Hiking Horse Village

Macun Town, Gaoping City, is a place that I have long been familiar with. Because I like history and culture, I often go to surrounding counties and cities during the week, especially to some ancient villages. Last year, I visited a good household in Gaoping Pingyuan Village. I heard the locals talk about Macun. I know that this is the battlefield of the ancient Changping War. It has the famous Gaoping Pass, Laomaling, Kangying Village, etc. It has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. There are many stories that have been passed down through the ages. I have always wanted to go there and see it. Take a look and appreciate the heroic spirit of the ancients on the bloody battlefields, take a look at the Kongcang Ridge where Qin general Bai Qi faked the show thousands of years ago, and take a look at the place where Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, outsmarted Gao Laoyao's head. But it never happened.

One day in May, I suddenly saw a link to a hiking competition held in Gaoping Macun among the long-distance runners. My desire to visit Macun was activated. I saw that there was a 17-kilometer hike. group and the 37-kilometer cross-country group. I wanted to go once, so I wanted to walk more and take a look, so I signed up for the 37-kilometer cross-country group.

In late May, more than a dozen runners in Changzhi who participated in the Macun Hiking Competition organized a travel group, and everyone began to pay attention to how to travel to compete early.

Since I had many things to do at work and at home, I chose to carpool with my running mates that day. Since Hou Hongbo of the Changzhi Marathon Association was unable to participate in the organization due to physical discomfort, Chang Linbin was entrusted with the temporary organization.

I got up at 3:30 a.m. on June 2, ate, washed up, and went straight to the South Square. At 4:30 a.m., my runner’s car arrived on time, and I got into Feng Xiangyang and his wife’s car.

Speechless all the way, I took the Xichi Expressway, took the Changjin Expressway, Gaoqin Expressway, got off the Expressway from Macun at 6:30, and went straight to Yuma Square. The further we go, the more cars there are and the more people there are. So I got off the car, parked the car on the side of the road, and walked towards Yuma Plaza.

Today, a tent for distributing items and a temporary stage were set up in Yuma Square for this walking competition. We received the competition bag, pinned the number book, and checked in.

At 7:20, a gunshot rang out, and thousands of runners, ready to go, started from the Yuma Plaza, heading south to the South Ring Road and eastwards, arriving ten minutes later. Kangying Village, this is an ancient village with a long history, also called Guguang Langcheng. The village is surrounded by mountains on three sides: east, south and north. To the west is a river valley corridor, leading directly to Laomaling. The northeastern canyon is closely connected to the Dan River Valley. The terrain is Very dangerous. It is said that before the Changping War, South Korea's Shangdang guard Feng Ting used this place as an important town to fight against the Qin army. When the Qin army captured Qinyang and Nanyang, it cut off the connection between Shangdang and South Korea. In order to unite Zhao against Qin, the prefect Feng Ting dedicated 17 Shangdang cities to Zhao. King Zhaoxiang of Qin was very angry after hearing the news, and sent Wang Lu, the chief of the left concubine, to command 200,000 troops and go straight to Shangdang. Because Feng Ting supervised the battle day and night, the Qin army could not attack with troops for a month. Later, Wang Hao transferred strong troops from Xianyang and used sharp weapons such as cloud ladders and fire systems to capture the city. After the Qin army captured Guanglang City, strong soldiers were stationed here. In order to promote the prestige of Qiangying soldiers, Wang Hao changed Guanglang City into Qiangying. To this day, the east pavilion of Kangying Village is still inlaid with the large-character stone carving of "Ancient Guanglang City". But I was running so fast that although I saw the East Pavilion, I didn't have time to take a closer look. When passing Kangying Village, you can't help but mention Chengtang Temple. This thousand-year-old temple is also home to the thousand-year-old sacred tree Dragon Cypress. Along the way, large enterprises such as Ronggao Solar Energy, Hainuo Technology, Xingchang Beverage, and Xia Pusaier witnessed the development path of Macun people from facing the loess to enriching the people through industry. Return to Macun from Kangying and then go west to Tangdong. As soon as you arrive at the entrance of the village, you will see an eye-catching slogan "Hometown of the Number One Scholar, Great Beauty in Tangdong". From ancient times to the present, Tangdong Village has been home to a rich collection of humanities and celebrities. Chen Zai from Tangdong Village is the only number one scholar in the history of Gaoping. Therefore, Tangdong has become a unique number one village in the history of Gaoping. There is still the mansion of the number one scholar in the village. It was the former residence of Chen Zhuangyuan. The existing building was rebuilt by Chen Can, a descendant of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. The Chen family's residence is commonly known as "the back of the building", also known as Qipanyuan, and is large in scale. Going west from Tangdong Village, we go uphill all the way, passing through Tangxi, to Zhanzhang Village. From ancient times to the present, this village has the most people with the surname Wu, and the village is shaped like a palm, so it was named Wujiazhang. After liberation, it was named after the people's destiny. On the grounds of control, the Wu family palm was changed to control the village. Going further west, we reach Ge Lao Village. I don’t know if there is really a Ge Lao in this village, but Gaopingguan in the north of the village is famous. One kilometer north of Ge Lao Village, there is a peak with an altitude of 1,188 meters. Its mountains are undulating, with high peaks and steep cliffs. It is majestic and looks like a galloping horse, so it is also called Laomaling.

