The history of beacon tower

Also known as beacon tower, commonly known as beacon tower and smoke pier, it is a high platform used to ignite fireworks and deliver important news in ancient times. It is an important military defense facility in ancient times and the oldest but effective earth telegraph. This beacon tower was built to prevent the enemy from invading. In case of enemy situation, smoke during the day, light at night, and the platform is connected to transmit messages.

"bonfire", two signals of ancient frontier warning, is called "bonfire" when smoking during the day and "flint" when making a fire at night.

Beacon towers existed long before the Great Wall, but since the appearance of the Great Wall, beacon towers along the Great Wall have been closely integrated with the Great Wall and become an important part of the Great Wall defense system. Some were even built on the Great Wall, especially in the Han Dynasty. The imperial court attached great importance to the construction of beacon towers.

Beacon, also known as bonfire, is a measure of ancient military intelligence warning, that is, when the enemy invades during the day, it burns smoke (bonfire), and when it invades at night, it ignites (bonfire) to alert all parties and superiors with visible smoke and lights. In Han Dynasty, beacon towers were called beacon towers and pavilions. In Tang and Song Dynasties, the word "beacon tower" was also extended to beacon towers. In Ming Dynasty, it was generally called Yandun or Dun (the pier in the northwest of Ming Dynasty, the big one had the function of defending the enemy, and the small one only had? T hope there is no function of lighting a bonfire) Beacon towers are generally about 10 Li apart, and in the Ming Dynasty, the distance was about 5 Li. When soldiers guarding Taiwan discovered the enemy's attack, they immediately lit a bonfire on the stage, and neighboring Taiwan followed suit after seeing it, so as to quickly convey the enemy's situation to the military central department.

Beacon towers vary in shape from time to time, generally square and round.

Beacon towers were built before the Great Wall, but since the appearance of the Great Wall, beacon towers along the Great Wall have been closely integrated with the Great Wall and become an important part of the Great Wall defense system. Some were even built on the Great Wall, especially in the Han Dynasty. The imperial court attached great importance to beacon towers, and in some areas, the connected beacon towers even replaced the Great Wall building. Beacon towers along the Great Wall, like the Great Wall, were built according to local conditions and local materials. Most beacon towers in northwest China are built with rammed earth, and some are made of adobe. Most mountainous areas are built of stone; Built with bricks or bricks since the Ming Dynasty. In addition to being built on the early Great Wall trunk line, beacon towers are generally divided into three types: one is to extend far away along the passage outside the Great Wall to monitor the enemy's movements; The other is within the Great Wall, connected with the pass, town and county, so as to organize counterattack and clear the field in time; Another is on both sides of the Great Wall (built on the Great Wall in Qin and Han Dynasties), so as to quickly mobilize the whole line to guard the border and lead troops and rise up to meet the enemy. In the early days, beacon towers were connected with the capital, so as to report to the court as soon as possible.

Beacon towers are generally built independently, and there are also three or five speakers configured into beacon towers.

Regarding the structure and use of beacon towers, the Han bamboo slips unearthed from the beacon towers in Dunhuang and Juyan are interpreted as "four feet high, two feet wide and six feet wide, with a total area of 672 feet and a rate of 237". Four feet wide and five feet high. Han bamboo slips also show that there were five, six or more people guarding the bonfire at that time, including one director of the bonfire. On weekdays, the guards must have one person to watch, one person to cook, and the rest to build and collect firewood (including firewood for lighting bonfires). In the 1970s, it was obtained from the excavation of Juyan Fengyi site, which clearly recorded the fire propagation system of the Great Wall in the early years of Jianwu in Han Dynasty. According to the records of Han bamboo slips, the fire-passing articles at that time were issued by the military organs at the level of Dewey House, which were only binding on the waiting officials. The products vary according to the release unit and release time, but the warning signals and general guidelines are basically the same. There are roughly six kinds of early warning signals, namely: Peng (Peng Cao, some scholars think it is straw or wood.

Put a cage of cloth on the shelf), a table (treetops, some scholars think it is a banner of cloth), drums, cigarettes, borage fire (torches tied with reed poles), accumulated wages (elevated firewood haystacks), tents, tables and cigarettes during the day, and fires at night. The accumulated wages drums can be used day and night; The bonfire is bounded by thousands of Huns, and those with less than a thousand people only burn one salary; /kloc-more than 0/000 people burned two salaries; If more than 1000 people attack the pavilion barrier, they will be burned three times. In addition to accumulated wages, there are also different regulations for raising tents, tables and making fires; Moreover, because the enemy's traffic jams are in different directions and day and night are different, there are different but very specific regulations. If the Huns entered the fortress and besieged the pavilion base, they would lift the pavilion shed or add a cigarette during the day and hold a "fire" at night before they could get off the pavilion base after burning their wages. "On-off borage fire" is a special signal issued under the emergency of "guarding the pavilion barrier", that is, several borage fires are separated for a period of time and then closed again. If the enclosed pavilion can't send out the signal of wage burning, the nearest beacon will raise the wage burning as required and transmit the signal accurately. The Fire Quality Agreement also stipulates that if the reported signal is found to be wrong, it should immediately "put out the fire under the account", cancel the signal sent, write a written report and report it to Dewey's house quickly. If the weather is bad, or the pavilions are too far apart, in the case of "no smoke during the day, no fire at night", the situation should be written immediately and submitted to the superior by expedited delivery. Some Han bamboo slips also record the garrison equipment and daily necessities of a beacon tower, including alarm cloth, cloth table, lettuce, accumulated salary and drums; Building artifacts, vertebrae, aiming equipment "deep eyes", defensive weapons crossbows, guns, sheep head stones and so on. It also shows that the beacon tower at that time was managed by the waiting official (waiting chief). Waiting officials are in charge of history, responsible for keeping equipment, repairing buildings, managing "Tian Tian", patrolling and inspecting, and reporting in time. Waiting officials are responsible for a surname. In order to ensure the strict implementation of the bonfire system, the Han Dynasty had a strict system.

