In the blink of an eye, the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve arrived, and the city of Tokyo was full of firecrackers in the morning, and every household was very lively.

The two years of the Great Song Dynasty were not peaceful, although Gyeonggi did not suffer from military disasters, but the successive rebellions in Hebei, Lianghuai, Liangzhejiang and other places have affected the normal operation of the empire.

The most direct is that the price of grain and rice has risen, livestock meat has become more expensive than before, and the number of displaced people has further increased, flocking to Kaifeng in Zhongzhou in the north, and Lianghu and other places in the south.

The pressure on the city of Tokyo increased sharply in the autumn, and many grain shops in the market were once sold out, and then the Kaifeng Mansion wrote that Emperor Daojun ordered the treasury to open the treasury and sell some old official grain, which alleviated the crisis, but the rising grain prices never fell.

Prices have skyrocketed, in other words, the value of the coins has depreciated, and the exchange of copper coins for silver has reached five or even six times before they can be exchanged for one or two.

Silver was not a circulating currency in the Great Song Dynasty, but in the Daojun Emperor's dynasty, especially after Cai Jing's reform, the value of copper coins fell all the way, and it was originally only used for bulk transactions, or silver used when buying horses, furs and other things in the field and Fanguo, has quietly entered the market, and in those days of food shortage, many shops actually only accept silver, not copper coins.

Kaifeng Mansion has set up some shops because of this incident, and has also arrested some people, and several of them who took the lead have cut off their heads and raided their homes, so as to stifle this trend.

Not long after, Kaifeng Mansion changed its chief official, and Cai Mao was appointed as the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture.

Cai Mao is the second minister of Shenzong, the son of Cai Qu, the prime minister of Zhezong, Cai Qu and Cai Jing are the same clan, Cai Qu's great-ancestor and Cai Jing's great-ancestor are brothers.

And Cai Mao is a person who has no discipline, and in the past, he talked about Cai Jing's brothers and sons, but now he is hooking up with Liang Shicheng, Gao Yu and others.

And this person has no responsibility, after knowing Kaifeng Mansion, he never makes decisions about everything, all of them are reported to Cai Jing, and he only listens to the orders of the Cai family.

But the people are like this, although the days suddenly tightened, but the festival is more and more important, especially the New Year, gritting their teeth is not less than every year, and the sacrificial rites are more solemn.

The people's ideas are very simple, and they hope that next year will be better, so although this year is very poor, they still decide to have a good year.

On the morning of the thirtieth, Zhao Ta sat in the front hall and played chess with Lu Junyi.

His own group, Lu Junyi and Du Yan, Zhang Xian, and the heroes of Broken Jade Building.

There was also a Lu general who tied the rope in the middle of the people in the broken jade building.

Zhao Ta did not kill Lu Jiang, but brought him back to Tokyo from Jiangnan and threw him into the broken jade building, Lu Jiang was a scholar who had no power to tie the chicken, and he couldn't run out of the broken jade building surrounded by wolves.

And when he heard that Zhao Ta had beheaded Zhu Mian, he was silent for a long time, and he didn't go on a hunger strike or make trouble, and sometimes even if he loosened the rope, he didn't commit suicide by hitting his head as before.

He was also watching the game of chess at the moment, his expression was quite serious, he felt that Zhao Ta was really too big, and he couldn't help himself with so many of them.

You must know that Zhao Ta and Lu Junyi played chess, not Go, the chess of the Great Song Dynasty is very popular, many people in the market will, and the equipment of chess games is not expensive, there are people in the streets and alleys outside to set up chessboard chess pieces, and there are also chess in tea shops for the entertainment of guests.

At this moment, the people in the hall may not understand Go, but there are almost no chess that they can't, although the level is uneven, but how can so many people play no more than one?

Lu Jiang himself is a chess master, so even if he doesn't like the people in the hall in his heart, especially the splashes in the broken jade building, he still looks at it carefully.

