1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian did not stay in Xu Feng's house for too long. When they saw Xu Feng's speech was confused, they got up and said goodbye, leaving her to rest at home alone.

Xu Feng really couldn't hold on any longer, so he didn't keep the two of them.

After leaving Xu Feng's house, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon. Wang Zuxian looked towards the east and west exits of Ganhua Hutong and asked, "Where are we going now?"

"Let's go to Changchun Temple and take a look."

"Okay."

Joey Wong is quite interested in temples.

Zhou Yan suggested going to Changchun Temple because they were indeed very close. Their current location was only about a hundred meters away from the north gate of Changchun Temple.

If you want to walk there, it's a little more troublesome. You need to go out from the west side of the alley first, and then go around, but it's only two or three hundred meters away.

On the way there, Zhou Yan told Joey Wong some history of Changchun Street.

Upon learning that Changchun Temple was built during the Wanli period and was named by the emperor and was known as the first temple in the capital, Joey Wong became very interested in this temple.

In her mind, an image of a magnificent temple had already emerged.

But after arriving at Changchun Temple, she was greatly disappointed. Changchun Temple was not just dilapidated. It did not look like a temple at all. Instead, it looked like a large courtyard full of people and full of the breath of life.

The only advantage is that there are no thresholds or checkpoints, and people can enter and exit freely.

"Isn't this a temple? Why are there so many people living here?"

Zhou Yan explained, "In the early days of the founding of the country, this was the office of the military officers' association. Later, more and more people poured in, and it became a slum. With so many people, it was difficult to maintain the things in the temple, and it became what it is now."

"pity."

“It’s part of history, too.”

"Is destruction also a part of history?" Joey Wong curled her lips.

"In fact, it is true. In the long history, such regrets are everywhere and difficult to avoid."

Zhou Yan took Wang Zuxian to find three large bluestone plaques in the temple, on each of which were written three powerful characters: Xuanwu Gate.

"After the Xinhai Revolution, Zhu Qijin, then the Minister of the Interior of the Beijing government, presided over the replacement of all the Manchu and Chinese plaques on the nine gates of the capital, and invited the famous scholar Shao Zhang to re-write the plaques. What you see now is the plaque on the Xuanwu Gate Tower."

"Is the Xuanwu Gate Tower still there?"

"It's gone, so you can see this plaque here. The Xuanwu Gate Tower was demolished in 65, years ago. When the country was first founded, the Construction Bureau did some repair work on the ancient building, but then the project was interrupted. Not only can it no longer be repaired, but the ones that have already been repaired may have to be demolished."

"What a pity! Those ancient city towers are cultural treasures."

Zhou Yan smiled. Many people had the same idea as Wang Zuxian, thinking it was a pity to demolish the city gate tower.

However, from the perspective of economic development, it is not a pity to demolish these city gate towers. If these city gate towers are preserved, they will not only seriously hinder the economic development of Yanjing, but also cost a lot of money to maintain every year.

The only pity is that many of the stone plaques and foundation stones of the city tower that were removed at that time have been lost.

It is said that it was previously placed in a warehouse in Taiping Lake, but no one knew where it went later, nor whether it was damaged or kept privately.

In the entire Changchun Temple, the only things worth seeing are these three stone plaques. Fortunately, Zhou Yan knows a lot about this history and can explain a lot to Joey Wong.

He talked about the Xuanwumen Tower, Guangqumen, Fuchengmen, Guang'anmen, Dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen, and most of the sixteen city gate towers in Yanjing.

He also described it in great detail, including when these buildings were built, whether there were arrow towers or urn cities before, and when those arrow towers and urn cities were demolished.

After hearing this, Wang Zuxian couldn't help but exclaimed, "You are better than those tour guides. If someone didn't know, they would think you were from Yanjing."

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "People in Yanjing don't pay attention to these things. For example, do you know anything about Beishi?"

Wang Zuxian shrugged, "I don't know much. Apart from my home, school and shopping malls, I rarely go to other places. Even if I go, I rarely pay attention to these details."

"That's right, I also read all this from historical documents."

……

After leaving Changchun Temple, Zhou Yan took Wang Zuxian to the Art Garden west of the city hall building.

