Chapter Twelve: The Six States of Chu

  Longmen Mountain is a mountain range on the outer edge of the Qingshi Mountain Range, named by Longmen Biaoju. In short, it's just part of the outer edge of the Qingshi Mountain Range.

  Longmen Mountain covers an area of dozens of miles, with dozens of large and small peaks, each of which is very dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack, and there are also open or secret sentry posts.

  If Longmen Town falls, then Longmen Mountain will be the last resort for the Dragon Gate Escort Agency.

  June 1st, early morning.

  Zhang Yang and a group of young men and women from Qing Shi County walked up the stone steps, following Liu Chong to the main peak of Longmen Mountain, Chaoyang Peak.

  Along the way, many teams of young boys and girls can be seen, all led by a man wearing black tight-fitting clothes, heading in the same direction as Chaoyang Peak.

  Zhang Yang already knew that this black attire was a special uniform of the Longmen Escort Agency, with two small characters "Longmen" embroidered on the cuff.

  Tight-fitting attire, representing ease of movement. In the Jianghu world, it's inevitable to engage in hand-to-hand combat with others. This black color also represents some advantages at night.

  Liu Chong led the way in front, occasionally greeting the leaders of other teams they met on the road. He seemed to have a good relationship with many people and was familiar with quite a few of them.

  Li Qingyu walked beside Zhang Yang, her recommender was a fellow practitioner found by Liu Chong.

  After walking for about half a time, everyone arrived at the top of Chaoyang Peak.

  What made Zhang Yang stunned was that on top of Chaoyang Peak, there was a vast open space paved with bluestone, which was several times the size of a football field!

  At this time, the sun had just risen and was shining on the vast bluestone square, looking very beautiful!

  On the bluestone square, there were already many young men and women gathered, as well as teams that had just arrived, such as Zhang Yang's.

  Liu Zhong led Zhang Yang and others to a old man with a goat beard and a ruddy complexion, and respectfully said: "Director Wang, this is the person recommended by Qing Shi County."

  The old man, known as Wang Zongguan, was originally expressionless, but upon hearing this, his eyes lit up in front of him, and his gaze swept across Zhang Yang and the others before finally landing on Zhang Yang. He laughed heartily and said: "So this is Madame Ruan's little brother!"

  Zhang Yang has a few similarities with Zhang Rang'er between his eyebrows, and he is still recognizable in terms of dressing.

  "It's exactly what I said."

  Zhang Yang cupped his fists and respectfully replied with a single word. On the way here, he had already heard Liu Chong mention the identity of this person in front of him.

  The Dragon Gate Escort Agency holds a disciple selection every five years, all of which are personally supervised by the agency's chief manager to ensure fairness.

  The Dragon Gate Escort Agency's general manager, not only is he the steward of the master, Officer Guo Hong, but also in charge of Qing Shi and Le An two counties, big or small businesses, it can be said that he is Officer Guo Hong's number one confidant.

  His power is almost second only to Shangguan Wan'er!

  This Director Wang's changing expression, this perfect look, the warm laughter, couldn't help but make Zhang Yang sigh in admiration. Indeed, he was a seasoned veteran, grasping the subtleties of human emotions with ease, not something ordinary people could compare to.

  It was as if we were family from the moment we met.

  The eunuch pointed to a place not far in front of him and said with a smile: "Young master, just wait here for the assessment."

  "Thank you, sir." Zhang Yang didn't dare to be presumptuous and smiled shyly.

  Wang Zongguan nodded with a benevolent smile and then turned to Liu Chong, saying calmly: "Thanks for your trouble, young brother."

  "A matter of minutes."

  Liu Chong respectfully made a bow and then walked towards the back of Wang Zongguan, among a group of men wearing strong attire.

  Zhang Yang and Zhang Tie, Li Qingyu and others from Qingshi County stood not far in front of Wang Zongguan, which was considered the front row position, watching team after team of young men and women arrive.

  These young men and women are all from various counties in Qingyuan and Le'an counties, and they have been recommended by others and have a clean family background.

  Now Zhang Yang has a general understanding of the Great Chu, some of which he heard in the wine tower over the past few days, and some were told to him by Li Qingyu, this little girl. Although Li Qingyu is only eight or nine years old, she comes from a scholarly family, and although her father is just a scholar, she is also a member of a noble family, with insights that ordinary people cannot compare to.

