The tomato matter came to an end. With the strict defenses arranged by Su Wan, it was basically impossible to get the tomato seeds. Moreover, that kind of seeds was much more delicate than other seeds and was not easy to obtain.

The son of the Northern Alliance seemed to realize that what was coming next was really just eating and drinking, so he probably had other plans.

Su Wan handled the matter beautifully, and the Grand Secretary of Zhongji Palace took a closer look at her. He used to think she was smart, but he thought she was just an ordinary female official. It was the small court meeting during the horse riding and archery competition that made him realize something different.

After discovering a little difference, it became clear that His Majesty had never really concealed anything.

He looked at Su Wan in public more than once or twice.

When they learned that Su Wan's time as a palace maid would expire in two or three years and she could leave the palace directly or officially become a female official, Zhongji Palace helplessly realized that it was no wonder that His Majesty had to observe mourning for three years and not marry during these three years.

Other young people may be fickle-minded, but His Majesty is different. He has a strong character and I'm afraid he has already thought of all this and it's all part of his plan.

The Grand Secretary of Zhongji Palace probably didn't expect that his guess this time was wrong.

After all, if Xie Pei could really arrange these things into his plan, he wouldn't be both angry and amused when he saw Su Wan.

Fortunately, the horse riding and archery on the 16th, the wrestling on the 17th, and the various competitions that followed occupied everyone's time and left no time to think too much.

The competitions in the past few days have been extremely exciting. The people from the three tribes have their own strengths, and the people selected by Tianxiang Kingdom are also elite soldiers and generals.

But at the end of the competition, it was obvious that the other side was experienced, while the people of Tianxiang Country lacked actual combat experience. By the last few rounds, they were obviously exhausted.

The people selected from the public have good physical strength, but they lack skills, although General Xu has been training them diligently in recent times.

But there is no such thing as becoming fat in one day, and there is no such thing as mastering kung fu in one day, so even if you win, it will be very difficult in the end, and this is the result of everyone being familiar with the venue in advance.

The first horse riding and archery match was considered a win, both because the opponent had just arrived and was still adjusting, and also because this was the home ground of Tianxiang Kingdom, and horse riding and archery had many requirements for the venue, which the people of Tianxiang Kingdom were more familiar with.

By the end of the wrestling match on the second day, the people on the field were actually from the Shiyi clan and the Muyan clan.

The people from Tianxiang Kingdom didn't even make it to the finals.

Even though the Ding family participated, they had only been training for years and had not had actual combat for a long time. At the moment, they could not compare to the Shiyi and Muyan tribes who had conquered more than a dozen tribes on the grassland.

So during the wrestling match, everyone in Tianxiang Country had a solemn look on their faces. It was clearly a competition organized by them, but they were watching two foreigners fighting for the first place.

The Shiyi clan and the Muyan clan naturally cheered, with the former being even more arrogant.

"I've already said that the warriors of our Shiyi clan are invincible. The Tianxiang Kingdom and the Central Plains Great Country are nothing more than that!"

These words hurt the hearts of all the Tianxiang people present. The Grand Secretary of Dongge looked at the field with a serious look. He was somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that His Majesty valued military affairs over literature some time ago.

Now that I have seen these things, I understand your Majesty's foresight.

Although one competition cannot determine the winner, the difference can still be seen from it.

For a country, talents are easy to find, but how to cultivate them is the key.

When the Shiyi clan cheered, Xie Pei remained expressionless. He even asked the civil and military officials to sit down and watch, carefully observing the gap between them and others, so that they could learn from their mistakes and make changes.

There was no doubt that the wrestling on the third day was a direct loss.

On the fourth day, there were winners and losers in the sword and spear competition, which was a face-saving measure.

The final focus is the five-day hunt.

The forest has been prepared, and all the people are divided into twelve teams, plus three foreign teams, with fifteen people in each team.

The team that catches more prey within five days will be considered the winner.

According to Su Wan, this is a team competition, which tests everyone's ability to cooperate and hunt prey.

