Chapter 689: Fighting Chao Li (Part 3) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
Sibao County, government office.
The area in front of the government office was now crowded with people.
A minor official sat at the door, writing and registering names.
The line was very long, with men and women, young and old, all dressed in coarse clothes made of hemp cloth. This material was not warm, and even though the common people added reeds and willow catkins as stuffing and wore several layers, they were still shivering with cold.
Those who hadn't yet received their turn could only hug themselves and stomp their feet to keep warm.
At the head of the line, the junior official asked, "What's your name?"
"My name is Wang Tieniu."
The clerk wrote a name and number on a blank bamboo slip, handed it to Wang Tieniu, and pointed behind him, saying, "Take this and follow the path marked by the rope. Don't look around too much, and don't wander off either, understand?"
Wang Tieniu accepted the gift with profuse thanks.
The clerk called out to the back, "Next."
What is the Sibao County government doing?
This matter dates back to a few days ago.
That day, a notice was suddenly posted at the government office, stating that any commoner from Sibao County, aged between six and thirty-six, with a presentable appearance, could come to the office to participate in the selection process. The winner would be rewarded with a bolt of silk cloth, while those who didn't receive a consolation prize of half a pound of pork and a pound of cotton. The commoners didn't know what cotton was, but they knew what pork was!
I reckon this cotton can also be used for stir-frying.
How many families only eat meat during holidays and festivals throughout the year?
They'd rather have this half-pound of meat than the cotton!
People flocked to inquire about how to win the prize, but the official in charge remained tight-lipped, only saying that coming to participate was enough. The common people were apprehensive, but unable to resist the temptation of half a pound of meat, they decided to give it a try. Wang Tieniu was no exception. It was his first time entering a prefectural government office, and even without the clerk's instructions, he dared not look around, keeping his head down and following the line.
This place was an abandoned outer courtyard of the government office, which was now simply cleaned up and put into use. There were people outside the door who were in charge of collecting the bamboo strips, and they pointed to the room and said, "Don't be nervous, go in."
He came out in less than fifteen minutes.
He was carrying half a pound of pork and cotton in his hands.
The villagers who were still in line hurriedly asked him about the situation inside.
Wang Tieniu said blankly, "...I don't know what the big shots inside are doing, they just want to see how happy we are, how angry we are, how sad we are...Aren't they just bored?"
He was still in a daze when he received the consolation prize.
You got the reward so easily?
Isn't this easier than finding something for free?
I never expected these bigwigs in the government to have this kind of hobby.
The villagers were completely confused.
As more and more ordinary people received consolation prizes, three pieces of news spread like wildfire throughout Xiaocheng. First, the high-ranking officials had strange quirks; second, the pork served at the government offices smelled so good it made people drool; and third, the cotton wasn't a vegetable but a warming substance.
Although it was only a pound of cotton, it was warmer than four or five coarse linen garments stuffed with catkins. The government also announced that cotton would be planted on a large scale in Sibao County. By next winter, they would be able to buy these garments at a low price.
For a time, any family with cotton-padded winter clothes would attract countless envious glances, and only close relatives and friends could try them on for a short while. Once wrapped in the cotton-padded clothes, the chilly body that was leaking out everywhere would be warmed up.
The common people eagerly awaited this.
Astute businessmen are even more likely to spot opportunities.
They spent a lot of money cultivating relationships with government officials, subtly inquiring about cotton matters. If they could buy it first and smuggle it elsewhere at a high price, the profit would be enormous!
However, promoting cotton was not the primary objective.
The government's ultimate goal was to establish an opera troupe!
In the words of our lord, it's about adapting the story into a film or television series!
The selection of talented actors these past few days was precisely for this purpose, and also to promote cotton through the event, facilitating future marketing. After all the busy work, cotton has certainly gained widespread recognition, but there are still very few people with acting talent.
Her appearance wasn't outstanding, at best she could be considered decent-looking, but that wasn't a problem. With Clerk Qi around, how many beauties couldn't be made later? Because Shen Tang had only given Lin Feng a general idea and provided a general direction, without going into specifics, the "storybook adaptation" plan had to rely solely on everyone's imagination. This truly stumped the group that remained behind.
In the end, it was Liao Jia who came to the rescue.
Simply put, he's seen a lot.
As a gifted illegitimate son of a small royal family, Liao Jia was used to banquets and dances. He figured that adapting a story into a film or television series would be similar, the difference being that the former involved singing and dancing, while the latter involved reading the story directly from the script. With appropriate set design, it should be pretty close. However, it's easier said than done. The common people are basically illiterate, so how difficult is it for them to memorize long passages of dialogue?
Liao Jia sighed, "This is too difficult..."
It is difficult to make the selected candidates memorize the dialogue.
It's even more difficult to get them to portray the characters in the story.
