Chapter 58: The Competition Begins on March Sixth

  After the two men had discussed and decided on these matters, Zou Taigong took his leave of Tao Qian and departed.

  They agreed to hold the contest on the sixth day of next month, which is March 6th. First literature and then martial arts, finally the unnamed old man will set the questions. The two men talked and both thought they had gained the upper hand, so this matter was temporarily settled. Both sides prepared to meet at the Governor's mansion on March 6th to decide the winner.

  Taishi Gong hurried back to the Taishi Mansion, and after returning to the mansion, he met with Ma Chao again, telling him everything that had happened at the Governor's Mansion. Since they had discussed it before, Ma Chao didn't have any questions about the content of the trial, but rather was curious as to what made Tao Qian so confident that his son could win against himself.

  Actually, Tao Qian didn't have confidence that his son Tao Shang could win over the descendants of Ma's family, but he also felt that the descendants of Ma's family couldn't win against his own son.

  Why think so, Tao Qian understood that his own son was neither good at literature nor martial arts, and the literary composition was actually written by someone else's daughter, so this game was naturally lost.

  But in the second game, he can ask someone to participate on his behalf, and Tao Qian is indeed confident of winning this game.

  And the crucial third game was set by an unknown old man. In this game, he had no bottom line, but he thought that Ma's descendants would not win anyway.

  Because of Tao Qian's understanding of the old man, he loved to think about some strange and weird questions. If he really gave out a question like that, not to mention his own son and the descendants of the Ma family, I estimate that there are only a few people in the world who can answer it.

  So in his view, his own son and the descendants of the Ma family were half a catty and eight taels, both sides fought to a draw, and finally he himself, as the governor of a state, forced the Ma family to marry their daughter to his son. Yes, the Ma family had made promises and given tokens, but in the competition, neither side had won over the other, even if the Ma family refused to agree, they would have to compensate his own son, who had previously agreed to him.

  Originally, Tao Qian's idea was that he would not take the last step unless he was forced to. But thinking about the possible consequences afterwards, he felt that since the Jiang family was unkind first, he had no choice but to be unrighteous too.

  It's not about who's right or wrong, or who made the first mistake. It's all just for their own benefit. Tao Qian is like that, Mi Heng is like that, and Ma Chao is no exception. As for Tao Shang and Mi Zhen, they are naturally all the same.

  There are less than twenty days left until March 6th, and Ma Chao hopes that time will arrive on March 6th as soon as possible. He doesn't need to prepare anything, he is always ready, and can go up at any time.

  In less than twenty days, the time had passed in the blink of an eye. On March 6th, Zao Taigong led Ma Chao and Cui An to arrive at the Governor's Mansion on schedule. Although they were not late, after entering the mansion, they found out that everyone who was supposed to be there had already arrived, except for the three of them.

  Including Zao Taigong, Ma Chao and Cui An, there are nine people who witnessed this competition. In addition to the three of Zao Taigong, there were also Tao Qian and his son Tao Shang, Cao Biao, the master of the Cao family in Xuzhou, Chen Gui, the master of the Chen family in Xiapi, and an old man with no name, who also came today. The last one was invited by Tao Qian as a foreign aid, but he had no interest in the literary competition at all, and was waiting for the martial arts competition on the school field.

  Everyone arrived, and Tao Qian spoke first. As the governor of a state and the host, it was natural for him to speak. "All of you know why I invited you here today. It's because my son is going to have a fair competition with Ma Chao, the descendant of the Ma family from Fufeng. The winner will win the right to marry Miss Mi in the future. So, I invite all of you to witness this competition today. No matter who wins or loses, no one can go back on their word. Otherwise, they will have to bear the consequences!"

  As soon as Tao Qian finished speaking, Cao Jie was the first to respond, "What the governor said is correct, I am the first to support!"

  Cao Jiao is the master of the Cao family, but he also works under Tao Qian. However, this person indeed lives up to his name, and at 35 years old, his abilities are not much stronger than a straw bag.

  "What the historian said, I also agree with!" The speaker was Chen Kui, the master of the Chen family from Xiayi, Chen Hanyu. Chen Kui is 38 years old this year, a man of profound knowledge and considerable wisdom, not to be underestimated.

