The manor was built by the Wang family from the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802) to the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918). It took a total of 116 years and six generations to complete.
The largest watchtower in Chongqing---Huilongzhuang
The watchtower is a building used for defense and lookout. Looking at the land of Bayu, Jiangjin Huilongzhuang Watchtower was regarded as the tallest building in Chongqing more than a hundred years ago, and its construction level still impresses experts.
Chongqing people are still unfamiliar with Shuangfengchang (formerly Jiangjin Fengchang). But when I inquired about Huilongzhuang in Shuangfengchang (named because of Feng Shui, where four dragons gather), everyone in the village knew that Huilongzhuang has a large carved building that is rare in Chongqing. The yellow watchtower is the most eye-catching building in Huilongzhuang. The fifth floor is 38 meters high. It is a civil structure with a wall thickness of more than 0.5m. It is currently the tallest watchtower preserved in Chongqing and was built during the Guangxu period.
Huilongzhuang is about 125 kilometers south of Jiangjin City. Every spring and summer, city dwellers come here to visit. There is a local saying: It would be a pity not to climb the watchtower when visiting Huilongzhuang; it would be a blessing to climb the watchtower to see the whole village.
Villager Chen Zuolun, known as "Shuangfengtong", said: Huilong Village was originally surrounded by a courtyard wall. The old courtyard wall was 4-5 meters high, 0.5 meters thick, and about a thousand meters long. It's all made of stone. Later, the courtyard wall was demolished and the stones were used to build the reservoir. The entire manor covers an area of ??about 21,000 square meters. It currently has two watchtowers, one large and one small, 16 courtyards, 18 patios, 1,084 doors, and more than 220 houses scattered in it. The manor was built by the Wang family from the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802) to the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918). It took a total of 116 years and six generations to complete.
Speaking of Huilongzhuang, it really has some origins.
Wang Qili, who lives in the manor, is 42 years old and is the 13th generation of the Wang family. According to his introduction, Wang’s ancestors were originally from Xiaogan, Macheng County, Hubei Province, and four generations served as escorts during the Qing Dynasty. Later, because the national treasure was lost during the escort, in order to avoid the execution of the nine tribes, the ancestor Wang Shiwen ordered his family members to flee westward, while he stayed at home to bear the blame.
Wang’s wife was pregnant, and under the protection of a few caring followers, she and her family traveled all the way from Hubei to Shuangfeng, Jiangjin. They gave birth to their son Wang Wenjie, and then settled down in Shuangfeng. Later, the Wang family gradually became prosperous, and there are many stories about it to this day.
The first theory is that Wang Wenjie learned the Yin and Yang Bagua and helped the landlords buy and sell land and made a lot of money;
The second theory is that Wang Wenjie has amazing gambling skills and made his fortune by gambling;
Third, Wang Wenjie sold the gold and silver he brought from Hubei to buy land.
It is said that when it was most prosperous, the Wang family's territory bordered Guizhou in the south, Hejiang County in the west, Qijiang in the east, and Lishi Town in Jiangjin in the north, and was known as "Wang Ban County". At that time, the Wang family collected rent of more than 1,000 tons a year (one load was equivalent to about 750 kilograms in the old days). Older villagers all remember that during the Spring Festival in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, beggars from all over the county would come here. It is widely known that the Wang family opens a warehouse to benefit the people every year and does good deeds. It has become an unwritten rule.
According to Liu Donglin, the director of the Zhongshan Town Cultural Station in Jiangjin City, Zhongshan Town can be regarded as a good match. A daughter of the Wang family once married into this town, and some ancient beds in her dowry are still collected today. Without this family relationship, where would Zhongshan Town have so many antiquities?
Zhou Guangyuan, a villager who lives in the old house in Huilongzhuang, told reporters while sitting next to the exquisite dental furniture that someone once offered a price of 50,000 yuan (the current price has been raised to about 300,000 yuan), but he refused to move out. This ordinary farmhouse actually has three beautiful gums. how come? Zhou told reporters that this was obtained by drawing lots from his father during the suppression of landlords after liberation, and it was all the property of the Wang family.
The Wang family was so wealthy that it even caused the "Bang Lao Er" in northern Guizhou to suffer from pink eye. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, more than a thousand bandits besieged Huilongzhuang for a month. In the era of warlords fighting for power, Shuangfengchang actually ushered in a "land war" (bandits, landlords). Although the number of bandits was large, their firepower was ineffective, their artillery attacks were weak, and the watchtowers were invulnerable. The villagers in the large and small watchtowers held their heads high and beat the bandits, causing numerous casualties to the bandits and fleeing in defeat. To this day, there are still countless knife and ax marks on the gate of the manor.
Today, in the west corner of the village, Wang Wenjie’s tomb is nestled among the streets. Although tomb robbers have been visiting for more than a hundred years, only half of the tomb remains. The tomb is covered with reeds, but the words engraved on the tombstone The dragon and phoenix are still visible in three parts, and "Xiu Shui" and "Eternity" are clearly visible on the left side, and the scenery of the Wang family back then is vaguely visible.