another legend about the jiayuguan pass tells of a workman named yi kaizhan in the ming dynasty (1368bc-1644bc) who was proficient in arithmetic. he calculated that it would need 99,999 bricks to build the jiayuguan pass. the supervisor did not believe him and said if they miscalculated by even one brick, then all the workmen would be punished to do hard work for three years. after the completion of the project, one brick was left behind the xiwong city gate. the supervisor was happy at the sight of the brick and ready to punish them. however yi kaizhan said with deliberation that the brick was put there by a supernatural being to fix the wall. a tiny move would cause the collapse of the wall. therefore the brick was kept there and never moved. it can still be found there today on the tower of the jiayuguan pass.
in addition to the above-mentioned stories about the construction of the great wall, there are also plenty of stories about current scenic spots. a famous one is the legend of the beacon tower. this story happened during the western zhou dynasty (11th century bc-711 bc). king you had a queen named bao si, who was very pretty. king you liked her very much, however bao si never smiled. an official gave a suggestion that setting the beacon tower on fire would frighten the king's subjects, and might make the queen smile. king you liked the idea. the subjects were fooled and bao si smiled at the sight of the chaos. later enemies invaded western zhou, king you set the beacon tower on fire to ask for help. no subjects came to help because they had been fooled once before. thus, king zhou was killed by the enemy and western zhou came to an end.