History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 30: Participating Only in the Literary Competition [Thanks to the first steward of this story]

be cheated!
Two days after Yuan Heng fled in a panic, he discovered that no one at Cui Academy had investigated the matter, which made him feel even more humiliated, as if all his efforts had been in vain. Unable to contain his frustration, he told his roommate Hai Yeren about stealing the exam questions, and the story spread from one person to another, and now even Wei Yao knows about it.

She understood Wei Mao's unspoken meaning and assured him, "I will never tell anyone."

Wei Jingyi's eyes darted around nervously, because he had just assured his partner not long ago.

We've arrived at the plum garden.

This was one of the venues for the military officer competition at the beginning of the month. The dug trenches, the piled-up earthen mounds, and some of the competition equipment were still there. Wei Yao followed closely behind her two fellow disciples and found that the layout of the garden had changed drastically since her last visit, and a camel farm had been added to the east.

The gathering place for the imperial princes, including Changsun Wuzhuo, was the Camel Farm.

The meritorious officials on Lu Baozhen's side were in the original archery range.

Whether on their own or against the opponent, everyone is close in age, with a maximum age difference of two years.

Wei Mao, Wei Jing, and their teammates greeted each other, while Wei Yao secretly memorized the names and origins of each unfamiliar face.

The Lu clan naturally had the most members, and they were named Lu Baohuan, Lu Baoyou, Lu Zhengpin, Lu Jiayi, and Lu Fashan.

Secondly, there were four helpers from the He clan, led by He Rong.

The Mu clan consisted of three people, with Mu Dai as their leader.

The Wei clan consists of three people named Wei Yao.

Everyone has arrived; there are sixteen people in total.

Her companions were very helpful. Lu Baozhen had made it clear beforehand that she would provide all ten fine horses needed for the race, and at that moment, these horses were leisurely grazing on the grass.

Today's competition rules are that we will first conduct various martial arts battles. If either side loses all the martial arts battles, then there is no need to continue the literary contest.

Mu Dai asked, "A physical contest is easy to decide; the winner is obvious. But how do we conduct a contest of words? Who will set the questions?"

This matter was discussed by Wei Mao and his opponent, and he explained: "Both sides invited members of Han aristocratic families to act as impartial judges, and the impartial judges would set the questions. We invited Zheng Zun from Zheng Academy and Cui Shang from Cui Academy. Changsun Wuzhuo invited Cui Zhi from Cui Academy and Wang Ji from Wang Academy."

Wei Yao listened carefully. She already knew that Zheng Zun and Shang Tongmen were close friends of Wei Mao, so their arrival must have been at Wei Mao's invitation. As for Shang Tongmen's proud and aloof personality, his involvement in matters concerning the Xianbei youths could only be due to a sincere invitation from Xi Jiao.

As for Wang Ji… Wei Yao wasn’t curious about which imperial prince he was on good terms with, but upon hearing that he was from the Wang clan of Taiyuan, how could she not worry about her fellow clansman, Wei Zhen, once again? Would Wei Zhen marry into this clan again in this life? Would she repeat the tragic fate of dying during pregnancy?

There's no use thinking about it now, so Wei Yao continued listening to the battle rules.

As agreed, the literary contest was to begin in the afternoon, and the four students from the Gongzheng side would not arrive until close to noon.

The sun is rising.

People were still arriving from Changsun Wuzhuo's side. Lu Baozhen secretly noted their numbers; they already outnumbered her by four. She sent her younger cousin, Lu Jiayi, to inquire when they could begin.

Wei Mao said, "I'll go."

He returned quickly and explained the situation of the other team: "Their people have almost all arrived, but they were delayed because of the last-minute addition of personnel. Yuan Heng was added, saying he was injured but insisted on coming, so Xi Jiao went to pick him up. Please wait a moment, they should be here soon."

The group of friends all guessed the reason at the same time.

Only Lu Jiayi, with his gruff voice, shouted: "What if Governor Yuan finds out about our stupid act of stealing exam questions and breaks Yuan Heng's legs? Haha."

No one responded.

This further proves that the fake exam questions incident is already widely known.

Lu Baozhen: "Let's get down to business. Even if we don't count Yuan Heng, there will be twenty-one of our opponents when Xi Jiao arrives. Let me first explain how the martial arts competition will be conducted this morning..." The first two rounds will only involve horse fighting, with three horses used in each round, for crossing trenches and obstacles.

