Because there are too many people taking the test, the riding and shooting competition is not held individually. On one side of the school field, there were 200 targets lined up in a row. The candidates took the stage in groups of 200 in order to show off their shooting skills.
Riding and shooting are actually three tests. The first is riding, the second is archery, and the third is naturally riding plus archery.
But this year¡¯s Martial Arts Academy exam was a bit special. Dean Zhou was good at making suggestions and eliminated the riding part. In the words of his old man, the Sui Dynasty devoted all its efforts to only two pure cavalry teams. These candidates are basically useless compared to riding, because the generals of the two cavalry are personally selected and dismissed by His Majesty. Even if the candidates from the Yanwu Academy have excellent results, it will take three years before they have the opportunity to enter the army to experience, and enter The probability of those two cavalry is almost zero.
There is no riding competition, and the last two items will be carried out directly.
Archery and mounted archery.
Each time two hundred people shoot arrows at the same time, each with ten arrows. Five for stationary shooting and five for sport shooting.
Fang Jie was one of the third batch of candidates who entered the competition. He stood quietly and watched while others were shooting arrows. I looked at it very carefully, as if I wanted to remember every detail. On the other side of the target, soldiers drawn from Youzhenwei were responsible for recording the results of the candidates. Qiu Yu, the professor of the Yanwu Academy who was in charge of invigilating the examination, was standing behind the target. She didn't seem to be worried at all about the missed arrows accidentally injuring herself, and patrolled back and forth behind the target like a leisurely stroll with her hands behind her back.
Seeing that he was about to take the field, Fang Jie knelt down and straightened his boots. Use the straw rope you found to tie the boots to your calves, tuck the hem of the robe into your belt, and then tie the sleeves with the straw rope. After getting ready, I happened to hear the invigilator¡¯s shout.
"next batch!"
Fang Jie took a few slow breaths and looked at the ten arrows in the bow and arrow pot that were assigned to him. On the other side of the target, the right guard soldier responsible for recording the results pulled out the feather arrows from the target, collected them, and then retreated behind the bunker again. With the sound of a gong, Fang Jie and his group of two hundred candidates stood straight in a row on the white line.
Fixed shooting is divided into five parts. The candidates first walk to the first white line 70 steps away from the target, shoot an arrow, then quickly retreat, and shoot another arrow on the way back. Then retreat to a place eighty steps away from the target, stand up and shoot an arrow, and then quickly retreat and shoot another arrow. And so on. There are five white lines in total, four retreats, and nine arrows are shot. The last arrow requires candidates to quickly change positions one hundred and twenty steps away from the target and shoot the tenth arrow while running.
The time to complete the shooting competition, the pace and direction of running, plus the accuracy, are the comprehensive scores.
The rules are not complicated, but how easy is it to shoot these ten arrows well? The walking bows they used were crafted by the weapon workshops of the Sui Dynasty, and it was easy to send the arrows forward for two hundred steps. But having said that, you must know that when shooting an arrow from a distance of more than 70 steps, the arc of the arrow has to be calculated when it flies out. Backing up to a distance of one hundred and ten steps and firing the bow, the arrow flies so long in mid-air that even a hint of wind can change the trajectory of the arrow.
And you have to complete precise shooting while running, which can be imagined to be very difficult.
Fang Jie tied the arrow pot to his back and adjusted it to a position where he could draw out the arrow by raising his hand. First, I pulled the bow string a few times to get used to the strength of this bow step. Before it started, he lowered his head to find a small stone, held it between his fingers and shot it with a bow. He kept watching the trajectory of the stone until it landed. Fang Jie remembered the feeling of shooting the stone just now.
The moment the gong sounded for the second time, Fang Jie immediately raised his hand and pulled out the first arrow from the quiver on his back. Without any aiming action, he drew the bow and shot the arrow in one go. The first arrow was seventy steps away from the target. Fixed shooting at this distance was not difficult for Fang Jie.
After the first arrow was shot, Fang Jie didn't even check whether the arrow hit. He didn't turn around and run away for a short distance like others before turning back to take aim. Instead, he stepped a little further and floated backwards like a kite picked up by the wind. His left and right feet touched the ground alternately, and his body swept up and galloped backwards. When he touched the ground and flew up, Fang Jie had already pulled out the arrow from the arrow pot. When the body landed, the bowstring was fully drawn, he jumped up again, and the arrows shot out.
