Chapter 5: Deer Hunting (Part I)

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 started with a big split, one move at a time, and after Li Xu was hit, he did it again. 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 cope with the daily patrols, he continued to find an empty space with no one to shoot arrows and dance 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 him again, slashing at Li Xu with the knife, and scolding: "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 to set up two rows of horse-high wooden stakes, tie a straw bag of sand to each stake, and 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. During the more than three months that he practiced martial arts, Xu Dayan had thought about how to bargain with Suotou Xi on the ransom of the prisoners, how to guide the Zhufei coalition army to drill the cavalry formation 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 it to him, and 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, otherwise 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, his height has obviously increased a lot, and the cold hairs on his face have gradually increased, and the roots are 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.

"This dance is not for anyone else!" The coppersmith drank wildly, and his face was full of youth and frivolity. Every time he drank with the young man to the point of being dazzled, he remembered the promise of the day and passed on some moves and formulas to Li Xu with a lance. The next day, when Li Xu took what he had learned on the first day and asked for advice, he forgot it again. The next time he was drunk, Li Xu took advantage of the alcohol to ask questions, and he changed the lance to a hammer and taught Li Xu a strong man to lead the army into battle, the strongest killing method. After teaching the hammer, he instructed Li Xu how to crack the hammer trick and take advantage of the wrestler. As for whether these tricks will be effective on the battlefield in the future, the coppersmith spread his hands and said frankly: "This is what I figured out when I was striking iron, and I don't know if it is good or not!" ”

When encountering such a "dark master", Li Xu had no choice. I had to concentrate my mind and strive to make a breakthrough in knife skills. The more you practice, the more uncomfortable the scimitar in your hand becomes, and some moves can obviously exert more power, but because the length and weight of the scimitar affect the effect of swinging. At this time, he had already had a first glimpse of the knife technique, and knew that all this was due to the mismatch between his arm strength, arm length, and scimitar weight. wanted to ask the coppersmith to help tailor a scimitar out, and the master and apprentice were busy for a long time, but they had to give up halfway because the quality of the finished product was too poor.

"The reason why the knife is bent is to ensure that the length of the blade is maximized at the same length of the blade. In this way, the power of the cavalry in the horse chopping and pumping can be brought into play. Most of the people who were slashed by a scimitar were not hacked to death, but had a wound that was too long and bleeding to death! Faced with a large number of unsuccessful knife blanks, the coppersmith summed it up.

"This length and width is the limit of the scimitar on the prairie, and if you want to break through, the center of gravity, weight, balance and strength have to be reconsidered. With my craft, I don't think I can do it with ordinary fine iron. It should be possible to find star iron, but you can't make up so many star iron in three and five years! After another failed attempt, the coppersmith said with some frustration.

In terms of collecting materials for knife fighting, Li Xu is not as pessimistic as a coppersmith. After the news that he wanted to fight a scimitar was known to several friends, the archer Ah Silan, Dur, who had only one arm left, and the wild girls Tao Kuotuosi, E Ru and others all agreed to help. The five-month winter on the grasslands is coming to an end, and the snow on the ground is already melting. After the ice and snow are gone, even if everyone walks all over the grassland, they have to make up a scimitar for Li Xu.

"The snow melts right away!" One evening in the felt tent, Xu Dayan had a leisure moment for the first time in several months, sipping milk tea like a man, and said to Li Xu.

"Hmm!" Li Xu's mind was still immersed in the few sword techniques he had newly comprehended during the day, and he didn't reflect it for a while, and responded vaguely.

"Tomorrow you don't go to help the coppersmith make iron, slow down your strength. Early the day after tomorrow, let's lead the army and set off! Xu Dayan took another sip of tea, closed his eyes, and whispered as if he was intoxicated by the taste.

"Go?" Li Xu paused for a moment, "Go up!" ”

"Xi Bu?!" Without waiting for Xu Dayan to answer, Li Xu asked in surprise.

"Hmm!" Xu Dayan closed his eyes and made a dream-like sound.

The snow had begun to melt, and in the middle of the night, the sound of ice cubes outside the felt tent falling to the ground was staggered. On the muddy ground, Ganluo, who had unconsciously grown into the size of a family dog, let out a loud howl at the full moon in the sky. "Whew--"

"Huh--" The wild wolves nearby harmonized with each other, and in an instant, the entire grassland was awakened from sleep by the howl of wolves.

Note 1: One enemy refers to martial arts. Ten thousand enemies, refers to the art of war. Seen in the Historical Records. Xiang Yu Benji》