On the first day of the seventh month, Lord Su Bairensu, the city guard of Songhu City, came to the martial arts arena early. Earlier than him, there were officials of all sizes in the city and several generals in the garrison of the city, as well as candidates recommended by major families to participate in the competition.

Songhu City is the largest city in the east, with a total of more than 50,000 defenders, led by Zhao Xiong and Gu Fei, two chief and deputy commanders, under which there are military positions such as staff generals, deputy generals, thousand generals and hundred generals.

In addition to the garrison army, there was also a 20,000-strong co-security army, which was mainly responsible for the daily security of the city, and was led by two garrisons, Ma Dai and Chen Gongzhao.

This time, according to the new policy of the imperial court, in a big city of the level of Songhu City, the position of deputy general will be increased from the original two to four. Since one of the two lieutenants in the castle had recently died of illness, three new lieutenants were selected for this contest.

However, according to the usual practice, one of them will still be promoted among the generals within the city defenders, and the candidates recommended by the major families and officials will compete for the remaining two places.

The first contest of the day was between the two commanders of the defending army, and the winner between the two would win the first of the three lieutenant generals, and the remaining two places would be selected by a contest among the thirty-two people recommended by the major families and officials.

The competition was held on the stage at the front of the martial arts arena, on one side of the martial arts platform were the officials and martial arts celebrities who were watching the battle, on the other side were the players from all walks of life waiting for the competition, and there were many sergeants lined up to watch.

Since the first game was a competition of the internal personnel of the defending army, the results had nothing to do with the candidates recommended by the major families, so the players who watched the battle from the sidelines didn't care much, only the sergeants and generals below watched it more seriously.

Shi Ziling and Ma Yu stood side by side in the corner of the viewing booth of the martial arts stage. Ma Yu watched the competition between the two thousand presidents on the stage, and at the same time introduced the main schedule of the day to Shi Ziling.

This time, after the preliminary screening of all applicants, a total of 32 people were shortlisted to compete for the remaining two lieutenant positions. The 32 players will be divided into eight groups of four in each group for a single round-robin competition, with the top two winners advancing to the next round of elimination.

Then there will be 16 into 8, 8 into 4, until the 4 into 2 cross-elimination round, the last two winners will be the winners of this competition.

In addition, the eight groups into which the thirty-two people were divided were determined by drawing lots.

"Draw lots?" Shi Ziling was a little surprised, he thought that Ma Yu would arrange his opponent.

"Alas," Ma Yu complained: "It's all Chen Gongzhao's ghost, I originally said that the list of matches in the group was drawn up by my father, but Chen Gongzhao did not raise any objections at that time, it is estimated that he is full of confidence in Chen Zhongda's participation in the selection, and I think that no matter how we arrange, Chen Zhongda will win in the end." ”

"Who expected that as soon as Chen Zhongda died, Chen Gongzhao immediately changed his hexagram, and emphasized in front of Master Su that for the sake of fairness, it is necessary to let the players from all walks of life draw lots to decide the grouping. Unexpectedly, Master Su agreed. Now, I don't know if Duanmu Xuan will meet an opponent who is piercing, and what I am most afraid of is that if he touches you in the knockout round, alas, ......"

Ma Yu's face was sad.

Duanmu Xuan mentioned by Ma Yu is the candidate sent by the Duanmu family this time, Duanmu Xuan is the youngest of the twenty grandsons of Duanmu Hong, the patriarch of the Duanmu family, but he is also the most talented. On weekdays, he is quite favored by the elders in his family.

This time, for the position of this deputy general, several older masters in the Duanmu family were reluctant to fight because the position was too low, Duanmu Xuan was young and vigorous, and he didn't care about the position of a deputy general. Until there was news that the Tang family, which has always been low-key, also sent someone to earn this position, and the candidate launched by the Tang family turned out to be Tang Yifei, who is known as one of the "four princes of the family".

Duanmu Xuan became interested at the time, and pestered the elders in the family to come to participate in this competition, in order to compete with Tang Yifei, one of the most famous "Four Princes of the Family" in the Mingyue Continent.

The so-called "Four Sons of the Family" refers to Tang Yifei of the Tang family in the middle, Xiahou Feiyang of the Xiahou family in the north, Nangong Bo of the Nangong family in the south and Li Xiaoyao, the son of Li Yuan in the west.

The other two Tang Yifei and Nangong Bo are also in the top 100 masters on the list. But the Duanmu family, which is also one of the five major families, has not been selected, and the younger generation of masters in the Duanmu family has always been worried about this.

Duanmu Xuan has always boasted that he is the first person in the younger generation of the Duanmu family, and after the age of sixteen, his strength has surpassed many of his older brothers and sisters, and he has always been extremely disdainful of the so-called "four sons of the family", and often wants to have a good competition with those people.

The elders of his family were afraid that something would happen to him, so of course they admonished Duanmu Xuan many times to stop him, telling him that those sons were all in their early thirties, almost ten years older than Duanmu Xuan, and their skills were naturally more profound. Besides, whether it is the "Four Princes" or the rankings on the list, they are all false names, so don't take them too seriously.

