After a great victory, Tokiwa was excited. That evening, they celebrated in the camp. Although Yu Qiuping forbade drinking in the army, Ogawa Yuto and others protested for a long time, but it did not affect the ashigaru people who were eating around the bonfire while boasting about their military exploits. And Fukushima Yasunari, as usual, leaned against a big tree not far away, happily watching the brothers brag.

After Yoshioka Katsumasa devoured a few bites of food, he raised his chopsticks high, cleared his throat and was about to speak. Seeing this opportunity, Mimasaki Nakahide suddenly shouted, "Listen, everyone, listen!" The brainless one is going to brag about how good he is! ”

"you!" Yoshioka Katsumasa immediately scolded in annoyance, "I'm different from your kind of play, I know it in my heart!" Although I am also working hard today, the first credit must be our iron artillery team, and it is our Jing family brothers! ”

"That's right, the Jing family is indeed worthy of the honor of a meritorious service." The water atom meridian is also on the side to help the cavity.

"That salvo at the beginning! Directly blinded the other side! As he spoke, Yoshioka Katsumasa excitedly began to wave his arms: "I immediately seized that opportunity and slammed it!" ”

"And the later one," Anayama Nobushi added, "that salvo directly killed the commander of the horse on the other side!" The sound of the salvo also startled the horses on the opposite side! It caused a big mess in their formation, which gave us such a good hedging opportunity! ”

"This time it's definitely yours!" Ogawa Yuto sat next to Kitabatake's family, and patted Kitabatake's shoulder heavily as he spoke, "Go back, you kid want to invite everyone to drink!" ”

"Definitely! Certain! Kitabatake Keijia replied again and again, waving his hand embarrassedly: "Everyone is really a prize!" We iron gunners don't behave well, and I'm sorry for the amount of money Your Highness spent on us! ”

"No awards! The Iron Artillery Team is really powerful today! Mimasaki Nakahide laughed and said, "With you, I won't panic in the future!" ”

"Well, if I say, this time it will be our Highness who is far-sighted." Maeda Keiji, who was sitting at the far end, saw that everyone was almost discussed, so he took a slow puff of cigarette and said slowly: "Before, if it weren't for the fact that His Royal Highness had spent a lot of money to buy iron cannons and did not hesitate to spend money on training, how could it have today's effect?" Have you forgotten how fiercely you objected at the time? And our foreigner brother, didn't they all quarrel with His Highness? ”

"It's also hahahaha..."Akayama Faithfulness smiled embarrassedly. He looked around and suddenly asked a little strangely, "By the way, what about our foreigner brother?" ”

·

At this time, Charlie was standing alone in the temporary warehouse in the barracks. He carried on his back the longbow and a quiver that had accompanied him through many years of ups and downs, but his eyes were fixed on the 20 iron cannons on the table in the warehouse by the hazy moonlight.

He saw with his own eyes the role these iron cannons play on today's battlefield. It can be said that almost completely outperformed the performance of the bow and arrow. He is an extremely self-respecting man, and he has an almost obsessive love for bows and arrows. When he began to realize that his beloved bow and arrow was being surpassed by the power of this "utilitarian and ingenious" thing, the pain in his heart was indescribable.

I have worked hard to practice bows and arrows for more than ten years, and I have not been delayed for a day since I can remember. In the end, on the battlefield, it is not comparable to the musketeers who have achieved it in dozens of days.

"Why can't I practice archery so hard?" Charlie muttered to himself subconsciously. As soon as the words came out, this familiar sentence suddenly drilled into his heart, evoking a memory that he did not want to remember.

At that time, he also asked this sentence: "Why is it that even if I practice archery so hard, I still can't do it?" Although the context and situation were irrelevant to the present, the memory still ran out disobediently.

·

That was almost 7 years ago, when he was still a teenager. He was born into the Charles family, which was part of Britain's Royal Longbowmen and served in the army for generations. And everyone in the family was proud to be able to fight for the king with a longbow in hand.

Charlie's father, Clay Charlie, was a well-known longbowman in London. His arrows were not as powerful, but they were unusually accurate. He could hit a heart from 300 metres away – something that few people in the whole of Britain could do. From a young age, Charlie has always aimed at his father, hoping to one day surpass his father and become Britain's number one longbowman - this is his dream. He also wanted to wear his future armor with a sash from his father, given by the king himself, a symbol of the most powerful longbowman.

It is precisely because of this obsession that since he can remember, he has spent all his time practicing archery every day, except for eating, sleeping and learning the art of war. When other children slept in, he was practicing archery; When other children were chasing and fighting, he was practicing archery; While other children were playing the game of playing the general, he was still practicing archery. While other children were enjoying family fun with their parents and siblings, he was still practicing archery. Practice until you sweat, until you can no longer pull the bowstring with your hands, and until you can't see the target clearly. He only practiced archery in his life, and the words he had spoken to his family and friends in the past year probably did not exceed 3,000 sentences, so that his English was a little rusty.

It is by virtue of this diligence and hard work that Charlie's archery skills far surpass those of all his peers, and even make many of his uncles and uncles sigh at themselves. Everyone lamented that old Charlie would be a great longbowman in the future, but Charlie was not satisfied. He tried to catch up with his father, but he never succeeded.

