Slender West Lake is located in the northern suburbs of Yangzhou City, although it is not as magnificent and beautiful as the Ming and Qing dynasties, but from the Sui and Tang dynasties, the garden along the Slender West Lake has been built one after another, the scenery is picturesque, the scenery is beautiful, its famous garden and scenic spots, scattered on both sides of the clear water of a lake with slender twists and turns, it is like a long scroll of Chinese painting that unfolds one after another, it is a favorite scenic spot of literati and scholars.

(Note: A poem by Wang Xin, a poet who lived in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period, lamented the rich businessman's spending: "The weeping willows continue to pick up the remnants, and the wild goose tooth red bridge is like a picture; It is also a pot of gold, so it should be called Slender West Lake. Hence the name, which is adopted in advance for the sake of brevity and clarity in this book.)

Today, the lights of the Slender West Lake are like day, the tourists are like shuttles, and the lake is densely packed with more than 100 boats of different sizes, because tonight, the annual Yangzhou Poetry Meeting is held here, and officials such as Yangzhou Thorn History and Sima will also be present to comment, and even the curfew will be postponed for two hours.

Tonight's night in Yangzhou is destined to be an extraordinary night.

If you have a poster, you can take a small boat arranged by the poetry club to row to the center of the lake, and then climb up to the two-storey boat building parked at Slender West Lake through a special small wooden ladder.

With the invitation sticker in his hand, Liu Yuan successfully boarded the boat building in the middle of the lake.

"This is not Liu Zhang of the Jinyu family~~~ No, it's Brother Liu."

"Brother Chen is polite, ashamed and ashamed."

"That's right, Liu Caizi, you're late, you should be punished with three glasses of wine in a while."

"Li Gongzi, it must be."

"Admire, admire, Liu Gongzi, you are ruthless, out of those two pairs, I think about it day and night, I don't know the taste of meat for a long time, no, I have to punish you a few cups in a while."

"Willing to be punished, willing to be punished!"

"Liu Gongzi ~~~~" ......

As soon as he got on the boat, there were many talented literati who greeted Liu Yuan, because of the two pairs, Liu Yuan often sat there, one or two, and knew a lot, although Liu Yuan was just a businessman, but he could write such a wonderful pair, and everyone respected him very much.

There is milk and motherhood, there is the natural fragrance of musk, talented, and naturally respected.

"Liu Yuan, you're here" A deep voice suddenly sounded in the crowd, and Liu Yuan couldn't help but pause when he heard the prestige.

The one who spoke was Yangzhou's biggest parent official, Cui Tingshi.

"Grass people, see Cui Thorn History." Liu Yuan was famous, and hurriedly saluted him.

"No courtesy, no courtesy, tonight here to meet friends with poetry, only the difference between age and young, there is no distinction between high and low status, the old man's surname is Cui, the name is male, the word is good, you can call me Cui senior or Mr. Cui." Cui Zishan said with a smile.

Only then did Liu Yuan realize that this Cui Thorn History was called Cui Xiong.

"Yes, hello Mr. Cui."

Cui Xiong's mood is obviously very good, I don't know if it was because of the pleasant conversation last time, he actually introduced Liu Yuan: "Xiaoyuan, this is Mr. Su, we are a recognized literati in Yangzhou, and this is also the reason why he invited you to override public opinion, you have to get acquainted with each other." ”

"Mr. Xie Lu Xie Su is love, the kid is polite." When Liu Yuan heard it, it turned out that he could come here, it turned out that it was the recommendation of this old gentleman, that is, the last time he was in Yumanlou, that Chen Chang still wanted to shirk, and because of the first applause of this old ancestor, it was best to get the 100 taels of gold smoothly.

He is well-educated, has a high character, and is usually very famous, for this kind of old gentleman, Liu Yuan admires it from the bottom of his heart.

"Young man, yes, yes, your two pairs are still embarrassing me, hehe." Mr. Su is very amiable, he smiles when he opens his mouth, and he has no arrogance at all, and Liu Yuan has a very good impression of him.

"This is Sima Yang, my colleague"

"This is my upstart in Yangzhou, Zhang Gongzi of Zhang Yushi's family."

"This is ~~~~"

Every time Cui Xiong introduced one, Liu Yuan hurriedly bowed or something, and everyone was also very face-saving, greeting Liu Yuan one by one.

