Chapter 150

Chapter 150: Determined to Win

Emperor Chong Sheng spoke: “This Imperial Hunting Grounds has been closed for several years. Inside are wild sheep, jackals and wolves, tigers and leopards – all of them fierce and dangerous. Besides that, I have specially placed a red fox captured from Cang Nan as the final prize prey for this hunt.”

Emperor Chong Sheng continued: “In this hunting meet between Sheng Kingdom and Northern Di, each side will take one mountain and alternate offense and defense. Not only must you hunt as much prey as you can, you must also seize the banner from the enemy’s base camp!”

Emperor Chong Sheng continued: “Both sides will attack and defend each other. Life and death are your own responsibility. If, within two days, both banners are still held, then the winner will be decided by points calculated from the number of survivors and the hunted prey. The side with the higher final score will be the victor!”

Emperor Chong Sheng finished: “The victors will be rewarded by merit. The top performer may receive a reward of one thousand taels of gold!”

Once Emperor Chong Sheng finished speaking, both sides were ready to burst into action.

Eunuch Su looked at the numbers on each side. “Is there anyone else willing to enter the field?”

Northern Di men were fierce and loved battle. The moment they heard there was gold, several more stepped out at once.

Sheng Kingdom naturally added more as well.

Emperor Chong Sheng gave a small nod, signaling Eunuch Su to announce the start.

At that moment, several voices came from outside the Drill Ground.

“Your Majesty! I am also here!”

“I am also here!”

“I am also here!”

Sheng Zhi Wan heard one familiar voice among them. Sheng Zhi Wan looked over and saw Shang Xing Yu standing out like a pearl dropped into coal, with several dark faced people beside him.

“That is… Brother Rong?” Madam Ye stared at her own son, unable to recognize him.

“Wasn’t Elder Brother off traveling in Yuan Zhou?” Ye Xuan covered her face. “How did Elder Brother get this dark?”

Ye Xuan’s eyes went wide. “He looks so ugly! Elder Brother used to be useless in every way, but at least he still had a face you could look at. Now it is over. His only good point is gone too!”

“Pei Yu An?!” Huai Hua Grand General Pei Ling Yuan looked at his son, who had become much darker and sturdier, and felt quite pleased. “Now that looks right! Before, he was always acting like a woman. This is what a seed of the Pei Family should look like!”

“Th-that is my Bao Jing?” Censor-in-Chief Chen Dao Tan wept with joy. “Heavens, he got so thin!”

The fat he could never lose before was finally gone.

The crowd became noisy because of the sudden appearance of those people.

Sheng Zhi Wan came back to herself. Were these people really dragged off to Te Dan to earn silver, and not tricked into a coal mine to dig charcoal?

In just a little over two months, how could they have turned this dark?

Zhou Yu Zheng had not come because Zhou Yu Zheng’s father’s rank was not high enough. But the four dandies appeared together, and they even wanted to join the hunt.

Shang Xiu Yuan scolded in a low voice, “Xing Yu, do not fool around! The prey in this hunt is not the wild rabbits and pheasants you used to shoot. They are all fierce beasts, and it is dangerous. Worse, this is a contest against Northern Di. You cannot even hit small birds. If you cause Sheng Kingdom to lose, His Majesty will certainly blame you!”

Shang Xing Yu answered seriously, “Elder Brother, after three days apart, you should see people with new eyes. We spent these two months finding someone to teach us riding and archery properly. If you do not believe me, then look at Ye Rong and the others.”

Shang Xing Yu lifted his chin. “I am not dark only because my foundation was good. Otherwise, what Elder Brother would see right now would be a blackened me too.”

Shang Xing Yu spoke loudly enough that Emperor Chong Sheng heard it, and Emperor Chong Sheng felt a little speechless.

Emperor Chong Sheng knew these people well. They were good at catching cats and teasing dogs, but a hunting meet?

Better not.

Even if they had trained for two months, it was still only two months. What use could it be?

They were probably just too full of themselves after raiding a bandit nest last time.

