The historical evolution of the capture of Uzai

The ancient city of Lounan is located in Lounan Village, Tougong Township, 3 kilometers northeast of Manas County, the masses call it "broken city", also known as "Tang City", and the city wall remains around. "Dictionary of Chinese Famous Places" introduces: its "city wall remains, earthen construction, square, there are city gates, symmetrical with each other, there are tall beacon ruins next to it, and it is said to be the ruins of the Tang Dynasty".

The map of the Tang Dynasty on page 63 64 of Volume 5 of the Historical Atlas of China is marked as "Wuzai Shou Capture", and from the analysis of the name "Wu Zai Shou Capture", "Wu Zai" should be the name of the place, and "Shou Capture" is the name of the Tang Dynasty military organization, which set up a guard and capture envoy. There are also "Feng" and "Xu" under the guard, which shows that the garrison of this garrison will not be too small, and it is a very important military town on the Silk Road. The ancient city of Lounan is slightly rectangular, the east wall is 620 meters long, the south wall is 500 meters long, the west wall and the north wall are 520 meters long, now they are all earthen wall shapes, the base thickness is 10 to 15 meters, and the residual height varies from one meter to another.

There is a cultural accumulation inside, and the ash layer can be seen, and there are red and gray pottery pieces and animal bones between them. The remnants of the east wall seem to have a city gate in the middle. The western section of the north wall is the highest section of the wall, and the base is very wide, which seems to have a high platform building.

The northwest part of the city is on higher ground, there are buildings like buildings, and there are many pottery shards and animal bones scattered on it, and a thick layer of red clay and ash is observed in the section of an earthen pit. The moat about 50 meters wide around the outside of the city is clearly identifiable, there are tall beacon towers on the side of the moat on the outside of the four corners of the city wall (only the southeast corner, the northeast corner and the southwest corner are left at present), there is a large mound in the city, up to 10 meters, it is said that it is a point general platform, but unfortunately it was blown up by the peasants when they took the soil in the early seventies, and only the west city gate and the south city gate are faintly visible in the whole city. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the 70s, a large number of precious cultural relics have been unearthed from the ground and underground.

There are many relics seen in the city, a large number of pottery shards, as well as stone tools and iron tools. Most of the pottery pieces are sand-filled gray pottery, and some are red pottery, all of which are wheel-based. The shape of the vessel includes a small-mouth flat-bottomed urn, a jar-shaped device, etc., and the neck and shoulders are decorated with string patterns, wavy patterns, and nail patterns.

Stone tools include flat round grinding discs, stone grinding rods, stone pestles, gravel stones and stone rammers. Fragments of gray bricks and rusted iron are also seen. The cultural relics unearthed in the city include the bronze mirror of the Song Dynasty, the large urns and jars of the Song, Western Liao and Yuan dynasties and some jade and stone tools that are very finely polished.

Some people have verified that this city is the city of Wuzai guarding and catching in Tingzhou in the Tang Dynasty. Judging from the unearthed cultural relics, the age of this city is comparable to that of the ancient city of Changji, the ancient city of Liuyun and the ancient city of Beizhuangzi. The ancient city of Lounan is a cultural relics protection unit at the autonomous region level.

Lounan Ancient City, some people verify that this city is the Tang Dynasty Tingzhou Wuzai guarding the city.

According to the records of "Historical Records of Dawan Lie" and "Hanshu Biography of the Western Regions", as early as the 2nd century BC, Loulan was a famous "country of cities" in the Western Regions. It leads to Dunhuang in the east, Yanqi and Yuli in the northwest, and Ruoqiang and Mo in the southwest. The north and south of the ancient "Silk Road" diverged from Loulan.

In 77 BC, Fu Jiezi, the envoy of the Han Dynasty, assassinated Changgui, the king of Loulan, and changed his brother Tu Qi, who was pro-Han, as the king, and changed the name of the country to Shanshan.