The former Niuqiao - the "North Head" of the former Naturalization City (2)
A Weng
When I was a child, due to the Hohhot flood in the autumn of 1959, I always thought that the site of Qingkai Bridge was in the location where it was now rebuilt, but in fact it was not, and the current "Qingkai Bridge" was moved four or five hundred meters north of the original site, so many people were very confused about this area - because it could not even explain the "'Stone Bridge Dawn Moon' scenery", one of the eight major scenery of Hohhot in the past; It was not until 1970 when the author was in junior high school in Hohhot No. 8 Middle School (formerly Daotai Yamen Courtyard) that he participated in war preparation all day long because of "preparing for war and preparing for famine": repairing air-raid shelters, digging billets, burning bricks, digging up bricks, picking stones, and digging the foundation of the "Qingkai Bridge" in the river trough north of the east of the campus, which changed the inherent impression over the years.
Due to the changes in the municipal administration, it is very difficult to explain the original appearance of this place, mainly because the destruction of the flood was too great, and everything here was washed away, but fortunately, I also paid attention to this matter in those years, and there are still some vague memories, plus listening to the statements of the people who came at that time and the pitiful and scattered written records, I tried to describe it as much as possible.
At that time, the so-called "Niuqiao" did not only refer to the "Qingkai Bridge" on the Zadagai River: north of the north gate of the old city, north of Dongshun Street and Xishun Street, east of Taipingzhaoqian Street, west of Libeisi Lane, Hedong Chenghuang Temple, Catholic Church and Hebei Tea House, Guandi Temple, and Mawang Temple South of this vast area are collectively called "Niuqiao".
Here, the most obvious fixed landmark building is the Yamen of Guisui Bingbei Road - the complete courtyard of today's Hohhot No. 8 Middle School. The "Civil Affairs Department" on the map shown in the "Guisui County Chronicles" published in 1935 (the 35th year of the Republic of China) is now the campus of Hohshi No. 8 Middle School, and the east entrance of the "Daoist Backstreet" to the north is connected to the west of the "Qingkai Bridge". In this area, there are four streets and six lanes, namely: "With Qingkai Bridge as the hub, Niuqiao includes 'Qingkai Street' changed from 'Yanggangzi', 'Taiping Street' named after Taiping Zhao and 'Caoshi Street' in the west of the bridge, and the 'Dead Horse Lane' along Niudong Street in front of Taiping Zhaoqian East River to the east of Taiping Street, 'Dimu Bureau Lane' and 'Ergongguan Lane' in the north and south of Qingkai Street, 'Guanglong Madian Lane', 'Yanggangzi Lane' and 'Stallhouse Lane' six alleys." There are many shops, street vendors gathered, people come and go, and it is particularly prosperous.
To the south of four main streets and six alleys, there are two restaurants of the North City Gate Tower of Guihua City and "Tianxinyuan" and "Gu Fengxuan" of Xishuncheng Street; To the east and north of Dongshuncheng Street are the "Qing Sanyuan Teahouse" and the "Halal Great Mosque" of the Hui people and the Moon Tower in the courtyard.
To the north of Niuqiao, to the east of the river is the main hall of the City God Temple and the bell tower of the Catholic Church; Hexi is the main hall of Guandi Temple and the two towering white towers in the center of Taiping Zhao, Taiping Zhao Nan is the highest institution of learning in the past - "Gufeng Academy" that is, the "Guisui No. 1 Middle School" later, Hohhot City No. 8 Middle School (the No. 8 Middle School even the head of the former Daotai Yamen, the second into the courtyard, the third into the courtyard are included).
Therefore, Niuqiao is not only a downtown area, but also the cultural center of the Naturalized City (Hohhot), the surrounding environment is both magnificent and magnificent, but also quiet and elegant, but also symbolizes the unity and admiration of the Mongolian, Han and Hui three ethnic groups, where the five religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yah, and Hui are highly coordinated, and sing a hymn of the great integration of various ethnic religions and cultures.
After the opening of the Jingsui Railway in 1921, the "stinky fur industry" that has always been not favored by people in the naturalization city has seen unprecedented prosperity, and the cattle, horses, camels, and sheep markets at that time are concentrated along the East River and in front of the Taiping Zhaomen around Niuqiao, and the Beishaliang around the Guandi Temple of the North Chafang has become a sea of skins - livestock fur shops are lined up one after another, and the "peaks" piled up into various skins are difficult to count.
