Daoist Jiuxiao nodded, led them, and came to the backyard together, ready to play Go.

A few people sat down, and the Taoist chief beckoned the waiter to set up the chessboard, and asked him to go aside to make new tea.

"Can Wu Lang play chess?" Dao Chang looked at Wu Yanzhi and seemed to feel that he was also interested in Go.

"Late students and beginners, chess skills are shallow, and they dare not compare with Xue Gong and Jiuxiao Dao Chang, nor dare they show ugliness!" Wu Yanzhi said lightly.

"Hmmm! This game of Go is easy to learn and difficult to master, Xue Gong is a generation of masters, and he can be called a national player, and there are few people in Datang who can compare with him. The Nine Heavens Dao Elder smiled.

It seems that the implication is that he can play against Xue Gong, and that level is also extremely high. How could Wu Yanzhi not understand the sound outside of these words?

Xue Gong nodded and said, "The national hand doesn't dare to be!" However, in the past ten years in Luoyang, except for being interested in playing a few games with the Taoist, I have not much interest in other people! ”

The two of them said and began to play chess. First, on the four corners of the chessboard, two black pieces and two white flags were crossed. This was called "zazi", and at that time it was to avoid imitating someone else's chess. In modern Go, this rule has been abolished to make it easier to play freely.

It is still the Nine Heavens Dao Leader who takes the black first, but he is the Tian Yuan who points first. Because black has an advantage in taking the lead, it is generally the person who thinks he has low chess strength to take the black first.

Wu Yanyi saw that this kind of chess method was very different from that of later generations. Later generations are all pre-occupied horns and edges, and there is the so-called "golden horn, silver edge, grass belly" saying.

While playing chess, the Nine Heavens Daoist asked, "Xue Gong hasn't come in the past few months, where has he gone?" ”

"The Divine Emperor sent me to Chang'an, Xijing, for a few months, to follow the Suzheng Observatory to investigate a case committed by Sima Yongzhou! No, I just finished it, and I just rushed back a few days ago! ”

"This Xijing is a place where talents gather, presumably Xue Gong also met some Go masters there?"

"Hey! I've talked to a few of the best players, but their chess skills are far from the same. Xue Gong shook his head, his expression was very regretful.

Wu Yanzhi looked at it very carefully, and the two of them fell quickly. In more than an hour, a game of chess has been played.

After several roads, it was Xue Gong who won the four roads.

The rules of the Tang Dynasty were different from those of modern Go. The so-called "road" is the number of spaces enclosed by each person, but each piece of land must subtract two roads, because in order for a piece of land to survive, it must have two eyes.

These two eye positions cannot be counted, which shows that it is more reasonable.

Under this rule, the advantage of corners is reduced by a part.

Because no matter how much territory you occupy, you have to deduct two "roads", that is, two blank spaces do not count the winner.

The theory of the so-called "golden horn, silver edge, and grass belly" is not so absolute in ancient Go. The importance of the midbelly is greater than that of modern Go, so it is also more balanced.

It's noon.

The head of the Nine Heavens specially invited Wu Yanzhi to accompany him to dinner.

At this time, Taoist priests can eat meat. This Xuantian Temple, in addition to eating vegetarian on large-scale sacrificial days, meat food must be arranged every few days.

This Xue Gong is here, and the Taoist Temple naturally wants to arrange high-quality wine and food. However, the other two persons in charge of the Taoist temple, the upper seat and the prison fast, were not in the temple, so this was also one of the reasons why the Daoist of Jiuxiao asked Wu Yanzhi to accompany him.

Jiuxiao Daoist looked at the dishes prepared by his subordinates, smiled, but was quite satisfied:

Half a roast lamb divided into two large bowls; The two pheasants were stewed with a little herbs such as angelica and astragalus, and the aroma was overflowing; In addition, a large plate of golden bacon with pork belly was also cut, which was also fragrant and very tempting!

The vegetarian dish is a bowl of stewed lotus root, and a plate of ginger marinated in salt and sweet sauce. This ginger was pickled the previous year and stored in a jar! It is one of Xue Gong's favorite dishes!

"Oops! The Taoist is so well prepared! Xue Gong still praised politely.

He is a high-ranking official of the fifth grade, often participates in palace banquets, and has also seen big scenes, these things are not unusual. It's just that being able to play chess, chat, and drink with the Nine Heavens Dao Leader is a joy in the world!

