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◎Win the martial arts competition and be granted marriage!◎
Today's hunting trip was ordered by Emperor Xingwu. Regardless of whether it was intended to select a husband for Princess Qingyang, the participating military officers and sons of noble families could take this opportunity to display their riding and archery talents in front of the emperor. If they were lucky, they might be promoted to an official position. At worst, they could become famous among the royal family and court officials.
Therefore, almost all of the fifty-two people selected in advance by Emperor Xingwu were eager to win a good ranking. Qin Bing, Deng Tai, and Fan Huaian, who enjoyed the excitement of the competition, also asked to enter even though they did not meet the requirements or were too young. As for the son-in-law Fu Kui, he hoped to get a good ranking to gain the appreciation of his father-in-law, the emperor, and then reward him with an official position.
After Emperor Xingwu formally encouraged the contestants, fifty-six of them lined up on horseback at the entrance of the enclosure and galloped in to the sound of the drums signaling the start of the race.
The enclosure was too large, with grasslands, hills, and forests. People outside the enclosure naturally could not see the hunting situation inside clearly. They could only watch the results of the hunt. However, Emperor Xingwu arranged for actors and musicians to perform their skills, and the palace maids in the Western Garden brought their trained animals to perform some new tricks. In addition, the fresh fruits and delicious cakes prepared by the imperial kitchen were added. The civil and military ministers and their wives and ladies chatted with each other, and both the host and the guests were very happy.
Yongkang smiled and asked his sister, "Why is this hunting competition being held? Did Father tell you anything in advance?"
Everyone had guessed about her younger sister's marriage, so as the eldest sister, she had to make a joke.
Qingyang shook his head with a normal expression.
Meng Yao: "Father must have thought of something and wants to give my sister a surprise."
Princess Deng of Prince Yong said: "That's right. There are more than fifty handsome and valiant men. I can pick any one of them with my eyes closed, let alone the winner in the end."
After saying that, Mrs. Deng glanced at Yongkang with a smile.
Yongkang wasn't bothered by her gossip. Although his father hadn't consulted her when he arranged the marriage, Fu Daonian had served his father in the Southern Pacification and was one of the Five Marquises personally conferred upon him. Fu Kui was also handsome and dashing, standing out among the crowd. On the contrary, these martial arts competitions were fraught with uncertainty. What if the winner was a young military officer of ordinary background, or a distinguished nobleman like Fan Huaizhong? His father would have angered his sister if he had arranged the marriage, but if he hadn't, it would have seemed unfair.
Deng Chong's wife, Lady Dingguo, took a bite of melon slices and then continued her sister-in-law's question: "Wait, what if the leader is our Deng Tai?"
Mrs. Deng didn't want to bother with her foolish sister-in-law, but she had to keep a smile on her face. "With Prince Jing here, there's no chance for Deng Tai to compete. However, the Emperor made an exception and allowed them to compete. They're just joining in the fun. They might not even be counted when the scores are tallied, let alone when choosing a consort for Lin'er."
Qin Bing is the little princess's biological brother, Fu Kui is the little princess's biological brother-in-law, Deng Tai already has a wife and children, and the fourteen-year-old Fan Huaian has not even grown all his hair yet.
Imperial Concubine: "Well, perhaps this is just an ordinary hunting and martial arts viewing. Let's not speculate on the emperor's intentions."
Everyone stopped talking at this point.
Concubine Li looked at her daughter worriedly. The emperor was getting more and more infuriating as he got older. He had such a good man like Zhang Su right before his eyes, so why did he have to hold a hunting competition? What if Zhang Su was unlucky and didn't win?
Qingyang gave his mother a soothing smile in return.
My father said that my mother might not be able to keep such a happy event secret, so my father and I hid it from my mother for the time being. After all, my mother only found out a month late.
.
Inside the enclosure.
The ferocious and rare beasts that were released into the enclosure yesterday were all counted, and each species was also marked with a score. Among them, only one male tiger was released, with the highest score of 200 points. The next highest score was a leopard with 150 points, a red fox with 100 points, five wolves and five wild boars, each with 50 points. Then there were the deer, yellow sheep and other large and small animals, each with 20 points or even less.
