The lantern festival has a long history in Dayao, before it was often held in two or three villages in the Sixty Thousand Mountains.
After the establishment of Dayao, many commoners of the ancient ethnic group descended into the city, and the population was larger, so the scale of each lantern festival was also larger.
Especially in Lancheng, which is the capital of the empire, the annual New Year's Day Lantern Festival can be said to be the most eye-catching event in the entire Dayao.
Beginning at noon, mountain people from the mountains not far away came to Lancheng one after another. They almost all set off in the morning, and then stayed in the city overnight, just to witness this grand event.
Although the residents of Lancheng will participate every year, they will never miss the biggest event of the year.
Even businessmen from other countries in Lancheng and envoys from several countries will watch from the sidelines.
Of course, there are no seats, the kind crowded with civilians.
Whether it is the empress or the people in the court, no one from top to bottom cares what the envoys of other countries think.
In fact, among the envoys of the three countries, only Gu Zicheng from the Great Xia was given a little more attention.
Not because Da Xia is the strongest.
It's the longest time of self-sufficiency.
For ten years, Gu Zicheng has been safe and sound in Lancheng for more than ten years, not just because of his low profile.
I'm afraid even the person who sent him here didn't expect him to live so long.
One must know that no matter how Dayao's envoys are, they don't just go to Lancheng for a while. The caravans of their respective countries need them to come forward if they have an accident in Lancheng, and they need to come forward if there is any matter involving Dayao in other countries. If one is not good, it will be lost. The head, the respective countries at most talk about it verbally, and even the empress dismissed it with any excuse.
If they mishandle things and lose face for their country, they will not be able to please them, and it will also affect the family.
Basically, going to Da Yao as an envoy is equivalent to stepping into the gate of hell with one foot.
For example, the envoys before the Izumo Kingdom were beheaded just one year after their missions.
The new envoy had just arrived a month ago.
So Gu Zicheng can stay in Lancheng for more than ten years, this alone is worthy of admiration.
Behind this is Gu Zicheng's talent and skill.
Even Shi Qing wondered why Daxia had put such a talent in Dayao for more than ten years. Could it be that Daxia really has so many talents
Gu Zicheng was sitting on the carriage at this time, and when the carriage rolled over the stone slab, there would be a slight bump in the carriage.
Listening to the noise outside, Gu Zicheng's expression was a little heavy.
He already knew about the death of the Seventh Prince. As for Daxia's current preparations, he also knew through some channels, and he didn't know whether he would be buried here in the end.
Thinking about the past ten years, the hometown has long been completely destroyed, and it seems that it is not so bad to bury the bones here.
Or just rely on Dayao? Gu Zicheng had this thought in his mind, but he immediately suppressed it.
Because there is the Gu family behind him.
When he arrived, it was not too late, and the guards had already come to occupy the place. Next to him were the new envoys of the Izumo Kingdom and the Chen State Envoys. The three of them were brothers and sisters.
At this time, Gu Zicheng's calm smile had returned to his face, and he nodded slightly towards the two of them as a greeting.
The positions of the three of them are not too bad, one side is the seats of the officials of the ancient clan, and the other side is the head that can't be seen at a glance.
And in front of it is a huge open field, surrounded by straw ropes.
The site is four hundred feet long and seventy feet wide. In the middle is a huge wooden shelf, twenty feet wide and eight feet high. It is divided into seven floors. .
This entire shelf is called the lampstand.
And on that floor is a square platform with a red lamp on it, as long as you get this lamp within the specified time, you will be the winner.
Only one team will be the winner, and the others will be losers. There will be no second and third.
On the edge of the field on both sides of the lampstand are twenty-six teams, each side has thirteen teams, and the distance from both sides to the lampstand is the same, about two hundred feet.
Among them, eighteen teams are composed of descendants of officials, and the other eight are composed of civilians.
