The beacon tower is mainly used to transmit intelligence, and at the same time, it also has the role of defense, and on the entire Great Wall, the beacon tower is the most defensive part, which can provide a strong defense for the soldiers who defend here, so as to protect the safety of the soldiers.

"Madame, have you ever seen the fireworks in the beacon?"

Ang Lee asked.

Ang Lee has never seen this scene, or rather, he has only seen it in TV series in later generations, and Li Hanlu has lived in the north of the Great Wall for a long time, maybe she has seen it.

"Naturally, I have seen it, more than ten years ago, when my father and I went south, as long as we were close to the Great Wall, there would be a beacon fire, and the fireworks were really big enough, and they could be seen from dozens of miles away."

Li Hanlu opened his mouth and said.

The ethnic minorities live very the grassland, and when there is no food, they can only go south to loot, and the first obstacle they have to face when they go south is the Great Wall, so they often return in vain.

"I often see the beacon fire, it seems that Mrs. has not been to the Tang Dynasty to rob before! How is the harvest, is it a full load every time? ”

Ang Lee asked with a smile.

Li Hanlu shook his head with a smile and said: "Datang is strong, where will there be too many opportunities in our tribe, most of the time it is to accept it when it is good, or even get nothing, it was a long time ago, what do you say." ”

Li An smiled and did not continue, however, Li An was still very clear about the situation of the beacon tower, according to the records of later generations of documentary materials, there were a large number of beacons along the Great Wall and extended far beyond the Great Wall.

According to the location and function of the beacon configuration, it can be divided into four groups: the beacon tower located in the depths of the desert is the front line of sending out warning signals, the beacon towers set up on both sides of the Great Wall transmit information along the line, the series of beacon towers leading from the Great Wall to the Beijing division are connected with the central government of the dynasty, and there is a group of beacon towers that communicate with the local government and garrison near the location of the Great Wall.

There are many previous historical documents that have been lost, taking the system of the Ming Dynasty as an example, such as citing a smoke and a cannon to indicate that about 100 enemies are coming; raised two smoke and two cannons, and the enemy came with about 500 people; More than 1,000 people raised three smoke and fired three cannons, and more than 80 beacon towers were found along the 50-kilometer Great Wall, with an average distance of about 3,000 meters, and the farthest was no more than 5,000 meters.

The Ming Dynasty has a large number of artillery, so, in addition to the smoke, will also use the way of firing cannons to transmit information, in the dynasties before the Ming Dynasty, this is certainly not the case, in the absence of artillery, you can only take the method of smoking during the day and igniting at night.

In fact, the building of the beacon tower is earlier than the Great Wall, and it is a kind of defensive building that is earlier than the appearance of the Great Wall, but since the appearance of the Great Wall, the beacon tower along the Great Wall has been closely integrated with the Great Wall and has become an important part of the defense system of the Great Wall, and some are even built on the Great Wall, especially in the Han Dynasty, the imperial court attaches great importance to the construction of the beacon tower.

Beacon fire is also called beacon, is a measure of ancient military alarm, that is, the enemy violates during the day on the smoke (beacon), the night offender ignites the fire (Sui) to the visible smoke and light to all parties and superiors alarm, beacon tower in the Han Dynasty called beacon, pavilion Sui, Tang and Song Dynasty called beacon, and the word beacon is also extended to the beacon tower, the Ming Dynasty is generally called the chimney or pier, the northwest Ming Dynasty pier, the big one has the function of resisting the enemy, the small one only has the function of observation and no beacon, the beacon tower is generally about ten miles apart, In the Ming Dynasty, there was also a distance of about five miles, when the soldiers defending the platform found that the enemy was coming, they immediately lit a beacon fire on the platform, and the neighboring platform followed after seeing it, so that the enemy situation could be quickly transmitted to the military center.

The Great Wall was not built indiscriminately, but was built according to the terrain, and the dangerous terrain was used to achieve the effect of being unstoppable, which is the so-called 'because of the terrain, using danger to control the blockage.' This principle is an important experience in the construction of the Great Wall, in the time of Qin Shi Huang has affirmed it, and then Sima Qian wrote it into the "Historical Records", and every subsequent dynasty built the Great Wall in accordance with this principle, all the construction of the pass is selected between the two mountains and valleys, or the turning point of the river, or the place where the Pingchuan must pass, so that it can not only control the danger, but also save manpower and materials, so as to achieve the effect of "one man is the pass, ten thousand people are not open".

