After returning to the state government, Wei Chen made a plan to hold a Cuju competition to resolve conflicts and disputes in Yuzhou City.
Early the next morning, he used Zhao Ceying to find the Junci Guild, the Medicinal Materials Guild and other major merchants to discuss the matter, and immediately collected five hundred taels of silver as a bonus for the winner of the competition.
On Gu Tingye's side, he was ordered to let local people and foreign merchants put together two teams.
Moreover, according to Wei Chen's instructions, the members of each team must be half locals and half foreigners.
In addition, Wei Chen directly changed all the current rules of the game, directly changing it to two teams competing for a ball and kicking it into the opponent's goal.
There are no other rules except that you are not allowed to touch the ball with your hands and you are not allowed to intentionally hit the opponent's players.
The reason why the rules are simplified like this is to make it easier for players who are exposed to the new rules for the first time to learn, reduce barriers to understanding, and allow the game to be held as quickly as possible.
After five days of intensive preparations, the first "Yuzhou Cup" Cuju Competition finally kicked off.
The competition venue is the school ground used by the Yuzhou team for daily training, which is enough to accommodate thousands of people to watch the game.
The news of the Cuju competition has long been known to everyone due to Wei Chen's vigorous promotion. On the day of the official competition, many people came to the stadium gate to guard it from early in the morning.
When the door opened, spectators poured in, numbering in the thousands.
Although it is not as good as the annual Jinmingchi Bidding in Bianjing City, which often attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators, it is already a rare and grand scene in Yuzhou.
"So many people came!"
Zhao Zongquan, the Yuzhou team coach who was invited to watch the game, could already hear the commotion before he entered the door. When he walked into the school field, he was even more surprised by the number of spectators.
I saw a huge crowd of people around the stadium, rubbing shoulders with each other. I am afraid that half of the people in Yuzhou City were here.
This was really beyond Zhao Zongquan's expectation.
Three days ago, Wei Chen came to the door and invited Zhao Zongquan to watch the game.
Zhao Zongquan was actually not very interested in this.
He has never been a lively person. Playing Cuju in his spare time would be more interesting than planting two acres of rice himself.
But Wei Chen kindly invited him, but Zhao Zongquan had to give him the face.
He immediately agreed and promised that he would be there on time.
He also enthusiastically proposed that the school field used by the Yuzhou team for daily training could be lent to Wei Chen as a competition venue.
Wei Chen was worried that there was no place to accommodate such a large audience. When he heard Zhao Zongquan's proposal, he was overjoyed. He thanked Zhao Zongquan immediately, then said goodbye and left.
But at the time, Zhao Zongquan would never have imagined that this was only the first time a Cuju competition was held, and the news only came out a few days ago. So many people would suddenly gather to watch the competition, filling the huge school ground. .
Wei Chen, who was accompanying him, saw Zhao Zongquan's surprised expression and couldn't help but chuckled: "They are all just doing nothing to make trouble. The people of Dazhou like to watch the fun most. If someone quarrels on the roadside, a group of people will gather around them. What's more? Is it such a big game?"
When Zhao Zongquan heard Wei Chen's explanation, he couldn't help laughing and nodded in agreement.
At about a quarter of an hour, on the general stage, all the officials and gentry invited to watch the game finally arrived.
Wei Chen was not interested in wasting any more words and directly signaled to Gu Tingye, who was the referee of the game. Then he heard a sharp whistle piercing the sky, and the much-anticipated game finally officially started.
The field is divided into two teams: red and blue. On the red team, the tall Shen Congxing is the most eye-catching.
In his early years in Bianjing, he worked as a head coach at Qiyun Club in Bianjing for three years, and his skills were very good.
Shen Congxing snatched the ball from his opponent's feet with extremely flexible movements, then used his heel to lift the ball, rolled it over his back, over his head, and landed on his toes.
This smooth performance aroused a burst of jubilation in the audience, and the cheers were deafening.
On the general stage, Zhao Zongquan couldn't help but applaud his brother-in-law, but Wei Chen, who was standing next to Zhao Zongquan, silently shook his head.
Zhao Zongquan couldn't help but be a little confused when he saw this, and asked curiously: "Xingyun, which team do you think will win?"
After this year of getting along, Zhao Zongquan and Wei Chen were no longer as reserved as when they first met, and they directly addressed each other by Wei Chen's first name to show their closeness.
Wei Chen said with a smile: "No one can say for sure about the competition. You have to look down to find out. But I heard that the red team's handicap is higher, probably because of Ke Zhong (Character: Shen Congxing) ) This ball head from Bianjing Qiyun Club is here."
Zhao Zongquan said in surprise: "Why do you sound like Xingyun that you don't think highly of Ke Zhong?"
The corner of Wei Chen's mouth raised slightly, with a hint of schadenfreude: "Now that the rules have changed, the way the ball is played should naturally change with it. I think Kezhong doesn't seem to understand this yet, and I'm afraid he will suffer some hardships."
As soon as Wei Chen finished speaking, Shen Congxing, who was immersed in showing off his skills on the court, was accidentally knocked down by Zhao Ceying, who had been watching him for a long time. Then another player from the blue team took advantage of the situation and caught the ball. past.
"Human step shoulder!"
Zhao Zongquan saw it clearly from the referee's table and immediately exclaimed: "This is a forbidden move! Zhong Huai, the referee, doesn't care about it?"
One is his brother-in-law, and the other is his own son. Zhao Zongquan did not favor anyone, but simply raised questions from the perspective of rules.
The so-called shoulder move means hitting someone with your shoulder. This is a forbidden move that Zhao Zongquan understands is not allowed by the rules in Cuju competitions.
As soon as Wei Chen heard this, he knew that Zhao Zongquan had not seriously read the new rules he had revised, but he did not break them.
He just smiled and said: "Everyone who can play is a good man with a rough skin and a thick flesh, and they are not from the house of a delicate daughter. It doesn't matter if someone knocks him down. He can get up by himself after rolling. How can there be so much care? "
Zhao Zongquan was not stupid. Hearing Wei Chen's words, he suddenly thought deeply and asked tentatively: "Xingyun, do you want to imitate the Cuju training method of the Han and Tang Dynasties?"
Wei Chen nodded and said: "Exactly!"
"But this is a military drama, I'm afraid ordinary people may not catch a cold."
Zhao Zongquan said with a worried look: "If it is not popular with the people and no one cares about it after one or two games, wouldn't it violate Xingyun's original intention of holding the competition?"
"The team training is worrying too much."
Wei Chen waved his hand indifferently and said calmly: "Actually, the more intense the sport, the more people will like it. Otherwise, a sumo wrestling match in Bianjing City would not be able to attract people casually. Thousands of viewers.”
Zhao Zongquan was speechless when he heard Wei Chen compare Cuju with sumo wrestling, which was popular in the Zhou Dynasty.
Cuju is Cuju, and sumo wrestling is sumo wrestling. These are obviously two completely different sports, so how can they be compared?
but--
Look at it from another perspective.
Tripping, colliding, sliding tackle...
All kinds of forbidden moves in the ordinary sense were taking turns to appear in the Cuju competition in front of them, which made it dizzying.
In addition to not allowing malicious harm to others, the "retro Cuju" in Wei Chen's words is really similar to sumo wrestling!
Thinking of this, the corners of Zhao Zongquan's mouth twitched unconsciously.
