On this day, he came back early, just in time for a person to walk in with two buckets full of water, it was none other than Shu Yan.

Shu Yan poured the water into the water tank and said with a smile: "Your house is too far away from the well, you are so old, and you have bad legs and feet, it must be too difficult to pick such a heavy water, so I will help you pick it." ”

The corners of Old Donald's mouth twitched twice, "I'll just say, it must be you Shu Xiaolang, it can't be my uncompetitive son." ”

"Father-in-law Tang, I'm not a son, you better call me Yan'er." Shu Yan put away the flat pole and the bucket, "Your son ......"

"Well, forget it, don't mention him." The old man sighed and opened the door of the house, "Shu Xiaolang, let's sit in the house." ”

Shu Yan went in and looked around, there was only a simple furnishing in the house, and there was no one else. Although the old man had just mentioned his son, he noticed that the old man seemed to live alone.

"Shu Xiaolang, I, Tang Bi, have lived for such an age, but I have never met such a good person as you."

Shu Yan hurriedly said modestly: "Where is it, I'm just resting on the day, nothing to do, just help you pick up a few loads of water, a little effort!" ”

"It's more than a few loads of water! And what's more! It snowed heavily that year, and you arrived home an hour or two late in order to send me home, and your grandfather was thinking about you and went out to visit, so he pulled out his leg and broke it, and it was not good to die. ”

Shu Yan hurriedly said: "No, no, my grandfather is old and accidentally fell, it has nothing to do with you." Hey, Grandpa Tang, how do you know this? Also know that my grandfather died? ”

"You are now famous and all of you, no one knows about you, no one knows! It's just one thing that no one else knows, and you lied to me! ”

"What? Wouldn't I, I lied to you? Shu Yan asked in surprise.

Tang Bi said: "How could it not? In the year of Pingwu, our Ruyin minister asked for the labor army, so he sent all the things we sold in the west market to the bureau for the use of the labor army, and said that he would pay according to the original price, but he only gave 30%. And you helped me get the thirty percent of the money, but seeing that I was old and pitiful, and it was not easy to sell some pigs, you put up the money you used to sell firewood, made up the original number, and lied to me that it was the money given by the department at the original price, wasn't it? ”

Shu Yan smiled: "You know this, too?" ”

"I don't know anything! I also know that although you are familiar with the Five Classics, among the six arts, you are only proficient in the three arts of ritual, calligraphy, and mathematics, but you are not proficient in archery, music, and royalty. The ancients said that a gentleman should pass through the "Five Classics" and run through the six arts, and you are only short of three arts, you must be depressed in your heart, but you can't get it. Today, I am old and talented, I think you are a true gentleman, and I am willing to help you shoot and enjoy the arts. ”

Before Shu Yan could react, Tang Bi bent down and took out a bow and a pot of arrows under the bed, and handed the bow to Shu Yan. Shu Yan took it in his hand and saw that it was a dark iron hard bow, not to mention pulling, it was a little overwhelming just to hold it.

"Lala, look."

Shu Yan spread his legs apart, stood up, and pulled his arms hard, but only half of them were pulled apart. He secretly thought: I Shu Yan is already weak, I cut firewood and plough the fields on weekdays, and I think I have some strength, why is this bow not satisfied? After thinking about it, he let go of his hand, took a big breath, gritted his teeth, and pulled his arms with all his strength, but he only pulled seventy percent.

Tang Bi smiled after seeing it: "Hahahaha, let me come!" ”

Shu Yan handed the bow to Tang Gonggong's hand, and the old man stood firmly with his feet back and forth, and as soon as his arms were forced, he shouted "open", and pulled the hard bow into a full circle.

Shu Yan couldn't help but applaud in surprise, and said, "A hard bow that a sturdy young man like me can't pull, how can you open it at such an old age?" ”

Tang Bi let go of the bow, his face was not red, and his heart was not beating, "Although I am old and show people with an old dragon clock, my strength is not inferior to that of you young people. ”

Shu Yan was not only surprised by the old man's strength, but he was even more puzzled by the old man's identity, "But you, how can you sell Zhu Ling's ......?" ”

Tang Bi put down his bow and explained: "Actually, when I was young, I didn't sell Zhu Ling, but like your grandfather, I was a courtier of the previous dynasty, but we didn't know each other, but I heard of your grandfather's reputation. I have followed the first emperor to fight in the south and the north for many years, and I have been fighting and killing all my life, and the battle has not been over, and I don't know who is right and who is wrong, and who should crusade against whom. It wasn't until I destroyed Xishu that I returned to my hometown. There is only one son in the family, and I also taught him martial arts and got a job for him, but he didn't fight. Later, I didn't care about him, let him go, and made a living by selling pigs. ”

"With this hard bow, it is not an ordinary person's thing, Grandpa Tang must be a general?"

Tang Bi smiled: "What kind of general!" It's just a small captain, but my bow is the envy of even generals. ”

Shu Yan took the bow in his hand and couldn't help admiring: "Well, it is indeed a good bow." ”

"Let's go, we can't open here, let's go to the south of the city, there is a racetrack, the family has moved to Luoyang, and now it's idle and no one is using it, so we'll go there to practice archery."

