The lantern-grabbing contest had a long history in Dayao. In the past, it was often held by two or three villages in the Sixty Thousand Mountains.
After the establishment of Dayao, many aboriginal commoners came down from the mountains to live in the city. As the population grew, the scale of the lantern-grabbing contest increased.
This was especially true for Lan City, the capital of Dayao. The lantern-grabbing contest on the first day of the new year was considered the most eye-catching event in the whole of Dayao.
In the afternoon, people from the nearby mountains started to arrive at Lan City one after another. Almost all of them set off in the morning and stayed in the city overnight just to witness this grand event.
Even though the residents of Lan City would participate every year, they wouldn't miss out on the biggest event of the year.
Even the merchants and envoys from other countries in Lan City would be watching from the side.
Of course, there were no seats, the kind that squeezed together with civilians.
Regardless of whether it was the empress or the people in the imperial court, from top to bottom, no one cared about what the envoys from the other nations thought.
In fact, among the envoys from the three countries, only Great Xia's Gu Zicheng was slightly valued.
It wasn't because Great Xia was the most powerful.
It was because Gu Zicheng had lived the longest.
Gu Zicheng had been safe and sound in Lan City for more than ten years, and it wasn't just because he kept a low profile.
Perhaps even the person who sent him here didn't expect him to live this long.
One had to know that Dayao's envoys didn't just have to stay in Lan City for a while. They had to step in when the caravans of their respective nations met with mishaps in Lan City. They also had to step in when other nations had issues that involved Dayao. If they were not careful, they would lose their heads. At most, the empress would just find an excuse to dismiss them.
If they didn't handle this matter properly and lost face for their country, they wouldn't be able to get any benefits either. It would even affect their families.
Basically, a diplomatic mission to Dayao was equivalent to having one foot in the gates of hell.
For example, the envoy from the Rising Cloud Nation had been beheaded within a year of his mission.
It had only been a month since the new envoy arrived.
Gu Zicheng's ability to stay in Lan City for more than a decade was admirable.
It was all thanks to Gu Zicheng's talent and resourcefulness.
Even Shi Qing was puzzled as to why Great Xia had left such a talent in Dayao for more than ten years. Could it be that Great Xia really had so many talents?
Gu Zicheng was sitting in the carriage. When the carriage rolled over the stone slabs, the inside of the carriage would be a little bumpy.
Listening to the noise outside, Gu Zicheng's expression was a little gloomy.
He already knew about the Seventh Prince's death. He had also found out about Great Xia's current preparations through some channels. He didn't know if he would be buried here in the end.
Thinking about it, more than ten years had passed, and the people in his hometown had changed. It seemed that being buried here was not that bad.
Or should he seek refuge with Dayao? This idea popped up in Gu Zicheng's mind, but he immediately suppressed it.
Because he still had the Gu family behind him.
When he arrived, it was not too late. Previously, some guards had already come to take up space. Next to him were the new envoys from the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation. The three of them could be considered brothers in hardship.
At this time, Gu Zicheng's face had already regained its tranquil smile. He nodded lightly at the two of them as a greeting.
Their seats weren't too bad. On one side was the aboriginal official's seat, and on the other side was a sea of human heads.
In front of them was a huge empty field surrounded by grass ropes.
The field was four thousand feet long and seven hundred feet wide. In the middle was a huge wooden frame. It was twenty feet wide and eight feet tall. It was divided into seven levels, each smaller than the previous one. The top level was only twenty feet wide.
This entire frame was called the lampstand.
On that level, there was a square platform with a red lantern on it. The winner would be the one who obtained the lantern within the specified time.
In this lantern-grabbing contest, only one team would be the winner, and the rest would be the losers. There was no second or third place.
On both sides of the lantern platform, there were twenty-six teams, thirteen teams on each side. Both teams were the same distance away from the lantern platform, which was about six thousand feet.
Eighteen of the teams were formed by the descendants of officials, while the other eight were formed by commoners.
In the seventy years since the founding of Dayao, commoners had only obtained the lantern 10 times. Two or three of these times, the descendants of officials had suffered losses on both sides.
