As expected, the Flying Squirrel was restrained by him and did not dare to come back all night. Early the next morning, Guo Song settled the rent, led his horse and left the inn, and walked along the official road to the county town two miles away.
As we get closer to the county seat, both sides of the official road gradually become lively, with houses built and various small shops one after another. Many farmers set up stalls on the road, selling various vegetables, melons, beans, chickens, ducks, and fish eggs.
The woman in short skirt came out from the city to buy vegetables and bargained with the farmers, which was quite lively.
At this time, the Guo family saw a clothing appraisal shop on the roadside, so they tied their horse at the door and walked in. After a while, he came out of the shop and immediately changed his clothes, wearing a 70% new green fine linen.
Wearing a t-shirt, a leather belt around the waist, and a soap gauze hat with a jade pendant on the front of the gauze hat, he looks gentle and elegant, rather like the dress of a scholar.
The horizontal sword is still worn on the waist. Scholars in the Tang Dynasty also wore swords and sabers as decorations, but they mainly wore swords and there were not many swords. Even if they did, they were basically horizontal swords.
He also carried a wicker book box in his hand. He put his warrior uniform, cloak and bow and arrows in the box, and tied the box to the back of the saddle. He looked like a traveling scholar.
In Longyou, Shuofang and most areas in the north, it is rare to see scholars. Generally speaking, most of the scholars are children of aristocratic families. They are basically both civil and military practitioners, just like Liang Wu, who usually wears warrior uniforms.
But in the capital, Guo Song's style of dress is very common. It can be said that it is everywhere in the streets. Ordinary men of the middle class wear such t-shirts, leather belts, and soap gauze hats. However, young people prefer to wear samurai uniforms, and
Young people who wear robes and carry book boxes are often scholars.
After changing his clothes, he no longer had the majestic and heroic temperament he had before, and obviously fewer people paid attention to him.
Guo Song led his horse to the city gate. There was indeed a large notice board outside the city gate with rain eaves on it. It was covered with various official notices. Two soap-clothed officers stood on the left and right holding water and fire sticks.
There are many people standing on both sides of the notice board. If you are illiterate, you can ask the officer next to you to read it to everyone.
Guo Song glanced at it, and in the middle was a notice that had just been posted. It conveyed the imperial decree, allowing merchants to ride horses, wear robes, and allow merchants' children to practice martial arts. Before that, merchants could only wear short clothes, and only
Wearing long robes is not allowed when riding donkeys, mules, etc. Businessmen's children are allowed to practice martial arts secretly, but they are not allowed to enter martial arts halls. It seems that the imperial court's restrictions on merchants have been relaxed.
His eyes fell on the upper left corner, where there were a series of seven or eight wanted notices. The first one should be the latest. It was the flying rat he met in the tavern last night. His name was Sun You, a native of Chang'an. He was charged with stealing official silver and had a three-year reward.
Bai Guan, the portrait does have a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, it looks a bit like him.
Although Guo Song missed the three hundred guan reward, he was not short of money. In his horse bag was the 300 taels of gold he earned in Lingzhou, which was worth three thousand guan. Besides, he also had a house worth five thousand guan.
A small house worth a thousand dollars.
After reading it twice, he didn't see his wanted warrant. It seemed that Duan Xiushi had really helped him clear up the criminal record, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
He led the horse and walked directly to the county town...
Two days later, Guo Song finally arrived at Chang'an City. A large-scale city appeared in front of him. The long city wall could not be seen. Several majestic city towers stood on the city wall, and outside was a wide and deep moat.
Although the Anshi Rebellion broke out, both An Lushan and Shi Siming wanted to build their capital in Chang'an, so they did not destroy this most majestic city in the world. After ten years of recovery, Chang'an City became prosperous, wealthy and densely populated again.
.
It was already midsummer, the weather was hot, and the cicadas on the willow trees on both sides were screaming desperately. There were not many pedestrians on the road at noon, and the shops on both sides of the official road were basically dormant. Guo Song bought a few Hu cakes in front of a Hu cake shop.
After eating the cakes, I drank a gourd of water, and went straight into Chang'an City through Chunming Gate while eating Hu cakes.
There are soldiers guarding both sides of the city gate. Generally, they will not conduct interrogations, but they will stop people for random inspections. The soldiers have sharp eyes, and they can tell who is not a local and who will have problems.
Ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty did not have ID cards, and only those who became officials would have fish talismans. However, Guo Song had a household registration certificate issued by the Lingzhou government, proving that he had a normal household registration in Lingzhou. With this certificate, he traveled through
The state passed the government without any trouble.
Soldiers generally don't check ordinary households. The focus of their checks is on caravans. They always get a little profit, which can be regarded as a backer.