He found that Zhao Ta's chess path was something he had never seen before, and at this moment there were already organizations such as chess clubs among the people, and there were also people who wrote chess games, studied various tricks, and even Li Qingzhao wrote a book "Playing Horses", which focused on chess.

Xiangqi already has a certain number of ways at this time, and people who often play chess know more or less about it, and it seems that Lu Jiang has studied all the popular chess routines at the moment, but he doesn't recognize the moves used by Zhao Tan.

At first, he thought it was all improvised, but the more he looked at it, the more wrong it became, and there were clear rules to follow, and it seemed that he used to use it often.

Lu Junyi's chess skills are average, his own preference is to polish his martial arts, and he only plays two games when he is tired, and if he is facing Zhao Ta at this moment, if it were not for the support of everyone behind him, he would have been defeated a long time ago.

But even so, he didn't even lose three games in a row before the endgame, he got up and accused himself of not playing, Du Yan hurriedly sat down, rolled up his arms and sleeves and said: "My subordinates will teach the prince chess skills." ”

Zhao Ta glanced at him, like a black iron tower, and said with a smile: "Feasible?" ”

Du Yan said: "In the subordinate township, the people in that place play chess for fun when they have nothing to do, and their subordinates have been playing since childhood, but it is ...... It's one less defeat! ”

Zhao Ta was surprised: "Since you have tasted one defeat less, why are all the tricks just now stinky chess?" ”

Du Yan rubbed his hands and said, "If this is not the case, how can General Lu be defeated so quickly, so that his subordinates can sit on the naughty trick now." ”

Lu Junyi said angrily: "Look at you are honest and straightforward, but you are also a cunning person!" ”

Du Yan said with a smile: "Soldiers are not tired of cheating, soldiers are not tired of cheating." ”

The people in the hall rejoiced.

Du Yan's chess skills are really superb, and the flying cannon vaulting horse is to go to the middle game with Zhao Ta, but at this time he also fell into a stalemate, even if others want to make more moves, they are scratching their ears and cheeks and don't know how to deal with it next.

In this way, Du Yan also lost three sets in a row, and he also did not go down to the endgame, on the surface it looks similar to Lu Junyi, but Lu Jiang can see it clearly, Du Yan is much more powerful than Lu Junyi, but Zhao Tan's methods are more clever, and he can already control when to win or lose, and if he wants to win in the middle game, he will definitely not be able to play the end game.

"Who else is not convinced?" Zhao Ta smiled and looked at everyone.

Everyone looks at me, I look at you, they are all a little self-aware, and after watching several games, they feel that they are not as good as Du Yan and Lu Junyi, so they don't keep quiet, so as not to be embarrassed.

"I, I don't accept ......" A voice sounded a little weakly, and everyone saw that it was actually General Lu, and when they saw that he was tied by a rope but said that he wanted to play chess, everyone wanted to laugh.

But no one said anything to ridicule him, and Zhao Ta confessed that except for restricting his freedom, he didn't have to be treated as a prisoner.

Zhao Tan looked at General Lu with a smile: "Do you know how to play chess?" ”

Lu Jiang nodded: "Since childhood!" ”

He was addicted to chess at the moment, and he was itching in his heart, and he had seen the flaws in Zhao Ta's road before, if he had seized the opportunity at that time, Lu Du and the others might not have lost so quickly, how could they hold on to the endgame, and they couldn't help but speak again.