"Where! is despissing and shabby, and there is nothing to entertain Xue Gong, please forgive me! Xue Gong, what kind of wine are you drinking today? The Nine Heavens Dao Leader asked.

"It's still the old rule, Guiguan pine mash wine is good, just drink this. The buckets I brought back last time were drunk up by a few of my old friends. ”

"Hey! Xue Gong, since you have finished drinking, why don't you say it earlier? I still have a dozen altars here, so I'll take some back later! Then he called the waiter and asked him to serve wine.

"Where does this make! I've brought them all three times. ”

"Xue Gong! You and I have been friends for more than 20 years, so why be polite! When Xue Gong entered Beijing to take the exam, he was also like Wu Lang, living in Contempt! ”

"Yes! Life is short, just like a white horse, more than 20 years have passed. Over the years, the contemptible eunuchs have traveled to Jiannan and Hedong, and they have also suffered a lot. Even the old father and mother didn't get to see each other for the last time.

It was still seven or eight years ago, thanks to Di Xianggong's promotion, that he entered Beijing to serve as the superintendent of the imperial history, and now he is content with this position. It's a pity that Di Xianggong has been relegated to a county order in other places, and I don't know when he will be able to return to the capital! ”

Xue Gong shook his head and sighed.

"Xue Gong! Poor Dao heard that the saint still likes Di Xianggong very much. Nawu Sansi tried to kill Di Gong many times, but he was refused. I think he still has a chance to come back to Shendu as the prime minister. ”

At this time, a jar of wine had already been served, and Wu Yanzhi took the initiative to take on the task of pouring wine.

Lift the lid of the wine jar and a rosin fragrance will come to your face! With the memory of this Wu Yanzhi, he remembered that this pine mash wine, also called pine mash spring, was made by adding pine resin, pine flowers, pine leaves, pine knots and other things to rice wine and brewing it.

Of course, not everything has to be added, but it is determined by the preference of the drinker, and some only add pine flowers, also called pine flower wine.

The tin wine glass can hold three taels of wine, and at this time sixteen taels is a catty.

Wu Yanzhi poured the two of them full of wine with bamboo wine.

Then a few people started talking and laughing, eating and drinking!

The Taoist temple in the Tang Dynasty was very wealthy, and each Taoist priest had 30 acres of land, and there were also hundreds of acres of royal land. In addition to this, operating usury, ordinary business activities, etc. Most Taoist temples also have a number of households ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred, which are used for cleaning and guarding.

Many Taoist temples and high-level officials also have knights, so they will give additional fields. Therefore, the Taoist temple is actually a big manor, and the owner and the high-rise are the big landlords!

A few people chatted, and they talked about the Tianshu that had just been completed.

At the end of last year, the Ming Hall, which cost hundreds of thousands of yuan to build, was burned down by the monk Xue Huaiyi. Now let Nayan (Shizhong) Yao Xianggong supervise the reconstruction, I am afraid that it is missing 200,000 yuan, and it is difficult to repair! With that, Xue Gongzhi shook his head.

"This Monk Xue is also too jealous, and he deserves to be beaten to death with a random rod, isn't it that the saint is closer to the imperial doctor Shen Nanxuan, so he is jealous.

He didn't want to think about it, didn't the emperor have three palaces and six courts? The empress is also the emperor, and having a few men to accompany her is also the way of family, what can you say? Daoist Jiuxiao said.

"The Taoist is right! Di Gong and I also think so, it is actually natural for the saint to find a few male pets, I should not talk too much, and I should not talk too much.

As long as his male pet doesn't interfere in politics, what's the matter? However, recently, the saint asked Wu Sansi to recast Jiuding. Now, I don't know how many businessmen are going to suffer! ”

"Oh? How big is Jiuding going to be repaired? ”

"According to the temper of the saint, how can it be small? At least two or three hundred thousand catties of copper can be cast, okay? The construction of the 12 zodiac gods of the Ming Hall by the saint cost 400,000 catties of copper, and the construction of Tianshu also cost more than 500,000 catties of copper.

Last time, even the copper coins were melted for tens of thousands of guan to barely build the copper of Tianshu, I don't know where the copper of the recast Jiuding came from? Therefore, the saint asked Yao Xianggong to step down, let the world's copper-producing land pay close attention to the production of copper, iron, and tin, and there are talents who can increase the production of copper and iron, and they must be promoted and reused! ”

Do you want to promote and reuse talents who can smelt copper and iron? When Wu Yan heard this, his eyelids jumped, and he was instantly overjoyed! Is there such a thing?