"Dare to ask who is the driver?" Chen Dong heard the man's words clearly, and said in a deep voice: "Although Liaoxia is strong, it is only competing for strength, and the prosperity of this dynasty is not for anything else, but the prosperity of morality, which is directly chasing the rule of three generations." ”

The middle-aged man replied with disdain on his face: "I am Guo Baoyi, the envoy of the Great Liao Kingdom, and the scholar calls me Lord Guo." He pointed to the Confucian who was shooting willows next to him and said, "I have been on a bow horse all my life, and my rhetoric is not as good as you scholars." But the scholar also learns archery, if you are not convinced, you can try the archery with me. ”

The Liao State standing beside him is making Yelu Dashi have a slight smile on his face, Guo Baoyi is a child of the Youyan Han family, rough on the outside, but cunning on the inside, he has always avoided the real and attacked the false, he is a person who compares his bow and horse with scholars and speaks with military men. "Since there is a dispute, we can only frustrate the spirit of these Confucian scholars of the Song Kingdom, and we must not fall into the prestige of the Great Liao State." Yelu Dashi secretly thought in his heart that this envoy was to ask the Song court to prohibit merchants from trading with the Jurchen Kingdom by sea, but the date of the court meeting was repeatedly postponed by Cai Jing, Zhao Zhifu and others, and he was secretly dissatisfied in his heart.

"I'm a big Song hero, I'm afraid you won't make it?" There are also quite a few good shooters among the students, who are provoked by the Liao people at the moment, where can they hold it, and they are all gearing up.

came to the venue for shooting willows and stood still, but listened to Guo Baoyi say: "The scene of willow shooting, only the girls are so close, and they should go back fifty steps." After speaking, he didn't wait for the student to agree, he took fifty steps back, took out a hard bow in his waist bag, and looked at everyone proudly.

This place is already a hundred paces away from the willow branches hanging in the distance, and although the soft bow can barely shoot this distance by projectile, it cannot be accurate, and can only be shot flat with a hard bow of more than two stones. Guo Baoyi carefully observed on the side, although there were some students who were good at archery, but the bow he held did not exceed two stones, so at this distance, he was already invincible.

The scholars should undertake to test the shooting art, but they can't regret it at the moment, Chen Dong frowned, suddenly remembered someone, hurriedly stood up, and shouted not far away: "Yuan Zhi, Zhao Xingde!" ”

Zhao Xingde gradually learned the way to fight horses, and won the praise of Li Ruoxue several times, and he was playing with great interest. Suddenly, I heard someone calling me, raised my head, and not far away, Chen Dong, Li Rui and others were looking here.

"It's a classmate of Taixue." Zhao Xingde explained. Chao Buzhi nodded, and Zhao Xingde only waved his hand to Chen Dong and the others, and did not get up. Li Ruoxue was engrossed in calculating the chess moves, and she didn't notice the bachelor next to her at all.

But seeing that Chen Dong had already rushed to the front, he gave Dr. Li a teacher-student salute, and he couldn't help but pull Zhao Xingde up, and said as he walked: "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, use it for a while." Zhao Xingde was taken to the venue for shooting willows by Zhang Er's confusion, Chen Dong had ordered someone to borrow a horse to go back to get the bow that Zhao Xingde was used to in Taixue, and pointed to the middle of the field and explained to him what happened.

The rules of shooting willows, the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom are different, the Great Song Dynasty shoots the willows, is to hang the willow branches in the air, to shoot down the willow leaves more wins. The willow branches in the distance have been tied with strings and gently swayed with the wind, and now since they are competing in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, they are naturally in accordance with the rules of the Great Song Dynasty.

The nearby gentry and common people heard that the Taixue scholars were going to shoot willows with the Liao people, and they all came to watch, and after a while, tens of thousands of people surrounded the venue. Not long after, the classmate who went to get the bow brought back several hard bows and several pots of arrows, Zhao Xingde stretched out his hand and pulled the bow, tried a few arrows, felt quite handy, looked at the Liao Guo Baoyi, and said in a deep voice: "Can you start?" ”

Guo Baoyi's heart moved slightly, he saw that Zhao Xingde's arrows shot effortlessly, he thought to himself that he had no chance of winning, bowed his head and whispered a few words to Yelu Dashi, Yelu Dashi nodded, Guo Baoyi said to Zhao Xingde: "My partner also wants to compete with you, we can't hold each other, and we don't give in, so please also send two of you to compete!" ”

The students who were watching from all sides were in an uproar, Chen Dong, Deng Su and other students looked at each other a few times, although there were many students with excellent archery, but only Zhao Xingde was the only one who could hold the three-stone strong bow. Although there are also soldiers of the forbidden army in the crowd watching the battle, one of these soldiers is not allowed to be on the stage, and the other is that the training of the forbidden army is sparse.

