Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

While training in the palace, Zhu Youjian did not relax his attention to the outside world.

After learning that there was a martial arts craze around the capital, in order to keep the craze going and train more qualified soldiers, Zhu Youjian called together the organizers of the martial arts conference and the winners of the competition to form a martial arts association.

In the future, the Martial Arts Conference will be held by the Martial Arts Association. At the same time, various levels of competitions will be organized under the Martial Arts Conference and competitions will be held regularly.

The Jinyiwei's withdrawal from the martial arts conference does not mean that they are completely irrelevant from now on. Because the martial arts academy and the martial arts research institute were placed in the Jinyiwei Security School by Zhu Youjian. Many members of the martial arts association will work in these two places.

Therefore, the martial arts conference is actually inseparable from the Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei can still select the talents they need from the martial arts conference. They will also escort the martial arts association and help them resist attacks from civil officials.

The first president of the Martial Arts Association was Ji Jike, the world's greatest warrior, appointed by Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian's first request to him was to implement a ranking system to divide martial arts such as spearmanship, swordmanship, knifemanship, archery, and boxing into different levels.

Modeled after the nine martial arts degrees of later generations, Zhu Youjian established badges for each degree. The first, second and third degrees were the primary degrees, awarded with the blue eagle, silver eagle and golden eagle badges; the fourth, fifth and sixth degrees were the middle degrees, awarded with the blue tiger, silver tiger and golden tiger badges; the seventh, eighth and ninth degrees were the high degrees, awarded with the blue dragon, silver dragon and golden dragon badges.

The primary dan is mainly for assessment, examining the martial artist's familiarity with etiquette, rules, and routines, and is awarded to minors. The middle dan is mainly for competition, and is awarded only after reaching a certain ranking in the official competition. The high dan focuses on theory and is mainly awarded to those who have made contributions to martial arts.

For example, Chen Wangting, who ranked first in boxing, was awarded the sixth degree. If he wanted to be promoted to the seventh degree, he needed to summarize his boxing skills and publish them.

Zhu Youjian wanted to use this method to promote the exchange of martial arts and to make the martial arts of various schools no longer hidden.

Ji Jike agreed with this very much, and even took the initiative to decline the offer when the emperor wanted to grant him the Seven-segment Azure Dragon Emblem, saying:

"It is said among the people that there are six types of spears: the first is divine, the second is profound, the third is proficient, the fourth is law-abiding, the fifth is long, and the sixth is powerful."

"The deified one, I am powerless, I become a body because of my enemies, just as water creates waves, and fire creates flames."

"I feel that I have not yet fully realized this state. I feel ashamed of myself for having reached the sixth stage. I am really not worthy of the seventh stage."

He voluntarily resigned the Azure Dragon emblem bestowed by the emperor and chose the Golden Tiger emblem, just like the first place winners in other projects.

Zhu Youjian was very interested in the six grades of spearmanship he mentioned, and thought it was in line with the grade system he proposed. After hearing Ji Jike's introduction to the grades, he said thoughtfully:
"There are six levels in spearmanship. The sixth level is force fighting. It should correspond to the fourth stage, not the first stage."

"Moreover, after reaching the third level of proficiency, they have already mastered the spear techniques they have learned. Most of those who have reached the second level of proficiency have their own spear techniques."

"So at this level, it is possible to create a new spear technique, which should correspond to the seventh stage."

"General Ji's spear technique is called Liuhe Spear, but in fact it is his own spear technique. He even created Xinyi Liuhe Fist from the spear technique."

"As long as the Xinyi Liuhequan and the spearmanship are perfected, not to mention the seventh stage, even the eighth and ninth stages can be achieved."

"General, please do not refuse this Azure Dragon emblem!"

Zhu Youjian took out a bronze badge and handed it to Qi Changguo, the commander of the Southern Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, asking him to give it to Ji Jike.