The construction of the castle or the beacon tower is also chosen in the dangerous place, as for the construction of the city wall, it is to make full use of the terrain, such as the Juyong Pass of later generations, the Great Wall of Badaling is built along the back of the mountain, some sections look very steep from the outside of the city wall, the inner side is very gentle, there is the effect of easy to defend and difficult to attack, in Liaoning, the Great Wall of Liaodong Town in the Ming Dynasty has a kind of mountain danger wall, splitting the gable, that is, the use of the cliff steep wall, slightly split the cliff wall to become the Great Wall, and there are some places that completely use the cliff cliff, Rivers and lakes serve as natural barriers, which can be said to be ingenious.

"Madam, do you know why the Central Plains people built the Great Wall?"

Ang Lee asked.

Li Hanlu replied: "Naturally, it is to defend against the southward movement of the northern nomadic cavalry. ”

Li An nodded and said: "Madame is very right, the nomadic cavalry comes and goes without a trace, it is very difficult to deal with, except for the construction of the Great Wall, there is really no other way to deal with it, after all, in the field, the nomadic cavalry has a great advantage, and if it is to defend the city, the advantage of the Central Plains infantry will be even greater, and the advantage of the nomadic cavalry will be gone." ”

The nomadic cavalry was running around and fighting guerrilla warfare, while the Central Plains was dominated by infantry, and it was too difficult to pursue the cavalry that surrounded and annihilated the nomads, and it was even impossible to complete such a task at all, and only by building the Great Wall of a defensive nature could this task be completed.

In addition, the Great Wall is also the dividing line between China's farming people and nomadic peoples, you should know that the geographical location of the whole China is mainly divided into two major regions in the east and west and three belts in the north and south, the east and west two major regions are from the Xing'an Mountains in the north, through Yanshan, Yinshan, Helan Mountain, Minshan to the Hengduan Mountains, the east is the agricultural economic development area, and the west is the animal husbandry economic development area.

The three belts, namely the Qinling Mountains and the south of the Huai River, are the paddy field agricultural economic development belt; The north of the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River to the south of Yinshan and Yanshan Mountains and the Northeast Plain are the economic development belts of dry crop agriculture, and the north of Yinshan and the west of Helan Mountains are the economic development belts of animal husbandry.

The natural layout of two districts and three belts constitutes the two major economic and cultural types of agriculture and animal husbandry in mainland China. The Great Wall Belt encompasses most of the entire dryland agricultural economic development belt and animal husbandry economic development belt, constituting a complete and independent economic system, which is based on agricultural economy, animal husbandry is an important supplement to agriculture, and the two economies are interdependent and complementary to each other. Culturally, the farming culture is the dominant one, and the two cultures of agriculture and animal husbandry penetrate and absorb each other, and constantly converge and radiate.

In the process of historical development, agriculture first developed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, becoming the hinterland of China's agricultural economy and culture, and becoming the center of national economic and cultural exchanges. In the entire animal husbandry economic zone, the Inner Mongolia steppe, west of the Xing'an Mountains and north of the Yinshan Mountains, has developed into the economic and cultural heart of animal husbandry by virtue of its unique conditions. The Great Wall is located at the natural intersection of these two economic and cultural hearts, and it is the product of a certain economic development foundation, which not only separates the two economies and cultures, but also connects the two economies and cultures together.

The ancient economic and cultural structure of the Great Wall Belt and the composition pattern of the ancient ethnic groups determined that the relationship between the ancient agricultural economic regions and the animal husbandry economic regions in China was concentrated on the Great Wall, and the opposition and unity of its agricultural economy, culture and animal husbandry economy and culture were also carried out along the Great WallIt has played an important role in the formation and development of the Juche nation, the relationship between the Juche nation and the ethnic groups in the Great Wall Belt, and even the formation and development of the entire Chinese nation, which is determined by the division of the ancient Chinese economic system into two and the opposition and unity of the agricultural economy and the animal husbandry economy.

