A piece of music ended in a messy manner, the two brocade clothes who were holding the pipa looked at each other and looked pale, the thousands of charming maiko in the field were panting and at a loss, a bookcase on the side, on the rice paper pressed under Yuzhen, the long poem was not finished, and the high cliff stiff and stiff hand that was originally in high spirits because he won the top spot in Wannian County as he wished was still holding a brush, and he looked at the residual poems on the paper in a daze, and his face was like dirt, and he was not in the mood to chant for the audience to evaluate.

Zhou Wang and many other students all raised the corners of their lips and sneered, unconcealing the ridicule and contempt on their faces.

And the four heroes of Dongying, who won a big victory, sat side by side, and their faces were even more arrogant at this time.

Under the silence where the needle could be heard, Awada Mayang, the head of the four masters, took the lead in getting up, paced in front of Gao Yajun, and glanced at the poem on the paper: "Gao Langjun's word is public. ”

This is certainly not meant by compliment.

"At the top of the list in Jingxian County, he couldn't join forces with his friends to write a complete poem before the end of the song, and two people who claimed to be proficient in music and rhythm, but they played a famous song of your country to pieces, but this one of them danced beautifully, even if he was slightly panicked because of the chaotic rhythm of the music, he could barely complete it."

Zhou Wangzheng took the lead in sneering at his opponent because of Awata Mayang's comments, and he listened to the words of the Zhou envoy: "We have come all the way to your country to study, nothing more than to hear that the Great Zhou Dynasty is full of talents and humanities, and I have admired it, and I have indeed seen a lot of famous and virtuous works, and it has lived up to the praise of the generations. ”

Awata Mayang's sneering gaze slowly looked around the crowd: "The people present are all the children of the world, many of them have passed the imperial examination, and can be regarded as the best in the country, but in your country, the poetry and music and rhythm are carried forward and flourished, can you be confident that they can beat us and other barbarian aliens?" ”

Seeing that none of the people present dared to fight, Dongying Sijie sneered twice and walked away.

"This time, Gao Yajun can be regarded as a loss of face." There is a gentleman who is still complacent.

However, Zhou Wang, the advocate of the Bizet incident next to him, glared angrily.

"What a high cliff for those who lose face!" Zhou Wang lowered his voice in annoyance, and was no longer in the mood to stay here to fall into the well on the high cliff, and he also brushed his sleeves away, unlike when he came, he held his head high, and there was a bit of a sense of desertion and escape.

It's not just Gao Yajun and Gongshi who Awata Mayang despises, but all the Great Zhou scribes!

"Awata-kun, it's a pleasure to say these words today!" Although it was different from when he came, only a few of his own Japanese soldiers followed, but the four heroes of Dongxuan were more high-spirited, and one of them, a young man who was short and not yet up to the crown, couldn't help but loudly agree with Awata Mayang: "In the morning, I can't get used to the sufficiency of the scholars of the Great Zhou, and they are superior only by virtue of their family background, and how many of the students have no talent and no virtue, but they think that they underestimate us and other foreign visiting scholars, and despise our country as a wilderness. ”

It turns out that the four heroes of Dongxuan were also born in Japan, and they were edicted into the court since they were young, and were taught the Central Plains culture by the early returning Zhou envoys, and later sent to Zhou, and listened to the teachings in Taixue, although they admired the profound literature and art of the Great Zhou, but seeing that many people who were too learned did not learn and indulged in pleasure, they had already accumulated a lot of disdain in their hearts, thinking that today's Great Zhou no longer had the glory of the prosperous times, and because of the past two years of challenging the scribes of Jinshi and the first and never fell behind, more proud, but worried about the diplomatic relations between the two countries, I didn't express this kind of thought.

However, not long ago, I heard some gossip, and learned that even among the students, there were many who ridiculed Japan as an isolated island and a wilderness, and repeatedly sent envoys to Zhou in the past hundred years, nothing more than coveting the jade gifted by the Great Zhou Dynasty to play with treasures, silk and porcelain, and despise Japan for not even having the written language of their own country, and the whole country is vulgar.

The anger in the hearts of the four of them could no longer be suppressed, and today they took this opportunity to ridicule.

And the original ordinary incident of scholars comparing talents, because of the crazy words of the four heroes of Dongxuan, and the embarrassment and defeat of the high cliff with the great voice of Xie Yuan, it quickly spread all over Chang'an City, not only caused a heated discussion among the children of many families, but even the common people in the city heard about it and whispered, some said that the Zhou envoy was arrogant, and some sighed that the official system is now collapsed and the world is declining.

The initiator Zhou Wang actually went to his parents after some careful consideration - he was determined to give up the provincial examination in the spring of tomorrow and collect his heart in the future, although it was difficult for the poetry to make progress, and it took several years of painstaking efforts to memorize the history of the scriptures, and it was not hopeless to apply for the Ming Jing subject.

