Polo is the national sport of the Tang Dynasty, it combines cavalry confrontation and public entertainment, and is deeply loved by the people of the Tang Dynasty.

For the Tang magnates, raising a polo team of their own is the most popular form of entertainment in high society, and they can use the competition between polo teams to frustrate political opponents or court feuds, so as to obtain the satisfaction of defeating enemies.

Polo is a way to show off wealth for the powerful, and for the magistrates and the army, it can show their sense of existence in the capital, which is also deeply valued by the local government and the army, and more importantly, cultivating a high-level polo team can often shorten the distance between the powerful and even the emperor, which is also a hidden way to promote officials.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when the Huangchao rebelled and attacked Guanzhong, Tang Xizong fled in a hurry, and the princess and concubine were discarded, except to bring his favorite polo players, which shows the status of polo in the Tang Dynasty.

It is precisely because of the vigorous exhibition of polo in the upper class society that it has driven the love of the middle and lower classes of the Tang people for polo, and the polo tournament held every spring has also become the grandest festival in Luoyang, the capital of the gods.

Entering the middle of February, as the weather warms up day by day, the attention of the polo tournament is becoming more and more hot day by day, and the topics on the streets and alleys of Chang'an are all around the polo competition, such as who can win the championship this year, whether the top three last year can be continued, whether there is a foreign army this year, and so on.

Last year's polo tournament was won by the Qianqi Battalion, Princess Taiping's polo team won the second, the third was the Ganzhou polo team, and who will win the championship this year? Many people are still optimistic about the Qianqi Camp, because they have Dou Xianyun, who is recognized as the No. 1 polo master in the Tang Dynasty.

There are also many people who are optimistic about the polo team of Princess Taiping and King Wu Sansi of Liang, the reason is very simple, Wu Chenghe's polo team was eaten by Princess Taiping, and Xue Huaiyi's polo team was merged by Wu Sansi, the two people's polo team was already very powerful, Princess Taiping's polo team was second last year, Wu Sansi's polo team ranked seventh, and now the strength of the two polo teams has risen sharply, and they have the opportunity to win the gold championship.

In addition, the two abolished emperors, Li Xian and Li Dan, have sent polo teams this year, and even Shangguan Wan'er, the number one celebrity around Shengshang, has also formed a polo team, and these three new polo teams have also attracted the attention of many people.

But this kind of attention is more from a political point of view, the emergence of Li Xian and Li Dan's polo team shows that Jinzi has relaxed the suppression of the Li royal family.

The emergence of Shangguan Wan'er's polo team also means that Shangguan Wan'er has begun to change from a favored minister to a powerful minister, and polo can reflect subtle changes in the political situation in a certain way.

During this time, Li Zhen's mood was as cloudy and sunny as the weather in spring, Di Yan has been ignoring him and refusing to see him, but he has not completely cut off relations with him, yesterday he asked the housekeeper Uncle Lin to give Di Yan a jade bracelet and the sharp short sword he bought, but Di Yan still refused to accept the short sword, but she accepted the bracelet.

This result made Li Zhen realize that Di Yan was just angry with him, and did not really intend to break off her relationship with him, from her initial resolute ignorance of herself, to yesterday when she accepted the bracelet she gave her, indicating that her attitude has changed subtly.

However, as the atmosphere of the polo tournament became more and more popular, Li Zhen had no time to think about emotional troubles, and he also devoted himself to the final polo training.

In the Imperial City, the wide training ground behind the Right Guard Army was temporarily converted into a polo field, where several polo teams were concentrated for training, and this polo tournament was based on the 50 polo teams last year, and 14 teams were added, bringing the number of participating teams to a record 64.

Sixty-four polo teams gathered in Luoyang, and the brunt of the training ground was insufficient, and it was extremely normal for several teams to train at the same time on one field.

On the right guard polo field, in addition to the polo team led by Li Zhen in training, there are three polo teams from the local area, as well as the polo team of the Thousand Cavalry Battalion and the polo team of Xiangwang Li Dan, a total of six polo teams are concentrated here for training.

On the polo field, the two polo teams are engaged in a fierce warm-up confrontation, one side is the champion of last year's polo tournament Qianqiying Polo Team, while the other side is the formation of the internal defense polo team that has only been a few months, that is, Shangguan Wan'er's polo team, this is Shangguan Wan'er herself, she does not want to use her personal name to name it, with Wu Zetian's consent, the polo team led by Li Zhen was renamed the Inner Guard Polo Team.

