Fang Yun made the first move, and then he should have been able to tread lightly, waiting for the opponent to strike back at the critical moment. If he pressed on step by step before engaging in a verbal fight, it would have been impolite and given people an excuse to criticize him, but Li Wenying did not have this concern.
"Wen Ying, I haven't seen you for many days, but your temper is still so hot. We are scholars, not barbarians. Before the literary duel, why don't we make friends through literature and have a drink and chat together?" Shengzhou Mu said with a smile.
"We Jing people are very busy. There are barbarians in the north, sea tribes in the east, Jiaolong Palace in the south and Huangyao Mountain in the west. We are not as leisurely as you Qing people. This literary duel is scheduled for tonight. If we don't have it tonight, we will return to Jing country immediately and declare that our country's literary talent has defeated Xizhou. There is not a single good man in the great Xizhou!" Li Wenying's words were like thunder, and everyone in the city could hear them clearly.
The entire Changning Prefecture was in an uproar, and countless people flocked to the State Academy of Literature at an even faster speed.
People on both sides of the roadblock shouted, and some even called for a fight.
The governor of Shengzhou still had a smile on his face and said, "Mr. Jianmei is wrong. Fang Yun came prepared, so he can fight immediately, but Xizhou is a thousand miles away, and it will take a long time for the candidates from other towns to get here. Since we want to fight a whole state, we have to wait for the candidates from all over the place to come. Otherwise, even if Fang Yun wins, it will only be a fight in one prefecture."
Li Wenying looked at Fang Yun.
Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, "Lord Sheng, do you mean that the candidates who will compete with me in writing are from all over Xizhou? If the candidates who will compete with me in writing are all in Changning Prefecture, can I suspect that you people from Qing are cheating in the writing competition?"
"After the candidates from all over the country arrive in Xizhou, they will have to go through a screening process. As for who will be able to participate in the literary competition in the end, no one can predict it." said Shengzhou Mu.
"As Lord Jianmei said, the people of Jing are very busy! After midnight, we will set off to return to Jing immediately. I am here to fight with you, not to talk nonsense with you! I will go back to the boat and wait!"
After Fang Yun finished speaking, he turned around and got on the boat, leaving the Qing country literati in a daze.
Li Fanming followed behind and laughed softly, "You really didn't fall into their trap. They were obviously playing a delaying tactic, slowly dragging you down until you were confused. Then they could act decisively. Now that you are so decisive, they are thrown into disarray. They must find someone to fight you with words before midnight."
Fang Yun did not answer and continued to board the boat.
Sheng Zhou Mu shouted, "Fang Yun, what are you doing? Are you scared? We will send someone to fight you with words now, come back."
Fang Yun, however, seemed to have heard nothing and kept walking forward. Many people were surprised and followed him.
Shengzhou Mu winked at a young scholar beside him. The young scholar immediately shouted, "Fang Yun, I want to fight you with an essay, why don't you dare to come back! If you are afraid, the essay fight can end now!"
Fang Yun immediately turned around and said, "Okay, let's start the literary duel right away. If this scholar doesn't challenge me within a hundred breaths, I'll count it as my victory. From now on, if no one comes after a hundred breaths, it will count as my victory!"
Shengzhou Mu's face darkened and he said, "What do you think of literary competition? This is related to..."
Fang Yun interrupted unceremoniously, "I just want to ask whether we should compete now or not?"
"Please let me finish my words! Wendou is..."
Fang Yun said nothing, turned around and left again, and never looked back no matter what Shengzhou Mu said.
After they boarded the boat and separated themselves from the outside world, Shi Tang asked, "Are you sure they will delay?"
Fang Yun walked and said, "If I turn back now, the governor of Shengzhou will certainly continue to delay, and the young scholar will even give up the literary duel. When we first met, I guessed their intention, to exhaust my energy and disturb my mind. Even if they sent people to fight at midnight, they would continue to delay. But I went back to the boat to sleep and recuperate. No matter what they said, I would not get off the boat, which completely ruined their delaying strategy. When the Kongxinglou ship appeared, the literary duel had already begun!"
"That makes sense. When you were in Kongcheng, the people of Qing might have already prepared how to deal with you. You must have been busy on the ship."
"But if they follow your example and Midnight doesn't show up, it will be hard to convince them that you are better than them."
"They must show up, because if they don't, they will lose the opportunity to wash away the shame of being humiliated by the Wen Dou State. As I said just now, the Wen Dou has already begun."
Everyone agreed deeply. The Kong family's gift of the Kongxing Tower ship was clearly a sign that Fang Yun's trip was "orthodox". If the people of Qing and the Xun family did not engage in a literary fight, it would still be equivalent to Fang Yun's victory. Therefore, the Xun family could only avoid damaging their reputation by defeating Fang Yun in a literary fight.
"Just sleep well, we'll call you at midnight," said Li Wenying.
"Thank you for all the trouble." Fang Yun said as he entered the cabin and immediately went to bed to sleep without any burden.
Outside the Kongxinglou ship, the literati of Xizhou finally stopped smiling like they did at the beginning, and instead started to sneer and mock at each other, but they all made sure not to insult each other. Unfortunately, Fang Yun couldn't hear them at all.
After a while, the people of Qing realized that their delaying tactic had failed and had to discuss other countermeasures.
No matter what the people of Qing said, Fang Yun refused to get off the boat. It was not until midnight that Fang Yun woke up, stretched his body, and walked out of the cabin.
Everyone was already waiting on the deck, so without further ado, they followed Fang down the ship again.
