Author Ziyun: Looking back at the millennium, the morning and twilight have changed, and the past is like a passing cloud, turning into smoke and dust, and not seeing the true face! Whew! Who knows what it's like? Let's look at the mountains and rivers and oceans in this world, have they changed from ancient to modern?

It was already noon, the sun was like fire, and the air was like heat, without a trace of wind.

The horses were panting tiredly, and the group was sweating, and they were already hungry, and the dry food on the cart had almost eaten when they set off in the morning.

In the distance, the tall city wall of Bianliang appeared in everyone's sight.

Not far from the north of Bianliang, the water of the big river flows through its north, and after a long journey, the Zhao family finally saw the outer city of Bianliang. Through the open carriage curtain, Zhao Xiaozhao caught a glimpse of the majestic and magnificent Bianliang city wall, and danced with his hands.

"Haha, I'm here in Bianjing!"

Zhao Kuangyi in the car lifted the curtain, "Daddy, we have arrived in Bianliang!" ”

At this time, the city wall was mostly built of rammed earth, and it looked a little mottled after being washed by the rain, and it looked a little rustic, and there was no feeling of building a city with blue bricks in later generations. At this time, Bianliang, as the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, had just experienced the replacement of the old Later Han Dynasty and the new Great Zhou Dynasty, and it became more and more tragic. The Central Plains has many wars, and it has always been a territory that soldiers must fight, and whoever controls the hinterland of the Central Plains will be able to sit on the throne of the emperor.

During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the military generals had absolute military control, and the founding kings of each small country in the world were all military generals or military powers. The Great Zhou Dynasty focused on eradicating the remnants of the previous dynasty and stabilizing the upper and lower courts, and for the time being, there was no money to repair the war relics left on the city wall.

"What a feeling of vicissitudes!" The wall in front of him gave him a different feeling."

Even if the love is deep, the fate is shallow! The past is not what it used to be!

Zhao Xiaozhao Hu closed his eyes and thought about it, saying that this was very different from the city wall he saw hundreds of years later.

"What a strange city!"

I remember that when I visited Kaifeng in later generations, the tour guide once introduced that the Kaifeng city wall is 14.4 kilometers long, and it is the second largest ancient city wall building in China after the Nanjing city wall. In the Warring States Period more than 2,300 years ago, that is, in 365 BC, in order to achieve the goal of controlling the Central Plains, King Wei Hui moved the capital from Anyi (Xia County, Shanxi Province) to this place, and built a Liang City, so the earliest city wall in the history of Kaifeng appeared.

Today's Kaifeng City Wall was built in the Tang Dynasty

In the second year of Tang Jianzhong (781 AD), Li Mian, who was the envoy of the Yongping Army and the assassin of Bianzhou, rebuilt the city of Bianzhou during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. According to the "Northern Road Errata Chronicle" and other documents, the expanded Bianzhou City is surrounded by 20 miles and 155 steps, and there are 7 city gates, which incorporate the Bianhe River into the city. The rebuilt Bianzhou City laid the foundation of today's Kaifeng City Wall. So at this time, what Zhao Xiaozhao was in front of was the city wall built in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

During the Taiping period, Kaifeng's economic development was quite rapid, and at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the population density of Guanzhong greatly exceeded the carrying capacity of the land, and the rebellion of the feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty also caused logistics blockages, resulting in the soaring of goods in Guanzhong. Later, with the silting of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Sui and Tang dynasties, large-tonnage ships could not reach Luoyang, so they could only get off at Bianliang. China's economic center also began to move eastward along with the political center, from Chang'an from Luoyang to Bianliang.

However, the strategic location of Bianliang is not very good, and it also determines its future.

Because Kaifeng is a flat river, there is only a Yellow River in the north, no matter which direction the enemy crosses the Yellow River, he can go straight to Kaifeng without any obstruction, and the Kaifeng area does not even sit on decent hills, especially the nomadic cavalry will abuse casually after crossing the Yellow River. The country was looted by the Jin people, and the Jin country was so lightning fast that it took Kaifeng and ended the Northern Song Dynasty.

Pity your father's inheritance!

At that time, when his father Zhao Kuangyin was in power, he also took into account the geographical location of Bianjing, so he asked to move the capital from Bianliang to Luoyang, in fact, his father's strategy was correct. However, he was opposed by his younger brother Zhao Kuangyi.

The difference in thought led to the end of the day after tomorrow - the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, and China experienced the tragedy of the era of the Wuhu Rebellion.

From the end of the Northern Song Dynasty to experience the "shame of Jingkang", and experience the wars of the dynasties, the flooding of the Yellow River, destroyed and demolished, demolished and repaired, has long lost its original appearance, the ancient capital of Kaifeng has experienced vicissitudes, repeatedly suffered disasters, due to the flooding of the Yellow River many times, sediment siltation, the ground is seven or eight meters higher than the original average, and the most place has been improved by eleven or twelve meters. Many of the historical relics were destroyed in the war or buried deep under the sediment of the Yellow River. It can be seen that the Kaifeng City of later generations is basically a blue brick city in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

So it's really different

Zhao Xiaozhao, as a traveler, will change everything in the future, so thinking of Zhao Xiaozhao's previous indignation and depression, now that he is fortunate to see this authentic Tokyo City, he turned inexplicably excited.

