Since its popularity in the Tang Dynasty, it has been one of the favorite pastimes of the royal wealthy. Striking and kemari are different in that one is struck with a stick and the other is kicked with a foot. One is an immediate movement and the other is an earthly movement. Bowing required a dedicated field, equipped with well-trained horses and specialized equipment, and was a sport that belonged to the aristocracy and the wealthy. After the canonization ceremony, the princes and some bowing masters from various ministries and provinces gathered at the bowing field next to Donghua Gate.

Zhu Di is not allowed to play because he is too young, but he is a top fan of bowing. Since he was introduced to juju at the age of six, he has not missed a single bow match in the palace. Not only that, but he also asked his guards to collect information for him about the bow tournament outside the palace. As long as he has the permission of the queen mother, he will be accompanied by his brothers or guards.

He once went to a bow field in the western suburbs of the capital called "Winning Gold Yijing". Zhu Di asked his brother, what is "winning gold"? His brother said that this is the purpose of this bowing field: to treat money as dung and experience as gold. Zhu Di asked again, so isn't experience equivalent to dung? His brother told him to shut up, saying that he would not bring him with him if he messed around in the future. He has also been to two relatively small bow ringing fields in the eastern suburbs. One is called "Absolute Dust" and the other is called "Chasing the Wind". These two names are obvious, and they both praise the skill of the bower on horseback.

Zhu Di prefers the bowing competition in the palace, where there are many masters, the contestants respect the rules, and the referees are fair and reasonable. Unlike the likes of the market, they often fight because of one or two foul moves, and the game breaks up unhappily. In this case, he really wanted to hide his identity and go out to preside over the overall situation, but he was worried that he was too small and his voice was too low, and his sincerity would be exchanged for cold eyes and ridicule.

When Zhu Di rushed to Donghuamen to hit the court, his second brother Zhu Fan controlled the ball. The small ball made of eight pieces of willow wood was struck by Zhu Rong's cane, and it was speeding towards the goal to the south. Zhu Fan drove his horse to the south, ready to swing the second bat, and hit the ball directly into the opponent's goal.

At this moment, another club came out of the air, and it took the lead, and the glaive end of the club lightly intercepted the ball. Bai Ze, who was beautifully engraved on the ball, also seemed to be enraged by the roadblock that was killed halfway. It opened its bloody jaws and wanted to swallow the club in one gulp to avenge its owner. But it soon found that its actions were futile, and that its new owner was more attractive to it than the old one. It decided to submit to the arrangement of fate.

The person who intercepted the ball was none other than Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan. Xu Da is the founder of the country who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to lay down the Ming Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he often went to the Northern Yuan Dynasty to drive away the Tartars who were unwilling to wait in wait. Perennial with the knights of the steppe, he has developed unrivaled riding skills. Not only that, but his kung fu is also extremely good, and he is unparalleled in the army. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to guide the princes in fist and foot riding and shooting, and the princes learned a little bit, but they couldn't learn the essence. It's not that Xu Da is hiding, it's not that the princes are lazy and playing, it's really Xu Da's cleverness that comes from practice, only after a long time on the battlefield, only in the face of a wolf-like enemy, the talent that people have and the huge power contained in their bodies can be perfectly combined, and bloom with infinite brilliance.

Now Xu Da is upright and in his prime, and no one in the bow ring is his opponent. Whenever he is in a game, he usually concedes three goals generously. Generally speaking, if there is no obstruction, a three-shot shot in a row can often go straight to the opponent's goal. But as long as one of Xu Da's team touches the ball and obstructs the "straight" movement of the ball, Xu Da is bound to snatch the ball back. After that, the ball will complete its glorious mission on the other half of the field.

"Good shot! General Xu! The third prince of the team with Xu Da, King Jin Zhu Yu, danced with his eyebrows and was ecstatic. He walked around to Xu Da and gave him a thumbs up.

