Fox of France

From the next day, the Olympic Games officially started. It is different from the tight schedule of the Olympic Games in later generations. Because there are not many events in the competition and the number of participants is limited, the competition is also arranged loosely. For example, the entire main stadium is only arranged for the 100-meter run and two It's just the preliminaries of the 100-meter race.

Because all the athletes are self-funded amateurs, they need to pay for the competition completely by themselves, so the number of foreign players is not too many. However, French players, especially those from Paris, can take the train to compete before the game, and take the train home after the game. In addition, the railway company gave the players free tickets, so even some low-level workers , as long as the factory approves the holiday, it is also eligible for the competition. As for whether the manufacturer will approve it, this is not a problem at all, because when a certain worker contestant participates in the competition, according to the agreement reached between him and the manufacturer when he asked for leave, he must wear clothes with the manufacturer's advertisement printed on it.

Speaking of which, Napoleon really wanted to restore the rule of all athletes participating in the ancient Olympic Games naked at the beginning. That was before Polina asked to compete. But as soon as this idea was proposed, Lucien scolded him bloody. Lucien said: "Do you know why the high-priced tickets at the scene, especially the private room tickets, sell well? Because many of these tickets are bought in pairs! How much ticket revenue will be lost by doing this? Also, athletes The clothes you wear are also bought and sold, you know? Polina has been staring at this for a long time! Also, there can be advertisements on the clothes, and this is money...God, I will count how much money is in it. I don't know! Why do you want to pass up all these opportunities to make money for the sake of tradition? Hell, compared with these cute little money, tradition? Tradition is nothing!"

If it was in the past, Napoleon would have retorted, but this time, after hearing Lucien's objection, he thought about it and admitted in his heart that what Lucien said was indeed reasonable.

"Lucien, I just mentioned it casually, just as a joke." Napoleon said.

"It's a good thing you didn't go directly to make such a joke with Joseph." Lucien said.

Napoleon couldn't help trembling when he heard this: "Damn it, Joseph, it's okay to joke about other things, but you can't make any jokes about money!"

"Who said that?" Lucien retorted, "Obviously there is still math homework, that's the same!" Although it has been a long time since Joseph gave math homework, but even after so long, in retrospect, Lucien Xi'an still felt chills all over, and couldn't help shaking.

Of course, the advertisements on the clothes worn during the competition have limited meaning. After all, there is no TV broadcast in this era, and even photography technology has not yet appeared. (In a certain laboratory, some research has already been done, and the first photo shooting has even been completed, but this set of things requires about half an hour of exposure to complete a photo. In addition to shooting landscapes, Basically useless.) But once he wins the game and gets on the podium, the advertisement on him can be carried out by implanting it in the news report of the newspaper. Just taking a few days off in exchange for such an opportunity, I have to say, this is really a lot of money.

Therefore, the number of athletes in Paris is extremely large, even accounting for almost two-thirds of the entire French delegation, while the number of athletes in the French delegation accounts for almost two-thirds of the total number of athletes.

Mary-Henry Bell signed up for the equestrian competition, but he didn't have enough money to buy expensive thoroughbred horses, and spent a lot of money to practice for a long time on the official competition venue. Like most contestants, he could only Use his own horse - because he has served in the cavalry, and his ride "Little Smarty" is also old, and he is going to retire like him, so he bought this horse. This gray horse is as clever as its name, but it is old after all, and it is not a breed of horses known for speed. Mary-Henry Bell himself knew that it was impossible for him and his old horse to pass the preliminaries. Even the mixed-breed Arabian horse used by his classmate's family to pull the carriage can easily shake off his "little clever ghost" in the speed race. So Mary-Henry Bell signed up for the obstacle course. "Little Smarty" is old and can't run fast, but it is smarter than before, so in the obstacle course, it should still be able to finish the race. For amateurs like Mary-Henry Bell, That's enough.

