On the tenth day of the first lunar month, the Shengxingwenhui officially begins.
Starting from early morning, a steady stream of readers arrived from all directions outside the Xiangzhou Academy of Literature, passed through the gate formed by the heaven and earth shells, and entered the venue inside one after another.
Tiandibei completely replicates the scene of Wenyuan, but the area is expanded dozens of times.
In the middle of the Wenyuan Square, there is a square apricot forest. In the center of the apricot forest, white mist is everywhere.
Everyone knows that within the white mist is the legendary Small Apricot Altar, which is home to two sacred apricot trees formed during Fang Yun’s lectures.
To the north of Xinglin is a solemn holy temple, and there are no seats in the open space between the two.
To the south of Xinglin is the main entrance of the Academy of Literature, and the square between the two is filled with seats.
The seats closest to Xinglin are all neatly arranged round tables, surrounded by well-made mahogany armchairs. These are the seats for monarchs, great scholars and university scholars from various countries.
After that, there were no round tables, but many ordinary chairs, which were the seats for Hanlin scholars and Jinshi scholars from various countries.
Further back, there are brand new long wooden benches, which were manufactured in large quantities on a temporary basis by the Grand Secretary of Engineering. All scholars can sit here.
Only scholars are allowed to enter the Shengxing Literary Society, which is more stringent than the previous Mid-Autumn Literary Society.
Those great scholars and university secretaries did not come, but many scholars, from students to Hanlin, were already seated in other places.
Readers from all over the country came together, sat next to each other, put out food and drinks, talked about books and papers, and chatted about everything under the sun. It seemed like a small literary gathering was about to begin before the Shengxing Literary Meeting.
By the afternoon, the whole Yueyang city seemed empty.
Those non-scholars in Yueyang City looked at the Academy of Literature with contradictions. They envied those scholars who could participate in the Shengxing Literary Society, but were also glad that these people were leaving soon. For the local residents of Yueyang City, foreign scholars were business opportunities, but too many of them became a burden.
In the evening, university scholars, great scholars and monarchs came to their seats one after another, and the originally noisy literary gathering gradually calmed down.
Just the natural aura emitted by each great scholar is enough to make all scholars afraid to make a noise.
Soon, a middle-aged man in a purple robe walked to the seat of the great scholar and under the apricot forest.
The middle-aged man had white hair on his temples, eyebrows like two swords, and eyes as bright as stars in the sky.
He just glanced casually, and everyone below the great scholar instinctively lowered their heads slightly, not daring to meet his gaze.
Everyone saw the sharp sword in his eyes.
Li Wenying's gaze seemed to linger on Qingguo's seat for a moment longer.
Many people, especially the scholars of Qing State, looked at the famous Sword-Eyebrowed Man Li Wenying with complicated expressions. Back then, this man suppressed many of his peers in Qing State and made them unable to raise their heads. If it weren't for the fact that Li Wenying was unparalleled in literary battles but slightly inferior in poetry, those years for the scholars of Qing State would have been like a nightmare.
However, in an area where great scholars and university officials of Qing State gathered, all the people of Qing State there were smiling, and they did not hide their confidence in their smiles.
Because, among them sat a great scholar who had defeated Li Wenying in literary competitions many times.
There are three top scholars in one family, four scholars in father and son, Ji Anchang of the Ji family.
Although not as good as him in literary battles, Ji Anchang was better than Li Wenying in terms of the elegance of poetry.
Although Ji Anchang is a great scholar, he has been acting in secret these days. He has not even gone to the Holy Academy to accept his new literary title. Even the clothes he wears are the old blue robes of a university scholar, not the purple robes of a great scholar.
Those who sat at the same table with him were all university scholars.
Zong Xueyan, who was beside Ji Anchang, secretly transmitted the message: "Brother Anchang, although you have been keeping a low profile these days, all countries have long known about it, which will make it difficult for you to make a splash. However, it doesn't matter, those ordinary scholars don't know about it. As long as the literary gathering is over and we make some arrangements, we will definitely make you the only winner of this literary gathering. It's just... are you really confident that you can defeat everyone including Li Wenying?"
