Miss Zhao saw that the three of them were about to talk about it again, so she hurriedly came out to play a round. "In my opinion, anyway, we can't make up enough now, and it doesn't matter if there is more Brother Xu or less Brother Xu. It's better for us to have a showdown with Tang Zhe tomorrow, if he agrees to the three of us to participate, let's fight, if not. Then the responsibility for canceling the game is not ours. What do you think? ”

The crowd stopped talking, so the plan of the game was decided for the time being.

Next, everyone discussed the order of tomorrow's appearances. It was decided that Yang Ju would be the first, Yu Ren would follow, and Lu Xiangsheng would be last.

Everything was ready to stop, and everyone went back to sleep.

The next day, just after dawn, the open space at the foot of Wu Mountain was full of people. These people were divided into two floors in an orderly manner, and most of the inner layers were scholars in scribe's clothes, several times more than in the Yunjian Teahouse seven days ago, and a few were squires wearing silk.

And the outer layer, there are one or two times more people than the inner layer. However, most of these people seem to be ordinary citizens with little status.

Yu Ren didn't expect that a gambling contract between scholars would attract so many people's attention. How did he know that this was all because the reputation of the Donglin Party among the people was too high, and he was almost a representative of ordinary citizens and squires. Because of this, the supporters of the Donglin Party are mainly gentry and ordinary citizens from all over the country, and the vast majority of them are in the southeastern provinces.

The reason for this is mainly that the southeastern provinces have developed extremely fast in commerce and overseas trade in recent years. It can be said that in the southeastern provinces, agriculture has gradually been relegated to a secondary position, while industry and commerce have gradually developed into the main body of society in recent years.

However, in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, people still habitually regarded craftsmen and merchants as the lowest strata of society. In the eyes of most important officials in the DPRK and China, these people are dispensable social classes. However, the Donglim Party is an outlier among them, and they have always attached more importance and attention to this new group of craftsmen and merchants than any other party in the DPRK and China.

Gu Xiancheng, the founder of the Donglin Party, and five of the other seven gentlemen were all from the Nanzhili area, and they saw the prosperity of industry and commerce in the southeast since they were young, so they naturally paid more attention to it. Because of this, when they heard that the representatives of the Donglin Party were going to compete with Wansong Academy, the squires, small merchants, and handicraftsmen in Hangzhou spontaneously told each other that they would come to the foot of Wushan Mountain on this day to give Donglin some support.

Yu Ren glanced at it briefly, and there were no less than 5,000 people in the audience.

The group surrounded an open space the size of a football field. On the slightly higher slope in the southeast corner, Yu Ren also saw several scholars picking up a few banners with bamboo poles. It is written: "Donglin will win"; There are also couplets written about the most representative of the Donglin Party, "the sound of the wind and rain, the sound of reading, and the sound of ......".

In the northeast corner, the higher terrain is occupied by a group of "fans" of Wansong Academy. They also hold a large number of slogans such as "Wansong first, Wansong invincible" and so on.

Yu Ren and the others arrived at the place early. But I didn't see Tang Zhe and their class of players appearing for a long time. Seeing that the time had come, everyone was waiting a little impatiently. Someone began to whisper: "Is it that Wansong Academy is afraid of losing and does not dare to come?" ”

As he was talking, he heard the sound of a gong opening the way outside, and then saw a large sedan chair walking towards the field. Behind the sedan chair were Tang Zhe and other students of Wansong Academy, as well as Li Xianzhong and his subordinates.

The sedan chair fell in the field, and out of it came a middle-aged man in his forties with a white face and no beard. As soon as this person got off the sedan chair, Tang Zhe on the side hurriedly introduced it to everyone.

"Dear friends, thank you very much, for being able to watch our competition today, and thank you for your support to our Wansong Academy." Tang Zhe shamelessly made such an opening remark, and immediately divided the audience into supporters of Wansong Academy.

"Actually, this is just a small match between our Wansong and Donglin. It is a great honor that the professor of our school, Mr. Wen, is also very concerned about this matter, so he took time out of his busy schedule to come to give us a testimony. Next, I would like to ask our Lord Wen to say a few words to you. ”

This trick was really a big surprise beyond everyone's expectations, it was originally just a verbally agreed competition between scholars, and no one thought that it would actually lead to a DPRK and Chinese official to testify. Although the professor of Fuxue does not seem to have a high grade, he is only one level higher than the magistrate. However, because of his special status, he has always been extremely influential in the hearts of scholars. And this Lord Wen of Hangzhou Mansion is a relatively famous person among the professors of government studies in the country.