But no matter how the name was changed, this newly formed internal guard polo team was not well known, far from being comparable to the famous Thousand Cavalry Camp Polo Team, and even ordinary state teams seemed to be incomparable.

The fundamental reason why the Qianqiying Polo Team challenged Li Zhen's Polo Team was Dou Xianyun, who lost to Li Zhen in the Wuju Riding and Archery Championship, and he couldn't swallow this breath.

The warm-up confrontation time is generally very short, only about a quarter of an hour, the main training is the actual combat confrontation, the training ground is full of other teams and palace guards watching the game on both sides, only to see ten polo players in the court fierce confrontation, the war horse gallops like flying, the yellow dust rolls, the green polo flies like lightning near the ground, elusive.

After nearly a stick of incense battle, the score of the two teams turned out to be 2 to 2, which is really a bit eye-catching, but it is not the Qianqi Camp Polo Team that is abnormal, but the newly established internal guard Polo Team is outstanding.

Not only did Li Zhen shoot with superb ball skills, one of them scored two goals, but Pei Kuan and Jiu Zhi, who were defending the rear army, also performed exceptionally well, knocking away Dou Xianyun's three must-score goals in a row.

The crowd on both sides of the polo field did not shout to the sky, but watched every meeting between the two teams with nervous expressions, and many were deeply shocked by the excellent performance of the inner polo team.

At this time, an elderly woman came to the corner of the court, wearing a white polo uniform with gold trim, sitting on a small beard stool, looking intently at Li Zhen's watch on the court.

At this time, Dou Xianyun on the court was a little impatient, although except for him, the other four players were all substitutes, but the strong strength of the Thousand Cavalry Battalion still gave them the upper hand, but the result was not satisfactory.

Dou Xianyun saw that the opponent's training was not sufficient, resulting in a little rusty cooperation, and there were three coordination mistakes in a row, but their individual skills were very strong, and their style was extremely tenacious, and they resolved the sharp attacks of the Qianqi Camp Polo Team again and again.

Seeing that the time was gradually coming, Dou Xianyun decided to make a desperate bet, he shouted, the stick waved, and there was a crisp sound of 'bang', the polo was hit to the right oblique corner, and there was the Chinese army player Liu Yu responding, the ball bounced on the ground, and it was fast, Li Linfu, who was defending in the middle, urged the horse to gallop away, waving his staff to intercept the ball.

Li Zhen rushed back from the front, but it was too late, he suddenly realized that something was wrong, the opponent's right side was empty, no one answered, this was a false ball, he shouted: "Zhang Li, make up for the middle of the defense!"

Sure enough, this was Dou Xianyun's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain, and Li Linfu was transferred to the right side, and the middle lane was vacant, only to see Liu Yu urging the horse to catch up, and without waiting for Li Linfu to take out the cane, he preemptively flicked the stick and turned the polo back to the middle.

Dou Xianyun had already slapped his horse to the middle, he tilted his body, pressed against Zhang Li with his right shoulder, and swung his left hand stick heavily, hitting the polo accurately, and the polo flew out of a straight line and shot straight towards the hole forty steps away.

At this time, Jiuzhi was transferred to the right to defend Liu Yu, and Pei Kuan's war horse was blocked by another Qianqi battalion player, and there was a gap of more than one zhang wide in the middle, and the polo passed through the gap and shot into the hole in response.

At the same time, the gong sounded at the end of the warm-up game, and the audience on both sides burst into applause, and the Thousand Cavalry Battalion finally won the warm-up game 3-2 and saved face.

Dou Xianyun urged him to step forward, slapped Li Zhen hard, and praised with a smile: "Good fight!"

Li Zhen shook his head and said sincerely: "The strength is still far from the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, if it is an official competition with the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, we will definitely lose." ”

"I didn't mean to give you face, you did play very well, but the coordination was a little bit worse, and you wasted two great opportunities to attack, otherwise even if we don't win, the two sides will at least be tied. ”

Dou Xianyun pondered for a while and said, "With the strength you showed today, I think you should be able to break into the top eight this time." ”

"Thank you General Dou for your kind words, we will work hard. ”

Li Zhen hugged his fist to Dou Xianyun and arched his hand, urging the horse to the corner of the court, and several other teams also went to the field for training, at this time, Jiu Zhi smiled at Li Zhen and said: "Lao Li, there is an old woman looking for you." ”

Li Zhen looked in the direction of Jiuzhi's finger, only to see an old lady looking at him with a smile, Li Zhen immediately recognized this old man, it was Di Yan's old grandmother, he was startled, quickly turned over and dismounted, walked forward quickly, bowed down and asked, "Why is the old lady here?"

