"We'll have a few nice days of touring, then. For now, we'll go up and have refreshments at the silver pavilion." Huaisang nods at one of his attendants to have the instruction carried out for food to be sent there. "I hope you won't mind all the stairs. Bujing Shi was built upon a mountain, it's all stairs and caverns."
Gesturing for them to follow, Huaisang leads the way out of the reception hall and up a grand flight of stairs behind it. "But what's nice is that there's a hot spring that has several outlets on the mountain, and my people have gotten very good at routing it, so most of the finer guest and family residences have heated pools, and there's running water accessible throughout the city."
What Mammon will have noticed by now, going through the city of Qinghe and now this fortress Bujing Shi, is that there's an incongruous air of neglect in all the government-owned buildings. The whole place is very powerful and imposing, but statues have gone unrepaired, ornamental plating has fallen off, nothing looks like it's been polished in years. The military presence in particular just looks shabby--armor has been patched too many times, weapons looking a bit makeshift. It looks on the surface like a place that doesn't have the money to keep up the shows of wealth and prosperity or to maintain its defenses. That's fairly obvious to anyone, but what Mammon in particular will have noticed is that all the underlying infrastructure is flawless: roads in good repair, people in the city looking well-fed and happy, hardly any presence of beggars or pickpockets.
Huaisang or someone else in power here has clearly put a lot of effort into seeming like the province is impoverished while making sure all the humbler needs of the people are met.
He takes them up another set of stairs, still imposing but more winding, by which point his pace has slowed and his breath is coming quick. They've just climbed about twelve flights worth of stairs and evidently there are more to go.
no subject
Gesturing for them to follow, Huaisang leads the way out of the reception hall and up a grand flight of stairs behind it. "But what's nice is that there's a hot spring that has several outlets on the mountain, and my people have gotten very good at routing it, so most of the finer guest and family residences have heated pools, and there's running water accessible throughout the city."
What Mammon will have noticed by now, going through the city of Qinghe and now this fortress Bujing Shi, is that there's an incongruous air of neglect in all the government-owned buildings. The whole place is very powerful and imposing, but statues have gone unrepaired, ornamental plating has fallen off, nothing looks like it's been polished in years. The military presence in particular just looks shabby--armor has been patched too many times, weapons looking a bit makeshift. It looks on the surface like a place that doesn't have the money to keep up the shows of wealth and prosperity or to maintain its defenses. That's fairly obvious to anyone, but what Mammon in particular will have noticed is that all the underlying infrastructure is flawless: roads in good repair, people in the city looking well-fed and happy, hardly any presence of beggars or pickpockets.
Huaisang or someone else in power here has clearly put a lot of effort into seeming like the province is impoverished while making sure all the humbler needs of the people are met.
He takes them up another set of stairs, still imposing but more winding, by which point his pace has slowed and his breath is coming quick. They've just climbed about twelve flights worth of stairs and evidently there are more to go.