This man was proficient in Yin and Yang Feng Shui. He saw that the foundation of the old county city was a dragon vein, and that there might be an emperor and a prime minister. The emperor's surname was Zhu, and the prime minister's surname was Qi. When the brick city was rebuilt, the east gate of the city that originally faced due east was moved to the southeast. It is said that to suppress the Zhu family's geographical lineage, they built the City God's Temple to suppress the dragon's head, built the Dengyun Tower to suppress the dragon's waist, and built the Yunlian Tower to suppress the dragon's tail. The Yunlian Tower can suppress the Qijia's geographical lineage. From then on, both Zhu and Qi families changed their surnames. The family changed their surname to Wang, and the Qi family changed their surname to Li, so there is a saying that "Li died in Qi, Wang died in Zhu". Now the tombstones of the deceased ancestors of the Li family have restored their past surnames and became Qi. The construction of the county town took three years and was completed in the 27th year of Daoguang (1847). The city is three feet high and seven miles in circumference. There is a moat surrounding the city, which is two feet wide and one foot deep. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the ancient city was well-preserved, with four streets, twelve lanes, seventy-two wells, three chastity archways, one hanging people archway, and many temples, towers and pavilions in the city. "Guandi Renwei Kaili Temple, Confucius Sheng Wenchang Dengyun Tower, Wuzhai Yunlian Yuegong Bridge, City God meditating in the lotus pond." That is, Guandi Temple, Renweiguan, Kaili Temple, Confucius Temple, Wenchang Palace, Drum Tower, Wujiating , Yunlian Pagoda, Yuegong Bridge, Chenghuang Temple, Jingxiu Temple, Lotus Pond. When the Japanese invaded the south, their planes often bombed the old city. In order to escape, the ancient city walls began to be destroyed by the people in the city. In 1954, when the floods rose, the bluestone roads in the city were pried off, and some stone archways were destroyed. The stones were used to block the floods. During the Cultural Revolution, the "Four Olds" were destroyed, and all the ancient buildings and walls in the city were destroyed. Only the outside of the east gate remained. The most regrettable thing about Yunlian Pagoda is that many Bodhisattvas in the Chenghuang Temple were smashed. The city god carved from camphor wood is lifelike, and all the joints in his body can move like a real person. The city god was chopped up and burned as firewood, and the ten palaces of Yama were made of clay. The images of humans and ghosts were lifelike, teaching people to be virtuous, to do more good deeds and not to do evil. Later, the Chenghuang Temple was converted into a grain collection warehouse. The four heavenly kings in Kaili Temple are taller than the four heavenly kings in Guiyuan Temple in Hanyang. After being smashed, dozens of loads of mud and hemp were mixed with them. The two-meter-high big-bellied Maitreya Buddha is made of pig iron. , were smashed and sent to an agricultural machinery factory to be used as plows for plowing the fields. There were also some copper Buddha incense burners from the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, which were smashed and sold as scrap copper to the scrap purchasing department of the supply and marketing cooperative. If we put it now, how high would the value of those national treasure-level cultural relics be? The Guandi Temple is relatively large, with three main halls and side rooms at the back. Before the liberation, there were also Bodhisattva monks. At the beginning of the liberation, all the facilities in the main hall were demolished and turned into a theater and an auditorium. Wenchang Palace is also very large. Before liberation, it was converted into Zhongzheng Middle School by the big landowner Liu Changchi. Liu Changchi himself serves as the principal. The Wujia Pavilion is located opposite the current agricultural machinery factory on West Street, with the lotus pond behind it. It is a hexagonal pavilion-style building. There is a Ming Dynasty stone tablet more than two meters high, with the inscription "former residence of Wu Zhongxiang, Minister of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty" in eleven large characters. The Wu family was originally from Yanglin City, Songzi. Until the eve of liberation, descendants of the Wu family came to collect rent around the county. Dengyun Tower, commonly known as the Drum Tower, is located in the middle street. Below it is an arched doorway made of bluestone blocks of uniform specifications. It is one and a half feet wide and five feet high. It spans the street with a span of three feet. It is built with stone slabs as a platform. There is a hexagonal pavilion-like two-story tower-shaped building in the center of the platform. The upper area is very small. There is a Kuixing inside, holding a brush. It is called "Kuixing Diandou." There are four big characters in "Kaifuwenyun". Before liberation, someone opened a teahouse on it. During the Anti-Japanese War, a big bell was hung on the Drum Tower, and a special person was responsible for guarding it. When the Japanese invaders came, the bell would be rung to call the police. After hearing the bell, the residents of the city hid in the air-raid shelter. This building was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Immediately to the northwest of the Drum Tower is the Confucius Temple. There is a stone archway at the temple gate, which is five feet wide and three feet high, with four pillars and two floors. There are hollow stone carvings such as "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Dragons and Phoenixes Presenting Good Luck, and Kirin Delivering Children", which have not been seen in Jingzhou City. Passing such a large and exquisite stone archway. After passing the stone archway, there is a Yuegong Bridge made of bluestone. There is a pool under the bridge. After crossing the bridge, there is the main hall. There is a tablet in the center of the hall, four feet high, with the nine characters "The Holy Table of the Most Holy Master of Dacheng" written on it. Directly opposite the archway and across the street, there is a Panchi made of bluestone slabs (there were Panchis in front of ancient schools). The first one was used to do good deeds and release animals. The second one was used for literati in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Scholars and other scholars who were admitted to the Gongsheng School would go around the Panchi. Go around the pond three times and then enter the Confucius Temple to pay homage to Confucius. Later, after it was demolished, the stones were used for flood control, and the temple was converted into a police station and town government.With the change of dynasties and the vicissitudes of the world, due to various reasons, the precious heritage left by our ancestors has been wiped out...