But the equestrian competition has not started yet, so Mary-Henry Bell still has time to give his classmate, um, the guy named Bossian who has a carriage with a mixed-race Arabian horse at home. This guy's ideal turned out to be a journalist. Mary-Henry Bell therefore joked with him: "My brother, your ideal is certainly good, but journalists need to run very fast, especially if you want to be, there are many opportunities to interview those in the Moulin Rouge." The kind of courtesan needs to run as fast as Hercules. So, you need to strengthen your training!"

As a result, Bao Saiang took his words seriously, and practiced running seriously every day. This time, this guy reported all the running events in one go, and successfully passed the screening of 100 meters and 200 meters. (The marathon does not require screening) So today, Mary-Henry Bell came to the main venue, sat at a distance from the runway (only bought tickets there), and came to watch his friend's game.

Today is the 100-meter preliminaries. Because the available stopwatch has not yet been made, the rules of the preliminaries are slightly different from those of later generations. The first is to draw lots and group eight people in each group, and then the top two in each group will directly enter the second round. Compared with the way of timing in later generations, in this way, whether you can enter the next round or not, the luck of the lottery is very important.

Bao Saiang ranked relatively low today, so he hasn't played yet. Mali was also quite bored watching other people's games. Speaking of running in this era is completely different from the Olympic Games of later generations. First of all, the runners are all white. Unlike later generations, there are almost no non-black runners on the track. In addition, these runners are so amateur that they don’t even have sportswear, and many of them wear long-sleeved clothes and trousers to participate in the race. I am more and more confident about the results I get. I believe that Bao Saiang, who was watching the game in the rest area of ​​the players at this time, must have the same idea. Provided, of course, that he wasn't stupid enough to compete in chaps or even high heels.

After running for two rounds, Mali finally heard the name of his friend Bossian on the radio. He raised his binoculars and looked towards the starting line, and then he saw his friend on the third lane. He also wears long trousers, but at least it's not the kind of complicated chaps, and of course he doesn't wear high heels.

However, another player beside him obviously attracted more people's attention. The man was wearing a vest, revealing the hard muscles on his arms. On the chest of the vest, there is also a big sun printed - obviously, this is a reporter from the Sun newspaper. Underneath him, he was dressed cooler and only had a pair of shorts, which exposed his thick thighs.

"Ah... how can he not wear anything?" Beside Mali, a girl screamed and covered her eyes with her hands. In her other hand she clutched a brass telescope.

Marie glanced at the girl, who was not pretty, and had a lot of freckles on her face. So Mali immediately decided to put all his energy back on cheering for his friends. At the same time, he couldn't help but think in his heart: "Just listening to the voice, I thought it was a princess."

The guy from The Sun was not only dressed strangely, but also prepared strangely. He half-kneeled on the track, and Mari thought he was going to make the cross over his chest or something next. But this man didn't do that, instead he stood up again, digging hard on the ground with his feet, and quickly dug out two small holes on the cindery runway.

"What is this for? What is he doing?" The nice voice rang out again. Mali squinted his eyes and saw that the girl who was covering her eyes just now had raised the binoculars again.

The fellow half-kneeled again and put both feet in the pit. This time Mari noticed that this man's shoes seemed to be different from everyone else's. The soles seem to be made of rubber.

In this era, rubber wheels have been widely used in France, and many people have used waste tires to make shoe soles. But these shoes are more exquisite than those homemade tire-soled shoes.

After waving small flags at the start and end points, the race will begin. The referee blew his whistle to remind the players to get ready. Everyone tensed up. All kinds of strange poses were taken. And the reporter still didn't stand up, but just raised his body, his hands were still propped on the ground, but his buttocks were raised high. It looked really queer.

The referee raised the starting gun, and Mali saw a puff of smoke rising from the referee's hand, and at the same time, everyone rushed out together.

The reporter from the Sun newspaper was the fastest. He was like a projectile shot from a slingshot. He rushed out in a flash. Just starting to run, he knocked off the people around him by one or two positions. .

"As expected of a reporter from The Sun!" someone shouted, shaking his fist.