Whether it is tea, porcelain, raw silk or silk, it can be transported to Europe by ocean-going cargo ships to be sold, and it can make many profits, in contrast, linen, spices, ivory and other goods shipped from Western countries, although they can also earn some silver taels when they are sold in the towns and cities of Middle-earth, but the degree of profit is far less than that of those Western fleets.

It is for this reason that Western businessmen attach great importance to the "Zixiao Conference" to obtain the priority of cargo trading in the port of Okura, and some large shipping companies are even more determined to improve their rankings, and do not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to find and domesticate powerful fighting dogs.

At last year's conference, the top three fighting dogs were all obtained by Western shipping companies, among which the "dog king" is a gray-haired dog raised by a Spanish ocean-going merchant ship owner Gongora. The second black python came from the Dutch East India Company, and the third place was a large red-haired dog named "Red Fire", whose owner was an Arab merchant.

The fighting dog Snow King of "Wanjintang" is only ranked fourth, but it ranks first among many merchants in the Ming Dynasty of Middle Earth.

The top ten fighting dogs in the "Zixiao Conference", in addition to the Snow King, only the sixth-ranked "Sabertooth", and the ninth-ranked Xiong Li is owned by Chinese businessmen, these three fighting dogs are not high, and the remaining seven rankings are from the West. According to this, the gap between the strength of fighting dogs in the Eastern and Western continents is not small.

But this year, Hua Bushi has made up his mind to change this situation. In the past three months, the eleven fighting dogs that Bark Tianlou has collected money to train on behalf of him, and under the careful training of this eldest young master, his strength has been improved to varying degrees, and he believes that there is hope to break the status quo of Western fighting dogs being invincible in the "Zixiao Conference".

And what Hua Bushi has the greatest expectations for is the princess and Baoliang.

The "Zixiaotai Dog Fighting Conference" starts on the fifth day of the fifth month of May and ends on the twenty-fifth day of May, and lasts for 20 days.

According to the rules of the "Zixiao Conference", the 110 fighting dogs will go through eight rounds of competition to determine the final ranking.

The rules of the conference are quite complicated, and the schedule is as follows: the initial registration of the fighting dogs will go through the first three rounds of fighting to determine the top 32 rankings, and from the fourth round, it will be eliminated by the 32 fighting dogs, the winner will advance, and the loser will compete with each other for the subsequent rankings, and the distribution of opponents in each round will be determined by drawing.

According to the rules, the top 10 merchants in the last Zixiao do not need to participate in the first three rounds of pre-selection, they can directly enter the fourth round of competition, and they can at least become the top 32 in this conference.

In the final eighth round of the decisive battle, it can be decided that the "Dog King" belongs to this conference, and the fighting dog that wins the "Dog King" must maintain a complete victory in the "Zixiao Conference", pass all the way, and win all the opponents.

Bao Liang, who signed up for the competition in the name of Vedic Tower, must win eight consecutive games to win the championship, and since the "Wan Jintang" Zixiao ranked in the top ten last year, the princess can skip the first three rounds of qualifiers and directly enter the fourth round of fighting, but if she wants to win the championship, she must also win five games in a row.

Winning more than five games in a row in 20 days is not an easy task, and it is necessary to have a clever strategy, a reasonable distribution of the physical strength of the fighting dog, and the factor of luck is also very important. If the signing is not good, from the first few rounds of encountering strong opponents and fighting with all their might, or unfortunately injured, even if the strength is strong, I am afraid it will be difficult to support Zuihou to win the championship.

Most of the businesses and shipping companies in the city have formulated their own strategies for participating in the competition according to the strength of their fighting dogs. Rather than having ambitions to win the championship, it is better to formulate a realistic and reasonable strategy, win a few key competitions, and improve the relative ranking is the most important thing.

For the fighting dogs that are not strong enough, if the luck is not good, and the draw encounters a strong enemy like the civet and the black python, perhaps it is the best policy to directly admit defeat, as long as the fighting dog is not injured and retains enough combat power, there is a chance to compete for a relatively haode ranking in the next few rounds. After all, as long as the "Zixiao Ranking" is improved, even if it is one or two, it will be of great benefit to the cargo trade of the trading houses on the port of Okura Island.

"Lingyun Pavilion" is the tallest building on the top of Zixiao Terrace, the pavilion is five zhang high, the blue bricks and blue tiles, the eaves angle is very majestic.

On the top of today's high pavilion, dozens of flags of various colors are hung, and the flags flutter under the sea breeze, which is very beautiful. Behind the Lingyun Pavilion, there are two rows of eighteen standard dog fighting venues, all of which are ten zhang square, with white marble carved fences, around each field, there are many spectator seats, and the inside and outside of the field are very elegantly built.

At three o'clock on the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the opening ceremony of the "Zixiao Conference" was held in Lingyun Pavilion.

The city lord Sima Zhufeng was not in the city, and on a low platform in the center of the hall of Lingyun Pavilion, Xiong Bailing, the deputy hall master of the "Wanjin Hall", and the two elders Yao Gongxiao and Deng Ran stood side by side. The eldest lady of the city lord, Sima Rulan, is also dressed in a dress, with a fluttering skirt, standing on the low platform and standing in the middle of the main position, which is also the location of the city lord Sima Zhufeng during the "Zixiao Conference" in previous years.

