After all, Liu Chan is the blood and blood of the male lord Liu Bei, once he concentrates on doing one thing, he may not do worse than others. At least in terms of shooting, his progress is very obvious, and his performance is far stronger than Zhuge Qiao and Chen Yuan's two classmates.

After three or five lessons, Liu Chan's action of pulling the bow and pushing the string became more and more standard, and his strength gradually became sufficient.

Now he not only began to draw a six-bucket bow, but when he shot at a target thirty paces away, he could often shoot five arrows out of ten.

One day, Liu Bei quietly stood by and saw his beloved son practicing so intently, and he was very relieved and praised him greatly.

The father's appreciation is undoubtedly the best encouragement for the child. Liu Chan was ecstatic, and his daily practice became more diligent, and gradually became a virtuous cycle.

At the same time, after several contacts, Jiang Wei, Zhuge Qiao and Chen Yuan became more and more familiar. Most of the three of them are almost a few years old, and they have been together for a long time, and they are a lot less restrained. Several people even often play a few games of official and bandit games in their spare time.

******

As the day's archery class came to an end, Liu Chan hit seven out of ten shots in the final round, which was his best result ever.

He boasted that his archery skills had improved greatly, and on a whim he offered to shoot live prey.

Jiang Wei thought for a while, it was almost time for him to experience the results of the practice, and a strong sense of achievement in the stage has always been very necessary to consolidate his interest.

But after thinking about it, the Hanzhong Royal Mansion was no better than the countryside and forests, and in a hurry, he didn't know where to look for prey.

Although there are sheep, pigs and other living animals for food in the house, these large domestic animals are very important materials, and they are managed by special personnel, and they are not slaughtered every day; Moreover, if Liu Chan shoots these domestic animals in public and spreads them, it will inevitably hurt the name of the prince's benevolence.

Jiang Wei thought about it, but after all, it was difficult for the Qiao woman to cook without rice, so she had to tell Liu Chan about this doubt.

Liu Chan said with a smile: "The general is too worried, I have to eat a pigeon every day, I can order the cook to take a pigeon for me to practice archery, and if I shoot, I can eat it, and it is not wasted at all." ”

At that time, the status of poultry was much lower than that of animals, and it was very common for military generals to practice archery with birds, which did not violate the way of forgiveness.

Jiang Wei immediately nodded in agreement, and asked the guards to spread the word to the poultry keeper in the kitchen.

In the Han Dynasty, Zhou etiquette was followed, and there was usually a poultry keeper in the palace of the princes, who used to raise six birds for the main family's consumption.

The so-called six birds are geese, quails, eagles, pheasants, doves, pigeons, and pigeons are one of them.

After a while, a man in his thirties dressed in a short fight and carrying a basket of pigeons in his hand ran quickly in front of Liu Chan, bowed and saluted:

"Little Wen Xiu, I have seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and I have seen the rate of more orders."

Liu Bei was very generous to everyone in the house, so when the poultry keeper faced Liu Chan, although he was a little cowering, he was barely polite.

Liu Chan suddenly saw the arrival of the prey, his heart was happy, and he waved his hand to excuse him, and his eyes were already staring directly at the cage containing the pigeon in his hand.

I saw that this cage was made of bamboo, two feet square, and there were about ten pigeons of different colors and sizes in it.

The pigeon is timid in nature, and when it perceives someone approaching, it instinctively senses danger, cooing, and flapping its wings to dodge. It's just that the cage is small, where can they hide if they dodge?

Only a feather fluttered on the ground.

On the way here, the poultry keeper had already heard from the guards about the prince's plan to shoot pigeons.

He had the heart to please, so he stretched out his hand and pointed to a pigeon with a snow-white body and shiny feathers, and said with a sneer: "This pigeon is white and big, and it is the most eye-catching, can the prince like it?" ”

Liu Chan stared at it for a while, shook his head and said, "This one is too beautiful, I can't bear to kill it." ”

Wen Xiu pointed to a gray and thin pigeon again, and said, "This pigeon is ugly and thin, what does the prince think?" ”

Liu Chan looked at it, shook his head again, and said, "This one is too thin, wait until you get fattened before eating." ”

Wen Xiu picked a few in a row, but Liu Chan was not satisfied.