  The old man didn't say anything, looking like he was asleep. Tao Qian understood the old man's temperament and knew that he had already given him a great deal of face by coming over, so Tao Qian wouldn't disturb him unless necessary.

  "Then let's start the first round of competition!" Tao Qian declared.

  As soon as he finished speaking, the old lady stood up and said to the people present: "Thank you all for coming to witness this competition. This time, as the governor just said, whoever wins or loses cannot regret it! The first round of writing, the topic is given by my daughter, which is to write out the whole chapter of 'Mengzi·Yuwu Suoyi' silently, please answer, two gentlemen!"

  Tao Qian had someone prepare the writing materials and brought them to the table in front of Ma Chao and Tao Shang. Then, Ma Chao and Tao Shang began to write silently. The book that Ma Chao had studied with Mr. Cui in those years was "Mengzi", so he could recite it fluently and naturally wrote it down quickly. Of course, this contest was unfair, as Zou Taigong had already asked Ma Chao about his expertise beforehand, so the topic was naturally something that Ma Chao was good at. Ma Chao also understood this in his heart, but he didn't expose it, only glancing at Zou Taigong, and they all tacitly understood each other.

  But Tao Shang, this kid never learned anything, let alone recite from memory, even when reading, he didn't recognize a few characters. So in the end, he could only hand in a blank paper, while Ma Chao of course wrote everything out.

  Witness Cao Jue announced reluctantly: "This round of Wen Bi, Ma Chao of the Ma family wins."

  The outcome of the first game was within Tao Qian's expectations, so he didn't feel surprised. It's just that he felt a bit embarrassed, as the son of a provincial governor, he couldn't even write half a word, losing not only his own face but also his father's face as the governor.

  Actually, Tao Qian didn't think much about it. His son had been disgracing him for a long time already. He had even lost face in neighboring provinces, and in some places, his son was more famous than he was as the governor of this province.

  The first round is over, and the results are as expected. The second round is about to begin, and Tao Qian says: "Everyone please move to the school field, the second round of martial arts competition will be held there. The content of the competition is horseback riding skills, with a person from the Ma family and a guest I invited to compete in horseback riding skills, everyone please go!"

  After finishing speaking, he led the crowd to the school field. This time Ma Chao was supposed to let Cui An take his place on stage, so why didn't he go up himself? Although Ma Chao liked martial arts, he wasn't good at fighting and didn't like war, let alone for something like a marriage alliance. So he didn't want to go up, but Cui An loved to fight and hadn't had a good fight with someone in a long time.

  For Cui An, Ma Chao is either the lord or a particularly familiar person, and it's not pleasant to fight. As for the Mi family, there was a Mi Fang, but the gap between them was too big, and it should be said that they were all instructed by Cui An, and they couldn't even get into a fight.

  Today, I finally have this opportunity, of course, it's for Cui An. When he heard that he was going to go up himself, he was so excited that he almost burst with joy. He thought that someone could finally have a good fight, and at the time, he patted his chest loudly and said to Ma Chao: "Master, you can rest assured and leave it to me! It's been many days since I've had a good fight, my hands are itching! Just watch me beat the opponent until they're toothless!"

  Ma Chao's face sank after hearing that, "Fu Da, you must not lightly harm people! Otherwise, you will know the consequences!" After hearing Ma Chao's words, Cui An immediately shut his mouth.

  When everyone arrived at the school field, they saw that someone was already waiting there from a distance. Because it was still quite far away, Ma Chao only felt that the person looked a bit familiar. But when everyone got closer, Ma Chao was directly stunned.

  Tao Qian introduced to the crowd: "The horseback archer is my good friend and Pingzhou Governor Ding Yuan's son, Ding Jianyang. He is Lü Bu, Lü Fengxian! His marksmanship can be compared to Nong Yuji, and he also has the bravery of a million men!"

  Even if Tao Qian didn't introduce him, everyone could sense that the man on horseback was indeed a seasoned general who had been through many battles. His whole body was filled with an aura of killing intent, and it was unknown how many people he had killed to have such a strong aura of killing intent.

  Lü Bu didn't want to come, but his adoptive father Ding Yuan said that he had a particularly good relationship with Tao Qian, and they had served together in the army. In all these years of knowing each other, this was the first time he asked for help, so it was impossible not to help, and Lü Bu was the only one who could do it.

