The curtain of the carriage was lifted, Yang Yue leaned into Yang Yuanzhao's carriage, and the continuous trek, especially on the dusty Loess Plateau, everyone was gray and abrupt, even Yang Yue, who paid attention to dressing up, looked like a foreign student, more like an ordinary person.

"Cousin Ji!" Yang Yuanzhao looked at Yang Yue in surprise and asked, "Is there something wrong?" ”

"Brother Yuanzhao, let's not go to Taiyuan today, let's go to my house to rest!"

"But, over there in Taiyuan?"

"I've already asked people to book tickets, it's tomorrow afternoon, let's rest for the night, and we'll be in time?"

Yang Yue's home, in Taiping, Taiping, is just a small town in Shanxi, in the history of the late Qing Dynasty, this town is not small, in this town with only a few dozen villages, but the birth of the four families, Taiping is the source and hometown of the four families, the glory of the Jin merchants, a large part, is Taiping Chuangzào, the Yang family, in Taiping Nanzhao, belongs to the Taiping side of the family.

The horse team began to turn at a fork in the road, left the official road, and embarked on a small road, which was a small road, but it was built better than the official road, a neat bluestone road, tamped in the roadbed, and the center was filled with Sanhe soil, and the perennial passage made them perfectly combined into one, which seemed relatively flat.

The caravan involved were all from the old Yang family, and the general manager of the caravan, Yang Defa, was Yang Yue's distant fourth uncle, the direct line of the Yang family, Yang Yue's father and four uncles, after they started 20 years ago, they began to branch out, forming a huge Yang family and accumulating huge wealth, so that the Yang family compound that had already been sold was bought back.

The history of the Yang family compound can be traced back to the Kangxi period, once, as the Jin Shang family of the imperial merchants, in the long years, or moved out, or declined, the history of the feudal dynasty for hundreds of years depends on the will of the superior, often the ruler's order, can bring about the rise and fall of a family, as the master of wealth of the Jin Shang, and belong to the first of them.

"Peace has arrived!" With the shouting of the guys, it seems that the whole convoy is full of excitement, this is the feeling of home, after hundreds of kilometers of arduous trekking, they finally arrived at their base camp, Yang Yuanzhao, who is very curious about the ancient town of Taiping, also opened the curtain of the carriage, and what came into his eyes was an antique building in the late Qing Dynasty, one by one with an elegant layout, the shop pù inside and outside, the lively flow of people, the most striking thing is the front, the three-story tall attic, here is the most iconic building in Taiping

On the ancient shop on the third floor, there was a signboard written on it, and Yang Yuanzhao recognized it and read: "Weijia ticket number!" He knew for a while, this should be the general number of the Wei family's ticket number, the Wei family can be unique among the four families, known as the first of the four families, it is not for nothing, even in later generations, the financial industry is also one of the largest categories that gave birth to a large number of super-rich people and world companies, and even in many countries, the financial industry still contains countless invisible rich people.

In addition to the initial preferential treatment, to the later suppression and blackmail, the Jin merchants occupied a smaller and smaller position in China's territory, but the ticket number became the industry in which the Jin merchants were most involved.

The tradition of Jin merchants, from the original ordinary business, to transportation, commercial wholesale, and then to the ticket number, Shanxi's ticket number, once became the central bank of the Qing government, when the center could not take out the funds, the ticket number, but can easily take out millions, or even more funds, which is also the root of Shanxi Jin merchants' enduring roots.

Taiping can be said to be the core of the four families, in addition to the Weijia ticket number, the Yang family and the Liu family have a general number in Taiping, the caravan did not stay too much in Taiping Town, homecoming, after more than half of the carriage was divided, the remaining carriage began to go quickly to the south, the rich do not return home like brocade night travel, Jin merchants in the fortune, more Hui Ze and the township, build bridges and roads, build ancestral halls, open up schools, so from Taiping to Nanzhao, all the way are blue brick paved roads, the speed is a lot faster.

