Chapter 2262
Zhang Jinbao is just a businessman, not a scholar, so even if he is very popular in poetry, he still can't hold back decent words for a while. He secretly regrets that he should have asked the students to compose a few poems last night, and he will write some poems today. You can show it off when you find the right opportunity, and maybe you can use it to flatter the big shots present.
However, Zhang Jinbao knew that he had limited ink. If he really used this as a means to attract attention, his secret would be revealed sooner or later, and he would inevitably be humiliated by that time, so he just thought about it.
After climbing over the top of the slope, there are guide signs at regular intervals along the road to guide guests to the competition venue. But Zhang Jinbao had already seen clearly when he was standing on the top of the slope. There was a school field with colorful flags in the camp. It was obvious that it was the venue for martial arts competitions.
From time to time, there were groups of Haihan soldiers walking fast on the road in the camp area. Zhang Jinbao would take the initiative to avoid the roadside and let the other party go first.
The competition venue is not far from the gate of the camp and can be reached in a short time. However, there is a second sentry here, and you still need to show your invitation letter to verify your identity before you can pass. Zhang Jinbao did not dare to neglect and took out the invitation letter for inspection by the sentry as instructed. But he didn't quite understand how he could verify whether he was the person on the invitation if the other party didn't recognize him.
Zhang Jinbao didn't know that the officer who registered his identity at the gate was actually from the Military Intelligence Department. He was responsible for identifying the identities of all the invited persons. It seemed that he had only done a simple registration, but in fact he had confirmed the identity of each invitation holder. The guest letter will not be someone else trying to impersonate you. If anyone tried, they would be stopped at the gate.
As for the people Zhang Jinbao saw entering the gate in a carriage before, they were all distinguished guests. They were picked up and dropped off by carriages arranged by Haihan officials. The carriages running business outside could not enter. Even if Zhang Jinbao rents a carriage, he will still be asked to get off the car at the gate and enter on foot.
The sentry outside the school grounds is mainly for the purpose of having a dedicated person take the guests to the designated viewing area after verifying their identity, while allowing the guests' entourage to wait outside the sentry. However, because Zhang Jinbao came alone, there was one less formality.
Immediately, a soldier took Zhang Jinbao to the stands on the east side of the school ground and took a seat. There is an open-air terrace made of bricks and stones on the side of the school field, and some soft cushions are placed on it to provide a place for guests to sit. Although the layout was a bit crude, the invited guests had no complaints about it. After all, this place was a military camp, not the magnificent banquet hall of Fort Victory.
There was a card with a name on each cushion. The soldier who led the way took Zhang Jinbao to the designated location, collected the name card on the cushion, and asked him to take a seat here. Later, a soldier brought him a glass bottle containing drinking water to replenish his fluids while watching the competition.
Zhang Jinbao looked at the guests who had already arrived, and he recognized a few of them, but they were sitting far away from him, so it was a bit inconvenient to say hello. When he saw that everyone was sitting in their seats, no one was walking around in the stands, he didn't dare to make any mistakes at the moment, so he could only stay still.
There was a platform in the middle of the stand, where a row of tables and chairs had been set up. Zhang Jinbao stretched his neck and counted. There were only a dozen seats, which were obviously prepared for the big shots who were about to arrive. However, in Zhang Jinbao's view, this difference in treatment is a matter of course. It is impossible for a grassroots person like him to be on an equal footing with the adults on the executive committee.
Moreover, Zhang Jinbao saw the young princes and princes of Annan and North Korea at the banquet held by the Executive Committee the day before yesterday. When these foreign dignitaries attend today's event, they must sit with the big shots of the Executive Committee, which is in line with diplomatic etiquette. .
Zhang Jinbao and other guests did not wait too long. Not long after, these big shots arrived outside the school grounds in several carriages, then got off the car and slowly climbed onto the stands and took their seats.
After the big shots were seated, the contestants from all sides entered the arena in teams. There was a person in front of each team holding a sign with the team name. Although Haihan was the host of this event, because all the teams participating in the competition were people who came to Haihan to study abroad, Haihan did not send his own team to participate and only served as organizer and referee. Therefore, the ten participating teams There is no Haihan in this team.
