Clearing the snow in Chang 'an was of utmost importance, and it was also where the imperial court invested the most effort. As long as it was snowing heavily, the relevant personnel would be busy. Even when they were sleeping at night, they would work in shifts to clear the snow and ensure that the roads in the city were smooth. In this way, unless there was a heavy snowfall, the roads in the capital would not be blocked.
As for the huge roads outside the city, they were not so lucky. The imperial court could not invest too much effort outside the city. Anyway, the Emperor and the dignitaries basically lived in the city, and they mainly served the Emperor and the dignitaries. They did not need to care about whether it was convenient for ordinary people to travel. Only after satisfying the dignitaries could they consider the ordinary people. This order could not be easily changed.
As a result, the ordinary people and merchants outside the city suffered. Because the snow was not cleared in time, many people woke up early in the morning to find that the roads were covered with thick snow. The snow was so thick that vehicles could not pass through, or they could barely pass through, but the effect was very poor. They could not walk much only because they consumed oil. From time to time, they would slip and even break the vehicles. If they encountered a steep downhill road, it was no different from seeking death. It was very helpless.
Ang Lee lived outside the city. The snow in front of his house had been cleared by the servants, but there was a lot of snow on the main roads. The snow was still falling. The imperial court did not have enough relevant personnel, so it was obvious that it could not be cleared in a short time. Fortunately, Ang Lee was not in a hurry to go to work, so he did not have to worry too much about the snow blocking the roads. He could enjoy the beautiful snowy scenery.
The snow on the roads had a great impact on vehicles because vehicles mainly relied on their wheels to move. Once the wheels were covered with snow, they would easily slip, which made it very difficult to move.
However, for traditional horses, thick snow on the road was not much of a problem because horses relied on their legs and hooves. They just had to walk step by step. Unless the snow on the road was too thick, it would make it difficult for horses to pass.
The ordinary people naturally knew this very well, so many of them went out with horses. Some went out to visit, some went out to work, and some went out to see the snow in the scenic spots. In short, in the snowy weather of the university, there were suddenly more people riding horses. On the roads outside the city, there were valiant and heroic figures riding horses everywhere.
"When it's snowing, only then do we know that horses are better!"
A sour-faced scholar, who was leading a donkey, said to himself and mocked the vehicles stuck in the snow. He was very proud.
Hearing the sour-faced scholar's words, the driver was not happy. He retorted, "If some people think that horses are better, then why are they leading a donkey? I'm afraid that old age, he can't even distinguish between a horse and a donkey! "
"The son of a concubine is not worth talking to.."
The sour scholar was still arrogantly leading the donkey, talking to himself as he walked.
Li An, who had just stepped out, happened to hear this conversation. He thought it was quite interesting, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He still had to prepare the hunting tools. It was snowing heavily today, which was a good day for hunting. It was estimated that many people would choose to hunt in the mountains on such a day in order to obtain more prey.
.. Snow was definitely a good thing for hunting. Although snow made it more difficult for horses and humans to walk, it was the same for many prey at the same time. Moreover, prey would leave footprints on the snow, which could guide the hunter to find the prey's tracks and then hunt the prey.
There were even some smaller animals whose legs and feet were too short and small. As a result, they would become extremely clumsy when they encountered thick snow. Their speed on the snow was not as fast as a human's. They even directly stuffed their heads into the snow in an attempt to deceive hunters. In the end, they were often easily captured.
The silly roe deer in Yingzhou was like this. After being discovered by the hunters, because they could not run anymore, they put their heads into the snow. This was similar to the ostrich in the African desert. The ostrich was the same. However, there was no snow in the African desert, only endless yellow sand. When the ostrich could not run anymore, it would stuff its head into the sand.
The silly roe deer was very curious. If you shouted, it would stop and take a look to see what was going on. In this way, it would be very easy to capture it.