Ji Anchang smiled and transmitted his voice: "Ji has been practicing hard for many years, just to suppress Li Wenying again! Unfortunately, Li Wenying is the host of this literary gathering and has the upper hand. I still don't know whether he will compose the poem first or participate last, or even not participate in composing the poem. If he composes the poem first, I will take action immediately. If he composes the poem last, then I will take two steps. First, I will compose a poem to test him, and finally, I will wait for him to finish the poem, and then force him to stand up and recite the poem to suppress him. Of course, if he doesn't compose the poem, I have no way to deal with it."
Zong Xueyan smiled and said, "Don't worry about this. Li Wenying and Fang Yun are close friends. Since the purpose of this literary gathering is to compose poems about Fang Yun, there is no reason for him not to participate. Moreover, we have made preparations. If Li Wenying does not compose a poem at the end, we will use provocation to force him. If he does not compose a poem, his literary reputation will be damaged and it will alienate him from Fang Yun. Therefore, at that time, he can only bite the bullet and compose a poem."
"Okay, as long as Li Wenying can write poetry, I'm sure I can beat him." Ji Anchang showed pride on his face. Although he had never won a literary battle with Li Wenying, he was better than him seven or eight times out of ten in terms of poetry.
Zong Xueyan said, "That's good. However... in order to stimulate Li Wenying and the scholars of Jingguo, I would like to reveal the news in advance and say that you want to overpower Li Wenying. Do you agree?"
"As long as we can force Li Wenying to write a poem, everything is possible!" Ji Anchang said.
Zong Xueyan nodded gently, but he sighed in his heart. The psychological trauma left by Li Wenying on Ji Anchang was too serious. Although Ji Anchang was promoted to a great scholar by virtue of his talent and hard work, if he did not completely defeat Li Wenying to wash away the shame, reaching the second level of family governance was already the limit, and he would never be able to reach the level of governing a country. After all, being scared away by Li Wenying before the literary battle was a huge stain.
Ji Anchang's return this time was not so much a glorious return to his hometown as it was a forced one to do so in order to reach a higher level.
While the two were chatting, Li Wenying had already finished his opening speech. He turned sideways and saw the apricot trees neatly arranged like a wall slowly moving to both sides, finally revealing a complete small apricot altar in the apricot forest.
The small apricot altar was where Fang Yun gave lectures to the officials of Xiangzhou. Various cushions from that time are still left on the ground. In addition, there are two exceptionally tall apricot trees.
A sixteen-meter-tall apricot tree.
Every apricot tree is hung with golden holy apricots.
The moment the altar was opened, the rich fragrance of holy apricots spread throughout the venue.
Many scholars breathed in desperately, hoping to get more of the fragrance of the holy apricot.
Even though this fragrance is far inferior to that of the holy apricot itself, if an ordinary person absorbs it, his chances of being promoted to a student will be greatly increased.
Some of the scholars or officials of Jing State present at the scene tried their best to absorb the holy apricot, but there was no joy on their faces.
At that time, Fang Yun was giving lectures at the Academy of Literature. These people made it clear that they would not follow Fang Yun, but then the Xiaoxingtan was formed. Those officials who stood on Fang Yun's side directly absorbed a large amount of apricot pollen, and their strength was improved. Their future prospects were also limitless. Those who did not participate in the lectures lost the easiest opportunity to be promoted to a literary position in their lifetime.
Since the formation of Xiaoxingtan, Xiangzhou has been the iron sphere of influence of the Fang Party, even more so than Mizhou. The court tried several times to place non-Fang Party officials in important government offices in Xiangzhou, but they were confronted by Xiangzhou officials and other Fang Party officials. The court did not dare to tear its face with Fang Yun, so it could only give up and avoid the intensification of the conflict, so it was unable to place nails in Xiangzhou.