Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 287 Important Passage
The car shook for a while, Zhen Mi opened her eyes, and saw herself leaning on the shoulder of Yuan Xi who was sitting tight, and Madam Wu sitting opposite her with her eyes closed, she said embarrassedly: "My concubine is asleep."

She twitched her nostrils, wondering: "Why does it have a faint smell?"

Madam Wu, who was pretending to sleep, quietly clamped her legs.

Yuan Xi lifted the curtain and said with a smile: "Ma'am, look, the flowers outside are all blooming."

What catches the eye is the flowers all over the mountains and plains.

When Zhen Mi saw it, she was pleasantly surprised: "It's so beautiful!"

At this time, just from winter to spring, the first batch of flowers have already bloomed in the wind.

"In front of the Huangshi Pagoda, the river is east, and the spring is lazy and leaning on the breeze. Peach blossoms bloom in clusters, and the lovely deep red loves the light red."

This is a pale pink mountain peach flower, which grows on several stems and blooms quietly on the branches, like a restrained and dignified Xiaojiabiyu.

"The small building listens to the spring rain all night, and the deep lane sells apricot flowers in the Ming Dynasty."

This is a white apricot flower, but the calyx is crimson. The contrast between the white petals and the crimson calyx is extremely sharp. It looks like a lady from a great family. She has a fair and charming appearance, and the gorgeous and noble service is unforgettable.

"Jinying Cuicalyx is cold in spring, how many yellow flowers are there?"

This is a golden winter jasmine, with branches like shaggy grass, growing in clumps on the ground, spreading all over the sky. Although it is low, it blooms wildly and wildly, blooming with vitality, just like those who survive in this difficult and chaotic world. Common people.

This looks the cheapest, the shortest, and the most numerous wildflower, but it has the most noble and noble color.

Zhen Mi followed Yuan Xi's fingers, listened to his explanation one by one, and exclaimed: "Your husband really knows a lot."

She turned her head, her eyes turned into crescent moons, "I follow my husband, and I can see many unforgettable scenery in this life, but I can't do it when I stay in Yecheng."

Yuan Xi saw Zhen Mi smiling brightly and gracefully, and felt a little guilty. He secretly wiped off his sweat, and couldn't help but sneak a glance at Mrs. Wu.

Madam Wu turned her head and looked out of the window, feeling Yuan Xi's gaze, feeling resentful in her heart, she pretended to be quite like it!

She turned her eyes to the apricot blossoms on the branches. In the center of the blooming petals, there was a wild bee flying up and down flexibly. The sweet nectar was dripping from the stamens, and she suddenly felt a little hot on her face.

Suddenly she felt annoyed, and quickly stuck her head out of the window, retching.

Zhen Mi hurriedly leaned forward to help her caress her back, took out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and handed it to Madam Wu's mouth, Madam Wu quickly took it and wiped the corners of her mouth, Yuan Xi couldn't help coughing dryly when she saw this movement.

Mrs. Wu vomited for a long time before she calmed down. She blushed and said, "My concubine lost her composure."

Zhen Mi smiled and said: "Madam, there is no need to blame yourself, it's all a good deed done by your husband."

Mrs. Yuan Xiwu originally had a ghost in her heart, but now she dared not answer the conversation, so she had to change the topic.

In the chaotic spring scenery, the carriage bumped slightly and slowly approached Jicheng.

The so-called Ji character originated from the state of Ji in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The state of Ji was not far from the state of Yan. Later, Yan destroyed Ji, and its capital was Jicheng, so later generations called Beijing the land of Yanji.

The name of Ji City in the State of Ji should be derived from Jiqiu, the name of Jiqiu. It was named Jiqiu because of the "mountains with many jicao". It is similar to Chu (Jing) Kingdom, which is named after the grass and the country after the place.

At this time, Jicheng, also known as Jixian, is now in the area of ​​Beijing, and Jizhou, Tianjin, in later generations, is in the area of ​​Yongnu where everyone set off before, and there is a difference of several hundred miles between the two sides.

The distance that later generations can reach in an hour at the fastest, but in this era, it takes ten days to walk alone.

Because the ancient road is really too difficult to walk.

The ancient landforms are full of weeds and forests. What's more troublesome is that there are many branches of rivers and swamps everywhere, making it difficult for people to walk.

Therefore, the roads that are slightly walkable are all opened up by people. Even so, when the weather is bad, the roads are muddy, and it is not uncommon for them to walk ten miles a day.

Because there are many rivers, the roads are often cut off on both sides of the rivers, requiring wading to cross the river. The dry season in spring is better, but in summer, many roads will be cut off, which greatly affects production and life.

After wandering around for a long time, the team finally found a place where they could cross the river. The stream was only a foot deep. The coachman jumped off his horse and drove the horse to pull the cart across the stream.

The soldiers at the back took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and quickly ran to the bank in the icy cold stream. Their teeth were bared and their mouths were cracked. They sat on the bank and picked up a few weeds, and dried their feet a little before they put on clothes. Put on your shoes.

The team continued on the road, there were mountains and rivers along the way, and there were several thatched huts between the hillsides, and smoke rose from time to time. Yuan Xi realized that it was quite reasonable for the later Ming Dynasty to set Beijing as the capital.

Its rich water system is one reason why it is suitable as the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but it cannot be ignored. This geographical location is indeed a must for military strategists.

Jicheng is located at the junction of the Yanshan Mountains and the North China Plain. In front of it is the pass for foreigners to go south, and behind it is the plain of Yimapingchuan. Naturally, it has become an important pass that hinders nomads from going south.

Moreover, most of the foreign threats China faces come from the west and north. Because the west is blocked by the plateau, the cost of foreigners entering the Guanzhong area is very high, but the north is different.