These silly roe deer mainly lived in the Yingzhou area. Before Ang Lee came to the capital, he had caught a lot of roe deer. However, there were no roe deer in the vicinity of the capital. It was impossible to hunt for roe deer. If he wanted to see a live roe deer, he would have to go to the Imperial Beast Garden. If he wanted to eat wild roe deer, it was more convenient. He could just go to the best restaurant in the capital. Although there were fewer and fewer wild animals in the Tang dynasty, there were enough roe deer. In the Yingzhou area, there were even small landowners who specialized in breeding roe deer. In this way, there was a large guarantee of production. It was not a problem to continuously supply the capital.
The prerequisite for large-scale breeding was to have enough food. Now, the amount of food had exceeded the needs of the common people. There was a large surplus every year. This caused the price of food to fall. After the price of food became less valuable, feeding the more expensive meat livestock with food became a good way out for the common people. Feeding wild animals like roe deer would increase the income. Therefore, the breeding of roe deer developed.
The reason why roe deer were bred was not only that the price was more expensive than pork, but also because roe deer were docile and easier to raise. If it was a wild animal with a bad temper, not many people would be willing to raise it. For example, wild boars were more ferocious. Ordinary people would not dare to raise them. At least, in the capital, Chang 'an, only Ang Lee had just built a farm to raise wild boars. The others were raised chickens, ducks, geese, and some local small and gentle wild animals.
"Alang, it's snowing heavily today. The roads are covered with thick snow. It's too dangerous. It's better not to go hunting in the mountains!"
A servant tried to dissuade him.
"It's okay. Hurry up and prepare the horses. Hurry up."
Ang Lee did not explain too much. He immediately asked the servant to prepare the horses and various equipment needed for the trip. Of course, he also notified a certain number of guards to accompany Ang Lee to ensure his absolute safety.
The snowy weather was the best time to hunt. Li Yu had already said that as long as there was no special situation, he would definitely come out to hunt. When the time came, they would directly meet at the foot of the mountain. This time, Ang Lee was going to hunt. Naturally, he would first meet Li Yu and then go up the mountain together.
Because the snow was too heavy, it was very inconvenient to go out. Therefore, Ang Lee did not want to bring too many guards to the mountain. Five or six people were enough. The horses were twice the number of people. This way, they could transport some supplies. They could also change horses to save the strength of the horses. Walking in the snow, the strength of the horses was also relatively large. It consumed more strength than walking normally on flat ground. It was necessary to prepare more horses.
Because the snow showed no signs of stopping, Ang Lee had to prepare a hat for himself to block the snow. Otherwise, it would not be long before his hair turned white. That would be very bad. Going out in the snow, even the poorest people would wear a hat to protect their heads from the cold.
Wearing a special big hat, Ang Lee felt like a hero. If he could add a translucent curtain, the effect would be better.
Because of the snow blocking the road, there were not many pedestrians on the road. Most of the people, as long as they were not in a hurry, would choose to stay at home and would not come out to join in the fun.
Only a restless person like Ang Lee would choose to come out to hunt in such weather. It was more fun and exciting.
There were a lot of businessmen's convoy on the road, but because the road was blocked by the snow, it caused the vehicles to move very slowly. The people who were in charge of driving the vehicles kept scolding. They scolded God for a while, and scolded the people under him for not knowing how to do things. They were actually so slow. The young man was more popular. He was so angry that he used force and directly overturned the vehicle. The leading businessman could not see anything wrong with it. He could only suffer, but scolding was inevitable. The young man was scolded at this time. Although he was not happy, his heart was a lot more comfortable because he did a bad thing and caused the businessman to suffer a lot of losses.
Ang Lee was very open-minded about this kind of grudge between people at the bottom. He also felt that it was very interesting. In his previous life, he did this kind of thing a lot. For example, when he was working, he deliberately slacked off in order to let himself vent his anger and let the boss suffer a little more loss. Who asked the boss to always deduct his salary? If he did not let the boss suffer a heavy loss, wouldn't he lose a lot?
