Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 346 Opening Ceremony

When he read Yu Xiuer's letter, Sun Xiangfu felt very guilty. He was so busy that he didn't take good care of his wife and unborn child for more than half a year.

The reason why Yu Xiu'er wrote to Sun Xiangfu at this time was because the imperial doctor had confirmed that she was pregnant with twins, and after the eighth month of pregnancy, the fetuses moved very frequently.

For women in this period, childbirth is a matter of life and death, especially when the first child is twins, there is a higher chance of happy events turning into mourning, so Yu Xiuer is very scared.

Being full of fear is not an ideal state of childbirth, so Sun Xiangfu asked Li Shimin to ask for leave as soon as he saw the letter.

"Why don't you ask Daoist Sun to go back to Chang'an in person? Right now, Shanyang can't live without you." Li Shimin said in a bit of embarrassment after learning about the situation.

Sun Xiangfu cupped his hands and said, "I'd better go back in person! The fear in Xiu'er's heart should only be eliminated by me."

"Then there is no rush for this day or two. Isn't the production period going to September? After the opening ceremony, the competition will be held normally. No matter how quickly you set off and go back, you will be in a hurry.

In addition, Xiao Xiang still doesn't understand your request to select scholars on demand. Since you have to go back a little earlier, I will let you be the deputy chief examiner of this imperial examination, and help Xiao Xiang prepare for the exam! "

Li Shimin must wait for the big competition to be over before returning with the army. Moreover, there are many courtiers in his team, the number of them is huge, and the walking will definitely not be too fast. He will leave in early September, and I am afraid it will be the end of September. Even arriving in Chang'an in October, if Sun Xiangfu leaves in mid-August, he can arrive in Chang'an more than a month earlier than him.

"So, that's okay!" Sun Xiangfu nodded worriedly, there is no way, a first-time father cannot relax.

Afterwards, Sun Xiangfu had to arrange work in a state of apprehension. Who told him to be the planner of the whole competition!

The opening ceremony was held at the competition venue outside Shanyang City. This time, everyone realized what a real crowd is like.

Qu Zhisheng, who has lived in Shanyang City for nearly two months, only had a more intuitive understanding of the power of Datang when he saw this scene of 70 million people gathering within sight. The current gathered population is more than twice the population of Gaochang Kingdom.

Hu merchants in the Western Regions are very glad that they did not miss this grand event. They now have a specific concept of the word 'event'.

In order to maintain the order of this place where tens of thousands of people gather, there are as many as 10 sergeants who are responsible for dividing the area and preventing stampedes. , have to be divided into two shifts and take turns on duty.

The crisp autumn weather is very suitable for holding such a large-scale competition. It was also around ten o'clock in the morning. With the support of the Xuanjia Army, Li Shimin led a group of courtiers into the high platform in the center of the competition field. Now, he is not worried about good The merchants in Yangyang can't afford to hold the event. In this month or so, it is estimated that all the merchants will earn at least ten times the profit they invested.

There are many seats on the central high platform. Li Shimin is in the middle of the first row. His left and right hands are Fang Xuanling, Sun Xiangfu, and court officials at the first level of the sixteen guards. Thousands of wooden carts with big drums were pushed into the field.

The people in Shanyang City, especially those living in yurts outside the city, are not unfamiliar with the sound of these big drums, because recently in the military camp, there are often sounds of rehearsal and drumming. In this era, these big drums are the only sounds that can be heard by hundreds of thousands of people at the same time.

It’s not that Sun Xiangfu didn’t want to arrange for Li Shimin to make an opening speech. It’s really too difficult to do this. In order to ensure the safety of Li Shimin and the courtiers, the people are more than 300 steps away from the high platform, which is very good To prevent someone from hiding bows and arrows and assassinating the emperor or ministers.

And at such a long distance, the soldiers used guardrails to divide them into small pieces. The people in a small piece, a little farther away, are more than one mile away from Li Shimin in a straight line. You can see a small yellow dot. It can be said that today's weather is good, and the eyesight of these people is very good.

Therefore, the sound of drums and the roaring singing together with tens of thousands of soldiers are the only performance in this grand opening ceremony.

The singing of thousands of big drums and 10 troops resounded through the sky. The rhythm of the drums was no longer the "General's Order" but "Serving the Country with Loyalty". It is an excellent opportunity to form the concept of family and country. Herd mentality will affect everyone, including more than half of the barbarians present.

This huge scene is destined to be unforgettable for many people, not to mention ordinary people, even courtiers, and how many times have they enjoyed the attention of tens of thousands of people.

Affected by the singing of the soldiers and men, even civil servants, at this moment, had a sense of pride in defending their homes and the country, and those who were more emotional soon burst into tears.

The last sentence of the song, "I would like to defend the land and open up the frontiers, and the majestic China will let the Quartet come to congratulate..."

I have exhausted the ambitions in the hearts of the warriors, so today they are destined to play the leading role.

The bugle sounded when the drums fell, and the participating teams of the Xuanjia Army, holding the banner of the five-clawed black dragon, marched in order and entered the venue first.