In the 70 years since the founding of Dayao, there were only ten times when ordinary people took the lamps, and two or three times among them, the descendants of those officials suffered both losses.
The remaining few times are the dark horses.
The most recent time was six years ago, when one of the dark horses in that team, Ren Baqian, still knew him—that simple-minded Xiong Wei, and almost all the others were taken into the army.
The most eye-catching thing about every lantern festival is the appearance of a dark horse, and people will talk about it for a long time every time.
Many people want to see if there is any dark horse this year.
Even if you don't get the lantern in the end, if you perform well, you will be respected by others, not to mention the empress and all the adults in the court will watch on the spot.
For all these reasons, this Lantern Festival is the biggest stage for the young people of the ancient tribe. Not only the common people, but also the children of officials, showing themselves, making the elders in the family value themselves more, or winning honor for their family.
Most of the contestants' waiting areas are relatively quiet, and even those with high spirits can recharge their batteries there.
After all, even the strength of the well-known Red Line and Xiyueya of this generation is not able to stabilize other people, and there are several opponents with similar strength.
Not to mention the others, most of them are still a little nervous.
However, there are exceptions. For example, a few people who are surrounding the city can still hear the voice of "I jump, I jump, I jump again".
People not far from the lane stretched their heads to see what they were doing.
"Childish!" Tong Lan looked contemptuous. "Playing such a childish game at such an age, useless."
After finishing speaking, he snorted, turned around arrogantly and got out.
Ren Baqian looked at the grids and small wooden blocks on the ground and sighed, the little girl was getting harder and harder to deceive, she didn't play backgammon after losing ten games at noon, and this time she stopped playing checkers after losing nine games.
Next to him was Du Changkong, who was there with a happy face. Anyway, it doesn't matter if you lose, the most important thing is to participate.
Ren Baqian threw the small piece of wood in his hand aside, stood up and looked into the distance, there were dark human heads behind the torches in the distance, and there was a loud noise coming from that side, making one wonder if it was Most of the people in Lancheng came.
There is no partition in the waiting area. In fact, this is a large open space outside the city temporarily surrounded by ropes. If a rope is pulled between the two teams, it will be separated, and people around can see clearly.
For example, in the team next to him, ten people are all women, and the red line is at the beginning. There is also a sneer at him in the team, isn't it the skeptical Liu Ruoyao who was scolded by him back then.
I don't know if it's good to say that Yuanjia Road is narrow, or who deliberately arranged it this way. Isn't this looking for trouble
You can't let yourself hit a woman, can you? Although ancient women are very strong, they are also women.
After Ren Baqian thought about it, he decided not to do anything, because he really couldn't get over the barrier in his heart, at most, he could push them away slightly.
In addition to Hong Xian and Liu Ruoyao, there are eight girls with different appearances. They are generally hot, and they frequently look at Ren Baqian. How dare this person come to participate in the lantern festival. Although his strength is a little bit stronger than the rumors, it can be ignored. I don't know whether to say that he is bold or that he does not know the heights of the sky and the earth.
I am afraid that the kite will have to make him look good in a while.
On the other side, they don't know anyone, but I heard from Du Changkong that the other people in the team are okay, but two of them are only slightly weaker than the red line. One of them is called Qin Haoyong, and the other is called Qin Kun. The former is Qin, Minister of the Ministry of War Chuan's youngest son, who is his grandson.
Ren Baqian took a closer look and couldn't help but sigh that Qin Chuan was also a talent.
But other people didn't think there was anything wrong, after all, the ancients had a relatively long lifespan, especially the strong ones.
It is not uncommon for a family of five or six generations to live under the same roof.
Two people who look about the same age may be two generations apart.
Qin Haoyong seemed to be aware of his gaze, turned his head to look over, and nodded kindly. I was also a little surprised in my heart.
After all, he was the first one with this strength to participate in the Lantern Festival.
Ren Baqian also nodded and then turned to ask Du Changkong, "How long is it?"
