Now I really have to marry the princess.

Yang Zhengdao did not expect to meet Li Tai and Li Jingren here, and he was even more unaware that Li Tai had come here specifically to wait for him.

At this time, Li Tai had not yet gained weight and become a chubby man, and he probably had no intention of seizing the throne.

His round, chubby face was full of boyish innocence, but his pair of dark, shiny eyes, which darted around, revealed a shrewdness.

His purple robes exuded the noble air of a prince.

The black horse beneath him was exceptionally handsome, its body as black as satin, without a single streak of other colors.

Li Tai also did not expect that Yang Zhengdao already had two foreign retainers by his side.

When he saw Abba, he, like everyone else, was almost speechless with astonishment.

Although Li Tai had seen foreigners with red hair like Aba in Chang'an, he had never seen anyone so tall!

He was nearly ten feet tall, like an iron tower, and his arms were thicker than the waist and legs of an ordinary person.

If it weren't for his somewhat dim-witted appearance, Li Tai would have been tempted to ask Yang Zhengdao to let him serve as his personal guard.

Looking at the female rider, she was tall and slender, wearing a leather armor that made her look heroic and dashing.

He held a horn bow in his hand, and a quiver of arrows hung diagonally at his hip, the fletchings neatly arranged.

Her amber eyes were cold and sharp, devoid of any of the gentleness of a Han woman, and she exuded a fiery aura from the grasslands.

Therefore, the plan needs to be changed.

Li Tai's eyes lit up, and he immediately had an idea.

He cupped his hands in greeting to Li Ke and Yang Zhengdao: "Brother Wang and Cousin Zhengdao have had a long and arduous journey praying for the Emperor Emeritus. I have already ordered a welcoming banquet to be prepared at Qingshan Palace."

Yang Zhengdao didn't know why Li Tai was so enthusiastic, but there was absolutely no harm in maintaining a good relationship with him at the moment.

Upon entering Wugong County, the group went straight to Qingshan Palace.

The banquet was held in the pavilion in the garden.

Li Tai was quite thoughtful; there was no meat on the table, only exquisite vegetarian dishes and snacks.

The banquet was also very well arranged, complementing the beautiful spring scenery outside the pavilion, exuding elegance.

The seats were specially chosen to face a pear grove outside the pavilion, where white pear blossoms were in full bloom, and a gentle breeze caused petals to fall in abundance.

Halfway through the banquet, Li Tai put down his cup and respectfully said to Yang Zhengdao, "I heard from Uncle Xu that Cousin Zhengdao's poetic talent is unparalleled in the world. Today, the spring scenery is beautiful, and the courtyard is full of flowers. Why don't you compose a poem to enhance the elegant atmosphere?"

The side effects of writing poems for Chang Le have begun.

One lie requires ten thousand lies to cover it up.

One copy of a poem requires ten thousand copies to fill in the blank.

Although the Complete Tang Poems contains tens of thousands of poems, copying one poem means one less poem, so we must leave some for future great poets.

College students still have a bottom line.

Yang Zhengdao laughed heartily, cupped his hands in a humble manner, and said, "Prince Xu's words are too kind. I dare not accept such praise. Your Highness, Prince Yue, please do not take it seriously either."

Seeing that Yang Zhengdao refused, Li Tai was prepared and stood up, saying, "Cousin Zhengdao, there's no need to be modest."

After saying that, he clapped his hands before Yang Zhengdao could react.

Before long, a guard brought over the fine horse that Li Tai was riding.

Li Tai then continued, "Cousin Zhengdao, how about we make a bet of three rounds? If you lose, you must compose a poem; if you win, I will part with this 'Black Shadow' horse."

At this moment, Li Jingren also stood up and echoed with a smile: "Excellent! Excellent! Such a fine horse betting on poetry will surely become a wonderful story. King Yue is so kind, Brother Zhengdao, you should accept."

Li Ke frowned, glanced at Yang Zhengdao, and decided to speak up: "Qingque, this is the imperial horse bestowed upon you by the Emperor. Using it as a wager is not a good idea."

