The Emperor is Above

Chapter 55: First Impression of the Capital

"The Flying Eagle Guards are the flying cavalry of the city guards that Sergeant Niu Ben mentioned!"

Seeing the doubt in Qing Yi's eyes, Gongsun Wu explained, "The Flying Eagle Guards are part of the City Guards, so they are also called the City Guards Flying Cavalry.

However, the status of this flying cavalry is quite unique. They always obey orders directly from the monarch and have their own independent camp, so they are also called Flying Eagle Guards.

Although the number of Flying Eagle Guards is not large, with only 200 people in total, they are very powerful and even the ordinary soldiers have the strength of a seventh-rank lower-armor soldier.

These black eagle mounts are not simple either, each one is a ninth-grade or higher ferocious bird. It is said that the black eagle of the Flying Eagle Battalion Captain is at least a fifth-grade ferocious bird. "

Imagine hundreds of ferocious birds flying towards the enemy. Qing Yi couldn't help but feel envious. He secretly thought that if he had the chance in the future, he would also want to build such a cool private army. But he responded,
"It seems that these Eagle Guards have gone to the north of the capital to search for the wizards of the Ghost Wizard Tribe! No wonder the beastmaster of the Blood Wolf Tribe was so arrogant last night."

"That must be the case!"

Dongmen Hu's voice came from the rear of the vehicle. Their convoy was following closely behind Qing Yi, and he also added loudly,

“In the past, the Eagle Guards would begin patrolling at dawn and closely monitor the 150-mile area around the capital. Once they found anything unusual in the capital, they would notify the city guards to go out.

Even though there were a series of disturbances before and after the New Year, the area around the capital was very safe for a hundred miles. Now we are only more than thirty miles away from the capital, and we haven't seen any Eagle Guards. I'm afraid the world is getting more and more chaotic."

If they can't even control the security of the suburbs of the capital, it means there is a problem with the governance of this country. I'm afraid those dark forces would also like to see this.

At this moment, Xizi, who was standing in the car behind him enjoying the breeze, suddenly pointed to the distance and shouted in surprise: "Brother Xiaoyi, look ahead, that's the capital, right?"

"Ouch!"

All those who came to the capital for the first time looked over and couldn't help but let out sounds of shock.

Thirty miles away from the capital, Qing Yi saw this magnificent city.

The capital of the State of Xing was Xingtai City. Xing is an ancient place name. The State of Xing was named after the Marquis of Xing was granted fiefdom here. Tai is derived from the terrain.

To the west, the Yuanshan Mountains stretch for tens of thousands of miles, forming a natural three-layer terrace here.

The highest platform is more than three hundred feet above the ground, the middle platform is one hundred and fifty feet above the ground, and the lowest platform is fifteen feet above the ground.

Eight hundred and sixty years ago, after the first Xing Hou was enfeoffed and established his kingdom here, three cities naturally formed based on the terrain, and they were called Upper City, Middle City, and Lower City respectively.

The entire city is built on the mountainside, and the houses built according to the terrain are stacked up layer by layer. It is large in scale and majestic. You will never forget it at first sight.

Even though he was used to seeing large cities with millions of people in the future, Qing Yi couldn't help but admire it at this moment: "What a magnificent city, a golden city and hot springs, there is nothing better than this."

As people from the capital, the brothers Dongmen Hu and Dongmen Bao could not help but proudly say, "The total population of the three cities of the capital, upper, middle, and lower, is more than 300,000. In the entire Northern Wasteland, only the capital of Chongguo can be compared to it."

Gongsun Wu introduced Qing Yi, "In the upper city of the capital, there are the palaces of the Marquis of Xing, the residences of the Shangqing, Yaqing, and Shaoqing, plus a small number of palace officials and guards stationed there, with a total of about 50,000 people.

The Central City is mainly populated by upper officials, middle officials, lower officials, and vassal lords. Official residences of various levels, city guards, and Flying Eagle Guards are stationed there. In addition, there are three division camps: left, center, and right, with a total of about 100,000 people.