Zhu Fan frowned and buttoned his eyes, and his heart was very unhappy. His face was exactly the same as the narrow sleeved blue robe he was wearing. He raised his hand, knocked on the door of his head, and sighed several times. He may be introspective, or he may be complaining. Finally he figured it out. He is only fourteen years old, Xu Da is already thirty-eight years old, he is not as experienced as Xu Da, isn't it normal to lose? There is nothing to be ashamed of. It's not just him Zhu Fan who lost to Xu Da, who can win Xu Da here? In a few years, he must be the only one who can win Xu Da. After comforting himself, he regained his confidence and looked around the arena.

The opposing players were high-fived and celebrated, and they frequently extended their thumbs and complimented each other. Even the horses were not ashamed to flick their knotted and shortened tails, throwing out the resentment of their masters against them. Xu Da was surrounded by seven other people in the middle, and the stars held the moon, just like the emperor on this bowing field.

The anger that had just calmed down broke the embankment again, and Zhu Fan violently tore off the purple scarf he had carefully selected in the morning, which he thought would bring him luck, and fell heavily to the ground. Pixiu on the scarf was lying on his stomach dejectedly, and a green caterpillar ran over Pixiu without knowing the time.

Zhu Fan wanted Xu Da to end up, but he couldn't say it. Because it is he who paints the ground as a prison and makes a cocoon to bind himself. Xu Da rarely returned to Beijing, and originally after the king ceremony, he planned to go home to rest. Unexpectedly, Zhu Fan dragged him to participate in the bowing competition. The princes haven't competed with Xu Da for three or four years. Zhu Fan thought that his skills were increasing day by day, and Xu Da didn't hold a staff for a long time, so he should be unfamiliar with bowing, so he thought that if he could defeat Xu Da, then he would definitely be famous, and his father should also be impressed by him.

The wishful thinking failed, Zhu Fan was sullen, and found a few cavalry of 3,000 battalions around him and counted them: "You grew up on horseback, right?" Why can't you even intercept a ball? I don't think you need to ride horses anymore, carry the sedan chair! ”

The officers and soldiers were not convinced, but they did not dare to fight back. Everyone present could see that Zhu Fan only cared about grabbing the ball by himself, and never cared about the overall strategy and tactics. Even if he was far away from goal and there was one of their players on the edge of the goal, he would never pass the ball to that player.

"Defeated! Tut-tut! Zhu Di said to himself, "When will you win once in front of General Xu?" ”

"What? Win General Xu? A voice came out of nowhere. Zhu Di stood in the front row of the crowded crowd around the arena. He did not enter the VIP viewing area of the infield by his own identity, because the three walls used to demarcate the stadium and the dozens of red flags that carried the function of rendering the atmosphere around him prevented him from experiencing the feeling of crowd excitement. Zhu Di looked left and right, everyone was staring at the arena intently, and no one was talking to him.

"My father said that no one will be better than General Xu in the next two hundred years. If you want to win against General Xu, you have to vote for the fetus several times...... No play! A clear child's voice seemed to emerge from someone else's crotch.

Zhu Di looked down to the side, and a boy three or four years younger than him opened the gap between the legs of the two adults, trying to get out, but was firmly stuck.

"Help me!" The boy asked Zhu Di for help, judging from his blushing face, he really tried hard to stand in front of Zhu Di and talk to him, but he was exhausted.

"Humph! What did you just say? If you want to win General Xu, what do you want...... Reincarnation? Zhu Di was angry, he wished that the little boy in front of him was crushed into a tooth-picking Yang branch.

"What? You...... In the tank...... The other team? You...... Hurriedly...... Swap ......"

"I didn't bet! What a note! How do you know that no one has won General Xu, so what about the emperor? Although Zhu Di also admires Xu Da so much, no matter what, he must still be more towards his family.

"You...... Pull me out first, then ...... Speak to you slowly. ”

"Saving someone's life is better than creating a seventh-level floating slaughter!" Zhu Di reluctantly comforted himself, in fact, he wanted to hear the boy's answer.

