At noon in the wax moon, the cold wind is howling, and the clouds cover the sun. On such a cold winter day, Ma Lan kept spurring the frost and galloped towards Chang'an City, which had just been revealed on the horizon.

Next to Ma Lan was the superb riding of the Beiting Metropolitan Protector Ashina Yang, and behind Ma Xuan, there were three teams of Beiting Ya soldiers and dozens of horses. Among the horses, there is a golden steed that stands out. The Beiting Ya soldiers have one person and three horses, and they do not stop all the way except for a short rest at the post station.

The tooth soldiers brought the top war horses in the Beiting army, and the horses in the post station could not enter the eyes of these Beiting elite soldiers.

The flying frost under the crotch of the horse is a vigorous wild horse that has just been tamed, full of physical strength, and can often throw off the Beiting military horse behind him three or four feet away. The Pegasi were leisurely and careless, leading the herd and trotting along with the Tooth Soldiers, as if the distance was not worth caring about.

Ma Lan and his entourage came from the west and marched east along the Silk Road. The starting point of the Silk Road is Chang'an City. In the interval between galloping horses, Ma Lan raised his head and looked at it, he had never been to Chang'an, and he was stunned by the sight. On the horizon, the majestic Chang'an City rises like a continuous high mountain, and the huge figure spans the sky and the earth, covering Ma Lu's entire field of vision.

Ma Ling has been in Longyou and Moxi for so many years, and has also seen many famous cities, such as Shanzhou in Longyou Road, Qiuzi in Anxi Duhufu, Tingzhou in Beiting Duhufu, and Broken Leaves in Tuqishi's tooth tent. But no other city can be as huge as Chang'an, to the point of moving.

As the largest city in the world at that time, Chang'an City was 8,651 meters long from north to south and 9,721 meters wide from east to west, with an area of 84 square kilometers. How amazing is this area? It is 2.4 times the size of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, 1.4 times that of Beijing City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and 7 times that of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the same period. It can be said that before the Industrial Revolution, Chang'an City has always been the largest capital built by human beings, and it is well-deserved as the "first city in the ancient world".

Feishuang seemed to feel Ma Lan's amazement and slowed down. A thin monkey-looking tooth soldier caught up in the back, "Boss, the first time you came to Chang'an?" ”

"I'm smiling at you, it's really the first time I've come to Chang'an." Ma Lan was a little embarrassed, feeling that he was showing timidity in front of his subordinates.

"Chief, what's laughing here? To tell you the truth, I grew up in Chang'an City since I was a child, and all I see all day long is the connected painting buildings, the streets are vertical and horizontal, and all I hear every day are bells and drums and the hustle and bustle. At that time, I thought that Chang'an was everywhere in the world. Later, my father took me to the southern suburbs of Chang'an to hunt, and when I walked out of Chang'an City for the first time, I found that there were still mountains and forests and secluded springs in the world. When he returned from hunting, he looked at Chang'an and was so shocked that his jaw was about to fall. Only then did I know that I lived in such a huge city. ”

"Then why did you let the children of the good family in Chang'an come to the North Courtyard?" Ma Lan heard the tooth soldier recall the scene of hunting in the past, and knew that the tooth soldier's family background was very good.

"Alas, it's hard to put into words. A certain man who was also a well-known maniac in Chang'an City back then, often lingered in Pingkangfang. One day, he competed with someone for the new orchid, and there was a conflict, so he had no choice but to join the North Garden. After coming to the North Garden, I found that orchids were all over the city, and the further west you went, the more beautiful it became. The thin monkey recalled the time when he was young and thin, and he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

The memories of the thin monkey made Ma Ling forget the feelings of ridicule just now. "Since you are familiar with Chang'an, let's introduce it to everyone." Ma Lan tugged on the reins, and Feishuang stopped. Most of the rest of the tooth soldiers also gathered around to listen to the explanation of this Chang'an tooth soldier. After all, the vast majority of people have never seen Chang'an.

Ashina Yang smiled and patted his mount, telling it to stop and rest for a while. Chang'an certainly amazed him every time, but as a descendant of the Turkic royal family who was qualified to directly face the saint and the most noble blood flowing in the grassland, it was impossible for him to take his identity lightly and deal with a group of tooth soldiers. Several of the tooth soldiers who were in charge of guarding him were also very conscientious to guard the side of the deputy capital guard. There was a tooth soldier who was a little dissatisfied with Ma Luan's stopping, and wanted to go over to remind him, but was stopped by Ashina Yang with his gaze.

"Chang'an City is composed of three parts: the palace city, the imperial city and the outer Guo city. The palace city is located in the northern center of the city, and the Daming Palace on the northeast dragon head plain is connected as a whole, which is where the sage lives and meets the court and the office of the two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia. The south of the palace is the imperial city, and the imperial city is the office of the Shangshu Province, the Six Ministries, the Jiuqing and the Imperial Historical Tower. The outer fortress is centered on the palace city and the imperial city, and spreads out to the east, west, and south. There are 12 city gates in the outer city, the middle of the south is the Mingde Gate, and the east and west are the Qixia Gate and the Anhua Gate respectively; In the middle of the east is the Chunming Gate, and the north and south are the Yanxing Gate and the Tonghua Gate respectively; In the middle of the west is the Jinguang Gate, and the north and south are the Yanping Gate and the Kaiyuan Gate respectively; The middle and eastern sections of the north side coincide with the north wall of Miyagi and the south wall of Daming Palace respectively, the middle section of the west section is Jingyao Gate, and the east and west are Fanglim Gate and Guanghua Gate respectively. We will walk away from the far gate into Beijing, walk east along Anfumen Street, enter the Anfumen Gate of the Imperial City, and then continue eastward along the side street between the palace city and the imperial city, turn right at Chengtianmen Street, and then we can go to the Taifu Temple in charge of Ma Zheng. ”

The thin monkey talked eloquently, and a group of local buns who came to Chang'an for the first time around him sighed from time to time.