Hunting a male tiger may not necessarily win the championship, but it can greatly increase the chances of winning, and the reputation of tiger hunting will be greater.
Everyone who entered the venue tacitly followed a rule: either they would go straight to look for ferocious and rare beasts such as tigers, leopards, wolves, pigs, and foxes as soon as they entered, and give up the small beasts that were not worth any points that they passed by on the way; or they would focus on accumulating small points and hunt small beasts such as deer, sheep, and even chickens and rabbits. However, if the latter encountered a ferocious beast that had been found and driven away by the former, they could not take advantage of it for free, otherwise they would be ridiculed.
Those who want to win the championship or become famous all choose to go straight to the wild beasts and rare animals as soon as they enter.
More than fifty men plus the accompanying guards who picked up animals gathered together, appearing to be a mighty force. After rushing into the enclosure and dispersing, they kept a distance from each other. They could only rely on their hearing to judge where the wild beasts were. Therefore, in the early days, who could encounter wild beasts or rare animals was almost entirely based on luck. Even if they had some knowledge of the habitats of wild beasts, it was not applicable today, because the sound of galloping horses had already alarmed the beasts. Realizing that danger was coming, how could the beasts stay where they were?
Zhang Su was also a tiger hunter. Although he did not have the good fortune to encounter a tiger directly, he discovered two wolves while searching for tigers and shot them dead with one arrow each.
This took more than two quarters of an hour. When he was about to choose a direction to continue looking for the tiger, he suddenly heard a tiger roar in the distance. As Zhang Su turned his horse around and followed the sound, he heard sounds from other parts of the enclosure gathering towards the tiger's roar.
The red and black tiger's shadow shuttled quickly in the woods, and it dodged several arrows from the hunter by relying on its speed and interweaving with the trees. However, the sound of horse hooves came from other directions. Realizing that there was no place for it to stay in this forest, the male tiger had no choice but to continue running towards the front of the forest.
"Haha, Deng Tai, you're lucky. It's a pity your archery skills are still a little off!"
Just as Deng Tai was about to draw his arrow again, Qin Bing laughed and tried to interfere. However, even though he was interfering, the horse under him ran even faster.
Deng Tai secretly thought it was bad luck, and shot another arrow before the figures came close.
With a whoosh, the sharp arrow brushed past the tiger's back.
The difficulty of horseback archery lies in the fact that the galloping of the horse will affect the archer's aim. Even if the aim is correct, the terrain under the horse's feet is also changing. Even a small height difference will cause the archer on horseback to temporarily lose his aim.
No matter how angry Deng Tai was and how much he wanted to curse, the tiger he had been thinking about had already rushed out of the edge of the woods. When his horse carried him out of the woods as well, and he was sure that the tiger was still in his sight, but because it was running faster on the grassland and had widened the distance, Deng Tai was distracted and looked at the several figures that rushed out from his left and right.
There are two people on the left, namely King Jing Qin Bing and the centurion Cheng Zhixu who was a top scholar in martial arts at the Imperial Guards Department. There are three on the right, namely Fan Huaizhong, Zhang Su and Fu Kui.
Deng Tai gritted his teeth, now it’s a matter of speed!
The six fast horses were almost running side by side. The male tiger in front ran even faster, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, so as not to run in a straight line and be easily targeted by hunters.
Qin Bing, Fan Huaizhong and Fu Kui all tried to shoot arrows, but all of them missed because the distance was not enough.
As they were chasing, they saw the tiger suddenly leap up and cross a ravine on the flat ground, the distance of which could not be seen at the moment.
When the six people also chased over, they finally saw the winding dry ditch that was about half a zhang deep and almost separated the two pieces of land. It was narrow far away from them, but the section in front of them was almost two zhang wide. You should know that the width of the horses used by the cavalry in training in the Beijing camp was less than one zhang.
They could judge the situation at a glance. When the horses approached the ravine, Cheng Zhixu, Fan Huaizhong and Deng Tai reined in their horses in time.
Deng Tai and Cheng Zhixu reined in their horses because they were not sure they could get over the gap and did not want to take the risk of falling off their horses and getting injured.
