Guìpíng

Guiping stood at the meeting of the Qian and Yu rivers, where the Xun River carried traffic east through Guangxi. As the seat of Xunzhou, it combined river commerce with prefectural government. Boats connected its markets with the districts upstream, while the riverbanks and nearby Xishan shaped the growth of the walled town.

Ming officials repeatedly enlarged its defences. The county gazetteer records an expansion in 1373 and further extensions later in the Hongwu reign. In 1467 the earthen walls were replaced with brick, equipped with gates, towers and guard posts. Maintaining these works was a prefectural responsibility shared among the subordinate counties: Guiping, Guixian and Pingnan divided the burden, and Wuxuan joined the arrangement after its transfer to Xunzhou in the Qing. Beyond the town, the Dateng Gorge country became a focus of armed conflict between Ming forces and Yao communities. The confluence thus held both a commercial centre and a base from which officials attempted to secure difficult upland districts. Its walls and waterways expressed the interdependence of provincial administration, transport and local defence.