Chang'an City Street is very wide and paved with neat stone slabs. There are no shops along the street or big families on both sides. All you can see are long walls. Chang'an has a checkerboard structure, with fourteen streets from east to west, north and south.
Eleven streets, these streets divide the city of Chang'an into one hundred and ten squares. Each square wall and gate will be closed under curfew at the beginning of the night. Jinwu Guards soldiers are all over the twenty-five streets. No one is allowed to
When people go out, they can only stay in their own homes.
Entering the city from Chunming Gate, it was not far from Xuanyangfang where Guo Song's small house was located. However, he did not want to take over his small house just yet. He wanted to find the Qingxu Temple in the capital, where senior brother Gan Feng was the abbot.
Qingxu Temple is located in Jinchangfang, and is said to be very close to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Guo Song inquired all the way and finally found Qingxu Temple, but it was a bit beyond his expectation.
Qingxu Temple covers an area of only three acres at most, and is relatively desolate. On the left is a small river, and on the other side of the river is an abandoned City God Temple. It occupies a large area, overgrown with weeds, and behind it is a pine forest.
Moreover, most of the houses in Jinchangfang are the houses of the lower class. The houses are made of rammed earth and have thatched roofs. Those from better-off families will have a small courtyard around them, but most of them don't have a yard. They only see dark window holes and
Shabby wooden door.
Although the location of Qingxu Temple is very bad, Guo Song can also understand that the master's son is not a wealthy family and his family background is only middle-to-upper-class. Of course, he must choose the cheapest land to build a Taoist temple for his father.
Qingxu Temple is a brick-and-wood structure with yellow walls and black tiles. Although it occupies a small area, it still looks good. There is also a large locust tree at the door that is at least a hundred years old, which reflects the antique temperament of the Taoist temple.
The gate was open, with cigarette smoke lingering inside, and pilgrims burning incense in the yard. There was a silver-edged and yellow-backed plaque hanging above the gate, with the three characters "Qingxu Guan" written on it with dragons and phoenixes dancing on it.
This character is exactly the same as the Qingxu Guan of Kongtong Mountain, both written by Master.
Guo Song just walked into the courtyard and met a little Taoist boy. He cupped his fists and saluted him, "The donor is here to burn incense?"
"This...I'm here to see your abbot!"
The little Taoist boy said respectfully: "Master has gone out to do some religious work and won't be back until this afternoon."
"That's it!"
Guo Song smiled again and said: "I came here from Qingxu Temple in Kongtong Mountain. If your master's name is Gan Feng, then he is my senior brother!"
The little Taoist boy blinked, "Could it be that you are Master Gan Yue?"
Guo Song was overjoyed. Gan Yue was his Taoist nickname, but he had never used it before. Only his master and a few senior brothers knew it. He nodded repeatedly, "I am exactly the same!"
The little Taoist boy laughed and saluted again, "It turns out to be Uncle Master. My name is Qingfeng, and I am Master's twelfth disciple. Master told us that Uncle Master will be coming in the next few months, so let us pay attention."
Guo Song felt warm in his heart. His senior brother had never forgotten him. He actually felt like he had found a relative.
"Uncle, please come with me."
The little Taoist boy Qingfeng waved his hand and said: "Let's go to the backyard!"
"What should I do with my horse?"
"It might as well, there is a livestock shed at the back, and there is also a horse in it. It seems that it was given to us by our uncle."
Guo Song smiled knowingly. It was because he returned to Kongtong Mountain from Ganzhou and could not place the horses, so he asked Zhang Mingchun to send them to the capital. This was last spring.
The Taoist temple not only had horses, but also seven or eight donkeys, and a groom was hired to take care of them. Guo Song handed the horses over to the groom, and then followed the little Taoist boy to the backyard.
The backyard is about an acre of land, with densely packed buildings, at least twenty. The Taoist priests' dormitories, kitchens, and warehouses are all here, as well as five or six guest rooms. However, the rooms are very small and can just fit a bed inside.
It actually has bunk beds with a small table placed against the wall.
There was a towering tree against the wall. Mengzi slowly fell from the sky and landed on the tree. He looked at the surrounding environment curiously. There seemed to be a forest behind the Taoist temple.
"This is our dormitory. There are two Taoist boys in one room, and one Taoist priest in one room. The master's Taoist room is at the end. Uncle Master, go this way!"
They walked to the courtyard next door, where the guest rooms were. There were six rooms in total, and Taoist priests from other Taoist temples usually came to stay.
"Qingfeng, have you met Third Senior Uncle?" What Guo Song misses most is Third Senior Brother Gan Lei.
Qingfeng said with a smile: "That fat third uncle! He came here last month. We all like him very much. Every time he comes, he brings cakes to us. He seems to open a cake shop."
Guo Song almost stumbled. He suspected that his ears heard wrongly. Senior brother Gan Lei opened a pastry shop?