Ancient Battlefield of the Miao Uprising

The vast mountains and rivers from Pinglong to Guiyupo in the rear hills on the outskirts of Jishou were once the site of the final great battle between the Miao rebel army and tens of thousands of Qing troops. Even today, iron and bronze cannons as thick as a bowl's mouth and their projectiles are often picked up here, some now kept in the Hunan Provincial Museum and the Autonomous Prefecture Museum. The battlefield is Pinglong terrain, a long strip-shaped basin in the middle surrounded by high mountains, majestic and ringed with cliffs, a strategically dangerous terrain. Shuimengang on the east side of Pinglong was its gateway, a position of great geographical importance.