Fanning City.
Guan Tong frowned again.
Someone just reported that the envoys from the Yu Dynasty are setting up camp outside the city and cooking... What does this mean?
You can't just wait here with an empty stomach while they eat and drink comfortably.
Guan Tong sneered, "Then let them do whatever they want."
He looked at Wen Canghai and said, "Brother Canghai, it looks like they'll have to spend the night outside the city. Well, let's take this opportunity to get together with the envoys and students from Fan, Yi, and Huang. Let's have a drink and talk about poetry and prose. I think they'd be happy to hear the story of Fu Xiaoguan."
Wen Canghai sighed, "This time we've come to Fanning to welcome students from various countries. Since His Majesty has ordered you to be the head of the Ceremony Hall, I naturally cannot object to your arrangement. But there is one thing I must remind you, Master Guan. Some things should be left at the right time. I'm afraid you still don't know enough about Fu Xiaoguan. Too much is as bad as too little!"
As he spoke, he lifted the carriage curtain and continued, "If you think you can inspire the arrogance of the students from these three kingdoms to put pressure on that young official Fu... you probably have some misunderstanding about the art of literature. Literary talent is actually 90% innate. Let me put it this way: all the students from these three kingdoms combined wouldn't even be worthy of carrying young official Fu's shoes!"
He got off the carriage and said, "This is exactly why His Majesty is interested in Fu Xiaoguan. As for the rest, I will not accompany you any longer!"
He lowered the curtain and drove away.
Guan Tong's eyes widened in anger as he spit out a vicious remark: "Old bastard! You're only boosting others' ambitions and destroying your own prestige. Are you truly worthy of your great scholar father?"
…
…
The camp of the Yu Dynasty delegation was very lively.
The students didn't know the situation, and Fu Xiaoguan had no intention of telling them.
After dinner, Xu Huaishu and Xue Pinggui found Fu Xiaoguan at the same time.
Xu Huaishu said with a worried look on his face: "Just wasting time like this?"
The implication is that just wasting time like this is not a solution. Should we ask Xie Xifeng to go into the city to urge them to hurry up?
Fu Xiaoguan smiled and said, "What's the point of wasting time? Tomorrow morning..."
He looked at Xue Pinggui and said, "At the beginning of the morning hour, remember, we must break camp and set out."
Xue Pinggui was startled, "Where are you going?"
"Of course I go back!"
Xue Pinggui and Xu Huaishu looked at each other in bewilderment. They had come so far with great effort, and they only had one day's journey to reach Guanyun City, but you said you wanted to go back!
"Go back? How can I face His Majesty when I go back?" Xu Huaishu suddenly felt that he should not listen to Fu Xiaoguan on this matter. After all, he was young and hot-headed, but he didn't know what kind of impact this fit of anger would bring to the Yu Dynasty!
That would be a disgrace to Emperor Wen. If Emperor Wen uses this as an excuse to send troops to Qishan again, even if Fu Xiaoguan has a hundred heads, they would not be enough for Your Majesty to chop off.
"You can't let go of your face, but my old face doesn't matter. Let me talk."
Xu Huaishu turned to leave, but Fu Xiaoguan grabbed him.
His expression became extremely serious, and his tone was extremely earnest: "I have the final say on this trip! This is not a matter of face between you and me, this is a matter of face for the Yu Dynasty and His Majesty! Remember, this damn Wen Conference is worthless in my eyes! Our failure to attend is not our fault, but Emperor Wen's own fault. I know what you are worried about, and I can tell you very clearly that Emperor Wen will not send troops to Qishan. So, if you make contact with people from the Wu Dynasty without authorization, don't blame me for being blind!"
These words were full of murderous intent. In Xue Pinggui's eyes, he absolutely believed that if Xu Huaishu went against Fu Xiaoguan's wishes, Fu Xiaoguan would really chop Xu Huaishu down on the spot!
This was the first time that Xu Huaishu saw Fu Xiaoguan with such a stern expression and tone. He was suddenly shocked and remembered that Fu Xiaoguan had not yet recognized him as his uncle. He also remembered that this kid had actually chopped many people with a knife.
He wanted to explain the reason to Fu Xiaoguan, but unexpectedly, Fu Xiaoguan grinned again and said, "Don't worry, if Guan Tong doesn't want to lose his head, he will come after us tomorrow."
"I'll handle everything then. Give the order to rest early tonight and break camp and retreat on time at the beginning of the morning hour tomorrow!"
On the Half Moon Tower in Fanning City, Guan Tong hosted a banquet for the students and envoys from the Three Kingdoms, and also made it clear that Fu Xiaoguan and his entourage from the Yu Dynasty were being left outside the city by him.
"He did write the book Dream of the Red Chamber, and he did leave his name on the Three Thousand Stone Tablets, but so what? I can leave him hanging if I want, and I can leave him hanging for as long as I want. As for why... there's no reason. I just don't like him!"
"You are all the elites of your respective nations. I have a piece of news to share with you. His Majesty is using this literary gathering to select a son-in-law. He's not recruiting a consort, but... to marry off Her Royal Highness Princess Taiping!"
When the students heard this, they were immediately shocked!
Princess Taiping, Wu Zhao and Wu Ling'er, are both beautiful women with both literary and martial talents!
They had never even thought about this before. Firstly, Wu Linger was a princess of the Wu Dynasty, and the only princess at that. Her status was so high that it was far beyond the reach of these students.
Secondly, the princess's son-in-law is naturally the prince consort. They are not from the Wu Dynasty and do not want to be the prince consort.
Now when he heard that Princess Taiping was actually marrying down... that means she was going to follow her husband. If he got Princess Taiping, he would have the support of Emperor Wen. No matter which country it was, this would be a great achievement and he would definitely receive a huge reward from the monarch!
One of the ten literati from the Wilderness Country was Tuoba Yuan, the fifth son of Tuoba Qiu.
Most of what he learned came from his father, and Tuoba Qiu's knowledge came from the Jixia Academy of the Yu Dynasty.
In order to make Tuoba Yuan familiar with the culture of the Yu Dynasty, Tuoba Qiu invited teachers from the Yu Dynasty. Therefore, in the Huang Kingdom, Tuoba Yuan was regarded as a truly knowledgeable person.
He had also read Fu Xiaoguan's Dream of the Red Chamber and those poems and essays, and he knew in his heart that Fu Xiaoguan was indeed amazing, but since ancient times, scholars have looked down on each other. He still felt that he was probably a little better than Fu Xiaoguan. After all, his poems and essays were also widely sung in the deserted country.
Hearing Guan Tong's news, he immediately perked up, thinking that if he could marry Princess Taiping and have the support of the Wu Dynasty, the chaos in the Huangting Court would be settled as soon as possible.
Those damn tribal leaders are a bunch of short-sighted people!
If it weren't for their obstruction, my royal brother Tuoba Feng would have led his troops south and would have spent last winter in Xinzhou City!
Such a good opportunity forced the emperor's brother to give it up and instead adopt the strategy of marrying the third princess of the Yu Dynasty to balance the situation.
But that young official Fu came up with a bad idea - to build a palace!
It's a pity that a group of herdsmen on the grassland suddenly had to undertake such a huge project, which really put them in a difficult position.
The tribal leaders couldn't even see such an obvious layout!
A bunch of idiots!
This man, Fu Xiaoguan, must be executed!
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