According to archaeological excavations, there is a towering watchtower (pavilion) in the main building of the beacon tower in the northwest of Han Dynasty. T for the purpose of checking the enemy's situation and delivering messages. The watchtower (beacon tower) is generally in the shape of a square cone, and its height exceeds10m. There are residential buildings on it. Some watchtowers have small towns, and the garrison lives under or beside them (some are called barriers or docks). Barriers and docks are generally square, and the side length exceeds10m. The walls of the barriers and docks are very thick, usually about 2 to 4 meters or even 7 meters. Li Xian, prince of Zhang Huai in the Tang Dynasty, once said when commenting on the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "The border is urgent, and it is a high-altitude platform. On the stage, it is an orange. The orange has a pocket full of change, and the grass is put in it. Often low, there are bandits, that is, burning fire to tell each other; If you earn more money, you will be embarrassed if you are burned. " In this paper, orange height refers to a high shelf for primers to go up and down, and a cage with zero fingers. In the Tang Dynasty, Du You made a more detailed record of the beacon tower at that time in "Tongdian Rejection Law": "The beacon tower should be disposed of in high mountains and in a lonely place without mountains. To build a sheep and horse market, you can compete at will, often on the basis of three to five. This platform is five feet high, two feet wide at the bottom and one foot wide at the top. Round. Build a round house on it. The roof is ten feet six feet wide and jumps three feet at the same time, with the board as the bottom. Upper and lower floors. There are three stoves on the house and three under the stage, decorated with lime. Re-set three firewood cages and three flowing fire ropes. On the edge of the platform, use a knee ladder to take and put it. There is a thief hole and a fire extinguisher on the wall of the house. Set a flag, drum, crossbows, riprap, stow-wood, water-stop urn, dry food, hemp, fire drill, rocket, wormwood, wolf dung and cow dung. Raise the fire safely once every morning and evening, twice when you hear the alarm, and three times when you see the smoke. When you see a thief burning a firewood cage, if the fire doesn't come every morning and evening, the bonfire will be caught by the thief. There are six people in a beacon: five people are beacons, and they pay more time, depending on the movement. One person is a beacon, knowing documents, symbols and transfer. "

The ancient beacon system mentioned in Wu Yao, edited by Song Dynasty, is more detailed, which can be roughly divided into nine categories: beacon setting, beacon type, beacon degree, beacon method, beacon alarm law, warning, signal code and reform. Its main contents are:

"Tang method, border town waiting there, put a lamp every three miles, and it must be at the top of the mountain. If there are isolated hills and inconvenient terrain, it is not limited to miles. We should look at each other from three directions. If you are near the border, build a city barrier around the bonfire. "

"Where is the fire, a handsome, a vice. There are nine people in each lamp, and the one who believes that he has a family is the assistant handsome. There are nine people who come and go to check the school, and they are all looking forward to meeting each other. One person manages symbols once every two years. "

"The method of setting fire, each fire has four earthen pipes, four pipes of fire together, plugged into the stage, put forward the moment of fire, each separated by 25 steps, as narrow as a mountain of 25 steps, but the fire should be clear and unlimited. Its chimneys are 10 feet and 5 feet high. From half to the bottom, one foot and two feet on all sides. On the other hand, it becomes sharper and narrower. Make the pipe in the mud first and then in the mud so as not to leak smoke. Cover the bucket with a bottomless pottery basin to prevent smoke from coming out. There is a dock stove under it, three feet from the ground, one foot and five inches in vertical and horizontal direction, and the door is closed. Every year in early autumn and early winter, the stems, leaves and grass festivals of Artemisia annua are mixed with wages. And hemp, fire drill and wolf dung. Entrust the land department to dig the cutting ring to prevent wild burning. Those close to the edge were also measured on the crossbow. "

"Every day when you smoke during the day and set fire at night, you must first look at whether the pipe is really good, and then butt the corresponding torch to the mouth of the stove and burn it. K into smoke, you should go out. Forget the five-foot torch on the mound. When the smoke corresponds, a person can turn on and off the furnace. When two pipes of cigarettes, two people open and close. Three pipes of cigarettes, three people open and close. If it is cloudy and foggy that day and no smoke is seen, it will immediately give an early warning in place and release smoke where the fog is open. If a beacon carries more than two beacons, use one person to send a post and report where the beacon comes from. If the bonfire is connected to the post station, it is a post horse. "