This forest is extremely large and can easily accommodate tens of thousands of people. But now there are only more than 200 people. It is estimated that once we enter the forest, we will not be able to see each other. But such a place is also very dangerous.

Whether they can come out unscathed depends on their ability.

While previous competitions had their winners and losers, this time the final decision will be made.

When Xie Pei asked Su Wan for her opinion, Su Wan had the same idea as Xie Pei, that is, not to interfere too much.

Even if he lost, he only lost a competition. He had already redeemed himself when the banquet started, so it wouldn't be too embarrassing.

Winning is great, but not winning is a wake-up call.

I can only say that it’s fortunate that we had a good start, otherwise we would have been suppressed from the very beginning and lost several games now, which would have been more than just a matter of losing face.

Now these young people still have a chance to lose, which was also fought for by Xie Pei, Su Wan, and the civil and military ministers.

But even if you have prepared yourself mentally, in the final analysis, it is still best to win. Beating them is the easiest way.

At this time, watching them set off in teams, whoever comes out first will not only win the horse given by Kongzhang Sheren, but also the fine bow and arrows given by the saint, and will also be promoted to a higher position.

Such benefits make everyone excited, but also wary.

In recent days they have also seen that the three foreign races are strong opponents.

There is no need to mention the Mu Yan clan and the Shi Yi clan. Even the Northern Army Alliance, which did not achieve a very good ranking and mostly ranked second or third, their strength should not be underestimated.

Some smart people have already seen that the Northern Alliance is actually just slacking off! It's not that they can't win, it's that they don't want to win.

This realization made everyone feel extremely humiliated, but there was nothing they could do as they were not as skilled as others, so this was the only way.

They didn't know that the Tianxiang Kingdom's court had already prepared for the loss of the hunt and was now gearing up to win the game, no matter what.

In the final competition, if they still watched the two foreigners take first and second place respectively, they would be ashamed to death.

The strong men selected from the public and those selected from the capital have already formed teams. Several women have also joined several teams. Among them, there are a few who know a little about herbal medicine, which is very useful when hunting.

People entered the forest one after another. Su Wan looked towards the Northern Army Alliance. They were talking to the people of the Shiyi and Muyan tribes.

The leaders naturally would not participate directly, as everyone was waiting for good news.

During these five days, you can come back and rest if you want, and if you don't want to come back to rest, you can just live in the woods. Everyone carries a signal firework, and if there is danger, the guards will come to rescue you after the firework is pulled, so basically nothing will happen.

During these five days, those who wanted to hunt went hunting, while the rest of the people played Cuju, polo, and archery in the autumn hunting ground.

The autumn hunting was originally a combination of entertainment and talent selection, and the situation became tense only with the addition of three foreign tribes. After His Majesty gave the order, people started to play tossing pots and shooting arrows one after another, but their expressions were not very good, and they were probably all worried about the team that was about to set out.

Su Wan looked at Tai Jieyushi and the princess and felt a little hesitant. They had been in the palace for a long time and could not come out. This time they accidentally left the palace, they must want to have fun but felt it was inappropriate.

When Xie Pei looked over, Su Wan winked at him, and the two of them understood each other's meaning through eye contact.

Xie Pei whispered a few words to the eunuch beside him, and the eunuch walked towards the Grand Concubine and the princesses, asking them if they needed horses arranged, or if they needed to find other princes and noble ladies to play pot tossing with them.

This means just play casually, and what happens on the scene has nothing to do with them.

The two princesses went to thank His Majesty. When Princess Nazhi saw Su Wan, she gave her a grateful smile, obviously understanding who was making the decision.

Su Wan smiled. Although the princess was young, only seven or eight years old, she was indeed very smart.

She was also repaying a favor from last time. Last time, it was Princess Zhi who leaked the news and pretended to accidentally tell her that the son of the leader of the Northern Army Alliance was interested in tomatoes from Tianxiang Kingdom.