This time, what awaited Fang Yun were no longer smiling faces, but faces filled with contempt, ridicule, or anger.
Fang Yun remained unmoved, because the smile before and the contempt now were all tactics of the Qing people to confuse him. Fang Yun saw it very clearly. If the Qing people really liked to be upright, the situation of suppressing Jing country for decades would not have happened.
Fang Yun glanced at the sky, then looked around and found that the number of people nearby not only did not decrease, but increased instead.
There is a square in front of the State Academy of Arts, with Academy Street on both sides of the square, and the back walls of the houses in front of the square. However, there are many people standing on the roofs of those houses, and the people behind the roadblocks are so crowded that the roadblocks can no longer stop them. Hundreds of police officers are there to maintain order.
As soon as Fang Yun appeared, the people of Qing started to curse one after another, and there were often uniform curses, which was obviously manipulated by someone. Fang Yun couldn't help but think of the audience at sports events, who suppressed the opponent contestants by cheering or shouting to help their own team, which had a significant impact on the contestants' psychology.
Wendou is too important. The people of Qing must use all means to ensure success.
Fang Yun knew everything, and not only did he not care, he even pulled the big rabbit's ear to tease it. This made the big rabbit very unhappy, and took the opportunity to pretend to be wronged and asked Li Fanming for a big carrot to eat.
When the older people of Qing Kingdom saw Fang Yun's actions, they couldn't help but sigh softly.
"It's better not to use those little tricks. This boy's knowledge and determination are far beyond that of ordinary candidates. Such tricks will not work on him. Instead, it will make people look down on the people of Qing."
"He seemed to be playing with the rabbit, but in fact he was using the rabbit to play with us."
"The arrow is on the string and has to be shot. Those methods must continue. I don't believe that he is a stone man and will not be moved at all!"
Governor Sheng no longer had the smile on his face. He said in a cold voice, "Fang Zhenguo has such a bad temper. He made all the people of Xizhou wait for you alone!"
"Ah? Who just said that there is not enough time. We need to choose a concubine... no, elect people. I am giving you time, from shortly after nightfall to midnight, almost three hours. I have done my best." Fang Yun smiled kindly.
The people behind Fang Yun laughed. Fang Yun said "selecting concubines" to imply that the candidates of Qing Kingdom were not like men. Although the people of Qing Kingdom did not like it, they were not easily provoked. They pretended not to hear it.
Shengzhou Mu snorted coldly and said, "Stop talking nonsense! Let's start the literary duel! Since you are the one who started it. According to the rules, we choose the literary duel and can choose whether to 'propose a ban'. Xun Xu, you will fight Fang Yun in a literary duel."
Then a young scholar in his twenties walked up to Fang Yun. He had a big nose and looked at Fang Yun with a very gentle look. He bowed and smiled, "I have known Fang Zhenguo for a long time, but I have never had the chance to meet him. I am very lucky to meet him today. I don't want to fight with you, but I have to obey the order of my elders. I hope Fang Zhenguo will show mercy and don't kill me."
Fang Yun was too lazy to pretend anymore and said, "I believe you, let's get started."
Xun Xu's face froze, but he quickly recovered and smiled, "Okay, then I'll start right away. For this first literary duel, I won't choose "a battle of literary courage" or "a battle of talent", but a battle of war poems, but you are not allowed to include your own war poems! I will ban 'literary heart'!"
Fang Yun's eyes turned slightly cold. Sealing Wenxin meant that neither party could use Wenxin, which meant that the fact that he possessed a top-grade Wenxin had been leaked. At least the Xun family already knew about it. As to whether it was leaked intentionally or accidentally, it was impossible to verify now.
The literary fighting method in which one cannot write one's own war poems is even more vicious.
Fang Yun had been a scholar for less than half a year, and he became a juren in Shengxu. He had no way of going to Shengmiao to learn juren's war poems. If he agreed to Shengzhou Mu's proposal, the only offensive poem Fang Yun could write was "Yishui Song", and he could not use the best writing brush, so he would surely die.
But the opponent is different. Xun Xu has been a juren for many years and must have learned many poems for juren in the holy temple. The outcome of the juren poetry battle against the scholar poetry battle is decided without a comparison.
Fang Yun said: "Banneding the literary intention is a common method in literary duels, but your 'not writing your own war poems' is obviously a proposal within the proposal to ban. Both parties can only choose once in a proposal to ban. You proposed and banned it, which violated the rules of the Saint Academy's literary duels."
"Oh, then the proposal of 'not writing your own war poems' is abolished, and the ban is changed to 'not writing your own war poems with a literary mind'." Xun Xu said.
Fang Yun snorted coldly. This was obviously Qing Kingdom’s backup plan, and it was equally insidious.
Mo Shan said unhappily, "The people of Qing are very smart. After this proposal is banned, there are only two ways for Fang Yun to write war poems. The first is to use Wenxin to write "Yishui Song" quickly. As you know, no one in the world can match him in writing, but "Yishui Song" is mediocre and may be avoided by the opponent. Then the opponent will recite a powerful Juren war poem to attack Fang Yun. The second way is that Fang Yun writes his own war poems, but he cannot use Wenxin. At this time, others can use Wenxin to write Shengmiao war poems faster than Fang Yun, and Fang Yun will definitely lose."
"That is to say, Fang Yun can only write "Yishui Song" in the literary competition?"
"Yes. Fortunately, Fang Yun can also propose to block it, but I can't deny the other party. I don't know how he will choose." (To be continued...)