It's February 20th in a blink of an eye.
In the past ten days, the entire Lin'an was in an uproar because of the unprecedented public selection of the prince.
Although this matter actually has little to do with the common people, it does not prevent them from seeing it as a fun event. After all, they have only seen officials selected through imperial examinations before, but they have never heard that princes can be selected in the same way as examinations.
For a time, discussions about this matter could be heard everywhere in teahouses, restaurants, tiled railings, downtown streets, and streets.
"Hey, this is a first of its kind. The future emperor actually has to pass the exam?"
"Let me see, it's just those big turbans who are messing around. This throne has always been given by destiny. How could it be obtained through such a ridiculous selection."
"Even the officials don't care about it. If these officials are capable, why not worry more about the national economy and the people's livelihood and reduce the taxes on our heads."
"It's not that the officials don't care. I heard that the officials themselves were almost forced to become Zen by the civil servants."
"Choose, choose. It's better than the stupid king becoming the prince."
"What stupid king? Brother, what you are talking about is the old almanac. Haven't you heard? Prince Zhong is not stupid at all. Not only did he make a unique long couplet at Prince Rong's mansion a while ago, but he also casually made five poems. The alliance has stumped all the biggest officials on East Zhejiang Road."
"I also know about this. My aunt and her second uncle's son-in-law's husband were present at the time. At that time, everyone admired King Zhong's knowledge and said that King Zhong was the Wenqu star who descended to earth."
"Since King Zhong is so smart, why the hell would he choose a prince who is a footballer? Isn't this nonsense? Why not let King Zhong be the prince?"
"You don't understand this. It's all those ministers who have selfish motives. They all hope to gain support and want to work for Cao Cao."
Generally speaking, most of the people at the bottom are skeptical about this matter, but they are just cows and horses, and no matter how much they have opinions, they cannot affect the court.
People in the officialdom are more or less involved in the disputes, and few can stay out of it. Regardless of whether they want to or not, they have to cheer for and make suggestions for the candidate prince supported by their faction.
More than a hundred clan members gathered in Lin'an, and after numerous intrigues and overt and covert struggles, five groups with a total of twenty-four candidates were finally selected.
The reason why one person is missing is because the Zhao Guan family strongly requested that King Zhong be included, and there was also the support of a small number of officials, so Uncle Xie Fang had to compromise.
Speaking of which, Uncle Xie Fang's original desire to change the prince was largely out of public interest. It was not that he was unaware of Prince Zhong's changes later, but when things got to this point, the entire civil service group was involved, and he had no choice but to withdraw. Unable to retreat, I had to bite the bullet and continue.
Outside, the government and the public were turbulent for more than ten days, but Zhao Mengqi in the palace was very leisurely and at ease, as if everything had nothing to do with him.
He originally needed to go to school, but his teachers now had no time to teach him. Instead, they gave him a long vacation.
These days, in addition to checking the books and files, he just did some random exercises to exercise, until Lin Yaban couldn't stand it anymore and threw a simple and thick book to him, "This is the martial arts passed down by Taizu. I want to When practicing martial arts, just practice accordingly and don’t do those weird moves."
Zhao Mengqi thought to himself, isn't the thing passed down from Song Taizu the Taizu Changquan?
Taizu Changquan was the martial art that Zhao Kuangyin used to conquer the world. It has been widely spread to later generations. Zhao Mengqi had seen it before, but he didn't think it was anything special, and it didn't seem to have any practicality.
But he flipped through it briefly, and there were many illustrations on it. But when he took a closer look, he couldn't help being a little dumbfounded. This was not a boxing skill at all.
Except for some body-building exercises in the front with empty hands, most of the people in the back were holding various weapons, and their postures and movements were somewhat similar to those he had seen before.
After thinking about it for a moment, he seemed to have a sudden realization. No wonder he always felt that there was something wrong with those boxing techniques. It turned out that those movements were not boxing at all, but moves using weapons.
As for why the originally practical martial arts became like that in later generations, Zhao Mengqi had a rough guess.
In the earliest times, basically all knowledge was monopolized and belonged only to a specific class. Why before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, only the children of aristocratic families could be officials was because only they had the cultural knowledge to govern the country.
Later, in order to suppress the aristocratic families, emperors such as Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty began to elect officials through the imperial examination. At the same time, they continued to spread cultural knowledge to the common people, and gradually broke the monopoly of the aristocratic families.
However, the actual ability to march and fight cannot be learned with a few military books. For example, the Thirty-Six Strategies of Sun Tzu's Art of War. The things mentioned above are very vague, even metaphysical, and cannot allow an ordinary person to learn to lead troops. .
What is really useful are practical methods, such as new discipline books and militia training manuals, as well as organizational methods, logistics management, military law and discipline, tactical arrays and other related knowledge.
However, anyone in power can allow the people to learn how to govern the country, but will not allow military knowledge to be widely disseminated. Therefore, this knowledge continues to be monopolized. Therefore, there are no family members in the Song Dynasty, but there are still generals.
In other words, even if Song Taizu left relevant books, they would not be spread among the people, or those that were spread would be castrated.
In addition, after the death of the Song Dynasty, under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, even kitchen knives had to be shared by several families, and the common people could only practice the martial arts that should be used to handle weapons with bare hands, so it was passed down that this was the case in later generations.
The book in Zhao Mengqi's hand is full of practical martial arts, from physical training to weapon use.
From then on, Zhao Mengqi started to practice the "Family Martial Arts". If there was anything wrong, the originally invisible old man Lin would appear and give some advice.
Old Man Lin naturally discovered the abnormality in his body. He still looked as thin and thin as before, but he had strength that was not inferior to that of an adult person, and it seemed to be growing every day.
However, after the old man was surprised, he had no intention of exploring. Maybe he was well-informed, or maybe he was very knowledgeable, but the expectation for Zhao Mengqi in his eyes became stronger and stronger.
I don’t remember the specific day, but around Yinshi, that is, around three or four in the morning, Zhao Mengqi was lifted out of the warm bed by Old Man Lin, and from then on he started his career of getting up early to practice martial arts.
Don't talk about it being inhumane to get up so early. The ministers in the outer court got up earlier than this when they had to go to court early. And the wise kings who were strict with themselves in history also got up at this time.
On this day, the morning sun had just climbed up to the ridge of the roof, and Zhao Mengqi was already sweating profusely. When the sun shone on his body, he put away his posture and glanced around a few times, but he couldn't find the shadow of Old Man Lin again.
Huang Gou held the cotton towel and trotted forward, "Alang, you have to hurry up to change clothes and eat. Today is a big day, so you can't miss the time."
"It's not a big day like marrying a wife." Zhao Mengqi wiped his sweat. Although he felt a little tired, he was in good spirits. "It's just a competition, nothing to be nervous about."
Huang Gou grinned, "Alang, it's almost time for you to take a concubine. I heard that the saint has already started looking for someone to marry you."
Zhao Mengqi just said it casually, but he didn't expect that it would actually lead to such a thing, "So early? Aren't I only fifteen? Besides, aren't you worried about my unstable status, Lady Xie?"
"I heard that the sage often said that the position of prince belongs to you. The foreign officials are just fooling around."
"Hey, you are really an inquisitive person. You know a little bit about everything. So what can Concubine Yan do?"
Huang Gou suddenly had a bitter look on his face, "Everyone is guarding us over there. How can there be any news for me to know? However, the official family has been staying in Ciyuan Hall every day recently."
"Then ignore her for now." Zhao Mengqi threw the cotton towel back to Huang Gou and strode towards the bedroom.
