Drinking Horses by the Jiaohe River at Dusk

Gaochang State, at the junction of the Western Regions and the Central Plains, has fertile soil and can be harvested twice a year. Its peach wine and white folded cloth are quite famous and well-known in the Central Plains. On the fertile plain with two rivers and one lake in Gaochang, there are twenty-one large and small cities. The famous Jiaohe City was the royal palace of charioteers in the Han Dynasty. It is located at the southern foot of Wuluoman Mountain. It was named after the two valleys originating from Chishi Mountain in the north and flowing southward from the intersection in the east of the city. The east one is called Lishui and the west one is called Changshui. After the confluence, it was called Lichangshui. Finally, it merged to form Lichang Lake near Gaochang City, the capital. For more than a hundred years, the Central Plains has been in turmoil. The influx of people from the Central Plains has brought advanced skills, a prosperous market, and an environment of peaceful singing and dancing to Gaochang, a small border country. Compared with the Yumen of Dunhuang thousands of miles away, it is like heaven. Jiaohe is an important town after the national capital Gaochang. It has row upon row of bustling streets and bustling with three religions and nine streams, and it also attracts countless merchants. One of the tallest buildings in Jiaohe City is the Tutun Mansion, which has three sections in depth and has cloisters and wing rooms on the left and right. Although the governor of the city was granted the title of Tutun and was only the fourth-level official of the White Wolf Kingdom, the government office was also carved with feathers and teeth, making it quite majestic. The other building is Nandafang, which is only one street away. The two-story red-painted building faces the river and looks down. There are four or five courtyards where accommodation, banquets, and prostitution are all available. The owner of Nandafang is Jiuchongtian, known as Jiaohe Jiuye.