The Zhao family and his entourage entered from the west gate along the endless flow of people, and what Zhao Xiaozhao didn't know was that in the near future, this gate would be changed to "Lu Closed Gate".

Zhao Xiaozhao sighed that Kaifeng, as one of the six ancient capitals in China, has a long history and rich cultural connotation to create the quaint temperament of Kaifeng, but it is a pity that this city and the Northern Song Dynasty have been lost.

Since entering the city gate, the bumps disappeared all at once, after all, it was the capital, the road was quite smooth, and the carriage drove smoothly into the city.

That desperate hope-

All of a sudden, there were more people in the market. Just like the Qingming Shanghe Garden that I visited with my friends back then, but how can I compare the appearance at that time with the one in front of me, completely natural and pollution-free, that kind of natural, simple, and historical, which is completely the city painted by Zhang Zeduan.

For Zhao Xiaozhao, the Kaifeng City of later generations is still very familiar, and the same as later generations in Bianjing City, there are four rivers running through the whole city: Bianhe, Cai River, Wuzhang River, and Jinshui River.

Because in the years when I was in college, there was a classmate in the dormitory who was from Kaifeng, Henan. During the summer vacation, the classmate in the dormitory asked all the good friends in the dormitory to go to Kaifeng's house to play together. Visited the whole Kaifeng City, visited many places of interest, such as Bao Gong Temple, Daxiangguo Temple, Kaifeng Iron Tower, Fan Tower, Tianbo Yang Mansion, Yuwangtai Park, Kaifeng Mansion, Hanlin Tablet Garden and so on. Tasted Kaifeng's unique snacks, such as soup dumplings, peanut cakes, bucket chicken, three fresh lotus cakes, spiced rabbit meat, Kaifeng set of four treasures, chrysanthemum hot pot, Dajing dates, stewed noodles, etc., remembering these Zhao Xiaozhao couldn't wait to go to Kaifeng City to shop, but he was still a baby.

Zhao Xiaozhao suddenly smelled the smell of wine, and then looked at the flow of people coming and going from the car window, and there was a tall restaurant not far in front of him.

Because he was still a child, and he was in the carriage, faintly, unable to see the panorama, Zhao Xiaozhao wondered in his heart, "This restaurant is so tall and magnificent!" Don't know how many floors there are? ”

However, it is still possible to see the current situation in front of the restaurant, as described in the book: there are groups of short-shirted men squatting or standing in front of the building, tall, short, fat and thin, young and old, the only thing that is the same is that their eyes are fixed on the people who come and go, especially those who have just arrived, this is the professional waiter "helper" described in the Water Margin.

Looking at the flow of people in front of the door, business must be extremely good.

"Distinguished guests, please go inside!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, the first floor is full, please go upstairs-" After speaking, he bent over and greeted the guest very warmly.

"Look at my memory!" Then I looked at the second floor, and the guy was a little embarrassed.

"I'm really sorry for a few guest officers, the second floor is already full, a few people don't be impatient, arrange it immediately, please come with me!" Then a few guests followed Xiao Er's steps up to the third floor.

"I'm a hillbilly!" A stout man with a red face laughed and scolded.

"Big brother, look at the magnificence of this restaurant!"

"I didn't expect to see such a busy scene when I first came to Bianliang! What an eye-opener! ”

"That's it, that's it!"

"It really deserves to be the capital of the Great Zhou Kingdom!" The guests from other places sat around the table and talked eloquently.

This is the Bianliang City in the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan's "Qingming Riverside Picture", and also the Bianliang City in "Water Margin", and the Bianliang City in the magnificent Song Dynasty, which is now vividly displayed in front of Zhao Xiaozhao's eyes.

When the Southern Song Dynasty poet Liu Zicui recalled the old events in Bianjing, he once wrote a poem and praised:

Liang Yuan's singing and dancing are full of romance,

Wine is like nine to relieve sorrow;

Remembering the joy of youth,

The lights are on the Fan Tower in the middle of the night.

At this moment, Bianliang City is not as gentle and moving as the poet wrote.

Smelling the smell of dishes, snacks, wine, and fat powder wafting from the market, Zhao Xiaozhao was intoxicated, and he couldn't wait to rush out of the carriage, take a few friends, walk through it, eat and drink unscrupulously, see the quaint folk customs, listen to the poet's singing, and mingle in the Qinglou wine shop...... Isn't that kind of feeling exactly what you want?

The carriage passed through the long streets of Bianliang, turned into the alley on the right, and finally reached the door of a mansion. This is a mansion, and I saw two big characters of Zhao Mansion written on the forehead in front of the house.

"Master, we're finally home!"

"Is this my home? This is the mansion of Taiwei Zhao in history, but now it is so ordinary! Zhao Xiaozhao thought to himself.

Hehe, the children of the Zhao family go back to Bianliang!