2.2 The Battleground

On the top of Red-Top Hill, just four kilometers outside the city of Yulin, stands a magnificent construction — Fortress of North Garrison. Standing atop of the Fortress and looking northwards, one can see the endless deserts. The Fortress, reconstructed in 1607 during the Ming Dynasty (12-1644), is called“The First Fortress of the Great Wall”; it was one of the three most strategically important fortresses of Great Wall, along with“Shanhaiguan, ”the eastern most point of the Great Wall and“Jiayuguan, ”the western most fortress. The Great Wall, allegedly the sole man-made construction that can be spotted from the outer space, stretches 5,500 miles from the eastern seaboard to the desert area in the west. The Wall was completed during the reign of the Qin's first emperor(220-206 BCE) who ordered tens of thousands of slave labors and builders to connect the then existing walls of various warring states that had been conquered by the Qin State. The purpose of the regional walls was to build fortress to guard against the invasion from other warring states. Following the conquest of all the other states and unifying the whole of China, Qin's Emperors ordered to destroy all the existing walls between states, and at the same time embarked one of the greatest man-made constructions—linking all the existing border walls to build the Great Wall of China. Its purpose was, among other things, to guard against the assaults by the nomadic Mongols to protect the lives and properties of the people within the Wall. Prior to the unification, the borders of the Qin and other warring states were constantly invaded by Xiong Nu, the Mongol tribes that lived in the vast steppe, whose livelihood depended entirely on the grazing animals. However, during the winter when natural resources such as water and grass became scarce, the tribal horsemen would attack the bordering towns resided by Chinese-Han farmers to loot whatever they could lay their hands on. The Chinese army, consisting mostly of foot soldiers, was no match of the fierce troops of the Mongrel cavalry. Only a permanent fortress could effectively resist the charge of Mongrel horsemen. So, the construction of the Great Wall decreed by Qin's Emperor was to set a barrier between a settled farming culture and the nomadic culture; it is also a psychological war to separate a cultivated high culture within the Wall from barbarism without.

The reason why the Fortress of North Garrison was built in Shanbei is its strategic location. Bear in mind that there are only less than 400 miles between the northern border and the capital of the Qin Empire — Xianyang with no natural protection in between. If the northern border were to be crossed, the Mongrel cavalry could reach the capital in a day or two. Therefore, it was imperative for the Qin Emperor to devote enormous resources to build the largest and strongest fortress on the northern border. The Chinese Emperor, therefore, dispatched one of his most trusted generals — Meng Tian to first lead an army of 300,000 strong to defend the northern border. Meng, one of the founding fathers of the Qin Empire, had made significant military contribution for the unification of the Empire. After the unification, the biggest threat to the Empire was coming from the North, where the Mongrels resided. In fact, even before the unification, the Mongrels had constantly assaulted the Qin's border; in the midst of the wars against other states, the Qin State was stabbed on its back as the Mongrels took a large junk of Qin's land along its northern border. To take the land back and to permanently defeat the Mongrels, Meng Tian was entrusted with the job, which he completed in great success. The battleground was set at a location called“Henadi, ”a strategic place right outside the parameter of Qin's border. In a strictly military term, Meng's army was at a disadvantage because his army mainly consisted of foot soldiers while the Mongrels were all horsemen, who lived on the horseback almost all their lives and very skillful with cavalry maneuver and horseback combat. Having assessed the military situation on both sides, Meng Tian, a seasoned warrior who had rich experiences in combat, resorted to one lethal weapon — crossbow. In the face of Mongrel's cavalry charge, Meng Tian ordered his soldiers to ride on chariots equipped with crossbows to launch a counterattack. As the two armies came to the striking distances, the soldiers of Meng's army released thousands of deadly arrows, which hit either the charging horses or the horsemen. At the collapse of the Mongrel cavalry, Meng's foot soldiers who had followed the chariots advanced to embark on the hand-to-hand combat against the enemy. The battle was vividly depicted in Records of Grand Historian by Sima Qian:“Qin's army charged with chariots taking the lead. The sky was covered with crossbow arrows like locusts, which was followed by the foot soldiers of the Qin's army that immediately overwhelmed the enemy. The Mongrels suffered a catastrophic defeat”(Sima 1961). The success of the military campaigned led by Meng Tian secured not only the northern border of the Qin Empire but also peaceful coexistence between Han Chinese and Mongrels for several decades. To further safeguard the border, Meng Tian mobilized his soldiers, along with thousands of local laborers, to consolidate the existing walls not only in Shanbei, but also across the vast regions throughout China. Even though the Qin Emperor was credited for building the Great Wall in China, Meng Tian was the actual individual who was personally responsible for the construction of the world's largest man-made object. On the bank of the river and outside the city of Suide, another major city in Shanbei just miles south of Yulin, stands the tomb tablet of Meng Tian who died in 210 BCE. In China, it has been customary for the deceased to be buried in his or her birthplace. Shanbei was not his birthplace; however, he was buried there as a national hero to defend the settled life of millions of people for generations to come.

The importance of his role in defeating the Mongols and in the construction of the Great Wall can only be felt in the incessant battles between the Han Chinese and Mongols in the subsequent years, which last for almost two millenniums. Nobody, not even historians, know exactly how many battles were fought at the northern border of Shanbei, but both the North Fortress and the river by the name of Wuding that flows just outside the Fortress must have witnessed the bloodiness of the onslaught of human lives. A poem of Tang Dynasty described the horrifying scene of the battleground:

So determined to wipe out Xiongnu with all their might,

誓扫匈奴不顾身，

Five thousand brave soldiers perished in the dusty sky.

五千貂锦丧胡尘。

So pathetic were the bones that sleep on the bank of Wuding.

可怜无定河边骨，

Whose master was in the beautiful dream of his darlingwife.

犹是春闺梦里人。

This poem, composed by Chen Tao, alluded to the battle scenes during the Tang Dynasty, almost one thousand years after Meng Tian conquered Xiongnu at exactly the same spot. The number“five thousand”is a figurative speech to connote a large number, the number of soldiers who fought the border wars along the Wuding River for the past one thousand years. While the first two lines depict a grand scene of the battle ground, the last two lines zoom in to focus on one individual, or rather the bones of one nameless soldier. No one knew who he was and when he died; it seems that he died long time ago since what was left were nothing but bones. What is so pathetic is that his wife, who probably lived thousands of miles away, was still dreaming of him coming home. The linkage of the two images — the bones and the beautiful dream —is heartbroken, but they present a truer-than-history picture of how the lives of ordinary folks were affected by the never-ending conflicts on this battle-laden land, the land that created the early Chinese civilization, and how its descendants devoted their lives in the defense of the land.