Ma Lan combed through the Chang'an City depicted by the soldiers of Chang'an in his heart, and had a general understanding of the route in the city. Then he kicked the horse's belly lightly, came to Ashinayang's side, and apologized: "Deputy capital protection, a certain person from a poor rural area, was shocked by Chang'an, and forgot everything, please protect the deputy capital and punish him." ”

Ashina Yang stroked the horsewhip, then pointed to Chang'an City on the horizon and said: "When I first came to Chang'an, I was about the same age as you, and I was frightened, but I was not under you. This is not your sin, but it is actually the reason why Chang'an is too bright. Let's go ahead and get into town as soon as possible! ”

Ma Lan was impressed by Ashinayang's demeanor, and waved his hand to order the Beiting Tooth Soldiers to continue to advance. After the team passed the Zhenlv Pavilion outside the Kaiyuan Gate, Ma Lan saw the tall erected stone "Liwei" outside the Kaiyuan Gate City Tower at a glance, with a line of big characters on it: "West Pole Road 9,900 miles".

Ma Lan made a silent calculation in his heart, and said to the thin monkey: "From this gate to the broken leaves, I am afraid that there are more than 11,000 miles." How can it be written that there are nine thousand nine hundred? ”

"The boss really asked the right person. I have heard someone say that he does not say thousands of miles, which means that people who travel far away are not for thousands of miles. ”

"I see?" Ma Lan looked at the slightly nervous guards at the city gate and said, "We people seem to be scared of these city gates. Since you are familiar with the situation in Chang'an, it is up to you to deliver the text. ”

The thin monkey turned over and dismounted, went to the guards and pulled a few words of homely things, and then handed over the text. As soon as the guards heard that the thin monkey grew up in Chang'an, they were much more cordial, and talked a few words about the Yang family's chicken dog ascending to heaven, An Lushan was given iron coupons and other gossip in the capital, and then let Ma Lu and his party pass.

There are three doorways under the city tower of the far gate, each of which is nearly two zhang wide, and the momentum is magnificent. The soldiers of the North Court passed through the long doorway on the southernmost side of the Kaiyuan Gate, and suddenly felt that the eyes suddenly opened up, and a fifty-zhang wide street stretched straight to the east, as if there was no end in sight. On each side of the street there is a ditch one zhang wide, and on both sides of the ditch stand tall locust and willow trees, piercing the dead branches like halberds and spears into the sky. On both sides of the long street, there is a high wall of fang, which divides Chang'an City into 110 neat lanes. The small street between the squares is actually twenty zhang wide.

Ma Lan was once again shocked by the magnificent pattern and monstrous momentum of Chang'an. This Chang'an City is simply born from the essence of heaven and earth, and it is built by the work of ghosts and axes, which is beyond the power of man. In the whole world, there is indeed no more gorgeous, more brilliant and wider city than Chang'an. Only such a majestic city can reflect the thousands of weather in Datang.

Although the streets are wide, there are more pedestrians. There are not only officials with hurried faces and urging coachmen, but also arrogant and arrogant Beiya forbidden troops who spur their horses; There are not only noble ladies with hats and hats covering their faces and groups of servants, but also trendy women dressed as men and facing the sky plainly; There were Sogdian merchants with camels and beards, as well as Fuso dwarves with clogs and kimonos; There are both blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned Tunis people, as well as short-haired, curly-haired, dark-skinned Kunlun Nu. The bustling flow of cars, horses and people stunned the Beiting cavalry, who had been fighting in the desert and grassland of the Western Regions for a long time. There were also many people in the crowd staring at the golden heavenly horses escorted by the Beiting cavalry.

The thin monkey looked at the stunned robes, and said in a proud tone: "After Anfumen, there is a side street more than seventy zhang wide, where the flow of people is even denser, if you are not careful, you may bump into a prince or a waiter, so you don't have to make a fuss in Anfumen Street." ”

Ma Lan put away his heart, which was numb to the shock of Chang'an City, and came to Ashina Yang Ma to ask for instructions: "Deputy Capital Protector, should we go to Taifu Temple or Beiting Jinjuan first?" ”

Ashina Yang looked at a few merchants dressed in Turkic costumes on the street, was slightly stunned, and then replied: "Public first and then private, it is a big matter to sacrifice Tianma, go to Taifu Temple first!" ”

After arriving at the Taifu Temple, Ashina Yang asked Ma Lu and the thin monkey to go in and pass on the saucer. After the other tooth soldiers tied their horses to the locust tree by the roadside, their eyes were still wandering.

Ma Lan took the thin monkey into the Taifu Temple, and it took a long day to find Cui Shaoqing of the Taifu Temple. The eyes of the Taifu Temple were higher than the top of the Ma Lan and the thin monkey in military uniform, and Ma Lu could already see the insulting words "military man" on their white and fat faces. If he is still in Longyou, Ma Lu will definitely use the longbow in his hand to teach everyone who dares to despise him. But thinking that Chang'an, which is now at the feet of the saint, is the official office of the Taifu Temple, one of the nine Qings, and is in charge of the task of protecting the capital, Ma Lan can only swallow the sullen breath in his heart.