Zhu Di easily pulled the boy out of the adulthood. It was then that he realized that the boy, though not much shorter than him, was very weak. His thin arms and slender waist seemed to break if they were broken. No wonder he was stuck just now, I guess he couldn't even hold the bow stick steadily, right?

"Humph!" Zhu Di couldn't help but feel contempt, what qualifications does such a guy who can slap to death here talk about their Zhu family, who takes martial arts as their daily practice?

"Don't believe it, no one really won General Xu, and neither can the emperor." The boy was remarkable, and the referee on the field of play was more authoritative, "Do you know why?" ”

"Why?" Zhu Di's two eyebrows were like arrows on the verge of exploding, and as long as the boy's words were rebellious, they would shoot at it with the force of thunder.

"What you're saying is that if the emperor plays now, can he win General Xu, right?"

"Hmm."

"That certainly can't be. Think about it, after the emperor became the emperor, did he go to court every day? The boy pointed to the location of the court in his mind, which was the opposite of the actual position.

"yes, what's wrong with that?" Zhu Di didn't have time to pay attention to the boy's random fingers, and only wanted to hear the reason for the emperor's defeat.

"Before going to court, he always has to study his homework first, or what else will he say in the court? After the court, he still had to review his homework. Otherwise, the next day, the minister asked him if yesterday's problem had been solved, and he could not have said that he did not know. ”

"Pre-schoolwork? Reviewing homework? Zhu Di showed his uneven teeth, and a gust of wind exhaled from the gap between the missing front teeth.

"It's a commentary! This is the emperor's homework. The boy crossed his hands on his hips and tilted his head back, triumphant at his knowledge.

"What the hell are you going to say?"

"The emperor sits there every day to criticize the chapters, and when he goes to the court, how can he have time to ride a horse and shoot arrows? General Xu is different. My father said that he killed the enemy on horseback for 300 days out of 365 days a year. Have you ever heard a person who plays the piano say that if you don't play for three days, your hands will grow thorns? It's the same thing, don't I need to say it again? The boy was triumphant, his hands crossed on his waist, as if his few words had convinced Zhu Di.

Zhu Di's brows gradually relaxed, and he felt that the boy had some truth in what he said. He is not a stubborn and self-righteous person, but he still has to say a few words for his father: "The emperor is the dragon among people, the true son of heaven, can he be the same as us ordinary people?" ”

"That's, how can the emperor be compared to ordinary people?" The boy accepted it when he saw it, and echoed Zhu Di's words.

There was a sudden commotion in the crowd, followed by silence. Zhu Di and the boy hurriedly opened the gap in the crowd and looked at the field. For some reason, the players and referees stood neatly on both sides, as if they were holding a grand celebration. On the side of the pitch where there was no short wall, a man rode a tall horse and entered the pitch.

"Father......" Zhu Di almost screamed. The boy stared intently at the man on the horse. He knew that this must be a man of extremely noble status, but he never expected that he had just talked about him in a rhetorical manner.

"Welcome to the Emperor!" Everyone on and off the field knelt down to greet them.

"Welcome to the Emperor!" The boy was shrewd, and instead of being intimidated, his eyes widened. Although it was not the first time he mentioned the emperor, it was the first time he saw the emperor. His curiosity drove his eyes to not take off the emperor for a moment. He not only has to remember the emperor's appearance, so that he can show off to people who are not as lucky as him, but also carefully ponder, what is the difference between the emperor and ordinary people?

"Flat! I have a lot of hair today, and I want to play a bow with the princes and generals. Who will do it? Zhu Yuanzhang refers to one of the sixteen people on the field, who is on top of him.

"Your Majesty, the ministers are over, the emperor is happy!" Xu Da was smiling, as if he was looking forward to it, ready to enjoy the majesty of the emperor's arena.

"General Xu doesn't play a game with me?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked unexpectedly.

Xu Da's smile froze on his face, remembering that he had racked his brains several times in the process of playing with Zhu Yuanzhang to lose decently, he was worried in his heart, and he was not sure whether he could easily pass the test this time.

