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Northern suburbs, polo field.

Li Chao was dressed in silk armor and entered with his Longyou polo team. On a whim, the emperor ordered all the governors who were still in Beijing to form a polo team to play a polo match.

Fifteen Metropolitan Polo Teams, plus thirty-nine Metropolitan Polo Teams, compete in league with the Gyeonggi Alliance, which consists of the Twelve Guards and the Twelve Armies of Guanchung.

The format is also very simple, with the local teams first deciding the top six, then the Gyeonggi team deciding the top six, and finally the twelve teams on both sides play the final league to determine the top eight and play the finals.

Sometimes, Li Chao really couldn't guess Li Yuan's thoughts.

Perhaps he felt that the atmosphere of the situation between the DPRK and China was not right in this year's New Year, and he had the idea of using this ball game to ease the atmosphere.

As the governor of Gyeonggi, Lee Se-min also led the Gyeonggi Governor's Office team to attend.

Li Chao also holds the position of General Zuo Yiwei, and many metropolitan governors are like this, so the leaders of the Twelve Guards and the Twelve Armies this time are basically led by the long history or Sima of each guard and army.

They are weaker than the local teams not only in terms of numbers, but also in momentum. There are 60 teams in the local team, but the Gyeonggi League has a home field advantage, and their players are strong, which is not comparable to the team that the local team hastily put together with the escorts.

Li Chao doesn't know how to play polo, and riding a horse is quite reluctant, but if you ride a horse on the field, chase a small ball with a stick, and shoot at the goal, this is really too difficult for a strong man.

However, his team is very strong, the team of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion of Longyou Province has 22 players, 11 regular players, and 11 substitutes.

Li Chao doesn't know how to play polo, but all four of his heads are polo masters, and the sons and daughters of the nobles in Chang'an City basically know how to play polo. They have horses, and some even have a polo team on their homes. For these noble children, playing polo is like playing sports cars for the second generation of later generations.

With a sports car, it would be too much if you didn't race a car.

Some say that polo originated in Persia and spread to China via the Silk Road. Some people also say that polo has long existed in ancient China, and some people say that it was introduced from Tibet, and Li Chao can't figure it out, anyway, at this time in the early Tang Dynasty, although polo was not a national sport, it was a very popular sport in the aristocratic upper class society in Chang'an City. Not only the young people loved to play, but also the emperors and officials, and even the women rode donkeys to play polo.

Polo is also popular in the military.

Polo also has a variety of plays, both single-goal and double-goal, as well as different numbers of people. The minimum was a team of four, and the maximum was a team of eleven. Each has its own style of play, but the best to look at is definitely the 22 players with the largest number.

Eleven players on each side, ten players, one goalkeeper.

This kind of 22-person polo game has no time limit, but a point system, 20 flags are planted on the sidelines, and a flag is pulled out to the winning side when a goal is scored, and finally the 24 flags are pulled out, and the winner is judged according to the number of flags.

There is an intermission.

Cheng Chumo is the head of the four capitals, and they all ask to go into battle in person, even if they are all viscounts, their grades are not low, but there is no limit. On the contrary, it is quite popular for these officers who go into battle in person.

If you play polo well, you can even become an idol.

Li Yuan also has a royal polo team, and the players in it are all those polo masters, who are named polo offerings.

Even Guo Xiaoke had to go into battle in person, Wei Ting was not far behind, Zhang Liang, Er Zhuhuan, and Qiao Gongshan also had to go up. As a result, half of Li Chao's Longyou team are officers, and the highest is even a second-grade Shangzhuguo.

The other teams were similar, and Li Chao even saw that Li Shimin actually wanted to play in person, wearing the red-edged jersey of the Gyeonggi team.

The course is about 1,000 steps long, with stands on four sides and low walls on three sides, which is very smooth. This royal course has even been doused with oil, so that the court is not dusty and smooth as a mirror.

The wooden goals of the two stone lotus seats are about a foot high, and they are located on the east and west sides of the court.

There is also a band in the stadium, with drums under the two corridors, and there are five war drums under the flags of both sides, and 24 embroidered flags are placed on both sides of the goal.

Under the east and west steps of the emperor's stand, there is an empty flag stand, and if you hit a flag, it is called a chip, and the guards shout loudly and put a flag on the flag stand of the team, indicating that you have a chip.

Every time you get three points, it's a sub-section, and you can take an intermission. After the last eight quarters of the game, the winner will be determined by the number of flags.

In fact, there are only 54 teams of the Governor's Office, and in Gyeonggi and Dugi Province, there are only the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion and no ordinary Governor's Office, so there are actually six less Governor's Offices, and the total is 54 teams.

At the beginning, the knockout system was adopted, and the two teams of Gyeonggi and Dugi could directly advance.

As for the other thirteen provinces, the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is exempted from one round, and the three ordinary Governor's Mansions in each province take turns to compete, and the best results are promoted, and the remaining two teams are eliminated. The team that advances will have to play against the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion of the Dao, using a best-of-three system, and the loser will be eliminated.

Each of the thirteen provinces decided one winning team, and with the addition of the Togi and Gyeonggi teams, it became fifteen teams to advance.

