The Sea Festival celebrations are still ongoing.
Tokugawa Iemochi swayed as he got up, then rattled off a long string of words before clapping his hands, his voice thick with the effects of alcohol.
The crowd began to cheer, and the distinctive music of Dongpango began to play.
"They must be about to put on a show!" Lin Mo guessed...
Until several extremely short celebrities came into view.
"Holy crap, a dwarf?" he couldn't help but exclaim.
Two dwarf performers ascended the platform, one riding a long-legged, large-mouthed greyhound, the other a spotted sow. They wielded wooden swords and wore utterly comical "armor"!
"What's going on?" Lin Mo asked, puzzled. "What kind of performance are we going to do?"
As the animals moved, the painted wooden armor on the dwarf performers clanged and banged.
The two dwarf performers proudly raised their spears and carried shields larger than themselves, shaking them and shouting from time to time, which looked particularly comical.
At this moment, Lin Mo suddenly noticed that one of the dwarfs was covered in black armor, with a shield painted with the image of a nine-clawed golden dragon from the Great Xia Dynasty; the other knight was dressed in gray and white, and was decorated with the emblem of the Uesugi family of Dongpango.
"Could it be... a reenactment of my battle with Uesugi Kenshin?" Lin Mo thought to himself. "Wow, this is interesting. They dare to do something like this!"
Lin Mo looked at the laughing faces on the high platform: Tokugawa Iemochi was so happy that his face was flushed and he could hardly breathe; his advisors were chuckling elegantly.
As the dwarfs stopped below the platform to pay their respects to Tokugawa Iemochi, one of the dwarfs performing the role of the Great Xia cavalryman dropped his shield in the chaos. He bent down to pick it up, while the Uesugi cavalryman simultaneously lost his grip on his lance, resulting in the weapon slamming into the wolf rider's back with a "bang," knocking him off the pig.
Then the two of them got into a mess, and things became tangled up on the floor.
Once they got back to their feet, they ran off to ride the dogs together, which was followed by another round of shouting, fighting, and pushing.
Finally, the two dwarfs remounted, but they swapped mounts, took the wrong shields, and sat facing the wrong way.
After another ridiculous settling-in, the two finally rode to opposite sides of the hallway, ready to fight.
The dwarfs came running with a "thump-thump" sound, and collided violently. The lances of the Xia cavalrymen hit the helmets of the Sumerian cavalrymen, knocking the helmets off.
"Yameru, Yamedasai!"
A storm of laughter swept through the hall.
After everyone's laughter subsided, the dwarfs circled around each other again, hurling all sorts of lewd and obscene insults, preparing for the second round of the contest.
Suddenly, the greyhound abandoned the cavalryman and mounted the sow.
The sow screamed pitifully in protest, and the onlookers burst into laughter. They were especially amused when they saw the Xia cavalry take the opportunity to pin down the Uesugi cavalry, loosen their wooden breeches, and launch a fierce attack. Everyone's stomachs were about to explode with laughter.
"I surrender! I give up! I surrender!" the dwarf pinned beneath screamed. "Good warrior, please put down your spear!"
“Hahaha, I will, as long as you don’t wriggle!” the dwarf riding on top replied.
Joy reached its peak at this moment.
"Damn it, taking this opportunity to mock Uesugi Kenshin! And at the same time, he's mocking me, Lin Mo, and my Great Xia!" Lin Mo thought to himself, "With your behavior, I won't let you off the hook!"
Lin Mo's eyes were practically spitting fire; he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth!
"My lord, do not be hasty!" Xiang Yu advised, "This man will surely not live past today!"
Lin Mo suppressed his anger, then nodded and said, "Xiang Yu, have you noticed anything unusual tonight?"
"Oh? My lord, you've noticed it too?"
"Hmm!" Lin Mo said, "I think the people from Xuanhua Palace are here!"
At this moment, Tokugawa Iemochi finished the sake in the jug, so he waved to his men to bring a new jug.
Lin Mo felt that the servant who delivered the wine was somewhat...familiar!
Tokugawa Iemochi took the sake bottle and took a deep swig. He swallowed repeatedly, and the sake flowed down his chin.
Then, he grabbed some pastries and stuffed them into his mouth.
At this moment, Lin Mo noticed that Tokugawa Iemochi choked on some food, so he took another sip of sake and then started coughing.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his words were interrupted by a cough.
His retainers looked at him with concern.
"Cough cough cough!" Tokugawa Iemochi's coughing continued.
He took another sip of wine, but when another bout of coughing suddenly came, he sprayed all the wine out.
His face turned increasingly red.
Then, Tokugawa Iemochi's sake jug slipped from his hand, and Topango sake flowed onto the high platform.
"Did he choke?" Lin Mo wondered in surprise. "Or did he choke on the alcohol?"
At this moment, his retainers and warriors stepped forward.
"You damned fools, come and help the lord!" one of the retainers shouted in a loud voice. "Don't just stand there like idiots, come here, Shimizu, Shimizu!"
A samurai stepped forward to massage Tokugawa Iemochi's back. Another samurai took a short sword and used it to pry open Tokugawa Iemochi's collar.
However, Tokugawa Iemochi let out a frightening, trembling hiss from deep within his throat.
Upon seeing this, all the jubilant people began to scream.
"Holy crap, this looks like poisoning!" Lin Mo exclaimed.
"Yes, my lord, it's a colorless and odorless poison!" Xiang Yu replied.
"Turn the lord over!" Tokugawa's advisor shouted in a panic. "Turn the lord over and make him vomit up the food and wine!"
Another loud voice shouted, "The water's here! Please give the adults some water quickly!"
At that moment, Tokugawa Iemochi painfully reached for his throat, his fingernails digging bloody marks into his skin.
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