Ren Baqian explained the purpose of his visit to Tong Zhenye in the guest room. Tong Zhenye stroked his beard and said, "I have a grandson who is 18 years old this year. His strength is pretty good."
Ren Baqian was originally prepared to borrow a few people with similar strength. He didn't expect Tong Zhenye to actually have a grandson.
"But he seems to have formed a team with a few friends …"
The second half of Tong Zhengye's sentence made Ren Baqian swallow the words that he was about to blurt out.
Why are you telling me this when you already have a team? Are you trying to show off that you have a grandson?
Ren Baqian started to feel that it was a mistake to look for Tong Zhenye. This old man wasn't reliable at all.
"Why don't you bring Tong Lan along?"
Ren Baqian almost choked. He was going to grab a lantern. What was the point of bringing a little loli along?
"Look, she's still a bit stronger than you. At the very least, you can't beat her. She'll probably think that you're a burden, but with this old man's help, she'll still agree. Over the years, there have also been female teams that have participated in the lantern-grabbing contest, "Tong Zhenye said as he spread his hands.
Tong Zhenye's words rendered Ren Baqian speechless. He really wasn't a match for that little Lolita.
"Lend me a few Earth Wheel level servants. The people from the Ministry of Works will do as well. As for Tong Lan, forget about it. It won't be good if she gets hurt while snatching the lanterns," Ren Baqian said.
Tong Zhengye looked at Ren Baqian for a long time as if he was looking at a retard. Even Ren Baqian felt uncomfortable.
"Do you think young people with that level of strength are all cabbages? If he had that kind of strength at that age, he would have joined the army long ago. In the army, he would have been worth nurturing. How could he have become a servant? Those who had such strength at this age were mostly the sons of the imperial court officials or the talented commoners in Lan City. Every year, the young people who perform outstandingly in the lantern-grabbing competition, if they don't have a family background, are immediately recruited into the army or the Public Order Bureau or the Monitoring Division. "
Ren Baqian was slightly stunned. All the imperial guards in the palace were at the Earth Wheel level. He was used to seeing them and had forgotten about this point.
However, he didn't know the second half of Tong Zhengye's words. It turned out that the lantern-grabbing competition was also used to select talented young people.
But thinking about it, this was indeed a good idea.
Ren Baqian suddenly thought of something and asked, "Do we have any examinations like the military selections?"
"What is the military selection?" Tong Zhenye asked curiously.
Tong Zhenye stroked his beard and said, "It's almost the same as the wushu examination in Great Xia."
However, Dayao didn't have such a combat examination.
This was because in the seventy years since the founding of Dayao, there had only been three emperors.
The first was the founding emperor, Ya Peng. During his era, it could be said that there were experts everywhere in Dayao. Any random person from the imperial court was not a weakling.
In addition, the lifespans of the aboriginals were long to begin with, so they didn't need to replace the old with the new like in other countries. The imperial court already had its own people, so they didn't pay much attention to the selection of talents.
However, that group of people had disappeared along with Ya Peng.
According to Ren Baqian, he was so engrossed in cultivation that his whereabouts were unknown.
However, everyone knew that there was definitely something they didn't know. Perhaps only those who had reached Ya Peng's level of strength would know.
All these years, Hong Wu's biggest wish was to find out why that group of people had left and where they had gone.
According to his guess, it should be in the depths of the Sixty Thousand Mountains.
The second emperor was the former emperor. He reigned for the longest time, forty-two years.
When he succeeded the throne, it was also when Dayao was at its weakest. Almost all the experts of the older generation had left with Ya Peng. At that time, he had chosen some talents. Some of them were the descendants of the previous experts, such as Tong Zhenye and Hong Wu. Some of them were young experts that he had chosen from the villages in the Sixty Thousand Mountains and were now mainly in the protectorates.
One of the more famous ones was Xi Wangu, the Protector General of the South. He wasn't much weaker than Hong Wu. However, Hong Wu was already more than sixty years old this year, while Xi Wangu was only forty.
It was believed that when Xi Wangu reached Hong Wu's level of strength, he wouldn't be weaker than Hong Wu.
Xi Wangu's reputation in Dayao was extremely great, especially among the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation in the south.
After that, it was the empress.
After one of his trips, the former emperor returned with serious injuries. He entrusted his orphan to Hong Wu and then disappeared.