Couldn't Lin Feng collect some stories with characters whose identities are closer to those of ordinary people? The characters are either princes or nobles, and scholars and warriors are standard features. Even if the protagonist is a commoner, his social class will change later in the story.
so--
"This 'five elements lacking virtue' is truly lacking virtue!"
But the thought that if the plan succeeded, the government could use it to influence the thoughts and ideas of the common people under its jurisdiction made it all worthwhile.
Liao Jia kept muttering to himself until he caught a sudden whiff of blood. Following the scent, he pointed at Qi Shan's hand and said, "Yuan Liang, what happened to your hand...?"
Qi Shan was also looking at her own palm.
A wound pierced through his palm.
Extremely violent martial energy clung to the area around the wound, and Liao Jia abruptly stood up on guard. Qi Shan remained calm: "It's nothing, it's just that there's movement on the lord's side. He must have encountered a formidable enemy."
He calmly tore off a strip of cloth and used it to bandage the wound.
Just as I was about to stand up, a sharp pain shot through my shoulder.
Qi Shan swayed twice and fell forward. Liao Jia quickly caught him, and the hand on Qi Shan's shoulder was soon stained red with warm blood. Qi Shan took a deep breath and said, "Help me to the side room, and then go and ask Doctor Dong to come over."
Dr. Dong clearly knew something.
Upon hearing that Qi Shan was injured, they hurriedly carried their medicine kit on their backs.
When he arrived, Qi Shan had seven wounds. Doctor Dong removed his clothes, and Liao Jia's eyes widened in shock when he saw the wounds. The other wounds weren't fatal, except for the one from his shoulder to his abdomen…
This was the first time Dr. Dong had ever seen it.
He said, "Please, clerk, use your literary energy to protect your heart meridian."
The circulation of Qi can accelerate the healing of injuries.
Qi Shan said, "We're protecting it."
After all, he valued his life.
The old doctor took out the silver needles and burned them with fire.
Although a scholar's literary aura can stop bleeding, combining it with acupuncture will produce faster results. Just as Physician Dong was about to insert the needle, another gash suddenly appeared on Qi Shan's arm, spurting blood. He sighed, "What kind of opponent has Lord Shen encountered?"
Because Dr. Dong had treated Qi Shan several times, he hadn't hidden the origin of the wound from him. As a doctor, he was always amazed by the wonders of this world. There really were people in this world who could share another's pain across thousands of miles!
Qi Shan's face lost its color due to blood loss.
Even speaking was somewhat difficult for him.
He said, "He must be even stronger than Gongxi Chou."
"That's a formidable opponent!" said Dr. Dong.
Qi Shan looked down at the wound on his chest, from which blood continued to seep out, but felt fortunate. His scholarly way could alleviate half of Shen Tang's injuries. If all these injuries had been inflicted on her, she wouldn't have died, but she would have been in a difficult situation.
Just then, a mouthful of blood spilled from his throat.
Dr. Dong calmly handed him a handkerchief.
“Please, Clerk, wipe it.”
Liao Jia looked at Qi Shan: "Yuan Liang, you..."
Qi Shan said, "Don't worry, the lord won't die there."
Even if the King of Hell came, she wouldn't die!
Liao Jia's brows furrowed so deeply they could form several knots, suppressing his anger: "Jia isn't worried about the lord, he's worried about you! Qi Yuanliang, with such serious injuries, how can you still laugh?"
Are you really not afraid of Ga anymore?
Qi Shan smiled and replied, "It was indeed pleasant."
Liao Jia: "..."
Qi Shan said, "Because I feel at ease now."
He raised his hand, carefully feeling the pain and wounds that weren't his own coming from inside his body, and felt a sense of pleasure.
These wounds prove that Shen Tang always trusted him.
She was always the lord he longed for, and the most important person to him in this world. He would never again experience the agony of watching someone important die before his eyes, a agony he could do nothing about. That heart-wrenching pain would have extinguished all his will to live. This slightly morbid pleasure was something Liao Jia could never understand; it was truly a pity for him.
Liao Jia: "..."
He didn't feel any regret at all.
Use your spiritual power to help Qishan recover his depleted spiritual energy.
Qi Shan sincerely said, "Thank you."
Liao Jia: "If you die, who will I collect my debts from?"
More wounds appeared afterward, but none were fatal; the sheer number of them was terrifying: "You're lucky you didn't die from all that!"
Qi Shan was not ashamed: "A scourge lives on for a thousand years!"
Liao Jia and Dr. Dong stayed by his side for two hours.
As darkness fell, Liao Jia instructed the official cook to prepare a nourishing medicinal meal for Qi Shan to replenish his blood and energy. He had assumed the battle was nearing its end, but the standoff had stretched into a full day and night. Qi Shan had replenished his spiritual energy several times. While his dantian could be replenished, the physical and mental exhaustion was much harder to recover from; he could barely maintain consciousness. Then, suddenly, his previously abundant dantian was completely drained of spiritual energy, and Qi Shan abruptly closed his eyes. Liao Jia was terrified, thinking he had passed away.
