"Have you heard? Today, the emperor will personally preside over the martial arts examination. I wonder if I will be valued by the emperor?”
"With your mediocre skills, how could the emperor take a fancy to you? It's more like she likes me."
"Hehe, don't think too much. Do you see Zhang Dingguo over there? The Emperor must be here to see him…"
The news that the Emperor was going to personally attend the martial arts competition had long spread.
The martial artists who received the news also became abnormally excited.
After all, to be able to show off his talent in front of the Emperor, even if he couldn't win the title of Martial Arts Scholar in the end, as long as he was valued by the Emperor, his future career would definitely be smooth sailing. Whether he could become the Martial Arts Scholar was secondary!
However, anyone with discerning eyes could tell that the Emperor's sudden appearance this time was obviously to see Zhang Dingguo.
Although they were all convinced that Zhang Dingguo had won first place in three events in a row, they still wanted to give it a try since it concerned their future.
Moreover, in their opinion, Zhang Dingguo's riding skills might not be as exquisite as his archery skills. Perhaps he would lose the first round.
If he could personally defeat Zhang Dingguo in the competition later, he would definitely be valued by the Emperor. In that case, it would be really satisfying just thinking about it…
The content of the fourth round of the exam was horse battle. It was a direct fight with real knives and guns. There was indeed no chance for trickery at all. It was all based on true ability.
In this round of competition, pairs would fight against each other. The winner would advance, and the loser would be eliminated. The victors continued to fight against each other until the final winner was the martial arts champion. In other words, there would be a total of four rounds of competition.
As there were only fifteen people, one person would be a bye in the first round. As Zhang Dingguo had the best results previously, this empty spot was directly given to him.
No one had any objections to this. After all, Zhang Dingguo had relied on his own abilities to obtain the qualification to be a bye.
The process of the horse battle was very simple. The two of them would first stay at the two ends of the drill ground, put on their armor, choose a suitable weapon, and then mount the horse. Once the referee gave the order, they would directly charge forward. When the two of them met, they would use their weapons to knock each other down. Whoever could knock the other off the horse first would be the winner.
If the winner could not be determined in one round, they would have to fight another round until the winner was determined.
After the competition began, the battles between the seven groups were very intense.
In order to show their best side in front of the Emperor, each and every one of them had used all their strength. It could even be said that they were risking their lives.
When both sides were fighting with their lives on the line, the fight was naturally intense.
If it weren't for the referee watching from the side and the protection being in place, a few lives might have been lost.
It was worth noting that Yang Zhuangzhi was indeed only good at archery. In the first round of the seven groups, his group's battle was the least intense. In just three rounds, they were defeated by their opponents, unlike the other six groups who had fought for at least a dozen rounds. This was obviously a level of difference in martial arts...
After the first round of horse battles ended, the second round of the competition soon began.
After all, the emperor did not have much time, so he could not give the participants much time to rest.
Moreover, what the Emperor wanted to see the most was Zhang Dingguo's martial arts. No matter how intense the others were fighting, she was not interested.
"Your Majesty, it's Zhang Dingguo's turn.”
"Oh? Was that Zhang Dingguo with the silver armor and spear?”
"That's right, that's Zhang Dingguo."
"Mm, not bad. You do have the style of a general!”
As for the Emperor's request, there would definitely be people below to ingratiate themselves with him. Therefore, Zhang Dingguo was the first to appear in the second round of the horse battle.
In order to make the Emperor happy, the person in charge of distributing the armor even specially found a shiny silver Mingguang Armor for Zhang Dingguo, just to make Zhang Dingguo look better.
This wasn't considered cheating. After all, this armor only looked handsome. In terms of defense, it was actually similar to ordinary Radiant Armor.
It was precisely because of this handsome armor that the Emperor saw Zhang Dingguo at a glance.
At this moment, Zhang Dingguo had a relaxed expression.
After all, he had watched the first round of horse battles. To be honest, the seven people who won were all ordinary martial arts. Let alone second-rate experts, none of them had even reached the peak of first-rate experts. It was impossible for them to affect him at all.
As for why it was like this, Zhang Dingguo guessed that it was because the real experts were eliminated during the assessment of infantry archery and riding archery.
Because a person's energy was limited, it was impossible to master too many techniques at the same time. A person who was skilled in martial arts might not necessarily be skilled in archery.
After all, a genius like Zhang Dingguo was rare...
After Zhang Dingguo appeared, the competition became less exciting.
Because Zhang Dingguo not only had deep internal strength, but also completely mastered the Yang Family Spear, he was still a first-class expert on horseback.
The people who fought with him could not even last a round. They were almost knocked off their horses by Zhang Dingguo the moment the two horses crossed each other. The winner was decided in an instant.
Just like that, with Zhang Dingguo effortlessly winning three matches in a row, he easily won the position of the martial arts champion!
With regards to this, the examinees participating in this year's martial arts examination were completely convinced.
It couldn't be helped. Who asked the gap between them to be too big? Moreover, it was a difference in all aspects. It was impossible to not be convinced!
After Zhang Dingguo defeated his last opponent, a eunuch came to pass an edict to him, saying that the Emperor wanted to summon him…
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