Liang Qi and the others traveled on the same road with Lin Jue for a long time, and they didn't encounter any trouble when they passed through the Yexian officers and soldiers checkpoint. After all, a few months have passed since the last incident, and the inventory outside the mountain has been loosened a lot. The officers and soldiers of Ye County were a little more afraid of the mountain bandits in Funiu Mountain after the last attack, so they canceled more checkpoints, and only set up military station checkpoints on the main roads close to the county seat, and there was no danger for everyone to be mixed with the people.

After entering the county seat of Yexian County, you can still see the portraits of the mountain bandits hanging in the city. Among them is a portrait of Lin Jue. However, Lin Jue was not afraid, because he had already taken off the mask he had been wearing for a few months, and had changed from a middle-aged ugly man with a sallow complexion to a handsome young man with a white face.

At noon, Lin Jue and Liang Qi parted ways after having a meal in the restaurant. Liang Qi: They went out to the mountains to purchase rice seeds, in order to produce in the spring of Luoyan Valley this spring. This time, you don't have to go to Ruzhou City, you can solve the matter in the county seat of Yexian. Lin Jue and the others had to continue to rush to the northwest and head to the direction of the capital.

After lunch, Lin Jue hired a big car in the county seat, and the three masters and servants left the county seat of Yexian County and headed north. That night, we stayed in the county seat of Ruzhou. In the early morning of the next day, we hired a car from Ruzhou to the northwest and crossed Yingshui, arriving in Xinzheng that night. Asking about the itinerary in Xinzheng, it was only more than 100 miles away from the capital.

After that, the road went smoothly, and after a two-day trip, the scene of Xiao Suo on the road gradually became prosperous, and even the official road was much wider and more heroic. The style and dress of the people in the houses, especially the mental state of the people, are very different from those of the people in the states and counties through which they passed. Lin Jue knew that Bianliang City was in front of him.

On the afternoon of the first day of the third month of the fifth year of the Great Zhou Qingfeng, in the warm and bright spring light, Lin Jue's master and servant arrived at the Xishan Post Road in the west of Bianliang City. After crossing the Xishan hill at an altitude of only 100 meters, on the plain of a flat river far ahead, there is a place where the shadows and shadows of the smoke are sufficient, and a large city with thousands of gates and ravines, layers of tiles and buildings, and thousands of meteorological conditions stands on the horizon in the distance like a mirage.

That is Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The reason why the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty was located in Bianliang has long been criticized. It is true that the location of Bianliang is a flat river, except for the Yellow River in the north, there is almost no danger to defend. It can be said that it is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and as the capital of a country, it is extremely unsuitable in terms of geographical location. But in fact, there are many deep-seated reasons for the capital here.

First of all, before the establishment of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the threat to Bianliang City was nothing more than the Western Xia and Liao States. Among them, the threat of Western Xia was the greatest. However, the Great Zhou State soon destroyed the Western Xia Kingdom, except for this major trouble, so the threat of foreign enemies to Bianliang was not as great as imagined. The focus of Liao's power was in the eastern Liaodong area, and the main place of military confrontation with the Great Zhou Dynasty was in the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun in the northeast of the Great Zhou, so there was not much threat to the place where Bianzhou was located.

Secondly, the deeper reason is not that the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty learned the lessons of the fall of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was destroyed by the division of the feudal towns, destroyed by the external heavy and the internal light, and the power of the feudal towns destroyed in the local areas was too huge, and even the ambition was too big to lose. As a result, many of the systems of the Great Zhou Dynasty learned lessons. For example, the emphasis is on civil rule and light on force. The status of the literati was unprecedentedly high, and the status of the warriors was low. It also made out the government hall and the Privy Council and the three divisions. This system of decentralization of powers between the two governments and three departments separates the military, government, and financial powers, and effectively puts an end to the possibility of excessive power and autocratic power of powerful ministers.

The Great Zhou Dynasty completely changed the situation of the Tang Dynasty being heavy on the outside and light on the inside, and implemented the policy of strong cadres and weak branches. The quantity and quality of the central forbidden army far exceeded that of the local soldiers, and the emperor held the military power tightly and held the power alone. The implementation of this policy will undoubtedly require a large number of forbidden troops to be stationed near the capital. At the beginning of the founding of the country, the number of forbidden troops reached 150,000. Then, with so many soldiers and horses stationed near the capital, the amount of supplies and grain and grass provided is an extremely large amount. And there is no place like Bianliang as convenient transportation, because there is the Bianhe River and the Wuzhang River connecting the canal, which can quickly transport the grain and grass materials in the southeast to supply a large amount of soldiers and horses.

It can be said that the main reason why Bianliang became the capital is that its geographical location is in line with the founding policy of the Great Zhou Dynasty. It is the necessity of chance. Of course, there are many subtle reasons that come into play, but this is the main one. Because of this, Bianliang City has gradually grown from a small city with a population of less than 100,000 to a scale of a few days.