"The minister gallops and kills the enemy in the vast grassland on weekdays, and he is used to being wild, and this game of drawing the land as the boundary, the minister feels very restrained."

"General Xu is afraid that he will not be able to lose to me?" Zhu Yuanzhang did not let go at all

"Hehe, the minister is willing to bow down."

"Father!" Zhu Fan stepped forward,

"Erchen lost to General Xu just now, and Erchen wants to challenge again."

"Well, I also want to compete with General Xu. Xu Da, how many years have we not bowed together? You can't ruin my fun! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang called Xu Da by name and surname, and Xu Da knew that he could no longer shirk: "Yes, Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Fan was overjoyed with the support of his father. He was full of confidence and said loudly to one of his teammates: "General You, you leave the field for the time being," and then said to the referee, "Wang Dudu, let's start!" ”

Dressed in a narrow turquoise robe and black riding boots, Wang Dudu, holding the ball in his right hand, drove his horse towards the center line of the field. The players of both teams are in their positions, staring at the ball in the referee's hand, ready to go.

Zhu Di and the boy, who were huddled in the cracks, did not speak, but their nervousness was no less than that of any of the audience present. Zhu Di was worried about his father's defeat. He agreed with the boy's analysis, his father had been soothing the bow competition for a long time, and Xu Da spent more time on horseback than on the ground, and Xu Da had just won a game, was his father Xu Da's opponent? If his father loses, he will face two consequences that he is unwilling to face. First, he lost face in front of the boy. He told the boy that the emperor was different from ordinary people, so how could the emperor lose to ordinary people? Second, his father is the person he admires the most, and the disillusionment in his heart is enough for a child, even if it is not a catastrophe, it is enough to make him heartbroken and sad.

The boy was also nervous, and the Haikou words he had just boasted about were still in his ears, but the emperor's early display of tiger steps and dragon walking and heroic brilliance had already made him fall to the ground, and he thought in his heart that General Xu, whom he admired the most, probably did not have such a terrifying spirit. Moreover, the emperor took the initiative to invite General Xu to fight, if the Son of Heaven was not as good as others, how could he provoke the opponent and lose face in front of his subjects? It seems that General Xu has little chance of winning, and his face is lost. Originally, he was not a talker, because he wanted to make friends with Zhu Di, so he would talk about it in order to show his charm. It's good now, it backfires, after the game, Zhu Di will give him a few sneers, add a few derogatory words, and then walk away.

"Listen!" Zhu Yuanzhang's deep voice came from the north of the middle line, "Don't let me!" Grab the ball and hit the ball in the goal! If you slack off, you will receive a fine of 50 rods, and if you get a chip, you will receive a reward of 50 taels of silver! ”

Hearing the oracle, the members of Xu Da's team were all sad and worried. Originally, they were ready to lose to each other, which was reasonable, who would dare to disgrace the Son of Heaven? But Zhu Yuanzhang has just given an order, they must go all out, otherwise the staff will be fifty. Fifty staff will not die but will be crippled, what should they do?

Xu Da was calm and unhurried, and called the other seven team members to his side in a hurry. After a few words, the gloom on the faces of the team members was swept away. They returned to their positions, gearing up as if they had changed seven people, eager to try.

The referee, standing on the halfway line, leaned down, put down the ball, and drove the horse away.

"Let's go!" As soon as the referee's words fell, the ball fell into Zhu Yuanzhang's cane first. Under the blow of a stick, the ball flew obediently towards the goal of the Xu Da team. The players of the Xu Da team raised their sticks high, their fighting spirits were high, and they ran wildly towards the goal. Soon a player in a black robe and a blue hat intercepted the ball. The ball quickly turned around and flew towards the goal of Zhu Yuanzhang's team.

Zhu Yuanzhang was quick and controlled the ball again. The ball turns around again. The players of Xu Da's team received the holy order and never dared to slack off, resulting in Zhu Yuanzhang and his players never having any chance to touch the second cane ball, and even Xu Da could only sigh with a cane.

