"Ha Luha, speaking of this competition, the military academy is not held, otherwise the military academy will have to make a mess!" Xu Li's answer was obviously a little unexpected by Zhengde, and he was also in a hurry to ask at the moment, and after Xu Li's explanation, Zhengde understood the reason why the military academy held this mounted archery competition.

As the saying goes, "there is no first, there is no second", the instructors in the military academy are all elites selected from the various armies of the Ming Dynasty, and among the first batch of students in the military academy, they are either from the generals, or they are selected from the army.

Although private fights are not allowed in military schools, there have been many brawls in military schools in recent times, after all, so many males stay together, and there is no other place to vent their energy, which will naturally lead to internal fights, and even have a tendency to intensify.

Xu Li's experience in leading troops is very rich, and he knows that it is far from enough to rely on training to consume the energy of students and instructors, so he thought of a way to hold a cavalry and archery competition. Then show your true skills, compete on the field, whoever can win the first place will prove that you are better than others, and through this kind of competition, you can also dissipate the energy of these people, so as not to fight in private.

"Ha Lu Ha ~ Wei Guogong is really experienced, and he actually came up with such a way to bring the battle in the military academy to the surface, and this can also stimulate the wind of competition in the military academy, which is really a good way to count in one fell swoop!" After hearing this, Zhengde also said with a smile.

"Huh. In fact, this is not the first thing that the old man thought of. Instead, the old man looked through the military academy plan submitted by Governor Zhou. found that there are some military school management methods mentioned in it, including the idea of holding a military school sports meeting, the old man only made the decision to hold a competition according to Governor Zhou's reminder, and the mounted archery competition is only the first competition, and other comparisons will be held in the future, such as tactical drills, musket shooting, artillery skills, etc., after all, the military school is divided into different subjects, and everyone is good at it differently. You can't just rely on riding and shooting to separate up and down. Xu Li smiled again at this time.

"I see, Zhou Zhong did spend a lot of thought on the military school, and I also read his planning book carefully, and many of the ideas in it also make people feel bright, I have such a courtier to help, it is really my blessing to be Ming!" Zhengde heard Xu Li praise Zhou Chong, and felt even happier than he praised himself, after all, it is impossible for him to have children in this life, and there is only one younger brother like Zhou Chong, so he attaches great importance to this kind of flesh and blood affection.

Xu Li is also full of curiosity about Zhou Chong, a character full of miracles. Even when he was in Nanjing, he planned to visit Zhou Zhong at Shuangyu Port. It's a pity that he hasn't found a chance, and now that he has come to the capital, it is even more impossible to see Zhou Chong, so now he can only ask about Zhou Chong from Zhengde.

After the instructors and students in the military academy have had lunch, they began to come to the cavalry and archery competition field in twos and threes, and there are many people who participate in the competition this time, it is said that they account for more than half of the entire military academy personnel, after all, those generals will not say, most of them are from the border army, and the riding and archery is the most basic skill, as for the students, they are all from the family of generals, and they are all practicing martial arts since childhood, and the kung fu of riding and archery is also very good, plus these students are all young and vigorous, and they all think that Lao Tzu is the first in the world, so there will be so many people who sign up.

Because Zhengde was going to participate, he did not serve as a judge of the competition like Xu Li and Qiu Yue, but stood in the crowd at random to watch the game. The whole field of mounted archery is semi-circular, and a large target is placed in the center of the circle, and the participants of the competition gallop along the semi-circular track of the competition, and need to shoot all ten arrows in the quiver, and the one with the most wins.

Qiu Yue stood on the judging table and announced the rules of the game, immediately announced the start of the game, and then the first contestant who was drawn came on the field, this person is an ordinary middle-aged man about forty years old, and his appearance is also very ordinary, from his age, it can be judged that the other party must be an instructor, after all, the students are all young people under the age of eighteen.

I saw this middle-aged instructor riding a red healthy horse, holding a standard longbow in the army, first along the runway slowly, it seems to be adapting to the war horse under the step, and so on to have a feeling, this is the legs of the horse's belly, the horse immediately neighed and galloped along the runway, when the war horse ran to the direction opposite the target, I saw this middle-aged man who was not outstanding as lightning fast as a bow with a bow, and shot ten long arrows in the blink of an eye, even when the last arrow was off the string, The first arrow that shot out of the arc has not yet reached the target, so the stunt makes the people in the arena applaud loudly, after all, these people are experts, and they know the difficulty of doing this at a glance, and many people ask themselves if they can't do this.

