On October 28, Zhao Ran came to Hongyuan, where he crossed the city gate twice and did not enter, and this time, he was finally going to enter the city.

Hongyuan county town is rebuilt on the basis of the original Qiongxi Town, the original town was originally without a city wall, after being upgraded to the Hongyuan County Governor, in the White Horse Yuan Supervisor Yuan Hao's efforts, the construction of the city wall began.

But from the beginning of construction to the present, it took two and a half years to build an earthen wall with a circumference of more than two miles, no more than chest-high. But the foundation of this earthen wall is very thick, more than a zhang thick, and there is room for five horses on it.

Zhao Ran tried to reach out and hammer it, and found that it was very sturdy, which shows that Yuan Hao's idea is to repair it slowly, and he can not pursue the progress of the project, but he works hard to ensure the quality, and this person is still relatively stable in doing things.

After briefly reading the situation of the city wall, Zhao Ran came to the east gate. Yuan Hao and a large group of Taoist priests from the White Horse Courtyard were already waiting here, and when they saw Zhao Ran, they hurriedly clasped their fists and bowed, and said in unison: "Welcome to Abbot Zhao!"

Zhao Ran hurriedly held his hands and said in a loud voice: "Everyone, please get up, you are all the same way, why be so polite." ”

All the Taoist priests straightened up, looked at Zhao Ran carefully, and said in their hearts: "The rumors are really true, this Taoist is really young. ”

Others were thinking: "I heard that this is an immortal master in the pavilion, and I don't know what it will be like to preside over my sermon in Hongyuan County." ”

The leader Yuan Hao is a middle-aged man in his forties, originally a staff member of the Governor's Office in Western Sichuan, and he was able to sit in the position of the supervisor of the White Horse Academy to preside over the affairs of Hongyuan, thanks to his outstanding performance in the Battle of White Horse Mountain, and was recommended by the then Governor Zhou Yu spared no effort.

The White Horse Courtyard is a system of integration of the Taoist Academy and the official government, half of the Taoist priests come from the government, and half of them come from the Daomen, which is the strategy that Zhao Ran offered when he was in the Yexueguan Meeting, and it is also different from other Taoist institutes in the Song Fan area, and it is the first one in the entire Ming Dynasty, so Du Tenghui said that this is the special in the special.

I heard Yuan Hao say: "I heard that Daoist Zhao was coming to the White Horse Courtyard, I was excited, and today I finally looked forward to the Taoist coming, which is really the luck of the White Horse Courtyard and the luck of the Red Plain!"

Zhao Ran hurriedly thanked: "How dare you be the Yuan Prison Yuan, the affairs of the White Horse Courtyard still rely on the help of the Yuan Prison Yuan and your colleagues." ”

Yuan Hao said with a smile: "Zhao Dao is famous, like thunder in my Sichuan Province, in just a few years, he started from scratch and built Junshan Temple into the largest temple in the province. After presiding over the preaching of Wuji Temple, he built roads, communicated canals, cherished farmers and protected the people, and eliminated bandits, so that the people were rich and the county was peaceful.

This is the homework that the second-in-command must do for the new official to take office, Zhao Ran immediately said "ashamed", and said: "Yuan Prison can be called poor in the future, which is also kinder." ”

Yuan Hao introduced to Zhao Ran the people who accompanied him: "This is my fellow Daoist of the White Horse Academy, let me introduce it to the abbot." He still refused to call Zhao Ran "Zhiran", and insisted on being called "abbot" as a sign of respect.

At first, he was an old Taoist priest in his fifties, his appearance was not good, his name was Gu Tengfeng, and he was in charge of the White Horse Academy. Zhao Ran looked a little familiar, and it seemed that he had seen it in Xuanyuan in his memory.

At that time, Zhao Ran went to Xuanyuan Guan to run in order to be promoted to the Taoist position, and met Song Zhiyuan, who was the Xuanyuan Guan patrol at the time, and met with this old Taoist in Song Zhiyuan's official office.

