Soon after the New Year is the Lantern Festival, and there are still five or six days before the Lantern Festival, so every household begins to hang lanterns.
Prince Qi's Mansion was also decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, filled with all kinds of lanterns.
After the children's repeated pleas, the princess finally relented, and on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the lanterns in Prince Qi's Mansion were the first to be lit.
The lanterns throughout the palace were bright and colorful, making the night look like day. Several children danced happily and ran around the garden carrying small lanterns.
The south gate of Jincheng County is called Tianqimen, and the main north-south road is called Tianqimen Street. There is also an East Street and a West Street. The three main streets are also filled with various lanterns, and there are also lantern towers.
Large lanterns such as lantern trees and lantern wheels.
The instructions given by King Li Ye of Qi to the state governments were to be strict in economy but also lively and grand. To this end, officials in Jincheng County and Lanzhou Prefecture came up with many good ways.
For example, there is no need to make new lanterns for lanterns. Instead, exchange them with other places and bring over lanterns from various places. Those that the common people have never seen are new lanterns.
Another example is the large lanterns. The lantern tower is made from the military's observation tower, a large wooden platform five feet high. It was transported to the city and rebuilt. It was covered with lanterns. This is the Denglou Mountain. It is magnificent and bigger than the lanterns in Chang'an.
Loushan is even more spectacular.
Then we brought several large waterwheels from the Yellow River and modified them a little, and there were several large light wheels. They turned slowly in the night wind like big windmills, and they were brilliant and beautiful.
As for the lantern tree, many people suggested cutting down trees outside the city to make them, but Li Ye objected to cutting down trees. He proposed a simple and feasible plan, which was to move dozens of military observation posts in, covered with branches and hung with various colorful decorations.
The lantern stands on the main road and can be seen when looking up. The trees are full of bright lights, becoming the most attractive symbol of Tianqimen Street.
On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival kicks off. As night falls, the entire Jincheng County turns into a sea of lanterns, with lanterns and colorful lights everywhere. In addition to the three main streets from north to south, east and west, there are also the Chenghuang Temple, Government Office Square, East Market and West Market.
There are four lantern gathering places including the city.
The most eye-catching Denglou Mountain stands on the Fuya Square, which is the large square in front of Jiedu Mansion.
After dinner, as soon as the door was locked, hundreds of thousands of people in Jincheng County went out with their wives and children. It was really:
The east wind blooms thousands of trees at night, and blows them down, and the stars are like rain. BMWs and carved cars fill the road with fragrance. The sound of phoenix and flute moves, the light of jade pot turns, and fish and dragons dance all night.
Moths are like golden wisps of snow and willows, and laughter is filled with dark fragrance. The crowd has searched for him thousands of times, but suddenly looking back, that person is there, in the dimly lit place.
Li Ye's family also took two carriages to go out to watch the lanterns and enjoy themselves with the people. Soldiers followed on both sides and in front of the carriage on foot. The coachman also got out of the carriage and led the horse to stop and walk among the crowd, exactly the same as walking.
At this time, the purpose of the carriage is safety, not for rushing.
Of course, there are far more than the two carriages from Prince Qi's palace. The female relatives of wealthy families basically take carriages when they go out to watch the lanterns, and will not be crowded with ordinary people.
But the two carriages in Prince Qi's Mansion have transparent crystal windows, which are unique.
The superiors pay attention to having fun with the people during the Shangyuan Festival, but having fun with the people is by no means crowded with the people to go shopping. There are two general ways. One is to travel by car like Li Ye, which is more suitable for vassal kings.
Jiedushi and the like.
The emperor's enjoyment with the people was to watch the lanterns on the top of the palace city, or to build a colorful building next to the busiest lantern market in advance. The emperor took his concubines, princes and princesses to watch the lanterns on the colorful building.
In fact, riding a carriage is the most convenient, and it is no different from watching the lanterns in the crowd.
"Husband, I found that there is a shed showing shadow puppets at every intersection. What's going on?" Qingyu asked curiously.
Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "The people watching the shadow puppet show are all children. This is actually to prevent children from getting lost. The shadow puppet show is used to attract children. If any child is lost, go to the nearby shadow puppet show shed to look for it. You will definitely find it."
Princess Dugu Xinyue praised: "This method is good and very thoughtful. The official who came up with this method should be heavily rewarded."
The carriage traveled another distance, and in front of it was the government office square.
Li Ye pointed to the tall and spectacular lantern tower not far away and smiled at his family: "That is Denglou Mountain. It was temporarily borrowed from the viewing platform. It is ten feet high and covers an area of five acres. There are 300,000 lamps on it.
It’s very impressive!”
