One day, Zhou Xuan painted a portrait of Xiao Zhouhou in the "Calyx Xianghui Building" until the afternoon, Shen Tian was not able to paint well, bowed down and said: "Aunt, my nephew will participate in the chess battle of the ten major protectors today, and I will enter the palace tomorrow to paint a portrait of my aunt, please ask my aunt for permission." ”

Xiao Zhouhou stretched his lazy waist and said, "This palace is also tired of sitting, you can step down, come back tomorrow, nephew Xuan, you send Miss Lin back." ”

The two chamberlains followed Zhou Xuan and Lin Hanyun out of the palace gate with the gifts given to Lin Hanyun by the queen's mother.

Lin Hanyun shouted: "Brother Zhou Xuan, come and ride with me, I have something to say to you." ”

Judge Fan looked at Zhou Xuan nervously, and said in his heart: "Zhou Gongzi, although you and the second lady are like brother and sister, but after all, you are not a real brother and sister, even if you are a real brother and sister, you have to avoid suspicion, they are all adults, how can you be good for men and women to share the same car?" The second lady is going to be the crown princess! ”

Zhou Xuan didn't know what Judge Fan meant, and said with a smile: "After playing chess at night, I'll come to 'Yangchun Baixue Hall' to talk about it." ”

Lin Hanyun pouted and lowered the curtain.

Zhou Xuan and Judge Fan rode beside Lin Hanyun's carriage side by side, and Judge Fan lowered his voice and said: "Gongzi Zhou, Wei Jue, the son of Wei Bo, was killed in a small boat in the lower reaches of the Qinhuai River, does Gongzi know about this?" ”

Zhou Xuan's design to get rid of Wei Jue did not let Judge Fan know, the fewer people who knew about this matter, the better, except for the three idiots and the four idiot brothers, only Lin Heishan and his four henchmen were involved in this matter, and immediately exclaimed: "Ah." Who killed Wei Jue? I have a gap with Wei Jue, isn't this going to be suspected? ”

Judge Fan said: "According to the news of Dali Temple, Wei Jue died at the hands of a woman, but who this woman is, the people of Zhennan Protectorate can't tell, maybe they don't want to say it, but they are afraid that there is another hidden secret." ”

Zhou Xuan said: "Master Fan, pay attention to this case. Don't let Wei Jue's death implicate me. ”

Judge Fan said: "Childe rest assured. The lower officials will take care of it. ”

Return to the shores of Mochou Lake. The three idiots, the four idiots, and Gu Liuquan were preparing to go to Guozijian, thinking that Zhou Xuan would not be able to come back, and they were afraid that the chess battle would be delayed, so they discussed that Gu Liuquan would replace Zhou Xuan in the battle.

Zhou Xuan called Laifu aside and asked, "Is the girl Nian Nu properly arranged?" ”

Laifu said: "Uncle rest assured. It's all arranged, right next door to the sheep girl. ”

Zhou Xuan nodded, and went to Guozijian with the three idiots and the four idiots.

On the way, Zhou Xuan said with a smile: "The third, fourth, today depends on you, I am only afraid of Huang Xingjian, I am afraid of more than auspicious, I hardly slept last night, and I entered the palace early in the morning to paint a portrait of the queen mother for a whole day." Now I feel a little depressed. ”

The three idiots said: "I also thought that we were fighting hard this round. The master's game against Huang Xingjian must be difficult, and the fourth brother's battle against Chen Xingyuan is also obviously inferior. ”

Zhou Xuan nodded and said, "Yes, Chen Xingyuan ranks eighth among the eighteen great chess players." In this chess battle, Huang Xingjian, who is second only to the fourth, and Wu Weinan, who is seventh, may be able to fight hard against the third, and it is difficult for the fourth to win, but the chess players are classified and set, and they cannot be arbitrarily arranged. ”

The four idiots had won consecutive battles before, and their confidence was high, and they were unconvinced: "There are many weak and strong on the chessboard, and in the past few days of chess battles, I feel that my chess strength has improved, and I should be able to compete with the top ten chess players." ”

Zhou Xuan encouraged him and said: "Okay, the fourth brother works hard, I won't give up easily, I want Huang Xing to recognize how powerful I am, our Zhou Jiajun is not easy to bully." ”

The seventh round of the Lantern Festival chess battle, the previously undefeated Fenghua army and the town navy met, this battle attracted a large number of high-ranking officials and nobles to watch the battle, although there was no formal bet on gambling, but there were private gambles, the town navy won the majority, the town navy has "Guangling double star" sitting in town, the first of the previous six rounds of Huang Xingjian and Chen Xingyuan's second were undefeated, swept other chess players, the advantage is obvious.