In the north of Jixian County, outside the Great Wall, nomads live by water and grass. However, in ancient times, cattle, horses and livestock were very dependent on grassland, and the condition of grassland was extremely dependent on the weather.

If the climate turns cold, the pastures will not be able to grow enough pasture, and the nomads will enter the customs and plunder under the threat of survival.

This is a matter of life and death. In front of this, there is no such thing as moral agreement or good-neighborly friendship.

This is also the reason why the folk customs in the border areas are tough, especially in Youzhou, where they will face horse thieves and bandits day and night, and weak people cannot survive here.

As a unified dynasty, resisting foreign enemies is one of its important tasks.

Especially in the Western Han Dynasty, the policy at the time of the establishment of the dynasty was to resist the invasion of the Huns outside the Great Wall, and even Liu Bang moved the original capital Luoyang to Chang'an.

Without him, it is because Chang'an is closer to the route of the Huns' invasion.

The reason why it took such a lot of trouble involved the problems that all Chinese dynasties had to face when they were unifying.

In the magnificent China, with a territory of thousands of miles, how many roads are there between the north and the south?
The answer is, four.

The first is to go south from Chang'an, cross the Qinling Mountains, pass through Hanzhong, and enter Yizhou by the Shu Road.

The second is from Xu County (Xudu) in the Central Plains to the south, crossing the Fangcheng Gap between Funiu Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, from Nanyang, Jingzhou to Xiangyang, passing the Han River to the Yangtze River, and entering the Jiangnan area.

The third and fourth are to go to the Huaihe Plain.

The former traveled from Shouchun to Hefei, passed through Chaohu Lake, and crossed the Yangtze River near Liyang. At this time, the place where Yuan Shu and Sun Ce and Liu Yao attacked and confronted each other.

The latter is also the last one, which is to go south along the waterway from Xuzhou, and cross the river near Guangling to reach Wujun, which is now controlled by Yuan Xi!
Except for these four roads, the other roads are not suitable for large-scale population movement and marching. If you want to find another way, you can only go to the wilderness, which is a narrow escape.

Just like Ziwu Valley, it is difficult to find water sources, the terrain is complicated, and there is basically no logistics. The possibility of walking out of the deep mountains through it is almost impossible, not to mention fatal.

Only after understanding these four routes, can we understand that the princes of the world are fighting from north to south, all around the towns and ferries on these four routes, and the positions on the routes can be called the battlegrounds of military strategists!
The most important of these is the second road from the Central Plains to Jingzhou. To the north of Jingzhou is a huge basin. The Yangtze River runs through it. Along the Yangtze River, you can go to Bashu in the west, Wuhui in the east, and Luoyang, the capital of Xu, in the north. It is the most important key node of North-South communication.

Whoever occupies Jingzhou will be able to advance and covet the world, and if he retreats, he will tear apart the four directions, and no one can get around.

That's why the princes of all parties planned to occupy Jingzhou one after another, and many twists and turns and unexpected stories happened around it.

Even if the north and south of China are so hard to reach, there will be even fewer roads for foreigners to invade the north.

From west to east, the Tianshan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, Yinshan Mountains, and Yanshan Mountains completely formed a line of defense. Most of the time, foreigners could only go south through two gaps.

The first is the Helan Mountain Gap to the south to Chang'an.

This is the reason why Liu Bang moved his capital to Chang'an, because Chang'an was guarding the gap in the front line, and he could conscript soldiers and food on the spot at any time, instead of transporting it all the way from Luoyang.

And the second one is Jicheng in front of Yuan Xi, and the gap in the Yanshan Mountains to the north of it.

The Han Dynasty adopted the policy of using the Hu to control the Hu. In Youzhou, the local Wuhuan Xianbei was used to guard against the Xianbei nomadic tribes outside the pass, and in Bingzhou, the Southern Huns were used to guard against the Northern Huns. After 200 years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was quite effective.

Only Yuan Xi knew that the seemingly solid dam was actually riddled with holes by countless ants. Once it reached the critical point, it would collapse, and the ensuing flood would sweep across the world.

The aftermath of this chaos has raged for hundreds of years, the people mourned, and the people were devastated. It was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that it gradually subsided, but the damage caused will remain in history and memory forever.

This opened a Pandora's box for the foreigners, allowing them to realize how easy it is to go south from Youzhou to invade the Central Plains.

As a result, Youzhou became a place where foreign dragons went south, and disasters and chaos arose in all dynasties.

From Tang to Song, no effective countermeasures were found. It reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty, and Mongolian cavalry traveled all over the country.

Thousands of years later, the Ming Dynasty came to its senses and moved the capital from Jianye to Beijing. After that, Huaxia resisted the foreigners in the north, and no longer needed to transport troops and food across thousands of miles, but the emperor guarded the gate of the country, just like Liu Bangli did Yu Chang'an.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi couldn't help feeling overwhelmed, and stood up excitedly, but forgot that the carriage was low, and hit his head on the top of the wall.

Zhen Mi and Madam Wu looked at Yuan Xi in surprise, Yuan Xi covered his head and said with a smile, "I thought of something very important."

Although the Ming Dynasty also failed in the end, it is better to start now for a thousand years at night. No matter what the final result is, he wants to try to see if he can divert this ruthless torrent of history.

Jicheng is vaguely in the distance, and rows of black dots appeared on the horizon. As the two sides gradually approached, Yuan Xi took out his binoculars and saw that the leader was Zhao Yun.

He jumped out of the carriage, galloped forward, and said with a big laugh, "Brother Zilong, long time no see!"

(End of this chapter)