Songzi County has two Paleolithic sites, one is the Wangma of Ximen River in the old city Tsui, the other is the sweet-scented osmanthus tree in Yanglin City close to Gongan County. When I was in elementary school before liberation, I often asked my classmates to take cold baths in the Ximen River. I also saw the ruins of cave dwellings that collapsed after being washed away by the river. There are four fire-burned half cave dwellings side by side. The soil inside the cave is all red. There are many stone flakes on the river bank outside the cave. We didn't pay attention to these stone things at the time. In 1951, the Jingzhou archaeological team came here for archaeology and unearthed many Paleolithic tools, such as stone knives and axes, which are still preserved in the Jingzhou Museum.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Songzi suffered from natural and man-made disasters twice. One was the peasant uprising of Li Zicheng in the late Ming Dynasty. Li Laiheng, the nephew of Li Zicheng, his rebel force, occupied Songzi Yidu and other places, and a large number of people fled. ; The second time was in the 12th year of Kangxi (1673) when Wu Sangui rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and claimed to be King of Zhou. The vanguard of his rebel troops arrived in Songzi County, and his patrol headquarters was located at Huanglong Temple in Taoziling, about eight kilometers outside the south gate of the county. Next to it is the Paoma Embankment where troops were stationed for training. It is said that he claimed to be the destined emperor. When the Yellow Dragon descended to earth, he stayed at Huanglong Temple for the night. It was the spring rice planting season. There was a weir and pond next to the temple. Frogs were croaking and making noise, which made him unable to sleep. He said: "You all just go to hell." , so as not to disturb people." From then on, the frogs in Huanglong Temple stopped croaking, but this is just a legend. When the Japanese invaded the South, the author lived under the Huanglong Temple while fleeing. The frogs in the weir pond also sang happily. In the 16th year of Kangxi's reign, a decisive battle took place between the Qingbing Navy and Wu Sangui Navy at the Songzi River in Mayu River. Wu Sangui was defeated and retreated into Dongting Lake, where he never recovered. In the seventeenth year of Kangxi's reign, he proclaimed himself emperor in Hengzhou (now Hengyang) and died soon after. Wu spent about half a year in Songzi, collecting grain from all over the country, which led to the desolation of the fields, the depression of merchants, the widespread mourning, the people fleeing, and the population in the county was greatly reduced. It was not until the early years of Qianlong that the immigration policy of Jiangxi filling in Huguang and Huguang filling Sichuan was implemented. It is said that it was first All young men and women between the ages of fifteen and fifty from Hunan, Hubei, and Guangdong were tied up with ropes and sent to Sichuan first. Since Jiangxi had not suffered from the war and the population was prosperous, the Jiangxi people were then escorted to Huguang. The grass is used as a record, and acres of land are allocated. If the tax is not paid for three years. For example, the Dai family in Songzi was originally from Jiexiu County, Jiangxi Province. The three brothers were escorted to Songzi and arranged to live outside the west gate of the county. They were given more than 20 acres of land. Later, the eldest brother settled in the county and the second brother moved to Wangjiaqiao. , the third child moved to Mashan, Jiangling. In the nearly two hundred years from Qianlong to the Republic of China, Songzi entered a period of relatively stable society, relatively prosperous commerce, farmers living and working in peace and contentment, and a prosperous population.
In the early years of the Republic of China, foreign nations invaded China, domestic warlords fought in a melee, and Latin money was distributed everywhere. As a result, the countryside was deserted, merchants closed down, the people were in dire straits, and the masses were in dire straits. In 1927, Dr. Sun Yat-sen launched the Northern Expedition in Guangzhou. The Northern Expedition led by He Long occupied Songzi County in the autumn of this year without fighting. The common people called it the southern army to drive out the northern army. The southern army had two weapons, a tether Wearing a red silk sword and a rifle, with straps around their legs and a big straw hat on their head, they are all energetic, highly motivated and well-disciplined despite being short in stature. The Northern soldiers also had two weapons, a pipe and a rifle. They usually did all kinds of evil in the county, and all of them went to opium dens. When the Northern Expedition came, they fled and fled without fear. The division headquarters of the Northern Expedition was located in the county. He only stayed in the Yamen for more than a month before heading towards Yidu and Yichang to pursue and annihilate the Northern Army.
In the 1930s, the three counties of Songzhi and Yi were adjacent areas, especially Songzi County and Zhijiang County. They often fought over territorial boundaries, and sometimes even included the small island outside the north gate of Songzi County. Enter Zhijiang County. The name of the county magistrate of the three counties at that time was also very interesting, and the common people jokingly called him "the unjust evildoers congratulate Tuozi together." The county magistrate of Songzi County is named Yan Ye, the magistrate of Zhijiang County is named He and is a hunchback, and the magistrate of Yidu County is named Yu Qilai. Songzhijiang had a long-standing feud. The hill next to the river about two miles outside the west gate of the old city is called Bailonggeng. About one mile up, there is a stone protrusion on the riverside, like a big stone steamer, which is called a wine steamer. There is a whirlpool in the river, called the Dengzhan vortex.
Zhijiang Bailizhou is on the other side of the Bailonggeng River. It is named Shi (Shi) Jiahe, Hu (Mu) Jiahe on the other side of Jiuzengzi, and Xu (Xi) Jiahe on the other side of Dengzhanwo. It is a coincidence that the other side is also These are really three surnames. This may be a coincidence.