"It's less than a stick of incense." Du Changkong looked in another direction and replied.
It took less than a stick of incense, and it took about 20 minutes. Ren Baqian felt that he could prepare for it. After all, putting on that set of armor still required some effort.
Ren Baqian placed the two boxes side by side, and said to the others: "Come and circle around, and help me block it."
He felt that he had been preparing for so long, and it was necessary to surprise others, so it would not be revealed until the last moment.
The others surrounded him with doubts, and the eight big men surrounded him, and they couldn't see anything outside.
Only then did Ren Baqian laugh and take off his robe, revealing the tights inside, and then opened the box under his feet.
Everyone has always been curious about what he contained in this box, and it must be his reliance on Yamen.
But everyone couldn't figure out what could be in it even after thinking about it.
You must know that no matter what kind of weapon is forbidden to use, and apart from weapons, no matter what is inside, I am afraid it will not be of much use.
However, when a group of people saw Ren Baqian take out the things, they gasped and realized that they were really too young.
Everyone was stunned: "Master Ren, can this really work? Is this a foul?"
"It must be possible!" Ren Baqian said firmly, this is armor, right? Since it is armor, there is nothing wrong with it. Anyway, there is nothing that says no to it in the regulations.
As for whether the future regulations allow or not, it is none of his business.
"What? Let me see, let me see!" Not long after Little Luoli ran away in anger, he saw this group of people gathered together mysteriously, and made such a sound again. He couldn't help it immediately. Squeeze over.
"Ugly wood, what is this?" Xiao Luoli exclaimed with widened eyes when he saw what Ren Baqian was putting on.
Tonglan's voice attracted the eyes of the two teams next to them, but a row of big men blocked them and couldn't see anything.
"Hmph, it doesn't matter what tricks they have." Liu Ruoyao sneered.
At the lantern festival, only strength is fundamental, other tricks are just to make people laugh.
Although her parents had already warned her, she still made up her mind to make Ren Baqian look good for a while, at most it would not be so obvious.
Hongxian sat quietly on the side, his eyes swept over her and paused for a while, after thinking about it, he still swallowed what he wanted to say before.
"Hush!" Ren Baqian stretched out his index finger to warn Tonglan, and then continued to put on himself.
Little Luoli looked at Ren Baqian looking like a hedgehog, rolled his eyes several times, and finally bent over, covering his mouth with one hand and snickering.
It was so much fun, the faces of those people must be funny after a while.
As for conforming to the rules, she didn't care, as long as it was fun.
…
On the side of the lampstand in the distance, the empress is sitting on a chair, behind her are Xinzhe, Qingyuan, and Hongluan.
This is the best position, you can see clearly from both sides.
On both sides of her were the ministers of court, Chinese and military, and some family members were sitting behind them.
"Your Majesty, there will be nothing wrong with Renfu Cheng participating in this lantern grab?" Shi Qing asked rather worriedly.
He wasn't afraid of anything else, but he was afraid that if something happened to that person, His Majesty would fight, which is not impossible.
But if His Majesty does that, then the Lantern Festival will be messed up.
"You'll know after a while." The empress said casually, but she became a little uncertain in her heart.
At that time, he just wanted to see Ren Baqian do this for himself, but he didn't think too much about it. But as time drew nearer, she also became a little worried.
Thinking of the confident look of that guy before, the empress let go of her heart slightly, hoping that that guy was really sure.
The empress is in a somewhat conflicted mood at this time. On the one hand, Ren Baqian's strength is really too weak. On the other hand, there are all kinds of things in that world. It seems that everything can be done. She hopes that Ren Baqian can rely on Some things can really shine.
Not far away, Tong Zhenye was more determined. He had already told Tong Lan before that he would protect Ren Baqian no matter what, and nothing else mattered, so he didn't worry at all.
Qin Chuan was also very certain in his heart, anyway, he told those two cubs not to touch that person, so even if something happened, it had nothing to do with him.