Now that he thought about it, these behaviors were really naive. Just to let him vent his anger, he did such a bad thing. It was really a bit wrong, and it would not let him get anything.
The busy merchant caravans took up most of the roads outside the city. Compared to them, there were too few pedestrians. There were even some remote roads where there was no one at all in this weather. As for Li An's group, walking on such a road, it seemed a little out of place.
However, there were still some covered horse hoofprints on the road. This was enough to show that there were still people walking on this road. Judging from the traces of the horse hoofprints being covered, it should be half an hour ago. Maybe Li Yu set off in advance, or maybe it was someone else.
Ang Lee sent a guard to scout ahead to see if Li Yu had reached the foot of the mountain. Soon, the guard returned. At the foot of the mountain in front, there was not only Li Yu, but also a few beautiful young ladies. They were dressed up as young masters, but they could not fool smart people because they were too beautiful.
With a cute girl to look at, Li An naturally had to speed up. At the very least, out of courtesy, he couldn't let the other party wait for too long. Li Yu was an imperial grandson after all. Knowing that he was here, he naturally couldn't dawdle.
"Gwangbyeong Of Gojoseon came so early! And so many people. "
Ang Lee had just reached the foot of the mountain when he saw more than twenty people and more than three fat and strong horses.
"Assistant Minister Li, let me introduce you. These two are the cheap concubine Zhenzhu's brothers. Today, they came together to hunt and also to see the snow."
Li Yu opened his mouth and introduced.
"Brothers? They are so beautiful that they can make one's heart beat faster. Who are you trying to fool? I am not an outsider. There is no need to lie in front of me. "
Ang Lee was exposed on the spot. It was not that Ang Lee did not want to give Li Yu face, but there was really no way to pretend. These two young ladies were too delicate, and their bodies were overflowing with fragrance. They did not look like men at all. If he played dumb and did not expose them, it would appear that he was not sincere enough and had ulterior motives.
"What did I say? No matter how you disguise yourselves, you can't fool Assistant Minister Li. Now, you have been exposed!"
Li Yu did not get angry. Instead, he pointed at the two young ladies and began to lecture them. The two of them only pouted but did not say anything.
"Gwangbyeong Of Gojoseon, who are these two young ladies? How come I have never seen them before? "
Ang Lee had indeed never seen them before, so he asked.
Li Yu looked at the two young ladies in an unfriendly manner and said, "Assistant Minister Li has never seen them before. These two are my father's concubine's daughters. They don't even have a title. They live with high-ranking palace maids. Those who don't know would think that they are palace maids."
"Oh, they are the Crown Prince's daughters."
Ang Lee thought for a moment and said, "It doesn't matter if they don't have a title. They are the Crown Prince's blood. I am from the same generation as Gwangbyeong Of Gojoseon. You can call me elder brother. I will call you younger sister."
In ancient times, children born of concubines often had no status. Sometimes, they were even inferior to servants. If the mother of the concubine's children was a servant, then the children born were also servants. There was almost no difference between them and ordinary servants. It could be said that it was very cruel. They were both the father's children, but because of the different status of the mother, the children's status was very different.
Many times, the main reason for this situation was that the father could not control his lower body. When he saw a young and beautiful female servant, he would pounce on her. According to the rules of the law, a man of high status absolutely could not marry a lowly female servant. In this way, even if the female servant gave birth to a child, the child would be a servant and would not receive the treatment of a master.
Of course, if the mother was not a servant but a concubine of the father, then the concubine's children would have a slightly higher status. At the very least, they would be higher than a servant. However, compared to the children of the main wife, they would still be much weaker.
Li Yu was Li Heng's son of the main wife, but the two young ladies in front of him did not have a title. From this, it could be seen that their mother's status was extremely low. Perhaps she was an unfavored concubine, or perhaps she was a palace maid. Crown Prince Li Heng was depressed. When he saw a palace maid, he immediately pounced on her. The palace maid could not refuse, so he had a child. After the child was born, he became a child of extremely low status.
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