The mountains here are steep and the cliffs are steep. The terrain is dangerous, shaped like a galloping horse, and the passes are formidable. There is only a narrow path leading to the pass on the top of the mountain. It has the potential of "one man can guard the pass, but ten thousand people cannot open it". It is the only way to go from north to south in Shangdang area. Gaoping Pass is an important transportation road and military hub. If you occupy this place, you will have "the backbone of the world and the throat of the river", which is a battleground for military strategists.

Starting from Gelao Village, go downhill all the way to Guzhai. Guzhai Village is an ancient village with a history of more than 2,000 years. It was first recorded in the "Historical Records of Bai Qi and Wang Jian" "Take two pieces and four pieces" In the sentence "wei", it was named after the Qin army's stronghold at that time. After Qin occupied it, it was changed to Xiying Village. According to legend, as early as the Warring States Period, there was a man named Gu from the south. He was demoted after being promoted, quit the court, and settled down with his family in Xiying Village. After this, after settling down, they built houses and village gates, and the village gates and pavilions stood on all sides, so the name of the village was changed to Guzhai Village. There are ancient buildings of "Five Pavilions and Eleven Temples" scattered throughout the village, especially the Chengtang Temple, which is the most distinctive with its famous four flowered stone pillars and profound historical and cultural heritage. Huashizhu Temple is located in the Nanshan Mountain of Guzhai. The local people call it Nan Temple, also called Tangwang Temple. It is an ancient temple with a history of thousands of years. The architectural styles of Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are all in it, which makes people who like ancient architecture linger and feast their eyes.

Tangwang Temple has a main hall, three rooms wide, six citrons deep, with half eaves hanging over the top of the mountain and a seven-purlin front porch structure. The bases of the front eaves and pillars are all square bluestone plants with angular corners, and are surrounded by reliefs and line carvings. The patterns include dragons and phoenixes, chrysanthemums, peonies, Bodhisattvas, gods, etc. The carvings are exquisite and lifelike. They are the masterpieces of stone carving art in the Jin Dynasty. It highlights the ancient civilization of the ancient village. The four stone pillars are the most precious. The beams on the pillars have the style of the Yuan Dynasty, which are of high reference value for the study of stone cores and fine arts of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties.

According to legend, the roosters carved into the flowered stone pillars have long since become immortals and crow for the common people every morning.

Further east from Guzhai is Jinzhangbei Village, a very nice village name, but it was already ten o'clock, the sun was already strong, my clothes were wet with sweat, and I had no time to run around. To explore the origin of this village’s name, further east is Xizhou Village, a red education base. Xizhou Village was originally named Xizhou Zuan Village. According to Gaoping County Chronicles: During the Northern Zhou Dynasty (530 AD), General Yang Zuan was stationed here. Yang Zuan was an honest official and loved the people. After his death, in order to commemorate him, the people changed the name of the village to Zhou Zuan Village. The village is huge and the villagers are very enthusiastic, serving tea and water along the street.

Further east is Dazhou Village, which still retains the village layout and a large number of old houses from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Running through the village is like traveling through history. There are many ancient temples in the village with unique architectural styles, among which Zisheng Temple and Xuansheng Temple are the most popular, distributed along the streets. According to villagers, there is also a Song Dynasty tunnel with a huge construction project, which is called "the first in China". But due to the time required to finish the race, I didn’t dare to stay long.

Passing Dazhou Village to the east is Dongzhou Village. Dongzhou Village has a profound cultural heritage and a long history. According to a report in Taihang Daily in 2012 titled "Dongzhou Village in the Metropolis Thousands of Years Ago", "Jiugao Exploration Society" has conducted many inspections of Dongzhou Village and found that it starts from 12 meters northeast of Dazhou Village in the west, 120 meters north of Dongzhou Village in the east, 1,000 meters from east to west, and 600 meters from north to south, totaling 600,000 square meters. It was once the resting place of the Yandi tribe. More than 20 relics were recovered from the burial methods and excavations of the ancients. According to the judgment of archaeological experts, it should be about the ancient era when the new and old stone tools were handed over.

We walked in a hurry, heading west from Dongdongzhai, Goutou, Niuwangzhuang and back to Yuma Square.

Although the hiking competition has come to an end, my trip to Ma Village is not. There are the Wofo Mountain, Huaixiang Pavilion, Kuixing Pavilion and Xiaoyao Terrace. It stood beautifully in the south, but I had no chance to go up. Kangying, Dazhou and Guzhai are more like masked girls, sultry. Ma Village, I will come again next year, but I will no longer run. I will walk slowly and savor it slowly.