After tapping his feet alternately several times, Fang Jie retreated to the second white line eighty steps away from the target. Draw the arrow, shoot out, then retreat sharply, draw the arrow, shoot out, the movements are smooth and flowing.
When Fang Jie retreated to the third white line, which was ninety steps away from the target, there were not many candidates keeping a distance from him. Although Zhang Kuang, who was about ten meters away from Fang Jie, had been injured before, he still showed amazing performance in this purely military test.Quality. When Fang Jie shot the third arrow and retreated, he took the time to glance at both sides of himself. He found that Zhang Kuang was actually slightly faster than him, about half a step ahead.
On the other side, Yu Xiao, the son of Zuo Wuwei General Yu Manlou, was almost parallel to Fang Jie. Obviously, General Yu Manlou has very strict requirements on his son. Yu Xiao's posture of drawing the bow, shooting and running was very standard. Even the instructor who trained the new recruits could not do better than him.
Unlike Fang Jie¡¯s point-and-shoot posture, Yu Xiao¡¯s shooting skills seem to be more solid than Fang Jie¡¯s. He turned around and fired arrows while running. Almost every arrow was sent out with only a brief aim.
Even further away, there are a few extremely skilled people who are as fast as Fang Jie. Six or seven of the ten people are candidates with military backgrounds.
In this kind of competition, the advantages of soldiers are fully demonstrated.
From the time he shot the first arrow to the fifth white line 110 steps away from the target, Fang Jie shot nine arrows, and it took no more than two minutes at most. There were only one or two people who were faster than him, six or seven people who were about the same distance as him, and four or five people who were slightly slower.
But at this moment, a problem arose.
Zhang Kuang and the other soldier, who arrived a moment earlier than Fang Jie, were stunned for a moment, as if they didn't know how to shoot the tenth arrow.
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When Fang Jie ran to his position, he finally understood why Zhang Kuang, who had arrived a step earlier than him, hesitated. For the tenth arrow, the candidates are required to exchange positions. However, if those in the lead run to the position of the candidates next to them and shoot arrows, their view will be blocked by the candidates who have not yet come back. In other words, those who move slowly become an obstacle for them to shoot the tenth arrow. But if they wait for them to retreat before shooting the tenth arrow, the advantage gained before will be lost.
When Fang Jie thought about this, he found Zhang Kuang looking towards him. In an instant he understood what Zhang Kuang meant, but he immediately shook his head. The distance between the two of them was more than ten meters, with at least six people in between. If the two of them swap places, the running distance will be too far, and the candidates in the middle will still hinder them if they move back. The time lead that was finally gained before could not afford a little extravagance.
There was no time to hesitate, Fang Jie immediately jumped to the side. When he landed on the ground, he squatted down as much as possible, and then concentrated all his strength on his legs. In an instant, he could feel the muscles in his legs tightening rapidly. This swollen feeling was good, and it made him feel more confident again.
After squatting down, his feet immediately showed a strong explosive power. Two feet stepped on the ground, and Fang Jie's body suddenly stood up. While leaping up, Fang Jie took out the last feather arrow from his back and shot it towards the distant target in front of him without hesitation.
And at this moment, the examinee who was facing the target happened to retreat less than one meter in front of Fang Jie. The tenth arrow fired by Fang Jie almost missed his scalp, causing the examinee to scream in fright and subconsciously bend forward to dodge.
Fang Jie smiled apologetically at him, and the tense muscles in his body slowly relaxed. He turned around and walked back, taking off the quiver tied to his back as he walked. The Youzhenwei soldier in charge of supervision ran over and took back the bow and quiver in his hand.
Fang Jie found a stone and sat down, pulled out a piece of grass and held it in his mouth. He watched those who had not completed the exam run and shoot with all their strength. This feeling of withdrawing from the game and being a bystander was wonderful.
Zhang Kuang handed the bow and arrow pot back to the soldiers of Youzhen Guard, walked to Fang Jie, sat down and smiled and said: "I thought I could beat you in this test, but in the end I was defeated by you because of your hesitation. Go ahead. Sigh If I had known that there was someone like you among the military candidates this year, I shouldn't have come."
Fang Jie smiled: "Actually, you can be faster."
Zhang Kuang was stunned for a moment, smiled bitterly, shook his head and said, "We have reached our limit."
"When you were shooting arrows just now, how many times did you look at me?"
Fang Jiewen
"Four times"
Zhang Kuang answered truthfully.
