Manors, also called "villas" or "villa residences," were fashionable properties for aristocrats to acquire in those days.
The vogue for Manors began in the Eastern Han. By the Five Barbarians' Upheaval, when the robed and capped elite crossed south, a craze arose for clearing land, building Manors, enclosing waterways, and claiming mountains, making Manors more popular still.
Smaller ones diverted water through channels and laid out fields crisscrossed by paths. Larger ones embraced mountains and waterways, encompassing thousands of qing!
The Le Zhan family Manor stood in Green Forest Mountain, with a perimeter of twenty-five li and an area of over eighty qing. It could not compare to the enormous Manors of the wealthiest great houses, but it was hardly small. It was quite far from Jingzhou City, though. Wang Yang had set out before dawn and only entered the mountains near noon.
Green Forest Mountain was not a solitary peak but a vast mountain range winding eastward, with extensive forests and varied terrain. After Wang Mang usurped the Han, bandits had risen here, concealing over ten thousand troops. Brigands had persisted afterward. By the time Eastern Wu developed Jiangnan and northern gentry migrated south in large numbers, setting off a craze for clearing land and claiming mountains, the mountain bandits had long since been swept away. Three families had built large estates here, and two had built smaller ones. Even so, vast stretches remained deep mountains and ancient forests that people could scarcely reach.
Le Xiaopang had been waiting at the mountain entrance with his men for some time. "Brother! What happened yesterday? Why didn't you come earlier?"
It was a Music Family tradition to send out invitations far and wide during the midsummer dog days in the sixth month, inviting friends and relatives to escape the heat at