After all the teams stood in front of the stands, Defense Minister Yan Chujie stood up to speak. However, Zhang Jinbao was sitting a little to the side and heard intermittent sounds. The main message was that he hoped that all parties participating in the competition would do their best and put themselves in Haihan. All the skills learned were put to use.
Li Xie, who was also sitting in the middle of the stands, was observing the teams in front of him. Annan and Fujian are the two largest teams, each with about thirty people. The dozen or so people in North Korea are not the smallest team on the field. There are also situations like Ma Dalan where only three people participate. This makes Li Zhi find out a little bit. In order to achieve a little psychological balance, at least North Korea has not sent too few people to study abroad.
But what Li Zhi didn't know was that this was not the only number of soldiers sent by Ma Dalan to study in Sanya. It was just that a group of them had graduated and left three months ago, and now only three of them were left in Sanya.
Today, in addition to the senior officials of the Executive Committee and representatives of allies, there was also a special guest in the middle of the stand, Su Keyi, who attended the event on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.
In previous years when this competition was held, the East India Company was never among those invited to watch the competition, and it was very difficult to find out relevant information. Under Heyhan's instructions, no one would take the initiative to disclose information about the tournament to the Dutch.
However, the situation has changed this year. The Executive Committee believes that expanding the scope of this activity should not be limited to allies, but should also play a role in speculators such as the East India Company who are not firm in their stance. Therefore, in addition to various activities in previous years, In addition to representative Fang, Su Keyi was also specially invited to participate in the observation this year.
For Su Keyi, this can be regarded as a major breakthrough in his mission to Haihan in the past few years. If he has any regrets, it is probably that this treatment was not obtained by him, but was given by Haihan on his own initiative. , but there is not much sense of accomplishment at all.
However, the opportunity was rare, and Su Keyi would not let go of this opportunity to collect information, so he agreed without hesitation after receiving the invitation. He only knew that allies like Haihan had frequently sent troops to assist Haihan in carrying out combat missions overseas in recent years, but he had never had the opportunity to gain a more intuitive understanding of the specific combat effectiveness of these forces.
The participants in this kind of competition are all elites from all armies, and their performance can reflect their combat effectiveness from the side, which can be used to evaluate the strength level of each family. While inferences based on this information may not be completely accurate, they are certainly better than not knowing anything about them before.
Su Keyi was only good at business and did not know much about military affairs, so he originally brought an officer bodyguard as a staff officer, but his bodyguard was stopped outside the school grounds and was not allowed to enter and watch. This was unavoidable. This disrupted his plan. At the moment, he could only brace himself and secretly figure out how to observe the game process.
Yan Chujie's speech was very brief. Before Su Keyi could think of how to respond, he had already finished his speech and announced the start of the martial arts competition.
The first competition is a highly ornamental obstacle course, and Haihan set the opening ceremony at this school ground just to conduct the competition of this event nearby.
A runway of about 200 feet in length has been set up on the school grounds. There are many obstacles such as crawling iron nets, rope climbing, shallow puddles, single-plank bridges, etc. to simulate various environments on the battlefield. The one who completes the entire race the fastest will be the winner. winning. Running fast is only the basic condition, and the skill of passing these obstacles quickly is the real content of the competition. The ten teams were divided into five groups, competing in pairs, and the final results were determined by a dedicated referee.
Since only one person from each team participates in the competition, and the results are determined once, the requirements for participants are extremely high. In order to avoid injuries to the participants, they were also given a little warm-up time.
"Sir Xu, which team do you think can win the championship in this project?" Zheng Zha was bored, so he started chatting with Xu Yuxing next to him.
Xu Yuxing responded expressionlessly: "This competition is our army's strength, and our Xu family army must win the championship!"
"Sir Xu, you are not polite!" Zheng Zha said with a smile: "I think that my Annan Army is expected to rewrite your army's record this year. Lord Xu, are you willing to make a small bet with me?"
Xu Yuxing said: "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders. Since the young prince is so interested, let's bet a thousand Haihan coins."