Du Yan said next to him: "A certain has also been down since he was a child!" ”

Lu Jiang sneered: "You are a wild man, there is no way to do it, it's strange if you can win!" ”

Du Yan was not angry when he heard this, and said: "Who can't brag." ”

Zhao Ta thought for a while: "You are different from them, you are not under this king, you only want to win or lose, you want to play chess with this king, you need some luck." ”

Lu Jiang said: "I don't have anything to grow now, where is there anything that can be used as a color head?" ”

Zhao Ta shook his head and smiled: "It may not necessarily be a silver coin. ”

General Lu looked at the chessboard, gritted his teeth and said, "Then what do you want?" ”

Zhao Ta said: "If you lose, you will sell my life, listen to the king, let you go to the east, don't dare to go west, let you beat the dog, not the chicken." ”

The corners of Lu Jiang's mouth twitched when he heard this, what kind of metaphor is this, such rude words actually came from the mouth of everyone in the literary world, you?

He said, "What if I win?" ”

Zhao Ta said: "If you win, let you go, it doesn't matter where you want to go, the king doesn't care, and I will send you a piece of money for the journey." ”

Lu Jiang calculated in his heart, and always felt that something was wrong, so he said: "This is not fair, if I lose, won't I sell my life?" What you lose is a lifetime of freedom, and if you win, you just let me go, and you don't have anything to do with your own family. ”

Zhao Ta looked at him and smiled slightly: "Fair? Fairness is just an excuse for the weak, the strong don't need to be fair, and when you talk about fairness with this king, you are admitting that your skills are inferior to others, and you are weak? What kind of chess is that! ”

"I ......" General Lu listened unconvinced, secretly thinking what kind of fallacy and heresy this is, how can it be explained like this by fairness?

He was angry and had to agree, anyway, it was not easy to be under house arrest in the broken jade building at the moment, although it was stronger than in the prison, but there were some swordsmen around him, and he couldn't even talk about it together.

Zhao Ta suddenly said again: "But...... If you lose, the king can give you another chance. ”

"What chance?" Lu Jiang blurted out.

"Play chess with this king once a year, and if you can win against this king, the bet is still valid."

"You mean......" General Lu blinked: "Give me a chance to play chess once a year, continue to be a cow and a horse if you lose, and let me go if you win?" ”

Zhao Tan nodded, Lu Jiang's mind immediately came alive, just now Du Yan said that he has played chess since he was a child, and he has tasted one defeat less, he doesn't believe it, he is the real one less defeat, and it can even be said that after the age of fifteen, he has never lost in chess.

He is a student from a student, and the chess opponents he plays are not general, and he is certainly not comparable to Du Yan's opponent in the countryside, although Zhao Ta won two just now, but there are still flaws in Zhao Ta's chess path, and he feels that he is sure to beat the other party.

Lu Jiang is a little confident, after all, in his mind, at least that kind of chess flaw will not appear in him, so his chess skills must still be higher than Zhao Tan.

As for what if...... If you lose, you lose, isn't it just to be a cow and a horse? He is not afraid of death, what is he afraid of being a cow or a horse!

He originally joined the Ming Sect all because of Zhu Mian, he couldn't get used to Zhu Mian's tyrannical expropriation and fish in Jiangnan, so he wrote to the imperial court to tell Zhu Mian's evil deeds in Jiangnan, but he was directly removed from the status of a student by the imperial court, and then issued a punishment that would never be hired.

In this way, his heart collapsed directly, and he felt that this kind of court was not needed, and it happened that Mingjiao was collecting believers everywhere, and he felt that he had something to rely on after listening to the teachings, so he joined in.

Because he was proficient in calligraphy and ink, and there were few such people in the Ming Sect, he was pushed to Fang La's side and gained Fang La's trust, and later Fang La's trouble, he also supported it, after all, the emperor was dim, the court was dim, and traitors were rampant, but it was the opposite!

However, Fang La didn't listen to his strategy several times, he went from helplessness to cold heart in the end, and even Fang La failed and was killed, he was already dead.

But when he was in Jiangnan Prison, news suddenly came that Zhu Mian was beheaded by Zhao Ta, and he plotted to rebel and exterminate the nine clans.

He didn't know if Zhu Mian really plotted against him, but this southeast evil tiger was not worth the sin of his body with a thousand knives, and now he was killed and died at the hands of Zhao Ta, he was a little strange, wasn't it all protected by officials and officials? How did you kill it? Although I can't figure it out, I also have a long-standing depression in my chest.

