The young man hurriedly said, "Brother Wang, you are polite. If you hadn't sold our cheap and good salt, our Zhuangzi would not know if we could afford this salt..."

...

Soon Yang He and others returned to the official road and they continued north.

In front is Fangyu Town, twenty miles away from Zhangshan. Then, not far from the northwest of Fangyu Town is Fangyu Mountain, also known as Siwu Mountain and Dongwu Mountain.

However, locals commonly known as Fangyu Mountain, which is the "Maling Mountain Scenic Spot" in later generations, belonging to the "Nan Maling".

Maling Mountain originates in Shandong and ends in Suqian, and is called "Baibaili Maling". Generally, Tancheng belongs to "Northern Maling" and this belongs to South Maling. There are different names in various areas, but they all belong to part of the Maling Mountains.

On the main road of Fangyu Town, it is considered an important town in Suqian County at this time. It is another sixty miles north to the Liujiazhuang Inspection Department. After passing the Inspection Department, it is the boundary of Tancheng, Shandong.

Not far away, there is also a Honghuabu, an important town in Tancheng, with an inn.

Yang He and others rested in Fangyu Town. This belongs to the ancient town. It seems that it existed during the Five Dynasties. Even during the Warring States Period, Sun Bin defeated Pang Juan in this area.

The official road passes through the town from north to south, and there is a water transport terminal a few miles east. The shops in the town are lined up one after another, mostly blue brick and tile houses, vertical colonnade eaves, and the main street is even paved with bluestone slabs. The restaurant numbers of large and small wine banners are hung low and high, arranged in a varied manner.

There are also temples and mule and horse markets at both ends. There are many merchants with various accents, and Huai and Shandong merchants can be seen everywhere.

However, Yang He also noticed that because of the uneasy world, Zenggao Dike Wall was being strengthened here, and local gentry and merchants even built volunteers and added armors such as bird guns and Bolang machines.

At night, all the streets here will be equipped with fences to block them, and only by fighting for more people can you enter and exit.

The soldiers were in chaos, and all the towns were trying their best to protect themselves.

Yang He and others had lunch at a wine shop. They planned to rest here today. After all, they kept walking north and there was no big market.

However, Yang He first planned to look at the surrounding area, because he calculated that he would set up a military camp nearby in the future.

Soon Yang He and others left Fangyu Town, went north to ride horses and wandered on the official road. To the west was Maling Mountain, one by one, the top of the mountain was Wuhuading, and there were quite a temple on the top.

From a distance, I see the mountains and rivers, dense forests, and there are many deep ditches and curved streams, lakes and ponds. Many of the surrounding villagers rely on the rivers flowing down from Maling Mountain to irrigate the fields.

After walking a few miles, Yanghe also discovered a phenomenon. Although Muhe is not far from the east, there are not many fields in the villages of the river. Many fields that seem to be cultivated are abandoned and weeds are everywhere.

Speaking of this, Hu Juye said: "This river has floods every year, not a big village. It is a big family. It can build high-press walls to protect the fields. How dare ordinary villagers rely on the river to farm? When a flood comes, all wheat and rice fields will be destroyed."

After walking for another four or five miles, Yanghe stopped at the ground in Wangzhuang Town in later generations.

To the east of him is a large wilderness, perhaps three or four miles to the ground by the river, except for the weeds.

Then to the west, about one mile away from the official road, there is a mountain that is not very high.

Hu Juye thought about it and said that the mountain might be called Tianyue Mountain by the locals. There is a lake below the west side of the mountain. The locals called Huang Chao Lake, which was named after Huang Chao once stationed troops there.

Yang He led everyone there, climbed the mountain, and looked at Maling slowly and lowly from afar. When he entered the mountain, he found a different world, with many springs and ponds, many plants and trees, and beautifully, with wilderness.

Then he saw a mountain opposite, and there was a pass facing the south. Hu Juye said that this was Huang Chao Pass, where Huang Chao defeated the officers and soldiers.

Beside the north of the pass is a large deep and open mountain stream. At this time, the blue waves in the stream are rippling, forming a large lake. This is the "Huangchao Lake", and later generations became the Huangchaoguan Reservoir.

Yang He looked at the lake, with grass, trees and reeds on the edges. The peaks standing beneath him were not high, probably only fifty meters above sea level, and the hills were undulating and quite flat.

I thought to myself: "With this lake, you won't have to worry about water. I will build military camps up and down the mountain to stock up enough food and grass, and it is not a problem to station one or two thousand people."
Chapter completed!