The town navy is stationed in the eastern capital of Guangling, Guangling chess style is extremely prosperous, since the Tang Dynasty held the Lantern Festival chess battle for 20 years, the town navy has won the championship for seven consecutive years, and the Fenghua army has always been hovering in the last three, this time the first six rounds of undefeated, has caused a huge sensation, the queen's nephew led by the Zhou family army can be said to be a sudden rise, completely breaking the original pattern of the Tang chess world, it is certain that after the end of this year's Lantern Festival chess battle, the seats of the eighteen chess players have been reordered.

What makes Zhou Xuan happy is that he guesses first, he takes the white first, and if he lets him first, Zhou Xuan feels that he can fight with the senior professional level.

Huang Xingjian sat in front of Zhou Xuan in a daze, this ugly-looking and strange-tempered mountain hermit had this expression when he played chess, like a wood carving.

Zhou Xuan started with a complex star formula, he understood this formula very thoroughly, and changed his moves several times during this period, but Huang Xingjian responded correctly, and Zhou Xuan did not take advantage of the layout.

Zhou Xuanxin said: "The star style layout is still too simple, if the seat is abolished, then I can show my skills, what 'big avalanche', 'village demon knife', 'big oblique thousand changes', these complex large-scale formulas can be used one by one, I don't believe it is difficult for you Huang Xingjian!" ”

Huang Xingjian plays chess very steadily, and his chess style is heavy, just like an old bear in charge, so that Zhou Xuan is powerless, and Zhou Xuan provokes battles several times, but he calmly resolves them.

This game is relatively scattered, there is no big space on both sides, small battles are continuous, but there is no large-scale decisive battle, and white chess enters the big official stage with a slight advantage.

The official is Zhou Xuan's weakness, he has always liked to end the battle in the middle game, and he often can't stand it when fighting the official, although he has been learning from Gu Liuquan in the past half a year, the official has made significant progress, but there is still a gap with the top masters of the Tang Kingdom, seeing that there is a loss here and a loss there, and the advantage is about to be lost.

Zhou Xuan stood up, walked outside the lecture hall and took a deep breath of the cold air of the spring night, he needs to be calm, he needs to sober up his somewhat hot head, if this game of chess is won, it will definitely frustrate Huang Xingjian's arrogance, and this game is his white, if he loses, he will be black next time he plays against Huang Xingjian, and later

Huang Xingjian was too difficult.

He wanted to be quiet, but the crown prince Li Jian came over. smiled: "Cousin Zhou, it's hard to paint a portrait of the queen mother today." ”

Zhou Xuan smiled: "It's my honor, what has Brother Jian been busy with in the past two days?" ”

Li Jian said: "Chen Shilang of the military department went to Shouzhou, and his brother gave him a ride, and at present, the Tang * team has assembled in Sizhou, Haozhou, and Chuzhou, so that Zhao Guangyi does not dare to put all his troops into attacking Zhao Defang in Shudi, but money and food are quite scarce, Brother Xuan, don't look at the prosperity of my Tang City, and the people are rich." This is all the result of the father's 20 years of light endowment to support the people. But it has also caused the treasury to be empty and the internal government to be unreal. As the saying goes, the country is poor and the people are rich. ”

Zhou Xuan sighed: "His Majesty the Emperor is really benevolent and loves the people, but twenty years of light taxation is enough, we should gradually increase taxes and increase armaments. ”

Li Jian nodded and said, "What Brother Xuan said is extremely true, but it is extremely difficult to raise taxes. The year before last, it was also discussed once, and the people reacted very much, tens of thousands of people wrote against it, and the ministers of the DPRK and China also said that this was a competition with the people, so it was not over. ”

Zhou Xuan shook his head and said: "The people of the Tang Kingdom are also used to enjoying happiness, and they refuse to pull out a Maoli country, but they don't know that once they are invaded by foreign enemies, their families will be ruined!" Brother Jian. Wait until I'm done with this game. When we enter the palace tomorrow to paint a portrait of the mother, we will take the time to talk about it. ”

Zhou Xuan was about to go back to the lecture hall when he suddenly remembered something. Asked: "Brother Jian, today Miss Lin Er entered the palace to meet the queen's mother, I don't know what the mother's impression of her is?" ”

Li Jian said with a smile: "The queen mother said that she likes Miss Lin very much, and she wants Miss Lin to enter the palace more often in the future to accompany her." ”

Zhou Xuan said "oh" and slowly walked back to the chess table, feeling a little unhappy, he didn't go out of the best order at the end of the show, and the final game ended with a slight loss of half a child.

Zhou Xuan was depressed, and Huang Xingjian also said: "It is rare for you to be able to force the mountain people like this." "A panache that is higher than Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan lost the chess, and he had to endure it, and swore in his heart that he must win the next game, but it is not easy to win Huang Xingjian, Zhou Xuan wants to fight for the position of this chess edict.