At present, the imperial court of Dayao was still filled with the people left behind by the former emperor.
Due to these various reasons, Dayao didn't have a talent selection system like Great Xia did.
Instead, it was a system similar to a recommendation system.
In addition to these historical reasons, there was another important point, which was that most of the commoners weren't educated. The best way out was to advance step by step in places like the army.
Although the children of the court officials weren't highly educated, they were at least literate. They were influenced by what they saw and saw since young and were more knowledgeable. After passing certain examinations, they were sent to various departments.
After chatting with Tong Zhenye for a while, Ren Baqian finally understood some of the current patterns in Dayao.
In the end, it was because Dayao had only been founded for a short period of time. In addition, the lifespan of the aboriginal experts was too long. For example, Hong Wu, Xi Wangu, Tong Zhenye, Qin Chuan, and the others could almost live to about 200 years old. There was no need to worry about the replacement of the old. As a result, no one realized the problem.
It might take another few decades to a hundred years for the hidden dangers to emerge.
Ren Baqian and Tong Zhenye chatted for a while. Someone knocked on the door to inform him that it was lunchtime. Ren Baqian then realized that it was already noon and hurried back to the palace.
On this trip to the Tong residence, Ren Baqian's team had three more people. They were the little girl, Tong Lan, and Tong Zhenye's two nephews.
There were three guards in the palace and four people including himself. At present, there were only three people left.
Ren Baqian thought about it and thought of someone he knew. However, he didn't know how his situation was and whether he had a team now.
It was Du Changkong, whom Ren Baqian met during the Great Hunt. He showed off his crossbow and ended up causing a lot of trouble.
At that time, Ren Baqian was prepared to exchange items from Earth for martial arts manuals. In the end, he didn't use them and never saw him again.
Even though Du Changkong was a useless teammate, Ren Baqian still had a good impression of him.
The next day, Ren Baqian asked around and went to the Du residence.
Ren Baqian was considered a well-known figure in Lan City. No matter where he went, as long as people saw the guards around him, they would immediately know who he was.
He was the gigolo who brought a group of palace guards around to show off every day. There was no one else but him.
"Second Young Master went out just now. Deputy Prefect Ren, why don't you wait in the residence for a while? I will go and look for him now." The burly man who was acting as the gatekeeper cupped his hands and said.
"No need, just tell me where he is."
"He might be drinking at Shanhuai House at this time!" the burly man said.
"Shanhuai House, what a strange name. Do you know where it is?" Ren Baqian turned his head and asked.
"It's on Jingyang Street. It's owned by the people of Shanhuai Village. Usually, many descendants of the court officials go there," Xu Wei said.
Ren Baqian nodded, "It's a gathering place for the descendants of the court officials!"
After a while, Ren Baqian appeared in front of a shop with his guards. This shop was inconspicuous and didn't have any signboards. There were only two square wooden signs at the door. One of them had the words "Wine" and the other had the words "Meat".
"This is rather interesting!" Ren Baqian laughed and said to Xu Wei, "Go up and ask Du Changkong to come down. I won't be going up."
"That guy is actually here." Someone on the second floor of the restaurant looked down and exclaimed in surprise.
"Who?" Someone at the side craned his neck to take a look. "Why is it him! Young Sparrow Hawk, your opponent is here. "
"Young Sparrow Hawk has so many enemies. How would she know who it is?" Someone at the side laughed. The others laughed as well.
Liu Ruoyao directly picked up the wine jar and smashed it over. The man pushed the bottom of the jar with his empty hand, and the force that was flying horizontally was suddenly turned upwards by him. Then, he caught the falling jar and smiled. "Treating me to a drink? I won't stand on ceremony then. "
"Whenever she mentions it, she grits her teeth, but she can't do anything about it!" The young man who was looking out of the window earlier turned his head and said.
This time, more than ten people immediately quietened down.
Once this was said, everyone knew who it was. These days, they had been talking about him a lot.
Soon after, everyone had a question, "What is he doing here?"
"Is Du Changkong around?" Xu Wei went up to the second floor and asked.
Everyone's gaze immediately turned to a mature looking man who looked to be in his thirties or forties.
"Me?" Du Changkong pointed at himself with his finger. He was a little surprised as he didn't expect Du Changkong to be looking for him. After such a long time, he thought that Du Changkong had already forgotten about him.
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