According to Changzhou Mansion, the court ordered Meng Jian, the secretariat of Changzhou, to expand the channel of Laoduhe Village. From the fifth year of Tang Chaoyuan to the eighth year of Yuanhe (865,438+00-865,438+03), the South-to-North Water Diversion Project to the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal lasted more than four years, and more than 150,000 people participated in dredging, and migrant workers were recruited from other provinces. His water conservancy function is not only beneficial to Wujin county, but also to Changzhou and Zhenjiang counties, and also affects Suzhou and Songjiang. "Because Meng Jian, the governor of Changzhou, expanded Lao Du, it was named Mengdu, and the town was named after the river, so Hezhuang was also called Meng He. During the recent 1200 years since Tang Chaoyuan opened Meng He in the eighth year (8 13), there are 22 records of dredging Meng He in local chronicles. At the end of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty (1727), Xiaohe Port was newly opened (also known as New Meng He); In the middle of Guangxu, crossing the heart and blocking the door were opened in the small reach. Yinsha Port can be directly connected with the land, the inland river can be directly connected with the Yangtze River, and ships can also be directly connected with the Yangtze River unimpeded, so it is not very important to show the role of water conservancy and shipping in old Meng He.
According to the National Dictionary of Geographical Names, "Meng He is 80 miles northwest of Wujin, overlooking the great river". According to the Biography of Sheep Scholars, Meng Jia, the counselor of Huan Wen in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, lived here in seclusion. Jiashan is ten miles away from Meng He, formerly known as Longshan. In the interpretation of young students' sentences, there is a sentence "The wind rises nine times, and Meng Sheng falls off his hat in Longshan". Later Longshan was renamed Jiashan. Menghe Town is located between Jiashan (that is, Xishan and Qi Fengshan) and Longshan (Dongshan and Xiaohuangshan), forming a pattern similar to the double dragons playing with pearls, so it is nicknamed "Pearl City". On the stone tablet of Guandi Temple rebuilt in Qing Dynasty, there is a saying that "the pearl city is big, the capital of Mengdu is surrounded by it, and a spoonful of water is full of tide". In the early years of Song Jia, Mengdu Village was garrisoned. In the thirty-third year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1554), Governor Shang Wei appointed Sun Yi, an imperial minister, to preside over it. Meng He was built in the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1558). There are five gates in the whole city: the east gate is called Jiangmen (meaning to reach the Yangtze River), the west gate is called Darunmen (meaning to reach Zhenjiang), the north gate is called Yijingmen (named after the wall is guarded by Sun, who is a Beijing official), the south gate is called Anchangmen (meaning to settle in an ordinary state), and the small south gate is called Communication Gate (because there is a post road outside the gate). The wall of Meng He is more than 20 feet high and 670 feet in circumference, about 4 Li. The whole city wall is long from north to south and narrow from east to west. The city wall is made of masonry. The city wall is made of materials, the stones are brought from the guest land, and the bricks are fired on site. There is a water gate where the north and south city walls cross the inner city river. South Watergate is called Jinsuo Pass, and North Watergate is called Yupanguan. The sluice is equipped with an official bridge, which can be used for defecation. There is a moat around the city wall, and Fengdan Bridge, Hong Ying Bridge and Shimen Wooden Suspension Bridge are built on the Laomeng River at the south gate. There are wooden suspension bridges at the west gate and the north gate. The bridge on the moat of Xiaonanmen is called Yongfeng Bridge, and there is a small street dozens of meters long outside Xiaonanmen. Ships on the inner city river can sail directly to the old Meng He outside the city and then to the Yangtze River port. Yuan Mu Bridge is used as the "gate" on the north-south waterway, which can be opened and closed regularly to allow ships passing through the moat. At this time, people called Menghecheng Mengcheng. Over time, everyone called her "Mengcheng".
In the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing, after the completion of Menghe City, the court set up an official construction department to manage officials and sent a large number of heavy troops to defend the city and outside. Menghecheng has always been a fortress to defend the Yangtze River in past dynasties, and it is an important channel and barrier for Changzhou to resist the invasion of the nomads from the south and the Japanese from the north. From the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China, the dynasty always sent heavy troops to defend. It also shows that during the dynasty, Qi Jiguang built a city here to prevent the enemy, so Meng He was called Mengcheng. (Therefore, Meng He is called Hezhuang, Zhucheng, Mengcheng and Tongjiang in history). In the early years of Song and Jia Dynasties (1237), the county magistrate implored the court to send 205 elite soldiers to Mengdu Village. In the early Ming Dynasty (1370), the imperial court sent 1600 soldiers and 50 mortars to Meng He Fort. In the Qing Dynasty, there were 1500 navy divisions in Mengheying. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the heavily armed Taiping Army was stationed in Menghecheng for three years and seven months. During the Republic of China, the 88th Division of the Kuomintang was subordinate to a division stationed at Guandi Temple in Meng He. Before 1938, sairinji in Menghe City and Niangniang Temple outside the city each had a battalion of the Republic of China security forces; 1938 After the Japanese invaded Menghe City, the first squadron of the Japanese army was stationed in Meng He City God Temple. 1945 After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the first squadron of the fourth column of the Kuomintang Zhang Shaohua Security was stationed in the God of Wealth Temple outside the north gate; After liberation, the government also sent nearly a battalion of soldiers to Dongshan, menghe town. "Visit Menghe City, the ancient station troops along the river, Dongshan to Xishan, two mountains and one city. This is a hymn left by people to commemorate this ancient city of Meng He that resisted aggression. "
Historically, menghe town was directly under the jurisdiction of Wujin County; In April 2002, Changzhou was placed under the jurisdiction of Xinbei District after the division adjustment. The ancient city of Wujin in the Jin Dynasty was in this area of Meng He. How many times have Meng He and Viva been on and off in history? There used to be Futong, Nanlanling, Long Live, Long Live and other places, but where are the military facilities such as Mengdu Village, Meng He Fort, Huangshanmen and Mengheying located? Today, the names of Qianchengtou and Houchengtou of Long Ting Village in the south corner of Meng He Hedong have always been said to be the ancient city heads in the period of Gulanling. Was it the former site of Wujin Old Town at that time, or the former sites of Mengdu Village, Meng He Fort and Mengheying? It remains to be verified.
Meng He was attached to Qian Qiu Township, Wujin County in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and was attached to the administrative center of Tongjiang City in the Ming Dynasty. During his stay in Tongjiang City, he set up a township director who worked in Meng He. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the jurisdiction of Menghe Town was: Yinshakou in the east, Nanyin Village in xiaohe town and Mazhuangwan Village in Xiaodu Township in the southeast, Yaquegou in the south, Yaquecun in Jinluo Town and Puqizhuang in the south. With a total area of 332.59 square kilometers, 8 towns and villages were set up in June1934+1October 10 in the Republic of China, and some places were under the jurisdiction of Danyang county and city.
According to the reflection of the common people and the records in Mengzhi, from 1952 to 1958, the bricks of Meng He city wall were gradually demolished, and all the city walls were demolished. It is said that most of the bricks of the city wall are blast furnaces used for steelmaking when they are transported to Lianjiang Bridge in Changzhou, and a few are used by local production teams and old houses. The cornerstone of the old city wall was completely removed during the dredging of the new and newly opened Xiangyang River in May 5438+0974+065438+ 10. Now there is a section of city wall at the entrance of Da 'nan, which is more than ten meters south of Fei's former residence.