After the Changning Festival, the spring flowers bloomed, and the official Zhao Zhen's illness slowly improved. His illness was all blamed on the witch scripture offered by the female Taoist priest Liu Demiao.

Baiguan took the opportunity to pray for the official family, and planned to hold the opening ceremony of Jinming Pond. Ye Pei promised Empress Dowager Liu's birthday gift, and also planned to dedicate it to her at the opening ceremony of Jinming Pond.

Every year on the first day of March, the Jinming Pond is opened, the emperor will come to Qionglin Garden, watch the horse shooting and compete for the bid, the tin banquet ministers, the harem beauties, the court officials, the wife, the family will accompany them, and sometimes the foreign envoys will also come to watch the ceremony.

During this period of time, Jinmingchi can't help the people, the royal family wants to have fun with the people, the people enjoy the scenery in spring, and there are countless people fishing and playing.

Therefore, Jinmingchi and Qionglin Garden, including the entire Shuntianmen Street, are all jubilant with cars and horses, full of people, bustling, and lively.

The first emperor Jingzong had few heirs, and there were not even two princesses, and in Zhao Zhen's generation, because he had never been married, he didn't even have a high-grade beauty or Jieyu, let alone an heir.

The only people who can accompany the harem are the Queen Mother Liu E and the Queen Mother's adopted daughter Ye Pei.

This year, the envoys of Khitan, Goryeo, Tubo, Dali, Annan and other countries came to celebrate the "Changning Festival", and stayed until the Jinmingchi to watch the ceremony, so this year's tin banquet shooting ceremony is particularly grand.

Ye Pei also came to Jin Mingchi and Qionglin Yuan when she was a child, and she couldn't remember it when she was young.

Three years ago, she also came secretly by herself, because of Lou Zijin, she sat by the Jinming Pool and cried, how lonely and sad she was at that time.

But today is different from the past, looking out from the Baojin Tower, I don't know how jubilant and lively it is.

Baojin building south to north, built on the bluestone high platform, ten zhang high, one hundred zhang wide, flying eaves and arches, ingenious workmanship, is the highest point of the whole Jinming Pond.

Looking down from Baojin Tower, facing Luo Hongqiao, hundreds of steps from north to south, three rainbows on the bridge deck, vermilion lacquer railing, the lower row of goose pillars, spinning with colorful hooves.

On the west side, there is a mullified star gate, and there is a colorful building in the door, and when the competition begins, the musicians who play music, and the prostitutes who sing and dance all sit here.

The east side of Luo Hongqiao is the waterfront hall, the water shed is set up in front of the palace, a row of guards wear brocade jackets, hold silk flowers, hold golden guns, and stand on both sides.

After crossing the bridge, above the water surface, it is the center of Jinming Pond, there is a group of pavilions, which is the five halls of the water center. The five halls of the water center are surrounded by a circle, like a stage, and there are hundreds of plays in the middle.

There are small boats around the five halls, and there are singing and dancing troupes on the boats, which are all over the place, and they are very lively.

At this time, the official Zhao Zhen sat on the vermilion lacquer and gold dragon chair in the middle of the Baojin Building, and the seat was surrounded by a royal hoove, and behind it was a large screen of dragon lacquer gold.

The queen mother's dragon and phoenix throne is juxtaposed with the official family, and the armrests are carved with double phoenixes, and the dragon and phoenix are surrounded by auspicious red sandalwood inlaid shell screens behind them. Ye Peili stood under the Queen Mother.

As soon as the royal car arrived, Ren Shouzhong announced the holy decree of "rejoicing with the people", and the singing and dancing operas downstairs and on the water hall began to play and perform.

I saw that on the side of the five halls, there was a small boat, there was a small color building on it, three small doors were opened upstairs, a few puppet villains were exposed, music was played on the boat, and the puppet puppets built balls and danced and swirled, called "water puppets".

On both sides there are painted boats again, on which there is a swing, and a hundred opera people at the stern of the boat perform on the pole, leap on the bamboo pole two zhang high, kick the swing, somersault and other actions, call it "water swing".

Then there are "hard ghost dance judgments", "pantomimes", "lion and leopard fighting", all kinds of tricks, there are countless and innumerable.

The most noteworthy thing in this water drama is the "bidding".

This Jin Ming Pond was originally used to practice sailors during Taizong's time, and now this competition is a simulation of the military drill of the navy.

