People kept climbing up to the top of Yushan Mountain.
A runner holding a tray was walking towards here. On the tray were some small sachets with dogwood sticking in them.
On the Double Ninth Festival, everyone wears a bag of dogwood to ward off evil.
The officer walked up to Fang Yun and stood beside him, not daring to disturb him.
The aroma of dogwood and chrysanthemum spread on the top of Yushan Mountain, but no one cared about the festive smell. They only paid attention to the little prince who was speaking with eloquence.
Fang Yun looked at the young duke, but the young duke smiled in response, as if he was just talking about something insignificant.
Fang Yun had long known that the arrival of the great scholar Nangong was just the beginning, but he did not expect that a small country association would decide the champion in such a literary gathering.
All literary gatherings must have prizes, which are usually announced before the gathering. In the end, the winner of the gathering will receive the best reward, and the rest of the people will receive the subsequent rewards in turn.
If you want to decide on a champion, you can select who you think is the champion before the literary competition begins, offer more prizes, and in the end the champion gets everything.
Unlike ordinary prizes, once the race to determine the winner begins, the prize must be a cultural treasure, and if one party takes out a cultural treasure, the other party must take out a similar cultural treasure.
Generally speaking, the winner will return the prize to his own team, while the other team's prize can be pocketed.
Most importantly, one party must publicly admit that he or she is inferior.
Fang Yun understood that the other party was not stupid enough to think that a literary meeting could defeat him, but was slowly creating one failure after another for himself. When multiple failures were linked together, it would be like a collapsed dam, and would be instantly washed away by a flood.
Whether it is Nangong Daru or the leader this time, it is just the beginning, but once the door is opened, the consequences will be disastrous.
Fang Yun looked at the young duke quietly, his breathing still steady, but he felt the fragrance of dogwood was more pungent.
The sun rose higher in the early morning, but Yushan became colder.
Some scholars looked at the young Duke angrily. The name of Nangong Daru was known to everyone. If Fang Yun competed with Nangong Daru for the title of the best writer, Fang Yun would definitely lose.
He is not an ordinary scholar, but a great scholar who comes well prepared!
Fang Yun wanted to speak, but suddenly thought of something and didn't say anything.
"What? Is Marquis Fang Wen scared?" The young duke said with a smile.
Minister Sai said: "The young Duke is also from Jing Country, why would he want to harm Fang Yun? If the news spreads throughout Jing Country, the reputation of Prince Kang's Mansion will be ruined!"
The young Duke suddenly said seriously, "Uncle Sai misunderstood me. I want to give the prize to Fang Yun, not to Nangong Daru! The reason why I want to choose the champion is because Wu State is bullying too much! Others say that Nangong Daru will definitely beat Fang Yun, and that he will humiliate the people of Jing State at the Chongyang Literary Conference, help Qing State to avenge, and help those Wu State people whose literary courage was broken by the recitation of the will of heaven. But, I don't believe it! In the world today, Fang Yun must be the number one poet. Even if Nangong Daru is an old poet, he can't beat Fang Yun! Jing State will win!"
The originally angry scholars gradually calmed down. Their eyes turned extremely cold towards the young Duke. They had never expected that the young Duke would be so despicable.
"Young Duke, are you serious?" a hoarse voice sounded.
This person was wearing a blue robe with embroidered clouds on it, sitting at the first table on the right side. Others had wine glasses in front of them, but he had a large bowl in front of him.
Fang Yun looked at the university scholar from the side. His tall hooked nose was very eye-catching.
Fang Yun didn't know this person, but he guessed it immediately when he saw the hooked nose. This person was Zhou Junhu, the general of Jing State. His position in the army was second only to the Grand Marshal, and he was stationed in the capital. He controlled the most powerful imperial army of Jing State and the military power of all the fortresses, checkpoints and fortresses in the capital.
This man was a madman before he was twenty years old, a bloodthirsty savage before he was forty, and after he was forty he cultivated his character and rarely spoke, but every time he spoke, it would make people tremble with fear.
