Whether it is tea, porcelain, raw silk, or satin, if it is shipped to Europe for sale on an ocean-going cargo ship, you can earn double the profit. In contrast, linens, spices, ivory, and other items shipped from Western countries can be sold in China.
Although sales in cities and towns across the country can also earn some silver, the level of profit is far less than that of those Western fleets.
It is for this reason that Western businessmen attach great importance to the "Purple Sky Conference" to obtain priority for shipping cargo transactions in Okura Port. Some large shipping companies are even more determined to improve their rankings and spend huge sums of money to find and tame powerful ships.
of fighting dogs.
At last year's conference, the top three fighting dogs were all obtained by Western shipping companies. Among them, the "King of Dogs" Gialuo Li was a large gray-haired dog raised by Gongola, a Spanish ocean-going merchant ship owner. The second
The famous black python comes from the Dutch East India Company. The third ranked one is a large red-haired dog named "Red Fire", whose owner is an Arab businessman.
The fighting dog Snow King of "Wanjintang" only ranked fourth, but ranked first among the many merchants in the Ming Dynasty in the Middle Earth.
As for the top ten fighting dogs in the "Purple Sky Conference", except for Snow King, only "Sabertooth" ranked sixth, and Xiong Li, ranked ninth, is owned by a Chinese businessman. The rankings of these three fighting dogs are not high, and
The remaining seven rankings all come from the West. Based on this, the gap in the strength of fighting dogs in the Eastern and Western continents is really not small.
However, this year, Hua Bushi has made up his mind to change this situation. In the past three months, the eleven fighting dogs that Weitianlou paid for training have become even stronger under the careful training of this young master.
With various levels of improvement, he believes that there will be hope to break the status quo of Western fighting dogs being invincible in the "Purple Sky Conference".
And it was the princess and Baoliang who made Hua Bushi place her greatest hopes.
The "Zixiao Terrace Dog Fighting Conference" starts on the fifth day of May and ends on May 25th, lasting a full twenty days.
According to the rules of the "Purple Sky Conference", the 110 fighting dogs participating will go through eight rounds of competition before the final ranking can be determined.
The rules of the conference are quite complicated, and the grand schedule is as follows: The initially registered fighting dogs must go through the first three rounds of fighting to determine the top thirty-two. Starting from the fourth round, these thirty-two dogs will be selected.
Fighting dogs fight each other and are eliminated. The winner advances, and the losers compete with each other for subsequent rankings. The allocation of opponents in each round is determined by drawing lots.
According to the rules, the top ten merchants in the last Zixiao competition do not need to participate in the first three rounds of pre-selection and can directly enter the fourth round of competition, which means they can at least become the top 32 in this conference.
In the final eighth round of the decisive battle, the "Dog King" of this conference can be decided, and the fighting dog who wins the "Dog King" must maintain a complete victory in the "Purple Sky Conference" and pass all the way.
, only after defeating all opponents.
Baoliang, who signed up for the competition in the name of Weitianlou, must win eight games in a row to win the championship. Since Zixiao of "Wanjintang" was ranked in the top ten last year, the princess can skip the first three rounds of preliminaries and enter directly into the top ten.
Four rounds of fighting, but if you want to win the championship, you must win five games in a row.
Winning more than five games in a row within twenty days is not an easy task. You must have a smart fighting strategy and reasonably allocate the fighting dog's physical strength. Moreover, the factor of luck is also very important. If your luck is not good, you will have to have a good fighting strategy.
In the first few rounds, if you encounter strong opponents and fight with all your strength, or unfortunately get injured, no matter how strong you are, you may not be able to last until the final victory.
Most of the shipping companies in the city have formulated their own competition strategies based on the strength of their own fighting dogs. There is only one "King of Dogs" in the Zixiao Conference, which is out of reach for most fighting dogs. Compared with
If you have ambitions to win the championship, it is better to formulate a realistic and reasonable strategy, win a few key competitions, and improve the relative ranking.
For a fighting dog that is not strong enough, if you are unlucky and encounter strong enemies like Gialuo raccoons and black pythons in the lottery, it may be better to just admit defeat. As long as the fighting dog is not injured and retains enough fighting power, there will be a chance.
The opportunity will be to compete for a relatively good ranking in the later rounds. After all, as long as the "Purple Sky Ranking" improves, even by one or two, it will be of great benefit to the shipping company's cargo trade at Okura Island Port.
"Lingyun Pavilion" is the tallest building on the top of Zixiao Terrace. The pavilion is five feet high, with green bricks and green tiles, and the eaves are soaring to the sky. It is very majestic.
Today, the high pavilion is covered with dozens of flags of various colors. The flag ribbons are fluttering in the sea breeze, which is really beautiful. Behind Lingyun Pavilion, there are two rows of eighteen standard dog fighting venues.
There are ten-foot-square fences carved with white marble. There are many spectator seats around each venue. They are very elegantly built inside and outside the venue.
At exactly three o'clock on the fifth day of May, the opening ceremony of the "Zixiao Conference" was held in Lingyun Pavilion.
The city lord Sima Zhufeng is not in the city. On a low platform in the center of the Lingyun Pavilion hall, Xiong Bailing, the deputy head of the "Wanjin Hall", and two elders, Yao Gongxiao and Deng Ran, stand side by side. The eldest lady of the city lord, Sima Rulan, is also dressed in a rich dress.
