In the previous article, the author talked to you about the story of repeated competition among some counties in Henan Province. Today, let’s talk about Shandong Province. Zouping City is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Binzhou City, Shandong Province. It has an important geographical location and a developed economy. From the 1950s to the 1980s, several prefecture-level cities such as Jinan, Binzhou , Zibo , etc. were repeatedly competed for the ownership of Zouping. A question arises. Why is Zouping City so important that the three prefecture-level cities are repeatedly divided? Today, let’s talk about this issue.
First of all, let’s talk about the specific situation in Shandong Province. Shandong Province is a large population, economic and food province in my country. According to the data from Qipu in 2020, Shandong Province has a total population of 101 million, ranking second in the country among all provinces in my country, second only to Guangdong Province. Shandong people have straightforward, simple, martial, brave and good at fighting. All parts of Shandong have always been the main areas for recruiting troops in all dynasties. Shandong Province has a high grain output and a wide variety. For a long time, Shandong Province has been one of the main grain producing areas in my country.
The geographical location of Shandong Province is very important. In ancient warlords' melee or confrontation between the north and the south, whether Shandong can be captured is the top priority. First, after controlling Shandong, we obtained a steady stream of food and military resources. Shandong officers and soldiers are very strong and good at field battles in large corps. From a geostrategic perspective, after the northern regime controlled Shandong, it was able to not only protect North China and Central Plains, but also head south to the north bank of Lianghuai and Yinma. The opposite is true for the southern regime. Once Shandong is seized, it directly controls the initiative in the war.
In recent years, Shandong Province has actively developed the vegetable planting industry and established a series of vegetable bases. The complete supply system formed is called "the national vegetable basket." In many areas of Shandong Province, vegetable greenhouses are everywhere. In terms of vegetable cultivation, Shandong Province has long ranked first in the country. In 2021, Shandong Province's total GDP reached 8.3 trillion, second only to Guangdong and Jiangsu Province, ranking third in the country. At present, Shandong Province has a total of 16 prefecture-level cities under its jurisdiction.
is: Jinan City, Qingdao City , Zibo City , Zaozhuang City , Dongying City , Yantai City , Weifang City , Jining City , Tai'an City , Weihai City , Rizhao City , Binzhou City , Dezhou City , Liaocheng City , Linyi City , Heze City . Among them, Jinan City and Qingdao City are sub-provincial cities and one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in the country. It can be seen from this that Shandong Province has strong overall strength. Among all the provinces in northern my country, Shandong Province is one of the provinces with the strongest economic strength.
Zouping City is affiliated to Binzhou prefecture-level city and is a county-level city under Binzhou City. Zouping City has an important geographical location, a developed economy and a large population. In 2021, the total population of Zouping City was more than 800,000. In 2021, Zouping City's total GDP was more than 63 billion, which is a very good level. From the 1950s to the 1980s, several cities such as Jinan, Binzhou, and Zibo began to compete repeatedly for the ownership of Zouping.
As we all know, my country's provincial system appeared in Yuan Dynasty . After hundreds of years of refinement and improvement in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it has gradually formed the basic framework pattern of inland provinces. As of the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, Shandong Province formed a zoning pattern of 10 prefectures and 3 Zhili Prefectures. They are: Jinan Prefecture , Dongchang Prefecture, Tai'an Prefecture , Wuding Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture , Yizhou Prefecture , Caozhou Prefecture , Laizhou Prefecture , Qingzhou Prefecture , Dengzhou Prefecture , Linqingzhou , Jining Prefecture, Jiaozhou .
Among them, Jinan Prefecture has 1 sanzhou and 15 counties under its jurisdiction, namely: Dezhou , Licheng County, Zhangqiu County, Zouping County, Zichuan County, Changshan County, Xincheng County, Qihe County, Qidong County, , Jiyang County, Yucheng County, Linyi County, , Changqing County, Ling County, Deping County, and Pingyuan County. It can be seen from this that during the Qing Dynasty, Zouping County was under the jurisdiction of Jinan Prefecture and had a deep interaction with Jinan Prefecture.
1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, our country entered a stage of warlord melee. The warlords attacked each other, and the geographical location of Shandong Province was important, and various places were greatly damaged. At the same time, Shandong Province has encountered drought, locust plague and other natural disasters. In addition, bandits are rampant in some areas, and the lives of the people are very hard. In a blink of an eye, it was the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. With the basic end of large-scale wars, my country entered a new stage of post-war reconstruction, restoration of production and economic development.
In Shandong Province, various prefecture-level cities and districts have been successively established, such as Tai'an District , Taizao District, Jiaodong District, etc. At first, Zouping County was under the management of Zibo Special Zone, which was under the jurisdiction of eight counties including Zibo County, Changshan County, Boshan County, Huantai County, Zhangli County, Zhangli County, Linzi County, and Zhangqiu County. In 1953, after the Zibo Special Zone was abolished, Zouping County and other places were included in the management of the People's Special Zone. In 1958, in a new round of zoning changes in Shandong Province.
Zibo Prefecture-level cities and Huimin District merged to form Zibo District, and Zouping County is under the management of Zibo District. In the 1950s and 1960s, my country's transportation and communication levels were limited, and there were too many districts and counties under its jurisdiction, which would increase the difficulty of management. In 1961, Huimin District was re-established, and Zouping County and other places were under the management of Huimin District. In the late 1960s, after all the special zones across the country were renamed to regions, Huimin District was renamed to Huimin District, and still had large areas such as Zouping County.
From the perspective of district division, Zouping City belongs to Binzhou City. However, Zouping City has a closer relationship with the provincial capital Jinan City. For example, many institutions and streets in Zouping City like to be named after "Quancheng". Zouping is very close to the provincial capital Jinan, and it is very convenient to drive. Many young people in Zouping like to go to Jinan to work, settle down and live. Jinan and Zouping have a deep interaction. In 2021, integration with Zhoucun of Zibo, Qihe of Dezhou, and Zouping of Binzhou was proposed.
There are many more stories about the adjustment of various regions in my country. The author will chat with you slowly in future articles.
