In Dongyuan City, at the beginning of the year, a large school martial arts field was built.

This field is dedicated to the examination venue for "martial arts"; When the examination is not held, it is used for the daily training of the garrison troops.

Xin Er's proposal of "martial arts" was actively promoted by Sima Tang Aidi, the right of the Governor's Office, and was implemented at the end of last autumn.

In terms of specific procedures, from low to high, martial arts are divided into three levels.

First in the county, then in the county; In the end, on the newly established Shazhou side, those who passed the selection in the county were gathered in the state and unified to Guyin, the royal city, and the rest of the counties came separately and conducted the final assessment in Guyin, a newly built school martial arts field.

The selection of counties and counties ended at the end of last year, considering that the weather is cold, it is not suitable to travel far, and if there is another heavy snowfall, the road will be more difficult.

On this day, hundreds of candidates from more than ten counties across the country gathered on the school martial arts field to start the exam.

Xin Er, the right chief of the governor's mansion, Shi Zhang Sengcheng, Tang Ai and other officials of the governor's mansion were all present.

Ling Hule was very interested in this matter, but he had a class in the morning, Zuo's was very strict in this regard, and he didn't give him leave, so he couldn't come to join in the fun in person, so he sent Zhang Daojiang instead, and asked Zhang Daojiang to take a closer look, and report to him in detail when he went back.

Zhang Daojiang stood behind Xin Er and the others, smiling slightly, saying little, not talking much, and only watching the field attentively.

There are seven subjects in the examination: long-range shooting, mounted archery, infantry shooting, horse lance, weight, material appearance, and speech.

There are four types of test scores: Excellent, Upper, Intermediate, and Lower.

Appearance and speech are soft test content.

The material is one that requires those who are more than six feet tall to be the top, and those who are less than six feet are medium. One word, requiring a look in the defense, the one who can be the leader is the top, and the one who is not is the middle. The so-called "defense" means that the examiner asks the examinee some questions about the art of war and the knowledge of leading soldiers.

The five items such as long-range shooting are real assessments of the martial arts of the lifter himself.

The entire school martial arts field is divided into six areas.

The five events, such as long-range shooting, each occupy one zone. Appearance and speech occupy one area.

It should be for safety reasons, both the shooting and lance are far away from the parade platform, and the closest to the parade platform is the load-bearing area.

The arrangement of the weight-bearing area is simple, or so to speak, nothing at all.

Just like the running track in later generations, only a flat ground was planned, and an east-west horizontal line was drawn on the ground as the starting line. The starting line is north, and ten straight lines are drawn, each line is twenty paces away, "five feet is a step", that is, a length distance of about 100 feet.

Outside the starting line, there are ten cloth bags, which are filled with soil, each bag weighs five buckets and weighs more than 60 catties.

Candidates are qualified, holding armour, holding a lance, equipped with knives and bows, and wearing a full deck, carrying a bag, and walking enough for 20 steps.

This is the most basic requirement.

Candidates with that strength, if they feel that this test is not painful, then they can "advance".

There is a small area on the side of the weight-bearing area, where two "warped passes" with a length of one zhang and seven feet each and a diameter of three and a half inches are placed.

"Guan" refers to the bolt of the city gate; Qiaoguan is to lift the city bolt. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, warping was one of the methods of training. It is said that "Confucius is strong, the whole country is closed, and he refuses to hear it with his strength", Confucius probably did the sport of warping.

However, when it comes to the exam, it is not just one example, but ten times.

Of course, if you can't do it ten times, it doesn't matter, ten times is preferred, and five times is superior.

As long as you can lift it five times, you are already a wrestler.

Most of the candidates who took the exam this time came from families above the rich peasant level, and their daily nutrition was good, and there were quite a few wrestlers, but not many of them could lift the pass ten times, and only a dozen of them did.

Among the more than ten people who lifted it ten times, they were basically over eight feet tall, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, and they looked powerful and majestic.

There was only one person, only seven feet old, and judging by his physical appearance, he was not very majestic, but he also raised the door ten times.

This person attracted the attention of Xin Er, Tang Ai, Zhang Shengcheng, including Zhang Daojiang.

Tang Aiqi said: "Eight-foot martial arts, ten gates, but also ordinary; Who is this son? It doesn't look amazing, but it has divine power. ”

Some of the subordinates who accompanied him knew this person, and replied: "This person's name is Wang Shuwang, and he is from the county of the lower officials. ”

Tang Ai let out an "oh".

Xin Er turned to the subordinate and said, "Your family is from Guangwu County, right?" ”

This subordinate is a member of the governor's office.

As a Shangguan, Xin Er is now very familiar with the officials of the Governor's Mansion, not only knowing their names, origins, specialties, but also their origins, etc., and they have long been secretly remembered.

The subordinate replied, "Yes." ”

Xin Er smiled and said: "I think this person should have some courage in your county." ”

The subordinate replied, "The long history is wise." This person is indeed quite famous in Xiaguan County.

"Changshi knows that there are many Xianbei tribes in the west and north of the county, and many Rong people in the east and south. These Hulu, who are usually honest, once they encounter a cold winter and raise too many sheep and horses to freeze to death, they will inevitably harass the countryside of our Tang people in the spring of the following year.