Xuanwu Art Garden is called a small park because it is a place where children often come to play.

Entering from the south side of the park, there is a road that divides the park into two parts. On the west side are several Tushan Mountains, and on the east side is a children's playground.

But at this moment the park was deserted, the playground was covered with snow, and there were only a few footprints.

Xuanwu Art Garden has a bit of the feel of a Jiangnan garden, with small bridges, flowing water, and pavilions complementing each other, but now it is covered with snow and many of the scenes are no longer distinguishable.

This is also the characteristic of snow, it has a kind of arbitrary charm.

In this horrible weather, it was not a wise idea to go to the park, so the two did not plan to stay in the Art Garden for too long. They strolled for a few dozen meters on the middle road and turned around to leave.

However, not long after they left, they saw a group of boys coming playfully from the north side of the park.

The boys were all about ten years old, all wrapped up tightly. The two in front shouted as soon as they reached the playground, "The snow hasn't even been cleared yet."

"I knew it wasn't clear."

"It's definitely not cleared. It's going to snow tomorrow. If we clear the snow today, wouldn't it be a waste?"

"We can just clean it up ourselves."

Among the children, there was a taller one, probably the leader of this small group. He walked to the edge of the playground and said, "Whoever wants to play something, do it yourself. If you don't, you are not allowed to play."

His words really worked. The remaining seven or eight children ran to find their favorite equipment to clear the snow.

As for himself, he just stood there with his hands behind his back, watching, with no intention of taking any action.

Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian found what they were seeing very interesting and were not in a hurry to leave. They stood on the side of the road and watched them with interest.

After a while, a short kid cleaned up the seesaw and ran to the tall kid, "Brother Yang, I cleaned up the seesaw, do you want to play with me?"

Zhou Yan smiled. This little guy was quite tactful and knew how to please his leader.

But the foreign guy waved his hand and said, "No need, go find someone else to play with."

Then Brother Yang loudly announced, "Zhang Xiaocan has cleared the seesaw. Anyone who wants to play can apply to him."

"I'll apply."

“I’m applying too.”

Several children raised their hands, and Brother Yang said, "Since there are multiple applicants, let Zhang Xiaocan decide."

"I choose Li Wen." Zhang Xiaocan made the decision quickly.

"Well, Li Wen, go over and play on the seesaw with Zhang Xiaocan."

"Great."

The other little guy excitedly gave up the parallel bars he was cleaning and ran to play on the seesaw with Zhang Xiaocan.

It can be seen that Zhang Xiaocan did not choose randomly, he chose someone with similar height and weight to him. If the height and weight difference is too big, the playing experience will be very bad.

After the ownership of the seesaw was determined, other equipment was also cleared out one after another. Without exception, the children would come to "ask for instructions" from Brother Yang, and would only play after getting Brother Yang's approval.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh that these kids were too disciplined.

This foreign guy is no ordinary person. He is so capable at such a young age.

In fact, every school, or even every class, has a leader like Yang Ge, and others follow his lead.

Normally, this leader is a little bigger and taller than the others.

Brother Yang’s body shape also fits this characteristic.

However, this was the first time Zhou Yan had seen a small group with such a high level of discipline.

This Yang brother is very interesting. He has the power in his hands and can decide who owns each piece of equipment. Every child invites Yang brother to play with them, but Yang brother refuses. He just stands quietly by and maintains order with his eyes.

If anyone gets tired of their own equipment and wants to try other equipment, they will ask Brother Yang for permission. After careful consideration, Brother Yang will either let the other person go back or help coordinate.

Basically, as long as Brother Yang comes forward, the coordination will definitely be successful.

Zhou Yan and Joey Wong watched from the side for nearly an hour, and during this hour, the entire small group operated very smoothly and there were no conflicts among all the children.

After a while, Brother Yang took out something similar to a pager from his pocket, probably checked the time, and then said, "Let's prepare for the battle."

When they heard Brother Yang say they wanted to fight, most of the children dropped the things they were playing with and stood up.

"Finally the war has begun."

"Brother Yang, I want to be in a group with you."

"How do we divide into groups today?"