The remaining few times were the dark horses.
The most recent one was six years ago. Ren Baqian recognized one of the dark horses in that team — the simple-minded Xiong Pi. Almost all the others had been recruited into the army.
The dark horses that appeared in every lantern-grabbing contest attracted the most attention. Every time, they would be discussed enthusiastically for a long time.
Many people wanted to see if there were any dark horses this year.
Even if they didn't obtain the lantern in the end, if they performed well, they would still be respected. Moreover, the empress and the court officials would also be watching.
Because of these reasons, the lantern-grabbing contest was the biggest stage for the aboriginals. It wasn't only the commoners, but also the descendants of officials. They wanted to show off, let the elders in their families value them more, or win honor for their families.
The waiting area for the participants was relatively quiet. Even those who were more ambitious were conserving their energy.
After all, even Hong Xian and Xi Yueya, who were relatively famous in this generation, weren't strong enough to suppress the others. Furthermore, there were a few opponents who were of similar strength.
Needless to say, most of the others were still a little nervous.
However, there were also exceptions. For example, there were a few people who were surrounding the city. Among them, they could still make sounds like "I jump, I jump, I jump again."
This caused the people who weren't far away to stretch their necks to see what these people were doing.
"Childish!" Tong Lan had a look of disdain on her face. "You're already so old, yet you're still playing such a childish game. Useless."
After she finished speaking, she snorted, turned around, and left with her head held high.
Ren Baqian looked at the grids and small wooden blocks on the ground and sighed. This little lass was getting harder and harder to deceive. She stopped playing Gomoku after losing ten games in the afternoon. This time around, she stopped playing Chinese checkers after losing nine games.
Du Changkong, who was at the side, was cheerfully accompanying her. In any case, it didn't matter if he lost. The most important thing was to participate.
Ren Baqian threw the small wooden block in his hand to one side, got up, and looked into the distance. Behind the torches in the distance, there was a dense mass of people. There was also a very loud noise coming from that direction. It made people wonder if more than half of the people in Lan City were here.
The waiting area wasn't partitioned. In fact, it was a large piece of open space outside the city that was temporarily roped off. Two teams were separated by a rope, and the surrounding people could see it clearly.
For example, the team beside him consisted of ten women. Hong Xian was the leader of the team. Among them, there was a person who was sneering at him. Wasn't that Liu Ruoyao, whom he had verbally refuted to the point where she doubted her life?
He didn't know if he should say that enemies were bound to meet on a narrow road or if someone had deliberately arranged this. Wasn't this just looking for trouble?
He couldn't possibly hit a woman, right? Even though aboriginal women were very valiant, they were still women.
After thinking about it, Ren Baqian decided not to hit them. If he really couldn't get over it, he would at most gently push them aside a little.
Other than Hong Xian and Liu Ruoyao, there were eight other young ladies. They all had different appearances, but they all had hot bodies. They frequently sized up Ren Baqian. This person actually dared to participate in the lantern-grabbing contest. Even though he was slightly stronger than the rumors said, it was still negligible. They didn't know whether to say that he was bold or that he didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth.
Yao Zi would probably teach him a lesson later.
On the other side, Ren Baqian didn't recognize any of them. However, he heard from Du Changkong that the rest of the people in that team were alright, but there were two people who were only slightly weaker than Hong Xian. One of them was called Qin Haoyong, and the other was Qin Kun. The former was the youngest son of the Minister of War, Qin Chuan, and the latter was his grandson.
Ren Baqian carefully sized them up and couldn't help but sigh. Qin Chuan was also a talent.
However, the others didn't think much of it. After all, the aboriginals had a relatively long lifespan, especially the strong ones.
It wasn't rare for a family of five or six generations to live under the same roof.
Two people who looked about the same age might actually have a difference of two generations.
Qin Haoyong seemed to have sensed Ren Baqian's gaze. He turned around and nodded his head in a friendly manner. Ren Baqian was slightly astonished.
After all, he was the first person with such strength to participate in the lantern-grabbing contest.