It is no exaggeration to say that Bianliang City is the world's largest capital city in this era, with a city outline of more than 30 miles, and the outer city has 12 land gates and 4 water gates. With a population of nearly 1.6 million, there are hundreds of large and small streets, many shops, and countless government residences. In this city, there are as many as 200,000 soldiers and horses of the most elite soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou Forbidden Army alone. In addition, there are as many as 50,000 military chambers in the city, various public offices, and various armed forces. Each of these data makes this city undoubtedly the largest metropolis in the world today.

Lin Jue's master and servant went down the official road of Xishan and went all the way to Bianliang City. Finally being able to see the style of this prosperous Kyoto, Lin Jue was very excited. He had been here before, but that time was very different from this time. That time he came to the capital to take the exam, he was more concerned about the Spring Exam, and he had no time to worry about anything else. The appearance of the capital in my memory is also very vague, but I just remember a lot of people and a lot of cars and horses. It was just a passing passerby. But this time, Lin Jue came with a sense of taste, appreciation and awe, which was naturally a different feeling.

With the bustling crowd, Lin Jue's master and servant slowly walked towards the majestic city along the official road on the bank of the Bianshui River. On the south side of the official road, a large river meanders into the city. On the riverbank, the young willows that draw out new shoots are faint as smoke, which is the sign of new spring. Above the river, ships laden with cargo are constantly shuttling back and forth. Lin Jue couldn't help but marvel at it, this was already such a busy scene before entering the city. When I got to the city, I didn't know what it was.

From ten miles away from the city, there is a long pavilion leading to the city gate, every other mile, the long pavilion can be seen in the people of Eguan brocade clothes to the wine when singing, the silk bamboo music melodious and tactful. Lin Jue thought to himself, that is the Changting farewell literati to send their friends out of Beijing again.

Soon after, the crowd arrived at the West Water Gate in the southwest of Bianliang City. The big river crossed the city gate into the city, half of the city gate was built on the water, half across the Bianhe River, but it is somewhat similar to the scene of the North Gate of Hangzhou. The moment Lin Jue's master and servant entered the city gate from the checkpoint of the outer city gate, he felt a warm sound and smell coming to his nose. After only walking for a short while, I suddenly felt that my eyes were not enough, my ears were not enough to hear, and my nose was not enough to smell. People and cars in all directions, boats and horses, bustling and noisy, red robes and green jackets, all kinds of sounds and pictures rushed to him, so that the three masters and servants stood like chickens on the street on the bank of the Bianhe River in the city gate.

But seeing that the people on both sides of the Bianhe River are like weaving, the prosperity is beyond Lin Jue's imagination, the riverside shops are lined up one after another, there are countless boats of all sizes on the Bianshui River, and there is a stone arch bridge built on the river after a short time, and the two sides of the river are unimpeded.

As far as the eye can see, there are boaters, horseback riders, chariot drivers, walking and wandering, carrying burdens, carrying bags, carrying heavy loads, buying and selling things, officials with their shoulders crossed, beggars shrunk under the wall, soldiers beating horses and scolding all the way, hawkers shouting and selling, Jianghu artists playing monkeys and tricks, and tea customers foaming at the mouth in the teahouse...... A whole picture of the whole market.

Where you hear it, you can hear the sound of shouting, the sound of silk and bamboo, the sound of singing, the sound of chickens and dogs barking, the sizzle of boiling water in the teahouse, the cooing of old soup in the noodle house, shouting, scolding, laughing, crying...... All kinds of sounds rushed to everyone like a torrent, like a noisy symphony.

The smell in the nose is fragrant from the delicacies on the street, smelly from the wooden cart that pulls dung next to you, and in addition, there are sour, fishy, spiced, and spicy smells,...... It's like overturning the Five Flavors Pavilion, and the oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar jars and jars have been overturned.

Looking overhead, the curtains erected by the shops on the side of the street are displayed, colorful flags are fluttering, red lanterns, green flags, white curtains, black plaques, yellow railings, full of color, and the eyes are so colorful that the eyes can't see it.

Lin Jue has seen "Qingming Riverside Map", when he was on Earth, he once saw in a museum an animated picture scroll that was reproduced with modern technology and could make all the mission vehicles, horses and ships on the Qingming Riverside Map move. At that time, Lin Jue felt incredible. I also confidently think that it is artistically processed and exaggerated, not written. But now that the scene in front of him is compared with the picture, Lin Jue has realized that the scene of Bianliang, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, is far inferior to the scene of Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The painting still depicts the scene of the Qingming Festival, and at the moment it is neither a solar term nor a festival, just an ordinary day, and the bustling and lively street market in front of him has surpassed that painting. If it were a festival, it would be a prosperous scene.

It took the three of them a long time to recover. It stands to reason that the three of them are all from Hangzhou City, and they are also people from a big place. The population of Hangzhou is also more than one million, and it seems that it will not be so surprised here. But they were still as stunned as the countrymen entering the city.

The capital is the capital, and the city at the feet of the Son of Heaven is different after all. The temperament of that crowd has a sense of oppression that makes people panic. To use an inappropriate analogy, the prosperity of Hangzhou is as quiet and calm as the courtyard of a scholarly house, while the prosperity of the capital is as vast and domineering as that of a wealthy family, and the latter brings people a more direct sense of oppression.

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