Unconsciously the time passed quickly, and after half a month, a heavy snow fell on the northern land, and the envoys from various countries also rushed to the capital one after another.

The four countries of Qianxiang, Hanhai, Siam and Zhenzhen united into a southeast alliance to enter Beijing, and the four countries were led by Qianxiang to negotiate with the Celestial Empire, and the scale of the mission of the Qianxiang country was extremely large, and the sixth prince of the country, Mu Zhengnan, personally led the team.

In order to show his importance to the envoys of the four countries, Emperor Yuanyong specially arranged for Prince Long, the third prince, to personally receive the six princes of Qianxiang.

On the third day after the Four Kingdoms mission entered Beijing, the Qianxiang Kingdom delegation sent a letter to Emperor Yuanyong, asking for a princess to marry the six princes, so as to test the reaction of the Heavenly Empire.

Emperor Yuanyong was very angry about this, the small country of Fanbang was not able to measure his strength, and he wanted to marry the daughter of heaven to marry, this dynasty has been set by Taizu since the world, and there has not been a matter of harmony, if he set this precedent, wouldn't he be ashamed of the ancestors and the people, and bear the infamy of the ages.

I wanted to issue an order to reprimand, but I realized that Qianxiangguo's move was suspected of being manipulated behind the scenes by the King of Nan'an County, the King of Beijing and others, so he suppressed his anger and ordered the King of Zhongshun to investigate the matter and make a decision.

After receiving the order, King Zhongshun did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly began to investigate the alliance between the four countries such as the Qianxiang Kingdom and the Hanhai Kingdom, and also launched the eyeliner to find out whether the King of Nan'an, the King of Beijing and others had reached any agreement with the Qianxiang Kingdom.

At the beginning, Prince Long wanted to woo Mu Xiangnan and lead him around the capital to play and feast, but later learned that he had written to the emperor to ask the princess to marry his wife, so he only sent the internal history of the palace to accompany him on the grounds of physical discomfort, and maintained a close relationship with him, waiting to see the changes in the situation.

Without the company of Prince Long, it was in line with Mu Xiangnan's meaning, so he paid a visit to the Guozi Prison, talking about his long-term admiration for the prosperity of the Celestial Empire, and learning the culture of the Celestial Dynasty since childhood.

After Guozijian Siye received the post, he didn't dare to take it upon himself and hurriedly reported the matter to Zheng Chen.

Zheng Chen saw that Mu Xiangnan admired Confucian culture, and his words were extremely modest and respectful, so he had a good impression of him in his heart, so he personally replied to the post and invited him to come.

He also had the heart to show him the state of Chinese etiquette and the cultural heritage of the Celestial Empire, so he sent several outstanding prisoners in the Guozi Prison to compete with Mu Xiangnan on the same day, and explained that a few people would not hurt his face.

Mu Xiangnan didn't say anything provocative and slap his face when he won, but there was a faint disdain in his eyes, and then he left with someone Shi Shiran.

Until Mu Zhengnan left, everyone in Guozijian was still in a state of bewilderment, and the look in his eyes when he left made everyone even more ashamed.

On the same day, the defeat of the Guozi Supervisor at the hands of Mu Xiangnan was known to everyone in the government and the opposition, and for a while, the Guozi Prison went up to the sacrificial wine, and down to the ordinary prisoners were all disgraced, and they all said that they were sick and hid at home, ashamed to see people.

After Emperor Yuanyong learned of this, he just called Zheng Chen to the front of the palace to reprimand him, and did not make any unnecessary moves, although King Zhongshun had not yet investigated the secret behind it, but he had already concluded that the repeated provocations of Qianxiang Kingdom must be inseparable from the King of Beijing, the King of Nan'an County and others.

Since ancient times, the literati were contemptuous, and after hearing about this, the scholars in Beijing either sighed, or scolded the scholars of the country, and lost the face of the scholars of the Celestial Empire.

Many of them sent people to Mu Xiangnan to pay homage and war posts, and some people came directly to challenge, or planned to win back face for the scholars of the Celestial Empire, or wanted to become famous all over the world, in short, most of the scholars in Beijing set their sights on Mu Zhengnan and his people.

Mu Xiangnan selected five people to accept the challenge, and after a competition, all five of them were defeated and went away one after another.

In the days that followed, there was an endless stream of people who came to challenge the door every day, and the streets outside the Honglu Temple were blocked by cars and horses.

But Mu Xiangnan did not accept any more challenges, but just posted a couplet: There are frequent visitors in front of the door, and everyone who comes to see the book; Hanlin Ji Duoshi, sit and hold your feet.

When everyone saw this couplet, they were furious, and their indignation could not be suppressed, and they almost demolished the Honglu Temple.

This alliance not only despised them, believing that no matter how many people they came, they would lose, but also ridiculed the Hanlin Academy, which was not only a holy place for Shilin, but most of them were also their division commanders, so the conflict was even more intense.

Honglu Temple saw the surging emotions of the crowd, and everyone was angry, and immediately ordered the Qianxiang State Mission to take the couplet, and wrote to Emperor Yuanyong, requesting that troops be sent to protect the safety of the Qianxiang State Mission.