, with long skirts fluttering, standing in the center of the low platform. This is also where the city lord Sima Zhufeng was during the "Purple Sky Conference" in previous years.
Under the low platform, the principals of various merchants and shipping companies who participated in the conference were all present, with a total of more than 200 people. Even though the space in the pavilion was originally very spacious, the hall was crowded with people at this moment, making it seem extremely crowded.
On the bluestone square in front of the Zixiao Terrace, there are several rows of large carriages and horses parked neatly. There are more than a hundred of them. They are owned by these participating merchants and shipping companies. Each carriage is equipped with a wooden cage, and there are wooden cages on each carriage.
Then the ferocious mastiffs and dogs raised by each family were kept.
On the beam in the middle of Lingyun Pavilion, there is a large plaque hanging high, on which are written four characters with flying dragons and phoenixes: "Purple Qi Chongxiao".
At this moment, I saw Xiong Bailing walking in front of the plaque in a few steps. He cleared his throat and shouted loudly: "The auspicious time has arrived, and the 'Zixiao Terrace Dog Fighting Conference' of the Gengwu Year has officially begun!"
Xiong Bailing has profound internal energy and a very loud voice. Everyone outside the cabinet can hear his shout clearly. As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of musicians and drummers lined up outside the cabinet played the drums in unison.
, all of a sudden the drums and drums were blaring, the gongs were ringing, and it was very noisy.
After a long while, Xiong Bailing waved his huge palm, and the sound of drumming stopped.
He continued: "This year's Zixiao Conference, Hall Master Sima has not returned to Okura City in time, so Mr. Xiong and the elders of the inner and outer halls of 'Wanjin Hall' will host it on his behalf. I hope that all participating merchants will abide by the rules and compete fairly, so as to
It lives up to the original intention of City Lord Sima in founding this association!”
Xiong Bailing paused and then said: "Now I would like to invite Elder Deng, the inner hall of Wanjin Hall, to announce the rules of this Zixiao Conference!"
Amidst the applause of everyone in the pavilion, the deacon elder Deng Ran stepped forward, took out a piece of paper about a foot long in his hand, and began to read aloud the rules of the dog fighting conference.
The "Zixiao Terrace Dog Fighting Conference" has been held for five years. The rules have been perfected and are well known to many businessmen in the city. The only change is probably that the number of participating businesses continues to increase every year. Among the top three
The grouping of wheel fighting is just different.
There are more than fifty rules of the conference. It took Deng Ran half a stick of incense to read them out before he finally finished reading them all. Then he introduced the referees of the conference. The dog boys in Okura City have also been familiar to everyone for a long time.
There were a total of eighteen dog boys in this conference, all of whom were quite experienced and famous. Song Er, who judged Baoliang's victory over Xiong Li at the "Yelai Hotel" that day, was also among them.
Whether it was reading out the rules or introducing the dog boy, although it took more than half an hour, it was nothing new because most people were already familiar with it, but what happened next immediately aroused everyone's interest.
The next thing to do is to draw lots.
Two burly men lifted a carved rosewood box onto the low platform in the pavilion and placed it on the table. Deng Ran immediately announced that all business owners who participated in the first round of dog fighting would come to the stage to draw lots.
According to the rules, a total of 80 companies after Zixiao ranked 30th last year will participate in the first round of the dog fighting competition. Forty winners will be determined to advance to the second round. In the sandalwood box, there are
The wooden cards marked with numbers 1 to 80 are randomly selected by the principals of each house, and then the opponent for this round is determined based on the numbers on the wooden cards.
It was the first time for Weitianlou to participate in the dog fighting conference this year, and he was not ranked on the Zixiao ranking list. The first round of fighting was inevitable. Baoliang had participated in the Zixiao Conference last year, but he encountered him in the first round.
It failed miserably and was ranked 86th in the end. The performance was extremely poor. Therefore, the original owner, Chengnan Zhu, was disappointed with Baoliang and decided to sell it and find another fighting dog to participate in the competition.
Although Cao Muyun and Zhu Hong's "pulse-cutting and poison-removing" operation was successful, they had to stay in bed to recuperate these days and could not move around, so only Hua Bushi was able to come to the Veitian Tower.
Early this morning, the young master came to Zixiaotai, and Hai Hongzhu came with him. This "Mrs. Hua" had been having trouble with Hua Bushi for a few days, and after Sima Rulan's consolation, she
I finally became calmer and no longer angry. Now the two of them are standing in an inconspicuous corner of Lingyun Pavilion.
On the lower stage, Deng Ran, who was presiding over the conference, called out the names of each participating business in turn. When he called "Waitianlou", the lottery had come to an end, and only the last few businesses had not yet been drawn.
After several months of operation, the name of "Barking Sky Tower" for dog training has become well-known in Okura City, and the scandal between Master Hua and the eldest lady of the city has spread even more, so Hua Bushi stepped forward
When he got on the stage, there was a burst of commotion among the crowd watching.
Hua Bushi walked slowly to the sandalwood box, reached out and took out a wooden sign from the box, took a look at it, and handed it to Deng Ran. His face was calm and his behavior was very casual. It seemed that he had not thought about the lottery at all.