So we were able to respond early.

She naturally returned the favor, and it was just a small matter after all.

In fact, the three imperial concubines were only in their thirties, which would still be young people in modern times, not to mention the sixteen-year-old Princess An and the eight-year-old Princess Zhi.

Although they lived in the imperial palace, before Xie Pei ascended the throne, they lived worse than ordinary palace maids.

These are just gossip. Su Wan looked at Xie Pei worriedly.

Since that day, Xie Pei has been acting strange. He was the one who was suddenly in a bad mood, and he was also the one who suddenly wanted to get married.

In the end, she hugged him for so long without saying anything and almost bit him.

Why is Xie Pei becoming more and more difficult to understand?

Since she had nothing to do recently, Su Wan simply went to the kitchen to make an ice drink.

Although the popularity of folk ice drinks has skyrocketed this year due to the release of her previous record of ice drinks, Su Wan naturally has some other little tricks up her sleeve.

All those desserts we had before were not in vain!

The ice drink made this time requires the same thing that was made during last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival: osmanthus sugar.

Last year, the two celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chonghua Palace, and picked osmanthus flowers from the palace to make candy and porridge.

But since the New Year, there has been almost no rest, because Huaizong died, and then Xie Pei ascended the throne, and so on.

However, Su Wan had brought the jar of osmanthus sugar with her this time when she set out to the palace. She would take it out and make part of it into osmanthus frosted hibiscus drink, and the other part into small sugar cubes that she could eat at any time.

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm coaxing a child?

Su Wan smiled and moved more gently.

Hibiscus drink is made by simmering lotus juice and osmanthus syrup over low heat, then adding it to ice milk tea, squeezing soft cream on top, and finally spreading a layer of hardened osmanthus sugar crumbs, and then garnishing it with a beautiful lotus flower.

Such a beautiful iced drink is eye-catching.

When Su Wan was cooking in the small kitchen of Yuhua Palace, many people gathered around to watch.

The remaining osmanthus candy was cut into small pieces and put into a small box, and all was given to Xie Pei.

Because the sweet-scented osmanthus frosted hibiscus drink was so beautiful, it could only be given behind people's back, otherwise it would definitely become a topic of conversation.

So when Xie Pei just returned to the bedroom and saw such a delicious iced drink, he was actually a little amused.

It really looks good, and it really tastes good.

Luckily there was no one around.

After Xie Pei finished his ice drink, he laughed at himself again.

Why bother with Su Wan? You know she doesn't like to think about these things. Just wait a little longer. As long as she is not rejected, it will be a good thing.

When the two met again, people around them could clearly feel that they had reconciled!

The emotions of young people are really hard to understand.

The Grand Secretary of Zhongji Palace opened his mouth several times but in the end he couldn't get the answer. Forget it, let's talk about it after returning to Kyoto, this is not the important thing now.

The hunt has entered its third day. According to the news from inside, as they are familiar with the terrain, two teams from Tianxiang Kingdom are still in the lead, but the Shiyi Clan and the Muyan Clan are closely behind. The fight within has become intense and it is not uncommon for them to fight when they meet.

Su Wan asked people to prepare some extra high-calorie snacks to replenish energy and send them over. She gave them to her own people as well. After all, they were just snacks, so naturally they wouldn't say much. Everyone tacitly agreed not to mention the matter.

There must be home field advantage!

High-calorie snacks are basically made with lots of oil and sugar. These two things are quite common in the imperial palace or Kyoto, but not so common in other places. However, they allow many people to enjoy a delicious snack and feel grateful for the court's care.

The hunting continued until the end of the fifth day, and everyone came back one after another early in the morning of the sixth day.

Dozens of teams returned with full loads, with expressions of uncontrollable joy on their faces. They even had a few wild boars weighing several hundred kilograms and with very long tusks as trophies, which were considered large animals.

The Northern Alliance returned early and are clearly still slacking off.