Of course, Shi Niang didn't expect Zhou Wang's determination to change his past under this stimulus, which led to this matter arousing Wei Yuanping's attention - Zhou Wang's father Zhou Guoding was a provincial official of Zhongshu, one of Wei Yuanping's henchmen, and Zhou Wang was the eldest son, Wei Yuanping also had high hopes for him, and originally planned to strive for him to be a scholar, but Zhou Wang actually stacked picks, which made Wei Yuanping feel very regretful, and he couldn't help but be a little annoyed by Zhou Wang's scholarly spirit.

When he was annoyed, he didn't want his youngest son Wei Rui to suddenly remind him: "Father, Gao Yajun is the top of Wannian County, but he was beaten by the four heroes of Dongxuan, which caused the Great Zhou clan to be ridiculed by barbarians, if this matter is known by the Queen Mother...... Wouldn't there be an excuse to punish Cao Gang? ”

When Wei Yuanping heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, but he also knew his son's mind, and he would never have thought of such a lethal strategy. ”

Although He Zhan did not hesitate to "icing on the cake" by taking advantage of this unexpectedness, Shi Niang's plan was also in progress.

As early as a few months ago, because of Pei Zijian's entrustment, she secretly paid attention to the palace person named Ah Lu in the Hanxiang Palace, and found that Ah Lu was really a carefully selected eyes and ears, smart and enterprising - as soon as the spring warbler died, the elixir was transferred, and the queen mother was without two henchmen, so she needed a newcomer to replace her, Ah Lu and many palace people were secretly fighting for this opportunity, not only doing their best to perform in front of the queen mother, but also for the queen mother, such as the Xie sisters, especially the eleven mothers and Wei Xiang, the princesses were extremely flattering, and according to Ah Lu's performance, it seems that she really doesn't know that Eleven Niang is secretly helping.

Of course, Eleven Niang did not have any hints in front of her, and she did not openly recommend Ah Lu in front of the Queen Mother, this is also just in case, since she knows that Ah Lu has the possibility of "assassinating" the Queen Mother, then she will not leave any handle to be implicated.

She only reminded Ah Lu very tactfully, the spring warbler and the elixir that are deeply valued by the Queen Mother are not so simple to wait for the power, the most important thing is to be loyal, and secondly, she is quite wise, and what the Queen Mother needs is not an ordinary palace maid who serves tea and water.

Ah Lu was reminded of this, and sure enough, he put his mind on the elixir.

Eleven Niang turned to remind Yuerong, who was very worried about the future of the sister's elixir: "Why should the eunuch be worried? With the protection of the Queen Mother, the King of Jin will not be harsh on the elixir, but the elixir has been transferred to serve in the Zichen Palace, and it is not good to go in and out of the Hanxiang Hall from time to time, and the Queen Mother is now distracted by national politics, I am afraid that the days will gradually be negligent, if the eunuch can get the weight of the Queen Mother, it will definitely be beneficial to the elixir situation. ”

It is impossible for Yuerong to do any harm to the Queen Mother, so Eleven Niang has no worries about bringing her up.

Even if the Queen Mother learned about this incident, she would not suspect that Shi Niang had any conspiracy, after all, the elixir was the Queen Mother's confidant, and it was normal for Shi Niang to maintain a friendly and mutually helpful relationship with her.

Yue Rong and the elixir discussed this, the elixir immediately moved, taking the opportunity of the Queen Mother's edict to see her, begging the Queen Mother to transfer Yue Rong back to the Hanxiang Hall from the duty house, and after getting what she wanted, the elixir naturally instructed Yue Rong: "It is not easy to serve the Queen Mother, and Sister has always been dull, and she needs a few arms around to help." ”

So the elixir almost logically thought of Ah Lu, who had been docile and well-behaved in the past, and had been more and more flattering to her recently, and asked Yuerong to pay attention to her and teach her sister how to cleverly say good things for Ah Lu in front of the Queen Mother.

And when the Bizet incident broke out, Eleven Niang took advantage of her entry into the palace and informed Yuerong as a casual chatter, so Alu was immediately instructed - if you want to really attract the attention of the Queen Mother, flattery is far from enough, keen insight is essential, this is the opportunity, that Dongying Sijie ridiculed my Great Zhou Shizi, causing distractions, this is a matter that hurts the prestige of the country, and the Queen Mother will not be negligent if she hears about it.

So Ah Lu immediately took the opportunity to accompany the attendant and informed the queen mother of the matter: "The maid listened to the gossip of the princess's attendants, and they all said that the envoy was too arrogant, and I heard that there is a lot of discussion in the market now, and the maid is really worried that the development will cause accidents." ”

Therefore, before Wei Daxiangguo met the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother sent Eleven Niang to inquire about this matter in detail.