Twenty dragon boats lined up in two teams, flying out from the left and right, competing for the benchmark. There were fifty sergeants on board, all of whom were in azure short clothes, with scarlet turbans, paddling left and right, and on the dragon's head

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Some people danced flags, some people beat drums at the stern, and the shouts shook the sky.

The people waved small colored flags on both sides of the strait and shouted and cheered, and other water play boats lined up on both sides of the gongs, drums, singing and dancing, so lively. In the end, the winning team won, and the official family gave treasure money and feasts.

After the bidding, it was the shooting ceremony, and the official family and the queen mother moved to the shooting hall to watch the ceremony.

This shooting salute is divided into big shooting, bin shooting, swallow shooting and village shooting.

The big shot is the shooting ritual used in the sacrifice of the Son of Heaven; The bin shooting is the shooting salute performed by the vassal states when they see the Son of Heaven; Swallow shot is held during small gatherings or banquets, which is called swallow's breath shot; The township shooting is the shooting ceremony held by the magistrate to recommend the virtuous and virtuous, and the township shooting is often accompanied by the village banquet and wine ceremony.

This shooting salute takes the meaning of enjoying with the people, and is exercised according to the etiquette of swallow shooting.

This year's shooting ceremony was completed by the Great Song Dynasty, Khitan, Western Xia, Dali, Annan and other countries.

At this time, the presiding officer was the youngest son of Zhao Yuanzuo, the eldest son of Taizong, the king of Chu, Zhao Yuncheng, the prince of Xunguo, and the younger brother of Zhao Zhen, the official family, which also shows the importance that the dynasty attaches to this shooting.

Cao Cong, the commander of the guards and pro-army of the Great Song Dynasty, was the son of the general Cao Bin.

Western Xia invited Li Yuanze, the third son of King Xia, King Ning, the Duan clan of Dali sent the eldest princess Gao Zheng'an, and the Khitan sent Han Zhongxun, the envoy of Xuanhui of the Southern Courtyard, and others.

The official family and the queen mother sat down in the shooting hall, and Zhao Yuncheng, the prince of Xunguo, announced the start of the shooting.

In front of the shooting hall, two columns of sergeants set up the "glaive array", waving flags, drumming and singing, and two columns of men and horses danced against each other, such as stabbing and attacking, or attacking or defending, performing the battlefield fighting.

There was a loud bang, and a "leading horse" ran out of the fireworks, and the men and horses in the glaive array retreated on both sides. The rider holds a flag in his hand and performs equestrian tricks on the horse, standing on the horse's back, hiding under the horse's belly, and so on.

After the opening scene, the game officially begins.

First of all, there were more than ten guards in the archery squad of the National Dynasty, and they were also wearing narrow-sleeved purple jackets and hairpins on their heads. Move the grass target to the designated position, arrange the wings of the geese, and two people will guard one, waiting for the envoys to send arrows.

Fixed shooting, as the name suggests, is a fixed target archery, a group of ten people, each person shoots ten arrows, whoever hits the bull's-eye red dot the most will win, and those with less than five will be eliminated.

Dali, Tubo, Annan and other small countries were not good at cavalry and shooting, and they did not dare to compete with Liao and Xia, so the first round of fixed firing ended, and Dali and Tubo eliminated a number of people.

Next up is the willow shooting.

The so-called willow shooting is to hang the gourd on both ends of the fresh willow branches, place them on the shelf or on the tree, shoot the willow branches with arrows, and hold the gourd in the hand before the gourd lands.

This is a first-class archery, and shooting willows is the heaviest. The fresh willow branches cannot be completely penetrated, or the gourd falls too fast, even if the galloping horse comes, it will not be able to catch it.

It can't be too shallow, and it can't wait for the horse to gallop and not see the whereabouts of the gourd.

It is only necessary to shoot off the outer layer of green skin of the tender willow branch, and when it is crumbling, it rushes to the horse, just enough to catch the falling gourd without falling to the ground, which can be regarded as first-class.

Xun Guogong gave an order, everyone fired arrows together, five or six war horses galloped out, and the one who ran in front was Han Zhongxun of Liao.

The Khitan people are good at riding and archery, and every year they hold a spring and autumn bowl parade hunting competition to try riding and archery, and select young talents.

In second place was Cao Cong of the National Dynasty, who was also a warrior who had fought in Western Xia, so this kind of competition was naturally not a problem.

Next is Li Yuanze, the king of Western Xianing, he is the third son of Li Deming, the king of Xia, originally Li Deming was only named the Duke of Xia by the Song State, but he has not been subordinate for a long time, and now he has established himself as the king of Great Xia, and the Great Song Dynasty is powerless to stop it, so he has to accept the tribute of the Xia State, which is regarded as recognizing their self-establishment as a vassal state.