Just when everyone was still stunned, this Lord Wen had already stood in the middle of the field and said loudly to the onlookers: "It's an honor to be able to witness this match agreed by Tang Caizi and Yang Caizi today.

I know that many of you must be thinking in your hearts: why are we all literati, and we are not competing with poetry and writing, but we are competing with martial arts? This kind of literati competition is probably the first time I have heard of it in ancient and modern times.

The first thing I want to say is: I am very happy to see that there are still scholars like Tang Caizi and Yang Caizi who are both civil and military, proficient in all six arts, and do not forget the ancient teachings of the sages. This is the rarest. Nowadays, there are too few people who can take care of the six arts! The prosperity of my Ming Dynasty not only needs the rule of the literati, but also the armament.

Since ancient times, the real famous generals of the hundred generations have almost all been those who have both civil and military skills. If none of my literati in the Ming Dynasty practiced martial arts, it would be very dangerous. Especially in the moment. I think you've heard of it. The Jurchens in Liaodong have become more and more fierce, and this time, they have almost wiped out the four famous generals of my Ming Dynasty.

I have no famous generals to send from now on, who will defend the border for us to resist the enemy? When we read the books of the sages, we should remember the teachings of the sages, and at this time, the imperial court needs us to learn martial arts and know the soldiers, so we should take the responsibility.

Mr. Yang Ming once said: clear mind. What is our nature? I think it should be for the prosperity of the family business and the prosperity of the country.

Mr. Qian Qianyi said: It is used by the world. So, what do we need most now? I think it should also be a martial arts soldier.

Therefore, whether it is from the point of view of Mr. Yang Ming or Mr. Qian, I believe that it should be a good thing for scholars to learn martial arts at the moment.

Having said all that, let me first introduce you to the details of this competition.

The competition is divided into two sessions. The first archery contest. Five people from each side will draw lots for a one-on-one competition, and the side that wins three games wins.

The second battle was originally a horse battle, but because of the unequal advantages and disadvantages of the horses ridden by both sides, in order to best reflect the fairness, the two sides negotiated and changed to a foot battle. There are still five men from each side. However, this time it was in the ring style. In other words, as long as you don't get knocked down by the opponent, you can stay on stage until you are knocked down by the opponent, or all the opponents.

The final win or defeat is determined by the two wins and losses, and if both sides win one game each, it will be a draw.

Since the stakes of this bet are somewhat special, here, I will also reiterate it by the way!

If Donglin wins this time, then Tang Zhe of Wansong Academy will join his thirty-two classmates and worship under the Donglin Gate in public. If Wan Song's side wins, then Yang Ju and the other four Donglin scholars who participated in the competition will swear in public that they will never step into the field again in this life. ”

At this point, Professor Wen Tiren Wen paused. He turned his head to look at Tang Zhe who was standing aside and asked, "Tang Zhe, am I right?" ”

Tang Zhe nodded.

Wen Tiren turned his head to look at Yang Ju again, "Yang Ju, what I said about the bet is correct, right?" ”

Yang Ju hurriedly took two steps forward, bowed down and replied, "Mr. Wen is right! ”

Wen Tiren then re-faced everyone and said loudly, "Then, I now announce that the first game has officially begun." Five contestants from both sides are invited to play. ”

After listening to Wen Tiren's announcement, Tang Zhe immediately waved behind him, he was already a little impatient to wait. I saw the four people from Wansong Academy coming out one after another. They are Wang Shiji, Li Xianzhong, Li Liu, and Li Qi. These four people are wearing white Confucian shirts like Tang Zhe today, which are particularly unified, and the chest of the clothes is embroidered with the words "Wansong Academy".

Yang Ju saw that the other party's people had already appeared, so he had to bite the bullet and say to Wen Tiren, "Mr. Wen, forgive me." On our side, only three people can participate in the competition for the time being, but I don't know if Brother Tang can agree? Yang Ju said, moving his gaze to Tang Zhe on the side.

Tang Zhe was obviously a little surprised, he didn't expect that the five people that Yang Ju had said were good, but when it came to the competition, they became three. He glanced over and saw that there were only Yu Ren and Lu Xiangsheng behind Yang Ju. "Why? What about the two brothers surnamed Wu? Why didn't they come? ”