That is, in more than an hour, there is a huge village in front, it seems, almost a few square kilometers, is leaning on the side of a dirt mountain, on the soil mountain, there is no unique cave in Shanxi, but to create some gardens, and under the earth mountain, stretching is the house of blue bricks and tiles, stretching for several miles.

"Brother Yuanzhao, our Yang family has lasted for several generations, and now among the clans, they all live here, and the most central one is the compound of our Yang family!"

The Yang family compound, Yang Yuanzhao's later generations have heard of a lot of such and such compounds, the Yang family compound does not seem to be as well-known as the Qiao family and the Wang family, but looking at the pomp in front of him, he is really amazed, the mansion with a history of more than 200 years, entrusting the weight of history, after generations of construction, once when the Yang family was not prosperous, these houses, basically sold, since the old man of the Yang family started 20 years ago, spent huge financial resources and connections, step by step to take back the old mansion, renovate the new building, This mansion with more than 300 different courtyards has been formed, which is also the foundation of the Nanzhao Yang family.

Yang Yue took Yang Yuanzhao to move forward slowly, the entire Yang family compound is divided into three parts: the East Courtyard, the West Courtyard and the Xiaoyi Temple, the Xiaoyi Ancestral Hall, as the ancestral hall of the Yang family, will not be opened until the New Year's Festival ancestor worship or the heavy dà event, under normal circumstances, are tightly closed, closed and huge courtyards, showing a trace of tranquility and mystery, the East Courtyard and the West Courtyard, as the main body of the Yang Family Compound, are divided into five lanes and five forts, of which the layout of the five courtyards is divided into five kinds of dragons, phoenixes, turtles, linhu, all Ming Dynasty rough style, almost every step, You can see exquisite stone carvings and murals, many of which have historical scars, but after the Yang family made a fortune, they began to build and transform these murals and stone carvings.

Slowly stepped into the core of the Yang family, almost changing the scene, and a thick ancient wind blew.

"That's Fort Red Gate!" Yang Yue pointed to the core of the entire building, which was based on dragon-shaped carvings, and said, "That's where my eldest uncle lives!" ”

Red Gate Fort (Dragon) is the core, he is in the most central position of the whole complex, close to the Xiaoyi Temple, living in the Yang family's big house, they are the heirs, bearing the heavy responsibility of guarding the ancestral hall, the Yang family is in the third room, so they live in Chongning Fort separated by a wall from the Red Gate Fort.

The architectural style of Chongning Fort is generally similar to that of Hongmen Fort, the building leans on a high slope, bears the yin and hugs the yang, the fort wall is towering, the courtyard is uneven, simple and rough, close to the style of the Ming Dynasty.

Along the way, it took more than an hour, almost an approximate courtyard, but it was able to make Yang Yue say a truth, finally, after crossing the bridge, came to the main courtyard of Chongning Fort, the entire Yang family compound, the five main courtyards, are all three-entry courtyards, and various small courtyards around are in it, which is particularly chic.

Yang Yuanzhao had no time to watch TV series in his previous life because of his busy work, so he occasionally glanced at it, but he just felt that the luxury of Jin merchants mentioned on TV was really in this scene, and as a VIP, he was welcomed into the Yang family, only to find that there was no way to express luxury. The red lanterns are hung high, the night has not fallen, it reflects the lights of the entire Yang family, the Yang family compound covers a huge area, there are dozens of different gates, the main gate is the most important in the old era, unless it is a distinguished guest, otherwise the main gate is not opened. Even the gate of Chongning Fort is not allowed to be opened.

Yang Yue said with some embarrassment: "Brother Yuanzhao, let's go from this side!" ”

Yang Yuanzhao didn't care, he didn't know the rules of the big family, but he also knew that there must be a lot of things in a family with such a big mansion that he didn't know, but when he entered the house, there was not much difference between walking from the front gate and walking from the side door.

Just next to the main entrance, a slightly biased majestic gate, at this time the door was wide open, a middle-aged man who looked ordinary, but extremely imposing, stood in front of the door, behind him was a middle-aged beauty, and seven or eight people dressed up to stand beside him.

Yang Yue's face showed a hint of a smile, and he said excitedly: "Yuan Zhao, my parents are here!" ”