Lu Jing has been secretly paying attention to the disturbances between the sergeant of Beijing and the six princes of Qianxiang Kingdom, he sorted out the twists and turns in Xinuan Pavilion, and naturally knew very well the series of actions of Qianxiang Kingdom, and knew that the situation in front of him not only involved the game between the emperor and the nobles, but also the tentative confrontation between the imperial court and Qianxiang Kingdom.

Taking advantage of today's rest, Lu Jing came to the Shen Mansion to visit Shen Liang.

In the first battle of Guozijian, Shen Lianglian was frustrated physically and mentally after losing to Mu Zhengnan, and he blamed himself very much for betraying the trust of the division commander, which led to the disgrace of the entire Guozijian, so he kept closing his door to thank customers, depressed and decadent.

Lu Zhili's persuasion was fruitless, knowing that her husband had always believed in Lu Jing, so she wrote to her cousin and asked for his help.

After Lu Jing arrived at the Shen Mansion, he first went to visit Shen Ji, and the two chatted for a while, and then went to visit Shen Liang.

Shen Liang knew that Lu Jing was coming, so he deliberately changed his clothes and tidied up his decadent appearance, so he came out to meet Lu Jing with a ashamed face.

After Lu Jing comforted him, he saw that the effect was very small, so he asked, "Do you know where you lost in this competition?" ”

Shen Liang's expression instantly became extremely gloomy when he heard this, and he said dejectedly: "Naturally, I am not good at learning and art, and my younger brother also wants to continue to study hard and strive for shame next time, but I can't get over this hurdle in my heart!" ”

Lu Jing shook his head and said: "If that's not the case, you will lose in temperament and scheming." ”

Shen Liang looked extremely surprised and puzzled when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Please give me advice!" ”

Lu Jing explained: "Let's talk about temperament first, the reason why you can't accept this defeat is because you are proud of your identity, too arrogant, thinking that even if the other party is a prince, he is only from a small country, and his literary style is average, so he is not worried, and he can be defeated at his fingertips, so it is even more difficult to accept after failure." ”

Shen Liang nodded and said, "What my brother said is right, I think too highly of myself and despise my opponents. ”

Lu Jing continued to ask: "If you lose to your classmates or other scholars, will you be so uncomfortable?" ”

Shen Liang shook his head and said, "No!" ”

Then he sighed: "In addition, the younger brother is more concerned about not being able to face those old classmates and the Lord of the Wine Sacrifice and the Master Siye who trust me. ”

Lu Jing said solemnly: "This is the second point I said, this time you have made the same mistake in the entire Guozijian, not only despise your opponent, but also don't understand your opponent, I heard that your five competitions were all made by Mu Zhengnan?" ”

Shen Liang nodded and said: "Exactly, when the division commanders saw that he wanted a pair of five, they thought that it would be unfair for the Guozijian to come up with the questions again, so they said in advance that he would come up with the five questions." ”

Lu Jing smiled and said: "So I said that you lost in your scheming, and the other party dared to challenge Guozijian, how could you come unprepared, and you let him solve the problem, it is exactly what he wants." ”

Shen Liang frowned and said, "Brother means that he was prepared in advance?" ”

Lu Jing nodded and said: "That's right, the poem titles, couplets, and rhymes of the couplets are all prepared by him in advance, and the art of war is cloudy: the bird will strike, and the wings will be low." Youyun: Attack it unprepared with preparation, it will be keen! ”

There are some things he didn't say to Shen Liangming, the young scholars around Mu Zhengnan are not outsiders, they have all been guests in the Beijing Palace, and a few of them are the scholars of this dynasty who have fallen behind, when Mu Zhengnan and Shen Liang and others compete, they are on the side to assist, and they can naturally defeat Shen Liang and other young scholars who fight alone.

Qian Xiangguo treated this competition as a political event, but Guozijian only regarded it as an academic event, so he naturally calculated from beginning to end and fell behind.

After hearing this, Shen Liang was dissatisfied and said: "Wouldn't such an act violate the morality of a gentleman!" ”

Lu Jing said with a smile: "This is where you are immature, he dares to play this kind of trick in the Guozijian, if he dares to challenge the Hanlin Academy, with the old scheming of those people, he will naturally not let him have good fruits to eat." ”

Shen Liang carefully recalled the whole process of the incident, since Mu Zheng went south to pay homage, Guozijian has been in a passive position, those division commanders are all upright gentlemen, not only did not guard against him, but also treated him with courtesy, which was everywhere in his calculations, and at the same time the anger in his heart, the feeling of self-blame was also slightly relieved.

Lu Jing continued: "After this catastrophe, it is also a good thing for you, how can you get the fragrance of plum blossoms without a cold bone, and only with more setbacks and tempering can people grow." ”

When Shen Liang heard this, he thought that he had never experienced much tempering since he was a child, which made him vain and vulnerable, and he had indeed grown a lot after these days of suffering, and after Lu Jing's explanation, he understood the doorway, and hurriedly bowed to him: "Thank you brother for your teachings, not only to solve the knot in my little brother's heart for many days, but also to let my little brother realize how to guard against villains' calculations." ”

Seeing that he had regained his self-confidence and was no longer depressed before, Lu Jing nodded reassuringly, and was about to say something else, when he suddenly saw the housekeeper of the Shen Mansion hurrying over with Lu Zheng.

Lu Jing's heart tightened, could it be that something happened in the house.