Jiang Wei noticed something strange from this, and his brows couldn't help frowning slightly.

He found a pigeon in the cage with a flat head and a body much larger than its kind. With a large body, a large target, and a lot of meat, it stands to reason that this is the best choice for practicing archery or cooking into dishes.

But Wen Xiu didn't choose it several times in a row, and sometimes deliberately pretended to turn a blind eye, as if he wanted to hide it deliberately.

"Could it be that there is something hidden in it?" His actions immediately attracted Jiang Wei's attention.

At this time, Liu Chan was already a little impatient, so he simply circled around the pigeon cage by himself. Finally, he still had some eyesight, pointed to the pigeon that Jiang Wei fancied, and said:

"This pigeon is fat, not only is it easy to shoot, but the meat is definitely fat, this is it!"

Jiang Wei could clearly see from the side, as soon as Liu Chan's words came out, Wen Xiu's body suddenly trembled, his face turned pale, and he was stunned in place.

But he did not dare to disobey the prince, so he had to open the door of the pigeon cage slightly, and then stretched out his right hand to probe in.

For some reason, his right hand trembled, and he couldn't touch a single feather of the pigeon even after several probes.

Liu Chan urged: "Take out this pigeon quickly, tie your legs with a rope, and see if I can shoot it!" ”

Hearing the prince's command, Wen Xiu didn't dare to be perfunctory, so he had to continue to probe again, and large beads of sweat were already oozing from his forehead.

After probing for a while, Wen Xiu suddenly withdrew his hand, knelt on the ground with a "plop", and kept kowtowing and begging:

"I beg the prince to raise his noble hand, don't choose this pigeon! Ask the prince to raise his noble hand......"

Liu Chan glanced at him and asked, "What, this is a pregnant pigeon?" ”

Wen Xiu shook his head and said, "It's not a pregnant pigeon. ”

Liu Chan was even more curious, and said curiously: "It's not a pregnant pigeon, why can't I choose it?" These pigeons are meant to be for me, right? ”

Wen Xiu's face was pale, his head was like garlic, and he was silent.

"Sure enough, there is a secret!"

A trace of doubt flashed in Jiang Wei's heart, and he suddenly said: "You are honest, the prince is a reasonable person, if you are reasonable, he may not be open." ”

Liu Chan nodded without thinking: "Yes, what I said is what I mean." ”

When Wen Xiu heard this, he had to stammer: "Just because... Just because this pigeon is very fun, the villain has kept pigeons for many years, and such pigeons are rare. “

"Fun?" When Liu Chan heard these two words, his eyes immediately lit up, and he asked, "How is it a good way to play?" “

Wen Xiu swallowed his saliva and said stubbornly: "One morning, the villain made a negligent mistake and went out to do things without closing the door of the pigeon cage, and actually taught a cage of pigeons to get away. I thought this cage of pigeons was ruined, but I didn't expect that in the evening, this one was found by itself......"

He said as he reached out to the fat pigeon in the cage.

The pigeon shook its neck and kept "cooing", but Jiang Wei was shocked and said in his heart: "Does the carrier pigeon have a prototype in this era?" ”

According to his understanding, the history of breeding pigeons in China is thousands of years, but most of them were meat pigeons and ornamental pigeons in the Qin and Han dynasties.

Although the pigeon has the characteristics of loving the nest, but it is not significant at this time, and it is also because of its wild and untamable nature, it is locked in a cage on weekdays, and it will not be released when it is idle, and most of the releases mean that it is lost.

It has been bred until the Sui and Tang dynasties, and some pigeon breeders deliberately select pigeons with serious nest love plots to cultivate and breed.