  Because he didn't know how good the other person's martial arts were, Tao Qian only said in his letter that he wanted to have a match with him, but he didn't mention at all how capable the other person was, and that was because he himself wasn't clear about it either.

  Ding Yuan had two greatest characteristics in his life, which can also be said to be advantages.

  First and foremost, it is about being extremely loyal to Da Han. If we were to make a ranking of people's loyalty to Da Han right now, Ding Yuan and Ding Jianyang would definitely be among the top five in the entire world.

  And his second greatest advantage is that he attaches great importance to friendship, no mistake, Ding Yuan has a bad temper and doesn't know how to speak, so he really doesn't have many friends. But for friends, he is absolutely reliable, so Tao Qian thought of asking him for help, because he knew that as long as Ding Yuan saw the letter, he would definitely do his best to help himself.

  In fact, Ding Yuan felt that he had to let his adopted son Lü Bu go to Xuzhou to make up for the request from his friend. Lü Bu had no choice but to agree and came over on the evening of March 5th with a personal letter from Ding Yuan. In the letter, Ding Yuan mentioned Lü Bu to Tao Qian, saying that my adopted son's archery skills are comparable to those of Yang Youji, and he is also a brave warrior who can withstand ten thousand enemies, and is the number one general in Bianzhou. So, please put your mind at ease, everything will be fine.

  If someone else had said that, Tao Qian might not have believed it, but with his understanding of Ding Yuan, he knew that Ding Yuan was not a person who would lie to friends, let alone boast. Moreover, he had seen Lü Bu with his own eyes and could be said to have deeply trusted Ding Yuan's words. He knew that with Lü Bu's assistance in the second game, it was absolutely foolproof.

  Lü Bu stayed at the governor's mansion for one night, and on the sixth day of the first month, he went to the training ground early in the morning. That was when everyone saw him, and when he saw Ma Chao, he was also stunned for a moment. Lü Bu did not expect to see Ma Chao here either.

  He remembered when he and Ma Chao fought side by side, and Ma Chao had also helped him. Moreover, knowing that Ma Chao and Zhang Yang were sworn brothers, for the above reasons, when Lü Bu was introduced by Tao Qian, he nodded to Ma Chao first before greeting everyone with a bow.

  Ma Chao's first reaction after seeing Lü Bu was to be stunned, because he never thought that Tao Qian could invite Lü Bu. He knew that the second game was lost for his side, and now all hope can only be placed on the last game.

  Afterwards, Ma Chao saw Lü Bu nodding at him and he also smiled back at Lü Bu. However, this was a bitter smile from Ma Chao as he indeed felt helpless - after all, human calculations cannot surpass heavenly ones; in the end, humans can't anticipate heaven's intentions.

  He patted Cui An's shoulder and said: "Fuda, this game is just a try, winning or losing doesn't matter, don't be obsessed with it!"

  Choi An was taken aback by Ma Chao's words for the first time, "My lord, I know I may not be able to beat this guy, but I just can't stand him. This time, I must have a good fight!"

  Cui An studied in Pingzhou for many years, he must have heard of Lü Bu's great name. Because he had heard of it, and his teacher also mentioned it to him.

  His teacher once said that among the young people he had seen, the one with the best martial arts skills was Lü Bu. Moreover, Lü Bu also wielded a halberd, so if Cui An ever met him in the future, he would have to be extra careful because he couldn't beat him.

  Choi Ahn was initially dissatisfied when he heard his teacher say that, a thousand and ten thousand unwilling, Lü Bu's reputation was indeed bigger than his own, but it didn't mean he was inferior to him, yet the teacher still gave him a blow.

  So from then on, Chui An had a wish that one day he would have the chance to fight Lü Bu properly. He also knew that he would probably lose 90% of the time, but he was not willing to admit defeat to Lü Bu at all.

  However, Cui An had never seen Lü Bu before and didn't intentionally go looking for him. But unexpectedly today in Xuzhou he got such an opportunity, finally able to have a good fight with Lü Bu, which made his heart extremely happy.

  A martial artist who has reached his level would understand that it's truly hard to find an opponent. Now that I've finally found one, no matter from which aspect, it's worth my full effort.