On the seventh day of the first lunar month, Li Hongyu followed the Zhao family on the road to Xiangyang Mansion to pay New Year's greetings to his grandfather's family living in Xiangyang City.

Li Hongyu's grandfather Zhao Guangfeng was a man from Huguang in the early Wanli period, and he gave up being an official because he was obsessed with academics, and devoted himself to studying.

It is worth mentioning that the relationship between Zhao and Zhao Guangfeng was not harmonious, and Zhao Guangfeng strongly opposed Zhao's marriage to Li Renhai, who was born in a businessman, thinking that the businessman's body was full of copper smell, and wanted Zhao to become the daughter-in-law of a scholarly family.

It turned out that the combination of Zhao and Li Renhai was not the order of their parents and the words of the matchmaker, the two fell in love at first sight and made a lifelong decision in private, Zhao Guangfeng strongly opposed this, and even broke off the father-daughter relationship with Zhao, who insisted on marrying Li Renhai.

Although Zhao Guangfeng and Li Renhai broke off the father-daughter relationship, the Zhao family would go back to their parents' house every year to pay New Year's greetings, and was rejected by Zhao Guangfeng at first, and later after having Li Hongyu, Mrs. Zhao felt sorry for her grandson and let the Zhao family and Li Renhai and his wife enter the house, but Zhao Guangfeng always avoided it.

It is precisely because of the bad relationship with her mother's family that the Zhao family seems to be weak when guarding the Li family's three-room property, but even if she doesn't fall out with Zhao Guangfeng, her mother's family can't help her, after all, the people of the Zhao family are just powerless Qing Gao scribes, and they don't disdain or be good at this kind of family dispute for power and profit.

In fact, if it weren't for the Zhao family's secret help over the years, the Zhao family's life would have become extremely miserable, and Zhao Guangfeng used all the money to run schools and help poor students.

Naturally, Zhao Guangfeng couldn't let Zhao Guangfeng know about Zhao's help, otherwise Zhao Guangfeng would definitely be furious, he didn't agree with Zhao's marriage to Li Renhai because he couldn't get used to the "copper smell" smell of the Li family who was born in business, so he would definitely not accept Zhao's kindness.

However, then again, the person who actually runs the housework of the Zhao family is not Zhao Guangfeng but Mrs. Zhao, Zhao Guangfeng doesn't ask about family affairs at all except for learning, so as long as no one pierces this layer of window paper, he will always be in the dark.

The next morning, Li Hongyu and his entourage came to Xiangyang City.

Xiangyang City is located on the south bank of the Han River, across the river and Fancheng in the north of the river, surrounded by water on three sides and backed by mountains on one side, it is not only the center of regional politics, economy and culture in the past dynasties, but also a famous military town in ancient and modern times.

According to historical records, Xiangyang City was valued by the soldiers of all dynasties, and is one of the most famous ancient city defense systems in Chinese history, and it is also the most complete ancient city defense structure in China.

During the Song Dynasty, Xiangyang City was changed from the original earthen city to a brick city, because the city wall is solid, the city is high and the pool is deep, so it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, known as "Xiangyang of iron".

At that time, the soldiers and civilians of Xiangyang City and Fancheng had blocked the pace of the Mongol army to the south for many years, making it impossible for the Mengyuan to go south, which shows the importance of its military value.

While an ordinary city has only four gates, Yangyang City has six gates, namely the Great North Gate, the Small North Gate, the Long Gate, the East Gate, the West Gate, and the South Gate, which shows that it is different.

It is worth mentioning that the prefect of Xiangyang in the fourth year of Wanli gave the six city gates elegant names, the east gate said "Yangchun", the south gate said "Wenchang", the west gate said "Xicheng", the big north gate said "Gongchen", the small north gate said "Linhan", and the east long gate said "Zhenhua", namely: Yangchun Gate, Wenchang Gate, Xicheng Gate, Gongchen Gate, Linhan Gate and Zhenhua Gate.

Because the West Gate is the only way to worship the Zhenwu Patriarch Temple, it is also called the "Pilgrimage Gate".

Each gate of Xiangyang City is equipped with an urn city or a sub-city, the four corners of the city are equipped with corner platforms, the enemy platform and the beacon tower are set up along the line, and there are more than 4,000 battlements on the city wall.

According to records, the lowest part of the city wall of Xiangyang City is seven meters, and the highest point reaches eleven meters, which is really majestic.

If you look down condescendingly, the six city gates of Xiangyang City are towering, the square corner tower is steady, the Zhongxuan Tower, Wang Canglou, the Lion Tower and the Kuixing Tower on the city wall are dotted with ten miles of city walls, the golden tile glaze, the high wall cornices, it is magnificent, the whole city is perfectly integrated, giving people the feeling of simplicity and elegance.

"Sure enough, it deserves to be the 'first city in China'!"

When approaching the city gate, Li Hongyu lifted the curtain of the car window and looked out, and after witnessing the tall and sturdy city defense of Xiangyang City, he couldn't help but praise it.

"The first city in China" was not sealed by Li Hongyu, but the reputation of Xiangyang City since ancient times, which sets off its unique and important military value.

As the hub of water and land transportation, the market of Xiangyang City is naturally more prosperous than Baihe Town, after all, it is the place where Xiangyang Prefecture is located, not only inhabited by dignitaries and nobles on the boundary of Xiangyang, but also the commercial center of Xiangyang Prefecture.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" Not long after entering the city, there was a commotion in the street ahead, accompanied by a rather arrogant voice, and pedestrians flashed to both sides to make way for the middle road.

The coachman of the carriage in which Li Hongyu was riding did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly hid on the side of the road with the reins of the horse, looking quite afraid of the visitors.

