In the golden autumn of September, the sky is high and cool, the maple leaves are red, the red leaves are also crazy, the whole maple street is like a fire, the wind blows, the red flame surges, the layers roll and burn to the end of the long street, the end of the long street, is a wide area of the royal shooting range, the vermilion lacquer wall is foot high, the black oil gate is always on the brass lock on weekdays, today the door is wide open, regardless of the official and the people, you can enter freely.

The whole shooting range is a rectangular structure, surrounded by a step-type audience seat like a football field, and even divided into VIP seats and ordinary seats, the VIP seats are of course for the official family to sit, with a shed on the top, the location is excellent, you can look at the whole field, but when you sit down, you have to follow the grade, the best position is the emperor's, and the one will occasionally come to join in the fun.

This year, the venue was set in the royal shooting range in a regular manner, but I saw that dozens of targets had been erected in a row on the flat field made of red clay, and there were already more than 100 people preparing to participate in the field distributed throughout the field to move their bodies or check the bows and arrows in their hands to make various preparations before the game, and the fourth young master Yan was also mixed in, holding a bow and aiming at the target a hundred meters away。

"Fourth brother, fourth brother!" Young Master Yan, who was being held by an old servant, saw it with sharp eyes, and desperately stretched out his hand to point to the venue, and shouted loudly.

The Yan family didn't come early, ninety percent of the audience was already seated in the audience, and the officials and family members in the VIP seat were almost there, and the family came in slowly and methodically under the leadership of Yan Zike.

"Lord Yan, keep the seat for you!" A waiter in green next to him saluted respectfully to Yanzi.

"I'm tired. Yan Zi bowed his head, and ignored the envious, jealous and hateful gazes projected by the officials next to him, just helped his father and mother to the upper seat and sat down, and the rest of the people looked for a place to sit down according to their seniority, Yan Qi sat on the very edge, next to the Cui family next to her, Cui Xi even set aside a seat for her, and the rose purple velvet cushion was covered on it.

Yan Qi looked to the side, and saw Wu Yue in the army of the martial arts, their family alone occupied a large seat, Wu Yue stretched out his arm and waved at this room, Yan Qi also waved at her, and then looked to the other side, several members of Lu Rong's family also came, Yan Qi even saw Mrs. Lu, usually Mrs. Lu rarely participated in such occasions, but now she has changed her style, dressed up in spirit, sitting there and looking at this side with Lu Rong and smiling at Yan Qi, behind Mrs. Lu, there is a grandmother who looks very stern, also looked at this side, and even nodded slightly to Yan Qi, I think it was the Jiang Mama that the emperor rewarded to the Lu Mansion.

Lu Lotus's confused father, Lu Jingwei, sat there with a strained face, and couldn't see what he was thinking in his heart, Lu Lian also sat down expressionlessly, and her dress was no longer flamboyant, looking more plain than what Lu Lotus was wearing.

Yan Qi is not conspicuous today, a sea blue narrow-sleeved robe, black boots, black hair curled, and a small hair crown hoop with a small hair crown carved by a dolphin carved in mutton fat jade, looking neat and tidy, such a martial arts competition occasion, most people will wear a strong suit or a Hu suit.

"What kind of fish is this?" Cui Xi had never been out of Kyoto, so he didn't know the dolphin, and asked with a smile as he looked at the top of Yan Qi's head.

"The cousin of the finless porpoise, the dolphin, lives in the sea," Yan Qidao, "My uncle used to travel to the sea to see a kind of fish on the sea, very human, he also recognized one of them as his godson, and this one on my head is the jade statue of his godson." ”

Cui Xi laughed: "If I have the chance, I also want to see the sea and dolphins." ”

"There are so many opportunities, but life is still long. "Yan Qidao.

Cui Xi smiled and propped up his chin: "Yes, it's long, it's long." ”

"Long means long-lasting, it's worth looking forward to, right?"

"I really have some expectations when you say this," Cui Xi narrowed his eyes and curled the corners of his lips lazily in the golden wind, "The man who is the master of heaven and earth is the reverse journey of all things, and the one who is in time is also the passer-by of a hundred generations." But with the chic coming and going, one by the romance of the west and the east. ”

"How nice. "Yan Qidao.

"Okay, you big flower shoehorn!" Cui Xuan, who was sitting on the other side of Cui Xi, suddenly rushed in, tilted his body and stretched his neck to glare at Yan Qi, "Yan Xiaoqi'er, if you give my little four a fool and run away from home, you see that I don't block the gate of your house every day!"

