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"What is a dewy couple?" Tao Kuo asked in a low voice.

"It's like dew on the tip of grass, which exists only at night, and is dried by the sun as soon as it dawns, as if nothing had happened!" Li Xu thought about it for a while, and made an apt analogy with words that Tao Kuo could understand.

"Dew couple, this word is so beautiful, you Han people are smart, you can create such an interesting word!" Tao Kuo didn't feel the derogatory meaning in the words at all, and writhed his body in Li Xu's arms, fascinated by the word dew

That night, Li Xu shared his martial arts practice with the coppersmith with Xu Dayan. The coppersmith didn't ask him to keep it a secret, so he was happy to invite his best friends to study with him. Xu Dayan refused with a smile, and it wasn't until Li Xu invited him again and again that he explained in a low voice: "I have been practicing this man-enemy technique for ten years. It is more than enough to protect oneself on the battlefield, and if you want to make any big entries, I am afraid that you can't get it by looking for the master's guidance. And the strategy of ten thousand enemies, except for the moment, where can we find such a good opportunity! (Note 1)

Indeed, in addition to this Cypriot tribe, how could there be a general in the Central Plains who was willing to give his soldiers and horses to strangers at the beginning of the meeting? Li Xu instantly understood that the opportunity given to him and Xu Dayan by God was really rare, so he no longer forced the other party to learn martial arts. Xu Da saw that Li Xu was so generous, and he didn't hide his selfishness, so he pulled Li Xu to tell the truth he had recently realized through the comparison between actual military training and the ancient art of war. Li Xu was dizzy when he heard it, and his head was as big as a fight, but for the sake of his good friend's painstaking feelings, he memorized these experiences one by one and left them for future reference.

On the second day, Li Xu slept until the hour before getting up. When he rode to the door of the coppersmith's workshop, the coppersmith had just climbed out of the felt bag. The master and apprentice looked at each other and laughed, took a sip of warm wine, found two scimitars and continued to practice. As usual, it starts with a big split, one move and one dismantling move. As usual, Li Xu fell to the ground in less than one move, and then got up and swung his knife to fight again.

The coppersmith is easy-going, but the requirements for martial arts training are very strict, the coordination of the body, the angle of the moves, and the coordination of the pace all require Li Xu to be meticulous. High, low, medium, and flat, every possible angle of action has to be done dozens of times by Li Xu before he is willing to stop. After practicing for a whole morning, I barely practiced more than a dozen commonly used variations of the big split. Seeing that the voices of the people around him gradually rose, the coppersmith kicked Li Xu out of the house again.

Li Xu got up from the snow and returned to his felt bag happily. After taking Gan Luo to deal with the daily patrols, he continued to find an empty space where no one was shooting arrows and dancing knives. Tao Kuo took Gan Luo with him and came to see him several times a day. Seeing that Li Xu's face was not as gloomy as it used to be, the girl also felt that her heart was sweet, and she was happier than wearing some chic and beautiful clothes.

In the following days, going to the coppersmith's house to practice martial arts became Li Xu's first priority every morning. Tao Kuo took off the silk and followed it a few times, but he couldn't stand the kicking and beating of the coppersmith, and he was no longer willing to practice after one move. The coppersmith couldn't stand her standing next to Li Xu and distracted her, and taught her a set of sword dances with beautiful postures but no actual combat value for her to go home to figure out. Tao Kuo has something to do, so he no longer gets up early. Every once in a while, she took a long sword inlaid with precious stones and played in the snow, and the snow flew all over the sky, like a frosty sword, and with her long waterfall-like hair, it also made the onlookers look thrilled.

After more than two months, the scimitar in Li Xu's hand gradually became windy. The eight basic moves and all kinds of changes have been practiced, and the difference is just the heat. Although he can't escape the fate of being slapped with a knife, he can also deal with one or two faces. The coppersmith is experienced and knows that it will take time for Li Xu to have a greater entry, so he doesn't force him too hard. After practicing the basic moves and changes skillfully, he let Li Xu move from step to horse.

Immediately using a knife is another story. When stepping down, the whole body is coordinated, the pace is matched with the moves, and the thighs, waist pole and arms are exerted at the same time. And killing the enemy immediately, but entrusting the initiative of the body to the war horse. The speed and agility of the horse are the most important, and the man's movements should instead turn around to match the mount. The previous majestic movements such as sweeps and straight stabs rarely had a chance to be used, and several moves that relied on speed to kill the enemy, such as pumping, provoking, and diagonal slashing, have become mainstream. Dismantling the move again, the scimitar in the coppersmith's hand was wrapped in felt and dipped in cold water, so as not to take Li Xu's life if he couldn't hold it.

Li Xu rushed on his horse, the scimitar slashed into the air, and the two horses staggered, and the coppersmith used a felt soaked in water to shoot a stain on his back. He suddenly remembered that this trick was used by Xu Dayan when he sniped the scout that day, and he realized it, turned his horse's head and rushed back to try to surprise the coppersmith. As soon as the two horses approached, the scimitar in the coppersmith's hand swung a cold wind diagonally, and smashed it on his chest with a "poof".

