The military stronghold of Huashi

The military stronghold of Huashi

The military stronghold of Huashi

Huashi Township, bordering Chatian Town in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province to the east, and adjoins Daxing Town in Songtao County to the north. In ancient times, such a geographical location was of great military importance.

This is because the intense uprisings of ethnic minorities along the Hunan-Guizhou border during the Ming and Qing dynasties frequently broke out in the Larse Mountain area of Songtao and Fenghuang, both very close to Huashi. The starting point of the famous Southern Great Wall is located within Huashi Township, while the first major pass of the Southern Great Wall — Tingzi Pass — is situated just a stone’s throw away in Chatian. Later on, when we reach Xinying’ao, we’ll be able to gaze at Tingzi Pass from afar.

According to the *Ming Veritable Records*, in the third year of the Yongle reign (1405), the Ming court established the Huashi River Patrol Inspectorate in Huashi, which was then under the jurisdiction of the Hanziping Magistrate’s Office in Huguang and later transferred to Tongren. After the abolishment of the Huashi River Patrol Inspectorate, the site remained as the station of the Huashi River Outpost. The outpost was later renamed Huashi Camp. During the Qing Dynasty, the Right Army Guard Office of the Tongren Auxiliary Forces was once stationed in Huashi, comprising one guard (fifth rank), one battalion commander (sixth rank), one company commander (seventh rank), one additional deputy (eighth or ninth rank), and 163 soldiers, along with more than ten steel cannons. On the first day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of the Xianfeng reign (1855), militiamen fired cannons from the riverside east of the South Gate toward the Feishan Temple at the foot of East Mountain. They injured Chen Fulin, the vice-commander-in-chief of the Red Flag Army who was worshiping in the temple, on the shoulder, and killed several guards. The more than ten steel cannons used were captured from Huashi Camp.

To the east of Huashi lies the Maxianxi Gorge, where towering cliffs form a natural barrier that requires little engineering effort to block the passage between east and west. However, the northern side often features open terrain, and without the construction of the Great Wall in this area, Tingzi Pass to the north and the Southern Great Wall in western Hunan would have been rendered useless. Therefore, for the Southern Great Wall in Hunan to be effective, its construction had to begin in Huashi within Tongren, Guizhou. Moreover, Huashi is only 25 kilometers from Tongren City. Had the Tongren Prefecture not connected this stretch of the Southern Great Wall, its own security would have been severely threatened.