He Xing was secretly annoyed in his heart, but he had to say, thought for a while, and said, "In addition to knives, guns, and sticks, there are also two cannons?" ”

When he heard that there were indeed two cannons, Yang Zheng put his mind at ease, and said in his heart: "Old man Yang finally didn't completely fool me, with these two cannons, it's not a matter of worrying about a mere Maitreya sect?" At this thought, the initial unhappiness suddenly disappeared.

"My lord, the ancient city has arrived?" Gao Hang, who was walking in front, turned his head and said.

"Oh, is it there?" Yang Zheng sighed, raised his head and took a look, only to find that he had entered the city gate.

The entire ancient city of Hangzhou can be described as exquisitely laid out and full of organs. At the top of the tall city wall, there is a continuous concave and convex toothed low wall built on the outside, called a pheasant moat, also known as a battlement wall, there is a battlement opening, which can be used for archery and lookout, and there are ventilation holes in the lower part to protect the wall. The inner low wall is called the female wall, also called the "eye", which is generally lower than the battlement, and plays the role of a guardrail to prevent soldiers from falling down when walking back and forth. In addition, there are also ring roads and climbing roads inside the city walls, which are extremely protective against the enemy's attack, Yang Zheng nodded secretly while walking.

He Xing and the others have seen this city countless times, naturally they are not interested, seeing Yang Zheng nodding while watching, he couldn't help but snort, and said in his heart: "It's just a broken city, what's so good-looking, I really don't know what Yang Shiqi likes about him?" “

Yang Zheng didn't bother to pay attention to He Xing and the others while walking, and he didn't know how long he walked, his intuition lit up, and he looked up and saw a blank space in front of him, almost the size of a football field, and the field was covered with green turf. ”

As everyone entered, they didn't see half of the soldiers training, that is, the swords, guns and sticks needed for the war, the beacon fire company camp, the neighing of war horses, and the shouting and killing arrays, Yang Zheng felt more and more strange, and said in his heart: "Isn't there 5,000 soldiers and horses here, you should be able to see people, do you go collectively to make money?" ”

"He Qianhu, are you sure there are five thousand people?" Yang Zheng really couldn't connect the scene he saw with the training ground on TV in later generations, and even wondered if this was a training ground.

"Is this Yang Lao Tu really reliable in doing things?" Yang Zheng muttered.

He Xing hated Yang Zheng to the core, and finally saw him deflated, and he was secretly happy in his heart, but now he was still a person in the army, so he had to be extremely flattering, squinted his eyes and glanced ahead, and said coldly: "This is where we train on weekdays, but we soldiers are all stragglers, and it is rare to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy on weekdays, so there is less training?" ”

"Oh my day, this is a problem of lessness, this is clearly no training?" Yang Zheng scolded secretly.

"These stragglers, are they really not the material for war? Is it no wonder that the Maitreya Sect in Zhejiang is so rampant, relying on these soldiers to exterminate the Maitreya Sect, and the expectations of the Lord Shangshu are too high for fear of death? ”

"Brother Gao, did Lord Yang really say that there are 5,000 people here, why is there no one in the huge city, Old Man Yang won't fool me, no, I won't enter the city, I have to go to Old Man Yang to theorize? Can't let him cheat me? The more Yang Zheng looked, the more he felt that he had been fooled, and he was just about to approach the venue, pulling the horse and about to turn around.

When Gao Hang heard this, he secretly complained in his heart: "Why did I get such a master, I pick a son at every turn, it doesn't matter if you leave it, the little brother is going to kill the head?" Gao Hang was secretly anxious in his heart, and wanted to persuade him, but he didn't know what to say for a while, and he couldn't see a single soldier in the entire ancient city, which was really comfortable.

"My lord, the place that Lord Shangshu said is here, since the adults have come here, whether it is true or not, they must always go in and have a look, in case these soldiers are here, the adults are burdened with heavy responsibilities, as a general, if they don't even enter the training ground of the soldiers, even if they see Lord Shangshu, they will not stay up? Shall I look at the adults or go in and have a look? “

"Look at the fart, the huge training ground is placed here, if there are soldiers and horses, wouldn't it be the same?" Yang Zheng scolded and said: "What Brother Gao said is extremely true, if I leave like this, I'm afraid it's not easy to say when I meet Old Man Yang, so I'll go in with you, if there is no horse, it's not too late for me to leave?" “

When Gao Hang heard that he was leaving, his heart couldn't help but become anxious, and he said secretly: "Lord Shangshu obviously has 5,000 people in this ancient city, why don't you see a human figure, could it be that he was attacked by the Maitreya Sect at night, but it doesn't look like it?" “

I was uneasy in my heart, and said in my heart: "That's it, that's it, let's look at it first, if there is really no horse, is it the will of heaven over there?" I can't stop him if he wants to leave? “

muttered, took the lead and walked in, after all, he was concerned about those soldiers and horses, looked left and right, and saw that these temporary camps were empty, even the horses had never seen a single one, and he muttered secretly in his heart: "Could it be that Lord Shangshu is really mistaken, there are no soldiers and horses stationed here at all, otherwise why is there no one in the huge training ground?" The more Gao Hang looked at it, the more he thought so.

The entire training ground is almost halfway gone, and there is still no shadow of soldiers and horses! Gao Hang didn't know what to say this time, but He Xing and the four of them sneered and glanced at Yang Zheng's contempt.

"Brother Gao, you also saw it, there are clearly no horses here, it seems that Old Man Yang fooled me?" Yang Zheng looked at Gao Hang and said.

Now, Gao Hang didn't know what to say, looked around and sighed softly.

