On the 16th day of the first lunar month in 1795, the famous Miao People's Qianjia Uprising broke out. Shi Liudeng first raised the banner at Dazhai Camp in Songtao. On the 18th, Miao people Shi Sanbao in Huanggua Village, Yongshui Hall, rebelled. In the following days, Miao people Wu Longdeng and Wu Tianban in Fenghuang, and Wu Bayue in Qianzhou, led their troops to rise one after another. The Miao people in the Jiwei area, led by Shi Sanbao, besieged the Yongshui Hall city twice, and the two sides fought fiercely for several months. Due to the strong city defenses and reinforcements from the Qing army, the rebel army never captured the city. With the arrival of a large number of Qing troops, the Qianjia Miao Uprising ultimately failed. In September of the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802), the Qing court, on the grounds that Yongshui Hall was "isolated in Miao villages, shaped like the bottom of a cauldron," decided to move the hall city to Huayuan (now Huayuan Town). By human relay, all the stones of the demolished New Guard City were moved to Huayuan, and a new hall city was built in Huayuan.
The New Guard City in Jiwei thus completely disappeared. Today, when visitors come to Jiwei and ask about the situation of the guard city back then, most young people are unclear about the details, and only the elderly can tell the history of the New Guard City. After the Yongshui Hall moved from Jiwei, it no longer had the prosperity and grandeur of the hall city. Since then, this place has always been a township-level administrative institution under the county. In the 25th year of the Republic of China, the sites of the old and new guard cities had been razed to the ground. During the Yongshui Revolutionary Army Uprising, the commander-in-chief Wu Hengliang led his troops to attack the Bao Tun faction stationed in Jiwei Township, but failed to capture it due to the strong fortifications of the defenders. Four years later, a large-scale Tiaoxian Society uprising broke out in Yanjing Village, Jiwei. Miao people Ma Laoban, Ma Balong, and others supported the "Little Miao King" and persisted in the uprising for a year. This "Miao King" was a newborn boy, said to have an unusual appearance and rumored to be the reincarnation of Emperor Renzong who could ascend the throne in Nanjing and save the Miao people, so he was supported by the Miao people. After the "Tiaoxian Society" uprising was suppressed, the "Miao King" was hidden away and is said to have lived until 1983 before dying of illness.
During the early liberation of Jiwei, many bandit suppression battles also took place. The locally famous bandit leaders included Long Zuojin, Zhou Zikuang, Wu Tengfang, Long Chengwei, and others. From June to August 1950, several major bandit leaders led more than 3,000 bandits and besieged the Weicheng District Government held by the People's Liberation Army several times. The 4th Company, 2nd Battalion, 416th Regiment of the 139th Division of the PLA and some personnel from the county brigade held Jiwei District. After reinforcements arrived, they repelled the bandits' attacks. Long Chengwei and Wu Tengfang later surrendered their weapons and were executed (in 1983, they were reclassified as surrendered personnel). Zhou Zikuang died of illness in a cave in Lianhua Mountain. Long Zuojin fled into the home of Miao villager Long Laosan and was hacked to death by Long Laosan with an axe. In the battles of bandit suppression in Jiwei, many PLA soldiers were killed or wounded. In a corner of the campus of Jiwei Town Middle School, there is a monument to these martyrs. Visitors to Jiwei can visit it at any time.
The Guard City, as the seat of the ancient Yongshui Hall city, although it has long vanished, its long history will have an everlasting charm.