In this way, the ball flew back and forth, and the players ran for their lives like chasing their enemies. Xu Da's team didn't dare to slack off, and Zhu Yuanzhang's team didn't dare to breathe, who could afford to lose? Who doesn't work hard when it comes to losing their heads? At the same time, the audience did not feel that the re-enactment of this scene was boring. Some sweat rained down from their clenched fists, some bit their lipes with blood, and some were short of breath and dizzy, and collapsed on top of others.

After more than a dozen rounds, one of Xu Da's players "bravely" changed the situation after the whole cycle. When he hit the ball, his horse suddenly fell backwards, the force of the shot was sharply reduced, and the ball was just at the feet of the oncoming Zhu Fan. The audience exclaimed. Xu Da struggled through the players and grabbed Zhu Zhang's side, Zhu Fan had already swung his cane, and the ball marched towards the goal without hesitation. As long as Zhu Yuanzhang's team hits another stick, the evenly matched rhythm will completely collapse, and Zhu Yuanzhang's team is bound to come out on top.

At this critical moment, Xu Da showed the outstanding ability of an outstanding general. He rushed away from the three horses in front of him, and dodged the four horses that swarmed him. Eventually, the ball was just one step away from the stick, which pounced on it with an open and enthusiastic embrace. The audience was silent.

The screeching sound of metal colliding was like a boulder falling from the sky from the surface of a calm lake, breaking the stagnant air and piling up layers of terrifying waves. The other club was one step ahead, and when Xu Da's club stepped forward, it was already aiming at the ball that was standing by and swung it back. The trajectory of the stick and Xu Da's stick trajectory were in the same straight line, and the two sticks collided, making a loud sound that water and fire were incompatible.

The corners of Xu Da's mouth rose slightly when no one was noticing, and even in the blink of an eye, he regained his unsmiling countenance. His cane hit Zhu Yuanzhang's cane, Zhu Yuanzhang got the ball one step faster than him, and hit the ball into the goal quickly and powerfully.

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of energy and contented, thinking about the vigorous skills on the sniper field many years ago, but now he can still beat the game to the heart and hearty, how is it not a pleasure? The most critical thing is that he won against Xu Da, with Xu Da's team going all out. After all, he was still as high as Xu Da back then, which made him overjoyed.

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his horse's head and stood next to the goal, looking at his defeated men from afar. At this moment, he had almost forgotten his supremacy, and he was sure that he had won the match on an equal footing with all the players on the field.

A strange smile from a team member came into his eyes, and his smile froze, probing the suspicion with a coherent suspicion. That's Deputy General Zhang of the Shenji Battalion, he is a member of Xu Da's team, their team lost, what is he laughing at? Will anyone rejoice that they have been defeated? He began to scan the rest of Xu Da's team. They are all depressed and unhappy, and they really look like they are losing. Could he have just read it wrong? Looking at Vice General Zhang again, he was already sighing in a blink of an eye, as if he was complaining to his teammates about the mistake in grabbing the ball just now. And Xu Da was holding a stick to reprimand the players. What the hell is going on? Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head and pondered.

At the moment when Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head, all speculation dissipated like water at a low tide. A giant picture appeared in front of his eyes. Xu Da and his seven teammates, as well as the shiny horses, crisscrossed and created a soaring dragon.

"Congratulations to the emperor for winning first!" Eight people spoke in unison.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled happily and couldn't support it: "Hahaha!" Xu Da, Xu Da, you really have you, ingenious, not out of the ordinary. This dragon offering is very vivid! ”

"The emperor praises falsely!"

The crowd resounded with thunderous applause and surging cheers, for the thrilling competition and the rare sacrifice of the dragon.

The early summer breeze flutters over the burrows and taps on the eaves, the reptiles in the darkness poke out their frightened heads curiously, and the nestlings in the warm nest wave their clumsy wings restlessly.