After several generations of breeding, they carry the descendants of this pigeon with them, and when something needs to be transmitted, they tie the letter to the pigeon's leg and release the pigeon, and the pigeon returns home to carry the message.

As a result, they also indirectly separated from the meat pigeon and the pigeons, a new strain - carrier pigeons.

However, hearing is false, seeing is believing, Jiang Wei couldn't help but be excited, and said to Wen Xiu:

"You give it a try, and if it is as you say, I will persuade the prince to spare his life." 
When Wen Xiu heard this, he hurriedly responded, and got up again to catch it.

At this point, his hands and feet finally became sharp, and he only probed and caught the big pigeon.

He held the pigeon to his chest, rubbed his nose against the pigeon's head twice, and raised his hand to the air.

The dove's paws kicked violently, spread its wings, and slid into the blue sky.

Liu Chan looked at the back of the pigeon in the distance, his heart was worried, and he asked: "This... And it flew away? ”

Wen Xiu bowed and said, "It flew out to play, and it will be back in a while." Please ask the prince and rate to make it clear at a glance at the poultry house. ”

The next one led the two to a poultry house hundreds of steps away.

As the name suggests, the poultry house is the place where birds are raised in the palace of the Hanzhong king. While waiting, Jiang Wei looked at it, and saw that in addition to the pigeons, he counted pheasants the most raised here, probably because these two kinds of poultry were the best to feed.

After waiting for about a cup of tea, the pigeon appeared in mid-air as promised, and it circled leisurely with its wings, making a "cooing" sound from time to time, but no matter how high it flew, it never left the range of the loft.

Wen Xiu explained: "Because there are outsiders here, it doesn't dare to come down. His Highness and the rate of the order may as well retreat into the house, it will soon return home. ”

Jiang Wei bowed slightly, and led Liu Chan to hide in a small room on the side.

Not too much, sure enough, the pigeon Shi Shiran fell, and then took the initiative to drill back into the cage.

Seeing this, Liu Chan laughed and said, "It's fun, it's really fun!" ”

Jiang Wei's heart moved, and he was already full of shock.

In the Three Kingdoms era, the transmission of news basically relied on feet and horses.

If the carrier pigeon can be born in advance, it means that the efficiency of key information transmission has been greatly improved.

Suppose that when the two sides are engaged in a general battle, it takes one side several days to convey the news in place, and the other side only needs one day to get the news in time, how will this change the situation on the battlefield?

It is inevitable that those who get the news first will take the initiative, and those who will be late will be beaten passively.

That alone is an inspiring discovery.

Admittedly, the arrival of this pigeon is not very common, and the distance it can master is not very far, and it is still a long way before it becomes a carrier pigeon.

However, the pigeon has a very strong reproductive ability, as long as the breed is selected well, and after the young birds are moulted, they are artificially trained - that is, along the pre-planned route, the training distance is increased in turn, and the carrier pigeons may not be able to appear in advance.

In this way, as long as the imperial court is willing to spend money, it will definitely be able to harvest a batch of reliable carrier pigeons that can be used to transmit military information in the next few years.

This time it's a crooked hit.

"This Wen Xiu is willing to disobey the prince's request in order to keep a pigeon, but he is also a pigeon lover......"

Jiang Wei was in a good mood, walked straight to Wen Xiu, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "After you get off duty, so-and-so is waiting for you in the duty room, you can come and go, so-and-so has a fortune to give you, it depends on whether you can take it." ”

After that, he laughed and led Liu Chan to leave, leaving only the confused Wen Xiu holding the pigeon cage and standing still.

He couldn't wait to record what he saw today, and then present it to Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.

Although Liu Chan followed his body out, he couldn't help but turn around and look at the pigeon, and said hurriedly: "Don't eat pigeons tonight?" ”

Jiang Wei smiled and said, "Let's eat pheasants tonight." ”

He looked at Liu Chan's somewhat lost face, and said in his heart: "In a few years, the imperial court will receive a militaristic weapon for nothing because of your unintentional actions..... You are really a blessed person! ”