The last time he spoke formally in public was on a snowy day last year after the defeat of Jing State, when he spoke to the Left Prime Minister in front of all the civil and military officials in the court.
"When we meet in a place where there is no one around, I will kill you with my pen."
As soon as these words were spoken, snow turned into ice within a hundred miles of the capital, and all animals became extinct.
It is said that even the usually calm left prime minister was horrified, and on that day the censors of the Supervisory Council wrote letters to impeach Zhou Junhu, but until now he still sits firmly on the position of general.
Someone once said that Li Wenying and Zhou Junhu must not be allowed to be together, otherwise once they become angry, they would both dare to attack the Dragon Palace.
The young Duke trembled violently, took one last look at the people around him, and said loudly, "Of course I take it seriously."
"You, don't leave the capital."
All the potted plants at the venue of the literary gathering exploded, and chrysanthemum petals of varying shades flew into the sky and scattered everywhere.
A gust of wind blew, and the young duke's black robe was torn into pieces, flying in the sky along with the chrysanthemum petals.
The young Duke's face was pale, but he still stood, but his chin was half an inch lower than before.
"Okay!" Some people couldn't help but whisper.
Assistant Prime Minister Si Yueqing slammed the table and said in a deep voice: "Zhou Junhu, as a general of Jing State and a great scholar, you actually want to kill a duke and a relative of the royal family. What crime should you be punished for?"
Zhou Junhu raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh, you dare to catch me?"
"You..." Si Yueqing was so angry that he couldn't speak.
Zhou Junhu glanced at Si Yueqing coldly, poured himself a bowl of wine and drank it all in one gulp.
"The Grand Secretary of Jingguo may not be good at anything else, but he is very good at bullying children!" A scholar in a white robe sneered.
“Uncle…” The young Duke looked at the people around him with gratitude.
Zhou Junhu glanced at the man and continued drinking.
"It seems that you also know that you are in the wrong." said the man.
Zhou Junhu seemed not to hear it.
A Hanlin general at the fourth table on the right laughed and said, "You, Jian Ming, are worthy of General Zhou speaking? Idiot! General Zhou didn't say anything because you were born in a semi-saint family, and everything about you is far superior to ours. You are so old and still only a Jinshi. You are simply a good-for-nothing!"
"You guys..." Jian Ming gritted his teeth and suddenly looked at Fang Yun and said, "Fang Zhenguo, do you dare to decide the leader!"
Many people of Jing country sighed helplessly. There was no doubt that the great scholar Nangong would win, but Fang Yun could not decide that the great scholar Nangong would be the champion. If he dared to decide that he would be the champion, he would lose a cultural treasure. If he did not dare to decide, he would lose his courage.
Fang Yun slowly took out the Wenbao Zhendan Qin and said, "My sister Yuhuan chose me as the first prize and gave me this Qin as a prize. If you can take out the Hanlin Wenbao, you can compete with me for the first prize. Otherwise, don't embarrass the Jian family here!"
Jian Ming laughed and said, "You are just a juren, so you can only use the jinshi wenbaoqin. This qin is not worthy of the hanlin wenbao."
"Oh, that's because you don't know that there is thunder stone lacquer on this piano." Fang Yun said.
Jian Ming was stunned. If the Jinshi Wen Baoqin had the Minglei Stone Lacquer, its value would be much higher than the Hanlin Wenbao, almost equivalent to half of the Grand Secretary Wenbao.
The literary treasures of the Juren scholars in the Semi-Saint families are readily available, and each Jinshi scholar has several literary treasures, but there are fewer literary treasures of the Hanlin Academy. Jian Ming, as a member of the Jiansheng family who is permanently stationed in Jingguo, has only two literary treasures of the Hanlin Academy, and one of them does not belong to him. Once his mission in Jingguo is over, he must hand over one of the literary treasures of the Hanlin Academy.
"Nothing more than that." Fang Yun was about to put away the Zhendanqin.
Jian Ming stood up suddenly and said, "What's wrong with deciding the champion with you? I will decide the great scholar Nangong Leng from my Wu country as the champion!" (To be continued...)