Everyone has heard that Yoro is arrogant! But do you know how big "Yelang Kingdom" is?

There is a saying to describe the topography of Guizhou: "The sky is not as bright as three days, and the ground is not as flat as three feet." What does it mean? Guizhou is located in the eastern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The land surface is broken, the roads are rugged, the mountains are high, the water is deep, and the ravines are crisscrossed. Here, it is basically impossible to find even a decent piece of flat land. The weather is not good either. The water vapor in the valley is steaming and there are clouds and mist everywhere. The name of the provincial capital "Guiyang" means that it is difficult to see the sun here.

We know that Yunnan is called the South of Colorful Clouds and Kunming is called the Spring City. It is like spring all year round and the weather is very good. Why are there such big differences between the two places on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau? This is because Guizhou is located at the eastern end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, on a slope, and the warm and moist air flow from the southeast reaches here and is gradually lifted up, forming clouds and fog; while Yunnan has reached the top of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the surroundings are bright, so Yunnan’s The sky is clear and the ultraviolet rays are strong. Yunnan and Guizhou were the last places connected with the Central Plains. It was not until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that people in the Central Plains discovered that there was a Yelang Kingdom here.

How did you find it? It's interesting to say.

When talking about Baiyue in the previous chapter, I mentioned Emperor Wu’s conquest of South Vietnam. Before Emperor Wu attacked South Vietnam (Guangdong and Guangxi), he sent Tang Meng as envoy to South Vietnam. After Tang Meng arrived in South Vietnam, he discovered that the locals liked to eat wolfberry sauce (jǔjiàng, a kind of jam, probably similar to Laoganma or something like that). Goji sauce is a specialty of Shu, and its export was prohibited in the Han Dynasty. Shu and South Vietnam are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and the roads are impassable. How did this thing get to South Vietnam? Tang Meng asked the Panyu (Guangzhou) people where this thing came from. Someone told him that he came from Yelang Kingdom. Tang Meng roughly understood it and wrote to Emperor Wu that the South Vietnamese army could be attacked from Bashu via Yelang.

Where is Yelang? In Guanling, Guizhou, is the location of Huangguoshu Waterfall. In Guizhou, there are many landscapes like Huangguoshu Waterfall, but Huangguoshu is more representative. You can imagine how complex the terrain here is and how difficult the road is. To the north of Yelang, from Liupanshui to Guiyang, there is a watershed called Miaoling. To the north of Miaoling are Wujiang and Chishui, which belong to the Yangtze River system, and to the south are Beipanjiang and Nanpanjiang, which belong to the Pearl River system. Yelang Kingdom is located near Beipanjiang River and has no connection with the Yangtze River water system. It is also separated by high mountains. Therefore, for hundreds of years, the Central Plains China has not known its existence. In fact, it existed as early as the Warring States Period.

(Provided by Times Publishing)

The Beipan River belongs to the Pearl River water system, and Nanyue Kingdom is in the lower reaches of the Pearl River and connected by waterways. The Pearl River is a general term that includes the Dongjiang, Beijiang and Xijiang rivers. The Xijiang River is the longest, running from Guangdong to the west, all the way to Guizhou (the upper reaches is called Hongshui River). It is joined by the Lijiang River to the north (connected to the Xiangjiang River through Lingqu), and the Xiangjiang River to the south. The Zuojiang River and the Youjiang River merge into each other (the place where the Baise Uprising took place). In the far west are the Beipanjiang River and Nanpanjiang River originating from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Therefore, you can take the waterway from Yelang to Panyu (Guangzhou) in South Vietnam. Yelang Kingdom's trading partners are mainly South Vietnam, and they know nothing about affairs in the north. During this period, South Vietnam had not long been independent and had no access to the Central Plains. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Tang Meng as envoy to Yelang, Hou Duotong of Yelang said: "Who is greater, Han or me?".

There is a small question here. Since the Yelang Kingdom and the Han Dynasty know nothing about each other, how did Goujiang get to Yelang and how did it get to South Vietnam? In fact, it is not difficult to explain that businessmen are always more diligent than politicians, and people-to-people exchanges are often faster than government.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Tang Meng as an envoy to Yelang. On the one hand, he wanted to borrow a passage, and on the other hand, he wanted to use Yelang's power to contain the South Vietnam Kingdom. Borrowing the road means sending troops from Bashu and borrowing Yelang's waterway to reach South Vietnam; in addition, it is said that Yelang has 100,000 elite soldiers and can use its troops to suppress South Vietnam.

Tang Meng arrived in Yelang, gave many gifts, appeased him, and set up a county in this place (domineering, regardless of whether he wanted it or not), and at the same time promised Duotong that his son would be the county magistrate. make. I thought to myself, since the Han Dynasty is far away from me anyway, there are benefits in front of me, so I agreed first. Later, when the Han Dynasty conquered South Vietnam, it repeatedly requested the Yelang Kingdom to send troops to cooperate. King Yelang felt strange this time, thinking to himself, aren't we friendly? Why do you always want me to listen to you? Who is bigger, the Han Dynasty or Yelang? When this sentence came out, it became a laughing stock for thousands of years.

In fact, in the southwest region, Yelang Kingdom is indeed very large. At its peak, it accounted for about three-quarters of Guizhou (54 counties) and one-third of Yunnan (20 counties). One county), six counties on the border of Sichuan and Guizhou and some counties on the northwest border of Guangxi. Guizhou is basically covered except for some counties in the east. The Yelang Kingdom has existed since the Warring States Period. If Qin Shihuang hadn't unified China, the Yelang Kingdom would have been larger than many vassal states. No wonder people would be arrogant. Moreover, in a mountainous area like Guizhou, the ability to train 100,000 elite soldiers also shows that the Yelang Kingdom is very powerful. At that time, there were many little-known small countries surrounding Yelang Kingdom, and Yelang was indeed the local boss. In fact, the first person to say "Which one is bigger, Han or us," was not Yelang, but the Dian Kingdom (today's Kunming area). Because Yelang had the greatest influence in the southwest, this sentence spread widely. That's why the idiom "Yelang is arrogant" came into being.

Duotong agreed to the Han Dynasty's request, but not willingly, just because he did not want to be an enemy of the Han Dynasty. When Emperor Wu conquered South Vietnam, Yelang did not obey his orders.

After Emperor Wu conquered South Vietnam and freed up his hands, he began to conquer the southwest. Most of the land of Yelang Kingdom was divided into counties, but it still retained the title of Yelang Kingdom and was granted the title of king (the previous king was self-proclaimed), and the leaders of each tribe under him were also canonized. Only then did King Yelang enter the court to pay tribute. Until the end of the Western Han Dynasty, King Yelang rebelled against the Han Dynasty. Chen Li, the governor of Zoke, killed King Yelang. The Yelang Kingdom was destroyed and counties were re-established. The Yelang Kingdom ceased to exist.