"Mother, who is so arrogant?" Li Hongyu opened the curtain and glanced forward, only to see a team of distinct honor guards coming over, and immediately realized who was coming, but he didn't break it, but pretended not to know and asked Zhao who was sitting opposite.

"It's the prince of Xiangwang's mansion." Zhao smiled slightly and answered Li Hongyu's "question".

"It turned out to be Xiangwang's Mansion!" Li Hongyu pretended to nod suddenly, in fact, he had already guessed that it was someone from Xiangwangfu.

The reason is very simple, there are only two sources of Xiangyang Mansion for people who can put on such a grand appearance, one is Xiangwang Mansion located in Xiangyang City, and the other is naturally the Governor of Xiangyang Mansion.

However, as far as Li Hongyu knows, the prefect of Xiangyang Mansion is relatively low-key, and he is not the kind of person who is high-flying and domineering, so even if there is an errand to open the way, he will not behave so aggressively.

Besides, the honor guard of the imperial court is different from that of the civil and military officials, so Li Hongyu recognized at a glance from the honor guard that the team that came over in front belonged to the Xiangwang Mansion.

It's just that because he doesn't know too much about the honor guards of Prince Daming and the county king, he doesn't know whether it is King Xiang himself or those county kings in King Xiang's mansion.

Li Hongyu's days in Baihe Town were not idle and inactive, he had figured out the situation in Xiangyang Mansion, and he knew the dignitaries and nobles in Xiangyang City even better.

Of course, the most honorable person in Xiangyang City is naturally the royal family of Xiangwang Mansion, and the civil and military officials of Xiangyang Mansion are all polite to them.

Although the Yongle Emperor, the Hongxi Emperor and the Xuande Emperor had recovered many powers from the local imperial families after the Battle of Jingjing, causing them to lose their political power and military power, they also gave them preferential treatment, which made them have a lot of local privileges, which is not an exaggeration to describe them as rich and armory.

During the period of Emperor Hongwu, the officials in the court and the central government also knelt down and saluted when they saw the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, and the vassal king had the power of life and death in the fief, and could collect taxes and recruit troops on his own, otherwise the Yongle Emperor would not be able to ascend the throne of the emperor.

Of course, it was the Yongle Emperor who became the Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty through the Battle of Jingjing, and he really realized that the local vassal kings were a threat to the imperial power, so he vigorously reduced the feudal domain.

It is worth mentioning that when the Yongle Emperor raised his army, it was under the banner of opposing the reduction of the feudal domain that he united with the king of Ning and other vassal kings in Liaodong to send troops together, but as a result, King Ning and others could not escape the fate of being cut down.

In particular, King Ning, who was not inferior to the Yongle Emperor in terms of strength and ability, not only did the Yongle Emperor not fulfill his promise to share the world equally with him after ascending the throne, but also transferred him from Daning outside the Shanhai Pass to Jiangnan, making him completely lose the threat to the Yongle Emperor.

However, this also led to the later "Ning Wang Rebellion" caused by Prince Ning's heirs, although it was quickly pacified by the imperial court, but one of the root causes was related to the Yongle Emperor's rebellion.

Li Hongyu sometimes thinks that if Emperor Hongwu had been in the north to defend against foreign vassal kings, then it is very likely that there would not have been a fiasco in the later Tumubao, and the Manchu Qing would not have risen so smoothly, after all, these frontier vassal kings had a strong strength, and those who enjoyed comfort in the interior were completely two grades of troops.

"I've seen Madame and Young Master!"

In front of a magnificent mansion in the south of Xiangyang City, a middle-aged woman with a somewhat round figure led a group of people to wait at the gate of the courtyard.

"Sister, don't be polite, please get up quickly!" Zhao smiled and helped the middle-aged woman up, his attitude was very intimate.

This middle-aged woman is Li Renhai's only concubine, the Yang family, and after the death of the old man Li, he was sent to Xiangyang Mansion by Li Renhe to guard the property of the Li family's three rooms in Xiangyang City.

Although Zhao is the main wife, Yang is nearly ten years older than her, so Zhao calls her "sister".

In fact, the Yang family couldn't stand Zhao's sister at all, she was originally a personal maid serving by Li Renhai's side, and was later accepted by Li Renhai, but because of her low background, she belonged to the "cheap concubine", so her status in the Li Mansion was very low.

This makes the two sons born to the Yang family have no inheritance rights to the Li family's three-room family property, even if Li Hongyu encounters an accident, the Li family's three-room family property cannot be inherited by them, and the patriarch will take it back at that time, and then divide some of their assets to make a living.

If the Yang family is a "good concubine" from a good family, then when Li Hongyu is unfortunately killed, the male born to him can obtain the inheritance right of the Li family's three rooms, and the purity of the bloodline is very valued by large families.

However, the Ming Dynasty is different from the North Korea, which implements the "mother law", and the large families of the Ming Dynasty usually give a share to the concubines when they divide the family property.

After all, they have the same blood as their sons-in-law, and they are also the children of the family, out-and-out brothers, and the Chinese tradition pays attention to brothers, friends and brothers, so people will not do things absolutely, after all, they fight tiger brothers, go into battle with father and son, and at critical moments, their brothers are willing to sacrifice their lives to help.

The concubines of North Korea are no different from the slaves in the family, and they can't even call their fathers "fathers", they can only be called "adults", and don't think about the family property.

It is precisely because the two sons of the Yang family do not have the inheritance of the Li family's three-room property, so there is no knot between the Zhao family and the Yang family, and the relationship between the two is very close, you must know that the two of them are in the same boat.