At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the registration for the Chongyang Tea Market was officially closed, and all the participants lined up to enter the venue in the order of number plates. In order not to affect the performance of the participants, onlookers must stand in the designated area to watch the battle.

Xu Jin and Fei Ruyi got the number plate of eighty-six, ranking second to last, and the last one was an old man, about sixty years old, with a handful of sparse goat whiskers, a flat nose, serious teeth, and even his lips couldn't cover his two front teeth, like a groundhog, but he still had an old face, his chin was always slightly raised to the sky, and he looked like a lonely and stinky fart.

The old man's tea boy with bursting teeth is about seven or eight years old, combing his cuppy hair, his small face is round, and he looks quite cute, and he smiled politely when he saw Xu Jinwanglai, but the front teeth were missing two, and it was estimated that they had just been replaced and had not yet grown.

Xu Jin got the number of eighty-six, so the old man with explosive teeth is eighty-seven, which means that a total of eighty-seven groups of players participated in the battle. Nearly 200 people lined up in nine columns in the open space in front of the pergola, each with ten fighters, while Xu Jin's column had only seven participants.

At about half past ten in the morning, the judges of this tea battle and the gentry who watched the battle walked into the pergola one after another and sat down.

There are three judges in this tea battle, sitting at the front of the pergola, namely Wu Linguang, the new county magistrate of Leadshan County, Zhao Rui, the teacher of Goose Lake Academy, and Yan Luo, the chief tea taster of Fangjia Tea Shop.

Tea is one of the pillar industries in Leadshan County, an important source of taxation, to put it bluntly, the main contribution industry to GDP, and the key to passing the performance assessment. Wu Linguang, as the parent official of Leadshan County, naturally had to attend and preside over such important activities as the Dragon Boat Festival Tea Market and the Chongyang Tea Market.

Of course, Wu Linguang's tea ceremony attainments are mediocre, and sitting in the middle of the judges' bench is just indiscriminate, and only Zhao Rui and Yan Luo are the real judges.

Zhao Rui is about 50 years old, he is a teacher of Goose Lake Shuhu, proficient in tea ceremony, and is very famous in the tea industry. Not to mention the other Yan Luo, who is sixty years old, is the chief tea taster under the Fang family, and his ability to recognize tea and water is quite good, and he is nicknamed: Xiao Lu Yu.

At this time, there were about thirty or forty people sitting behind the pergola, all of whom were tea merchants with heads and faces from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian. Of course, there are also those who are not tea merchants, such as Mo Guan of Ning Wangfu, and Luo Longwen, a Hui merchant.

At this time, a pot-bellied tea merchant sitting near Fang Tianfu said with a smile: "In the top ten tea battles in the Dragon Boat Festival Tea Market, Boss Fang's tea garden occupies three seats, I don't know how many seats will it occupy this time?" We have to leave a way for our peers to live! ”

A faint hint of pride flashed in Fang Tianfu's eyes, but he said modestly: "Boss Yang is serious, the Dragon Boat Festival battle is just a fluke, doesn't Boss Yang also occupy two seats under his name?" ”

A thin-faced tea merchant snorted heavily, and said lightly: "What's so proud, it's just some unsightly tricks." ”

Fang Tianfu's face suddenly turned slightly gloomy, and the pot-bellied Boss Yang pretended to be surprised and said, "Ouch, is Boss Zhou talking about despicable?" ”

"Boss Yang, don't sit down." Boss Zhou, who had a thin face, sneered, and glanced at Fang Tianfu after speaking.

Fang Tianfu couldn't help but be secretly angry, and said lightly: "Did the boss refer to the contemptible person that week?" ”

Boss Zhou sneered and didn't answer, the meaning was self-explanatory.

As the so-called peers are enemies, the tea merchants around are smiling and watching the excitement, wishing that the two would fight, so no one came forward to round the scene.

It is said that the pot-bellied Boss Yang is a big tea merchant in Zhejiang, named Yang Defa, and the thin face is a big tea merchant in Huizhou, named Zhou Chenghua.

In this year's Dragon Boat Festival tea market tea battle, Fang Tianfu alone occupied three of the top ten seats, and Yang Defa also occupied two seats, while Zhou Chenghua did not get one seat, resulting in his pineapple tea not being ranked among the top ten famous teas, and the sales of spring tea that year were greatly reduced and the losses were serious.

Zhou Chenghua naturally counted this account on Fang Tianfu's head, who told him that Boss Fang occupied three seats alone, and the appearance was too ugly. So as soon as the two of them answered, they were full of gunpowder.

Fang Tianfu suppressed the anger in his heart, as a businessman who is accustomed to seeing big scenes, the city government still has this, and said lightly: "The tea battle is presided over by the county lord, and there are recognized predecessors in the tea industry as judges, fair and just, the participants rely on their own abilities, if Boss Zhou has any objections, he can raise it to the county lord, why bother here like a long-tongued resentful woman, yin and yang weird!" ”

Manager Mo, who was sitting next to Fang Tianfu, said slowly: "Fang Yuanwai is reasonable, if Boss Zhou is not convinced, you can find the county lord." ”

Zhou Chenghua glanced at Manager Mo, frowned, and said, "Your Excellency's eyes are very raw, which tea shop is it?" What does the matter between me and Boss Fang have to do with you? ”

Mo Guan said with a smile: "The contemptible person is not in the tea business, just one of the Ning Wang's mansions ran away, and this time I came to participate in the Chongyang Tea Market just to buy tea, and I won't grab business with everyone, so Boss Zhou doesn't have to worry." ”

As soon as these words came out, Boss Zhou's face suddenly changed slightly, he arched his hand and stopped talking, and the other tea merchants who were watching the excitement were also silent.