When he was 13 years old, the talented Charlie began to challenge the arrow target 300 meters away. After a month of practice, he was soon able to shoot the third or even second ring outside the red circle. However, his progress ended there. For the next four years, no matter how hard and hard he trained, he never shot a single red circle – but his father could hit the red circle with every arrow.

The distance of 300 meters is too far for the naked eye, and the position of the red circle cannot be seen at all, so it can only be estimated by relying on large arrow targets. Such a long distance can only be obtained by projectile, so the angle of the parabola and the grasp of the wind speed require 100% accuracy. And even if you do, the force of the bow and arrow is still very difficult to control. Charlie couldn't understand why his father could be so accurate. So, on the day of his 17th birthday, he approached his father and asked his question:

"Why can't I practice archery so hard?"

Old Charlie glanced at his unsociable, taciturn son, but a slight smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Thompson, because there is no emotion in your arrows." Old Charlie laughed, "It's not something you can achieve with training alone. If you want to be a good longbowman, you have to pour your feelings into every arrow you shoot. ”

"I don't understand what you're saying." Charlie shook his head indifferently.

"Okay, but that's not going to happen for a while. The day you understand, you'll shoot hearts. Old Charlie smiled lovingly, "It's your birthday, your two brothers have come back from Manchester to celebrate for you, and your mother has made turkey, so let's have dinner together in the evening?" ”

"No need, father." Charlie shook his head resolutely. Since he was 10 years old, his dinner has always been a sandwich with him and he has never eaten with his family. Because it takes too much time to eat a good dinner, he doesn't have a chance to practice archery for a while before sunset.

Old Charlie was stunned, and his lips squirmed slightly.

"Let's have a meal." He pleaded in a very soft voice, so light that Charlie felt a little surprised, "The whole family is waiting for you." ”

"No, father." Charlie still shook his head, "I didn't practice enough today. ”

With that, he turned and walked towards the shooting range. Since his father was reluctant to tell him the trick, he had to practice it himself.

·

To this day, Charlie still doesn't know whether he should be glad or regretful that he didn't come home for dinner.

That same night, the King's guards stormed Charles' home and executed all of Charles' relatives on the grounds of being "heretics." Several of Charlie Sr.'s subordinates and friends hurried to the shooting range, and fled with Charlie, who knew nothing. They took advantage of the dark moonlight to run all the way to the harbor and sent Charlie to a merchant ship that was about to go to sea, so that he could escape.

"Your father is a wonderful and good man, Thompson," said Uncle Stephen, a lifelong friend of his father's life, to a tearful Charlie before parting, "You must be a longbowman like your father." ”

·

"Father, he's a fool." The picture of that year resurfaced in front of him, and Charlie still couldn't stop the tears in his eyes, and he didn't know how many times he secretly sobbed alone.

The ruler of England at that time was Queen Mary. As a devout Catholic, she rejected the persecution of the Puritans. Old Charles was also a Puritan, and there were many soldiers like him who did not practice Catholicism. Although Mary was crazy, she was not enough to attack her own soldiers, so she turned a blind eye to them. Most of the soldiers, knowing it in their hearts, could only watch in silence as the Puritans were subjected to all kinds of torture.

But old Charlie couldn't stand it.

He has always been a nice guy and a helpful heartfelt. On the battlefield, he always fights in the most dangerous places and will never abandon the life of any of his comrades. In life, he was a gentleman who cared for the people of his domain. Charlie felt that his father's love for his subordinates, companions, and subjects was no less than his love for his family. As a result, he also had a good reputation among soldiers and lords.

It was this good reputation that hurt him.

A dozen Puritans in his realm were wanted by Mary, and in a hurry they ran to their kindest lord for help. Old Charlie had long been dissatisfied with such religious persecution, and immediately declared that he had sheltered them. When the Queen's guards came to fetch them, he rebuked them in a righteous and angry manner, drove them back, and protected the dozen or so Puritans—but also risked the lives of the whole family. Upon learning that her authority had been offended, Queen Mary immediately decided to make an example of her, sending her guard to kill the decorated longbowman and his family on the spot, as he had let a dozen innocent people go.

"Why be a good person? Why meddle? Thinking of this, Charlie's Adam's apple squirmed violently, and hot tears kept sliding down his face, "Grandmother, mother, brothers, brother and sister... All of them are gone. ”

Since then, Charlie has decided not to hold any emotions again. An inexplicable heart drove him to practice arrows harder and harder. He doesn't deal with others, he only has his archery skills in his heart. He seems to want to prove to his father that even if he is not a good person, even if there is no emotion in the arrow, he can catch up with his father's archery skills by training day after day! In this way, I came to demonstrate to the father who brought death to the whole family because of his kindness!

Until he meets another idiot. a teenager who is willing to give his possessions to buy chickens for the poor slave family they meet for the first time; a teenager who rushes into the enemy army alone in order to deliver letters to these slaves; A young man who is willing to use his own military rations to help the other party's people. And the stupid guy who hitched a ride on the army in order to save the innocent people who had nothing to do with him - how similar he was to his father.

Charlie can't help but be attracted to Yu Qiuping and is willing to die for him - because he is very similar to Charlie's most resentful father. This ambivalence always haunts him in the dead of night.

·

At this moment, for some reason, Charlie doubted for the first time that he had adhered to the creed he had adhered to for so many years: if you train hard, you will definitely be able to practice archery skills that surpass your father.

Pour your feelings into the arrow... What does that mean exactly?