Chapter 1444

The road from Zhuo'an to the Yao capital was wide and straight, and it was very easy to walk. Yangshan's team was mixed in with countless convoys, moving fast and slow, and finally arrived at the most prosperous city on the Flash Gold Plain—Tianshui City.

However, the line waiting to enter the city actually stretched for three miles!

Looking from a distance, it was dark and crowded, and it didn't move forward a few steps for a long time.

He Lingchuan put his hand on his forehead to shade his eyes and praised, "So powerful."

"Brother Fan, is your Tianshui City usually this hard to enter?"

"Not necessarily, not necessarily." Fan Shuang was also startled by this battle. "It's probably because the King's birthday is approaching, and the inspection for entering and leaving Tianshui City is particularly strict."

With a major celebration imminent, Tianshui City was of course under martial law to prevent accidents.

"Crack," a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and it looked like it was about to rain.

If they had to wait in line outside the city for an hour, wouldn't they be drenched to the bone? Fan Shuang immediately said: "Let me go and facilitate it first."

After speaking, he galloped toward the city gate.

At this time, the Yao King's edict and Fan Shuang's special envoy status were particularly useful, helping the Yangshan caravan cut in line and enter Tianshui City three hours early.

June weather, a child's face. Fan Shuang had just finished negotiating, and it was already thundering in the sky.

He looked back to greet the caravan. At that time, he was backlit and happened to see a person leading a team over the hillside unhurriedly. The thick dark clouds were almost pressing on the hillside, covering his head.

He walked forward, and there were thunder and lightning snakes in the sky, as if the storm was also going to roll forward with him, approaching Tianshui City step by step.

One person, bringing a thunderbolt, rolled toward a capital city.

Fan Shuang's heart tightened, and inexplicable fear and ominousness arose.

His body and soul were fixed in place, and he couldn't take his eyes off for a while.

He stared like this for several breaths, until a child in the crowd suddenly screamed, which instantly shocked Fan Shuang back to his senses.

He looked again, hey, where is it an outsider, isn't it He Lingchuan? He Lingchuan was also smiling and waving at him, completely harmless.

Fan Shuang rubbed his eyes, not knowing why he had such an illusion.

"Brother He, Commander Zhao, come quickly, let's enter the city before the thunderstorm!"

The city was as lively as He Lingchuan and the two imagined, but the city patrol guards were also really numerous. They could meet patrolling soldiers after walking a few hundred steps, and once they encountered suspicious characters, they would immediately go up to search and interrogate.

He Lingchuan laughed: "It seems that Tianshui City is the safest during this period."

Tianshui City in the next period will be treacherous, but that is probably on a political level; as far as public security is concerned, the city is strictly guarded, and it should be the safest period before and after the Yao King's birthday.

Fan Shuang himself was also muttering: "Is the city defense actually this strict?"

Commander Zhao came from behind and said: "I asked the city gate guard, the order for martial law in the whole city was issued only this morning."

Fan Shuang was very strange: "This morning? Really strange, what happened?"

"Let me send someone into the palace to inquire."

Subsequently, Fan Shuang took He Lingchuan and others to go through the check-in procedures. Because the Sanmentou Post House is closest to the palace and has the best food, rooms are hard to find at this time of year, but He Lingchuan's guest room was reserved in advance and is waiting at any time.

This, of course, is the arrangement from above.

After drinking some water and changing clothes, Fan Shuang rushed into the palace regardless of the dark clouds pressing on the city outside, applying for an audience for He Lingchuan.

It is said that there is a complicated procedure to go through, which takes a lot of time. He Lingchuan and Dong Rui went to walk around Tianshui City.

Although he had read the information about Tianshui City in advance, He Lingchuan still felt novel when he walked into this city.

Tianshui City is very large, larger than Panlong City after its third expansion, with a permanent population of over 700,000. Adding garrison troops, temple attendants, merchants, foreign envoys, students, etc., it is more than 900,000. Its terrain is a peculiar half-mountain and half-water, including the stone mountains in the east and the large lake in the west. The houses built by the people of Tianshui City extend from the water's edge to the mountains, row upon row, dense and dense.

He Lingchuan only had four words in his mind to describe it:

Full of pits and valleys.

The buildings here are generally not high, at most three stories, with the exception of temples and high towers.

He Lingchuan glanced at it, and his eyes were attracted by the three or four high towers in front. The houses in Tianshui City are not high, but the pagodas are famously high, at least more than ten zhang. Each is a stone tower, and each floor's tower hole is embedded with golden bells or statues of gods.

The Yao people believe that the higher the stone tower dedicated to the gods, the better. The higher the tower is built, the more pious the people are. The high tower dedicated to the Miaozhan Heavenly God is said to be more than forty zhang, and standing on the top of the tower, one can overlook half of Tianshui City.

When the tower bell rings, it is like a whisper from the gods.

Building pagodas is a big deal. Tianshui City has a special tower management agency, specializing in the reporting, approval, inspection, and maintenance of pagodas. Civilians are not allowed to build them privately, otherwise it is an insult to the gods. Lightly, they will go to prison, and heavily, they will be hanged.

In fact, although the name Tianshui City carries the word "water," there are a large number of stone buildings built with local materials in this city. High towers, temples, palaces, and even the riverbank pools that connect the whole city are all cut from large pieces of light brown or light red sandstone.

Therefore, the main tone of the entire Tianshui City is gray-brown and dark red. Except for the temple roofs being painted gold, other buildings also like to use red clay to burn tiles. But skillful craftsmen also try to add more colors to the buildings, such as indigo, goose yellow, deep green, and even deep black and plain white.

Looking at it, it is dotted with colorful colors between brown and ochre.

Because of the use of a large amount of stone and a variety of colors, Tianshui City under the sun combines magnificence and vicissitudes, coldness and vitality.

He Lingchuan had an illusion when walking on the street, as if he had returned to the capital of the Chiyan Nation, one of the vassal states of Beijia. The number of monsters here is second to none among the cities on the Flash Gold Plain, but the streets are also equally narrow, especially the alleys that turn and turn, some only allowing people to pass sideways, and fat people stop.

Tianshui City has been around for a long time, and the previous urban planning no longer meets current life needs, especially in the central area. He Lingchuan heard Fan Shuang complain more than once that every time there is extreme rain, the city center will be waterlogged, and people have drowned in it for several years.

Because of the high and low terrain, this is almost impossible to solve, and accumulated water is very difficult to drain.

Fan Shuang also told them that when they first arrived, they should just walk on the main street and not go to the side alleys behind. But what kind of people are He Lingchuan and Dong Rui? It would be strange if they listened.

The main street is brightly lit, and as soon as they turn into the alley, the light source immediately decreases by more than half.

There are also shops here, but the storefronts and signs are small.

The two passed by a strange shop, which was almost leaking wind on all four sides, with only a roof on top, and the mud walls were embedded with gray-white clam shells, and the roof could no longer be seen.

Dong Rui said: "This place looks like a stable."

But there was not a single horse in the "stable," but it was crowded with people.

(End of chapter)