Everyone was undecided, but Guo Baoyi was proud, and said loudly: "The Southern Dynasty claims to be full of talents, and the face claims to be China, can it be said that even two people who shoot willows can't make up?" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard someone in the crowd say loudly: "It's just a Khitan minion, and he dares to be presumptuous in China, full of nonsense!" Guo Baoyi's face suddenly turned pale, since the chaos in Hanchang, in order to prevent the Han people from seizing power again, the Han generals and Hanchen have strong restrictions and discrimination, no matter how high they are, they always have to be lower than the Khitan and Xi officials.

Guo Baoyi raised his eyes to look at the crowd, only to see someone in the middle walking out slowly, stretched out his hand to pick up a hard bow next to the venue, pulled it twice, and said: "My Kande is just a puppet in Bianliang City, and I can't get used to seeing the arrogance of no one in your eyes today, so I will play with you." After that, he put down his bow, lifted the hem of his robe and tied it around his waist, and bowed to Zhao Xingde.

Zhao Xingde hurriedly returned the salute and looked at this person carefully, he was only about thirty years old, with a tall figure, sword eyebrows, and a calm bearing.

Yelu Dashi saw that Kant took out a dark wrench and put it on the thumb of his right hand, knowing that this person must be a master of archery, and secretly blamed Guo Baoyi for causing trouble, but at this time it was already a tiger riding a tiger, and it was a matter of prestige in the Great Liao Kingdom, so he stabilized his mind, took a hard bow, and stood on the white line.

It was the first time that the arrow hit a willow branch that swayed gently in the breeze, and Zhao Xingde felt a concerned gaze in the distance from the crowd watching him, so he raised his head and smiled in that direction and nodded. A hint of blush appeared on Li Ruoxue's face. Zhao Xingde imitated the Kangtian style, tied the hem of the robe around his waist, and tied all the loose sleeves and trouser legs tightly, his movements were much neater, and his figure also looked ape-armed and straight.

Guo Baoyi snorted coldly, bent his bow and arrow, grabbed people first, and shot out with an arrow, but unfortunately only brushed a willow leaf past, and a huge cheering sound broke out in the crowd, but his face was calm and unmoved. Next, Zhao Xingde and Yelu Dashi's first arrow also missed, and Kant walked to the place where he stood and shot the arrow, and he didn't see how he prepared calmly, so he put on the long arrow, slowly opened the bow, and before everyone could see it clearly, he swooped out an arrow, and the arrow seemed to be stained with a little willow leaf, and it flew over, and a huge sigh broke out in the crowd.

In the second round of archery, Guo Baoyi was much more cautious, several times full of bows, and put down, his eyes were firmly fixed on the willow branches that were constantly swinging with the wind not far away, the crowd was dissatisfied with his grinding, and kept drinking his inverted color, and some people shouted and sneered, this person ignored them, and his face was more calm, finally, when the willow branch stopped swinging for a while, he raised his bow and swished out an arrow, the arrow went straight through the small willow leaves with a strong wind, and the huge momentum tore the petiole off the soft willow branch, It snapped and nailed to the trunk of the tree in the back.

The audience fell silent, Zhao Xingde played in great anticipation, he carefully adjusted his breathing and heartbeat, and slowly pulled out the big bow, among the four people present, only he used a three-stone hard bow, and the other three all used a two-stone or two-and-a-half-stone bow. This is not because he is self-assured, but he is only used to using the three-stone bow. He calmed down, opened the bow, and after his arms were stable, he put his right hand down, and the arrow flew out, but because of a sudden gust of wind, the willow leaf turned slightly in a direction, and the leaf was cut open by a sharp arrow, and the arrow snapped into the trunk behind. According to the rules, such an arrow is not considered a shot. The crowd erupted in loud sighs again, but there were also people cheering loudly. When Zhao Xingde came on the court, Li Ruoxue watched the game with full attention, and only then did he exhale.

