gas
Fang Yun nodded and said, "I know a little about this man's talent. When he was a scholar, he passed the second hill. After passing the imperial examination, he not only passed the third hill and won the Wenxin, but also passed the fourth hill and stopped before the fifth hill. I'm afraid he won the middle-grade Wenxin."
Zhao Zhuzhen said worriedly, "If he only has one literary heart, I'm not too worried. I suspect that his semi-saint master took him to other holy places after traveling around the world to get a second literary heart. If that's the case, he will be too difficult to deal with."
"A scholar has two literary minds?" Fang Yun was very surprised.
"Others can't do it, but the Four Great Talents can definitely do it, and some geniuses from semi-saint families can also do it. But don't worry too much, after you become a juren, you will definitely be able to pick up a literary heart when you enter the Book Mountain for the second time."
Fang Yun nodded but said nothing. He had no idea how the mountain of books tested people and felt uneasy.
After discussing with the others, Mr. Qian came over and said, "Fang Shuangjia, we have already agreed that you will be the last one to come. Now we have to set off to the island in the middle of the river to prepare for the dragon boat race."
"Okay, let's go together."
Zhao Zhuzhen said: "Then let's go to the pleasure boat below, where we can see more clearly."
Fang Yun took Yang Yuhuan's hand and went downstairs, left Yuhe Tower, and walked towards the boat docked on the river bank.
The road was filled with the sounds of hawking, and it was extremely noisy. Seeing that Yang Yuhuan had nothing, Zhao Zhuzhen bought her some colorful threads to wrap around her wrist, and also bought some cheap trinkets. Yang Yuhuan thanked her one by one.
There were many young ladies and wives who usually stayed at home, and the air was filled with fragrance. Everyone squeezed to the shore, and Yang Yuhuan and Zhao Zhuzhen had beads of sweat on their foreheads, so they took out their handkerchiefs and wiped them gently.
Pushing aside the drooping willow branches, everyone came to the pier on the shore. Fang Yun and the others took a small boat to the sandbar in the river, while Zhao Zhuzhen, Yang Yuhuan and Nunu boarded the pleasure boat and stood on the side of the boat watching Fang Yun and others' boat sail towards the sandbar.
"Oh oh!" Nunu cried loudly in Yang Yuhuan's arms and waved his little paws towards Fang Yun.
Fang Yun heard the voice and turned around, and waved to Nunu. As a result, Nunu suddenly jumped out of Yang Yuhuan's arms, jumped into the river, and swam towards Fang Yun's boat at an extremely fast speed.
Fang Yun didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He waited for Nunu to come closer before he fished it out.
Nunu immediately shook his body violently, splashing water everywhere, causing the people on the boat to laugh and dodge.
"Why are you here?" Fang Yun asked.
Nunu looked at Fang Yun in confusion, pointing at Fang Yun's hand, as if to say, wasn't it you who waved to let me come
"You! Forget it, just stay here." Fang Yun said.
The boat stopped on the sandbar, and many people were already standing on it. Those who knew each other greeted each other hurriedly and then went about their own business.
Fang Yun glanced at the crowd and finally found one person who was extremely strange.
The man was only about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a loose white robe, with black jade-like hair draped behind him. He did not look like a well-mannered scholar, but rather a prodigal. His eyes were extremely empty, so empty that the world was reflected in his eyes, but there was no shadow of a person.
It seemed as if no one in this world was worth his attention.
The man suddenly blinked, slowly turned his head to look at Fang Yun, looked at Fang Yun seriously, then slowly turned his head and continued to look up at the sky.
Fang Yun felt that this man was really strange. He was clearly looking at him, but his gaze was extremely empty, as if he was looking through him to a very distant place.
Fang Yun ignored the man and looked around. There were five dragon boats in total. The outside of each dragon boat was painted in the shape of a yellow dragon. The boats were narrow, about two meters long, and could seat more than a dozen people.
There is a raised dragon head on the front of each dragon boat, with a number on the neck of the dragon head.
Mr. Qian brought Fang Yun and others to the side of dragon boat No. 2.
There was a big drum behind the dragon head of the dragon boat with a flag on it. Mr. Qian said, "We don't need to beat the drum. We will invite a young man to beat the drum to enhance our reputation. This is also a custom passed down from the previous dragon boat races. We only need to sit in the boat and write poems. The more talent we can mobilize, the faster the boat will go. Look at that tall black-tiled building. The prefect and the court master are both there."
Fang Yun looked over there and saw many officials standing on the upper floor looking over here. Fang Yun only recognized Feng Zimo, the president of the Fuwen Academy, General Dinghai who escorted him, and his uncle Fang Shouye. He did not recognize anyone else. Li Wenying was not there.
Fang Shouye was not fussy about details and waved to Fang Yun, who bowed in return.
The strong man in charge of beating the drum walked to the bow holding a red flag. After tying the red flag, he stood with the drumsticks in each hand. The other four dragon boats did the same.
However, Qian Juren and others did not get on the boat, but walked towards the direction of Dragon Boat No. 1. People near other dragon boats also went there, stood behind Qian Juren and others, and looked at the people near Dragon Boat No. 1.
All those sitting next to Dragon Boat No. 1 are from Qing country.
Mr. Qian said, "My fellow writers, there are still 25 minutes before the competition starts. We will still follow the old rules. Does anyone object?"
