Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1833 Let's play tactics with them!
Since the promotion of football began, about a month has passed, and the grassland military region seems much more harmonious internally, except on the football field...

But this is also a good thing, because compared to martial arts competitions, playing football is undoubtedly a safer activity.

Now, besides training, eating, and sleeping, the soldiers spend their days practicing football and playing matches.

Among them, the female warrior soccer team, with the 'soccer superstar' Sigriun, has become the big boss here, basically crushing everyone they encounter.

In an effort to save face, the various human teams in the grassland military region have been practicing diligently in their spare time, and their skills have improved rapidly.

However, the female warriors are also improving. In addition, they have good physical fitness, and with Sigriun training their ball skills, the female warrior football team still holds an overwhelming advantage in the grassland military region, which makes other teams even more eager for victory.

In the beginning, it was just the soldiers playing around, and there wasn't much organization involved.

After all, His Majesty's intention was simply to provide the soldiers with an additional form of entertainment, so the officers above him also treated it as such.

At first, they merely responded to their emperor's call and participated symbolically.

Otherwise, senior officers are very busy every day, with a lot of military affairs waiting for them to handle. How could they have time to play football?

But as they got involved, they gradually realized that something was not quite right.

Watching the two teams constantly attacking and defending on the field, they realized that this wasn't playing football at all; it was clearly a test of the soldiers' physical fitness and tactical coordination!
Compared to martial arts competitions, playing football is safer.

Playing football is cheaper than large-scale military exercises!
"As expected of His Majesty! This is tantamount to having the soldiers use their rest time for training!"

"And they all did extra training on their own; they were all very proactive!"

The officers, having come to their senses, now felt an overwhelming sense of reverence.

This also made them pay more attention to the sport of football.

In just one month, each company managed to form a team.

To avoid situations where there are too many teams and not enough fields, leading to disputes, the authorities specifically scheduled days for each company to use the field in rotation.

During this process, some generals even took on the role of team coaches.

"I'm asking you, why can't you beat the female warrior soccer team?"

"Their captain, Sigurd, is incredibly skilled at basketball, and the female warriors have amazing physical abilities—these are all reasons, but don't they have any weaknesses?"

"They have weaknesses too; they're not good at tactics! So let's play tactics against them!"

Upon hearing this, the soldiers below all understood.

They then studied tactics with even more rigor than they did during training.

In this era of entertainment scarcity, Zhou Xu never imagined that football would become popular.

But Zhou Xu probably didn't expect that the way this phenomenon would become so popular would be somewhat different from what he had anticipated.

After the first two months, the soldiers were no longer satisfied with just regular football practice. With the generals also encouraging them, the Grassland Military Region simply launched a football version of the military region's grand competition!
Each company was drawn into groups, and the teams competed against each other.

The loser is eliminated, the winner advances, and finally the champion is decided!
The prizes were rather simple, consisting of daily necessities and good food and drinks, but for the soldiers, these were just bonuses; the most important thing was that they had to win!

Of course, this competition must not interfere with daily training.

Therefore, the competition days were set on the weekly rest days. The schedule was made more compact, with several matches being played in a single day. Finally, the grand final was held on the rest day at the end of the month.

No one objected, and the soldiers were happy to participate, so the Grassland Military Region submitted an application for the activity to higher authorities.

This is essentially a minor matter; the Ministry of Military Affairs just needs to approve it.

To be honest, this didn't even need to be submitted to the Ministry of Military Affairs; the approval of the military region commander would have sufficed. However, considering that football was a sport specifically promoted by His Majesty, the report was sent to Zhou Xu instead.

Looking at the report, Zhou Xu paused for a moment.

He didn't expect that the Grassland Military Region would act so quickly; he hadn't even organized a competition yet, but the Grassland Military Region had already started.

The report also outlined their schedule and emphasized that it would not affect their daily training.

Zhou Xu, who had originally planned to promote football, naturally couldn't refuse at this moment.

After approving the application, Zhou Xu pondered for a moment and then issued another order...

"You should notify the National Education Propaganda Department and have them organize storytellers to go to the Grassland Military Region to watch the ball game."

In the future, Zhou Xu will definitely need to rely on storytellers to promote the sport of football.

But the storyteller himself has never actually witnessed football. His explanation is so dry and uninteresting that to an outsider it's just a bunch of people chasing a ball. What's the point of that?
This makes it difficult to achieve good publicity results.

Therefore, the best approach would undoubtedly be to let the storytellers experience firsthand what a ball game is like.

That way, when they promote it, they'll be able to do so with more feeling.

Upon receiving the order, the National Education Propaganda Department quickly made arrangements.

The storytellers didn't react much at this point; at most, they were just curious about the new movement.

Wang Pengfei, the top storyteller in Black Moon City, was delighted.

He is definitely not a sporty person, but in this era, being able to watch football matches is undoubtedly a great form of entertainment for him, and he can't help but look forward to it.

After watching it, I was instantly hooked.

It feels like I've accomplished something I couldn't do in my past life.

The other storytellers, though they didn't quite understand the rules and were also confused, couldn't resist the enthusiastic atmosphere.

From initial restraint, to gradually opening up, and finally to unrestrained shouting...

"Do you even know how to play football?"

"Spread the word! You're not even spreading it?!"

"No way, that's a huge goal, and you managed to kick it all the way through?!"

Everyone was happy for a moment.

After the game ended, I wanted to keep chatting with the people around me.

Taking advantage of the storytellers' high enthusiasm, Zhou Xu directly instructed them to start promoting football, and related promotional work began.

The publicity campaign was quite extensive, and it effectively whetted the public's appetite.

Unfortunately, this military region is a special case, and it's impossible to allow the public to visit freely. Otherwise, it would be more practical to let the public watch a game directly.

As this idea came to mind, Zhou Xu's mind raced.

"If the military region can't go, then why not have the team come to Blackmoon City to play the game?"

(End of this chapter)