When introducing a talented man who held a white jade fan, wore an orange red gown, wore a superb jade at his waist, and had an extraordinary spirit, Tang Xiong raised his voice and said: "Everyone, maybe many people have not seen this son, this is Xu Hongji, who is known as the head of the northern talents, Xu Dacaizi, these days he happened to come to Yangzhou to visit relatives, so the old man invited him here to help the fun." ”

Mr. Su said with a smile: "Speaking of Xu Dacai, it is estimated that many people here don't know what to do, but when it comes to Xu Jiudou, everyone is like thunder, right?" ”

"Disrespectful, disrespectful, it was young and frivolous at the time, and now that I think about it, it's a bit too much, hehe." That Xu Hongji "snapped", put the white jade fan together, put his hands together, and made a humble salute.

is so confident, so confident that people feel that he is arrogant and lawless.

"Eight buckets" is a metaphor used by the Southern Dynasty poet Xie Lingyun to praise the Three Kingdoms Wei poet Cao Zhi. He said: "There is only one stone in the world, Cao Zijian (Cao Zhi) has eight buckets, I have one bucket, and the world has one bucket." Later, people compared the idiom "talented and eight buckets" to a person with superb literary talent.

And that Xu Hongji actually called himself "Mr. Jiudou", he is simply a genius who looks at the world, even now, he just said "a little too much", not that he was wrong, he was simply a lawless person, Liu Yuan felt unhappy when he heard it, arrogant people themselves are not uncommon, but it is the first time to see such an arrogant person.

"What? Mr. Jiudou? ”

"Doesn't that mean that the tyrant of the middle, the literary talent is flying Xu Dacai? I didn't expect to see him here."

"Domineering, domineering."

"I heard that he recognized the second in the north, but no one dared to recognize the first, the head of the talented people in the north."

"That's, that's it, why did you come to the state?"

Literati usually like to taste high and low, many times no one is convinced, but I didn't expect that at this time, Xu Hongji said such arrogant words, except for Mr. Su, his face was a little unnatural, but he didn't close his mouth and say nothing, there were so many people present, so many talented people who regarded reputation as the root of life, and no one refuted.

"Brother, what's the matter with that Xu Jiudou?" Liu Yuan asked a tall and thin genius next to him in a low voice.

"No, you haven't even heard of Xu Jiudou when you read? Oh~~" The man seemed to wake up: "I forgot that you usually sell jewelry, and it's not strange if you don't know the way, this Xu Hongji is very interested, as if he started learning in his mother's belly, he can speak at the age of one, he can read at the age of three, and he has begun to learn the four books and the five classics at the age of five." ”

"His articles are full of flowers, his poems are amazing, and even the pair is also known as the invincible opponent in the north, but Brother Liu is amazing, those two pairs, even he can't get it right, I heard about it, it is said that he doesn't want to come, but I heard that Brother Liu You also appeared, he was invited, but, Brother Liu, you have to be careful, I guess he will attack you."

Liu Yuan smiled and said: "That's okay, anyway, I'm just me and a small businessman in Yangzhou, he is disgraceful to me, if he loses, it is estimated that he will have to walk with his head down." ”

"This~~This~~ Wonderful, wonderful!" When the guy heard this, he immediately came to his senses and praised him again and again.

Just imagine, Xu Hongji, the head of the northern talents, was defeated by a small businessman in Jiangnan, which must have made the Jiangnan genius who has always been inferior to the northern geniuses exhale and raise his eyebrows.

Liu Yuan inadvertently looked up and saw Xu Hongji staring at him, and his gaze revealed a strong fighting intent, as if he wanted to compete with him immediately.

But Liu Yuan didn't think about it so much, what he was thinking about in his mind was, Xu Jiudou? It sounds awesome, but I have heard of the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin, Luo Bin Wang, and the "Four Friends of Articles" headed by Du Fu and his grandfather Du Xunyan, these are all famous talents, and in their memory, there is no such number one person as Xu Hongji and Xu Jiudou.

Is it another character who has been drowned in the long river of history?

Just when Liu Yuan was thinking nonsense, a housekeeper walked into Su Lao's previous ear and whispered a few words, and Mr. Su nodded frequently after listening.

"Mr. Cui, everyone has arrived, you see~~~" Cui Xionggui is the history of Yangzhou's assassination, even if it starts, you have to ask him first.

People say that everyone is equal just now, but that is just a humble remark and should not be taken seriously.

"Mr. Su, everyone is together, let's start."

"Okay."

Mr. Su nodded to the butler, and the butler understood what he meant, walked to the bow of the boat and knocked on the gong, and the "bell bell" struck three times in a row, and the original lively Slender West Lake suddenly quieted down.

"The poetry meeting begins~~~"

The old butler shouted to show that the poetry meeting had officially begun.