Everything is because of Zhu Mian, since Zhao Ta killed Zhu Mian, then his thoughts have been understood a lot, at this moment playing chess to win or lose, all by ability, win to get free, lose to be a cow and a horse, he Lu will admit it.

"Okay, I promise!" General Lu took a deep breath and looked at Zhao Ta.

Zhao Tan laughed, and gestured to the side, and immediately someone untied the rope on Lu Jiang's body, Lu Jiang rubbed his arm, but it was not sore, and it was not tied tightly, and he knew that he was a weak scholar and had no ability to escape.

Zhao Ta said: "Three sets are determined to win or lose, and if there is a tie, one game will be added." ”

Lu Jiang naturally does not object, three sets are enough, five sets are a bit much, if the chess strength is equal, I am afraid that it will be played until dark, today is the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Zhao Ta will definitely not agree.

"This king is the first to strike." Zhao Tan smiled and took a step to the front.

At this time, the shape of the chess object and the various rules had actually been finalized, and it was basically the same as that of later generations.

The chess pieces are round, the front is the text, the back is the matching pattern, and the number of chess pieces is the same as that of later generations.

The only difference is probably in the chess of both sides.

On the two sides of chess, "pawn" and "pawn" are not distinguished, both are "pawn", "general" and "handsome" are not distinguished, both are "general", "xiang" and "phase" are not distinguished, they are all "elephant", and "cannon" is not "cannon", and everything else is the same as chess in later generations.

General Lu saw Zhao Ta raise his hand to face the stone cannon, without thinking about it, he jumped directly from the horse, Zhao Ta laughed, and stepped into the pawn.

General Lu snorted and began to get out of the car.

The two of you come and go, more than a dozen hands passed in a blink of an eye, Lu Jiang's face was a little difficult to look at, something was wrong, something was wrong, the other party's path was different from what he had seen before, and it was a set of moves that he had never seen before.

General Lu secretly gritted his teeth and began to look carefully for flaws, but to his disappointment, there was no flaw at all!

Isn't he as good as Lu Du and the others? When Zhao Ta played against those two, he also showed flaws, why are there no flaws at this moment?

Lu Jiang was shocked in his heart, this is impossible, this is absolutely impossible!

When the chess reached the middle game, Lu Jiang's face turned pale, he lost, and he didn't even get the endgame, just the middle game, the same as Lu Du!

He was not convinced, he didn't say a word, and after setting up the chess pieces, he didn't wait for Zhao Ta to speak, so he took the first step.

Zhao Ta responded with a smile, for more than a quarter of an hour, Lu Jiang trembled, his face was whiter than just now, he lost again, and it was the middle game again!

He opened his mouth: "Three rounds...... There is one more round. ”

Zhao Ta said: "Three games and two wins, you have already lost, do you want to continue?" ”

Lu Jiang said with difficulty: "I, I know I lost, and I am willing to be a cow and a horse, but I have to play three rounds ......."

Zhao Ta shook his head: "Chess!" ”

A moment later, Lu Jiang leaned back in his chair as if he had lost his strength, his whole body drenched in sweat, and his face was full of panic.

He tried his best, but this time he still lost, he was still in the middle game, and like the last two times, he was killed without leaving a piece of armor.

Zhao Ta smiled: "After a year, you can find this king to play chess again!" ”

Lu Jiang grabbed the corners of his clothes with both hands, but he couldn't say half a word, just nodded indifferently.

At this time, the guards outside came in to report: "Lord, it's time to start the banquet." ”

Zhao Ta waved his hand at the people in the room: "Let's go, let's go eat." ”

Everyone went out of the room, and Lu Jiang was weak in the back, and the two brothers of the Ding family put on one arm and dragged him out of the door with a smile......

(End of chapter)