Dugu Xinyue looked up at the lantern tower that looked like a gathering of stars and sighed: "The gold and green shine against each other, and the splendid embroidery shines together. It is indeed spectacular. It is no longer inferior to the Denglou Mountain in Chang'an."
"There's a waterfall up there!"
Just then, a waterfall fell from the sky, with thousands of threads and brilliant silver light. Tens of thousands of people cheered, and the three little ladies around Li Ye all jumped for joy.
Yang Yuhuan smiled and asked: "How is the waterfall made?"
Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "It's actually very simple. Use a pulley to twist the water up. There is a water storage wooden box on the top. When it is full, put it down together, and the water will form a waterfall."
Dugu Xinyue smiled and said, "You can really think of it!"
Qingyu asked with a big belly: "Husband, can I go up to Denglou Mountain?"
"Of course you can go up there, but it can only accommodate a maximum of two hundred people. You can only go up in batches and you can't stay. After you go up, you just follow the flow of people. It is estimated that there are many people who want to go up, so they will have to queue for a long time.
After a pause, Li Ye smiled again and said: "If you want to go up, I can arrange it. There is a special VIP passage, and you can go directly to the top floor without interacting with ordinary people."
Yang Yuhuan shook her head quickly. She was a little afraid of heights and didn't dare to go up. Qing Yu had a big belly and it was difficult to go up.
Dugu Xinyue smiled and said, "Why don't you, husband, take the three little ladies up there for a walk!"
"Dad, I want to go up and have a look!" Xingsha said urgently, holding her father's hand.
"Where are Yaoguang and Qiuhe?"
Li Ye smiled and asked again: "Would you two go up and have a look?"
The two little ladies nodded obediently together. The other two boys were too young and Dugu Xinyue wouldn't let them go up. We'll wait until next year.
Unexpectedly, when the eldest son Li Jin saw his father and his three sisters going up, he immediately burst into tears.
Dugu Xinyue had no choice but to pick him up and said with a smile: "It's really worthless, okay! Stop crying, mother will take you up."
Li Ye himself held his eldest daughter Xingsha, and his wife held their son Li Jin. He also found two female guards, one holding Yao Guang and the other holding Qiu He, and the group came to the VIP passage.
The crowd of people lined up in a long queue. After 50 people got off the other side, 50 people were allowed to go up here. The VIP passage was on the other side, and only officials of fifth rank or above could bring their families up.
By chance, I happened to meet Liu Yan with his wife and a pair of children.
The two families walked up to the high platform talking and laughing. There were four floors in the lantern tower. Ordinary people could only go up to the third floor. They walked and looked at each other, walking non-stop, and went down the passage.
Ordinary people cannot go up to the fourth floor, mainly because it is relatively empty and they are afraid of accidents due to crowds. Of course, the real reason is that the fourth floor is actually arranged for VIPs. There are guardrails around it, which are very strong. If you hold on to the railings, you will not fall.
Go down.
Li Ye took his family to the top of the building. There was no need to rush down. He stood on the high platform and looked at the brightly lit city. The eyes of the three young ladies were straight, and they were amazed.
"Dad, where is our home?" Xingsha raised his head and asked.
"over there!"
Li Ye pointed to a patch of light not far to the north and said with a smile: "There is a small lake over there, which is our home!"
Xingsha clapped his hands and smiled: "I saw it!"
Dugu Xinyue came over, held her husband's hand and whispered: "Husband, do you still remember when we went to the lantern tower?"
Li Ye nodded, "Yes! At that time, your name was Suzaku. It has been many years."
Xingsha raised his head and asked, "Mom, where was I at that time?"
Li Ye laughed, pointed to the sky and said, "At that time you were still a star in the sky! So I named you Xingsha."
"What about us?" Yao Guang and Qiu He also raised their little faces and asked.
"You are the same, you are all stars in the sky, and later you fell into the mortal world and became your father's daughters."
The family watched for a while. Li Ye turned back and smiled at his wife: "The wind is very strong, let's go down!"
Dugu Xinyue nodded, "Little guys, let's go!"
Liu Yan took his family down first. At the entrance, Cui Guangyuan's family and Changsun Nanfang's family also entered the VIP passage.
After walking out of the lantern tower, the carriage was about twenty steps ahead. There was a small market in front of the carriage, but they saw Yang Yuhuan and Liu Qingyu sitting in front of a snack stall, drinking sugar porridge and eating snacks!
The three children saw the food stall, cheered and ran over to it together, and the family booked the food stall.
A vendor came to sell lanterns for children. Li Ye bought several of each so he could carry them on the bed and play with them.
One night, the family walked around for an hour and a half before returning home in high spirits.