"Four years ago, in the county, Wang Shuwang's house was invaded by a Xianbei Hulu. Hu Lu had hundreds of horsemen, taking advantage of the night to plunder, and fled in peace, and the county did not have time to send troops. Wang Shuwang corrected the thirty or twenty young people in the township, waited for the captives to retreat, followed and tracked, attacked at night, rode more than ten with a blade, cut off their small rates, seized what they had gained and returned, and returned all the things they had captured to the villagers.

"In Xiaguan County, there are still people who mention this matter from time to time."

Tang Ai said: "Avoid the enemy's sharpness, wait for the enemy's will to vent, and then attack the enemy's weakness, this wise and brave man!" ”

Xin Er heard another important aspect from the words of the subordinates, and he praised: "All the things that will be taken back will be returned to the villagers." This son is not a money-grubber, but a righteous man. Asked the subordinate, "Killing more than ten thieves is also a credit, does the county recommend him?" ”

The subordinate shook his head and said, "No." ”

There is no reason, no need to ask again.

It can only be that Wang Shuwang has no one in the county.

Wang Shuwang crossed the pass ten times and won the best.

The eyes of Xin Er and the others followed him and turned to the horse lance field.

On the horse field, nearly 100 candidates are already taking the exam.

Compared with the load-bearing field, the layout of the horse lance field is much more.

On this field, ten earthen walls were laid.

The earthen walls face each other in pairs, leaving some distance in between.

On each side of the earthen wall, a wooden figure was erected. On the head of each wooden figure, a woodblock of two inches and five minutes square is placed.

The content of the test for the horse lance is: the candidate gallops into the two walls, and the lance hits the wooden block on the head of the wooden man left and right.

The requirements for the exam are: knock the wooden block down, but the wooden figure must not fall to the ground.

This exam is probably the most difficult of all the exams.

If you want to think about the horse lance, first of all, it is long enough, one zhang and eight feet long, and in a very short time, it is not easy to move the lance left and right; Secondly, the tip of the horse lance is only a little smaller than the wooden block, the wooden block is two inches and five minutes, and the tip of the lance is one inch and five minutes, which is only one inch smaller; Again, the horse's lance weighs eight pounds, and its own weight is not light, and with the momentum of the horse's galloping and the strength of the arms when using the lance, the force when striking out will only be greater.

In order to meet the requirements of the exam, it is extremely difficult to shoot down only the wooden blocks without causing the wooden people to fall to the ground.

In addition to the difficulty of the exam requirements, this exam, because the test is a horse lance, some candidates are not wealthy enough at home, no horses, no lance, and have never practiced this thing at all, which means that the threshold for this exam is also very high.

The nearly 100 candidates gathered here are probably the majority of the candidates this time.

Wang Shuwang's family is not high, but the family has fields and cattle, and there are apprentices, and the economic conditions are good, so he has practiced horse lance.

Xin Er and the others looked.

Wang Shuwang registered, received a number plate, and waited in line.

The candidates in front of him entered the venue one by one. They rode their own horses, and the lances they used were the standard rations of the examination room.

Nearly 100 candidates showed their skills.

Some shot down two woodblocks, and this score can be "medium". Some shot down a woodblock and rated it as "down". Some of them didn't knock them down, but they knocked down all the wooden figures, and they could only give a "no stream" test score.

There are also those that shoot down three woodblocks, which are evaluated as "up".

The four woodblocks were all knocked out and the wooden figures did not fall, and the "excellent" evaluation was won from beginning to end, only 14 or 5 people, all of whom won the applause of the audience.

Wang Shuwang rode a red horse, he led the horse to the front of the miscellaneous officials, took the horse lance, turned over the horse, first tried the feel of the horse lance, and then turned the horse around the field a few times, and waited for the horse speed to rise, holding the lance in his left hand, carrying the lance handle with his armpit, and dialing the horse to gallop into the field.

Because of its difficulty, the horse lance examination room has naturally become one of the most eye-catching places in the entire school martial arts field.

Outside the field, inside the field, and on the parade platform, there were more than two or three hundred people, as long as there was nothing to do at the moment, their eyes fell on Wang Shuwang's body.

A horse is absolutely dusty, but seeing the horse like a swimming dragon, rushing close to the two walls, Wang Shu Wangting sat on the saddle, calmly carried the lance, seemed to be slow and urgent, and the woodblock on the head of the wooden man on the left wall fell to the ground. Wang Shuwang reached out with his right hand, grabbed the shaft, and when the mount had just crossed the wooden figure on the right wall, he turned around and stabbed out, knocking down the wooden block on the wooden man's head as well. Galloping to the end of the wall, a similar scene repeats itself. The four woodblocks all fell to the ground, and the wooden figures did not move.

Tang Ai clapped his palms and said to Xin Er with a smile: "Congratulations to the general, you have a good material!" ”

The more than ten people who knocked down the four woodblocks before, although their results were also very good, they were not as easy as Wang Shuwang.

Inside and outside the field, there was an endless applause.

The examiner said loudly: "Guangwu County candidate Wang Shuwang, shoot down the fourth version, excellent!" ”

Hearing Tang Ai's congratulations, I saw Wang Shuwang's heroic spirit of holding a horse and raising a lance, as well as the sassy and heroic posture of hundreds of athletes on the school martial arts field.

This noisy atmosphere and martial spirit reminded Xin Er of a sentence he knew in his previous life: "The heroes of the world are all in my hub." ”

He immediately smiled to himself, and said in his heart: "Hundreds of martial artists, where can I live up to this sentence?" ”

The sky is blue and the spring sun is warm.

At the beginning of the year, this is the season when all things grow.

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