The car shook, Zhen Mi opened her eyes, and saw that she was leaning on the shoulder of Yuan Xi, who was sitting upright, and Madam Wu, who was sitting opposite her with her eyes closed, said embarrassedly, "I fell asleep."
She twitched her nose and asked in confusion, "Why is there a faint smell?"
Mrs. Wu, who was dressed in sleep, quietly clamped her legs together.
Yuan Xi lifted the curtain and said with a smile: "Madam, look, the flowers outside are blooming."
What comes into view are flowers all over the mountains.
When Zhen Mi saw it, she was pleasantly surprised and said, "How beautiful!"
It is now spring, and the earliest flowers have already bloomed.
"In front of Huangshi Pagoda, the river flows eastward, and the spring breeze makes me lazy and sleepy. A cluster of peach blossoms bloom without an owner, and I love the deep red and the light red."
This is a light pink mountain peach blossom, growing close to the pedicels and quietly blooming on the branches, like a reserved and dignified little jade.
"I listened to the spring rain in the small building all night, and sold apricot blossoms in the deep alley the next morning."
This is a white apricot blossom, but the calyx is deep red. The contrast between the white petals and the deep red calyx is extremely sharp, making it look like a lady from a noble family, with a fair and attractive face, and gorgeous and noble clothes, which is unforgettable.
"Golden petals and green calyx bring the chill of spring. How many kinds of yellow flowers are there?"
This is the golden forsythia, whose branches are like sloppy weeds, growing in clumps on the ground, covering the entire sky and ground. Although they are short, they bloom wildly and violently, bursting with vitality, just like the people struggling to survive in this difficult and chaotic world.
This seemingly humble, shortest, and most numerous wild flower has the most noble and sublime color.
Zhen Mi followed Yuan Xi's finger and listened to him explain everything one by one, exclaiming in amazement: "My husband knows so much."
She turned her head, her eyes curved into crescents, "Following my husband, I can see many unforgettable scenery in my life. I can't do that if I stay in Yecheng."
When Yuan Xi saw Zhen Mi smiling brightly and charmingly, he felt a little guilty. He secretly wiped the sweat off his forehead and couldn't help but glance at Madam Wu secretly.
Mrs. Wu turned her head to look out the window and felt Yuan Xi's gaze. She felt resentful in her heart. He was pretending really well!
She turned her gaze to the apricot blossoms on the branches. In the center of the blooming petals, wild bees were flying up and down flexibly. Sweet nectar was dripping between the stamens. Suddenly, she felt her face getting a little hot.
Suddenly she felt nauseous and quickly stuck her head out of the window and began to dry heave.
Zhen Mi quickly leaned forward to stroke his back, took out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and handed it to Mrs. Wu's mouth. Mrs. Wu hurriedly took it and wiped the corners of her mouth. When Yuan Xi saw this action, he couldn't help but cough dryly.
Mrs. Wu vomited for a long time before she calmed down. She blushed and said, "I lost my composure."
Zhen Mi smiled and said, "Madam, there is no need to blame yourself. It is all your husband's good deeds."
Mrs. Wu of Yuan Xi had something to hide to begin with, so she didn't dare to respond and had to change the subject.
Amid the dazzling spring scenery of flowers, the carriage bumped slightly and slowly approached Jicheng.
The so-called "Ji" originated from the Ji State in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Ji State was not far from the Yan State. Later, Yan destroyed Ji and made Jicheng its capital. Therefore, later generations called Beijing the land of Yan and Ji.
The name of Jicheng of Ji State should be derived from Ji Qiu. Ji Qiu was named because of the "much thistle grass on the mountain". It is similar to the Chu (Jing) State, both of which named the place after the grass and the country after the place.
At that time, Jicheng was also known as Jixian, which is the area of present-day Beijing. Jizhou, Tianjin City in later generations, was in the area of Yongnu where everyone had set out earlier, a difference of several hundred miles between the two sides.
A distance that could be covered in one hour in later times would take ten days to walk in this era.
Because the ancient roads were really difficult to travel on.
The ancient landform was full of weeds and trees. What was even more troublesome was that there were many river tributaries and swamps everywhere, making it difficult to move.
Therefore, the roads that are slightly walkable were all opened up by humans. Even so, when the weather is bad, the roads are muddy and it is common to be unable to walk more than ten miles in a day.
Moreover, due to the large number of rivers, roads are often cut off on both sides of rivers and streams, requiring people to wade through the rivers. It is not so bad during the dry season in spring, but in summer, many roads will be cut off, greatly affecting production and life.
After wandering around for a long time, the team finally found a place where they could cross the river. The stream was only about one foot deep. The driver jumped off his horse and drove the horse to pull the cart across the stream.
The soldiers behind took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and quickly ran to the shore in the freezing cold stream. They were so cold that their teeth were gnashing. They sat on the shore, picked up some grass and wiped their feet a little before putting on their shoes.
The team continued on their journey. There were mountains and rivers along the way. There were a few thatched huts between the hillsides, with smoke rising from time to time. Yuan Xi realized that it made sense for the Ming Dynasty to make Beijing its capital.
Its rich water system is certainly one reason why it is suitable as the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but it cannot be ignored that its geographical location is indeed a place of strategic importance.
Jicheng is located at the junction of the Yanshan Mountains and the North China Plain. In front of it is a pass for foreign tribes to move south, and behind it is a flat plain. Naturally, it became an important pass that hindered the nomadic people from moving south.
Moreover, most of the foreign threats faced by China came from the west and north. Because of the plateau blocking the west, the cost for foreigners to enter the Guanzhong area was very high, but it was different in the north.