However, Duanmu Xuan is young and vigorous, but he is always dissatisfied in his heart. This time, Tang Yifei came to Songhu City to earn the position of deputy general, for Duanmu Xuan, it was really a great opportunity to prove himself, so why should he try to see what the so-called "four sons of the family" are capable of, and he actually did not include the people of his Duanmu family.

His father Duanmu Yu originally refused to let him, but in the end, it was Duanmu Hong, the head of the family, who decided to let Duanmu Xuan come out to practice.

Ma Yu's family and Duanmu family are in-laws, and they have already told the Duanmu family about Shiziling, but the Duanmu family still has doubts about Shiziling's strength.

Chen Zhongda, who was killed by Shi Ziling, did not have a prominent reputation, and in the hearts of the Duanmu family, although they had some disdain for the name of "Sons of the Four Great Families", they still felt that these people were better than Chen Zhongda. It's no wonder that they, after all, it was Ma Yu who really understood Chen Zhongda's beastly strength, not the people of the Duanmu family.

Since the Duanmu family sent Duanmu Xuan, in their opinion, the people he sent by the various families in the entire east should be invincible, and this naturally includes the Shiziling that Ma Yu is extremely optimistic about.

Ma Yu is very aware of this mentality of the big family's eyes above the top, and he also knows that Duanmu Xuan's strength is not weak, but in his heart, Shi Ziling, who can kill the beast Chen Zhongda, is definitely the strongest candidate for this deputy general selection, and he is convinced of this.

The problem is that if the draw results are unfavorable, once he enters the knockout round, if Shi Ziling happens to face Duanmu Xuan, then his plan to let the two of them work together to win the two deputy generals will be in vain.

Shi Ziling looked at Ma Yu's bitter face and understood his worries, but since the rules of the competition had been set, there was nothing to be done.

He patted Ma Yu on the shoulder and said, "Brother Ma, why do you have to worry about it, this kind of thing is lucky, maybe I won't be able to touch Duanmu Xuan at all when the lottery results come out later." Besides, you haven't told me which other masters will participate this time besides Tang Yifei and Duanmu Xuan. Of the thirty or so people, are they the only ones who are the most powerful?"

Ma Yu also understood that it was useless to worry about this, and when he heard Shi Ziling ask about the other candidates, he was stunned and said: Didn't I send someone to hand over the list of most people's candidates and the number of martial arts paths of their sects to the mansion?

Shi Ziling's face turned red when he landed, and he apologized repeatedly: "I have been practicing in retreat for the past ten days, and I just came out of the customs today. Moreover, I didn't know anything about which sects were good at which martial arts, so I didn't pay much attention to it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! ”

Ma Yu glared at Shi Ziling for a long time, sighed, waved his hand and said, "In fact, with your strength, it really doesn't matter who your opponent is. Forget it, that's the case, this time, as I expected, the Nangong family, the Li Yuan family and the Xiahou family also recommended candidates to participate in the selection, but the people they recommended were not as famous as Tang Yifei. ”

"I really don't understand why so many great families have taken a fancy to our Songhu City's deputy general position, I think there will be a battle in the future of Songhu City. ”

"By the way, Nangong Chen, Li Feiran, and Xiahou Xueyi, you have to pay more attention, although these people are not famous, but after all, they are from the five great families, and it is estimated that their strength should not be weak. Also, the candidate recommended by Chen Gongzhao this time is a woman, named Mu Baishuang......"

"Woman, can a woman also lead troops to fight?" Shi Ziling was a little curious.

"Of course, there are many female soldiers and generals in the Yinyan Legion, one of the three major legions guarding Yanjing City, and its commander Hui Yinghong is the most famous female general in this dynasty. However, why did Chen Gongzhao suddenly find a woman to replace Chen Zhongda, I'm afraid it's a bit weird......"

Although Chen Zhongda died, Ma Yu was still a little worried about Chen Gongzhao.

At this time, the two thousand presidents on the stage had already divided the winners and losers, and Yang Weiqing, who made the mountain axe, finally won the victory after a hard battle.

This Yang Qian excitedly raised the mountain opening axe in his hand and waved it in the air again and again to celebrate his imminent title of deputy general. There was also a burst of cheers among the sergeants watching the battle, presumably those were his supporters, while another defeated President Qian packed up his weapons and left the stage in frustration.

After the first lieutenant is determined, the next step is to draw lots and group groups. Thirty-two people will draw lots in turn, and the four people who are drawn to one group will take turns to compete, and the top two in each group will win and enter the knockout round.

Shi Ziling drew the eighth group, and there were Li Feiran, Li Tianlong and Li Zhi in the same group, and the three opponents were all surnamed Li, remembering that Ma Yu had told him that Li Feiran was a member of the Li Yuan family, he couldn't help but feel moved in his heart.

Ever since he woke up at the foot of the goddess cliff in Pan'an County, the first person he met, Kato Taka, had recognized him as a subordinate of Li Yuan, the leader of the Tongtian Sect, and his name "Shiziling" came from this.

Later, when he recalled the situation at that time in his spare time, Shi Ziling always felt that since Kato Ying recognized himself as Shi Ziling and believed that he was sent by Li Yuan, maybe his life background was related to this Tongtian Sect Master.

Since this Li Feiran is a candidate recommended by Li Yuan, and has the same surname as Li, it is likely to be Li Yuan's son and nephew, I don't know if Lu Dao can find out a little news about his life experience from him.