This cave on the Sino-Vietnamese border was once the military command centre of Guangxi border defence 150

After the victory of Zhennanguan in the Sino-French War, in 1886, Su Yuanchun, the governor of Guangxi and border governor, moved the Guangxi governor's office from Liuzhou to the border town of Longzhou to defend against the invasion of the French army, built Longzhou City, and built two governor's offices on the hill, Longzhou Xiaoliancheng and Pingxiang Daliancheng, as the military command centre of Guangxi's entire border, equivalent to the headquarters of the Guangxi military district.
Dalian City, like Xiaolian City, is the painstaking management of Su Yuanchun for 18 years, which is both a military command centre and also reflects Su Yuanchun's personal characteristics everywhere, such as he aspires to power and imitates the architecture of the palace, for example, he is a bit leisurely and elegant, inscribing poems and creating landscape everywhere. So visiting Xiaoliancheng and Daliancheng, especially the Baiyu Cave in Daliancheng, is not only a visit to a military fortress but also a cave landscape showing the border culture of the late Qing Dynasty.

When such a landscape is shown in front of you and you can see the inscription of "the moon and the sky are divided in half", do you think it is just a military project, but it is more like a beautiful natural landscape?

"The fortress of Liancheng is a strong military fortress of border defence, including 165 forts and towers, 109 passes and 66 checkpoints, distributed along the border between China and Vietnam in Guangxi. Daliancheng and Xiaoliancheng were their command centres.

The landscape of Dalian City can be divided into "battalions, palaces, wells and caves". "Battalions" refers to the military facilities such as forts, stone forts, ancient barracks and courthouses spread all over the hilltops and valleys.

The "Palace" refers to the Wusheng Palace located at the intersection of Dalian City, which was also built by Su Yuanchun.

The Wusheng, with Guan Yu, Zhou Cang and Guan Ping sitting on the throne.

The front hall and flower pond of Wusheng Palace are well preserved.

The front hall and the middle and back halls are separated by Liancheng Road. The middle and back halls were destroyed and the existing one was rebuilt in 2005.

The "well" refers to the four ancient wells of Fu, Lu, Shou and Xi, and the "cave" is the scenic spot of Baiyu Cave, the essence of Dalian City.

The Baiyu Cave is located halfway up the Yudong Mountain, and it takes a few minutes to reach the entrance of Baiyu Cave.

Baiyu Cave is named after the stalactites in the cave, which are as white as jade. After inspecting the place, Su Yuanchun transformed it into a military command centre.

The White Jade Cave is divided into three levels, the first of which has been completely disfigured.

Various colourful sculptures.

The second layer is a bit more original, but there are still a few Buddhist niches.

What is the most abundant in the White Jade Cave? There are more than 50 inscriptions in total, basically by Su Yuanchun, who, like the poetry-loving Qianlong emperor, seemed to have been in pursuit of something.

However, the general, who was addicted to carving stones, left a gap in the largest stone carving in the cave. After this stone carving was chiselled, Su Yuanchun was recruited to the capital by the Qing government in 1903, and he knew that this trip was fatal, so perhaps he left such a wordless tablet for future generations to evaluate his merits and demerits.

Among them, "The moon and the sky are divided in half" is the essence of the White Jade Cave, with colourful lights and direct sunlight, the daytime view is already very good, imagine the cave to see the moon, I am afraid it is another scene.

In the cave is another scene, located in the centre of the cave lotus platform is originally a pool, Su Yuanchun came to enclose, representing the seven treasures of the world of bliss pool.

The stalactites in the cave are spectacular, though not stunningly beautiful.

And this stalactite, does it look like a tiger eyeing an eagle?

Nowadays, the military command function of the cave has long faded away, and it is more like a fine natural cave attraction.

There is a couplet at the bottom of the hill, "A cave in a cave, a cave in a cave, a sky beyond the sky", which is a bit interesting.
A hundred years later, Dalian City gradually faded its military features and regained more of its natural beauty, but the imprint of Su Yuanchun still remains deeply in this cave. In the late Qing Dynasty, Su Yuanchun was a controversial and unmissable figure, he was the leader of the Xiang army in the late Qing Dynasty, a famous general against the French, an official to the rank of governor, participated in the suppression of the Taiping Revolution, the Miao people's uprising in Guizhou and the great uprising of the Guangxi Hui Party against the Qing Dynasty in the late Qing Dynasty took part in the He participated in the war against France and Vietnam, presided over the post-war Guangxi's border construction and foreign diplomatic affairs, and made many meritorious achievements for the Qing dynasty, and was appointed as the Crown Prince's Young Protector by the Qing court. After serving for more than four years, he was released and died in Urumqi on his way back. Later, the Qing court rehabilitated Su Yuanchun and reinstated him to his post, and paid for his life and war service to the history museum to establish a biography.
Including the big and small Liancheng, Liancheng Fortress is Su Yuanchun left in Guangxi border defence of the huge military project, nowadays, it seems that these hilltop forts, camps and fortresses, construction were very difficult at the time, a hundred years later, Liancheng Fortress is still there, scattered in the mountains, lucky to become attractions, while more is unattended.