Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 72 2.49 Mr. Zhou is not strong enough when he comes to this palace.

Volume Two

2.49 Mr. Zhou is not strong enough when he comes to this palace.

On the second day of September, at the Royal Paddock at Tiewang Mountain, a group of imperial guards "blocked the gate" as usual. The emperor's eldest son, Guo Kai, at about the same time as Jia Lian expected, formally summoned the children of various military generals in the capital to hunt, plus the ones brought by each family. There were three or four more people, and one or two followers were missing. For a while, people in the paddock were shouting and neighing, which was quite lively.

Zhou Yang naturally received the invitation. Just in case, he arrived at the place just after midnight. It was only after he arrived alone that he discovered that he was not the only young hero invited. Although the entire paddock was filled with young military attachés, But it is actually divided into three "areas", and there is basically no communication between the three areas.

The disciples of the Wu Xun lineage are basically the "Eight Gongs" as the core. There were quite a few participants at the Huifangyuan gathering in Ningguo Mansion last time, and there were also some other Wu Xun disciples; the generals without titles were each The children of the family, after all, the best positions in the court are occupied by Wu Xun, but it does not mean that there are no military generals; the martial arts talents with little background in the family, such as Zhou Yang, several of them are in the same year as him, But not much contact.

There is really nothing we can do about it. The three families dislike each other. In the eyes of martial arts talents, the other two families are "dandy children"; in the eyes of the Wu Xun family, the other two families are "inferior people"; ordinary military officer children are neither He likes martial arts to occupy a good position, but he also looks down on young people who have just passed the martial arts exam. They just don't get along with each other.

Just like meetings in later generations, the higher the status, the later one arrives. Zhou Yang found that it was not wrong to arrive earlier. Unfortunately, because the few people he had attracted at the time who were ranked lower in the same year did not receive invitations, he simply greeted a few of them in the same year. He just stood there blankly and was alone for nearly half an hour.

"Haha, Ziyang came early enough!" While he was wandering away, he was suddenly grabbed by someone and dragged into the circle of Wu Xun disciples. A familiar voice sounded in his ears, "Come on, come on, We are all brothers, what are you doing over there?"

"I've seen Brother Lian!" He let himself be pulled away speechlessly. Zhou Yang, a "cross-border" person, naturally attracted everyone's attention. What made others unbelievable was that all the Hachigong families came one after another. I greeted him and said, "I have met all of you, eldest brother. I just feel that since the eldest prince is inviting me, I should naturally come here earlier."

"It's too early for you." Jia Zhen smiled and came up to give him a slap. Apparently she had heard about what happened when he was helping Jia Lian get married. "His Royal Highness usually doesn't come until the end of the month, let alone Yongchang this time." Your Highness the Princess will come with you, it will probably be a little later, so let’s agree first that I will share some of the prey with you later, and when it’s all over, brother, I’ll set up a nice table to thank you.”

"Brother Zhou——" Like Jia Zhen, Jia Lian ignored the disdainful looks from Hachigong's other families, licked his face and hugged Zhou Yang's arm, "You must save me, if you hear that I am empty-handed this time If I go back, I will be laughed at, and my father will not be able to forgive me."

"This -" Zhou Yang was not sure anymore, "Two brothers, please forgive me. I just try my best, but the prey in this paddock is limited after all. If there are not many, I will be embarrassed. Two brothers here "

"Brother Zhou, don't worry, there will definitely be enough prey here." Niu Ben turned around with a loud voice, "This paddock has been used since the Zhou Dynasty returned to the capital, and there has been at least one hunt every year for decades. If Relying entirely on prey to support themselves, I am afraid they would have been driven out and killed long ago.

Therefore, before every large-scale hunting, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send in a batch of prey in advance. This was done two days ago. Although the governor at the entrance of the valley said that his main purpose was to protect His Highness the eldest prince, he also guarded against wild beasts. Rushing out and hurting innocent people, so it is customary to prepare strong bows and crossbows. "

"Thank you, Brother Niu, for clearing up the confusion!" Zhou Yang smiled and thanked him, "If that's the case, I'm somewhat confident."

"Hahaha——" The scene was immediately filled with laughter.

It's just that in this way, his original "camp", the martial arts talent side, obviously didn't look good. Because the distance was not far, Zhou Yang even faintly heard words such as "rainbow fart" and "shameless" Such comments, but he didn't take it seriously, because only the person involved knew how much of it was true contempt and how much was envy, jealousy and hatred.

"The eldest prince has arrived—"

The strange thing is that the waiting time was obviously longer this time. It was almost noon when all parties were impatient, and a "baton" call came from the direction of Taniguchi, and the three "camps" immediately lined up to greet them. At first, Zhou Yang wanted to return to the martial arts camp, but seeing their contemptuous gazes, he resolutely stood at the end of the Wu Xun disciples.

