Chapter 94

 

The imperial martial arts arena was very large. Emperor Jingshun and the others on the high platform could see the soldiers below. However, if the soldiers talked in normal tones, let alone Emperor Jingshun, even Chen Jingzong and the other commanders who were standing closer would not be able to hear clearly.

The situation of the competition had changed dramatically from previous years. Qi Hao, the captain of the Jinyiwei, looked at the captains of Jinwu Vanguard and Yulin Left Guard in the same row, and then looked at the commander Liu Shou outside the circle, feeling a little anxious.

In the first two games, Jinyiwei had already scored 53 points. Even if the five opposing guards won this game and there was no Jinyiwei left, the final score should only be lower than Daxing Left Guard.

But they were Jinyiwei, they had always been number one, and it would be embarrassing to take second place. Jinyiwei’s face doesn’t matter, but what about the Emperor’s face?

Qi Hao wanted to continue to take first place, but the problem was, he was not sure how to defeat many with few! Hand-to-hand melee combat was just like fighting at close range on the battlefield. There was no structure. The fight was based on brute force and the number of people! It was fine if the alliance of those five guards only had people like Gao Dazhuang, but the other forty-nine people may not be the fastest or have the best archery skills, but they were all tall, big, and strong real men! After all, it was the basic criteria for selecting soldiers of the twenty-six guards!

To be on the safe side, should he bring over Daxing Left Guard?

As long as the alliance of the five guards was destroyed, and then let Daxing Left Guard, Jinwu Vanguard, and Yulin Left Guard compete for second place, the Jinyiwei could continue to sit on the sidelines.

Qi Hao set his sights on Qin Wei. After all, he belonged to the Jinyiwei and had very good eyesight. He had already confirmed the identity of the captain of Daxing Left Guard’s Qin Wei.

At this time, the captain of Jinwu Vanguard spoke: “Brothers of Jinyiwei, don’t worry, our two guards will protect you even if we fight tooth and nail!”

His words were not only heard by the twenty people from the Jinyiwei and Yulin Left Guard, but also the soldiers from the five guard stations opposite!

It doesn’t matter if you join forces to attack other guards, and the fight was gratifying and refreshing, but it was Jinyiwei on the opposite side…

Looking at the captain of Jinyiwei again, it was clear he was sending a meaningful look at Qin Wei!

When the morale of the army was about to be shaken, Qin Wei clenched his fists and laughed loudly: “Brothers, our master said that as long as our five guards can win, he will treat us to three rounds of drink in a row!”

The eyes of the soldiers from the five guard stations lit up, and their hearts felt at ease. Look, Prince Consort was not afraid of offending the Jinyiwei. He had taken care of everything, so what do they have to worry about?

Qi Hao was no longer given a chance to formulate tactics. Qin Wei’s fifty men followed the tactics that had been discussed long ago. Thirty men rushed out first and entangled one opponent each. The remaining twenty soldiers, including Gao Dazhuang, were divided into five groups, randomly select five pairs of soldiers who have already fought together, push them to the outer part of the circle together, and then push out the soldier who was not in the alliance of five guards!

On the side where two people fighting, take the Jinyiwei soldiers as an example, no matter how powerful they are, it would take a certain amount of time to drag the opponent from the middle of the circle to the outside. Plus this opponent did not just honestly letting you to drag him away, they were actually fighting. But when other people from the alliance of five guards arrived, it instantly became a situation where five to six people fighting against one Jinyiwei.

In this way, fewer and fewer people were left in the Jinyiwei’s three alliance, and no one in the five-guard alliance was lost.

Seeing that there were only five Jinyiwei left, Qi Hao, who was being carried by Qin Wei and six people, became anxious and cursed in a low voice: “The Emperor is watching over there, you can at least leave three of our Jinyiwei!”

Qin Wei: “We are competing in martial arts. If you Jinyiwei want to take first place, go back and train hard, and we can compete again next time!”

After saying that, he shouted and Qi Hao was thrown out of the circle!

On the commander’s side, the corner of Liu Shou’s eye were twitching hard looking at this scene.

Lu Wangshan shook his head and teased Chen Jingzong: “Prince Consort is fierce, pointing his sword at the enemy’s leader, not even giving face to Sir Liu.”

“It’s all about having more people and brute force, and taking advantage of the situation. If it were a one-on-one fight, no one will be a match for the Jinyiwei. Like the previous two test, Jinyiwei always ranked first, showing how strict Sir Liu’s training is for the Jinyiwei. Today, I can luckily win because I received guidance from Sir Liu when I was in the Jinyiwei, learning many real skills through his teachings.”