Dr. Dong examined the pulse.
"She has fallen into a deep sleep."
Liao Jia asked, "The person isn't dead?"
Dr. Dong said confidently, "Yes, he's alive."
At the same time, they also discovered that after Qi Shan fell into a deep sleep, no new wounds appeared on his body. This proved that the battle on Lord Shen's side had temporarily come to an end. Looking at the peacefully sleeping Qi Shan, Physician Dong said, "It was a fierce battle!"
Liao Jia said with great concern, "I don't know how the game will turn out."
Doctor Dong said, "Shen Junwu is destined for great things. Even if she encounters some setbacks, I believe she will eventually overcome them."
The battlefield was far more brutal than the two had imagined.
This story begins the very first day, with Huang Lie's order, "All troops, attack!" Jiang Ao, confident in his strength, naturally wanted to settle the matter with three duels. With his 100,000 elite troops and the morale boost from consecutive victories, crushing these weaklings in front of him was no problem.
As for the allied forces refusing to engage in duels and instead going straight to war?
This possibility did not exist in Jiang Ao's mind.
He was certain the coalition forces didn't have the courage!
The reason was simple: the allied forces were already weaker than their own, and if they gave up the opportunity to duel—even if the chances of winning were slim, what if they succeeded? Cao Jie always liked to harbor a "what if" mentality. As it turned out, things didn't go as he expected.
He provoked and suppressed Huang Lie, forcing him to send people.
Huang Lie actually produced someone, a young scholar who knew about his humiliating history, someone who had brought him great shame back then! But what was even more shameful was that Chu Yao ordered him to "silence him" in front of both armies, which was no different from slapping him.
Jiang Ao's anger surged to its peak.
"You're all courting death!" He forcefully broke through the [Silence Seal] with his martial energy, and the sudden reversal of his blood and qi made his face turn purple.
The thunderous war drums roared like a ferocious beast in grief and rage, and the battlefield was illuminated by beams of martial and literary energy, strong or weak, causing the surrounding天地气 (heaven and earth energy) to tremble. Shouts of battle rang out, and the vanguard cavalry of the two armies clashed first, with weapons clashing everywhere.
Even more furious than Jiang Ao were the Allied military commanders.
From within the crowd, several weapons flew out, leaving trails of different colors in the air. There was only one target—
Sixteenth-grade Grand Master, Jiang Ao.
Jiang Ao didn't take these childish tricks seriously. He simply stomped his foot on the ground, creating a violent commotion as if the earth were turning over, and cracks shot towards the allied forces. A vast and surging martial energy erupted in all directions, colliding head-on with the weapons. The air distorted, rippling with countless colorless waves.
He arrogantly replied, "Mere ants, a trivial skill!"
A single glance sent ordinary soldiers within its reach exploding to their deaths, blood splattering everywhere, leaving no trace of their bodies. In the eyes of a martial artist of this level, ordinary people were indeed ants; even martial artists below the sixth rank were merely slightly stronger ants. The former could be killed with a single look, while the latter required only a flick of the wrist or a twitch of the foot.
But is there a difference in the results?
It makes no difference; we all have to die!
"You're the only one left on the family's household registration book. No wonder you're so arrogant. So you're a barefoot orphan, fearless of heaven and earth?"
Those weapons couldn't hit Jiang Ao, but Shen Tang and Shao Chong were able to get close to him, along with the [Five Virtues of a General] incantation. Jiang Ao laughed at the seemingly harmless Mother's Sword in Shen Tang's hand, and he pinched it between his fingers.
To everyone's surprise, the expected fatality of the sword breaking did not occur.
An iron claw came slashing towards me.
The target was his eyeballs.
Jiang Ao raised an eyebrow and finally drew his weapon.
With a loud bang, both sides temporarily retreated.
Shen Tang said, "You should expose his skull."
Shao Chong did not accept Shen Tang's suggestion.
"But I'd rather gouge out his eyeballs."
Shen Tang stared at Jiang Ao, provoking him: "Fine, you gouge out his eyeballs, and I'll be responsible for opening his skull to see what kind of shit and pee stuff is inside!"
Jiang Ao did not know Shen Tang.
As for Shao Chong, he had seen him in the intelligence reports, but a mere fifteenth-rank junior officer was nothing to fear. He also planned to use this battle to wipe out the Allied forces' top fighting force. He wanted to prove his strength with enough military achievements to silence the doubters.
only--
Two such young rivals.
Whom does this mean they look down on?
_(:з」∠)_
Congratulations! We've taken the top spot on the monthly ticket rankings in February, completing 2/12 of our twelve-month winning streak.
(End of this chapter)
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