"Woo Woo Woo ~" Ten long arrows hit the target almost in no particular order, and none of them missed the target, which once again made everyone on the field applaud loudly, and even Zhengde couldn't help but applaud together, although this first round of the game was the easiest, but it was not an easy task to hit all ten shots, at least Zhengde didn't have much confidence in himself.

As soon as the game opened, such a strong figure appeared, which naturally detonated the enthusiasm of the teachers and students of the military academy, and then the second and third contestants appeared one after another, one by one, and they also did their best, until the last contestant finished shooting, the first round of the competition ended, and only twenty-three of the participants were able to shoot ten shots, and the others were all eliminated, although this may not be fair, but the military academy is actually a small battlefield, so Xu Li is also using this method to let the cadets learn the first lesson on the battlefield, that is, cruelty and ruthlessness.

Next is the second race, this time the competition changed to another field, the track of the field is no longer a regular semicircle, but an irregular zigzag track, and the target is also fifteen steps farther than the first round, which is not only a test of the contestants' archery, but also a test of the contestants' riding skills.

The first to enter the hall was still the middle-aged instructor, this time he no longer spent time getting used to the horses, but just let the horses run quickly, when the horse speed reached the fastest, he once again used the ten arrows stunt just now, and the result was all hit again, attracting everyone on the field to applaud loudly, even Zhengde couldn't help but hit the name of this person, but Gu Da told him with a smile that this person was his fellow sect, named Gu Sanlie, an instructor selected from Ningxia, and now teaching in the cavalry department, In the past, when he was under Qiu Yue, he was a famous marksman, and once shot and killed two commanders of the other side in a row in the battle with the Mongols.

"Good! This person doesn't seem to be amazing, but his archery skills are like gods, and I think today's riding and archery champion is none other than this person! Zhengde also admired Gu Sanlie's riding and archery skills, and even made his own judgment prematurely.

The next contestants entered the competition accordingly, and this time the competition was much faster, after all, there were only twenty-three contestants. It is also worth mentioning that among the twenty-three contestants who entered the second round, except for one of the cadets, the other twenty-two were instructors in the military academy, which made the cadets who were not very convinced by the instructors a little frustrated, but as the game progressed, they quickly put that frustration behind them and began to cheer for the last cadet on the field, after all, whether the cadets can fight back a little face, but it all depends on the performance of the other party.

"Dayong, who is the only student who made it to the second round, why do I look at him a little familiar?" Zhengde pointed to the second student contestant and asked, this student looks fifteen or sixteen years old, he looks white and looks like a scholar, but his riding and archery skills are not inferior to anyone, even in the face of a strong enemy like Gu Sanlie, he still plays steadily, and the ten long arrows for the second time are still all hit.

"Your Majesty, how did you forget, this student's name is Xu Cheng, he is the grandson of Xu Laoguogong, and it is said that he is the most outstanding son of Wei Guogong's family, this time he was brought into the military academy by Xu Guogong, and he had also entered the palace with Wei Guogong to visit His Majesty!" Gu Da replied in a low voice, it is not easy to be the emperor's chamberlain, at least the memory must be stronger than others, otherwise the emperor will not know if he asks three questions, then it is impossible for him to get the emperor's favor.

"I see, my Wei Guogong's family style is rigorous, and the children and grandchildren who have been taught are all first-class talents, when I first saw this Xu Cheng, I thought that the Wei Guogong Mansion would produce a scholar, but I didn't expect it to be a young general with outstanding martial arts!" When Zhengde heard Gu Dayong's reminder, he also suddenly realized.

Originally, Zhengde thought that Gu Sanlie and Xu Cheng were good enough, but then he learned that there was a dragon and a crouching tiger in the army of the Ming Dynasty, and only three of the remaining twenty-one people missed the target and one arrow, and the remaining eighteen were promoted again.

After the second round of the game was completed, the third round of the game was not immediately held, after all, the contestants had already shot for two rounds and their physical strength had been consumed a lot, so Xu Li announced that he would rest for half an hour and wait until the contestants recovered their physical strength before proceeding to the next game. But what even Zhengde himself didn't expect was that it was the next game that made him meet a person who influenced his life. (To be continued......)