Shiliang Fort-or rather, the area east of Luoyang that included Shiliang Fort-occupied an excellent location, one that could even be called a treasure blessed by wind and water.
Here lay Qili Ravine and a series of other canal and waterworks projects built by our Great Jin to solve Luoyang's water supply and transportation problems. They formed a vast rectangular area surrounded by water on three sides and facing the city on the fourth, encompassing Shiliang Fort, Doutian Wall, Yuxiang, a succession of other fortified manors, and an extensive tract of farmland.
Compared with the ruined old city of Luoyang to the west, its greatest advantage was that crops could be grown locally on military farms, making it self-sufficient. It also had a natural moat that impeded bands of robbers, while transportation within the area was convenient.
This was the place Yao Xiang's core followers had occupied, and one reason they had been reluctant to leave: the location was simply too good. Given sufficient time to expand these fortified manors and link them together, they might truly have held on for years and years.
In fact, Shiliang Fort had become famous because, after Luoyang was abandoned during the War of the Eight Princes, a general named Wei Jun had withdrawn here with several hundred refugee households. By tending to the remaining populace and repairing military equipment, he had gradually turned it into Great Jin's sole stronghold in the Luoyang Basin, and Wei Jun himself had been appointed Henan Yin.
Of course, as before, good though the place was, its scale was truly limited. It could not protect too many people or withstand a great army, so the Xiongnu people eventually overran it, and Wei Jun died for his country.
Returning to the present, with the arrival of a cold front, the