What is the brick on the city wall of Jiayuguan that no one has dared to touch for thousands of years?

Jiayu Pass, one of the three major passes of the Great Wall, is known as "the first pass in the world" due to its dangerous terrain and majestic architecture.

Jiayu Pass was first built in the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1372). Since then, it has been repaired and expanded by successive emperors to reach its current scale.

So what is the "Ding City Brick" all about? Before understanding that brick, the "Dingcheng Brick", let's first understand the overall layout of Jiayuguan and the specific location of the Dingcheng Brick.

We all know that in ancient times, a city mainly consisted of an inner city, an outer city and a barbican city, and Jiayuguan was no exception. The main body of Jiayuguan is the inner city. The inner city has two east and west gates, called "Guanghua Gate" and "Rouyuan Gate" respectively. Beyond the two gates are the two east and west urn cities. Among them, the east urn city is The outer city is surrounded by the outer city wall. The famous scenic spots in Jiayuguan such as the Guandi Temple, the stage and other landscapes are located in the outer city outside the East Weng City, while the West Weng City is different from the East Weng City.

After leaving the West Weng City, another protruding city wall was built, thus forming a Luocheng. This is also the outer city outside the West Gate. A gate tower was built on the wall of Luocheng, which is famous The three characters "Jiayuguan" are engraved on the gate in the middle of the gate.

As for the overall layout of Jiayuguan, you can see the picture below.

In other words, outside Xiweng City is Luocheng, and only after leaving Luocheng can we leave Jiayuguan. So where is the "city brick" mentioned earlier? It is located on the eaves behind the gate tower of Xiweng City, where it is circled by the blue circle in the picture above.

The gates of the East and West Wengcheng in Jiayuguan are facing south, that is, after entering the Wengcheng from the east and west main gates, you have to go south respectively to reach the outer city.

So why was that city brick placed alone on the eaves behind the gate tower of Xiweng City? Let us take the time back to the Hongzhi and Zhengde years of the Ming Dynasty more than 600 years ago.

At that time, the imperial court decided to expand Jiayuguan in order to strengthen the northwest border defense. Li Duancheng presided over the construction. Luocheng and Guanlou were built at this time. The person specifically responsible for the construction at that time was a captain named Hao Kong. , and the craftsman specifically responsible for the construction was mainly a master named Yi Kaizhan. Yi Kaizhan was extremely skilled, and the buildings he calculated and designed were both beautiful and solid, and could save raw materials to the greatest extent, while Hao Kong was greedy and ruthless. The imperial court allocated funds to build Jiayuguan, and Hao Kong had been trying to embezzle the money. , so the story of "Dingcheng Brick" revolves around these two people.

One day, Hao Kong finally thought of a way to repay the embezzlement, which was to deduct the wages of the craftsmen privately. Before the construction, he asked Yi Kaizhan how many bricks it would cost to build the city tower. Yi Kaizhan measured and calculated. He finally replied that ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine bricks were needed. After hearing this, Hao Kong sneered and said, "Then I will allocate all these bricks to you. After the construction of the city tower is completed, whether there is one more or one less, I will You will be held accountable, and the other craftsmen involved in the construction will also be held accountable."

Faced with Hao Kong's threat, Yi Kaizhan didn't take it seriously. He confidently led the craftsmen to work day and night. On the day of completion, they suddenly discovered that there was an extra brick, and everyone was surprised. He looked at Yi Kaizhan very worriedly. Yi Kaizhan naturally knew in his heart that he had never miscalculated. The extra brick this time was obviously framed by Hao Kong, and Hao Kong's wolf ambition was clearly exposed.

But Yi Kaizhan did not sit still and was extremely smart. He quickly thought of a way to deal with it. Just when Hao Kong heard the news and was about to question him, Yi Kaizhan ordered the extra brick to be placed on the back eaves of the gate tower of Xiweng City, and then said to Hao Kong: "This brick is not for use." We are here to build the city tower, but to use it to stabilize the tower. If you remove this brick, the whole city will collapse instantly. If you don’t believe it, you might as well give it a try. However, if the tower collapses, not only will we be killed, I’m afraid you won’t be able to protect yourself either. ?”

After hearing this, Hao Kong was dubious, but he did not dare to risk his life on the truth of what Yi Kaizhan said, so he could only give up.

The above is the ins and outs of the story of "Ding City Brick". Although we all know that even if the brick is removed, the city tower will not fall down, but the city building will not fall down from the moment it is placed there. It tells everyone the hardships of the craftsmen who built Jiayuguan back then, in order to commemorate the hard work and wisdom of the great working people. Because of this, no one dared to touch a brick placed on the wall of Jiayuguan for thousands of years.