1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2262
Zhang Jinbao is just a businessman rather than a literati, so even if he is very popular in poetry, he still can't hold back decent words for a while, secretly regretting that he should have asked the students to write a few poems last night, and he will write a few poems today. But find a suitable opportunity to show off, maybe you can use it to flatter the big shots present.

But Zhang Jinbao knew that he had limited ink in his stomach, and if he really used this as a means to attract attention, he would reveal his secrets sooner or later, and then he would inevitably bring shame on himself, so he just thought about it.

After climbing over the top of the slope, there are guide signs at intervals beside the road to guide the guests to the competition venue.But just now Zhang Jinbao had seen clearly from the top of the slope that there was a school field with colorful flags waving in the camp, and it was obvious that it was the venue for the martial arts competition.

From time to time, there were Haihan soldiers speeding in groups on the road in the camp area, and Zhang Jinbao would take the initiative to avoid the side of the road and let the opponent go first.

The school field for the competition is not far from the gate of the camp, and it takes a while to arrive. However, there is a second guard post here, and it is still necessary to show the invitation letter to verify the identity before passing through.Zhang Jinbao didn't dare to be negligent, and took out the invitation letter as instructed for the sentinel to check.It's just that he doesn't quite understand that the other party doesn't recognize him, so how can he verify whether he is the person on the invitation letter.

Zhang Jinbao didn't know that the officer who registered at the gate was actually a member of the Military Intelligence Department. He was responsible for identifying the identities of all invited personnel. It seemed that he only made a simple registration, but in fact he had already confirmed everyone who held the invitation. Letter guests will not be others trying to impersonate.If anyone made such an attempt, they would be stopped at the gate.

As for the people that Zhang Jinbao saw entering the gate in a carriage, they were all distinguished guests, who were picked up by the carriages arranged by Haihan officials, and the carriages outside for business could not enter.And even if Zhang Jinbao rented a carriage, he would still be asked to get off at the gate and enter on foot.

And the sentry post outside the school grounds is mainly for the special person to take the guests to the designated viewing area after checking their identities, and let the guests' entourage wait outside this sentry post by the way.However, because Zhang Jinbao came alone, there was one less procedure.

Immediately, a soldier took Zhang Jinbao to the stand on the east side of the school field and took a seat.On the side of the school field, there was an open-air stepped grandstand made of bricks and stones, and some cushions were placed on it, which was a place for the guests to sit.Although the layout was a bit crude, the guests invited had no complaints about it. After all, this place was a military camp, not the magnificent banquet hall of Fort Victory.

There was a name card on each cushion, and the soldiers leading the way took Zhang Jinbao to the designated place, took the name card on the cushion, and asked him to sit here.Later, another soldier brought him a glass bottle containing drinking water to replenish water while watching the contest.

Zhang Jinbao looked at the guests who had already arrived, and he recognized a few of them, but they were sitting far away from him, so it was a bit inconvenient to greet them.He saw that everyone was sitting in their seats obediently, and no one was walking around in the stands at random, so he didn't dare to make a mistake right now, so he could only stay still for now.

There was a platform in the middle of the stands, where a row of tables and chairs had already been set up, Zhang Jinbao stretched his neck and counted, there were only a dozen or so seats, which were obviously prepared for the big names who were about to arrive.However, this difference in treatment is a matter of course in Zhang Jinbao's view. It is impossible for a mere grassroots to sit on an equal footing with the adults of the Executive Committee.

Moreover, Zhang Jinbao saw the little princes and sons of Annan and North Korea at the banquet held by the executive committee the day before yesterday. These foreign dignitaries attended today's event, and they must sit with the big shots of the executive committee to meet diplomatic etiquette .

Zhang Jinbao and the other guests did not wait too long. After a while, these big shots took several carriages to the outside of the school grounds, and then got off the carriages and slowly boarded the stands to take their seats.

After the big shots were seated, the contestants from all sides entered the arena in teams, with one person in front of each team holding a sign with the team name on it.Although Haihan is the host of this event, because all the teams participating in the competition are people who have come to Haihan to study abroad, Haihan did not send his own team to participate, but only served as the organizer and referee. There is no Haihan in this team.