"You think too much, big brother, we're talking about a state of mind. "Yan Qidao.

"Oh, it's still in the state of mind, look at what you can, why can't you become an immortal. Cui Xuan continued to glare at her.

"I'm afraid that you are reluctant to be prosperous (gold) and silver in the world, and you will not ascend to heaven with you. "Yan Qidao.

“…… You come here, promise not to kill you. "You're a chicken dog! Your whole family is—"Ahem, Uncle Yan, how are you doing late......ly?"

The judges of this competition are also seated, all of them are from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, the Criminal Department, the Six Doors of the Dragon Guard, the Luan Yiwei and other twelve guards and the heads of the three battalions and the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, of course, the most important person is indispensable, that is, the arrow god Tu Mi, wearing a purple Cong Erpin official uniform, and the lion pattern embroidered with silver silk on his chest flashes in the sun.

Tu Mi's appearance caused a lot of commotion in the VIP stands, the VIP seats were all official dependents, many people knew Tu Mi, and the ordinary people in the civilian seats were quite calm, at most they were talking about this handsome young man who had already been listed as the second rank, and "Which one is the God of Arrows? Where is the God of Arrows? I heard that the God of Arrows is very young, is it the one who wears green clothes?"

It's a special eunuch in green! It's terrible to be uneducated! The fans of the arrow god can't hear it.

The common people craned their necks and searched for a long time, neither finding which arrow god was, nor expecting the emperor to come in person, until they heard three earth-shattering drums in the field, and the audience instantly fell silent - this is about to begin.

On the rostrum, the Ministry of Rites first read out a large number of praises of singing and reciting virtues, and then Tu Huazhang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, then read out the theme, spirit, rules and discipline of the event.

The foreplay lasted for two quarters of an hour, and someone had run to the toilet twice, when I heard the announcement from above that the game had begun. However, the first thing to be carried out is the preliminaries-Houyi Event, an activity that can be named and profitable, there are not 10,000 applicants, but also 8,000, although before today, various military departments have conducted internal selection competitions, and there are still many outstanding people who finally stand out from the auditions, plus as long as they sign up, they can directly enter today's final competition.

Therefore, the preliminaries will be held first, in view of the uneven level of the preliminaries, the attention is far lower than that of the finals, so the competition will not set up any tricks, directly a group of 30 people on the target road, on the fixed target, 100 steps away, 40 catties of bows, 10 arrows per person, each group to take the top 10 into the semi-finals.

The fixed target is the simplest comparison among many archery tricks, and the people who can enter today's final competition are the best in archery. Ten arrows per person must be shot within the specified time, otherwise they will be considered out. Listen to the drums, there is a special person there to beat the drum, knock one you have to shoot an arrow, a total of ten sounds, ten times after the sound is delayed for three seconds, if you haven't finished shooting the arrow in your hand, then OUT.

This is amazing, archery is a sport that needs to stabilize the mind and find a good feeling, this is not the same as killing people on the battlefield, now it is a game, you can put arrows on the battlefield at will, anyway, rush to the opposite dense enemy, you can't shoot A and shoot B, but the game is not good, there is only one target, only a small bull's-eye, shoot ten arrows at the fastest speed, it's too late to find a feeling, all rely on excellent basic skills and your feel today, you may need a little luck.

The contestants had no opinions, and the lottery was divided into groups, and each person had three opportunities to practice, Young Master Yan drew the third group, and Yuan Chang drew the second group.

After the practice, the first group is on target!

The person in charge of beating the drum has a whistle in his mouth, and the whistle blows to mean preparation, and then the drum hammer is picked up and struck down heavily—"Boom!"

Whoop –

The first group of thirty players shot at almost the same time, sat on a high place and watched, brushing across the target path like a comb, and nailing them to the target in unison.

The unresponsive audience then remembered to cheer, and those who couldn't see it clearly shouted first, so excited, so excited! Look at the young and strong bodies, putting on a beautiful and resolute posture, that calm gaze, that flamboyant sharpness, and that self-confidence -- this is the new generation of our Heavenly Dynasty, this is the future of our Heavenly Dynasty, this is youth, this is hope!

"Knock, knock!"

Ten drums were beaten slowly and rapidly, and the whole audience saw a rain of arrows, and the sound of a hundred or so arrows hitting the target sounded like a torrential rain knocking on the window edge, swarming and stopping.

Six of the 30 people were judged to have violated the rules because the arrow did not shoot three seconds after the last drum sounded, and the remaining 24 people were eliminated by counting the rings, and the top 10 entered the semi-finals, and the rest were also eliminated.