Ren Baqian nodded his head as well. Then, he turned around and asked Du Changkong, "How much longer do we have?"
"Less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn," Du Changkong looked in another direction and replied.
Less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. That was about 20 minutes. Ren Baqian felt that he could start preparing now. After all, he still needed some time to put on that set of armor.
Ren Baqian placed the two boxes side by side and said to the others, "Come over and surround me. Help me block them."
He felt that after preparing for so long, it was necessary for him to give the others a surprise. Therefore, he could only reveal it at the last moment.
The others were puzzled and surrounded him. With eight burly men surrounding him, they basically couldn't see anything from the outside.
Only then did Ren Baqian laugh mischievously as he took off his robe, revealing the tight-fitting clothes underneath. Following which, he opened the box at his feet.
Everyone had been curious about what was inside the box. They reckoned that it was what he relied on to be the Tooth Gate.
However, no matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn't figure out what was inside.
One had to know that no matter what kind of weapon it was, it was forbidden to use it. Apart from the weapon, whatever was inside the box wouldn't be of much use.
However, when the group of people saw what Ren Baqian took out, they immediately gasped. Only then did they realize that they were still too naive.
Everyone was dumbfounded. "Sir Ren, will this really work? Isn't this against the rules? "
"Of course it will work!" Ren Baqian replied confidently. This was armor, right? Since it was armor, there was nothing wrong with it. In any case, the rules didn't say that it wasn't allowed.
As for whether the rules would allow it in the future, it was none of his business.
"What's that? Let me see, let me see! " Not long after the little lolita left in a huff, she saw this group of people gathering together mysteriously and making such noises. She couldn't help but squeeze her way through the crowd.
"Wastrel, what's that?" Once the little lolita saw what Ren Baqian was wearing, she widened her eyes and exclaimed.
Tong Lan's voice attracted the attention of the two teams at the side. However, a row of burly men blocked their view, so they couldn't see anything.
"Hmph, it doesn't matter what tricks they have up their sleeves." Liu Ruoyao sneered.
At the lantern-grabbing contest, only strength mattered. Other than that, other tricks were just for the sake of making others laugh.
Although her parents had already warned her, she was still determined to teach Ren Baqian a lesson later. At most, she wouldn't be so obvious.
Hong Xian sat quietly at one side. She paused for a moment as her gaze swept across Tong Lan's body. After thinking about it, she swallowed the words she wanted to say.
"Lower your voice!" Ren Baqian raised his index finger to warn Tong Lan before continuing to wear the box.
Looking at Ren Baqian like a porcupine, the little lolita rolled her eyes a few times before curling up. She covered her mouth with one hand and snickered.
This was really too fun. The expressions of those people would definitely be very interesting.
As for whether it was against the rules or not, she didn't care as long as it was fun.
…
At the side of the lantern stand, the empress was sitting on a chair. Behind her were Xin Zhe, Qing Yuan, and Hong Luan.
This was the best position to have a clear view of both the left and right sides.
On both sides of her sat the civil and military officials of the imperial court. Behind them were some family members.
"Your Majesty, will anything happen to Deputy Prefect Ren for participating in this lantern-grabbing contest?" Shi Qing asked rather worriedly.
He wasn't afraid of anything else, but he was afraid that something would really happen to that person. At that time, it wasn't impossible for the empress to strike.
However, if the empress really did that, the lantern-grabbing contest would be in chaos.
"We will know in a while," the empress casually said, but she was feeling somewhat uncertain.
At that time, she only wanted to see Ren Baqian do this for her and didn't think too much about it. However, as the time was getting closer and closer, she started to worry.
Thinking of that fellow's confident look, the empress felt slightly relieved. She hoped that he really had some confidence.
At this moment, the empress was feeling somewhat conflicted. On one hand, Ren Baqian was really too weak. On the other hand, there were all kinds of things in that world that seemed to be able to do anything. She hoped that Ren Baqian could rely on some things to really impress people.
Not far away, Tong Zhenye was more confident. Previously, he had already instructed Tong Lan to protect Ren Baqian no matter what. Everything else didn't matter. Therefore, he wasn't worried at all.
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