Chapter 178: Flying Flowers are as Light as Dreams

Wei Kuang's brows were full of indignation, and he branched out again: "A good family child from the same county!"

Wang Yang pulled it back with one line: "Together we agree to join the martial soldiers."

Cheers rose again from the four seats!

Wei Kuang leaned on the table, stared at Wang Yang, and said urgently: "Galloping horses out of Yunzhong!"

Wang Yang pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice: "Ten thousand miles of grass are all withered."

"Good! Good!" Le Zhan waved his arm excitedly, shouting and cheering.

Wei Kuang gritted his teeth and stared, patted the table and pointed at Wang Yang: "Three battles to become a cavalry general!"

Wang Yang looked back indifferently, two fingers probing back like a dragon: "Daring to penetrate deep with shock troops."

Xie Xinghan's star-like eyes flashed, and she clapped her jade hands: "What a 'Daring to penetrate deep with shock troops'!"

Seeing Liu Cheng also nodded unconsciously, then froze.

"Vanguard out of Longxi!" Wei Kuang's voice grew higher.

Wang Yang looked at the fresh flowers all over the table, shook his head and said: "Capturing heads without counting."

Wei Kuang was choked for a moment, Seeing Liu Cheng entered the battle and connected: "Engaging in close-quarters combat again!"

Wang Yang smiled: "Increasing the fief by eight hundred households."

Damn it!

Seeing Liu Cheng retreated in defeat.

Wei Kuang went up again: "The Chanyu passes on the name!"

Wang Yang looked at Seeing Liu Cheng: "Clouds are from the general's family."

Seeing Liu Cheng's inspiration suddenly came, and regardless of how to write later, he directly set a difficult problem: "Meeting without lining up!"

Everyone felt this line was strange, eh? Why not line up?

Actually, Seeing Liu Cheng himself didn't know the answer, just to stump Wang Yang, so he made a strange remark.

Wei Kuang secretly praised Seeing Liu Cheng for connecting well! At the same time, he and Seeing Liu Cheng thought about how to round it back. After all, if Wang Yang couldn't connect, it would be their turn again, and if both of them couldn't connect, wouldn't it be a joke?

Wang Yang pondered for a moment, pushed a flower forward with two fingers like playing chess, and said word by word: "First, break through with strong cavalry."

It's not lining up, I'll just break through with elite cavalry, breaking skill with force, why bother lining up?

Wei Kuang and Seeing Liu Cheng looked at each other in horror.

Xie Xinghan breathed a sigh of relief.

Le Zhan patted his thigh, shouting in his heart that it was satisfying!

Le Pang watched Wang Yang take on two, occupying the upper hand, playing with flowers in his hands, and producing lines from his mouth. A few light words made noble sons like Wei Kuang and Seeing Liu Cheng so shocked they couldn't speak, and he suddenly felt that writing poetry was a bit... what was that word Wang Yang used... yes, cool! Writing poetry seems a bit cool! Why didn't I notice it before? Should I learn it too?

Xie Xinghan saw the appearance of the two and smiled: "The Hu soldiers are 'naturally' good at galloping." She added emphasis to the word "naturally."

Wang Yang heard Xie Xinghan's sarcasm, swept his gaze over Wei Kuang and Seeing Liu Cheng, and smiled as he connected: "In every battle, they are 'always' inferior."

Seeing Liu Cheng clenched his fists, Wei Kuang darkened his face.

At this time, the maidservant behind Wang Yang stepped forward, showed the empty flower basket to the circle, and said softly: "This basket of flowers is empty, if the young master earns another line, you can choose to take flowers from others' tables."

Wei Kuang and Seeing Liu Cheng suddenly had a bad premonition.

Wang Yang nodded and chanted two lines: "Appointed as Grand General, all generals belong to the army."

Everyone was surprised and admired!

This is getting more and more magical as it's written!

Actually secretly responding to the maidservant's words about taking flowers in the linked verses! Using soldiers to metaphorize flowers, taking others' flowers for one's own use, isn't that "Appointed as Grand General, all generals belong to the army"!

The maidservant asked: "Where should these two flowers be taken from?"

Wang Yang first pointed at Wei Kuang: "Ten thousand out of Yanmen."

Wei Kuang was shocked.

Then pointed at Seeing Liu Cheng: "Ten thousand out of Dai Commandery."

Seeing Liu Cheng lost his color.

The maidservants behind the two took two flowers each from the table and placed them on Wang Yang's table.