"Ahh Li Xu shivered at the freezing of the ice water oozing from the felt, and ran out screaming. When he turned the horse's head in a daze, the coppersmith brandished a scimitar wrapped in felt and killed in front of him, slashing at Li Xu with a knife, and scolded: "Isn't it clear that the move is dead, and the person is alive?" There is no room for distraction when rushing to kill, and life and death can be decided in the blink of an eye. As long as you can hit the opponent, why do you care if he is pumping forward or backward! ”

Li Xu was beaten and fled, and ran a long way before he dared to go back to the horse to meet again. In the morning, I don't know how many knives I was hit, and even the war horse under my crotch was cut embarrassed, and every time I saw the coppersmith raise his hand, he rushed to both sides. The coppersmith saw that such a refining might not be effective, so he thought of an idea for Li Xu. Ordered him to find an open place and set up two rows of wooden stakes as high as the height of war horses, and tied a straw bag filled with sand to each stake, so that he could refine his attack accuracy and horse control ability. Li Xu went to the ground in disarray, practiced alone for two days, and came to the coppersmith again on the morning of the third day to dismantle the tricks, and sure enough, the frequency of beatings was greatly reduced.

The coppersmith fought him again, familiar with the basic movement requirements of the horse. After practicing for more than ten days, he ordered Li Xu to pull up the wooden stakes and rearrange them, and they were not allowed to be arranged in two straight rows, but staggered and buried in the shape of various infantry queues.

Li Xu did as he was ordered, and he was slowly able to shuttle his horse through the stake group, and he could swing a knife to cut open the straw bag in an instant without being rubbed by the stake. When the coppersmith saw this, he ordered him to remove the stakes and erect a dozen wooden frames of various heights on the open field. Each child hangs a straw bag full of dirt. Li Xu ran past the straw bag and slashed the straw bag with a wooden knife, but he wanted to avoid being hit by the straw bag that swung back.

This time it was much more difficult than dealing with a fixed target, and Li Xu dealt with it for another month before he barely got through it. In the more than three months that he had been practicing martial arts, Xu Dayan had no heart to think about how to bargain with Suotou Xi on the ransom of the prisoners, how to guide the Zhufei coalition army to drill the cavalry column attack, how to secretly set traps for the elders of other tribes to consolidate the control of the soldiers and horses for Su Sixier, and other major issues. Xu Dayan occasionally mentioned to him, with Li Xu's current scheming, he couldn't understand the mystery, let alone put forward any good and effective suggestions.

He is so focused on martial arts, and his progress in sword and horse riding and archery is naturally faster than that of ordinary people. At first, the coppersmith scolded him for being stupid, and later, the word "stupid" was already rewarded. The master and apprentice immediately faced each other, and it was no longer a knife wrapped in felt, so that it was a good time, and the other could go on the field with a scimitar with an open blade. The knives of the two people were wrapped in felt and soaked in cold water, and Li Xu was beaten to the ground and fled, but occasionally he could fight the risk of being cut to the point and create a surprise for the master. At this time, the coppersmith always scolded him for not knowing the severity of his shots, and he beat the old bones so that he could not work all day.

Li Xu went to pick up the sledgehammer for his master with an apologetic face, and the coppersmith who took advantage of him smiled again, praising him for his amazing strength and strong physical capital. He was advised to give himself a heavier scimitar to match his superior arm strength.

"If it's a peaceful year, with your figure and appearance, you can go to the emperor to raise the knife," the coppersmith said to Li Xu, who was blowing wind in the furnace, while grinding the mirrors for the women.

The ceremonial knife is the special honor guard of the emperor's patrol, which is long and gorgeous. The knife bearer is required to be tall and burly, so that he can hold the knife in the same position for several hours without moving. Li Xu didn't know whether the master praised his arm strength or scolded him for being stupid, he was pondering the vocabulary and sneering at each other, and then heard the coppersmith say: "It's a pity that your kid's beard has grown and broken, and he is only fifteen years old, and there are black hairs bulging out of his cheeks." Eat less beef in the future, or your beard will grow faster! ”

This is one of Li Xu's most troublesome things, scholars pay attention to "incorruptibility and beard", and the beard must be beautiful and sparse if it is long. But in the past few months, because he has eaten meat and drank wine every day, not only has his height obviously increased a lot, but the cold hairs on his face have gradually increased, and each one is thick and hard, which is enough to compare with the hardness on Ganluo's body.

"If it's long, it's long, you can't be a scholar anyway. Bearded and horse-dealers, plugging back and forth, not also happy! The coppersmith smiled and comforted the young man when he saw that he was covering his face and worried. He already knew why Li Xu came to Saiwai, and he was very sympathetic to the young man's suffering, but he didn't feel that there was anything to regret about losing his qualification to take the imperial examination.

"Being an official is more troublesome than training martial arts and fighting. If you practice martial arts, as long as you are willing to work hard, you will enter the country. If you fight, you can know the victory or defeat at a glance, and you can't prevaricate if you want to. The only way to be an official is not to rely on who has real skills, but who will please the boss. No matter how strong your skills are, you won't be able to shoot Sima's fart, and you won't get good results. slapped Sima Fart, bent over and was used to being a man, and it was inevitable that he would bend into a hunchback. When you have the opportunity to straighten your waist, you can't straighten up. When the master and apprentice were drinking, the coppersmith once instilled this in Li Xu.

Where could the young man who had just set foot in the red dust understand these incisive words, and listened hesitantly, but in his heart he remembered the majesty of the captain that day.

"That's not how the lance is used!" When Li Xu was holding a hammer and making a blind gesture, the coppersmith couldn't help but give advice. This weirdo's martial arts are very varied, from the common knives, lances, sticks, and spears to the uncommon thistle terrestris, sledgehammers, and maces, and he knows a little bit about everything. Once he took advantage of the wine to dance the sword, the movements were chic and neat, more elegant than Tao Kuo's silk dancing, if it weren't for the oil-stained fur on the other party's body, Li Xu would have suspected that he had met a legendary hidden immortal in the mountains.

"If the seniors are dancing with swords in the downtown area, I'm afraid that the women in the whole city will move their colorful sleeves lightly!" Following the coppersmith for so long, Li Xu has learned to be a little uninhibited, and said with a smile.