As he spoke, he made an apprenticeship ceremony to Liu Shou.

Although his words seemed to flatter Liu Shou, they were all true. At present, the alliance of five guards did rely on the number of people to win, and Chen Jingzong did serve under Liu Shou in the Jinyiwei for three years.

The more convincing the flattery, the more it made people felt comfortable.

Liu Shou smiled, came over and helped Chen Jingzong up, and said happily: “The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves in front, and blue is better than blueit’s metaphor for student who has surpass the teacher. We are already old. The emergence of young generals like Sir Qi and Prince Consort is a blessing for the court and the common people.”

Chen Jingzong and Qi Jin both said “Thank you”.

While the commanders were speaking, the melee in the circle was over, and only fifty soldiers from the alliance of five guards were left.

On the high platform, Emperor Jingshun didn’t care at all about Jinyiwei’s “annihilation”. He was more curious about how Chen Jingzong would arrange the final candidates for the “twenty-six” spots. It was obvious that the Daxing Left Guard was the backbone of this alliance. Without Chen Jingzong, the prince consort, other commanders and soldiers would not dare to offend the Jinyiwei. Therefore, it was reasonable for Chen Jingzong to keep all ten members of the Daxing Left Guard.

In the center of the field, Qin Wei asked Gao Dazhuang to name a number in his mind, and then asked people from the other four guards to guess. Each guard sent one person first. If the first four failed to guess correctly, the next four would come.

Soon, a person from Jiyang Guard guessed it correctly.

Qin Wei said: “The two of them don’t need to compete. The forty-eight of us will pick opponents of different guards. Twenty-four versus twenty-four. Winning or losing depends on our ability. How about that?”

The captains of the other four guards were very happy. Although they let the weakest Gao Dazhuang took an advantage, it was still very fair for Daxing Left Guard to do this!

Forty-eight soldiers fought extra hard to get an extra spot for their own guard station. It was almost as fierce as the battlefield, with some them had their upper bodies pushed out of the circle, then against all odds, some soldiers bent forward forcefully, managing to fling opponents standing behind them out of the circle! There were also soldiers who clung tightly to their opponents, preferring mutual destruction over allowing their opponents to remain in the circle!

Although the number of people was much smaller than the initial melee of 260 people, this desperate method of hand-to-hand combat showed the soldiers’ bloody spirit of not giving up!

Gao Dazhuang didn’t want to stand still and insisted on fighting the soldier from Jiyang Guard.

One was tall and big, and the other was thin and weak. Remembering prince consort’s support, the soldier of Jiyang Guard refused to use his full strength, and was beaten several times by Gao Dazhuang. When he counterattacked, Gao Dazhuang ran away and the opponent stopped. Gao Dazhuang tried to provoke him again, which made Emperor Jingshun shake his head and laugh.

Finally, when there were only twenty-six people left in the circle, the third test was declared over.

Daxing Left Guard, had a total of six people left including Gao Dazhuang, and the total was thirty points. Adding up the twenty points from the first race and the twenty points from the second archery, which totalled seventy points, they won the first place!

Jinyiwei ranked second with 53 points.

Jiyang Guard, which previously ranked fifth to last, had six players left in the last test, and its archery score in the second game was not bad, ranking third with 51 points!

The top three commanders took their ten soldiers and went to the high platform to face the emperor together.

While they were still walking this way, Concubine Lin raised her voice slightly and said to Empress Qi with a smile: “Prince Consort is so talented. Daxing Left Guard actually defeated His Majesty’s Jinyiwei. It’s no wonder that such a genius was chosen by Niangniang to be Hua Yang’s consort.”

Empress Qi said warmly: “All the guards in the world are owned by His Majesty, so how can we differentiate between them? If all the guards can be as strong as the Jinyiwei, His Majesty will probably wake up laughing in his dreams.”

She looked at Emperor Jingshun with a smile.

Emperor Jingshun was convinced. He valued the Jinyiwei, but he also wanted to see other guards train millions of soldiers.

Concubine Lin:…

Wan Yi secretly scratched the palm of her fourth aunt princess.

Hua Yang smiled and said nothing. In terms of verbal confrontation, Nan Kang could not defeat her, and Concubine Lin was even more could not defeat her mother empress.

Chen Jingzong and the others finally came. Because they won first place, Daxing Left Guard walked in the front.