"You want to beat me so much."
Fang Jie sighed, stretched his body and said calmly: "Because you want to beat me so much, you are distracted. You keep looking at me to see if I am surpassing you, although the time it takes to look at me is very small. But it still has some impact on your shot. If you focus on archery, you will be at least two steps faster than me, but in the end you are only one step faster than me, and you wasted this step at the last moment."
Zhang Kuang nodded and said after a moment of silence.??: "I do want to win you, very much."
He also plucked a piece of weed from the ground and put it into his mouth, chewing it like Fang Jie, and said: "As I said just now, this is the only test event where I have a chance to beat you. After finishing this exam, I¡¯m afraid I won¡¯t have another chance.¡±
"Why do you want to win me so much?"
Fang explained the question.
Zhang Kuang hesitated for a long time, turned to look at Fang Jie and replied seriously: "Maybe because of jealousy."
Fang Jie reached out and patted Zhang Kuang¡¯s shoulder without saying anything.
Zhang Kuang smiled and said: "People are always like this. They are jealous of those who are stronger than themselves. I'm sorry, you treat me as a friend, but I treat you as an opponent."
Fang Jie slowly shook his head and said in a very light tone: "If I didn't regard everyone as my opponent, how could I possibly win against most people?"
Zhang Kuang was startled, then nodded thoughtfully.
At this moment, a plump figure floated over from a distance. While floating towards Fang Jie, he said with a smile: "Little Fang Jie, haven't you seen me for a few days? Have you missed me? I'm here to see if you failed the exam. If that's the case, I plan to have something good to celebrate today. one time."
Fang Jie looked at the fat figure and smiled at first. But when he saw the dirty look on that guy's body, Fang Jie's face darkened again.
"What's wrong?"
When Xiang Qingniu came to his side, Fang Jie looked at Xiang Qingniu's Taoist robe that had some damage and asked with a frown.
"I'm not going to wipe your butt for you. I didn't wipe your butt properly. What the hell, it's still smelly!"
Xiang Qingniu sat down next to Fang Jie, panting and saying, "The day I found itwho is this?"
He pointed at Zhang Kuang.
Zhang Kuang recognized the Taoist robe on Xiang Qingniu and knew what it meant. So he stood up, clasped his fists and saluted: "I have seen a real person, my name is Zhang Kuang, this year's candidate of the Yanwu Academy, the military commander of Anyuan City."
Xiang Qingniu laughed loudly and said: "Xiao Fang's colleague, haha, he is a talented person and a talented person Can you go aside and rest for a while? I have something to explain to Xiao Fang."
"good"
"You guys chat," Zhang Kuang said with a smile, "I'll go over there and see the other brothers."
After saying this, he turned around and walked away. When he turned around, the humble and sincere smile on his face disappeared. I don't know what he was thinking, but the sad and sad look in his eyes flashed away.
Slowly walking toward the other candidates, Zhang Kuang¡¯s face gradually turned cold.
Listening to Fang Jie chatting and laughing with the fat man in black robes, his arrogant face became increasingly ugly.
I actually wanted to win against you like an idiot You are someone who is valued by His Majesty. You have a relationship with the people in the Ouchi Guards. You have a relationship with Sanjinhou Wuyi. You have a relationship with the boss of Hongxiu Zhao. You have friendships with several bachelors in the court, and you even have a good relationship with that beautiful female professor Now there is another real person who comes out to chat with you and seems so familiar. How can I compare with you?
Fang Jiewhat is your identity?
? Crazyhow much of an idiot are you? You are just a small brigade leader with no future. You don¡¯t know the people in the Ouchi Guards, you don¡¯t know the Sanjin Marquis, you don¡¯t know the Grand Bachelor, you have never been in the Red Sleeves, and you can¡¯t talk to the professors of the Yanwu Academy. If you do that, no big shot from the Dao Sect will come to chat with you, and you will not be appreciated by His Majesty You are just a person in the northern barbarian tribe who has to marry the daughter of the tribe leader in order to survive and perform meritorious service. Just kill her little guy.
Zhang Kuang, the gap between you and Fang Jie is too big.
He smiled bitterly as he walked.
You are people from two worlds.
PS: Tomorrow¡¯s trip to Shijiazhuang will last about four days. There should be an update, but it¡¯s hard to say when. In fact, updates have never been regular, right? I¡¯m guilty.