Seeing Liu Cheng gathered his courage, like a knight who wouldn't admit defeat, and launched another charge at Wang Yang: "In the chaos, one must draw the sword!"

Madam Le praised: "Good line!"

Le Zhan nodded, thinking in his heart: "This line indeed has spirit and bone."

Even Xie Xinghan felt this line was well connected. Chaos refers to the state of two armies engaging in close combat. This line superficially writes about the youth leading a large army to fight the Xiongnu, drawing his sword to kill the enemy in every battle, but in fact, it perfectly corresponds to his own situation when facing Wang Yang, although he cannot defeat him, he still dares to draw his sword!

Must draw the sword, a "must" word, makes people sigh.

Wang Yang pondered for a moment, looked at Seeing Liu Cheng, and sighed: "There is no complete skin."

A double entendre!

Although you came to fight with your sword drawn, in the end, you are also covered in wounds.

Seeing Liu Cheng only felt that his chest had been shot by an arrow.

No! Not one arrow, but several! And not just the chest, but the whole body! If you aren't shot into a sieve, how can it be called "no complete skin"? The scenes of being crushed in the past flooded his mind, Seeing Liu Cheng's spirit broke, and he retreated again.

Wei Kuang feigned composure: "The killing and wounding greatly exceed the equivalent!"

Greatly exceed the equivalent, roughly exceeding the corresponding number.

This line of poetry also has words within words.

On the surface, it says that the number of Xiongnu killed and wounded by the army led by the youth exceeds the losses of his own army, but in reality, it is saying that although you, Wang Yang, have the upper hand, in the linked verse battle, both sides have gains and losses, and our side has not been completely suppressed by you, in fact, both sides have casualties, it's just that you can "roughly exceed the equivalent."

Wang Yang smiled lightly, waved his hand and said: "The Hu King is completely driven north!"

"Good!" Xie Xinghan took the lead in applauding. Everyone at the table was convinced.

Using "completely" to counter "greatly," after Wang Yang connected it like this, "greatly exceed the equivalent" is no longer "roughly exceed the equivalent," but "greatly exceeded the equivalent"! And who is the Hu King being driven north? Isn't it obvious? What's even more wonderful is that with the word "completely," it is clearly not just one Hu King.

Wei Kuang and Seeing Liu Cheng, the two brothers in misfortune, were speechless, lost their souls, and could not say another word.

Everyone looked at Wang Yang, waiting for him to give this poem a beautiful ending. But since the poem had already been written to this point, could it really be concluded appropriately?

Wang Yang blurted out:

"On the day the great army returns to the fortress, drink horses at the Great Wall's crevice!"

Everyone at the table was shocked!

Le Zhan thought: Just this one line connects back to the theme, truly a powerful pen! Concluding like this can be considered complete.

Just as he was thinking, Wang Yang's voice was low, chanting slowly: "Drinking horses at the Great Wall's crevice, those who come together mostly do not return. Drinking horses at the Great Wall's crevice, the water is cold, wounding the horses' bones."

At this time, the wind suddenly rose, flowers flew in disorder, water drifted, and the whole table was shocked.

Those who come together mostly do not return, return means to go back, meaning that when going on an expedition to the frontier, few return. Adding such a line, it has a bit more of a desolate flavor.

The poetic meaning is profound, not something that can be encompassed by the phrase "building a career."

What's even more amazing is that Wang Yang actually repeated Chen Kongzhang's line "the water is cold, wounding the horses' bones." Originally, this line was only used as the first couplet for rhyming in the linked verses, crowned before the whole poem, without any special meaning. Now that it is added at the end, the beginning and end are suddenly connected, forming a circle! The whole poem has become a memory of returning from the battlefield and drinking horses at the Great Wall!

The whole poem circles back and forth, as if it were a reincarnation of fate. From the lack of deep feeling when first reading the beginning "the water is cold, wounding the horses' bones," to reading this line again at the end, the tragic feeling of the general fighting a hundred battles and few returning, the state of mind and feeling, are no longer the same as when first reading it.

Just by copying the first line, it becomes words that are exhausted but meaning that is endless, turning iron into gold, reborn, nothing more than this.

The poem echoed in everyone's ears, looking at the fresh flowers on the table in front of Wang Yang, blown into disorder by the wind, they forgot to cheer, and forgot to applaud.

Flying flowers are as light as dreams, accompanying the youth's body.

Wang Yang, a genius indeed!

"Zhonghan! Zhonghan! Wait... Wei Kuang! Stop!"

