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What is the structure of the Great Wall?

The Great Wall is not just a single wall, but a complete defense engineering system composed of various fortifications such as the wall, watchtower, Guancheng, Dunbao, Yingcheng, Weifang and Zhencheng beacon tower. This national defense engineering system is commanded and controlled by military command systems at all levels. ?

First, the wall

The wall is the main part of the city wall, with an average height of 7.8 meters, and some sections are as high as 14 meters. Where the mountain is steep, the building is low, and the flat place is high; The key places are higher, and the general places are lower.

The wall body is the main part of defending the enemy, with a relatively wide total thickness, a foundation width of 6.5 meters and an average floor width of 5.8 meters on the wall, so as to ensure that the two wagons run in parallel. The wall is composed of an outer eave wall and an inner eave wall, filled with soil and gravel.

The cornice wall refers to the side of the skin wall facing the city. There are obvious points when building, which are generally 125% of the wall height. The separation of the wall can increase the width of the lower part of the wall, enhance the stability of the wall, strengthen its defensive performance, and make the outer wall magnificent.

The inner cornice wall refers to the inner side of the outer skin wall, which is generally constructed as a vertical wall without obvious points. As for the thickness of the outer cornice wall, it is generally based on the wall thickness at the "crib". The thickness here is generally one and a half bricks wide, and it gets thicker as it goes down. Bricklaying method is mainly flat masonry.

The Great Wall is the main part of this defense project. Built on steep mountains or plains, it is built according to the needs of topography and defense function. It is built very tall and strong in the plain or key pass.

But it is relatively low and narrow in high mountains and dangerous places to save manpower and cost. Even some steep places can't be built conveniently, so the methods of "dangerous mountain wall" and "splitting mountain wall" are adopted. In Juyongguan, Badaling, Hebei, Shanxi, Gansu and other places, the average height of the Great Wall is about 7 or 8 meters, the bottom thickness is about 6 or 7 meters, and the top width is about 4 or 5 meters.

On the top of the city wall, there is a building wall inside, which is 1 m high to prevent patrol soldiers from falling. Outside is the crib wall, about 2 meters high. The upper part of the stack wall is provided with a lookout, and the lower part is provided with a shooting hole and a rolling stone hole, which are used for observing the enemy situation and shooting rolling stones. On the top of some important city walls, there are layers of barriers to resist the enemies who climb the city walls in case.

In the middle of Ming Dynasty, when the famous anti-Japanese star Qi Jiguang was transferred to Yuji Town as the company commander, the fortifications of the Great Wall were greatly improved, and enemy towers or platforms were set at the top of the wall to accommodate patrol soldiers and store weapons, food and socks, which greatly strengthened the defensive function of the Great Wall. ?

The structural content of the wall depends on the local climate conditions. Generally speaking, the Wan Li Great Wall has the following construction methods:

1, version rammed earth wall;

2. Adobe bottom wall;

3. Blue brick wall;

4. Masonry wall;

5, masonry mixed masonry;

6, strip stone;

7, soil connection brick.

Bricks, stones and masonry are used to build city walls. When the slope of the terrain is small, bricklaying or masonry is parallel to the terrain, and when the local potential slope is large, the wall is built by horizontal descent method.

Second, the beacon tower

There are a large number of beacon towers as information transmission systems in the Great Wall system, which is the oldest but effective way of information transmission.

There are two kinds of signals in ancient frontier defense alarm. In case of enemy situation, smoke is called "bonfire" during the day and fire is called "whistle" at night. Taiwan Province and Taiwan Province are connected to transmit information. Burning smoke during the day and raising fire at night is because the sun is very strong during the day, the fire is not easy to see, and the smoke is more eye-catching; Smoke is not obvious at night, and fire can be seen far away. This is a very scientific method.

In order to report the number of invading enemy soldiers, it is also distinguished by the number of smoke and fire. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of cigarettes and torches increased with the gunfire, so as to enhance the alarm effect and make the military situation spread thousands of miles away quickly. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, give a cigarette and fire a gun, which means that the enemy is about 100 people. Put two smoke bombs and two cannons to attack about 500 people;

/kloc-more than 0/000 people held three cigarettes and fired three shots. Beacon towers can be divided into four groups according to their positions and functions: Beacon towers located in the depths of the desert are the forefront of early warning signals, and beacon towers set along both sides of the Great Wall transmit information along the route. A series of beacon towers from the Great Wall to the capital contacted the central government of the dynasty, and a number of beacon towers contacted local governments and garrison troops near the location of the Great Wall.

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, and some of them have been built on the Great Wall.

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 the Ming dynasty, it was generally called a smoke pier or pier (the pier in the northwest of Ming dynasty has the function of preventing the enemy, and the small one only has the function of watching, not lighting a bonfire). Beacon towers are generally about 10 Li apart, and some are about 5 Li apart in the Ming Dynasty.