The three idiots came over and whispered, "Master, we lost this round." ”

Zhou Xuan asked: "You also lost?" ”

The third idiot said: "I won, but the fourth brother's game of chess defeat is decided." ”

Zhou Xuan walked to the side of the four idiots to watch the game between him and Chen Xingyuan, the four idiots insisted on white first, but the two lone dragons were entangled and attacked by black chess, Chen Xingyuan's tricks were wonderful, and the two white dragons could not settle down, showing a situation of death, but the four idiots were still struggling to support and seek the way to live the dragon.

Zhou Xuan carefully judged the chess game and knew that this chess was hopeless, so he shook his head at the three idiots.

Sure enough, after more than a dozen moves, a white dragon died of rage, and the chess game came to an abrupt end.

The confrontation between the Fenghua army and the Zhenhai Navy ended in one win and two losses.

On the way back to Mochou Lake, Zhou Xuan reflected: "My heart is not quiet enough recently, I don't lose chess and there is no reason, I have to concentrate in the future, the three of us in the Donggong Yuan Society will not participate for the time being, let the Sun brothers participate first, and we must get it back if we lose the chess." ”

It was very late for Zhou Xuan to return to Meixiang Xiaoyuan, but Mingfeng, the maid of Jingyi Fairy, was still waiting there, saying that the second lady wanted her to wait here, and no matter how late it was, she would invite Zhou Gongzi to go, so Zhou Xuan followed Mingfeng to "Yangchun Baixue Hall".

The Lin sisters talked around the fireplace at night, and when they saw Zhou Xuanlai, Fairy Jingyi hurriedly covered her veil, it seems that she has listened to what Zhou Xuan said, she usually doesn't wear a veil, and she only covers it when outsiders come.

"Brother Zhou Xuan, why are you here now?" Lin Hanyun pouted and complained, "We've been waiting for you for a few hours." ”

Zhou Xuan sat between the two sisters, looked left and right, and said with a smile: "I lost the chess game today, and I was not in a good mood." ”

Lin Hanyun said: "Hey, you still smile like a flower when you lose chess?" ”

This was said by Zhou Xuan before, and Lin Hanyun learned it.

Zhou Xuan said with a smile: "No matter how big my troubles are, as soon as I see Sister Daoyun and Sister Hanyun, I forget about it - what is the matter with Sister Hanyun looking for me?" ”

Fairy Jingyi said, "It's nothing. ”

Lin Hanyun said: "Something, the day after tomorrow is my sister's birthday, do you, as a brother, have to celebrate Sister Daoyun?" ”

Fairy Jingyi hurriedly said: "Brother Xuan, don't listen to Hanyun, since the female Tao entered the Xuanmen, she will no longer be a birthday." ”

Lin Hanyun said: "Why didn't you do it, I give you gifts every year." ”

Fairy Jingyi defended weakly: "That's just you, and others don't know." ”

Lin Hanyun said: "Zhou Xuan is also your brother - hey, Brother Zhou Xuan, why don't you speak?" ”

Zhou Xuan pinched his fingers and said, "Which guests am I trying to invite?" ”

Lin Hanyun said happily, "Okay, okay, invite more people to come, I love to be lively, how do you say we celebrate my sister's birthday?" ”

Fairy Jingyi hurriedly said: "No, a monk is making a birthday, what kind of words is this!" ”

Zhou Xuan said in a roundabout way: "Since Sister Daoyun said so, then it's better to be like this, the day after tomorrow I just don't play chess, in the evening we will hold a music tea party, Mingli is a music tea party, invite some interesting friends to come together, secretly to celebrate the birthday of Sister Daoyun, this is only known to the three of us, so it is lively and does not violate Sister Daoyun's wishes, you say this is good?" ”

Fairy Jingyi sighed slightly in her heart: "This Brother Xuan is really empathetic, and he is satisfactory everywhere, alas! ”

Lin Hanyun glanced at her sister, and understood that her sister was persuaded by Zhou Xuan again, and said happily: "Brother Zhou Xuan just has a way, it is not in vain that I will wait for you in the middle of the night." ”

Lin Hanyun said this, as if she was waiting for Zhou Xuan's favored concubine.

Zhou Xuan and Lin Hanyun agreed to invite the crown prince Li Jian, Chen Ji, the Sun brothers, the third and fourth children, Lin Heishan, and the courtesans Yang Xiaofeng and Nian Nu.

Lin Hanyun said: "Let Xiaoxiang come too, that little girl is very funny." Fairy Jingyi was silent, and let the two of them plan for her birthday.