What's more interesting is their attire, a pair of black long-sleeved trousers, among them, a five-clawed black dragon is embroidered on the chest, and a rectangular white cloth strip is hung on the back, with their names written in black ink on it , and the entry number.

These clothes are naturally the sportswear made by Shanyang's clothing workshop for them. They are made of pure cotton, comfortable and elastic, and will not affect sports at all. You only need to look at the color of the clothes to distinguish the teams well.

Then, Zuo Wuwei, Right Wuwei, Zuo Weiwei, Right Weiwei in khaki clothes...

All the teams have different colors of clothes and different military flags, most of which are majestic Chinese character flags.

The most flamboyant is the bright red sportswear of the Anbei Army. Embroidered on their chests is a city gate surrounded by golden ears of rice and various flowers. Everyone can tell at a glance that it is the gate of Shanyang City , and this is also the flag pattern of the Anbei Army.

It is worth mentioning that Xue Yantuo and Northeast Sibu also wear the same style of sportswear. Xue Yantuo's flag is a bull's head, Shiweibu is a dense cedar forest, Mohebu is a ferocious bear's head, and Yubu is a curved The head of a sheep with horns, and the Khitan part is an eagle flying with wings.

Most of the participating team members of several ethnic minorities are not as good as the Han sergeants who have been trained for a long time. However, they took animals as banners and wore clothes embroidered with animals on the field, but they won the cheers of many audiences. It is an honor to see that your team is on the same rank as the team of Datang Qiangjun.

According to the discussion between Sun Xiangfu and the generals, the competition events that were finally determined consisted of five major events and 120 small events. In each event, each team can send up to five people to participate. Good at, have sent enough manpower to participate.

Since each army has previously conducted internal selection, in order to ensure that the players have enough time and energy to cope with the competition, except for a few sergeants who are indeed relatively strong in multiple aspects to participate in multiple events, most of them only Participated in one or two small events of the same major event, which made each team look like about 500 people.

On the first day, apart from the opening ceremony and everyone's collective appearance, it was the lottery for all preliminary competitions. After getting the lottery, they knew when and how many venues they should participate in the competition.

Since there are a total of 23 teams participating, there will be 110 five people participating in each small event. In addition to the team competition, whether you can win the single event mainly depends on whether you can win the more than 100 teams. number one.

After the opening lottery in the morning, the gambling markets in the city were overcrowded. As early as three days ago, they obtained a list and numbers of the contestants from the Anbei Daduhufu, the organizer of the competition.

Then, based on these competition events and the list of participants, a special betting market was set up. Individual individual events are the most popular in sales. Two games, continue to double, win three games in a row, and then double again. Generally, in a single game, after entering the sixth game, you will reach the final. Turn six times.

One penny, six times, but 64 pennies, which greatly attracted people's desire for speculation, because if you take it all together, buying this is much more cost-effective than buying the size in a gambling shop, 110 is better than 64!It has a winning rate of over 50.00%. Moreover, there is no leopard-take-all situation, and you can redeem prizes and leave the game halfway. For gamblers, this kind of winning chance is great, including Hu merchants in the Western Regions, who have invested a lot in various markets Note, even if some people are specially reserved to watch the final results of the game and claim prizes later, it is not hesitating.

However, Sun Xiangfu knows that this is just an illusion they see. In fact, their winning rate is only 50.00% in every game, because the game he bought has only two results, either winning or losing .

In the six rounds of competition, only one person can win all of them. It is not ruled out that some people will leave the field after winning two or three times in the middle, but most people will lose money and leave the field during the whole process.

Because without knowing the level of the contestants and the opponents of the competition, almost half of the people lost in the first game, and in the second game, those who expected to win consecutively would lose half, and from There may only be a small number of people who bought the championship at the beginning, and among these few people, there may be many who cashed out the prize and left the game midway. Calculated in this way, the betting amount collected from the handicap is enough to pay for making money and leaving the game halfway through. The winner who persists until the end, the remaining part is the profit.

As a manager, Sun Xiangfu will not prohibit the opening of such handicap. He only needs to send people to collect taxes. It is normal in a world where some people are poor and some are rich. This city is even more love-hate, and it is difficult to give up.

After seeing these ups and downs, people will gradually become rational and open up the wisdom of the whole people. It is not simply to let people read and write. The literacy rate in the Song Dynasty was very high. However, no advanced civilization was born that surpassed all. .

In Sun Xiangfu's view, the birth of an advanced civilization requires the most experience, both good and bad. Only by experiencing more can people see the world more thoroughly and move forward. On the road, there can be more inspiration.

Wise men like Li Shimin and Fang Xuanling have a lot of inspiration after seeing everything about Shanyang.

This northern tour not only allowed them to accomplish such a big event as subduing the Fourth Ministry, but also gained a lot of knowledge in governing the country.

However, these are just some corners and corners of the relatively mature civilizations of later generations. By learning these corners and corners, they can gradually accept them and promote greater changes in the world.

(End of this chapter)