With such a complex theory, Li An naturally couldn't tell Li Hanlu, because this woman was a relatively simple-minded person, and such professional knowledge was not something she could understand.

"Madame, do you know why the nomadic cavalry always goes south to plunder, because they don't have enough food and drink? Or is it something else? ”

Ang Lee asked.

Li Hanlu opened his mouth and said: "Naturally, you can't fill your stomach before going south, if you are full of food and drink, no one will be idle and have nothing to do, go south to plunder, husband should know that as long as you go south to fight, there will be no immortals, risking your life to snatch food, naturally it will be like this after you are hungry." ”

Li An nodded in approval.

The main reason why the nomads went south was indeed because they were hungry, and the reason for starvation was because the animal husbandry owned by the nomads was a single industry with strong instability, so they had a strong dependence on agriculture, which caused an imbalance between the two economies and cultures, and even a serious confrontation, which led to a large-scale war.

As long as there is a major drought in the grassland, or extremely cold weather in winter, or even a sudden plague, these may cause a great blow to animal husbandry, so that cattle and sheep are killed and injured heavily, and the main food of the nomads is cattle and sheep, if the cattle and sheep die on a large scale, the nomads will naturally go hungry.

And such natural disasters will occur frequently, and every time such a natural disaster occurs, the nomads who lack food will set their sights on the rich Central Plains, and then it will be the drama of going south to rob.

In fact, farming people will also encounter a variety of natural and man-made disasters, such as droughts, floods, locust plagues and other disasters, the number of these disasters, may be much more than the nomads can encounter disasters, but the agricultural grain and the nomadic food is different, once the nomadic cattle and sheep die, they can not be eaten in a short time and rot, while the agricultural grain can be preserved for many years.

In addition, the Central Plains is vast, and there is a shortage of food in one area, and several other regions can also be supported, so that this region can tide over the difficulties, but once the nomads are affected, many times they are all affected, and they cannot get the support of the neighboring tribes at all, so it is good not to fall into the well, so it is a good way to go south to snatch the grain of the border people in the Central Plains.

However, the ancient nomads retained the group organization of tribes and soldiers, as well as the common people of the nomads who practiced riding and archery from an early age, it is easy to form a military advantage, and when entering the agricultural area to plunder, it will cause great damage to the agricultural area.

The construction and existence of the Great Wall has played a role in isolating the two ethnic groups of agriculture and animal husbandry, so as to enhance the ability to resist the predation of animal husbandry nationalities, so that it cannot easily succeed, thus helping to protect the agricultural economy and advanced production methods in the Central Plains, and to the development and accumulation of social productive forces and feudal civilization.

In addition, agriculture and animal husbandry are also interdependent, mutually needy, and mutually reinforcing, and the agricultural economy not only needs animal husbandry to provide itself with animal power for farming and transportation, as well as animal and material resources such as war horses, livestock, furs, and precious medicinal materials, but also needs to continuously sell agricultural and sideline industries and handicraft products to the animal husbandry economic zone, so that the animal husbandry economic area becomes an important commodity market in the agricultural economic zone, and the animal husbandry economy not only needs the agricultural economic area to provide grain, cloth, iron, gold, silver, pottery, and other handicraft products. In addition, they also need to sell their own furs, medicinal herbs and other products, which promotes the trade exchange between the two economies along the line of the Great Wall.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, many passes along the Great Wall have become the places or centers of ethnic trading in the two major economic and cultural systems of agriculture and animal husbandry in history, coupled with the looting between ethnic groups under special circumstances, so that agricultural and animal husbandry products are distributed along the line of the Great Wall, and the line of the Great Wall has become the largest domestic trade market and material supply and demand, distribution base, in the process of historical development, many passes have gradually developed into important towns along the Great Wall, which shows that the Great Wall has ensured the normal development of agricultural economy, culture and animal husbandry economy and cultureIt also provides a place and convenience for the exchange and complementarity of the two; In this sense, the Great Wall is the convergence line of the agriculture and animal husbandry economy, so that the Great Wall has not simply played the role of separating the two economies and cultures, but also shouldered the important task of closely tying the two economies and cultures together.

A long city wall originally looked like it was intended to separate the agricultural and animal husbandry nations, but in fact, it also played a role in connecting the agricultural and animal husbandry nations, which had to make people sigh.

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