The layout of the beacon tower is also very important. The key is to arrange it in a dangerous mountain or a place where the peaks turn around, and the three adjacent beacon towers must be within the other party's field of vision, so as to check and transmit the news at any time. In addition to transmitting military information, the beacon also protects the safety of diplomatic envoys, provides accommodation, supplies horses and other services. Some sections of the Great Wall only have towers and pavilions, but no walls.

Third, the castle.

According to the requirements of defense system and military system, castles are divided into Acropolis, Acropolis or Thousand Houses City and Fort City, some of which are located outside the city walls.

The distance between Wei and Suocheng is about 100 Li, the circumference of Acropolis is 6-9 Li, and that of Qianhu Suocheng is 4-5 Li. Brick walls have horse faces and turrets, gates have urn doors, and some have moon cities or wing cities facing the urn doors to strengthen the control of the gates. There are offices, barracks, houses and temples in the city. The distance between Weifang and Suocheng and the Great Wall is near or far, depending on the place with moderate position, gentle terrain and easy reclamation in the Great Wall.

Fort city or frontier fortress, the distance is about 10, and the circumference of the city is 1-3. Brick wall wrapping, opening 1-2 gate, and building the gate of the urn. There are garrison barracks, schools and temples in the city, and the distance from the frontier fortress to the Great Wall is generally less than 10. In case of alarm, you can quickly board the city.

Fourth, Guancheng

Guancheng is the most concentrated defensive stronghold on the defense line of Wan Li Great Wall. The position of Guancheng is very important, and it is chosen on favorable defensive terrain to achieve the effect of resisting powerful invaders with very few troops. The ancient name "one person is above ten thousand people" vividly illustrates the importance of managing the city.

Guancheng along the Great Wall is large and small, with a large number. Take Guancheng, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, as an example. There are nearly a thousand places, large and small. There are many small passes near some Daguancheng. For example, there are more than a dozen Xiaoguancheng near Shanhaiguan, which together constitute the defense engineering architecture system of the Great Wall of Wan Li. ?

Verb (abbreviation for verb) other ancillary facilities

The Great Wall system is not only a beacon of information transmission system, but also a defense-in-depth configuration composed of urban barriers and other facilities. During the Qin and Han dynasties, various facilities were perfected, and garrison cities were set up inside and outside the Great Wall as places for garrisoning heavy troops, which developed in depth and formed a network. On the outside of the city walls and castles, there are also special obstacles, such as stiff waterfalls and tiger waterfalls.

In the Great Wall of Hetao, elm trees were widely planted in Qin Dynasty to stop tarquin, which was called Guan Yu. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, troops were stationed in the Great Wall, towns were dealt with when necessary, and troops were built to form a front-line defense.

Military significance

The Great Wall of Wan Li is not only a defense line for farming people, but also a frontier base for launching counterattacks against nomadic people. The rear of the Great Wall is equipped with mobile troops to deal with the war. The Great Wall is the front line of defense, the starting line of attack and the traffic line. The observation post deployed in front of the Great Wall goes far away, and the front line is north of the Great Wall 1000 km.

The ancient nomadic cavalry had excellent mobility and strong attack power, but they could do nothing about the defense system of the city wall. Even if a section of the Great Wall is broken, the offensive is often blocked by the Han army with strong logistics, so building the Great Wall can effectively resist the intrusion of the northern nationalities.

But the passive defense of the Great Wall alone cannot stop organized large-scale attacks. In the 29th year of Jiajing (1550), in The Change of Gengxu, when Mongolian Khan attacked Gubeikou head-on, he demolished the Great Wall from Huangyugou, and the Ming army collapsed without fighting. Anda attacked outside Beijing and returned with a lot of trophies.

Cultural significance

The Great Wall is one of the most magnificent projects built in ancient China. The Great Wall of China has played a very important defensive role. 1987, UNESCO listed the Great Wall as a world cultural heritage. The existence of the Great Wall was also the spiritual defense against aggression in ancient China. In modern times, people in China regard the Great Wall as a symbol of China.

In today's China people's national anthem March of the Volunteers, there are lyrics of "People who don't want to be slaves, build our new Great Wall with our flesh and blood", calling on people to resist aggression at the most critical moment of the country.

For the casualties caused by the construction of the Great Wall, many people expressed their sympathy through literary and artistic works and criticized the feudal rulers. In China's traditional folk story Meng Jiangnu Crys for the Great Wall, it is said that during the Qin Shihuang period, taxes and labor were very heavy. A young man and woman Wan Xiliang and Meng Jiangnv were married for only three days, and the groom was forced to set out to build the Great Wall. Soon, he died of hunger, cold and fatigue, and his bones were buried under the Great Wall.

Meng Jiangnv wore a coat to keep out the cold and went through all kinds of hardships. Wan Li found her husband and came to the edge of the Great Wall, only to get the bad news that her husband had died. She cried under the Great Wall for three days and nights, and the wall cracked, revealing Wan Xiliang's body. Meng Jiangnu died of despair and threw herself into the sea.

Refer to the above? Baidu encyclopedia-great wall