Chen Jingzong kept his eyes straight and did not look towards Hua Yang.

But Hua Yang looked at her prince consort openly. After all, at this moment, almost everyone on the high platform was looking at Chen Jingzong. Some looked happy, some were serious and restrained, and some were inquisitive.

Everyone knew that Jinyiwei’s second place was a lackluster performance. Jiyang Guard’s high score was due to the support of Daxing Left Guard, which was not too worthy of praise.

Emperor Jingshun only praised Chen Jingzong: “Prince Consort is well-trained, brave and resourceful, so that Daxing Left Guard has jumped from the last place to the first place. If every guard has a general like you, Zhen can just sit back and relax.”

Chen Jingzong cupped his hands and lowered his eyes, and said respectfully: “Your Majesty is overpraised, this minister is ashamed and dare not accept it. If Your Majesty hadn’t transferred this minister to Jinyiwei so that this minister could have the opportunity to learn from Sir Liu, this minister might still be just a green boy. As for today’s competition, this minister just relied on trickery to win, and it can only be used once this year.”

Chen Tingjian looked at his fourth son and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Emperor Jingshun found this son-in-law more and more pleasing to the eye. He had the bloody courage of a young military attache, but he was also calm and humble, and he was not complacent about a temporary victory.

“If you win, you win. Tell Zhen what reward you want.” Emperor Jingshun was in a good mood. In previous years, he had never given any reward to Jinyiwei if they won.

Chen Jingzong declined and refused to accept.

Emperor Jingshun thought for a while and said: “Since you don’t lack anything, just give each soldier of Daxing Left Guard a silver reward. Zhen hope they will continue to train diligently and win first place title several more times in the future.”

Chen Jingzong led Qin Wei’s ten people to kneel down: “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. This minister will not dare to slack off!”

Emperor Jingshun nodded and said to Gao Dazhuang alone: ​​”Zhen see that your archery skill is not bad. It’s a pity that you were delayed due to illness. Immediately go to the imperial hospital and let some imperial doctors take a look at you. If you need to use medicine, Zhen will pay for your medicine until you recover.”

Gao Dazhuang burst into tears, knelt on the ground and kowtowed several times. Fortunately, Eunuch Ma helped him up in time, otherwise he would have cracked his forehead!

It was time to reward what was due. Emperor Jingshun led the crown prince to the front of the center of the high platform and said some words of encouragement to the twenty-three commanders and more than two hundred soldiers below. The summary was: “Even the once last place Daxing Left Guard can place seventh on racing event, seventh on archery, and take first place in total points. You soldiers are obviously stronger than them. Practice hard next time, and you will definitely surpass Daxing Left Guard again in the next competition. Zhen will wait and see!”

Commanders and soldiers:…

Behind the imperial father and son, Chen Jingzong and other soldiers stood respectfully facing the back of the emperor and crown prince.

Princess Nan Kang secretly looked at Chen Jingzong. After Meng Yanqing was beaten by Chen Jingzong on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, Princess Nan Kang had a little crooked thought, wondering if Chen Jingzong was interested in her. Today, Chen Jingzong was in the limelight. Princess Nan Kang felt more and more that Chen Jingzong was handsome and stalwart, better than Meng Yanqing in every aspect!

But such a good prince consort, why didn’t he come to her?

The more Princess Nan Kang admired Chen Jingzong, the more jealous she became of Hua Yang. But thinking that the person Chen Jingzong liked might be her, Princess Nan Kang couldn’t help but feel proud again.

After Emperor Jingshun finished speaking, he took the crown prince down first.

After them, there were empress Qi and other noble womenfolk.

Chen Jingzong and the others stood with their eyes lowered, waiting for their turn with the other ministers on the stage.

Princess Nan Kang was walking behind Hua Yang and Wan Yi. When she passed by Chen Jingzong, she stopped and praised with a bright smile: “Brother-in-law looks so handsome today. When I, as the older sister, saw it, I feel very happy for Hua Yang.”

Chen Jingzong glanced at her, then lowered his eyes and said in a voice that only Hua Yang, Wan Yi and Princess Nan Kang could hear: “It turns out it’s Princess Nan Kang. Just now this minister made a mistake and thought you were Guifei niangniang.”

Princess Nan Kang:……

There was more than twenty years difference between her and her mother!

Does she really look that old?

The author has something to say:

Nan Kang: You promised to like me!

Old Four: Go ahead and dream your Spring and Autumn dream!

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