The third round of the competition was a test of riding skills, consisting of three laps around the outer ring of the large camel enclosure, with four riders from each side.

In the fourth round of the stone-throwing competition, only one person can be selected to participate.

In the fifth round of the competition, there was one person from each side who exceeded the distance.

In the final round, the rope is pulled, with a minimum of seven people and a maximum of eight people participating.

As the group was about to discuss which competition they would participate in, Lu Baozhen became even more serious and said, "The rules of the competition are that each person and each horse can only participate in one match. Anyone who loses a match cannot participate in the afternoon's literary contest." Conversely, if her side wins all the literary contests while Changsun's side fails to win all the martial contests, Changsun's team will be considered defeated. This was impossible to achieve, so she didn't need to say it.

"what?"

"what?"

Lu Jiayi's gruff voice drowned out all other sounds: "Sister Cong, why didn't you say so sooner? If I had known earlier, I could have found even more helpers."

Lu Baozhen explained to his companions who shared the same doubts: "Wei Mao and I have discussed it. Among the various departments of our meritorious officials, you are the most capable fighters. Even if we bring more people, they won't be able to fight. The same goes for the literary contest! You came in last place in the joint examination last month. Can your cronies even read? From now until you go on stage, shut up!"

The last few sentences were, of course, a rant against Lu Jiayi.

Wei Jing's mouth twitched from suppressing a laugh, and he quietly asked Wei Mao, "Was it Lu Jiayi who was expelled from Lu Academy last month?"

“Hmm.” Wei Mao replied, then loudly explained, “This is why I brought my fellow student Yao here. She ranked first in both of our Wei Academy’s joint examinations on the Book of Poetry.”

"Wow, you're amazing!" The one clapping and praising was Lu Zhengpin, the youngest of the group, whose voice still carried a childish tone.

Lu Jiayi hated those who were good at studying, but he didn't dare to say anything.

Wei Mao suggested: "Wei Yao should not engage in any physical combat, but only participate in the intellectual contest."

Lu Baozhen immediately nodded: "That's what I thought too. Ayao, we'll have to count on you this afternoon."

Without a moment's hesitation, Wei Yao replied, "Don't worry!" Although there's no first place in literature but no second in martial arts, if she didn't have confidence in dealing with real elementary school children, then she would have wasted her rebirth.

At this moment, a procession of carriages arrived in the garden, with warriors in military uniforms accompanying them on both sides.

"Is Yuan Heng here?"

"It must be. Why are there two carts behind the oxcart... are they animal cage carts?" The carts are covered with felt, and they look like that.

Yuan Zizhi and Zhou Tai rode out of the camel farm and galloped toward the procession escorting the three carts.

The felt cloth on the last vehicle was suddenly removed, and it turned out to be a caged animal vehicle!
The one who removed the felt cloth was Xi Jiao. Today he had his hair tied up, wore a small black silk crown, and a thick black tunic embroidered with flame and red patterns. The black steed he rode was saddleless, very tall, and as eye-catching as its master.

However, what shocked and caused a commotion among those present was not the master and the rider, but the enormous tiger beast inside the caged carriage!
"Ah!" Everyone was shocked again, seeing that Yuan Zizhi had also opened the other animal cage cart, inside which was a tiger cub.

Wei Yao asked, "Is it the tiger that was released into the Mingtang Ranch before the New Year?"

Wei Mao took a step closer to her and replied, "Yes. After being shown to the various tribes on the pasture for a few days, they were brought into the governor's mansion. Governor Yuan only kept the mother tiger and gave the two cubs to Yuan Heng and Yuan Yu."

After he finished speaking, Yuan Heng, who was lying on a stretcher, was carried down from the front oxcart by his servants.

Looking at the horses still grazing, Wei Yao suddenly thought of a possibility and guided Wei Mao toward it: "It's understandable to bring your own fierce pets when traveling, but why bring the tigress as well?"

Pulling the rope (拔缏绳): This refers to tug-of-war. "缏" refers to a braided object made of wheat straw. Additionally, in this text, "throwing stones" is a sport similar to throwing a shot put, except that stones are thrown; "long jump" is equivalent to "over-distance."



(End of this chapter)