After all the teams stood in front of the stands, Minister of National Defense Yan Chujie got up to speak, but Zhang Jinbao was sitting a bit off, and the voice he heard was intermittent. All the skills learned were put to good use.

Li Yan, who was also seated in the middle of the stands, was observing the teams in front of him.The Annan and Fujian teams are the largest, each with about 30 people. North Korea is not the team with the least number of people on the field. There is also a situation where only three people participate in Mata Languo. This makes Li Yi find a little bit With a little psychological balance, at least the number of people sent by North Korea to study abroad is not too small.

But what Li Xun didn't know was that there were actually more than this number of soldiers sent by Ma Dalan to study in Sanya. It was just that a group of them left after finishing their studies three months ago, and only three of them were left in Sanya.

In the middle of the stand today, apart from senior officials of the Executive Committee and representatives of allies, there was also a special guest, Su Keyi, who represented the Dutch East India Company at the event.

In previous years when this competition was held, the East India Company had never been on the list of people invited to watch the battle, and it was very difficult to inquire about the relevant news.Under Haihan's instruction, no one would take the initiative to disclose the situation of the tournament to the Dutchman.

However, the situation has changed this year. The Executive Committee believes that expanding the scope of influence of this activity should not be limited to allies, but should also play a role against speculators such as the East India Company who are not firm in their stance. In addition to Fang's representative, Su Keyi was also specially invited to participate in the observation this year.

For Su Keyi, this can be regarded as a major breakthrough he has achieved in the past few years as an envoy to Haihan. If there is any regret, it is probably that this treatment was not obtained by him, but was bestowed by Haihan on his own initiative. , it is inevitable that there is not much sense of accomplishment at all.

But the opportunity is rare, and Su Keyi will definitely not let go of this opportunity to collect information, so he agreed without hesitation after receiving the invitation.He only knows that Haihan and his allies have frequently sent troops to assist Haihan in carrying out combat missions overseas in recent years, but he has never had the opportunity to gain a more intuitive understanding of the combat effectiveness of these forces.

The participants in this kind of martial arts competition are all the elites of the various armies, and their performance can reflect their combat effectiveness from the side, which can just be used to evaluate the strength level of each army.Although the inferences made based on this information may not be completely accurate, it is certainly better than the situation of not knowing it before.

Su Keyi is only good at business, and doesn't know much about military affairs, so he originally brought an officer's bodyguard over as a staff officer, but his bodyguard was stopped outside the school grounds, and he was not allowed to enter the field to watch. It disrupted his deployment, so he could only cheer up and secretly figure out how to observe the game process.

Yan Chujie's speech was very short, before Su Keyi could figure out how to deal with it, he had already finished his speech and announced the start of the martial arts competition.

The first competition is a highly ornamental obstacle course, and Haihan set the opening ceremony in this school field, precisely to carry out the competition of this event nearby.

A runway with a length of about [-] feet has been set up on the school field, and many obstacles such as crawling iron nets, rope climbing, shallow puddles, and single-plank bridges have been set up on the way to simulate various environments on the battlefield. winning.

Running fast is only the basic condition, and the skills to quickly pass through these obstacles are the real content of the competition.The ten teams are divided into five groups, and they will compete in pairs, and the final results will be compared by a special referee.

Since each team only has one person to participate in the competition, and the results are determined once, the requirements for the participants are extremely high.In order to avoid injury to the participants, a little warm-up time was specially set aside for them.

"Master Xu, which team do you think can win the championship in this event?" Zheng Zuo was bored, so he chatted with Xu Yuxing next to him.

Xu Yuxing replied blankly: "This competition is our army's strength, and my Xu family army must win the championship!"

"Master Xu is not impolite!" Zheng Zuo said with a smile: "I think my Annan Army is expected to rewrite your army's record this year. Would Master Xu be willing to take a small gamble with me?"

Xu Yuxing said: "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders. Since the young prince is interested in this, then bet 1000 yuan of Haihan coins."