Mrs. Di smiled and narrowed her eyes and said: "I was bored at home, so I came to the imperial city to take a look at the training of the Taiyuan polo team, but the Taiyuan team was not found, but I saw your game, Xiao Lizi, this game is very good, and with a little better, I think I can enter the top eight." ”

Li Zhen knew that although this old grandmother was old, she was an avid horse fan, and if she could please her, it might be of great benefit to alleviate Di Yan's dissatisfaction with him, so he hurriedly and modestly asked, "Can the old lady point us out." ”

At this time, the polo players all gathered around, Li Zhen introduced them, and everyone heard that this old lady was Di Xiangguo's mother, and they couldn't help but be in awe and salute her together.

Seeing that everyone respected the elderly, Mrs. Di was very useful, so she said to everyone: "My old man rarely expresses his opinion, and today for the sake of your group of children who humbly seek advice, the old man will give you some advice." ”

She praised everyone with a smile, and said: "You are generally good today, but you don't know each other's intentions very well, which is the reason why you play less together, but the last ball is lost, but it is because of Xiao Lizi." ”

Everyone understood that the little plum she said meant Li Zhen, and Li Linfu hurriedly said: "Old man, it should be my responsibility to miss the last ball, and I shouldn't have left the middle to intercept the ball on the right side." ”

Mrs. Di sneered, "If you don't intercept the ball on the right side, the opponent will attack directly from the right side, their tactics are virtual and real, unpredictable, you are not wrong to intercept, the problem is the main player." ”

She glared at Li Zhen fiercely and said: "The warm-up match is only a quarter of an hour, and now that it is about to end, you still maintain an offensive formation, don't you know that in order to save face, the opponent will definitely press on it and make a desperate bet?"

At this time, as the main general of the battlefield, you should retract the whole line and defend against the opponent's final blow, if you were concentrating superior forces at that time, and the two of you attacked Dou Xianyun, so that he could not play this ball, you would have succeeded. ”

Li Zhen's face was full of shame, and he bowed deeply, "Li Zhen is inexperienced, thank you for pointing out the key to the old lady." ”

Everyone also thanked them and went to training again, at this time, only Mrs. Di and Li Zhen were left, but Mrs. Di smiled slyly and said: "You kid is a smart person, I don't believe you can't see the last chance, you sue me, did you deliberately lose to the Thousand Cavalry Battalion?"

Li Zhen scratched his head and smiled a little embarrassedly: "Don't hide it from the old lady, in the end, we did deliberately lose to the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, because if we draw with the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, we will inevitably become famous, and all opponents will attach importance to us, which is not conducive to our official competition, so we have to participate in the training competition to hone ourselves, and at the same time we must lose, so that it is easy to hide ourselves." ”

Mrs. Di gave a thumbs up and praised: "Sure enough, he has brains and is good at strategy, my old man likes it very much, and he really deserves to be the person that my family Ah Yan fancies." ”

Li Zhen's expression became unnatural, the old lady actually mentioned Di Yan, which whetted his appetite, he hesitated, and asked a little embarrassed: "Old lady, how is Ah Yan?"

"Ah Yan is okay!"

Old Lady Di smiled and patted Li Zhen on the shoulder with her cane, "Young man!

Although my baby granddaughter has a hot temper, she is not a fool, she will consider many things in her heart, if she is really angry, she will return to Peng Ze in a rage, since she is still in Luoyang, don't worry too much about anything?"

Li Zhen suddenly had a realization that Mrs. Di came to the Imperial City to find the Taiyuan Polo Team just an excuse, she actually came to find herself, to mediate the conflict between him and Di Yan, Di Yan was willing to accept her jade ring yesterday, I am afraid that the old lady's persuasion has played a role.

Li Zhen was full of gratitude to the old lady in his heart, he scratched his head and smiled: "I'll hit a few more fancy shots for the old lady to appreciate, and ask the old lady for more advice." ”

The old lady immediately smiled, "Okay! It's better to shoot back, I like to see the back shot right away, you have to hit, don't let me down." ”

"I won't let the old lady down!"

Li Zhen urged the horse to gallop, waved his staff and shouted to Jiuzhi: "Old fat, help me pass the ball!"

The walnut lines on the old lady's face bloomed with laughter, and she squinted her eyes and said to herself: "I like this child, I really like it!"

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