At this time, the first two people

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Mutual refusal, the horse's head bites extremely tightly.

Unexpectedly, Han Zhongxun's horse was suddenly frightened, collided with Cao Cong's horse's head, and almost fell off the horse.

Han Zhongxun and the others were all war horses, experienced in a hundred battles, and generally things would not be easily neighed and frightened, and when he checked after the race, he found that there was a thin silver needle like a hair pierced above the horse's hind hoof.

After such a delay, Han Zhongxun's willow branch broke early, and the gourd had already landed, and Li Yuanze, who was behind, took the opportunity to rush to the front, stretched out his hand to take over his gourd, and won the first place.

Cao Cong's willow branch shot shallowly, and when he ran to the ground, he also fished back the gourd when he was about to land, and won the second place.

Han Zhongxun was eliminated because the gourd landed, and glared at Li Yuanze angrily. The others in the back, either who did not shoot the willow branch or did not catch the gourd, were also eliminated.

Where can the official Zhao Zhen see so many tricks, seeing that the Xixia people have won, he said politely: "Congratulations to His Royal Highness the King of Guoning of the Western Xia, reward!" ”

Chen Zhongyi held a silver plate with a lot of gold bills on it and gave it to Li Yuanze. King Naxi Xianing looked at Han Zhongxun proudly.

Han Zhongxun returned to the team angrily and said something angrily to the people around him in Khitan language. But seeing the person next to Han Zhongxun, dressed in a Khitan suit, his aura was lofty, and he didn't laugh angrily, and after talking for a while, Han Zhongxun was also angry, and looked at the Western Xia team with disdain.

I saw the Khitan man in gorgeous clothes walking out of the team, kneeling down on one knee in the direction of the official Zhao Zhen, and saluting according to Khitan etiquette, but said aloud in fluent Chinese:

"The official family of the Great Song Dynasty, I am a descendant of the Khitan clan, Xiao Shinan, the son of the king of Nanping, because he has no official position, he has not paid a salute to you before."

As soon as this person spoke, Ye Pei fixed his eyes and saw that it was indeed Xiao Shinan. Ye Pei was surprised and delighted, and looked in Xiao Shinan's direction with a smile.

Although Zhao Zhen didn't know Xiao Shinan, he had heard of the name of the king of Nanping, who could fight well, so he respected this Xiao Shizi very much.

"Xiao Shizi came from afar, hard work!"

"The official family of the Great Song Dynasty, my Khitan comes to participate in the Yan Shooting Ceremony every year, and these are the things back and forth, and everyone is tired of seeing them, why not be ingenious this year and play a little new tricks?"

When the official Zhao Zhen heard Xiao Shinan say this, he knew that he must have won the lottery for the Xixia people just now, and the Khitans were eliminated, so he deliberately said this because he wanted to save face.

Thinking that Da Song had only won the second class, he was not convinced, so he asked, "What new tricks does Xiao Shizi have?" ”

Seeing Zhao Zhen's acquiescence, Xiao Shinan ordered someone to take out a delicate jade coin, which was as thin and thick as the size of two palms, with an egg-sized hole in the middle.

Xiao Shinan said: "The minister ordered the person to hang this jade coin where the willow branch was hanging just now, and shoot it with an arrow, and the arrow passed through the hole, which was considered to be passed." ”

Zhao Zhen is not proficient in riding and shooting, and he did not express his position for a while.

Zhao Yuncheng, the Duke of Xun beside him, said with a smile: "Xiao Shizi, your jade money hole is the size of the center of a grass target, although it is not easy to pass through it, it is not a difficult thing, right?" ”

Xiao Shinan said: "Oh? What does Xun Guogong think? He turned and instructed the guards beside him, "Bring a bow." ”

Immediately, an attendant in the Khitan team brought a pair of hard bows, and the other had already hung the jade money on the branch that hung when he shot the willow just now.

Xiao Shinan bent the bow and arrows, his demeanor was calm, he drew the bow, aimed, and set the target, and the movements were smooth and graceful.

I saw that the white feather arrow "whoosh" shot out like lightning, impartially and straight through the jade money hole, and more excitingly, the arrow did not move forward or backward, just stopped in the jade money hole, as if it was glued.

The audience erupted in an exclamation, the guards in line, the ministers under the seats, and the onlookers all widened their eyes and opened their mouths to see the gods, followed by earth-shaking cheers and shouts.

(End of chapter)

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