North of Ji County is the area outside the Great Wall, where nomadic people live by following water and grass. However, in ancient times, cattle, horses and other livestock were highly dependent on grassland, and the condition of the grassland was extremely dependent on the weather.
If the climate gets colder, the pastures will not be able to produce enough grass, and the nomadic peoples, faced with the threat of survival, will invade and plunder.
This is a matter of life and death. In the face of this, there is no such thing as moral agreements or good neighborliness.
This is also the reason why the people in border areas are so tough, especially in Youzhou, where they have to face horse thieves and bandits day and night. Weak people cannot survive here.
As a unified dynasty, resisting foreign enemies was one of its important tasks.
Especially during the Western Han Dynasty, the policy at the time of its establishment was to resist the invasion of the Huns from outside the Great Wall. Liu Bang even moved the originally planned capital, Luoyang, to Chang'an.
The reason is that Chang'an is closer to the invasion route of the Huns.
The reason why so much trouble is that it involves the problems that all dynasties of China had to face when they unified China.
In the vast China with a vast territory, how many roads are there between the north and the south?
The answer is four.
The first route is to go south from Chang'an, cross the Qinling Mountains, enter Hanzhong, and enter Yizhou via the Shu Road.
The second route is from Xu County (Xu Du) in the Central Plains to the south, through the Fangcheng Gap between Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, from Nanyang in Jingzhou to Xiangyang, via the Han River to the Yangtze River, and into the Jiangnan region.
The third and fourth routes both take the Huaihe Plain.
The former went from Shouchun to Hefei, passed through Chaohu Lake and crossed the Yangtze River near Liyang. The crossing point at this time was where Yuan Shu, Sun Ce and Liu Yao attacked and confronted each other.
The latter is also the last one, which is to go south along the waterway from Xuzhou, cross the river near Guangling and reach Wujun, which is now controlled by Yuan Xi!
Apart from these four roads, other roads are not suitable for large-scale population movement and marching. If you want to find another way, you can only go through the wilderness, which is a life-threatening situation.
Just like the Ziwu Valley, it is difficult to find water, the terrain is complex, and there is basically no logistics. The possibility of getting out of the mountains through it is not to say that death is certain, but it is almost one in ten thousand.
Only by understanding these four routes can we realize that the struggles among the princes of the world from north to south were all centered around the towns and ferries on these four routes. Every location on these routes can be called a battleground for military strategists!
The most important of these is the second road from the Central Plains to Jingzhou. There is a huge basin to the north of Jingzhou with the Yangtze River running through it. Following the Yangtze River, you can reach Bashu in the west, Wuhui in the east, and Xudu and Luoyang in the north. It is the most important key node for communication between the north and the south.
Whoever occupies Jingzhou can advance and covet the whole world, or retreat and split the four directions, and no one can get around it.
That is why the princes from all sides planned to occupy Jingzhou, and many twists and turns and unexpected stories happened around it.
It is so difficult to travel between the north and the south of China, and when foreign invaders invade the north, there are even fewer roads to take.
The Tianshan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, Yinshan Mountains, and Yanshan Mountains from west to east form a complete line of defense. Most of the time, foreign invaders can only move south through two gaps.
The first route is to go south through the gap in the Helan Mountains to Chang'an.
This is why Liu Bang moved the capital to Chang'an, because Chang'an was guarding the first-line gap and could recruit soldiers and grain locally at any time instead of transporting them thousands of miles from Luoyang.
The second route is Jicheng in front of Yuan Xi, and the gap in the Yanshan Mountains to the north.
The Han Dynasty adopted the policy of using the Hu to control the Hu. In Youzhou, the local Wuhuan and Xianbei were used to guard against the Xianbei nomadic tribes outside the Great Wall. In Bingzhou, the Southern Xiongnu were used to guard against the Northern Xiongnu. After two hundred years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this policy was quite effective.
Only Yuan Xi knew that the seemingly solid dam had actually been corroded by countless ants and was riddled with holes. Once it reached the critical point, it would collapse, and the ensuing flood would sweep across the world.
The aftermath of the Five Barbarians' Invasion raged for hundreds of years, with the people wailing and lives suffering. It was not until the Sui and Tang dynasties that it gradually subsided, but the damage it caused will remain forever in history and memory.
This opened a Pandora's box for the foreign tribes, making them realize how simple and easy it was to invade the Central Plains from Youzhou to the south. Since then, the iron hooves have been wreaking havoc, and under the flood, the people in the north have suffered and there has been little peace.
As a result, Youzhou became a place where foreign tribes rose up and moved south, and disasters and chaos arose from it throughout the dynasties.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, no effective countermeasures were found. The situation reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty, when the Mongolian cavalry trampled all over the country.
A thousand years passed before the Ming Dynasty came to its senses and moved the capital from Jianye to Beijing. From then on, China no longer needed to transport troops and food across thousands of miles to resist foreign invaders from the north. Instead, the emperor guarded the national border, just like Liu Bang did in Chang'an.
When Yuan Xi thought of this, his heart was filled with emotion and he stood up excitedly, but he forgot that the carriage was low and his head hit the top of the wall.
Zhen Mi and Madam Wu looked at Yuan Xi in surprise. Yuan Xi covered his head and smiled, "I thought of something very important."
Although the Ming Dynasty failed in the end, it was a thousand years before it ended. It would be better to start now. No matter what the final result would be, he wanted to give it a try to see if he could divert the ruthless torrent of history.
Jicheng was vaguely visible in the distance, and rows of black dots appeared on the horizon. As the two sides gradually approached, Yuan Xi took out a telescope and saw that the leader was Zhao Yun.
He jumped off the carriage, galloped away, and laughed, "Brother Zilong, long time no see!"