  The Great Chu was divided into six states.

  Chu Prefecture, the center of Chu State, as well as Jingzhou, Jingzhou, Jizhou, Jiao Zhou and Ye Prefectures.

  Chu Prefecture is the center of Great Chu, where the Emperor resides. Although it only has six counties, it is extremely prosperous and ranks first among the six states.

  Jiangdu has seven counties and is very prosperous due to the Grand Canal, second only to Chuzhou and ranking second among the six states.

  Jingzhou has exclusive jurisdiction over nine counties, but its prosperity is slightly inferior to that of Jingzhou, ranking third among the six states.

  Jingzhou has jurisdiction over five commanderies and is ranked fourth among the six provinces. Qingyuan Commandery and Le'an Commandery are both located within it.

  Jiaozhou and Yanzhou both have three counties, ranking after Jingzhou.

  The entire Chu State, six prefectures and thirty-three counties, covers an area of several tens of thousands of miles.

  The five counties of Jingzhou, including Qingyuan County and Le'an County, are dominated by the Longmen Escort Bureau. Hao Ran is a state within a state.

  Apart from Chu State's central prefecture of Chu Zhou, all other prefectures have large and small Jianghu forces.

  It can be summed up in one sentence: The imperial edict of the current sage can only be communicated to Chu State, and it can only be passed on to the prefectures of various states.

  Jingzhou, Jingzhou, Jingzhou, Jiaozhou, Ye State, each state capital occupies a county, demonstrating the existence of the imperial court.

  In Zhang Yang's view, there is a mysterious balance between the Jianghu and the imperial court.

  Qingshan County and Le'an County each have dozens of large and small county towns, with an area of thousands of miles. In other words, Longmen Escort Agency is the absolute overlord of the two-thousand-mile radius, and basically all profitable industries are under its control.

  Qingshan County's Qinglou is one of them medium-sized industries.

  These young men and women from Qingyuan County and Le'an County, some of whom, such as Zhang Yang from Qingshi County, are less than a day's journey away from Longmen Town, while others need half a month to travel back and forth, and the farthest ones, the escorts from Longmen Escort Agency, take more than a month to make a round trip.

  After waiting for a short while, on the bluestone plaza of Chaoyang Peak, there were already 700 or 800 young men and women gathered.

  Among them were three people who came on their own initiative, which made Zhang Yang somewhat surprised.

  The first two were the young master of the Qin Wang Fu and the county princess who had spent the festival in Qing Shi County.

  The next one was his niece, Shangguan Yu'er.

  When the three men reported to Director Wang, they all saw Zhang Yang not far away and paid attention to him.

  Zhang Yang did not expect that his niece, the daughter of the leader of the Longmen Escort Agency, would also participate in the assessment. Even more unexpected was that the young master and princess of the Qin Wang Fu were actually going to enter the Longmen Escort Agency!

  ……

  Seven or eight hundred people, no one spoke loudly, and the square was very quiet.

  Most of these young people are boys, girls account for about one tenth.

  Women, in this era, are obviously inferior to men in terms of surname and social status, let alone in martial arts. Moreover, women have some innate weaknesses. And when traveling with a group of escorts, it is often inconvenient for women to be together with men.

  So the number of men and women is disproportionate.

  "Alright, everyone is here, let's begin the assessment!"

  Behind Director Wang stood sixty or seventy escorts from the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, all of whom were the escorts who had gone to various counties to pick up people. This grand director spoke calmly, his voice not loud, yet clearly spreading across the bluestone square, making one feel extraordinary.

  "Martial arts also require innate talent. Some people are born with blocked or severely obstructed meridians, and no matter how hard they practice for decades, they can only become third-rate figures in the martial world. Others are born with unobstructed meridians, and after studying for just a few years, they can achieve great success."

  "So, the first test is very simple, line up and stand at attention, let the people from Dragon Gate Security Bureau inspect your qualifications."

  After Director Wang finished speaking, the seven or eight hundred young men and women on the square stood in line very consciously.

  Zhang Yang sat in the first row, and the scene before him was just like when he was in school in his past life, whether it was lining up for broadcasting exercises or raising the flag.

  It made him smile involuntarily and brought back some memories.