I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 93: Surprised Zhu Houzhao
There are many training grounds in and outside Beijing, all of which were set up during Zhu Di's reign. At that time, the officers and soldiers of the Beijing Garrison were not fixed, but were rotated every few years. Soldiers from various garrisons were selected to come to Beijing for training, so as to maintain control over the local troops and maintain the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the Beijing Garrison.

By the Zhengde period, many parade grounds in Beijing had been abandoned, so Zhu Houxuan chose an abandoned parade ground close to the capital.

Zhu Houzhao, in disguise, rode on horseback with his entourage and soon arrived at the stadium built by Zhu Houxuan.

The league has not officially started yet because all the teams are still not familiar with the new rules.

The teams playing now are Jinyiwei and Shenjiying. The main players on the field are all carefully selected, and many of them have good skills in ball entanglement, dribbling, and jumping. However, they are too redundant in this kind of game.

And they particularly like to play high ball and disdain to run around with a football.

This is a habit brought about by the inherent playing methods, because since the Tang Dynasty, the goal of Cuju has been set high in the air and not close to the ground at all.

These guys particularly like to show off their skills. At this time, one of them was pressed, but he did not choose to dodge with the ball. Instead, he picked up the ball with his heel, then quickly went behind the opponent and caught the ball with his head. After stopping the ball, he still did not stop. He could obviously pass the ball directly, but he insisted on posing in a good-looking posture. As a result, the ball was intercepted in an instant.

As the game went on, someone finally got the idea. He gave up on using fancy skills and just used speed and dribbling techniques to break through from the wing. The opponents were completely unprepared and in the blink of an eye they had passed several people. Then they suddenly passed the ball back, and their teammates lofted the ball into the penalty area, which was then scored with a header by a center forward.

"Good shot!" Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but stand up. He walked to the sidelines and shouted, "If you want to play, you need strength, speed, and coordination! Look at what you were playing before? The court is like a battlefield. No matter how good your individual skills are, they are not as good as forming a formation and coordinating. No matter how fancy your moves are, they are not as good as simply charging and killing with swords and guns!"

"Well said!" Zhu Houxuan suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.

"Why are you here, brother?" Zhu Houxuan smiled.

"I came to see what my brother has been doing recently, but I didn't expect that you would create such a big scene and fun things without taking me with you." Zhu Houzhao pretended to be angry.

"How dare I not bring my royal brother? The team hasn't been trained yet. If I send him out too early, we'll be embarrassed." Zhu Houxun explained quickly.

"You are right this time." Zhu Houzhao walked to Zhu Houxuan, looked at the players on the field and shouted, "What are you all standing there for? Keep playing!"

The voices of the two brothers' conversation just now were not deliberately lowered. The players on the field had already heard Zhu Houxuan calling him "brother" on the left and "brother" on the right, and they had already guessed Zhu Houzhao's identity.

The style of play on the field changed instantly. In front of the emperor, only a fool would continue to play tricks; the most important thing was to kick the ball into the goal and win.

The competition became more intense, the passing and shooting became more direct, the players' strength and speed were initially demonstrated, and the scene of charging and killing made Zhu Houzhao's blood boil.

"I didn't like playing football before because it was too fancy and not intense enough. Now this kind of game is just what I want. This kind of ball is suitable for promotion in the army," Zhu Houzhao sighed.

"By the way, why are the words 'Chen's Spice' written on the player's clothes?"

"Is that the advertisement I brought in?" Zhu Houxuan explained.

"advertise?"

"Yes, it means to advertise widely. We have received 1000 taels of silver, so the players have to wear jerseys with this wording printed on them throughout the year." Zhu Houxuan unexpectedly discovered his old friend Chen's shop when he was strolling around Beijing a while ago, and this time he went directly to advertise.

Mrs. Chen probably specifically told the shopkeeper of Chen's spices in Beijing after Zhu Houxuan came to Beijing, and the shopkeeper did not refuse and directly paid 1000 taels of silver to buy the team's advertisement. "You can even charge for this?" Zhu Houzhao said in surprise.

"Why can't they charge for this? They made a huge profit by buying the jersey advertisement for 1000 taels!" Zhu Houxuan said as a matter of course. Of course, he didn't sell all the jersey advertisements to the Chen family, but the advertisement of one of the teams. It's just that there was only this one advertiser, so he put the advertisement on all the jerseys of all the teams.

Zhu Houzhao was even more surprised. He suddenly felt that he didn't recognize the person in front of him. Although he had heard Zhang Yong mention that Prince Jing was good at business before, when this really happened in front of him, he still felt a little unbelievable.

"Don't believe it?" Zhu Houxuan saw through Zhu Houzhao's thoughts at a glance, "Just wait and see! After a while you will know how much this jersey advertisement can sell for! Watch the game! Watch the game!"

Zhu Houzhao decided not to think about this problem for the time being and focus on the game on the field.

After the game was over, Zhu Houzhao immediately said to Zhu Houxuan: "I will also try it."

Qian Ning on the side quickly advised: "Royal father, this ball is too rough, so don't leave the court, so as not to hurt the dragon's body."

Zhu Houxuan felt extremely helpless, but he also knew that he could not persuade Zhu Houzhao at all.

Sure enough, Zhu Houzhao glared at Qian Ning fiercely, and Qian Ning dared not speak.

Zhu Houxuan had no choice but to quietly pull the captains of both teams aside and ask them to instruct the players not to compete with the emperor for the football.

So the situation on the field became ridiculous. Zhu Houzhao came on the field with great enthusiasm, but a team sport turned into a complete personal show. His teammates passed the ball to him as soon as they got the ball, while the enemy hid eight feet away. When the goalkeeper saw a shot coming, he was so scared that he just lay down with his head in his hands.

"I won't play anymore! It's boring!"

Zhu Houzhao didn't even break a sweat, he kicked the ball aside and came back angrily: "Zhu Houxuan! It's no fun if you do this!"

"Your Majesty's health is the most important thing!" Zhu Houxun said with a smile.

"You--" Zhu Houzhao wanted to lose his temper, but when he saw Zhu Houxuan's smiling face, he couldn't lose his temper.

"Let them play another game." Zhu Houzhao said with his remaining anger.

In the end, Zhu Houzhao left with satisfaction. Zhu Houxuan did not tell him the purpose of forming the league because he felt that it was not the right time yet. He also asked Zhang Yong to keep it a secret for him.

However, the news that Zhu Houzhao personally went to the stadium spread, and the noble families increased their attention to the Cuju League. Even several jersey advertisements that had been ignored were sold, and all of them were bought by the shops of the noble families.

This can be considered an unexpected surprise.

The first league game finally began. The wooden stadium stands could only accommodate three thousand people. For the first three games, Zhu Houxuan did not charge ticket fees, but allowed the public to enter and watch for free.

Sure enough, this style of football game soon became popular throughout the capital.
Chapter 3. There are still a lot of messy things during the day. There should be another chapter. It will be posted in two hours.
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(End of this chapter)