But the purpose of this hunt was to intimidate the Northern Di envoys. Emperor Chong Sheng could not let a few clueless dandies ruin it.

Emperor Chong Sheng was about to speak.

Shang Xing Yu stepped forward and bowed again. “Your Majesty, I have an idea. Since this is Sheng Kingdom’s land, then if the two sides fight, there should be commoner wandering about, right? Why not let us play the wandering commoner?”

Shang Xing Yu continued, “For the great affairs of the state, it is only about loving the people. If Sheng Kingdom protects us well, then Sheng Kingdom naturally gains points. On the other hand, the Northern Di envoys can also seize us and interrogate us for information about Sheng Kingdom’s camp.”

“Good!” Emperor Chong Sheng did not expect a dandy like Shang Xing Yu to say something like that. “What a fine ‘for the great affairs of the state, love the people’!”

Emperor Chong Sheng’s gaze sharpened. “But the Drill Ground is full of danger. If you serve as commoner, you will not be allowed horses or weapons. Are you not afraid of fierce birds and wild beasts?”

“Afraid!” Ye Rong was the one who spoke this time. “But if a strong enemy truly invades, then what does fear matter?”

Ye Rong clenched his fists. “Even if we cannot bind a chicken, we should still fight for our country!”

Pei Yu An stepped out. “That is right.”

In just a little over two months, they were no longer the dandies Ye Rong and Pei Yu An had been.

That damned Shang Xing Yu had hidden things too deeply.

The five of them had only just crossed Sheng Kingdom’s border when a group of people “kidnapped” them.

From the start, Shang Xing Yu had taken the beatings to protect them and had been abused to death.

The other four suffered inhuman training at the hands of that group. At the same time, they struggled to escape, searching for a chance to take revenge for Shang Xing Yu.

For those two months, they tasted every kind of hardship, and they learned that when life and death pressed down, a person’s potential could be endless.

In the end… when they finally found a chance to escape that hell, they discovered that Shang Xing Yu, who should have been dead, stood before them clean and fair.

At that thought, Ye Rong and Pei Yu An wanted nothing more than to beat Shang Xing Yu half to death.

But… forget it.

It was not because they could not win a fight. It was only because of the piles of silver.

They had not even taken part in the Te Dan affair, yet the four of them still split four million five hundred thousand taels of cash, and that was not even counting what would come later.

Good brother. The method had been vile, but it was still for their good.

In any case, the five dandy brothers were already completely different from two months ago.

“Good, good…” Emperor Chong Sheng was delighted. Emperor Chong Sheng had not expected a few dandies to say such things.

The Northern Di envoys also learned these people’s terrible reputations from those around them. When the envoys looked at their thin arms and thin legs, they naturally did not take them seriously.

So, both sides agreed to send twenty six battle warriors each.

The four dandies entered the hunt as the most helpless “commoner,” with no weapons.

At Eunuch Su’s command, the war drums sounded.

The tall iron fences of the forest opened, and Northern Di and Sheng Kingdom entered from the north and the south.

The hunt began, lasting two full days.

For those two days, everyone could return to their rooms at the travel palace to wait. They could also stay inside the Drill Ground tents and hear the situation in the forest in real time from the scouts.

Any official whose children participated in the hunt basically chose to stay in the tents.

Once they entered the mountain, the forest grew dense.

Qi Shu Xian had already received Emperor Chong Sheng’s orders. This time, Qi Shu Xian not only had to lead Sheng Kingdom to seize Northern Di’s banner, Qi Shu Xian also had to seriously injure the two Northern Di Generals as a warning.

Besides that, Qi Shu Xian was also determined to win the red fox that served as the final prize.

Hoofbeats faded into the distance.

Chen Bao Jing stared at the rising dust with wide eyes. “Wait, what? We agreed we are commoner. They just threw us here and left?”

“What else would they do?” Ye Rong glanced at Chen Bao Jing, then looked at Shang Xing Yu. “Shang Er, you said you had a way to take the Northern Di banner. How are we doing it?”

“No rush.” Shang Xing Yu smiled and waved. “Let us go set a trap first.”