The Red Chamber: Starting from Saving Xue Baochai

Chapter 49: Prelude to the Spring Martial Arts Examination

On February 2, the 17th year of Yuanzhen, the dragon raised its head.

With the arrival of spring, all things began to revive. Under the arrangement of the imperial court, the disaster victims in the suburbs of Shenjing returned home in batches, carrying surplus food and grain seeds.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees rekindled their hope for the future, and at the same time, they remembered the benefactors who had helped them. The most important one among them was naturally the young man in blue named Shen Yuan.

In addition to this, there was another major event that was hotly discussed in Shenjing City.

In two days, the spring military examination, which is held every three years, will begin.

With Hanmo Zhai's continuous publicity, this spring examination attracted more attention than any previous one.

It was even more popular than the imperial examination in spring. In the streets and alleys of the city, from kings and ministers to peddlers, almost everyone would talk about this topic after dinner.

For this purpose, Hanmozhai even published a special ranking list entitled "Celebrity List of Winners".

The above records the strength rankings of the martial arts candidates who participated in this spring's examination, regardless of their background, and only refers to their past battle records.

It also introduces the identity and background of each person on the list in stages.

East City of Shenyang, Chaoyangmen Street, Jixiang Teahouse.

This is the busiest teahouse in the city and one of the places where news spreads the fastest. As the sun rises, the place is already full.

"Hey, who are we introducing today?"

"I have a tabloid I just bought. Let's take a look together, brothers."

After saying this, the person who spoke opened the tabloid and started reading it together with a few friends at the same table.

"Jiang Fan! Today we are introducing the third place winner of the celebrity list - Jiang Fan."

"Quickly take a look, who is this person?"

"Wow, he's actually the son of the Jinling governor!" Someone sighed and continued reading: "In the autumn examination of the Jinling military examination, he won full marks in the three subjects of literary examination, skill and bravery, and archery. Later, in the horseback archery with Shen Yuan, he changed the distance from 50 steps to 80 steps, and hit the target with 28 shots. He then changed the shooting distance to 100 steps and hit the target with one shot out of two. Unfortunately, he lost to Shen Yuan and was the second in the Jinling military examination."

"hiss!"

After reading this, several people were amazed.

"No wonder this person was able to surpass Wu Jieyuan from other provinces and ranked third in the list of winners. It turns out that he lost to that perverted Shen Jieyuan."

"It also says that Jiang Fan and Shen Yuan are close friends."

"There's nothing strange about this. Birds of a feather flock together. Besides, they are from the same hometown."

Similar sentiments and discussions were heard in Jixiang Teahouse, Chaoyangmen Street, and all over Shenjing City.

On the second floor of Hanmo Zhai, in a luxurious room.

Shen Yuan drank a sip of fragrant tea, raised his eyes to look at Gao Yue who was sitting opposite him, shook his head and smiled: "Your Highness is making every effort to promote the martial arts examination, aren't you afraid that those Confucian scholars will have opinions?"

Although the Great Zhou has become increasingly martial in recent years, important affairs of the court are still controlled by civil officials, and many government orders come from the cabinet and the six ministers. All of these people are old Confucian scholars who have passed the civil service examination and made it through step by step.

Gao Yue said indifferently: "The current situation in the Nine Borders is so dangerous, why bother to look ahead and behind? If the enemy invades us, do we have to rely on the words of those old scholars and their so-called political schemes to stop them?"

Shen Yuan was silent for a moment, then nodded. He basically agreed with this.

This is also the reason why the military examination was chosen. The threat from the nine borders is imminent, and the Great Zhou is in urgent need of a strong army that can stabilize the situation.

This is more urgent than any other domestic issue.

Shen Yuan picked up the tabloid on the table again and glanced at the eye-catching "Celebrity Winners List".

There are thirty names on this ranking list. Gao Yue ranked him and Feng Ziying tied for first place, followed by Jiang Fan in third place, and then the Wu Jieyuans from other provinces.

There were two other names on the list that made Shen Yuan feel a little strange: Liu Xianglian ranked tenth, and Ni Er ranked twenty-fifth.

These two people, together with Feng Ziying, the famous "Four Heroes of the Red Chamber" in the original novel, occupy three seats on this list.