Zheng Zha looked to the left and right and said: "Who else is willing to play together? The winner takes all!"
Li Zhen was quite interested at first, but when he heard Xu Yuxing opened his mouth and said a thousand words, he immediately swallowed back the words that came to his lips. The value of one thousand Haihan coins is almost equivalent to one thousand taels of silver. For him, this is not a small amount for casual play. Although he knows that this is the only competition event in which he is expected to compete for ranking, he does not dare to Take a thousand yuan to bet with Zheng Zha and others on a very unlikely possibility.
Li Nai responded with a smile: "I would like to participate in one, but I don't want to bet on my own family. I want to buy the victory of the young prince's team. How do I calculate this?"
"It doesn't matter, Third Young Master, just buy it, and I can make this project my own business!" Xu Yuxing's tone was extremely determined, which shows his confidence in this project.
Every year, the Li family also sends some of their younger children to Sanya to receive military training in the name of golden shield. Li Jifeng did not simply want to use this to train a private army, but to let these trained family members go to Jindun branch offices in various places to take over part of the business, so as to avoid that the management of each branch office was only Haihan personnel.
These people often have no military experience before being sent to Sanya, so their training effect is definitely not as good as that of military trainees sent by other forces, and participating in this activity is just a make-up. Of course, Li Nai didn't expect Jindun to perform well in the competition, so he bluntly stated that he wanted to bet on Annan's team.
Although one thousand yuan was not a small amount, it would not make Li Nai feel too heartbroken if it was used to show his kindness to Zheng Zao. If you can win, it will be a windfall.
Zheng Zha smiled and said: "Then thank you Third Young Master for your support!"
Most of the other people here knew that they were not as powerful as the two top teams, and they were not as willing as Li Nai to bet on other teams, so there was no fourth company to participate. As the organizer, Haihan, in order to show fairness, is naturally inconvenient to participate in this kind of gambling game.
Xu Yuxing applied to Yan Chujie: "Minister Yan, since the young prince is so interested, can we put our two teams in the final round for the sake of the excitement of the event?"
As soon as this proposal came out, it was immediately supported by Zheng Zha. The other participating parties also know that this event is mostly just a companion event, and will not jump out to object to this arrangement. Yan Chujie hesitated for a moment, and seeing that no one objected to the proposal, he exchanged glances with Tao Donglai, and then asked people to make arrangements and adjust the game slightly so that the two strongest teams would compete in the final round.
An Daoshi was warming up on the school field at this time. According to the original arrangement, he was placed in a group with Dong Shangyi, who represented Xu Jiajun. The result of the draw made him quite frustrated because he knew very well that he was definitely not Dong Shangyi's opponent, and the other party It is also impossible to show mercy to him when such a big man supervises the battle. If he competes with him in the same field, he will inevitably lose a bit ugly.
However, at this time, the referee of Haihan came to notify the schedule adjustment, and Dong Shangyi was transferred to the last round to face off against Li Hai of the Annan Army, while Andao Shi's opponent was replaced by Li He of Jindun.
This adjustment made Andoshi relax a little. He didn't have to face the strongest player in this event, and he felt that his performance would be better.
Dong Shangyi didn't take it seriously, and even came over to encourage Andao Shi and asked him to compete in order to leave a good impression in the minds of these big shots.
The competition in the first few groups was lackluster. Not surprisingly, Ando Shi defeated Li He in the same group by a large margin. He felt that he should have performed better than his usual training level. But everyone, including him, is waiting for the last group of competitions, because this is the showdown between the masters of this project.
After the starting gun sounded, Dong Shangyi and Li Hai sprinted out from the starting line. This is not the first time they have competed on an obstacle course. Although the obstacles in this arena are different from the usual training venues, and it does not give them a chance to adapt to the arena in advance, the long-term training still allows them to face the challenge. Able to make optimal reactions and actions when facing various obstacles.
They didn't know that their superiors who were watching the competition from the sidelines had already placed a lot of bets on themselves, but the thought of winning was enough to encourage them to do their best to surpass their opponents here.
(End of chapter)