The upper city is where the king and nobles live, so it is under the strictest control. Civilians are strictly prohibited from entering or leaving, even if they are granted titles without an imperial decree. The middle city does not prohibit the entry of common people, but it is inconvenient to enter or leave because the city guards are strictly guarding and checking, and we don't like to go there normally.

Although the lower city is inhabited by ordinary people, merchants, slaves and concubines, I feel that living here is the most comfortable and convenient.

Because the Xing River is just outside the city, and there are many streams converging there, water and land transportation is convenient, and most of the goods coming from all directions are gathered here, so there are at least 200,000 people in the lower city. "

Dongmen Hu also agreed, "That's right. Although most of the people in our lower city are poor, the nobles in the upper and middle cities often send people to the lower city to purchase.

Even the youngest son of the king was killed by the Ghost and Witch Tribe because he went to play in the market in the lower city! "

As Gongsun Wu, Dongmen Hu and Dongmen Bao continued to introduce, Qing Yi had a rough impression of the capital. During the chat, they soon arrived at the bank of the Xing River outside the lower city of the capital.

Before, from a distance, I could only see the general outlines of the three cities of the capital. Now, looking up from up close, I feel that this city is even more majestic.

Not to mention the towering upper city and middle city, even the lower city where ordinary people live gives people an unshakable sense of oppression.

The lowest terrace is fifteen zhang above the ground, plus there is an eighty zhang high city wall. The steep bank of the Xingshui River near the terrace serves as a natural moat. The total height difference of fifty to sixty meters makes the city easy to defend and difficult to attack, making it impregnable.

In the sky, groups of huge black hawks were circling and flying back and forth. The two huge corner towers in the southeast and northeast of the central city were specially used for their takeoffs and landings.

"It's worthy of being the capital. It's really extraordinary. This stone bridge alone is amazing enough!" Qing Yi rubbed his sore neck from looking up. The convoy had already stepped onto the huge stone bridge spanning the two sides of the Xing River, and he couldn't stop exclaiming in amazement.

The stone bridge is three hundred feet long and ten feet wide, with each span being thirty feet. It is built entirely with huge stones and engraved with densely packed mysterious patterns. Even the guardrails on both sides are carved with exquisitely shaped, cute and lively little lions.

A bridge with a span of nearly 700 meters is a huge project even in modern society, and it is naturally shocking enough in this almost barbaric world.

Looking more closely, Qing Yi was surprised to find that some of the patterns on the stone bridge that he thought were decorations were actually mysterious and complex runes: "I'm afraid these runes are used to reinforce the bridge!"

"Shang Shuyi actually knows runes?"

Gongsun Wu looked at Qing Yi in surprise and quickly explained,
"That's right. The entire stone bridge was reinforced by rune formations engraved by the talisman master. One autumn flood, the Xing River overflowed and the entire bridge was submerged and washed away by the flood.

There were many huge rocks and trees rolling down. It took a full month for the autumn flood to gradually subside. Many reefs on the river bank were broken, but the bridge was completely intact. "

Even the river bridges in later generations would be very dangerous when facing the annual floods. The stone bridge in front of him was safe and sound in such a big flood. Qing Yi never thought that the role of runes was so wide-ranging.

Not far from the stone bridge is the Xingshui Wharf, where boats gather, people are bustling, and all kinds of goods are constantly being loaded and unloaded.

The open space between Xingshui Wharf and the lower city gate, which is one mile wide and five miles long, is almost completely filled with people, carriages, stalls, and tents.

Qing Yi was a little confused. Wasn't it just yesterday that the youngest son of Marquis Xing was attacked by a ghost? Why didn't the capital city show any signs of martial law?

He didn't need to ask anyone specifically, he heard many people discussing enthusiastically: "The wizard of the Ghost Witch Tribe, two totem warriors, and a dozen wild people who attacked the youngest son of the monarch were all captured and killed."

(End of this chapter)