Fifteen teams, in the end, were divided into three groups by drawing lots, and finally the top two teams in each group qualified for the top six of the local teams, and finally competed with the top six of the 12 guards and 12 armies of Gyeonggi.

The pitch is big, and there are big places around the pitch.

"San Lang, Your Majesty has just issued an order to let the six guards of the East Palace lead each team to participate in the competition, and they will decide the top six places together with the twenty-four teams in Gyeonggi."

Guo Xiaoke told Zhang Chao a new piece of news.

The East Palace has ten guard rates, left and right guard rates, left and right Siyu rates, and left and right clearing rates, and each rate has three to five military offices. In addition, there are four rates of the left and right prison gate rates and the prince's left and right inner rate of the government, and they do not command the government soldiers.

After a while, sure enough, Li Jiancheng appeared with six teams.

The appearance of the crown prince and the East Palace team still attracted a lot of amazements.

"Our crown prince status seems to be stable again!"

Li Chao also nodded, the status of the crown prince is completely the emperor's words. If the emperor wants to protect the crown prince, then no matter how precarious his status is, he can still get through the danger.

"You're not going to play?"

"Not interested!"

In fact, there was only one game today, and that was an exhibition match for the royal polo team from the Emperor, and the other teams were just here to draw lots.

It is impossible for so many teams to compete here, they draw lots, and when they go back, they will compete with each other, here, there are only the last two sides of the top six teams in the league.

"Do you think we can leave Beijing before the end of February?" Li Chao asked.

"What's the hurry, how lively such a grand event is!" Guo Xiaoke is not in a hurry to take office.

In fact, Li Chao is not in a hurry to leave Beijing, once he leaves Beijing, it means that they have missed the best opportunity this year, and if they drag it on, they don't know what will happen.

Long nights and dreams!

Li Jiancheng rode over on a tall Hexi horse and rode in front of Li Chao first.

"Wenyuan, you haven't been to the East Palace since you returned to Beijing, when can you come to the East Palace, I want to have a good talk with you."

"I wonder what His Highness wants to talk to so-and-so?"

Xu Shimo, the prince beside Li Jiancheng, snorted coldly, "Duke Wu An, have you forgotten that you are still a guest of the prince of the East Palace?" As a subordinate official of the East Palace, do you still have to resist when the prince summons you to the East Palace? ”

Li Chao ignored this Xu Shimo, the prince's guest is not a prince's subordinate official, it is equivalent to the prince's teacher. The status in the East Palace is very transcendent, if Li Jiancheng wants to recruit him and linger, Li Chao can completely ignore him.

In fact, Gu found that San Lang had some misunderstandings about Gu, and Gu wanted to ask San Lang to sit down and talk about them to resolve these misunderstandings. After all, you're still my Prince's guest, and I hope we can put our past past thoughts on the future as much as possible. ”

Li Chao understood these words as a threat to him. Li Jiancheng wanted to say that he was still the crown prince and would be the emperor of the Tang Dynasty in the future. Yes, Li Jiancheng has a certain level of speech. The threat is quite accurate.

"I haven't had any misunderstanding with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, where does this misunderstanding begin?" Li Chao said with a smile.

"San Lang, Gu has always thought that you are very smart, but you see, although Shimin almost succeeded, His Majesty still saw it clearly. His Majesty still chose Lonely, Lone is the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty will also be Lone in the future. You're still so young, you're in your early thirties in ten years, don't you want to think about the future? I heard that your wife and concubine are pregnant, congratulations. Ten years later, they will only be ten years old, you don't want to have no one to take care of their orphans and widows in the future, do you? ”

"Those who know the times are Junjie, if you can abandon the darkness and turn to the light, Lone hereby promises you that your family will be prosperous and rich for generations to come, and the duke will be for generations to come!"

"Abandon the darkness and turn to the light? Where does this begin? I'm also an official of the Tang Dynasty now, and it's His Majesty's personal seal, is this a secret? ”

Li Jiancheng's face was not very good-looking, "You know what I mean, don't pretend to be confused, what does that mean?" ”

"I really don't understand what His Highness means, my official position, it was given by His Majesty. At the beginning, I fought in Longyou, and when I left, I still had the official position of the East Palace, and then His Royal Highness couldn't wait to ask His Majesty to remove my official position in the East Palace. I'm not wrong, right? ”

"You're not going back?"

"Huh."

"Li Chao, don't hit the south wall and don't go back, and don't toast and don't eat and drink!"

Li Chao is not welcome, until now, you are still talking these, who can believe you. Even if Li Chao is now invested in the East Palace, it is difficult for him to guarantee that Li Jiancheng will not cross the river and tear down the bridge, unload the mill and kill the donkey after becoming the emperor in the future.

"Okay, Lone remembered your answer today, and I hope you won't regret it in the future." Li Jiancheng almost gritted his teeth and said this, and with a flick of his sleeves, Li Jiancheng kicked the horse's belly, turned his head and left.

Guo Xiaoke smiled and said to Li Chao, "San Lang, what you refused just now was really direct enough, and you didn't show mercy to the prince at all." ”

"It's already torn your face, what room is left!" (To be continued.) )