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Gualing Village
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Embrasure | Three observation
windows can be seen on the wall by the side steps leading to the third floor. On
the cemented floor lies a portable wooden cannon shelf with the tracks along
which the shelf was once moved are still visible. Cannon holes can be found in
the east, north and south, and the number of scattergun holes reached 10.
Surprisingly enough, the embrasure towers, which were built especially for
shooting, were positioned at the corners of the third floor. The tower measures
2 meters in height and have room for three people to shoot from the inside. In
the towers, a cannon hole was built right under the central gun hole, as the gun
hole on the left side cannot be seen from the outside, the embrasure tower looks
much like a human face with two eyes and a mouth when looked from outside the
watchtower.
On the walls of the fourth floor, the number of gun holes reaches as many as
24 apart and are accompanied by four observation windows and three cannon holes
located in different positions. According to the locals, this is because of the
high position of the floor, an advantage for shooting from afar. Moreover, the
diameter of the cannon holes measures about 25 centimeters.
** A Legend about the "four-squared watchtower."
As told by the secretary of Gualing village committee of the communist party,
during the
Republic of China , there was a celebrity named Huang Guomin who was a
devoted
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A bullet
hole | supporter of Sun Yat-sen and acted as
head of the Zengcheng county in 1922 in this village. He was also a thorough
opponent of Japanese invaders during the eight-year anti-Japanese War. In 1941,
the Japanese army swept into Gualing Village, prompting the whole village, men
and women, young and old, to take shelter in the two watchtowers and to fight
back against the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese, although in possession of
superior weapons, had to retreat in face of the solid and unconquerable tower.
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