"Good morning, brothers!" Guo Kai, the eldest son of the emperor who was worthy of being born in the royal family and was only thirteen years old, came on horseback. He soothed his somewhat irritable mood with just a name, and received a lot of fiery eyes from below, "Today I lost my father alone. The emperor has given me the honor to hunt with you all in the Tienwang Mountain. I won’t say more than that. You are a good man and you will show your true ability. I will not hesitate to reward brothers who perform well!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!" The unanimous response was accompanied by a fairly neat bow and salute, which made the eldest prince's face flush a little, obviously thinking of the majesty and momentum of "The King's Landing", which also made him more determined. some idea.

What follows is naturally a long list of all kinds of gorgeous words, just like the speeches given by leaders in modern meetings. They are correct but useless, irritating but unable to jump. Anyway, after a long tea time, His Royal Highness, who was tired of talking, finally gave up. Waving his hand, he announced that the hunt had officially begun. "Let's go, let's start quickly. No matter how many prey there are, there are more than a hundred people trying to snatch them." As soon as Zhou Yang got on the horse, he was staggered by Niu Ben and almost fell off the horse. The disciples of Wu Xun also all They began to gather together, "Didn't you just promise the Jia family to help them? Then come with me, let's go directly."

"Master Zhou!" Just as he was about to set off, a cold female voice suddenly reached Zhou Yang's ears. What made him extremely confused was that this female voice seemed to be a reminder, making all the martial arts disciples quiet down. Please move, Your Highness the Princess invites you!"

"So Brother Zhou is so blessed!" What he didn't expect was that Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, who were originally extremely enthusiastic, had strange expressions. Niu Ben, who had just held him, also let go of his hand, and even took a step back and said, "In that case, brother, I will go over first. If we have anything to do, we can talk about it later."

"Huh?" Zhou Yang, who was confused by this nonsense like "let's have dinner together when we are free next time", had no idea what was going on. But before he opened his mouth, there were more than 40 martial arts disciples in total, and there were more than [-] martial arts disciples behind them before he could open his mouth. The entourage of guards who were three times that number disappeared without even an explanation, "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Have you finished explaining? Let's go then." The cold voice sounded again. Dongfang Bing gave him a cold "experience it yourself" look, and took the lead to walk towards a carriage that didn't seem to have many characteristics - Zhou Yang Then I remembered that no one mentioned "princess" during the neat salutes just now.

"Dongfang Guards, what did those people mean just now?" Zhou Yang asked blankly.

"How do I know?" Why don't you dare to look at me, and why are you blushing?
Whether he knew it or not, he could only follow the carriage that went straight to Princess Yongchang. This was one of the reasons why Zhou Yang was confused. He clearly remembered that the same place was when he first met the princess. In the royal paddock, she was dressed in a dashing horse riding outfit, and even had a bow and arrow hanging in front of the saddle.

"I have met Her Highness the Princess!" No matter how big his opinion was, he could only suppress it in his heart. He walked to the car and dismounted according to the procedure, and then bowed and saluted.

"But it disturbed Young Master Zhou's opportunity to show off his strength?" However, Her Royal Highness the Princess obviously didn't like to play her cards according to common sense, and even her voice was ridiculing.

"I don't dare!" Zhou Yang replied in a muffled voice.

"Oh? I just don't dare, right?" The teasing tone in the princess's voice became even more obvious, "Then there's nothing we can do. I want to go in and have a look, so just follow me as a guard. Let's go!"

"Let's go!" Dongfang Bing immediately gave the order. More than a dozen knights surrounded a carriage and steadily followed the direction of the hunting team. No matter how many opinions Zhou Yang had, he could only follow depressedly at this time.

Naturally, nothing happened. The carriage was not moving very fast, and it gradually distanced itself from the hunting team. Even as time went by, coupled with the dense tall grass and woods in the paddock, other teams were gradually no longer visible around them. , making Zhou Yang feel even more depressed.

"Your Highness, we have gone a little too deep now, shall we?" A male guard dressed as a hundred households said with his fists clasped.

"You guys disperse first." Before he could finish speaking, Princess Yongchang's voice came from the carriage, "Just leave Dongfang around - you stay too, don't run around!"

"Your Highness!" The male guard's expression changed suddenly.

"Why, don't you understand what I said?"

"Yes, princess!" The male guard paused, jumped off his horse, and respectfully kowtowed to the carriage three times. He took another deep look at Zhou Yang and then left with the other guards, because of the last sentence: " No running around." Although he didn't mention his name, it was enough for everyone to understand who he was talking to.

"Your Highness, what's the problem?" Zhou Yang immediately realized that something was unusual. He didn't think he had such a great reputation. "If this is the case, our manpower is somewhat insufficient."

"You can kill more than 20 people in one go. How come Mr. Zhou is not strong enough when he comes to this palace?" Princess Yongchang said calmly.

(End of this chapter)