Listening to Yuan Haoyi, this is really from Xuanyuan Temple, and he was originally a Taoist priest from Xuanyuan Temple.

The Taoist priests are generally awarded the title of certain senior Taoist priests in the provincial view or general view, and these Taoist priests are from the Taoist children of the Jingtang, and they have not received specific Taoist positions in the eight deacons' rooms, but they have a certain function, and they are under the five lords and eighteen heads, and they are higher than the ordinary Taoist children of the Jingtang.

Gu Tengfeng has not been mixed with Taoism for decades in Xuanyuan Temple, and compared to Zhao Zhixing, whether it is family background or personal talent, it is far behind. Now that he has been transferred to the White Horse Academy, he has been promoted by one level, but if he is twenty years younger, he may be able to see a bright future, but now, I am afraid that he has been kicked over to retire.

Zhao Ran greeted with a smile: "Gu Duguan is a high road from the provincial view, with a wide vision and wide knowledge, and I hope that Gu Duguan will give more guidance in the future." ”

Gu Tengfeng only promised: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say, how dare you dare, how dare you." ”

After Gu Tengfeng, he was Lei Shan, the chef of the White Horse Academy, but this one was from the government, and he was also from a lifting background, and he was formerly a county magistrate in Pingwu County.

Yuan Hao said again: "Nie Dujiao and Fan Gaogong are not in the county, Abbot Zeng served as Yongzhen and held a Taoist Dharma meeting in Yongzhen, and specially ordered the two of them to give lectures to the Taoist priests of the Spirit Snake Academy in Yongzhen, well, it should be the end of the day before yesterday." When the two of them left, they said that they didn't know if they could rush back to meet the abbot, and if it was too late, let me apologize on my behalf. However, they must come back before the public push, and they will not miss the abbot's ascension ceremony. ”

Zhao Ran smiled and nodded: "It's okay, it's okay." ”

The remaining seven deacons were all present, Li Zhike, Lu Fangzhu, and Zuo Xunzhao were all from Daomen, and Luo Dianzao, Shen Yingbin, Posted Library, and Long Ledger were from the government.

Behind these Taoist priests of the White Horse Courtyard are more than a dozen "celebrities" in Hongyuan, but Hongyuan is a territory that has just been taken from the hands of Western Xia not long ago, and there are no gentry and wealthy people, only tribal leaders, merchants and village elders.

The three departments of Hongyuan, the Longbai Department, the Chama Department, the Xiaohe Department, Longbai and Chama did not come, only the weakest of the three Xiaohe Department came to the two leaders, and they all bowed to Zhao Ran.

Zhao Ran picked them up one by one, comforted them with a lot of good words, and promised them to be guests in their village after a while. Then he waved to the rest of the people and others, saying that he had thanked everyone for going out of the city to greet him, and then followed Yuan Hao into the red plain.

Hongyuan is too simple, there is only one main street less than a hundred zhang, the houses on the main street are still a little like a little, several restaurants, tea shops, cloth shops, grain shops, medicine shops are all wooden houses, the rest are stone houses, as for the rest of the houses behind the street, at a glance are basically all earthen houses.

The best building in the city is undoubtedly the White Horse Courtyard, Yuan Hao introduced, here was originally the Vientiane Temple built by Buddhism, it can be seen that the former abbot Zeng did put a lot of thought into the reconstruction. Although the temple is small, it is very clean and tidy, and there are plenty of stones and wood.

That night, Yuan Hao invited Zhao Ran to eat in the restaurant opposite the Taoist Academy, and all seven deacons were present, and the food was naturally roasted whole sheep.

Zhao Ran didn't talk about any political affairs with them, didn't talk about his own plans, and talked about gossip that everyone was very interested in. For example, the scene of Zhang Dazhen's ascension, such as the excitement of the Nirvana Grand Festival of Tianlong Temple, and so on. Needless to say, his level of storytelling was so straightforward that everyone was sometimes nervous, sometimes excited, sometimes happy, sometimes weeping, and inadvertently with great respect for his status as a monk.

After a meal, Zhao Ran initially established an awe-inspiring and cordial image.