Yelu Dashi's face was grim, and like Guo Baoyi, he raised the big bow several times and put it down, and finally took advantage of the calm wind to shoot an arrow into the willow leaf. After the Kantian came on the field, he stood solemnly for a long time, and when the wind direction was right, he opened his bow and released arrows in one go, and also shot the willow leaves. Suddenly, the crowd erupted in loud cheers.

In the first twenty arrows, Guo Baoyi shot down eight willow leaves, Zhao Xingde shot six pieces, Yelu Dashi shot down nine pieces, and Kant shot down nine pieces. At this time, the wind suddenly stopped, the willow branches drooped quietly, and the hit rate of the four people shooting the willows improved, but until the last two rounds, Zhao Xingde and Kangde were still one arrow behind.

Guo Baoyi played again and shot down a willow leaf, Zhao Xingde went out with an arrow, but he flew out with the edge of the willow branch, far from the willow leaf, the crowd broke out again with a huge sigh, Li Ruoxue's eyes were full of worry, but Zhao Xingde was expressionless, carrying a bow and arrow, and then, Yelu Dashi and Kant were all shots.

The last arrow, Guo Baoyi waited for a long time as usual, and only then did he shoot an arrow, steadily nailing a willow leaf to the trunk of the tree, and he passed by Zhao Xingde's side with a sneer on his face.

Zhao Xingde was stunned, lifted his bow, put on an arrow, and did not trigger it. If you can shoot the most central section of the willow branch, with the strength of the three-stone bow, you can cut the willow branch in two, and even the slightest deviation, the soft willow branch will slide sideways, just like just now.

Zhao Xingde took a deep breath, only to feel that everything in heaven and earth turned into a cut of willow branches that swayed slightly in front of him, and his whole body was tense, as if he was one with the curved bow, and the tense bowstring seemed to be about to shoot out the straight arrow at any time. He was so focused that he could barely hear the sound of the bowstring, and his eyes followed the arrow as it flew forward.

Everyone held their breath, Li Ruoxue's heart almost stopped beating, the arrow with a strong wind, almost unceremoniously plunged into the middle of the willow branch, the crowd didn't have time to sigh, then saw that the willow branch was pulled by the arrow, and it was actually cut into two sections from the middle, and the lower section, with seven or eight leaves, fell softly to the ground, and what was still hanging in the air was only a bare willow branch.

Zhao Xingde exhaled lightly and put down his bow with an expressionless face. Suddenly, everyone forgot how to react, Li Ruoxue covered her mouth, and was almost about to shout excitedly. Guo Baoyi and Yelu Dashi looked at Zhao Xingde with incredulous eyes, the drama of shooting willows in Liao is to shoot willow branches, but willow branches are both flexible and tough, and they are not so easy to shoot at all, otherwise, they would have done this a long time ago. Kande looked at Zhao Xingde with a smile on his face.

"Long live the Great Song!" "Da Song!" "Da Song!"

Finally, the crowd that had been silent for a moment suddenly broke out, and the cheers were like thunder, at this moment, it seemed that it was not Qingming, but the excitement of the Lantern Festival night, and many people were desperately telling the people around them how he had predicted just now, and more people squeezed towards the middle, wanting to see clearly the Tai Bachelor who was the great Song Yangwei. The crown prince Zhao Ke stood far away from the crowd, looked at Zhao Xingde, who was constantly cheered and thrown up by the prince, and said with an appreciative smile: "Both civil and military, such as Si Haojie, I will get it." Guo Baoyi and Yelu Dashi, on the other hand, were bored with themselves and left quietly.

After a long time, Zhao Xingde finally squeezed out of the cheering crowd and returned to the Li family's camp, only to find that only Shizun Chao Buzhi was still in the local area, and the Li family left first because there were several female dependents, and now the scene was chaotic. Looking at Zhao Xingde, whose face was full of disappointment, Chao Buzhi's face was smiling, and Wen Yan asked: "Yuan Zhi, Uncle Wen values your character and talent, and intends to marry your beloved daughter to you, what do you think?" ”

When Zhao Xingde heard this, he was stunned for a moment, and only after a while did he come back to his senses, his heart was ecstatic, he fell to the ground, and said loudly: "I can't ask for it, the student thanked the teacher for it." Chao Buzhi laughed, stroked his beard, and was extremely proud of the accomplishment of this beautiful deed.

In an ox cart back to the city, Li Ruoxue was talking about the willow shooting just now, Li Ruoxue seemed to be too nervous and excited just now, her heart was beating too hard, so that she was a little painful now, she gently pressed her chest, thinking back to just now, a trace of sweetness appeared in her heart.