How did "Ulan Mountain" in Jingyuan County, Gansu get its name?

In the small county town of Jingyuan, there are indeed many schools, shops, restaurants, and hostels named after the name of the mountain "Ulan". Not to mention small ones, there are units of a certain size. There are Wulan Primary School, Wulan Middle School, Wulan Hotel, etc. Among people's names, there are countless people named "Ulan". Why is this mountain called "Ulan Mountain"?

Since I was sensible, I have often thought about this issue and asked many more knowledgeable people for advice, but I have not been able to get an ideal explanation. I remember my father once said that "Ulan" is a word from the Mongolian ethnic minority, but he couldn't tell what it meant. I have read through the few local chronicles and learned that this place was once a place where various ethnic minorities in the west fought for it, and the Mongolian army of the Yuan Dynasty occupied it for the longest time. In this way, giving this mountain a Mongolian name of "Ulan" is most likely the work of the Mongolian people. In Lao Jingyuan County, there are many place names with Mongolian flavor, such as "Hasi Mountain", "Dalachi", "Mobula", etc. But what do they mean?

By chance, I talked about this topic with an old man who once served as the director of Jingyuan Ciyao Coal Mine and later retired as the director of Pingchuan Bureau of Mines. His explanation was quite surprising. I'm convinced. Mr. Zhang, whose surname is Zhang, is from Xiaoshui. He said that he heard from his elders that their ancestors were Mongolians who lost their names in the Yuan-Ming War more than 600 years ago and settled in the local area incognito. This is consistent with the historical data of "Black Fox Zhao" in Huining that we excavated and compiled when compiling "Ancient and Modern Silver". Mr. Zhang said: There are two explanations for the word "Ulan", one is "horse", and the other is "red flag". He can't tell which explanation is more accurate, because he doesn't know either. Understand Mongolian.

Although Mr. Zhang did not make a positive judgment, his explanation was the most satisfactory one I have ever heard. Let’s talk about “horses” first. On the vast Mongolian grassland, the horseback people admire horses the most. Without horses, can they fly over the Great Wall and aspire to the Central Plains? In Inner Mongolia, the "Ulan Muqi" is famous, and its free translation is "the literary and artistic propaganda team riding on horses." The fierce Genghis Khan's cavalry occupied this place, and it makes perfect sense to give a mountain they occupied a name they liked. According to this, the theory of "horse" is completely valid; as for the theory of "red flag", I understand that this may be a pictographic theory. If you look carefully at the mountain, the front of the mountain is neat and tidy, as if it was chopped with a knife or an axe. The entire mountain is high in the east and low in the west. The top of the mountain is a graceful wavy curve. Especially on the evenings during the Spring Festival every year, a row of burning torch-like red lanterns extending from the bottom of the mountain to the top outlines the exquisite picture. Isn't this extraordinary picture just a huge flag fluttering in the wind?

I think the theories of "horse" and "red flag" are all valid. Before there is a more detailed, accurate and authoritative explanation, Dushi's family believes that it should be explained this way. We are talking about it for fun, and we don’t want to shoehorn it into a formal place. There is a saying that after we retire in a few years, we will take our grandson or grandson to visit the mountains. If a troublemaker here asks the question: "Grandpa, why is this mountain called Wulan Mountain?" As for just stroking those few sparse beards, and giving the baby a ball in his mouth. Here, in the name of a descendant of Wulan Mountain, I sincerely wish that my hometown elders, under the guidance of the great banner of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, will gallop like horses in the process of building a harmonious society and a beautiful homeland. Rapid development!