1、1 Taishan guard tower originated from bandit. The more bandits the more guard towers built in Taishan. Taishan suffered a lot from bandits at the beginning of the Republic of China. During the 10 years from the 6th to the 15th year of the Republic of China, Guanghai district had been attacked for 73
2、 times. 3214 families and stores were robbed and 734 villagers were injured or even hit to death. And during the 13 years from the 9th to the 15th of the Republic of China, 1114 houses and 56 guard towers had been burn up by the bandits. In Haiyan district next to Guanghai, there were already 536 ho
3、uses and 56 guard towers burn up by the bandits only in the fifth month of the lunar 13th year. It was thus obvious that bandits sweeped over the whole county. From the 6th year of the Republic of China, Xinning Megazine set up a special column to report the banditry information for our fellow villa
4、ges at home and abroad. News of such kind could be found everywhere in the magazine of that time, which made you shocked. According to the incomplete statistic of Taishan County Annals compiled in the 60s, there were totally 5000 guard 2towers built to prevent the bandits. Some of them could be date
5、d from 100 years ago and most were built at the beginning of the Republic of China and in the 20s till 30s. The guard towers were mainly built by the donation of the overseas Chinese and the rest were built by the common earnings and fundraising of the village. The buildings were usually four to fiv
6、e floors high. The top ones could be nine to ten floors high. Most of them were armored concrete structure. The walls were more than one chi thick. Some were built with yellow concrete and lime. Some built with green brick. Some built with concrete and stone. There were shot holes in every wall. The
7、 shot holes were in funnel shape, which was convenient for peeping outwards and the bullets were not easy to shot inside. There was usually an observation tower on the top floor, which was just like a balcony with projection on four sides. There were also shot holes on the bottom of the balcony. Som
8、e were built like a semicircle blookhouse with a observation tower on the top which was even facilitated with a searchlight. The searchlight was on at once at the mere rustle of leaves of the wind and the bandits would flee away. The windows of the building were not big, which were made of thick arm
9、or plates. The whole building was really unbreakable. 3At that time, in order to prevent the bandits, many overseas Taishanese came back and build guard tower. There was a Shaigulang village on the right side of Dongjiao Taichi road of Doushan town, where eighteen guard towers with three to four flo
10、ors in the same style standed towering like a giant in two lines. The village really deserved to be call a guard tower village. If you take a broad view around the country of Taishan, you would find the guard towers stand in great numbers like a forest everywhere in the country. Guard towers were di
11、stributed mainly over hilly land and villages near mountains. You could drive a car from Taicheng town and you could see guard towers spreading all over the villages near mountains or on the hilly land no matter what direction you were towards. Even in a small village there were at least two or thre
12、e guard towers. The guard towers were usually built at the head or at the back of the villages. Some were built at the vital communication point of the villages. On the whole, where there were more guard towers there were more bandits. The number of the guard towers, however, did not show the wealth
13、 of the villagers. Take the district from Shandi to Haikoubu of Duanfen town for example, where there lived many relatives of the overseas Taishanese. But there were only a few 4guard towers. Some did not even have one. Thats because the district were situated in flatlands and the terrain was wide a
14、nd smooth so it was hard for the bandits to hide. Whats more, the local force was solid so that the bandits did not dare to take reckless action. The more guard towers the more firearms in Taishan. There found 48 000 civil guns all over the county after liberation, most of which were donated or brou
15、ght from abroad by the overseas Taishanese. Taishans guard towers and firearms prepared to prevent the bandits were turned to good account in the Anti-Japanese war. The Langwan building of Sanba town, the Shunping building of Shunping village of Sijiu town and the Zhenbei building、Zhujiao building、N
16、anying building of Top-south village and Down-south village of Sijiu town had written a glorious history in the war. After liberation, the bandits were all wiped out and China became strong. The guard towers no longer worked to prevent the bandits and resist the aggressors and became historic remains. Nowadays, most of the guard towers in Taishan still stand firm and erect. They have become an attractive scenery of Taishan. 5