In order to entertain the compradors from Tianjin Foreign Firm, each fur shop has set up a kitchen like a high-end hotel; In order to welcome guests from all walks of life, the high-end prostitutes in the Datong area also set up a "Taipingli brothel" in front of the Taiping Call, following the "Jixingli" and "Pingkangli"; Qiao million-dollar wealthy man of Qi County, Shanxi Province, Xiaoxi Street, opened the "Tongshun North Store" specializing in fur from the "Tongshun Store" on Da Nan Street, and opened the "Tongshun North Store" specializing in fur at the Taiping Street entrance in front of the Guandi Temple of the Malay North Tea House, and Li Xiang, the manager of "Jishengxiang" in Dongshaliang, also became the first giant merchant among the "two and a half traders" in Guihua City (Hohhot) at this time; Driven by these wealthy businessmen, they not only enriched the street vendors who walked through the streets and alleys and the old fortunes of the landlords who cultivated the fields and kept their jobs in the villages near and far, but also fattened the peasants in the suburbs who cut grass and sold them for money and collected livestock.
In the past, the Naturalization City (Hohhot) was surrounded by Niuqiao-Yanggangzi livestock temporary grazing pastures around such as Wusutu and Bakouzi in the north, Halaqin and Baoheshao in the east, Wulu and Taohua Township in the south and Taigemu in the west of the city.
At this time, Niuqiao was immersed in the cries of street vendors and the sonorous sound of ironwood workshops all day long from morning to night—in Shilamun and Xilongwangmiao Village, which are closer to the city, at twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, you can still hear the hawkers selling sobering soup to the merchants who go to the banquet and watching the play, and the shouting of the night sky for the big smoker shopkeeper who does not sleep; The cries of the vendors selling bowl trays, fruits, green radish, tea, and noodle soup, and the high-end dim sum shops of "Myeongmudo" are mixed with the melody of Mingmutang's Taigu Yangge melody mixed with the cries of the poor in the "howling city"—the cripples and beggars who have escaped from the "forbidden homes" and "big pits" in the south of the city, and are begging from pedestrians with a sympathetic and poignant cry. These people, except for the second and sixteenth days of each month (lunar calendar), do not dare to go out during the day, for fear of being found by the "baozhang" (city appearance management personnel) patrolling the streets.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the "Xiangqi Mansion" and the later "Chamber of Commerce" of Guihua City hired the "head" of "Liangshan" to manage idle personnel with "Baotou"; In order to make "Bao Zhang" better serve them, the vicious image of Jiao "Bao Zhang" holding an iron rope was sculpted under the west corridor of the City God Temple in the north of Niuqiao.
Every year in the autumn high horse fat season, all walks of life in Niuqiao enter the peak season, in the middle of the night, the sound of three watches will be drowned out by the camel bell of the expedition to the outer road and the west road, when the fur on the camel is unloaded, it is the quietest moment in Niuqiao:
"People who get up early to take a walk leaning on the stone railing of Qingkai Bridge and look westward, there is still a waning moon hanging on the big tree of the Daotai Yamen, which is one of the famous eight major scenery of Guihua City (Hohhot) - 'Stone Bridge Dawn Moon' scenery."
However, if you look at Qingkai Bridge after the fish belly is white from the east, you will find that there are beggars sleeping in broken sacks at the bottom of the shops on both sides; From time to time, I saw the crippled people who couldn't go back to the "forbidden home" and the "big pit" and the dead people who died on the Yanggangzi Road. Before the "high-ranking people" such as "Qiaoyazi" ate "roasted wheat and drank tea", "Bao Zhang" lifted the corpse from the "gray team" with a two-person carry, and took it to the back beach to feed the wolves.
Therefore, in the past, the Zhaohei Lang alley before Taiping Street to Taiping Zhao was the most eerie alley in Guihua City - there was an alley called "Ghost Gate Pass" for many years from Taiping Zhao to Houtang, according to the old generation: "Errentai walked to the west exit" The original form is carried by these people to the bottom of the "Kangshan Egg" on the back beach through here.