When the time was almost up, the Shiyi clan, the Muyan clan, the Songsheng team, and the Zhou Gongzi team finally arrived.

All four teams were furious, and there were obvious signs of a fight, but this matter would never end if it was argued over.

So we just stopped arguing and used the hunting objects as the winner.

Because it was the final competition, Xie Pei, the three tribal leaders, and all the civil and military officials of Tianxiang State were present.

Looking at the aggressive young men, I suddenly felt that no matter whether I win or lose, the purpose of the training has been achieved.

Although only five days have passed, seeing everyone's bloodiness, it was all worth it.

Su Wan and the others felt that winning or losing was not that important at the moment, but the young Song Sheng was also holding his breath and was determined to see who was the better.

The final inventory process is particularly tense. The size of the animals will get how many points, which has been determined in advance, so now all we have to do is count the points.

Every extra point the opponent scores reduces your chances of winning.

So the final four teams all looked troubled.

Needless to say, the Tianxiang team looked unhappy.

The Mu Yan tribe simply lost the competition and would be ashamed to return to the grassland. For a moment, they also felt that the Shi Yi tribe that caused the trouble was really hateful. Why did they come to the Tian Xiang Kingdom for a competition for no reason? They thought they had a sure win, but now they are neither winning nor losing. It is really embarrassing.

After all, he came all the way here to cause trouble, but what was the result?

But compared with the Mu Yan clan, the Shi Yi clan is really embarrassed.

They thought they would definitely have a chance of winning against the current Tianxiang Kingdom, but who knew that they would be frustrated from the very beginning and suffer a series of failures afterwards.

I can't achieve complete victory in the competition now. If I go back like this, it won't be as glorious as I imagined.

Why was Tianxiang Kingdom able to recover so quickly?

Relying on these poorly trained civilians and those young masters who are just fancy-faced?

From what he had heard before, he learned that the Tianxiang Kingdom was simply unable to organize its people.

Could the mess left by Emperor Huaizong really be cleaned up so quickly? It had been less than a year since the current emperor took the throne. Could he really have managed to hold up the situation?

This made the leader of the Shiyi clan feel vaguely that if he had taken action earlier and come to cause trouble before the emperor died, he would surely succeed.

Who could have thought that the current emperor would be so difficult to deal with.

But it's no use regretting now. Only by winning this competition can I save face and avoid being slapped in the face by being accused of coming all the way here on my own initiative.

Since Ujiyoshi has such an idea, he will not just sit there and wait for defeat.

They just winked at each other and looked at the Mu Yan tribe next to them.

Now there are only four teams that have not been counted, and all the prey that have been counted will be marked, so if we want to increase the number now, we can only start from the Mu Yan tribe.

It’s because the Mu Yan tribe is the closest, and the two teams from the Tian Xiang Kingdom have been on guard against them.

In other words, in order to ensure victory, the Shiyi clan wanted the prey hunted by the Muyan clan to belong to them, and they had to give them at least a dozen prey, so that they could be sure of winning.

The leader of the Shiyi tribe has already ordered people to contact the Muyan tribe. I don’t know what benefits he promised, but he is muttering something anyway.

After doing these things secretly, they began to officially count the prey caught by each team.

Of course, all this was done without the knowledge of Tianxiang Kingdom.

Although the Mu Yan clan was unhappy, the conditions offered by the Shi Yi clan were too generous, and even he could not help but be tempted.

On the other side, Su Wan was also in the crowd. Everyone looked particularly nervous at this moment. At a glance, the number of prey brought back by everyone should be about the same.

But in the end only one team can come out on top.

It must be the Tianxiang Kingdom team, otherwise this autumn hunt will definitely be lost.

The reputation of Tianxiang Kingdom will plummet in the future. Although it is not very good now, at least it can rely on the afterglow of the past to hold on. This time it depends on whether it can continue to hold on or be directly exposed.

Su Wan's eyes were also on this, but there were too many people coming and going. After all, there were fifteen people in a team. They were going back and forth to treat the wounded, and it looked a little messy.

