Chapter 72: Entering Chang'an for the First Time

  "Uncle, is that Chang'an City up ahead? Wow, it's really big! Brother Heng, we've arrived in Chang'an City." Along the way, Little Niang couldn't sit still for a moment, constantly asking "How much longer?" and "Are we there yet?" "Yes, Little Niang, Chang'an City is just up ahead. We'll be able to see our general soon."

  Yang Heng finally decided to bring his younger brother's family and all the children into the city to live, while several uncles and aunts were naturally very happy, although they couldn't enter the city, but since the children went, it was as if they had gone too. The younger brother followed, of course, with Yang Heng's idea, some of his plans still needed the younger brother's help to complete.

  So, this group of people was quite a few, Yang Heng's family originally had a cow cart, and there were also two cow carts brought by these Wu Hou, which made three cow carts, pulling the children, Auntie, and several maidservants. Yang Heng rode horses with several Wu Hou who came together, and dozens of people walked in the snowy ground.

  Before arriving at Chang'an City, the little girl kept asking to get off and slide on the snowboard. She never had a moment of leisure, often pulling open the curtain of the cow cart to look outside, making it cold inside. The cart was filled with several children, who naturally didn't dare to speak out, or else they would be in trouble.

  "Alright, little girl, we're going into the city now. You're a lady, you should be a gentlewoman, do you understand?" "Yes, I'm a gentlewoman, a very sensible one too." As they spoke, the curtain that had been fluttering noisily all along finally came to rest quietly.

  "Uncle, are we entering from the west gate?" Suddenly, Yang Heng realized that they had been walking along the city wall all this time. Looking at their direction, the city wall was on the east side, so naturally, they were walking on the west side of Chang'an City.

  "Ah, young master, yes, the front is the Golden Light Gate, we don't enter from the Golden Light Gate, but rather from the Yanping Gate. We'll be there soon, this Chang'an City is big, right?" Ah, this city isn't your home, are you worthy of being so proud? However, having this pride is also understandable, only with such a spirit can one create a prosperous era like the Zhenyuan era."

  "Look, I've arrived. The Yanping Gate is just ahead. Ah, that's...that's the general." "Ah-yeh, how did you get here? It's after work hours." Yang Heng hastily spoke out some phrases from his past life, "What are you saying, 'after work hours'? Are you implying I'm off-duty? The sky is already dark, what am I still doing inside the government office? Let's head back home."

  He nodded to the soldier guarding the gate, then led the carriage and horse teams inside. "This is a street in Chang'an City, it's really wide." Yang Heng exclaimed as he looked at the street in front of him, which was about 50-60 meters wide. "Young master, this is still a small street, you haven't seen Zhuque Street, its width is three times that of this street." Ah, Duke Wu's pride has come again.

  "We're here, our home is just ahead. This is Yong'an Square, remember it. If you get lost in the city, you can ask a wuhou to take you back directly. The entire western district is under my jurisdiction, and there's no wuhou who doesn't know me. Even in the eastern district, those wuhous also know me." Old Dad couldn't help but feel proud too.

  "Wow, Uncle, this is our new home! It's really big!" After Father's voice fell, the little girl jumped down first. She had been pretending to be a lady since she saw Chang'an City, but it was suffocating her. Now that they were home, there was no need to pretend anymore.

  "Really, little girl do you like it? If you like it, I'll find a big house for you inside." Old dad also happily teased the little girl, "Hmm, no need, uncle, the little girl and sister Niuzi live together, just one small house is enough, living in a big house is too wasteful."

  That's who taught her, Yang Heng didn't assign them separate rooms, and who lived with whom in one room, it seems that when they came, the uncles and aunts had instructed them.

  Saying so, Wu Hou had already opened the gate in front of him. "The ground here is still good, but it's not very warm inside the room. It seems that we will have to trouble you again, little brother. We need to renovate each room first and make them like those with fireplaces and heated floors at home. That way, it'll be warmer." Old Dad said as he led everyone into the courtyard.

  "Alright, it's late today, you all go back first. When I have time, I'll invite the brothers for a drink. You've worked hard." This old man can also speak politely? Why is he always like that in front of Yang Heng? It seems he really doesn't know how to be a father.

  "Da Zi, go and take the horses and cows to the fourth livestock shed, then feed them, and come back to help with packing. Xiao Lian, lead a few people to start cooking first. Little brother, and you several, follow me to clean up our living room. Today we'll just make do, a few people can squeeze into one room for now, and tomorrow we'll arrange your accommodations." Soon, Father had everything arranged, unloading the carts wasn't urgent, what was most important now was cooking and eating, after all they'd been on the road for a whole day, and on the way they'd only eaten some dry rations.

  Looking at the current situation, Yang Heng felt a little lucky. Fortunately, he had brought all the fire basins that he had burned on New Year's Eve over the years, and also let the horses bring some charcoal. If not, tonight would have been a suffering night. However, burning fire basins at night meant that the doors and windows couldn't be closed too tightly, otherwise it would easily lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. Yang Heng seemed to recall from his past life that many people in this era died from burning fire basins, but those were all big households. At night, they would close their doors and windows tightly, naturally leading to coal gas poisoning. Farming families only froze to death, without any cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.

  Yang Heng didn't care about the accommodation issue, he first went out to observe the outside environment, because he found that before entering Yong'an Square, there seemed to be a river flowing on the west side, which was just outside his own courtyard wall.

  As expected, when he went out, he found that there was a river outside, and this river seemed to have turned a bend and pulled out a tributary into his own courtyard. But why didn't he see the river in the courtyard? So Yang Heng followed the river back home and only then discovered that there was a section of stone pavement on the ground in the courtyard, and the river flowed under it. It seems that the previous owner had diverted the river here for some unknown purpose. Now it's all frozen, and I don't know how big the water flow is. Let's see if it can drive a waterwheel. Yang Heng was thinking of setting up a waterwheel to use as power.