In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the Jiangnan area had not received the attention of the imperial court and had not been fully developed. As a major southeastern town, Hangzhou was not well-known, but it was just an ordinary prefecture in the southeast of the Tang Dynasty, and the name "Hangzhou" was only born a few years ago.

Hangzhou was established in the ninth year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty. This was the first time that the place name "Hangzhou" appeared in history. It was first governed by Yuhang County. The capital was moved to Qiantang County in the tenth year of Kaihuang. In the third year of Daye, it was renamed Yuhang County. Since then, it has been used as the name "Yuhang County" during the Sui Dynasty.

In the fourth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty, Du Fuwei, the leader of the Jianghuai rebel army who returned to the Tang Dynasty, led troops to wipe out the troops of Li Zitong's troops in the Jiangnan rebel army. Du Fuwei's general Wang Xiongdan led his troops to capture Hangzhou and captured Li Zitong alive. The Tang Dynasty court established Hangzhou again and took Qiantang, Fuyang and Yuhang counties. In order to avoid the name of the Tang Dynasty, Qiantang was renamed Qiantang. In the sixth year of Wude, Fu Gongyu, who was guarding Jianghuai, killed him as Du Fuwei's adopted son, holding heavy hands. Wang Xiongdan, a soldier, rebelled against the Tang Dynasty, and Hangzhou once again escaped from the rule of the Tang Dynasty. In the seventh year of Wude, Fu Gongyu's rebellion was pacified by famous generals Li Xiaogong and Li Jing and others, and restored Hangzhou. The Yanguan land in Dongwuzhou was merged into Qiantang County. In the eighth year of Wude, Qianzhou was abolished and under the rule of Hangzhou in Qianzhou. During the Zhenguan period and the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Yanguan, Lin'an, Xincheng, Zixi, Tangshan and other counties were successively established.

At the beginning of the first year of Zhenguan, ten roads were established across the country. Hangzhou belonged to Jiangnan Road, but it was not the capital of Jiangnan Road. The capital of Jiangnan Road was located in Suzhou. As Shangzhou, Hangzhou is still just a relatively ordinary prefecture.

This is Wang Yi, who later studied the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a rough understanding of Hangzhou in the early Tang Dynasty. Because he had been in Hangzhou for many years, he had a little research on the history of this city, especially the history that Hangzhou had just begun to develop during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. However, the status of Hangzhou in the early Tang Dynasty was not important, and there was very little historical information. There were only a few words about the geographical records of Hangzhou in the "New Book of Tang" and "Old Book of Tang", so Wang Yi only had a rough understanding of the situation of Hangzhou in the early Tang Dynasty, which was almost the previous content. He had little idea of ​​how the city of Hangzhou was distributed and how the West Lake was on the edge of Hangzhou. According to what Wang Yi now knows from the people around him, there are only Qiantang, Yuhang, Fuyang, Yuqian, Hangzhou's capital and Qiantang County under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou today. There are tens of thousands of residents in the city, and the scale is not large.

Since traveling to the Tang Dynasty, Wang Yi was also very eager to visit this city that was his hometown in his later generations. He was very excited to travel today. This place in Hangzhou is of great significance to Wang Yi. In later generations, he stayed in this city that he believed to be the most beautiful in China for more than 30 years. On the beautiful Xizi Lake, he and his wife and daughter stopped to visit many times, leaving behind many laughs and memories. When Wang Yi was riding a horse, he kept recalling the situation in Hangzhou City in later generations, the beautiful scenery of West Lake, and the experience of traveling with his wife and daughter. He was filled with emotion and sadness.

"Second brother, why don't you speak?" Wang Tan, who was riding on the same horse with Wang Yi, hadn't heard the sound for a long time, and turned around and asked strangely.

Hearing Wang Tan's shout, Wang Yi came to his senses, and the melancholy just now disappeared, and he hugged Wang Tan's ear and said loudly: "Tan'er, my second brother is thinking about what fun places are there in Hangzhou, where should we go to play later!"

"Second brother, have you not been to Hangzhou? You don't know what fun places are in Hangzhou, how can you think of it?" Wang Tan was still very strange.

"I have seen it in the book, but I don't know if the actual Hangzhou City will be the same as the ones mentioned in the book!" In fact, although Wang Yi has many books in his room, there are no books like Hangzhou Chronicles. He said this just to coax Wang Tan. Wang Yi said it and pointed to the four horses who followed closely behind him. "They have all been to Hangzhou, and they will still lead the way later! Let them take us to play!"

"Well, second brother, let's run faster, Tan'er is hungry!" Wang Tan shouted loudly.

"Okay, let's run for a while and we'll arrive soon!" Wang Yi whipped his mount under him, and the horse ran faster.

The group had passed the small village that belonged to Zhuangzi's "satellite village" on the side of the road to Zhuangzhuang, and came to the official road. The road to the official road was wider and the horse could run faster.

As soon as he left the village, Wang Yi dismounted and looked at the situation. He found that the families living there were all strong people, similar to those in the village, and only males, and all of them were surnamed Wang. Those people also respected Wang Yi very much and specifically told Wang Yi’s several followers not to go wrong!

Although Wang Yi was very curious about the situation in this small village, he did not have much interest in finding out what happened today. What he thought most was to go to Hangzhou City soon and have close contact with this beautiful ancient city as early as possible. Therefore, he left without any delay in the small village and rode his horse to the official road. After getting on the official road, he also ran.