As the so-called people don't fight with officials, let alone a vassal king who holds military power and covers the sky with only one hand in Jiangxi, so Boss Zhou chose to back down very interestingly.

A contemptuous smile appeared at the corner of Mo Guanshi's mouth, he could only be regarded as a low-level steward in Ning Wangfu, but when he ran outside and pulled the tiger skin of Ning Wangfu, even the parents and officials of a county had to give three points, let alone these businessmen.

Fang Tianfu was secretly happy in his heart, it seemed that his stammering during this period of time was not in vain, and he smiled: "Don't worry about it, the tea you need will be ready to be loaded as soon as possible, it is definitely the best quality batch." ”

Steward Mo arched his hand and said, "There is a labor boss!" ”

Don't worry about the secret joy in his heart, everyone is an old fritter, some words don't need to be said too clearly, Fang Tianfu directly said that the shipment was shipped, and he didn't mention the payment for the goods, obviously he didn't plan to receive the payment, that is, he gave it away for nothing. This means that the five hundred taels of silver brought out this time can be fully packed into his own private pocket.

Steward Mo originally just planned to falsely report the high price and make a hundred or dozens of taels from it, but he didn't expect it to be all-in-one, and five hundred taels of silver was already a huge amount of money for a steward of his level.

At this time, the battle in the field has begun, and the use of a breakthrough type of competition, those who pass can enter the next round, and those who do not pass are directly eliminated.

The first round of the competition is to know the tea, without the need for three judges, their own according to the arrangement of personnel to bring a tray to the front of the combatants, the tray is placed in ten kinds of tea with small plates, the participants can identify the ten kinds of tea through the first round, otherwise eliminated.

This method may not be fair, but it is absolutely efficient, nine columns are carried out in unison, those who pass retreat to the back of the team with the number plates, and those who are eliminated directly return the number plates and leave the field.

Xu Jin ranked sixth in the ninth column, and the first four were quickly finished, two passed, two were eliminated, and the passing rate of the other columns was about the same.

At this time, it was the turn of the benevolent brother in front of Xu Jin, this person was about thirty years old, he could see that he was very nervous, it was estimated that he was participating in the tea market for the first time, but the last ten kinds of tea were wrong, and he could only hand in the number plate, and left the venue dejectedly.

The old man with explosive teeth behind Xu Jin sneered: "At this level, I dare to come to participate in the tea battle, I don't think I can do it." The kid in front, it's your turn, if it doesn't work, let's leave by yourself, save yourself from being bored! ”

Xu Jin couldn't help but roll his eyes secretly, and he didn't bother to pay attention to this stinky old man with teeth.

At this time, a tea servant came over with a tray, stood still in front of Xu Jin and Fei Ruyi, and first glanced at Fei Ruyi, but unfortunately the light veil covered his face and he couldn't see his appearance at all.

"Let's start, you only have the time to make tea, and you will be eliminated after overtime!" The tea servant said lightly.

Xu Jin nodded and said, "Ruyi, come on!" ”

There are a lot of ancient tea leaves that Xu Jin didn't know, so he simply asked Fei Ruyi to come.

Xu Jin looked calm when he spoke, and his tone was indifferent, so the tea servant only thought that this son was proud of his identity, and he didn't bother to take action in person in such a simple link, so he didn't feel strange, and looked at Fei Ruyi, who was wearing a power fence.

It was the first time that Fei Ruyi was called by Xu Jin's name, and her heart jumped a little, and her pretty face under the light veil flew her cheeks, and she hummed very cooperatively: "Yes, son!" ”

"This is Biluochun, this is Yangxian tea, this is Tiger Hill tea, this is Fuqiu tea......"

Fei Ruyi didn't even need to reach out to touch it, just by looking at the appearance, he said the names of the nine kinds of tea in front of him in one breath, and his voice was soft and beautiful, and the tea servant was a little uneasy when he heard it.

"This is ......" Fei Ruyi was stuck when he saw the tenth tea leaf, and reached out to twist a piece of tea for the first time.

The tea servant looked at Fei Ruyi's tender fingers and wrists, couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and glanced at Xu Jin enviously.

"This seems to be ......" Fei Ruyi put the tea under his nose and sniffed it, his tone was very hesitant.

Xu Jin also picked up a piece of tenth tea and smelled it, looked at the leaf veins again, and said with a strange expression: "This is a mulberry leaf!" ”

Fei Ruyi sighed lightly and said embarrassedly: "This is ...... Mulberry leaves? ”

The tea servant picked up the small saucers containing the tea leaves one by one, revealing the note pressed underneath, and the note under the tenth tea leaf did indeed have the word "mulberry leaf" written on it.

Fei Ruyi said happily: "It's mulberry leaves, son, you said it!" ”

Xu Jin smiled: "We said it right!" ”

The tea servant said with a strange expression: "Congratulations to the two of you for passing the test, please go to the back and line up!" With that, he turned around and left with the tray.

At this moment, Fei Ruyi's pretty face under the light gauze was flushed, and she said a little embarrassedly: "I almost couldn't pass the first round, but fortunately there is Xu Gongzi, otherwise I would have been ridiculed by the fifth sister when I went back." ”

Xu Jin smiled and said: "I only recognize one, but Miss Ruyi recognizes nine, fortunately with you." ”

Very few people drink mulberry leaves as tea leaves, and mulberry leaves are even more difficult to recognize after drying and crushing. Xu Jin and his two generations were both from rural areas, so they naturally recognized this kind of treasure that feeds silkworms, and Fei Ruyi, a lady with fine clothes and jade food, can't recognize the crushed mulberry leaves.