Fan Huaizhong reined in his horse, not because he was nervous, but because he knew the little princess would not like him like this, so why should he try so hard to be the champion.
As for the remaining three, Qin Bing was out to shoot the tiger, not wanting to lose to his companions for fear of injury. Fu Kui had to fight to gain the appreciation of his father-in-law, the emperor. As for Zhang Su...
As the three horses still dangled above the ravine, Qin Bing gripped the reins tightly while briefly distracting himself with a glance at the other two. He could understand Fu Kui's pent-up anger for two or three years, but when had Zhang Su become so competitive?
Before Qin Bing could finish his thought, he was shocked to see Zhang Su actually nock his arrow. At the moment when the three horses were at their highest point, when he was gripping the reins tightly, anticipating the huge impact of their mounts landing, Zhang Su actually dared to loosen the reins and...
Zhang Su only had eyes for the male tiger.
The distance was not completely without a chance, but perhaps because he thought the hunters' horses could not cross the ravine, or perhaps because he was simply tired from running, the male tiger's escape speed slowed down. If he did not take action at this time, and the three of them shot arrows at the same time, it would be unknown who would kill the tiger.
What Zhang Su wanted was this momentary opportunity to fight.
As the sharp arrow was shot, Zhang Su held the bow in his left hand, tightened the reins with his right hand, and landed steadily on the other side of the ravine with his mount.
Qin Bing and Fu Kui both slowed down because the tiger had been hit by Zhang Su's arrow above its right hind leg. The arrow had penetrated deep enough and the tiger had fallen to the ground and could no longer run.
"Alright, I underestimated you before. I didn't expect you, Zhang Su, to be such a reckless person!"
Qin Bing gave a brief compliment and immediately took a detour to go back and look for the leopard. The hunt was not over yet and there was no time to waste.
Zhang Su clasped his fists in acceptance, then winked at the beast-picking guard not far away and changed direction to look for other beasts.
.
The hunting competition will last for an hour and a half. When the guards who picked up the beast sent out the living male tiger, there was an immediate commotion among the king and his ministers waiting outside.
Upon learning that the male tiger was shot by Zhang Su, Emperor Xingwu asked the guard who picked up the animal to describe in detail the scene of Zhang Su hunting the tiger.
The guard who picked up the animal was also very excited, and described vividly the grand spectacle of Prince Jing, Zhang Su and six others chasing the tiger together, especially the heroic figure of Zhang Su shooting the tiger from mid-air.
Emperor Xingwu was very satisfied!
Although he and his daughter had decided on Zhang Su as their son-in-law, and he knew Zhang Su's talents and abilities, he still hoped that Zhang Su could outperform those young talents who were not much worse than him in the hunting ground and win the championship with glory, because only such a Zhang Su could be truly worthy of his son who was as bright as the rising sun!
Restrained, Emperor Xingwu did not visit his daughter. He waited until the hunting competition was over. Zhang Su brought out more than a hundred prey of various sizes, undoubtedly winning the championship. Emperor Xingwu finally looked towards his youngest daughter and said to Zhang Su, who had come forward to listen to the praise: "Su Lang is young, but he has already held a third-rank official position. I will not reward you with a promotion, but I like you very much and would like you to be my son-in-law. Are you willing?"
Amidst the surprise and discussions of the people on both sides, Zhang Su knelt on his knees and said in a loud voice: "I am honored to receive the emperor's favor. I am afraid that I have wronged the princess."
Emperor Xingwu then asked his youngest daughter, "Lin'er, are you willing to take Zhang Su as your consort?"
The little princess once again looked at the kneeling Third Young Master of the Zhang family and said with a faint smile, "I trust your Majesty's judgment. Since you think Zhang Su is good, then choose him."
Zhang Su thanked the little princess again.
Qin Ren, who was stunned the whole time, said: "..."
【Author’s words】
Woohoo, I finally don’t have a fever today. I’ll take a rest for an afternoon to consolidate my efforts. If I’m fully recovered tomorrow, I’ll continue to update twice a week!
100 little red envelopes, see you tomorrow [Three-color cat head]
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