Inside the bamboo forest, Seeing Liu Cheng quickly caught up with Wei Kuang, grabbed his arm, and said angrily: "What do you mean? We agreed beforehand, how can you go back on your word?!"

Wei Kuang's greatest strength is actually not linked verses, but linked language. This is a literary game popular at the time, where after determining a theme, the theme is expressed in a rhyming way. For example, if the theme is "dangerous words," it means saying words that express a dangerous theme. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Gu Kaizhi, Huan Xuan, and Yin Zhongkan linked dangerous words together. Yin Zhongkan said: "A hundred-year-old man climbs a withered branch." Gu Kaizhi said: "An infant lies on the well-side windlass." Yin Zhongkan had a military advisor who said: "A blind man rides a blind horse, at midnight facing a deep pool." Each person described a dangerous situation, which is linking dangerous words.

Wei Kuang is best at linking words, and in this way, he is called the number one person in the Imperial Academy, and has never been defeated so far, and even won against Kong Xiuyuan, a scholar of the Western Residence of the Prince of Jingling!

The Western Residence of Jingling is full of masters, and talented people are like crucian carp crossing the river! Any one of them taken out is a figure who was famous for a time! The eight most talented people among them are called the "Eight Friends," and are also respectfully called the "Eight Sons" by the scholars in the capital. Although Kong Xiuyuan is not among the Eight Sons of Jingling, since he entered the Prince of Jingling's mansion, the beauty of his talent and the height of his status are self-evident. He was even praised by Wang Rong!

The so-called praise of Wang Rong is worth more than ten thousand gold! And Wei Kuang suppressed Kong Xiuyuan with linked words, this one point alone is enough to run rampant in the capital. This is also the confidence that Seeing Liu Cheng brought Wei Kuang, wanting to defeat Wang Yang in public with linked words and dampen his spirit.

Who would have thought that just after the poetry linking was finished, before Seeing Liu Cheng could throw out the topic of playing with linked words, Wei Kuang made an excuse that he had something to do and fled in a panic!

Wei Kuang looked anxious, tried hard to pull away Seeing Liu Cheng's hand, trying to break free from Seeing Liu Cheng's pulling: "Wenshen, I really have something to do, how about this, next time, next time I'll come again..."

"What do you have to do! No one is looking for you, no one sent a letter, and you say you have something to do, who are you fooling!"

"Let go! Let go first... alright, alright!" Wei Kuang gave up struggling, looked at Seeing Liu Cheng, and sighed: "Wenshen, it's not that I won't help you, it's just that I didn't expect this person to be so quick. Actually, linked words and linked poetry have many similarities. Since he can link poetry to such a point, even if we compete in linked words, I'm afraid... I'm afraid I only have a 70% chance of winning."

Seeing Liu Cheng's eyes lit up: "70% is very good! And with me, we are together! This chance of winning is very high! Come back with me quickly!"

Wei Kuang's expression was awkward, he pushed Seeing Liu Cheng's hand away, and stammered: "Actually... it's not 70%... it's about 50%."

Seeing Liu Cheng was startled, then a look of determination appeared in his eyes: "50% is also fine! Worth a fight!"

"Actually... it's not 50%... it's about 30%."

Seeing Liu Cheng was furious: "You!"

Wei Kuang's face turned red, he didn't dare to look at Seeing Liu Cheng's eyes: "Actually, 30% is also an exaggeration, this person has the talent of seven steps, even if my brother came in person, I'm afraid... If you really want revenge, it's better to ask people from the Western Residence to help, I can't do it."

Seeing Liu Cheng looked at him with hatred for not being able to achieve his goal: "Try it! As long as you try, there is a chance! In the chaos, one must draw the sword!"

"People already said, there is no complete skin... Besides, I haven't been defeated in hidden words so far! What if I lose the trial? Wenshen, my family can't compare to yours, the talent reputation I worked so hard to establish depends on this to enter! I really can't help you with this favor, I'll return those nine volumes of *Kong Rong Collection* to you later, you should find someone else!"

"No! You know that I don't give away two things, one is books, and the other is women. If you hadn't patted your chest and guaranteed it at the time, how could I have broken the rule?! You gave it away, and now you say—"

"Wang Yang! Why are you here!" Wei Kuang looked at Seeing Liu Cheng's back in horror.

Seeing Liu Cheng was so scared he shivered, and hurriedly turned his head, only to see the breeze blowing, the bamboo forest rustling, where was Wang Yang's figure?

Turning his head again, Wei Kuang's legs were moving fast, and he had already run into a small figure in the distance... ===== CHAPTER 179 =====