Chapter 34: Give It A Try? Part Two

Half of Mu Mountain was inside Mountain-East Circuit, and the other half was inside River-West Circuit, so it was managed by both circuits. In reality, none of the two circuits wanted to manage it.

If Great Sui’s division of territory wasn’t that strict, Governor-General Yuan Chongwu of Mountain-East Circuit would have given this half of the mountain to River-West Circuit.

River-West Circuit at least set up a small office at the foot of Mu Mountain; Mountain-East Circuit didn’t even have an office here.

The reason for this was simple; Mu Mountain wasn’t far from Xiang City where the Governor-General of River-West Circuit lived.

The most famous place in River-West Circuit was Xiang City. On top of the Office of the Governor-General, about half of the big families in River-West Circuit lived in Xiang City which was under the jurisdiction of Long-West State.

[TL Note: In this context, Long refers to Mount Long, the same location used to describe Long-West Li Family.]

It had to be mentioned that Li Family lived in Xiang City.

Since the previous family leader, Li Luan, was given the noble ranking of Duke of Feudal State, Li Family’s status in Long-West State was unrivaled. Even Governor-General Yang Xiuchen had to respectfully address the Elderly Gentleman of Li Family, who was Li Yuan’s father, as uncle.

Yang Xiuchen’s ancestor was given the noble ranking of King of State, but it couldn’t be inherited. Therefore, this family declined in power.

Now, Yang Xiuchen had become a governor-general, which was the highest position that any member of this family obtained in nearly 60 years.

Mu Mountain was 64 kilometers away from Xiang City, which was the same distance between the northern city wall and the southern city wall of Chang’an.

There were still at least two hours before sunset, but Aunt Xi ordered the caravan fleet to stop and rest. The servants all started to build tents.

These servants weren’t ordinary people; the place that they chose as the campsite was easy to defend and hard to siege.

Although there were only about a dozen servants, they were agile and intelligent; it was clear that they had been experienced soldiers.

Mu Xiaoyao slept in the compartment of Fang Jie’s horse-drawn carriage.

Fang Jie was too lazy to put up the tent, and Da Quan was even lazier.

Da Quan could directly sleep on the ground, but Fang Jie liked sleeping beside Mu Xiaoyao.

…

Compared to Mountain-East Circuit, River-West Circuit was a lot warmer even though they were only separated by a mountain. The most unique scenery was on the peak of Mu Mountain; the north side of the mountain was covered in snow, yet the other side had many greeneries.

When the weather got better, many young masters and misses would come here to hang out. For those who didn’t want to return home right away, they could stay at the daoist temple half-way up the mountain. It was clean, provided hot water, and offered delicious food. On top of that, the price was fair. It was more like an inn rather than a daoist temple.

Since there were many people in the area, the appearance of Beckon of the Red Sleeve instantly attracted others’ attention. Those playboys from the big families wouldn’t even move as they stared at the beauties in the horse-drawn carriages. If it weren’t for the dozens of vicious-looking servants, they would have come up and tried to talk.

Even though this was the case, some young men who felt like their backgrounds were big enough walked up. Although they weren’t that literate, they acted like scholars. The girls of Beckon of the Red Sleeve took this as entertainment, and they chatted among themselves and laughed.