I feel that "the desert is lonely and straight, and the long river falls into the yen." Be sure to eat a bite of sand at Yumenguan.

The heroism of "the desert is lonely and straight, and the long river sets the yen" once made me yearn for it infinitely.

Another sentence, "Spring breeze is nothing but Yumenguan", has engraved the name Yumenguan firmly in my heart for most of my life, which is the lingering border plot and feelings of serving the country left by the ancients! It is precisely because of the poem "Spring breeze is nothing but Yumenguan" that crossing the Hexi Corridor to pay homage to Yumenguan has already become a major event in my heart.

September 20 19, those words are no longer just an unreachable artistic conception for me, but a scene that my mind and naked eyes actually touched and witnessed after Wan Li was attacked. I finally came by car this year!

On the way from Dunhuang to Yumenguan by car, we not only saw the monk Le Zun, the sleeping Buddha in Gobi and the snow scene in Qilian, but also really felt the desolation of the desert, and even lamented the ancient people's ambition to serve the country and the sadness of leaving their homes.

We trace the time back to BC 12 1 year, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Huo Qubing, the general of the Han Dynasty, to recapture the Hexi Corridor and "divide it into two customs and four counties". "Four Counties" refers to Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang, and "Two Customs" refers to Yumenguan and Yangguan. Since then, these two customs have become important passes on the ancient Silk Road, and a large number of immigrants have come one after another.

The geographical location of Yumenguan Pass is explained in detail according to the earliest ancient geographical annals of China, Geography of Hanshu. Yumenguan, located in the northwest of Shou Chang County, is the gateway to the western regions.

The reason why Yumenguan is called Yumen is of course related to jade. To the west of Yumenguan is today's Xinjiang. Hotan, Xinjiang is famous for its rich jade since ancient times. Yumenguan Pass is a channel for the Western Regions to pay tribute to the Central Plains, hence the name!

Yumenguan has been set up since the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. With a history of more than 1000 years, Yumenguan has left a brilliant page in the history of the ancient Silk Road. The wheel of history came to the third year of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (1036). As Xixia occupied the whole Hexi Corridor, Yumenguan disappeared from the scene, ending its glorious historical chapter.

When it comes to Yumenguan and desolation, we are most familiar with Wang Wei's poem "Advise the monarch to drink more, and there is no reason for people to go out to Xiyangguan" and Wang Zhihuan's poem "Why the flute is strong and the spring breeze is not as good as Yumenguan". If we say "homesickness", we belong to the feelings of Ban Chao in the Eastern Han Dynasty "Dare not look at Jiuquan County, but look forward to Yumenguan's life".

Cen Can, a frontier poet in the Tang Dynasty, once said, "Yumenguan City is vast and lonely, while yellow sand and white grass wither Wan Li. There is a dog army in the south and meets Hu in the north, and the armaments will be arrived. Five thousand armour soldiers are brave, and the army enjoys nothing ",which not only vividly depicts the desolation of Yumenguan and the important position of frontier fortress, but also clearly expresses that there are as many as five thousand soldiers guarding the pass, showing how many people of insight go to the frontier to defend their country.

Although the frontier is a place where achievements have been made, it is, after all, a "bitter and cold place" and "hard to trust". Soldiers guarding the border will inevitably feel lonely and desolate.

For example, Ban Chao, who devoted himself to serving his country in his early years, couldn't help but feel homesick in his later years, so he wrote to ask that he be "born in Yumenguan". Cen Can once said, "If you go to Chang 'an and Wan Li in the east, why should you cherish books? ".Jade Kansai looks heartbroken, feeling old except Ming. "

On the day we drove away, there was yellow sand all over the sky, and everyone actually took a bite of sand, which made us more aware of the hardship and desolation of the border.

Today's Yumenguan site is about 0/00 km northwest of Dunhuang, also known as Xiaofang Town. It is a square rammed earth castle with a side length of about 25m and a height of about10m. The thickest rammed earth is 5 meters. When we look at it from a distance, we will feel that Yumenguan in folklore is a big mound.

We walked into a small Fangcheng, and it is hard to imagine that this is the legendary Yumen Pass anyway. In fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, after the British robber Stein put forward the view that the small square city is Yumen Pass based on the bamboo slips he found, there has been some controversy in the archaeological community.

In recent years, according to some unearthed bamboo slips, experts and scholars have basically judged that Xiaofangcheng is the official site of Captain Yumen's office. We can clearly see some beam holes and city wall relics inside Xiaofangcheng, which is convincing for the official site.

In recent years, Dunhuang Museum has conducted many field investigations and explorations around Xiaofang Town. Researcher Li believes that Yumenguan Pass should be on the Han Great Wall line150m west of Xiaofangcheng.

We take sightseeing bus, drive eastward from Xiaofang Town 12km, and arrive at Dafang Pancheng, which is much larger than Xiaofang Town, with the east-west length 130m, the north-south width 17m, and the residual height of rammed earth wall is about 6-7m.

We can clearly see that there are air holes in the rammed earth wall. At that time, the British robber Stein excavated a batch of China wooden slips in the garbage dump at the corner of the inner wall, which was supposed to be used to store food.

According to the ventilation holes, it can be concluded that the granary is used for ventilation. In addition, according to Cen Can's poem "There are as many as 5,000 ranks", the granary of this scale is just right.

As for the site of the Han Great Wall, we can only witness some traces of history. In ancient times, the Great Wall of Han Dynasty meandered from east to west, and a square beacon tower was built every five miles or 10 miles.

When Yumenguan was rich in reeds, it only took one day for the beacon signal from the beacon tower to reach Chang 'an. According to the scale of the beacon, we can judge the distance and scale of the enemy, which shows that the intelligence of the working people in ancient China is amazing.

Yumenguan is not only a city and a pass left on the desolate Gobi Desert in northwest China, but also an immortal historical monument.

Yumenguan go on road trip has finally fulfilled my heroic wish of "lonely smoke in the desert, long river setting the yen". At this moment, I silently send a best blessing to Yumenguan thousands of miles away.