Zheng Zuo looked to the left and right and said, "Who else is willing to play together? The winner takes all!"

Li Yan was quite interested in listening to it before, but when Xu Yuxing opened his mouth to say a thousand words, he immediately swallowed back the words that came to his lips.The value of 1000 yuan of Haihan coins is almost equivalent to 1000 taels of silver. For him, this is not a small amount for casual play. Although he knows that this is the only competition item that his subordinates are expected to compete for, he dare not take 1000 taels of silver. Yuan went to bet with Zheng Zuo and others on a possibility with an extremely small probability.

Li Nai replied with a smile: "I would like to participate in one, but I don't want to bet on my own family, I want to buy the little prince's team to win, how does this count?"

"It's okay, the third young master just buy it, and I'll be the owner of this project!" Xu Yuxing's tone was extremely firm, which showed his confidence in this project.

Every year, the Li family will send some of their younger generation to Sanya for military training in the name of the Golden Shield escort.Li Jifeng didn't simply want to use this to train private soldiers, but to let these trained family members go to the Jindun branches in various places to take over part of the business, so as to prevent the management of the branches in various places from only Haihan.

These people often have no military experience before being sent to Sanya, so their training effect is definitely not as good as that of military students sent by other forces, and participating in this activity is just a matter of making up the numbers.Of course, Li Nai didn't expect Jin Dun to perform well in the martial arts competition, so he said bluntly that he wanted to bet on Annan's team.

Although 1000 yuan is not a small amount, but it will not make Li Nai feel much heartache if it is used to show favor to Zheng Zuo.If you can win, it will be considered a windfall.

Zheng Zuo smiled and said, "Then thank you, Third Young Master, for your support!"

Most of the other people here knew that they were not as strong as the top two teams, and they were not as comfortable as Li Nai, who could freely bet on other teams, so there was no fourth team to join in.And Haihan, as the organizer, is naturally inconvenient to participate in this kind of gambling game in order to show justice.

Xu Yuxing applied to Yan Chujie: "Minister Yan, since the young prince is so interested, can we put our two teams in the final round for the sake of the excitement of the competition?"

As soon as this proposal came out, Zheng Zuo immediately took the lead in echoing it.And the other contestants also know that this event is mostly just an accompanying run, and they will not jump out to oppose this arrangement.Yan Chujie hesitated for a while, seeing that no one objected to the proposal, he met Tao Donglai's eyes, and asked people to arrange the game to be adjusted slightly, so that the two strongest teams would face off in the final round.

An Daoshi was warming up on the school field at this time. According to the original arrangement, he was in a group with Dong Shangyi, who represented Xu Jiajun. It is also impossible to be merciful to his subordinates under the supervision of such a big man, and it is inevitable that he will lose a bit ugly in the same field.

But at this time, the referee from Haihan came to notify the adjustment of the schedule, and Dong Shangyi was transferred to the last round to face off against Li Hai from the Annan Army, while An Daoshi's opponent was Li He from the Golden Shield.

This adjustment made Andaoshi relax a little bit. He felt that his performance would be better without facing the strongest player in this project.

Dong Shangyi didn't take it seriously, and even came over to encourage An Daoshi, let him have a good competition, in order to leave a good impression in the hearts of these big shots.

The competition in the first few groups was lacklustre, and An Daoshi defeated Li He in the same group by a large margin. He felt that he should perform better than his usual training level.But everyone, including him, is waiting for the last group of competitions, because this is the competition of masters in this event.

After the sound of the starting gun, Dong Shangyi and Li Hai rushed out from the starting line.This is not the first time for them to compete in an obstacle course. Although the obstacle setting in this arena is different from the usual training venues, and it does not give them a chance to adapt to the arena in advance, the long-term training still allows them to face obstacles. Be able to make the best reactions and actions when facing various obstacles.

They don't know that their superiors who are watching the competition outside the court have placed a lot of bets on themselves, but the idea of ​​winning is enough to encourage them to try their best to surpass their opponents here.

(End of this chapter)