Meng (Zhi) Yang Town
After Zhou Wuwang destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he named his four sons Yingguo, and the Yingguo of the Zhou Dynasty was Empress Ji. According to textual research, Ren Ying is a clan tribe with eagle as its totem. "Taiping Universe" Volume 8 Ruzhou Lushan County cloud: "Yingguo is in the southwest of Fucheng County, Xiangcheng City." Fucheng County, a city mentioned here, refers to the ancient city of Lizhuang Township, Baofeng County. According to relevant data, during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the general areas under the jurisdiction of the state were Xiangcheng County, jia county, Baofeng County, Lushan County, Yexian County and Pingdingshan City. Later, Yingguo was destroyed by Chu in a series of wars in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was changed to Xiang Ying. In the Western Wei and Sui Dynasties, there was Mengyang County in the early Tang Dynasty, Zhenguan in the ninth year of Tang Dynasty (AD 635), and Li Shimin in the reign of Emperor Taizong, with a simple army and a simple administration, took Mengyang County as its town. During the period of 1300 years at that time, Mengyang Town experienced ups and downs and performed a brilliant commercial and cultural history.
All kinds of historical data and relics prove that the government of Mengyang Town in Xinhua District is located two kilometers south of the city and three or four kilometers southwest of the new city. The 10,000-mu fish and shrimp culture area in the northwest of Baiguishan Reservoir is the capital of Gu Ying. Historically, the capital of Guyingguo and the former government of Mengyang Town were in the same place. 1964, Mengyang Town Government moved to Xuezhuang Village, Xinhua District. Since 1979, a number of bronze ritual vessels of Britain and friendly neighbor Deng Guo have been unearthed in Mengyangling, southwest of Beimeng Village, due to the local brick factory borrowing soil to burn bricks, and the British cemetery has begun to attract the attention of the world. This is a large-scale ancient tomb group, including the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially the aristocratic tombs of Yingguo and Chu, so it is called Yingguo Cemetery. 1989, Yingguo Cemetery was announced by Henan Province as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit. After more than ten years of archaeological excavations by provincial and municipal cultural relics departments, * * * has excavated 357 tombs, and unearthed more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics such as copper, iron, lead, tin, gold, jade, stone, pottery, porcelain, bones, teeth, shellfish, mussels and wood. Especially bronze and jade. In view of its important academic value, Yingguo Cemetery was rated as the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China and the top ten important archaeological discoveries in Henan Province in 2000 by 1996.
Eagle City was named after the totem symbol "Jade Eagle" unearthed from the ancient Yingguo aristocratic cemetery in the former site of Mengyang Town to commemorate the splendid ancient Yingguo civilization in the history of this city.
Mengyang Town not only has profound cultural accumulation, but also is an important land and water terminal and cargo distribution center in the history of this province. The owner of Fuyang Town Cultural Service Center told reporters that Fuyang, a thousand-year-old town, is the throat of land traffic from Luoyang, Xi and Lanzhou in the north to Nanyang, Xiangfan and Hankou in the south, and it is also an important pier in the upper reaches of Huaihe River. Due to its superior geographical location and convenient transportation, it has always been an important salt distribution center in the north and south. Businessmen transport daily necessities such as salt, grain, cotton, peanuts, tea, porcelain, etc. to Mengyang for trading with primitive means of transportation, such as animal-drawn, car-carried, shoulder-carried and back-carried, making Mengyang Town "full of merchants and shops".
According to historical records, as early as the Jin Dynasty, merchants from Shaanxi, Hebei and Shanxi took a fancy to Mengyang, a treasure trove of geomantic omen, and came to do business in succession. In the first year of Qin Long in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1567), Mengyang Street began to flourish, and the shops on both sides of the street prospered. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing army of Zeng Guofan and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought fiercely in Hunan, and the Yangtze River waterway transportation line was cut off. People in western Hubei and southern Henan, who have long relied on water transportation for salt supply, are extremely short of salt. At this time, merchants in western Hubei and southern Henan first bought food locally and then transported it to Mengyang to exchange salt, while merchants in Shanxi and Luoyang transported a large amount of salt to Mengyang for sale. Merchants in Mengyang also seized this business opportunity and opened grain shops and salt shops. At that time, wagons carrying grain lined up in the market of Meng Yang, and merchants from north and south gathered, which was a scene of prosperity. Mengyang Street meets the city of North Street and Southeast Gate every other day, which is about 500 meters long.
At the beginning of the last century, Gansheng Grain Store, Houyou Grain Store, Taishun Grain Store in North Street, Zhenxingchang Grain Store in Taihua Street and Yishengxiang Grain Store in the southeast gate of Mengyang Street were called the five major banks in Mengyang. According to the records of Baofeng County, by 195 1, there were 30 merchants/kloc-0, 222 vendors and 264 manual workshops in Mengyang Street.