A Qingguo scholar with a confident smile said, "Of course we will follow the old rules. The Dragon Boat Festival will be about writing poems related to the Dragon Boat Festival. Let's stop talking nonsense and decide on the poems first. On behalf of Qingguo, I will decide that the words "weapons" and "boats" are not allowed to appear in the Dragon Boat Festival poems this time."
A scholar behind Fang Yun cursed in a low voice: "You're using the same trick again, you wimp!"
Fang Yun also knew that the so-called setting of poems and texts meant selecting content that should not appear in poems and texts. Jing State was surrounded by monsters and barbarians, and was far more warlike than Qing State. Once the battle scenes were combined with Dragon Boat Festival poems and texts, it was very likely that Qing State's dragon boats would be defeated. Therefore, every time Qing State set poems and texts, this aspect was restricted.
Mr. Qian said, "Then we will decide later that no poems or essays about ancient people should appear in this poem or essay."
This made several people from Qing State look unhappy. Qing State's fighting style of killing monsters and barbarians was not as good as Jing State's, but its literary style was much better than Jing State. If poems expressing emotions and remembering the ancients were not allowed to be written, most of the people of Qing State would be useless.
The Qing country scholar said with a smile: "Since those poems cannot be written, then we can only write about the beauty of the world, flowers, snow and moon, and beautiful scenery. Well, today is a festival, so writing these is also appropriate. However, don't worry too much, because no matter how hard you try, you will lose to our Qing country just like the past 17 years!"
"You people of Qing should not be so arrogant!" one person couldn't help but shout.
Mr. Qian stopped the man and said, "Shi Dehong, as a disciple of Shi Jun, you haven't learned much of your master's talent, but you have learned a lot of your master's arrogance!"
"Hahaha, I am satisfied to learn the arrogance of my mentor. Thank you for the praise, Brother Qian." Shi Dehong's expression suddenly changed, and he laughed contemptuously, "Although I am arrogant, I am only arrogant to the scholars and candidates from your enemy country. When I meet the Jinshi from your country, I still treat them with courtesy. It's your country's people who are so arrogant that they can't see the saints. However, a young man who barely makes it to the table dares to be compared with my mentor. There are even people who clamor to squeeze my mentor out of the position of the four great talents. My mentor is already dissatisfied, how can I be polite to you! See you at the dragon boat race!"
Except for the man with his hair scattered behind him who remained calm, the other five people from Qing country walked towards the dragon boat with anger on their faces.
Fang Yun was stunned and thought, is this person talking about me
The others also returned to their respective dragon boats.
When they reached the edge of Dragon Boat No. 2, Fang Yun couldn't help but ask, "Brother Qian, fellow writers, I didn't say I was on par with Shi Jun, did I? I also didn't say he was pushed off the position of the Four Great Talents. How did it get spread like this?"
Mr. Qian smiled nonchalantly and said, "Don't worry. It's just that someone said something nonsense and the people of Qing heard it, so they took it seriously. Besides, Shijun has only written one poem to protect the country. He has more poems than you in Dafu and Mingzhou, and he became a university scholar in his twenties, so he is not much better than you. Why can't we be compared?"
Another scholar said, "You are right. The people of Qing are really narrow-minded. They take after-dinner jokes as the truth and cannot even take a joke. Fortunately, the poet is only a poet. If he became the first poet saint in history, wouldn't he kill all his clans if we said anything about him?"
"well said… "
Everyone spoke up to defend Fang Yun, and Fang Yun didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It seemed that these people were oppressed too badly by the Qing Kingdom. Now that a Jing Kingdom person had finally become famous, they couldn't help but compare him with Shi Jun.
Fang Yun didn't blame them. People who protect their own people are better than those like Tong Li who harm their own people.
There are pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the boat, so there is no need to prepare anything.
After Mr. Qian finished speaking, he said to Fang Yun, "The rules of the competition are very simple. After the start of the competition, there is half an hour in which each person can write a poem. When half a quarter of an hour is up, the talent of each dragon boat will be revealed. The more talented the dragon boat is, the faster it will travel. After the boat starts moving, everyone can write another poem. This second poem tests talent and artistic conception, because the artistic conception of poetry and prose is also important in 'Xuehai'. The people of Qing are too cunning to write about boats and weapons, so we can't write about artistic conception such as fighting for the crossing, but they are also uncomfortable. Without the poems and ancient people, they can't write good artistic conception either."
Fang Yun nodded, basically understanding the purpose of both parties, and said: "I understand, but this is my first time participating in this kind of dragon boat race. Can you tell me what kind of poem I would like to write?"
Qian Juren said: "You can write about the scenery of the Dragon Boat Festival or the atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival. This way, there will be basically no mistakes."
"Okay, let me think about it." Fang Yun lowered his head in thought, occasionally looking up at the surrounding scenery or the crowd in thought.
Seeing that Fang Yun ignored her, Nunu felt bored, so she whimpered twice and jumped into the water, paddling happily towards the pleasure boat where Yang Yuhuan was.
Fang Yun looked towards the pleasure boat with a smile and nodded slightly to Yang Yuhuan and Zhao Zhuzhen there.
At ten o'clock, Fang Yun immediately felt that the vitality between heaven and earth had changed, so he looked towards where the officials were, and saw Feng Zimo, the president of the State Academy of Literature, and another person each holding an official seal. The talent of the official seals surged, forming a strange force that enveloped the river section from Shazhou to Longtou Bridge.
The crowds on both sides of the strait burst into earth-shaking shouts.
"God bless Jingguo!"
"Jingguo will win!"