Seeing this, Su Wan immediately found someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and had the scene clearly divided. Each team was in a separate area, and the team that had just competed was asked to stand back so as not to disturb the team whose numbers had not yet been counted.

The most important thing is to make the people and prey on the scene clear at a glance to avoid trouble.

In less than an incense stick of time, under the coordination of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the four teams were clearly separated, which made the Shiyi clan and the Muyan clan, who had just started to take advantage of the situation, frown.

They only gave four or five prey, and then they were separated.

The teams are now divided too clearly. If the Mu Yan tribe's prey is secretly given to the Shi Yi tribe again, it will be too obvious.

For a moment the scene became quiet, with only the sound of the ceremonial officer counting the prey.

The first thing to be counted was the prey of the Mu Yan tribe. There were a total of thirty-seven prey of different sizes. Based on the size, a total of 228 points were scored.

This score is already the highest in the game, much higher than the previous eleven teams that returned.

In five days, we hunted thirty-seven prey, including several large Leiwu. This record is already very good.

In the order they returned, next was Master Zhou's team.

They killed a total of thirty-eight prey and scored two hundred and thirty, which was two points higher than the Mu Yan tribe.

The Mu Yan clan members looked unhappy, but also showed a slight disdain.

This expression made Su Wan feel a little strange.

Under what circumstances would one still be disdainful even though one has lost?

During this period, Su Wan also got to know a little about these foreign tribes. Not to mention the Northern Army Alliance, the oasis near their tribe has become more and more prosperous in the past decade or so. With God's blessing, the stream coming down from the snow-capped mountains has almost become as wide as a river in recent years.

There are such rivers on the grassland, and the banks are enough to give birth to a splendid civilization.

The Northern Alliance tribesmen who depend on this beautiful river now have a home to survive, so they especially cherish the days of peace and stability.

They didn't want to get involved with the Shiyi clan and the Muyan clan at all.

There is no need to say more about the Shiyi tribe. They have a vague feeling that they have become the largest tribe on the grassland, so they are particularly aggressive in doing things, and are also a bit rude, unreasonable and arrogant, but their strength is indeed strong.

But in Su Wan's opinion, the most insidious group is the Mu Yan clan, who seem to be causing trouble all the time.

When Shigizu was late on purpose, it was also because they wanted to stir up a dispute. It looked like they were doing it to stand up for Shigizu, but in fact they just wanted to embarrass both sides.

This time, the Ujiyoshi clan wanted to come to the Autumn Hunt to slap the face of the Tianxiang Kingdom, and they were very active.

The various competitions in the autumn hunting not only showed off their talents, but also put the Yoshitsugu clan in the lead.

So their current ugly and disdainful expressions always make people think deeply.

Now the team led by Master Zhou of Tianxiang Kingdom is temporarily in the lead, and is about to catch up with the team led by Yoshitsugu and the father and son of Matsuo, and everyone is even more worried.

According to what everyone had inquired, the number of prey they caught was always about the same, and in the later stages of hunting, they not only had to hunt, but also had to guard against attacks from the other side, so everyone was in a state of disarray.

Now it depends on who will win. The gap between everyone should be very small.

"Wait." The leader of the Shigi clan spoke slowly, "Since there are only two teams left, why not count them together? Wouldn't it be more interesting that way?"

If you count both sides together, it will become particularly clear who wins and who loses.

Xie Pei nodded slightly, and the people around him had no time to stop him.

If we count like this, the loser will be very embarrassed!

It's really not nice to have so many people watching.

However, when Su Wan saw Xie Pei nod, she felt relieved. Did he know something, which is why he was so calm?

Based on her understanding of Xie Pei, this must be the case.

The count on the field continued little by little, and as it got closer to the end, everyone's heart tightened.

"Matsuo's team, forty-seven prey, a total of three hundred and fifty-two points!"

Forty-seven???