Ji Jike was flattered by the emperor's courtesy. Bronze is not worth much, but the dragon emblem is not something that can be made casually. As the first person to get the dragon emblem, he, the world's number one warrior, was quite proud. He was determined to perfect the Xinyi Liuhequan as soon as possible and spread it out, so that the seven-segment blue dragon emblem he got would be worthy of its name.

The other warriors all looked at Ji Jike with envy, and were equally determined to create their own martial arts and obtain the dragon-shaped emblem.

Now, they can only get the gold-plated tiger-shaped emblem representing the sixth stage, which is one stage lower than Ji Jike.

After the martial arts ranking system was established, Zhu Youjian ordered Ji Jike and other members of the martial arts association to determine the ranks of martial artists participating in the martial arts conference, and to assess civilian martial artists and issue rank badges.

Because the rank system was first implemented, most of the older martial artists had lost their combat power and were unlikely to be able to obtain the middle rank obtained through actual combat. Zhu Youjian introduced a policy for martial artists over 40 years old, which was that they could be selected to obtain the middle and high rank.

However, there must be a guarantor from a martial arts association member of mid-rank or above to avoid unqualified people.

In addition, martial artists who teach apprentices must pass the coaching qualification examination held by the Martial Arts Association to regulate the martial arts industry.

The holding of martial arts competitions also requires approval from the Martial Arts Association to determine the competition level.

All competitions must be equipped with referees and medical staff to ensure the fairness of the competition and the safety of the participants.

As for the life and death agreements sometimes signed in folk arenas, they were also transformed into formal contracts and exemption documents. The Ministry of Justice and the Imperial Guards issued corresponding policies to regulate the holding of competitions.

Zhu Youjian even planned to open an insurance company and make the organizers of the competition pay insurance compulsorily. He would pay a sum of insurance money to those who had accidents during the competition, so that more fighters could step onto the ring with confidence.

This series of policies represents the martial arts competition, which has moved from underground to the public. The martial artists present all felt the emperor's attention, and even felt that even if they did not join the army to fight, they could still make a living by practicing martial arts in the future.

This industry is about to undergo drastic changes!
Zhu Youjian formulated various policies based on the later generations. He handed these trivial matters over to Ji Jike and others from the Wushu Association, and asked him to serve as the dean of the Wushu Research Institute and assigned him a task:
"You have all seen the bayonets on muskets, but whether they are useful or not needs to be tested in actual combat."

"The first task of the Martial Arts Research Institute is to cooperate with the Ordnance Research Institute to determine the standard musket and bayonet. They also need to study bayonet techniques and the use of short knives when the bayonet is used independently."

"I don't require all musketeers to become martial arts masters, but I do want them to have the ability to protect themselves in close combat."

As a new thing, no one could explain how to use the bayonet. Zhu Youjian himself did not know how to fight with a bayonet, so he asked Ji Jike and others to study the corresponding bayonet technique:
Including but not getting into how to use bayonets against cavalry and infantry, how to stab horses and people, how to form battle formations, how to use short knives...

Ji Jike was good at spearmanship, and in his opinion, a musket plus a bayonet was just a short gun. So he happily accepted this task and planned to research a few moves as soon as possible.

Zhu Youjian knew that he was good at spearmanship and had high hopes for him, but he did not put all his hopes on him. At the same time, he encouraged the newly awarded martial artists to form a team and study bayonet techniques together.

To this end, he also asked these martial artists to assess their own team contributions, distinguishing between major contribution awards, minor contribution awards and participation awards, and encouraged martial artists to form teams. As long as the bayonet techniques they studied were adopted, they could be promoted in the future and even receive medals.

Under this policy, many martial arts masters no longer worked behind closed doors, but actively communicated with each other. The martial arts research in the Ming Dynasty entered a new stage.

The various competitions held by the Martial Arts Association, as well as the ranks of martial artists and coaches they evaluated, also let young people who were enthusiastic about martial arts know where to go to learn. The martial arts craze among the people was able to continue for a long time.

Even Zhu Youjian had to consider building a special martial arts hall and stadium. (End of this chapter)