"It's alright, I will explain to my father after I return to the palace."

Yang Zhengdao was immediately captivated when he saw the prized horse called "Wu Ying".

In later generations, that would be a V8 supercar; no man could resist it.

If I lose, I can just copy another poem.

After all, college students' bottom lines are usually quite flexible.

But after Li Ke kindly reminded him that this was Emperor Li Er's imperial horse, Yang Zhengdao felt that there was no major problem.

Even if someone else made a bet using a gift bestowed by the emperor, Yang Zhengdao would not dare to accept it.

But Li Tai was no ordinary person; he was Li Er's most precious treasure.

If Li Tai loses, Li Er will have no choice but to swallow his anger and will certainly not punish Yang Zhengdao to embarrass his precious son.

After making his decision, Yang Zhengdao said with a joyful expression, "Then we shall follow the King of Yue's words. I wonder how the King of Yue intends to wager?"

Li Tai proposed a best-of-three format, with the loser deciding the content of the final round.

As the one who proposed the bet, he naturally had to be modest and asked Yang Zhengdao to decide the content of the first round of the competition.

Yang Zhengdao mentally reviewed the skills that the system had given him, and it seemed that only a professional Go 9-dan player was suitable.

He then proposed the first game to test his chess skills.

Li Tai was secretly delighted upon hearing this, for he was the best chess player among his peers.

That will put things at ease.

Li Jingren was overjoyed, looking at Yang Zhengdao, who had walked right into his trap, with amusement.

Li Ke could only offer a compliment to remind Yang Zhengdao: "I think Qingque has a sure chance of winning this game. A few days ago, Qingque played a game with Father and won one."

Yang Zhengdao understood Li Ke's implication and was startled. Could this be exactly what Li Tai wanted?

It was too late to back out now, so he could only calmly consider the differences between the rules of Go in the Tang Dynasty and those in later periods.

The chess skill level provided by the system belongs to modern Go, but there are still slight differences between the two.

For example, in modern Go, Black moves first, and there are detailed rules such as komi (komoku), while in Tang Dynasty Go, it was the opposite, with White moving first.

The topic of the contest was chosen by Yang Zhengdao, so Yang Zhengdao naturally had to defer to Li Tai, who then spoke.

In the Tang Dynasty, Go required players to first place diagonal stones on the four star points. Only when the fourth stone was placed on the board could the actual battle begin.

Li Tai started by placing his hand on a crucial side lane position between two white star points, clearly following the ancient opening strategy and aiming to overwhelm the opponent with momentum.

Yang Zhengdao naturally followed the modern Go approach, directly attacking and seizing the corner, placing the black stone at the 3-3 point next to the white star point.

Li Tai looked surprised. It was unacceptable to focus only on one aspect and not consider the big picture.

Li Jingren immediately curled up the corners of his mouth, while Li Ke secretly shook his head.

After frowning and pondering for a moment, Li Tai still couldn't figure out what Yang Zhengdao meant, so he stopped paying attention to Yang Zhengdao's rash attack.

In traditional chess, ignoring the overall situation and venturing deep behind enemy lines is tantamount to suicide.

Li Tai chose to blockade from the outside, aiming to form a large dragon and gain the upper hand.

Yang Zhengdao continued to consolidate his advantage in the four corners.

By the time Li Tai gained the upper hand and began to surround and kill Yang Zhengdao, Yang Zhengdao had already completed the layout of the four corners.

What followed was close-quarters combat.

At this point, Yang Zhengdao's advantage began to emerge, while Li Tai became increasingly alarmed.

In fact, ordinary college students have no idea how prestigious a professional 9-dan Go player is.

Many techniques in modern Go are based on countless ancient Go scores from our predecessors. With the addition of artificial intelligence with incredible computing power, modern Go has achieved a level of superiority over the ancients in terms of deductive reasoning and life-and-death calculations.

Before the time it takes to drink a cup of tea was up, Li Tai's forehead was already covered in a fine sweat, and Li Ke and Li Jingren also changed color in fright and held their breath.