Under the low platform, the principals of all the companies and shipping companies who participated in the meeting had already arrived, and there were more than 200 people in total. Even though the space in the pavilion was originally very spacious, the hall was crowded with people at the moment, and it seemed very crowded.

On the bluestone square in front of Zixiao Terrace, there are several rows of large carriages and horses, more than 100 of which are owned by these participating merchants, and each carriage is equipped with a wooden cage, and the fierce mastiff dogs raised by each family are kept in the cage.

On the beam in the middle of Lingyun Pavilion, there is a large plaque hanging high, on which are written four big characters of dragon flying and phoenix dancing: "Purple Qi Rushing into the Sky".

At this moment, I saw Xiong Bailing walking in front of the plaque, clearing his throat and shouting loudly: "The auspicious time has come, and the 'Zixiaotai Dog Fighting Conference' in the year of Geng Wu has officially begun!"

Xiong Bailing's internal skills are profound, and his voice is also very loud, under this shout, everyone outside the cabinet can hear it clearly. As soon as the words fell, dozens of musicians and drummers lined up outside the high pavilion played the drums together, and in an instant, the drums rang out in unison, and the gongs vibrated and were very noisy.

After a while, Xiong Bailing's giant palm waved, and the sound of drumming stopped.

He continued: "At this year's Zixiao Conference, before the master of Sima Hall returned to Okura City, Xiong and the elders of the inner and outer halls of the 'Wanjin Hall' presided over it on their behalf, hoping that all the participating merchants would abide by the rules and compete fairly, so as to live up to the original intention of Sima City Lord to establish this meeting!"

Xiong Bailing paused for a moment, and then said, "Now I have to ask Elder Deng of the Inner Hall of the 'Wanjin Hall' to announce the rules of this Zixiao Conference!"

In the midst of a round of applause from everyone in the cabinet, Deng Ran, the elder deacon, stepped forward, took out a piece of paper with a length of foot, and began to read out the rules of the dog fighting conference aloud.

The "Zixiaotai Dog Fighting Tournament" has been held for five years, and the rules have long been perfect, and they are also well known to many merchants in the city, but the only change is that the number of merchants participating in the competition increases every year, and the grouping in the first three rounds of fighting is different.

There are more than 50 rules of the conference, and Deng Ran read out the time of half a pillar of incense, and finally read them all, and then introduced the referee of the conference. The dogs in Okura Castle have long been known to everyone, and there are a total of eighteen dogs in this conference, all of whom are quite experienced and famous, and Song Er, who ruled on Baoliang's victory over Xiong Li in the "Yuelai Hotel" that day, was also among them.

Whether it was reading the rules or introducing the dog, although it took more than half an hour, just because most people were already familiar with it, it was nothing new, but the next thing immediately made everyone interested.

The next thing to do is to draw lots.

The two big men lifted a carved rosewood box onto the low platform in the pavilion and placed it on the table, and Deng Ran immediately announced that all the business directors who participated in the first round of dog fighting would go to the stage in turn to draw lots.

According to the rules, the first round of the dog fighting competition is for a total of 80 companies to participate after the 30th place in Zixiao last year, and the 40 winners will be determined to enter the second round. In the sandalwood box, there are wooden cards marked from 1 to 80, which are randomly drawn by the principals of each house, and then the opponent of this round is determined according to the number on the wooden card.

Bark Tianlou participated in the dog fighting tournament for the first time this year, and there was no place on the Zixiao ranking list, and the first round of fighting was inevitable. And Baoliang participated in the Zixiao Conference last year, but he suffered a fiasco in the first round, and finally ranked eighty-sixth, and his performance was extremely poor, so the original owner Chengnan Zhu Boss was disappointed with Baoliang's withdrawal, and decided to sell it and find another fighting dog to participate.

Although Cao Duyun and Zhu Hong's "pulse cutting and poison extraction" operation was successful, they had to stay in bed to recuperate these days and could not move around, so only Hua Bushi could come to the Bark Sky Tower.

Early this morning, the eldest young master came to Zixiao Terrace, and he came with Hai Hongzhu. This "Mrs. Hua" had an awkward quarrel with Hua Bushi for a few days, but under Sima Rulan's persuasion, she finally calmed down and was no longer angry. Now the two of them were standing in an inconspicuous corner of Lingyun Pavilion.

On the low platform, Deng Ran, who presided over the conference, shouted out the names of the participating businesses in turn, and when he called "Bark Sky Tower", the lottery had come to an end, and only a few merchants in Zuihou had not yet been drawn.

After several months of operation, the name of the dog training of "Barking Sky Tower" is no longer known in Okura City, and the scandal between this young master Hua and the eldest lady of the city lord is even more popular, so when Hua Bushi stepped onto the low platform, there was a commotion and discussion among the crowd of onlookers.

Hua Bushi slowly walked to the sandalwood box, reached out and took out a wooden plaque from the box, glanced at it, and handed it to Deng Ran on the side. His face was calm, his demeanor was very casual, and he seemed to have not taken the lottery to heart at all.