Yang Zheng secretly scolded Yang Shiqi in his heart, turned his head to Xiao Yue and said, "It seems that Sister Shen still needs me to rescue herself?" ”

Xiao Yue nodded, pulled the reins of the horse and was about to turn over on the horse, when she suddenly heard a shout, followed by a shout, the sound was like thunder, mixed with the neighing of the horses.

Yang Zheng was stunned for a moment, and looked at Xiao Yue, his face was dazed, but Gao Hang's face was happy, and he exclaimed in surprise: "My lord, there is the sound of horses here, that means there are people here?" ”

Yang Zheng glanced at him and scolded secretly: "Your grandfather's, can't Lao Tzu hear it?" “

Gao Hang didn't say much, turned over and galloped away following the sound, and after a while, he galloped out of a camp tent with the reins of the horse, and said to Yang Zheng: "My lord, are they here?" “

"Oh my day, it's so deeply hidden, are these 5,000 men and horses an armed force behind enemy lines?"

Walking side by side with Xiao Yue pulling the reins of the horse, bypassing a barracks, Yang Zheng saw that there was an open place in front of him, just like the one in front, but all kinds of flowers and trees were planted around, plus the height of one person in those tents, erected in the middle of the two places, if it wasn't for the shouting just now that came out in time, I really didn't know that behind the camp tent, there were 5,000 people and horses.

"Sir, don't you think this is a centaur?" Gao Hang touched the beads of sweat on his forehead and said with a smile.

Yang Zheng glanced at him fiercely, snorted coldly, and then looked at the field, only to see that the venue was full of people, surrounding the huge training ground, forming a big circle, in front of and behind the circle, there were two wooden doors built of wood, which looked similar to the football goals of later generations, the only difference was that there was no one to defend here.

Yang Zheng saw that these soldiers in Ming military uniforms had a stern expression, and many people raised their necks to look around, shouting a few times from time to time, rendering this training ground very lively.

Satsuki looked particularly strange and asked softly, "What are they doing?" ”

Yang Zheng was also a little confused, looking at Gao Hang, Gao Hang touched his nose, his expression looked a little embarrassed, and he hesitated for a while before saying, "If my guess is right, they should be having a bow competition?" ”

"What is a bow tournament? Is it Kemari? Yang Zheng glanced at the field and squinted his eyes.

Gao Hang squinted at him, and saw that although he frowned, he did not show a displeased look, so he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly said: "This bow is known as "batting", which is a kind of sport of riding on horseback and hitting wooden balls with a long-handled mallet. Mongolian folk horse games and sports are popular in Inner Mongolia and other places. According to legend, it was introduced from Persia (now Iran) in the early Tang Dynasty, called "Polo Ball", and later introduced to Mongolia, and has been along the line to this day. The ball is as small as a fist, and it is used as a field in the grassland and wilderness. The player is divided into two teams on horseback, holding the ball in hand, hitting a ball together, and scoring the opponent's goal to win. ”

Saying this, Yang Zheng suddenly understood, and shouted, "Isn't this playing polo?" ”

Yang Zheng has some understanding of this kind of game, knowing that this kind of sport was introduced to China very early, since the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty Li Shimin advocated polo, polo has been prosperous for three hundred years.

The most famous is that in the third year of Jinglong in the Tang Dynasty, Tubo sent an envoy Shang Zanlu (official name) to Chang'an to welcome Princess Jincheng. Tang Zhongzong invited the Tibetan envoys to watch the Han people play polo, and Shang Zanlu saw that the Han people played ball in general, so he stepped forward to play Tang Zhongzong to play a game with the Tang Dynasty polo team. Zhongzong agreed to the request of the Tibetans to confront the Han Chinese. Outcome. After several rounds of competition, "Tubo wins".

Tang Zhongzong saw that the Tubo people had superb ball skills, and sent the polo master Li Longji (later Tang Xuanzong), the king of Linzi (later Tang Xuanzong), Yang Shenjiao, Wu Yanxiu, and other four people to fight against the ten people in Tubo. After the start of the game, Li Longji galloped back and forth like the wind and returned to the lightning, waved his stick, was invincible, penetrated the opponent's door again and again, and won a big victory. Tang Zhongzong was overjoyed and rewarded the winners.

Later, Tang Xuanzong ascended the throne, his polo addiction did not decrease that year, in the sixth year of Tianbao, issued an edict stipulating that the army must practice polo, so polo and military sports bonded, since then there is the Tang Dynasty, polo has been greatly developed, until the Ming Dynasty, continued for more than a thousand years, deduced many stories, circulated a lot of poems, but unfortunately to the Qing Dynasty after the decline.

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Note: Polo was also developed in the Song Dynasty: according to the Song Dynasty Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Menghualu": "Set up a small goal in front of the palace. There are more than 100 men in flower costumes, all of whom are wrapped in horns and then fist curly flower heads, half red and half green brocade jackets, righteous fence belts and silk shoes, each across the carved saddle flower donkey, divided into two teams. Each has a friend, each holding a colorful painting stick, which is called a small fight. A friend hits the ball with a stick, such as the ball is attached to the ground, and the two friends compete for it, for the head of the friend. Zuo Peng hit the ball through the goal and Meng won. The right friend competed forward and did not let him enter Meng. Chase each other, have to thank each other and retreat. There are more than 100 palace eunuchs in the yellow courtyard, and they have become like small beaters. But coupled with the pearl and emerald decoration, the jade belt and red boots, and each straddle the pony, it is called a big fight. Everyone rides skillfully, gallops like a god, elegant and light, graceful and graceful, but the world sees its pictures. Submission. It vividly describes the situation of polo performances in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and shows that there was a difference between "big fights" and "small fights" at that time.

(Ask for a few monthly passes at the beginning of the month, please give me a help, it's not a new book now, it's going to enter the old book gang, so the monthly pass is particularly important!) Don't hesitate! ）