"Okay." Shu Yan picked up the quiver on his back, carried a hard bow, and went to the south of the city with his father-in-law Tang.

Today, Father-in-law Tang and Weekdays are like two people, although they still walk with bent legs, but they walk with a breeze, walking fast and steadily. Shu Yan followed all the way quickly, and when he arrived in the north of the city, Shu Yan was already sweating slightly, but Tang's father-in-law did not change his face and his heart did not beat, and he did not have the same state as when he sold Zhu Ling, thinking that he was really young at the beginning, and he couldn't see that this was a master at all. The two walked into the racecourse, Shu Yan saw that it was the racetrack of Shi De's family, a large one, hundreds of acres in size, the surrounding of the racecourse is planted with tall trees, and there are several arrow targets in the center of the racecourse, which can be seen that this is both a racecourse and an archery field. He couldn't help but sigh for Shi De: he had such good conditions, he had never seen him practice horse running and archery.

The two of them stood up from the bull's-eye, Tang Bi said: "Yan'er, archery should first pay attention to posture, when shooting, the feet should not be together, but should be separated left and right, the body is sideways to the bull's-eye, do not hold up the chest, do not shrink the neck." It's easier to pull a normal bow, but when you pull a hard bow, you need to use force on your waist. If you want to shoot at a distant target, the arrow should be tilted upwards and at the same time the hind legs should be bent so that you can shoot farther. Of course, the purpose of learning archery is to learn a skill and strengthen your body, not to fight, so you can not do it. ”

Shu Yan stood up according to Gonggong Tang's instructions, and with a force on his arms and waist, he really pulled this hard bow to the fullest. Shu Yan let go of his bow and saluted the old man, "Thank you father-in-law for your advice." ”

Tang Bi said: "Since you have drawn the bow, we have begun to practice archery, in fact, there are five techniques for archery, Yan'er, do you know which five are they?" ”

Shu Yan pondered: "Before, I also heard my grandfather say that the ancients paid attention to the five techniques of archery 'white arrow, ginseng, note, ruler, and well', but they didn't understand their meaning, let alone practice. ”

Tang Bi nodded: "Well, it's these five techniques." I'll tell you what these five techniques mean, and then we'll practice. White arrow, that is, the arrow shot has a strong penetrating power, penetrating the target, the arrow is white, this method pays attention to the strength; Participating in the connection, that is, the first arrow is shot, followed by the second arrow, and then the third arrow, these arrows are shot continuously, such as the shape of a bead, this method is fast and coherent; Note, that is, the eye is accurate, the arrow is put on the string, instantaneous aiming, instantaneous issuance, instantaneous hit, this method is fast and accurate; Xiang ruler, that is, to shoot arrows with others, one foot back, to show humility, this method is about humility; The last kind of well instrument is four arrows in a row, which hits one after another in the shape of a tic-tac-toe, and this method pays attention to comprehensive skills. ”

Shu Yan smacked his tongue again and again: "Oh, I thought that archery only needs to be shot accurately, but it turns out that there are still these techniques in archery!" It's really beneficial, and it's okay to die at night. ”

Tang Bi took the bow, pulled out an arrow from the quiver, and said, "Needless to say, if you want to practice these five techniques well, you have to put in a lot of work!" ”

"Okay, Grandpa Tang, I'll work hard."

Shu Yan took the arrow and took a look, the shaft of this arrow was made of hard birch, with an iron arrow cluster nested at the top, and a section of iron rod extended behind the arrow cluster to increase the weight, the birch arrow shaft was sleeved on it, and the tail was followed by a few eagle feathers. Although Shu Yan didn't know how to shoot arrows, he could also see that this arrow was obviously longer than ordinary arrows.

Tang Bi put the arrow on the bow and said, "The bow must be hard, and the arrow must be long." A hard bow should be equipped with heavy arrows, so that with this combination, the power of the arrows can be several times that of the enemy. ”

Shu Yan couldn't help nodding.

"Yan'er, look at it!"

Shu Yan looked at the arrow target, which was a hundred steps away from where they were standing now. I saw that Tang Gonggong drew the bow full, and with a "whoosh" sound, the arrow left the string with a strong wind, and hit the target a hundred steps away. Before Shu Yan had time to admire, there were three more "whooshing" sounds in his ears, and three arrows flew out one after another, and the four arrows were firmly fixed in the bull's-eye in a tic-tac-toe shape.

Shu Yan was stunned for a moment, he thought that the five techniques of archery that the ancients talked about were just exaggerated words by the ancients, especially the method of Jingyi, which would never be done by anyone, who would have thought that someone could really do it, and this person was still an old man with gray hair. If you are an ordinary person, even if you are a young person, no matter whether the arrow is accurate or not, I am afraid that you will not be able to pull the bow four times in a moment, and then look at Gonggong Tang, smiling slightly, and his demeanor is calm.

"Why don't you pull out the arrows yet!"

A sentence reminded Shu Yan who was stunned, and he hurriedly ran to pull out the four arrows and put them back into the quiver, and then Gonggong Tang handed him the bow and said, "Today, we will start with the white arrow." ”

Since then, Shu Yan has come to practice archery with Tang Gonggong whenever he has time. In the past few months, except for Jing Yi, who is still slightly lacking, the rest of the archery skills have been mastered.