The three of them chatted for a while, Li Xin took a sip of tea and explained to Zhou Xian: "Brother Zhou, the Song Gate you just talked about is indeed a city wall located on the east side of Kaifeng. Because after leaving the Song Gate, you can go directly to Songzhou along the official road, so ordinary people call it Song Gate."

Zhou Tai looked puzzled and said, "Since it is located on the east wall, why not call it East Gate directly? The south gate points to Xuzhou, isn't it called Xumen?"

Li Xin smiled faintly and said to Zhou Tai: "Brother Xiaotai, Kaifeng City is not just four gates, but five gates, usually called Wuguan. In fact, at the beginning, there were more, and there were thirteen gates. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, rebels rose up everywhere and besieged Kaifeng. Yuan generals Tai Buhua and others believed that there were too many gates in Bianliang and were difficult to defend, so they blocked eight of them, leaving only five. The remaining five gates, one on the west, south and north, each on the three walls. On the east, there were two, namely Cao Gate and Song Gate."

Zhou Tai said "Oh" and said, "That's it! Can Caomen go directly to Caozhou? So it's named Caomen."

Li Xin nodded with a smile.

Zhou Xian asked, "Brother Li, Li Kai just said that the distance between Songmen and South Gate is about the same distance from here. Is this Songmen located south of the east wall?"

Li Xin said: "It's like this. Although the three gates in Kaifeng are named west, south and north, they are not compared with each other. Caomen is north, Songmen is south, and South Gate is west, and North Gate is east, and only the West Gate is in the middle. Therefore, some people say that Kaifeng City is "five gates are wrong", which is indeed somewhat reasonable. There is also a legend about this, saying that the earth veins of Bianliang City come from the west, so the West Gate is located in the middle, so it is easy to swallow the royal energy coming from the west, while the other four gates are bent and spiraled in order to prevent the royal energy entering the door from getting lost."

Zhou Taisui said: "It's just that the direction is slightly off. Can't those royal auras still go out?"

Li Xin smiled and said, "Brother Zhou Tai was wrong. It was not just a little bit off the direction. Generally speaking, the city walls have urn gates and city gates, which guard the urn gates and the formal city behind them. The two are generally in a straight line. However, Kaifeng City is completely different. Except for the West Gate, the urn gates and the city gates of the other gates are not straight-to-face, but show a specific twists and turns. For example, when you enter from the South Gate, you need to enter the urn gate at the west side, and then you need to circle a little after a circle and a half before you can reach the city gate inside. Some people who have not been to Kaifeng before sometimes go around there for a long time and cannot go around the city. Except for this place, if you observe carefully, you will find that the construction of the entire Kaifeng City is not positive, and they are slightly slanted."

Zhou Xian lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and asked Li Xin: "Brother Li, is this construction also for the convenience of defense? For example, after the enemy uses a siege car to break the gate of the urncheng, it can usually reach the city gate directly. However, if the siege car takes the gate of the urncheng, it will not be able to advance to the second city gate even if it takes the gate of the urncheng. This determines that if the enemy wants to take Kaifeng City, the difficulty of attacking from the city gate is far greater than that of other cities."

Li Xin opened his eyes slightly, and his face showed appreciation, "I didn't expect that Brother Zhou was young and he had some research on military affairs."

Zhou Xian smiled faintly and said, "I just understand a little bit, and I don't know if what I'm saying is right."

Li Xin nodded and said, "Yes, that's it. Kaifeng City has been a big city in Zheng State since the Spring and Autumn Period. But the current construction model has continued from the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. His planner was not someone else, but the founder of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the Song Dynasty."

Zhou Tai interrupted and said, "Isn't he the emperor? Why do you know how to build the city wall?"

Li Xin grinned and explained patiently: "Although Song Taizu did not understand architecture, he came from a military family, fought south and north, and had his own ideas for the defense and attack of the city. Back then, he established the Song Dynasty and established the capital Kaifeng, he attached more importance to the construction of the city defense. He ordered the reconstruction of the capital of Bianliang. Prime Minister Zhao Pu presented the pattern. At first, it was like other cities, with square and straight shapes, and opened doors on all sides, and the market was listed like ropes. After seeing it, Song Taizu was furious. He personally used a pen to paint, tilted and slanted, drew a large circle, and wrote the instructions to 'Build according to this' next."

Li Xin paused for a moment and asked Zhou Xian and Zhou Tai: "What do you think after the completion?"

Before the two of them could speak, Li Xin continued: "After the city wall was built, the scale was great, and the whole city was divided into three layers, outer city, inner city, and imperial city, with layers of defense. The outer city wall was built in a winding and curved manner, like a earthworm. It was a good evaluation to say that the shape was not beautiful, and some people directly said it was difficult to see the extreme. Later, when Cai Jing was in power, he was a person who particularly pursued perfection. Of course, these ugly city walls could not reach his sight. By the time of rebuilding the city wall, these were put into use.

All the ugly city walls were replaced and they were all changed to square rectangles. In this way, it was really good-looking, but it was far less simple and solid than before. During the Jingkang period, the Jin people invaded the south and fired cannons in the west corner of the city. Because the city wall was very straight, it was very easy to hit. Only then did people understand how wise Song Taizu was at that time. After the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng City was built again according to the original plan of Song Taizu. Later, the Yuan and Ming dynasties were basically rebuilt or rebuilt according to that model."

Zhou Xian exclaimed: "Song Taizu was born in the army and pursued practicality and sturdity. Cai Jing belonged to the white-faced scholar, who pursued good-looking and gorgeousness. When he encountered a real style, he could only destroy it and wait for the city to break up."

Li Xin nodded in agreement and said, "That's true. The Song Dynasty values ​​culture over military affairs, and everything is decided by civil officials. How can anyone who has not experienced wars know the benefits of such city walls?"

Zhou Xian suddenly thought that in the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng surrounded Kaifeng, suffered countless soldiers, but he was unable to take it down in the end, which may be inseparable from its construction model. He pondered for a moment and asked Li Xin: "Brother Li, now there are thieves. Do you think they can attack and open the seal? If they attack, how can they attack and break it?"

Li Xin didn't expect Zhou Xian to ask such a question. He was stunned. He looked around first, then looked at Zhou Xian carefully and said, "Brother Zhou, can you tell me why I have such a question?"
Chapter completed!