The meaning of "South Ship and North Horse": South Ship and North Horse refers to the intersection of North and South. Southerners ride horses in the north and northerners take boats in the south. There are many rivers in the south, which is convenient for navigation; The land in the north is flat and there are more horses. It also shows that southerners are good at sailing and northerners are good at riding.

In ancient China, boats were the main modes of transportation in the south and horses in the north. The reason is that the climate in the south is humid, the precipitation is abundant, and the surface river network is densely covered, so the ship transportation adapted to the "water town" came into being. In the north, however, the climate is arid and semi-arid, grasslands are widely distributed and animal husbandry is developed. In addition to providing milk and meat products, horses have been domesticated as vehicles by the people in the north and become vehicles on the land in the north because of their good endurance and high speed.

"Landing by boat" means that the north meets the south, and southerners disembark and ride horses in the north.

Extended data:

"South Ship and North Horse" is a phenomenon of land-water traffic conversion caused by the special geographical location of Qingjiang River and Wang Jiaying in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its direct cause is the difficulty in the operation of Qingkou Hub. In order to ensure the transportation of grain in the north, the imperial court only allowed oil tankers to pass through the gate at critical times, and no other ships were allowed to pass through. Travelers will disembark in the east of Qingjiangmen, go ashore northbound, cross the Yellow River, and come to Wang Jiaying (there is Zheng Wenying's tomb in Huaiyin District Library, and Zheng Wenying died in Qingkou Post Station, which was then a post station in Qinghe County).

Then ride a horse or carriage north along Tongjing Avenue through the fishing ditch, which is actually much faster than taking a boat. After Qinghe County moved to Qingjiangpu, Qingjiangpu and Wang Jiaying became the territory of Qinghe County, and "South Ship and North Horse" is a general term and inseparable. Because the "South Ship" must stop at Qingjiangpu, and the "North Horse" must transfer to Wang Jiaying.

Some people think that it is still a long way for travelers to reach Wang Jiaying after disembarking in Qingjiangpu, so they can use horses or carriages. This is a misunderstanding caused by not knowing the actual landform at that time. It depends on the "Qingjiang Putu" in the county annals of Qinghe County in Xianfeng. In the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), the Yellow River burst from the Tongwa Chamber in the north and flowed to the Bohai Sea. No longer going south through Xuzhou, the Qingkou area lost the Yellow River water and was a piece of yellow sand. So this picture is the last picture we can see that Qingjiangpu is threatened by the Yellow River.

There is a small river in the north of Tai Huang levee, with a wooden bridge on it, which was the "Anshe Bridge" in Xianfeng period, but it was the only passage to the north of Qingjiangmen! After crossing Anshe Bridge and reaching the south bank of the Yellow River, you have to cross the surging water of Huanghuai in fear by ferry boat, and then go down the Yellow River levee to ride a horse or take a carriage to the north. This is the fundamental reason why Qingkou Post Station was located in Wang Jiaying, and it is also the fundamental basis that "Ma Bei" originated in Wang Jiaying.

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