However, when Wang Yi was running away, Wang Jin and Wang Hua gradually surpassed them. While heading side by side, Wang Ting shouted loudly to Wang Yi, meaning they knew how to go and let Wang Yi follow them. Wang Yi also followed their opinions and slowed down slightly, allowing Wang Ting and Wang Hua to run in front, and he was riding in the middle, behind Wang Zhou and Wang Ning.

It is already mid-autumn season, and most of the crops in the fields are harvested. Against the contrast of the discolored leaves on the edge, this land that Wang Yi no longer has any familiarity is radiating the unique beauty of autumn.

Even the weeds changed color, with green and yellow connections. The green and green mountains in the distance were as their backs. Various colors rendered them in the middle, but they looked like a beautiful pastoral painting. In later generations, this area was completely gone. Wang Yi, who was feasting his eyes, looked greedily and no longer motivated the mounts under him. The owner no longer drove desperately, and the horse under him gradually slowed down his running pace.

The Zhuangzi where he lives is about twenty-five miles away from Hangzhou City. After running for about half an hour, the group finally arrived outside Hangzhou City.

Come from this direction and enter Hangzhou City, you need to enter from Qingtai Gate. When the group arrived outside Qingtai Gate, Wang Yile stopped his mount and looked at the situation of Hangzhou's ancient city from afar.

A circle of city walls that cannot be considered very tall extends from the Qingtai Gate Tower to both sides, turning a corner where you can see the view. Perhaps these two bends are the end of Hangzhou City. It seems that the size of Hangzhou City is not very large and the population will not be large.

Wang Yi also remembers that in the "New Book of Tang", there were more than 80,000 households in Hangzhou during the Tang Dynasty, with a population of about 600,000. This is the number of residents in several counties under Hangzhou. It is likely that the number of households in the late Zhenguan period and even the Kaiyuan period after the economy recovered and developed rapidly. There should not be such households at the beginning of Zhenguan. Even if the number recorded in the "New Book of Tang" is the number of households under Hangzhou now, it is pitiful to calculate based on the regional scale of Hangzhou, which is far from comparable to the size of the population of more than 8 million in later generations.

After thinking a little, Wang Yi understood that in the Hangzhou area, there were large-scale wars in the sixties and seventh year of Wude. There were wars between Wang Xiongdan's troops and Li Zitong's troops, and the wars between Li Xiaogong and Li Jing led troops to wipe out the Fu Gongyou tribe. These two wars must have caused considerable damage to the Hangzhou area. There must be a lot of people who died in the battle. The population of the entire Hangzhou rule was only such a small number. Although it is a bit unacceptable, it is reasonable that such a situation has occurred only two or three years after those wars.

Wang Yi also thought of the situation he saw on the way to Hangzhou. This area should be considered a rich place. Now there are still many fields that are deserted and no one is farming. After 20 or 30 miles, I didn’t even see a few villages and towns. There were very few people working in the fields. The villages he passed or saw were far smaller than the size of the villages where he lived.

Seeing Wang Yi staring at the Qingtai Gate’s city tower in a daze, Wang Zhou, who was next to Wang Yi, approached and asked whispered: “Second Young Master, what’s wrong with you? Is there something wrong? Should we enter the city?”

Wang Yi came to his senses and smiled at Wang Zhou, "Of course we have to go into the city, otherwise what should we do if we run so far? Let's go into the city immediately. It's almost noon. The young master and the third girl are hungry. After we enter the city, we will find a place to eat!"

"Yes, Second Young Master, let's go to the city. I know that there is a restaurant with a good food and food. I will take you there later!" Wang Zhou responded and ran to Wang Ting who was standing in front of him, and said a few words quietly. Wang Ting nodded and walked forward first. Another follower Wang Hua also followed Wang Ting to run ahead. Wang Zhou and Wang Ning protected Wang Yi's seat and walked slowly towards the city gate.

Wang Yi had sharp eyes. Before turning over and dismounting the horse, he saw Wang Ting running in front and the sergeant leader guarding the city whispering a few words. The sergeant leader immediately showed a decent look and bowed to Wang Ting.

When Wang heard this, he turned around and showed a look at Wang Zhou. Wang Zhou and Wang Ning understood, led the horse and protected Wang Yi's brother and sister, ignored the soldiers guarding the city and led the horse into the city. The soldiers not only did not come to interrogate, but also saluted Wang Yi respectfully.

After entering Hangzhou City, Wang Yi stood on the street and observed the situation in the city.

Judging from the distribution of houses in the city, Hangzhou in the Tang Dynasty also adopted the city yard system like other Tang Dynasty cities recorded in history. The city was divided into neighborhoods of all sizes. Each yard was built with a wall, and only the gates were for people to enter and exit. Each house could not directly open the gate on the street. The streets of the branch yard were also relatively wide. Although it was not as wide as that of Chang'an City recorded in the book, the width was at least tens of meters. However, except for a section of the city that was paved with stone slabs, other places were mud and horses.

After running past, dust was rolled up. There were drainage ditches on both sides of the street, bluestone slabs were laid on the ditches, and trees were planted by the ditches. It was the most common willow tree in the Jiangnan area. Because it was already mid-autumn, a lot of willow leaves fell and the ground was covered with fallen leaves. Because it had not rained for many days, the remaining willow leaves were covered with dust. The fallen leaves on the ground, coupled with dusty willow branches, and some dilapidated and unrenovated houses in the yard, have caused a sense of desolation for no reason, which makes people feel sad, and makes Wang Yi feel sad in his heart...
Chapter completed!