Seeing that Shen Yuan didn't say anything, Gao Yue smiled and said, "Although I put you and Feng Ziying on the same level, the odds between the two of you are 60:40, you 60:40, so in the hearts of the people, you are the most popular candidate for the martial arts champion."

This surprised Shen Yuan a little. After all, Feng Ziying was also a martial arts champion with full marks in four subjects, and he was also a native of Shenjing. He had the home advantage and should be more popular among the people of Beijing.

"Why?"

"Because of your achievements in battle, you shot an arrow through a target from a hundred paces away, single-handedly killed the bandit leader, beheaded hundreds of enemies, and even transformed yourself into a bloody Shura in Liaocheng to kill off the fierce bandits."

"That's an exaggeration. Let me correct you. In the Battle of Aomen Village, I only killed a hundred people. In the Battle of Liaocheng, I had more than twenty brothers helping me."

"It's not important. What's important is that you will become a passionate hero in the hearts of countless young men in the Great Zhou Dynasty. After you win the championship, this image will be pushed to a new peak, and a martial arts trend will sweep across the country."

Shen Yuan: “.”

"Your Highness is so eager to achieve success, aren't you worried about backlash?"

Gao Yue sighed and said, "Compared to losing our country to foreigners, any other risk can be taken."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan fell silent. The words of the Fourth Prince did not only represent his personal opinions, but might also be the thoughts of the Emperor of the Great Zhou.

It seems that the situation is more serious than he thought.
Rongguo Mansion, Rongqing Hall.

It's surprisingly lively here today.

Almost all the female members of the Ning and Rong mansions had arrived to pay their respects to the old lady.

Youshi and Qin Keqing from Ning Mansion, Lady Wang, Lady Xing, Wang Xifeng, Li Wan, and Aunt Xue from Rong Mansion also came and sat on both sides.

The girls in the boudoir were also there, including Baochai, Daiyu, Xiangyun, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun. Several girls were sitting on the embroidered cushion below Lady Jia.

Many beauties gathered together, competing for beauty, and chatting and laughing.

Grandmother Jia sat high on the Arhat couch in the middle, looking at the happy scene in front of her. She was in a good mood, with kind eyes and a smile on her face.

"It's rare that you all come here in such great numbers today. Is there anything you're happy about recently that you can share with us so that we can all have fun?"

The old lady still had the same mentality and only wanted to hear things that made her feel comfortable.

Wang Xifeng's eyes flickered when she heard this, and she smiled and said, "I do have something to be happy about, and it has something to do with you, old lady."

"Oh? It's about me?" Grandmother Jia perked up and said with a smile, "You ruffian, are you trying to make fun of me? Tell me what it is quickly and don't keep me in suspense."

Grandmother Jia was very interested, and when it came to pleasing the old lady, Feng Ji never disappointed.

Sister Feng smiled and said, "Old Madam, do you still remember the fundraising event when it snowed heavily in winter?"

"Of course I remember. I donated some at that time."

"The disaster victims in the suburbs have returned home one after another. Many people say that there is a great Bodhisattva in our Jia Mansion. Some people also praise you, old lady, for your compassion for the poor and the weak and your good management of the household!" Feng Ji said, without showing any guilt at all.

The "quite a few people" and "some people" here actually don't mean that many people. Among them, there are a few servants and old women sent by the Jia family to promote themselves.

Of course, Grandmother Jia would not delve into it. After listening to Sister Feng's words, the old lady was already overjoyed in her heart. She pretended to be modest and waved her hand, saying, "We just did our best. We don't deserve praise. You should pay more attention to these things in the future. They are all truly pitiful people."

Fengjie, Wang Fu-ren and others all echoed and said yes.

Hearing about the disaster relief, Xiangyun suddenly thought of Shen Yuan, and said bluntly: "Speaking of the fundraising, it was Brother Shen who initiated it. I heard that the disaster victims outside the city are praising Brother Shen, and they also said that they will set up a longevity tablet for Brother Shen after returning home."

These two chapters mainly lay the groundwork for the spring martial arts examination, and will soon push the competition for the top martial arts champion to a climax.
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(End of this chapter)