Brother Yang took out a small stack of "match skins" from his pocket and said, "Today we draw lots. The team that draws Calabash Brothers is one team, and the team that draws the goblin is another team."

What he had in his hand was a Calabash Brothers picture card, which usually consists of a large piece of paper with many small picture cards inside. After buying them and bringing them home, the children would simply cut the cards into small pieces, all of which were characters from "Calabash Brothers".

These picture cards are about the same size as matchboxes, so some people call them matchsticks.

The other children came over to draw lots, and after drawing them, they started looking for teammates.

In addition to Brother Yang, there were seven people in total. After drawing lots, they were divided into two teams, one team with three people and the other team with four people.

In this case, Brother Yang will automatically join the three-person team.

Seeing Brother Yang join the team of three, the children in the other team began to wail.

"We're going to lose again."

“It’s over.”

Judging from their reactions, this foreign guy must be very strong in fighting.

Brother Yang smiled and said, "How about this, our team will give up ten goals."

When they heard him say that they would give away ten goals, the kids on the other team smiled.

At this time, Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian were probably able to confirm that the fighting these kids were talking about was probably snowball fights.

"Third brother, do we want to join in as well?" Joey Wong suddenly said.

When Zhou Yan heard her words, he was about to speak, but he saw that she had already raised her foot and walked towards the group of children.

"Children, can you join us?"

Faced with Joey Wong's application to join, everyone looked at "Brother Yang", waiting for his decision.

Brother Yang looked Wang Zuxian up and down and said, "Will both of you join?"

"Is that okay?"

"Okay, you join our team, and you join the other team."

The application was approved, and Wang Zuxian said happily, "Thank you, little brother."

"You're welcome." Brother Yang waved his hand maturely and said to the other children, "Because of the new members, the ten-ball rule just now has been invalidated."

They had no objection to this. After all, it was obvious that Zhou Yan was more powerful than Joey Wong, and the strength of both sides was much more balanced.

Wang Zuxian waved to Zhou Yan again, "Third brother, come here."

Zhou Yan smiled and walked towards her.

She had been dreaming of having a snowball fight, and now that she finally had the chance, she naturally didn't want to miss it.

After Zhou Yan arrived, Brother Yang explained the rules to them again.

Yes, their snowball fights have rules, and they are quite complicated.

They divided the park into many areas using the paths as boundaries, which are divided into three categories in total.

One type is the blue side position, another type is the red side position, and the third type is the buffer zone.

Both sides cannot go to the other side's position. As for the buffer zone, both sides can enter, but only one person at a time.

The scoring rule is that as long as someone on your side touches the snowball, the other side gets one point, and vice versa.

In other words, even if a teammate's snowball hits his own teammate, the other team will still score.

Zhou Yan thought their rules were good, but a little difficult to implement. After all, snowball fights were chaotic, and who could keep score well?

But when the real fighting started, Zhou Yan found that keeping score did not seem to be difficult. Because of the existence of the military buffer zone, both sides could not attack each other's positions. In fact, the battle was not too chaotic and the scores were not as high as imagined.

If you just stand in your own position, it is not easy to attack the enemy because the distance is too far.

In order to prevent the enemy from hitting, both teams have tactics, and the one they adopted is a modified version of the three-three tactic.

The reason why it is an improved version is that their number is not a multiple of three.

In order to get closer to the enemy, both sides must periodically send one of their teammates into the buffer zone to serve as a vanguard.

The vanguards sent out usually carry a bunch of snowballs and throw all of them out in a short period of time. They don't ask for accuracy, they just want firepower coverage.

This is because there are few people. If there are more people, Zhou Yan estimates that the rules will be changed so that each team can have three members enter the buffer zone, so that there are more tactical options.

Even Zhou Yan was exhausted after this snowball fight, but his military achievements were also remarkable.

Although he doesn't have such a good understanding with others, he has an absolute advantage after all because of his height, long arms and great strength.

At first he made snowballs by himself, but later he simply called the short guy Zhang Xiaocan to his side and asked Zhang Xiaocan to help him make snowballs while he concentrated on setting off firecrackers.

In this way, with sufficient ammunition, he alone could suppress the enemy with firepower. (End of this chapter)