"Every thief entry, horse infantry more than 50 people, less than five hundred people, set fire to. The frontier is filled with smoke and dust. If you want to enter the south, put two torches. There are more than 500 thieves in Yukou. If there are less than 3,000, two torches will be set. If there are more than 500 thieves, if there are less than 1,000, three torches will be set. Yukou thieves rode more than three thousand, and also set three torches. If there are more than 1000 thieves, I don't know their number, so put four torches. If there are more than 10000 thieves, put four torches. Those who set off the torch will stop at the county where they are responsible. Those who have more than two torches will go to Beijing. The first smoke and fire were recorded in states, counties and towns. If the thief returns to Beijing, he will send the torch to report peace. Anyone who announces a thief (offender) should be released three times, and those who report peace should be released twice. "

In the Ming Dynasty, with the great importance attached to the Great Wall defense project and the wide application of firearms, the architecture and style of beacon towers were also improved. In the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that "smoke piers everywhere were built high and thick, with five grains and firewood crossbows on top, and wells were opened next to the piers, and the walls outside the wells were flat, and the piers were like heavy doors". Many beacon towers are made of brick, which makes them stronger and shortens the distance between towers. Some piers are surrounded by wells and walls. In the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, Huang Hongpi proposed: "Please ask the Ministry of War to consult the officials of Shanxi Governor's Department for investigation, and all the piers and abutments will be connected to the mainland, and things will be completed." There is a military department, and five troops are assigned to each dock. Their guns were taken off the shelves to spread the news, and five residents who were not in the military department were relieved of their duties. When there are policemen, ration them and report them intact. Its pier must be high and wide, with two bungalows built on it, a female wall around it, and weapons and cannons. Zhenbao and other government integration. In the Ming Dynasty, it was recorded in the Shen Dun Monument: "There were five people fleeing the army: Ding□ wife Wang, Ding Hai's wife Liu, wife Tao, Liu Tong's wife Dong Shi and wife Shi. Firearms: hook gun 1 piece, line gun 1 piece, all gunpowder lines. Equipment: Each soldier has a bow, a knife, 30 arrows, a military flag, a pair of bells, a ladder, five firewood sticks, five cigarette soaps and twenty stones. Furniture: five pots, five jars and ten bowls. H ten pairs, chicken, dog and wolf dung. October 21st, Jiajing decade, Hitachi. "In Gaotai County, Gansu Province, Deng Jun and his wife's names, firearms, equipment, furniture, etc. Carved on a stone tablet to prevent them from escaping, they will accept it all in the future. It can be seen from this that the Dunjun army at that time was hard labor. In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to bonfires and smoke, military intelligence reported that sulfur, saltpeter and other combustion-supporting materials were added when the smoke was ignited. In the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1466), there was a decree: "Ask the border guards to raise guns, and see one or two to a hundred people, raise one gun, five hundred people raise two guns, more than one thousand people raise three guns, more than five thousand people raise four guns, and more than ten thousand people raise five guns. "However, in some defense zones, there are customized transmission methods, such as hanging lights at all stations on Shangxi Road in Fu Xuan Town. The long poles with hanging lights are divided into three grades, and the hanging lights on the poles are all dyed red. Different numbers are used as the distinction between military priorities and the number of enemies. In terms of management, the law also stipulates: "smoke piers are jointly set up and guarded by guards, and adjustment points are added when necessary. It is necessary to extensively accumulate straw and grass and visit them day and night in turn. In case of emergency, smoke is raised during the day and fire is raised at night, and notice is received to avoid damage. The military situation is wrong. " "The report should be based on defeating the enemy, and it must be highlighted. Offenders are subject to military law. "

The most important function of beacon tower is to transmit military information, which needs to be closely coordinated with enemy towers, wall towers and other Great Wall buildings. Where there is an enemy station, it can be used as a dock for transmitting beacon information. Where there are no enemy stations and no wall stations suitable for beacon lighting, beacon towers must be built according to the beacon transmission route. Qi Jiguang, the chief soldier of Jiyun Town, said in the training documentary: "Since ancient times, we have been guarding the border but not far from the bonfire. A lucky town can lean on danger, but a bonfire cannot be repaired for a long time. The commander-in-chief of the frontier fortress army did not practice distribution and regarded the bonfire as useless. Today, the proposal should be submitted to the Governor for deliberation: where there is no hollow platform, it should be filled with the original pier, and if there is a hollow platform within 100 steps, it should be filled with a hollow platform. About a mile or two apart, drums and drums are like piers. " Qi Jiguang also worked out the method of transmitting the bonfire, and compiled an easy-to-understand Song of Transmitting the bonfire for the officers and men guarding Taiwan to recite their memories. After strict training, the defenders responsible for transmitting beacons can accurately transmit military information through beacon fire, and the speed is very fast, and it can generally spread throughout the entire defense line of Yuji Town in three hours. (