The audience applauded and cheered warmly, those who knew how to watch the doorway, and those who didn't understand it were purely lively, and the officials and relatives on the VIP seats were reserved and only applauded politely, not to shout.

This method seems simple, but in fact it is quite difficult, not only to test the speed of the arrow, but also to test the concentration, not to be affected by the speed and direction of the arrow next to the person. Cui Xi has seen a lot of Yan Qi's games, and now he has some understanding of archery, lazily leaning on the back of the chair, holding a honey porcelain thermos cup in his hand, this cup is to listen to Yan Qi talk about the principle of making zuò, tried a few times and tried it successfully, the cup tire made of mercury, the top is made into a cup lid that can be screwed up, and Yan Qi was also given an identical one, Yan Qi also brought it today, which was filled with the best stone flowers that came back from her uncle's study, unscrewed the lid, a full cup, hot and fragrant, and handed it to Cui Xi to taste first.

Cui Xi took it and blew it for a while, and slowly took a sip: "It doesn't taste like it is boiled in well water." ”

"But no, it is sitting on the snow melting water on the bamboo leaves of the summer residence, when it snowed heavily last year, it was still three watches in the middle of the night, my uncle ran to knock on the door, took me and Xiao Jiu with a porcelain jar and collected most of the night, and then buried it under the begonia tree in the yard, only took it out a few days ago, saying that it was dry and easy to get on fire in autumn, let the bamboo leaves snow water make tea and drink, but go to the fire to reduce dryness, there are several cans at home, I brought you two cans today, just put them in the carriage outside, don't forget when you go. ”

"Good. Cui Xi was not polite to Yan Qi, and took two sips of her cup before handing it back to her, and opened his own cup with his hand, "You taste this." ”

Yan Qi also took Cui Xi's cup, and smelled it under his nose, with a sweet taste: "Stevia leaf mint tea?"

Cui Xi smiled and nodded: "It's also to go to the fire, but it's not the snow water used, it's the rain that goes to summer." ”

"God's big snot, you use it as a treasure. Cui Xuan messed in again, this time he didn't stare at Yan Qi and glared at his younger brother instead, "Don't give me such a good cup, turn your elbow outward, right?!"

"What are you going to do, change your style. Cui Xi said.

"How much is Fengya worth?" Cui Xuan glared at him vigorously, "If this cup is put in our shop, ten taels of silver and one are cheap, I will sue you! Go back and give me the production method, and I will let our craftsmen make it in batches!"

"Don't give. Cui Xi said.

"Xiao Qi'er!" Cui Xuan shifted the target, "This thing is your idea again, right? Come on, give the method to my brother, and my brother will take you to make a lot of money! Guan Bao will earn you a good dowry within a month, how about it?"

"If you give me ten taels of silver, how many taels will you give me?" Yan Qi asked.

"Look, you have to burn porcelain for this cup, you have to buy materials, you have to pay the craftsman, you have to pay the craftsman, you have to ......."

"The second group's table is better than the first group. Yan Qi and Cui Xi said.

"With the first group at the front, the people behind have some experience. Cui Xi said.

Yuan Chang shot a full ring. "Yan Qidao.

"It's time for the next group of your fourth. Cui Xi said.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Cui Xuan stopped his mouth and glared at the two who treated him as air, "Where is the silver ticket under my bed?!"

"The place where the silver ticket is hidden is known to the two of us, and you don't say that you will hide it in another place. "Yan Qidao.

"So I'll help you transfer. Cui Xi said.

“…… It's just transferred to someone else's pocket, right?!" Cui Xuan exhaled.

The third group of players on the field has already stood in front of the target track, and the Yan family members have subconsciously straightened their backs, staring at the fourth young master Yan who is farthest from the stands, and the fourth young master Yan is not like other players looking for his family members to wave his hand, just standing in front of the target road seriously and comparing the bow and arrow in his hand, until the game is about to start, he turned his head to look at the seat where the Yan family is located, surrounded by brocade clothes, and found his father at a glance, seeing that he was sitting comfortably there, wearing a blue shirt, his elbow was on the arm of the seat and holding a chin, and he was also looking at him, raised his other hand and shook it at him, and nodded with a smile。

Fourth Young Master Yan retracted his gaze, only to feel that his strength and confidence had doubled, he cheered himself up, took a step and set up his bow, put aside a distracting thought, and only silently recited the essentials of archery in his heart.

The drum sounded, the sharp arrows left the string, ten shots in a row, and the branches were on the target - ninety-four rings!