Just now, the Mu Yan clan was ranked thirty-seventh, and Young Master Zhou's team was ranked thirty-eighth. They had already surpassed many teams, and now they jumped directly to forty-seventh?

As expected, it is the team of Matsuo and his son, as well as the women who are able to identify terrain and herbs.

That’s awesome!

There were clearly faint cheers coming from the Tianxiang Kingdom, but no one was celebrating too obviously, and the number of the Shiyi clan had not yet been reported.

"The Shigi clan team, forty-nine prey, a total of three hundred and fifty-five points."

Forty-nine?!

There are actually forty-nine of them?

For a moment, the only sound heard on the field was the laughter of the leader of the Shiyi clan.

"Tianxiang Country is nothing special. My people have traveled a long distance, but they are still better than you who are familiar with the terrain. Hahahaha, it's really refreshing."

The people of the Mu Yan tribe naturally followed suit and laughed.

Even though the discovery was small, it was still the Shiki clan that won!

The grassland tribe also won!

"What Tianxiang Country? I think it's time to change."

"That's right. Are they worthy of being a great country in the Central Plains? They are even worse than the tribes on the grassland."

"Look at the boys here, and then look at ours. Each generation is getting worse than the previous one, isn't it?"

Xie Pei listened quietly to their ridicule. Su Wan looked down again, her eyes sweeping over the prey on the ground and then over the crowd.

Something is wrong.

It's a bow and arrow, it's arrow marks.

Tianxiang Kingdom had already made a mark.

The arrow marks of each team were slightly different. Su Wan remembered that the Ministry of Industry had already made such bows and arrows. They looked the same on the outside, with the same arrow handles and arrow bodies.

But the tip of the arrow in front will change.

Sure enough, the assistant minister under the Ministry of Works stood up and exclaimed.

"What's going on? Why are there traces of Mu Yan Clan arrows in the Shi Yi Clan's prey?"

What arrow-handle marks?

Now everyone on the field quieted down.

Not to mention the Mu Yan clan, even the Shi Yi clan couldn't understand it, and the Tian Xiang kingdom only had a vague understanding of it.

The minister stepped forward, pulled out two arrows from the Shiyi Clan and the Muyan Clan, and said, "Everyone can see that the bows and arrows this time were specially provided by our Ministry of War. The arrows of each of the fifteen teams have been marked without affecting their use."

"Different arrows leave different marks."

"There are actually traces of arrows left by the Muyan Clan on the prey of the Shiyi Clan?"

Su Wan listened to the minister's fluent explanation and sighed in her heart.

No matter how you play tricks, you still can't beat these ministers of Tianxiang Kingdom. They have set up the trap long ago, waiting for you to fall into it.

As the situation on the field suddenly reversed, I heard people from other teams also took out their bows and arrows for comparison.

"Yes, each of us has a different arrow tip, so the marks we leave are also different."

“Although the marks are very small, if you look closely, you can still see the difference.”

"Isn't this cheating?"

"Is there really a traitor in the Muyan tribe, or are the Muyan tribe subordinate to the Shiyi tribe?"

"It's really shameful. If you can't win, then forget it. Why do you still use these little tricks?"

"I say you are barbarians, you really are barbarians, do you know what propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame are?"

"Oh my god, you guys are so proud of your grades even though you got them by cheating. How can you be so embarrassed?"

The mocking words just now are now returned to me tenfold or a hundredfold.

The ceremonial officer did not need to be told and immediately recounted the number.

The final results are as follows.

The Mu Yan tribe team had forty-two prey, for a total of two hundred and forty points. Their prey were numerous, but generally small, so the total score was not that high.

Zhou Gongzi's team had thirty-eight prey, two hundred and thirty points.

The Shiyi clan team had forty-five members and three hundred and forty-three points.

Songsheng team, forty-seven members, three hundred and fifty-two points.

It is clear who wins and who loses.

The team led by the Matsuo father and son, with 90% awareness, directly became the first in this year's autumn hunting!

Not only is it the first place, but it is also the first place with honor!