For the next two nights, they didn't encounter any more wolves and managed to get through the night safely.
On the evening of the third day, they arrived at a post station, which meant that they would reach Yuanxi in another day.
This inn is still rudimentary, but it's much better than living in the wild; at least you can get a good night's sleep.
The next morning, they set off early. By then, the road conditions had improved considerably, and they could see horses galloping from time to time.
With the improved road conditions, the carriage moved much faster, and around noon, they unexpectedly came across a small town.
The group immediately stopped the car and checked the situation in the town.
This town is very small, smaller than a small village in the Central Plains. The entire town has only one street, with houses on both sides. It is estimated that all the residents of the town live on both sides of the street.
Because there are few pedestrians, there are almost no shops here. The street is only so long, and the state of the town is clear at a glance.
Fortunately, there's a noodle shop here where I can have a bowl of hot noodles, which is much better than eating flatbread.
The noodle shop only had a few small tables, and as soon as the group came in, they filled them all.
When the shop owner saw so many people arrive at once, he quickly came over to greet them.
"You gentlemen are here for noodles, right?" the shop owner asked.
"Bring on whatever good food you have besides noodles, and hurry up, we still have a long way to go," Zhao Xian said.
"I'm so sorry, our shop has nothing but noodles."
"Could you make us a few bowls of mutton noodles? Why can't we all just eat bald noodles?"
"There really isn't any mutton here. If you want to eat mutton noodles, you'll have to go to Yuanxi, but that's quite a distance away, and it takes two or three hours by carriage."
Moreover, the city gates of Yuanxi close very early, before nightfall, so once they are closed, one cannot enter and is forced to spend the night outside the city.
Li Xue was taken aback and quickly asked, "We are on our way to Yuanxi. Can we still enter the city if we leave now?"
"We need to hurry, or it will be hard to say what will happen if we wait any longer."
"Thank you for the reminder, shopkeeper. We won't have the noodles; we need to hurry on our way." After saying this, Li Xue took out a piece of silver and handed it to the shopkeeper before leading the group away.
The shopkeeper was astonished when he took the piece of silver. He put it in his mouth and took a bite, then walked to the shop entrance. By then, several carriages had already sped away.
In order to reach Yuanxi before the city gates closed, the group went all out. The people were fine, but the horses were in a bit of a predicament.
Originally, we planned to let the horses rest and feed them some hay at noon, but it seems there's no time for that now. We can only let the horses endure it a little longer and hope that nothing goes wrong.
The horses were very determined, and after traveling for more than two hours without stopping, they finally arrived outside Yuanxi City. Seeing some people rushing into the city, they knew that the city gates were not yet closed.
Following the crowd, the group quickly arrived at the city gate, where many soldiers were already standing guard. A gatekeeper was also standing nearby, urging people to enter the city.
"Hurry up, hurry up, the city gates are closing."
Three carriages followed the flow of people into the city. Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky. The sun was still high in the sky, and closing the city gates now was indeed a bit too early.
In everyone's mind, Yuanxi should be a desolate ancient city, but after entering the city, they found that this was not the case.
The city has a large number of trees that grow very tall, and the living environment is better than that of Yuanshui City, because there are no trees as tall as these in Yuanshui City.
Not only that, they also saw some crops, and lush vegetables were growing in the fields. The fact that vegetables could grow in this season had overturned their understanding.
It seems that Yuanxi is not a wild and desolate place; the group seems to have arrived in the south.
As they got closer to the city center, more and more pedestrians appeared on the streets, which excited everyone.
A camel caravan appeared ahead, its camel bells ringing incessantly.
The caravan consisted of thirty or forty camels, with goods loaded on their backs and people riding on them.
These people were dressed in strange clothes, had kind faces, and were covered in beards; they were clearly Westerners.
Li Xue was very excited to see these people. She had seen this camel caravan in the capital before. They came from a country in the Western Regions. They had been to the capital before and bought a lot of tea, silk and porcelain to take back to do business.
I didn't expect to meet them here again, which shows that Yuanxi was an important stop on the Silk Road.
It's not easy for these people to do business. A round trip takes several months, and they encounter various risks along the way.
The carriage passed by the camel caravan and soon arrived at the central area of Yuanxi City, where the Yuanxi government office was located.
Li Xue took out her waist token and asked the yamen runner to go in and report. The yamen runner dared not delay and immediately went in to report.
Soon, the prefect of Yuanxi personally went out to greet him, but he did not see the princess of the current dynasty. Instead, he was surrounded by men, which puzzled him.
Before coming to Yuanxi, Li Xue had done her homework and was already very familiar with the situation in the Yuanxi government office.
"This must be the former Prefect of Xi, Lord Jin. I am Li Xue, the daughter of the current Fourth Prince."
At this moment, the prefect of Yuanxi looked at Li Xue and quickly understood what was going on. It turned out that the princess was disguised as a man, no wonder he hadn't noticed.
"Greetings, Princess. The former Prefect of the West, Jin Gang, was unaware of your arrival. Please forgive him."
"Prefect Jin, you are too kind. I have come to Yuanxi this time because of urgent matters. I hope you will be of great help to me."
"Princess, please feel free to give any instructions. I will do my best to assist you. Your Highness must be very tired from your journey. There is an inn in the government office. Please go in and rest first."
"Thank you, Prefect." After saying this, Li Xue led everyone into the prefectural government office with Prefect Jin.
These past few days have been tough. Li Xue plans to get a good night's rest and then meet with Prefect Jin again tomorrow to discuss matters.
Normally, the government office and the post station are not located together, but Yuanxi is a bit special. The post station is actually located inside the government office. This is good, at least in terms of security, it can be well guaranteed.
The banquet was personally arranged by Prefect Jin and was very lavish. To their surprise, beef appeared on the table, and there was more than one dish made with beef.
In ancient times, cattle were important production tools and their slaughter was forbidden. Eating beef was illegal, and both those who prepared and consumed beef would be imprisoned.
Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, Prefect Jin spoke up:
"This is yak meat, a major specialty of the former western region."
The outer perimeter of the former western region is covered with vast land, where most plants struggle to survive. However, some thorny plants thrive there, and these plants are excellent fodder for yaks. Therefore, it is not surprising that the former western region is rich in yaks.
The yaks raised here are only for food; they're not used for working in the fields. Besides, there's not much land here to cultivate.
Therefore, in the western part of the country, eating yak meat is not illegal, so you can eat it without worry.
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