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When you go out for a stroll in a remote village, you may feel a little funny every time you see a small restaurant or clothing store with only three or five storefronts crowned with "food city" and "clothing city" on the door. However, if you have a chance to go to Xinye County, Henan Province, which borders Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, you may know that you are a little ignorant. In this small county, there is such a city, which is only the size of two or three storefronts. The wall made of blue bricks is 6.59 meters long from north to south, 4.49 meters wide from east to west and only 2.88 meters high. Although the city is small, it has all kinds of walls, gates and battlements. It looks simple and solemn, compact and solid.

Because this city is really small, it has also been selected into the Guinness Book of Records and is known as "the smallest city in the world". However, you should not underestimate this "smallest city", which has a history of 1811 years.

The "aborigines" in this small town are a vigorous Millennium Shawn Ku. For this reason, the name is called "Hansang City".

the gate of Hansangcheng Park

According to historical records, from 211 to 216 (Jian 'an 6-13), Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei became sworn friends in Taoyuan, occupying a new field and building a city to train soldiers, and invited Zhuge Liang to leave Wollongong to be a strategist, determined to pacify the world and do a great job. Since becoming a military adviser, Zhuge Liang has taken two very important measures: one is to be lenient and kind to the people, and the other is to be strict in military discipline, which has won the support of the people. Guan Yu, a general, was staying at Zhang Laohan's house in the west of Mushubei Street in Xinye County.

One day in the summer of last year, when Guan Yu came back from practice, he tied his love riding a red hare to a small mulberry tree in Zhang Laohan's house and went back to his house to study the art of war. Red hare may be hungry and thirsty, and it may be idle and bored, so it has an appetite for the lush little mulberry trees. When it looks up and eats the mulberry leaves that can raise silkworms, it will be out of control and simply chew up the mulberry branches and bark. Knowing that riding destroyed the landlord's mulberry tree, Guan Yu reprimanded the beast and really "let him go."

Guan Yu and Red Rabbit Horse

However, Mr. Zhuge, who soon learned about this matter, did not think that it was a trivial matter for Guan Yu's war horse to gnaw at the trees of ordinary people's homes, and immediately punished Guan Yunchang as a strategist. While instructing Guan Yu to apologize to Zhang Laohan's family, he also fined him to plant another mulberry tree as compensation for the landlord. It is said that at that time, Guan Yu thought that the military adviser was making a mountain out of a molehill and was not convinced by the punishment, but later he figured it out. He felt that if he was lenient and kind to the people and grasped the discipline in the army, he would have to treat the officers and men equally. If he was not upright, how could he be upright? He not only bought a small mulberry tree and planted it himself, but also bought blue bricks to build a battlement-like wall for the small mulberry tree and protect it properly. As a result, this small mulberry tree planted by Guan Gong himself has been able to grow sturdily, and it has grown into a big mulberry tree with a thick trunk and a canopy that covers the sun. It has been called "Guanzhi Mulberry" by later generations.

Guan Zhi Sang

For thousands of years, out of admiration for this wonderful legend, people have also done many repairs or reconstructions to the vicissitudes of "Hansang City". The appearance of the small town has also changed frequently, sometimes hexagonal, sometimes round, until the rectangle when it was rebuilt in 2117, but no matter how it changes again, it is a pocket-sized blue brick ancient city. In 1984, "Hansangcheng" was announced as a key cultural protection unit at the county level.

It's amazing that during the Cultural Revolution, the "Guanzhi Mulberry" described by Hu Guojun, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty as "wrinkled and mottled and weather-beaten" had withered, but in 1978, a new mulberry actually appeared at the root of Shawn Ku, and branches and leaves stood vigorously against the old tree, vividly drawing a picture of dead trees in the lonely "Hansang City". Today, this new mulberry tree has been nearly 41 years old. It is already flourishing in spring, summer and autumn, and looks like a huge potted plant. When winter comes, the new mulberry with branches and branches set off each other with the withered and immortal old mulberry. From a distance, the withered mulberry is just like black dragon, and the new mulberry is just like a chick, and the old and the young are dependent on each other, fighting against the snow and dancing while flying while flying, which has become a grand scene in the ancient city of Xinye.

nowadays, Hansu

is "the smallest city in the world", so I have said so much, but I still want to say a few more words. Think that during the Three Kingdoms period, the Shu-Han Dynasty, which was not powerful, was able to monopolize one seat among the three pillars, which should have a lot to do with the idea of "being kind to the people and being strict in military discipline" conveyed in the story of "Hansang City"!

At this point, I suddenly thought of the discipline of the revolutionary army led by our party that "damages should be paid"; I think that during the War of Liberation, after the PLA invaded Shanghai, it slept on the street without disturbing the residents. Some people lamented that "the national army will fail". I thought of Marshal Chen Yi's famous saying that "the victory of Huaihai Campaign was pushed out by the people with wheelbarrows". I also thought of Mao Zedong's heroic judgment: "The army and the people are United as one person, and let's see who can be enemies in the world!"

I also thought that everyone is equal before the law and discipline; I thought of "don't do small things with kindness"; Thought that no unit or individual should harm the interests of others; Thought of some things, not by the size of the body to measure its value ...

Hansang City Reconstruction

I think, if readers can cause some such thoughts and associations after seeing Hansang City, it's glad you came. As for what shape the "Hansang City" is, the mulberry trees in the city are old mulberry trees and new mulberry trees, and even whether the origin of this "Hansang City" is composed of descendants, it is really unnecessary to study it carefully. Still, a famous reporter put it right for the reason of this "smallest city in the world": "It is not the truth of material, but at least the truth of spirit and belief." I think that only this one, "Hansang City" has the value of existence.

Read more. In October 2118, in order to further display the profound historical and cultural heritage of Xinye, a thousand-year-old city, and build a "new field of vitality, countryside and happiness", the local government moved out Hansangcheng Primary School, which is in the same compound as Hansangcheng, and started to build Hansangcheng Park. Its overall architectural style is imitation of Han architecture, with Han Que, white walls and blue tiles, and has gone through more than 1,811 years. Today, Hansangcheng Park has been built and opened for free.