Long Shaoyang woke up the next day, saw that the sky outside the window was already bright, and remembered in a daze that he slept very late last night, and was busy getting up to wash. walked to the gate of the courtyard at the moment, took the reins from Cheng Bo's hand with a smile, stepped on the horse's back, beat the horse and whipped straight to the East Palace.

This time it was not the first time, it was a light car, and after a while, he came to the Sogo Gate of the East Palace.

Long Shaoyang turned over and dismounted, and before he could take out the golden token, he saw an inner servant walking out quickly, stepped forward, bowed and said, "Lord Long, please, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is already waiting for your lord in the Mingde Palace." "It was the eunuch who came to Xiao Mansion last night to give the order.

Long Shaoyang smiled and nodded, hearing that the crown prince Xiao Minglong was already waiting in the Mingde Palace, it was inconvenient to slack off at the moment, handed over the reins to the eunuch, and walked quickly towards the Mingde Palace.

A burst of corridors passed through the garden, and a tall golden temple stood impressively.

Long Shaoyang climbed the steps, went straight to the palace door, walked to the door, there were already two guards pushed open the palace door, he raised his feet into the hall, only to see the prince Xiao Minglong sitting in the main hall, brocade clothes and jade belts, looking at himself with a smile.

There were more than a dozen seats arranged in an arc on both sides, only the first one was empty, and the rest were filled with people of different ages.

At a glance, some of them have pale sideburns, they have reached the sixtieth birthday, and some have beards under their chins, they are in the prime of life, and they are wearing official clothes, and one of them is the master of the Xiao Mansion - the prince Zhan Shi Xiao Di.

Everyone was talking about each other, and when they saw him enter the hall, they suddenly stopped talking together, and their eyes followed suit.

Xiao Minglong smiled: "Brother Long, sit here, we will wait for you here for a while." With a wave of his left hand, he motioned for him to sit in the empty seat on his left head.

When Long Shaoyang saw this formation, he was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood that the crown prince Xiao Minglong was deliberately introducing himself to the officials of the East Palace, so hard to show the officials his status in the eyes of the prince. At that moment, he hurriedly bowed and saluted: "Weichen Long Shaoyang has seen His Royal Highness the Prince!"

Xiao Minglong hurriedly stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Brother Long doesn't have to be polite, please take a seat!"

After Long Shaoyang sat down, Xiao Minglong looked around at the people in the hall and said, "Everyone, this is the eldest brother of Long Shaoyang who this palace just mentioned to you." The resettlement of displaced people in the two states of the Qin Dynasty was all due to the fact that Brother Long and others were not afraid of dangers and obstacles, and they worked hard to achieve it. Your Majesty Long Xin is very happy, and he has made a will, and Brother Long will be the left guard of the East Palace from now on!"

Long Shaoyang hurriedly stood up, shook his head, and said: "Shaoyang Sansheng is fortunate to be able to serve His Royal Highness the Prince, and he will be an official in the same dynasty with you in the future.

Everyone hurriedly returned the salute, responded with greetings, and shouted.

Xiao Minglong said with a smile: "Brother Long, I'm afraid that except for Brother Di, the rest of these people won't be recognized by you, so I'll introduce you here." ”

At the moment, in addition to Zhan Shi, from the three divisions and three young masters, the door doctor, the concubine, the horse washer, to the prince's rate change, family order, Zhongdun, etc., introduced one by one, Long Shaoyang smiled and saluted, for a while, but where did he remember clearly?

Seeing the people in the hall together, Xiao Minglong continued: "Brother Long, there is still one person left in this hall today, just because he is responsible and can't leave without permission, so we have to move there." ”

Long Shaoyang pondered for a moment and said, "Your Highness, I don't know if this person is the crown prince's right guard and General Gu?" ”

When Xiao Minglong saw that he had guessed it, he immediately smiled, nodded, stood up, and motioned for him to follow him. The two of them walked towards the entrance of the hall one after the other.

Everyone got up one after another and rushed out of the temple gate.

The East Palace is located in the east of Los Angeles and adjacent to the imperial city in the west, showing a pattern of long from north to south and narrow from east to west. There is a main gate in the north and south, a Sogo gate and an arch gate. Out of the Gongchen Gate, there is a city within a city, called Yaoyi City, this city is square and wide, for the East Palace guards to be stationed and trained daily. The right guard rate of the prince mentioned in Long Shaoyang's mouth is on duty here.

The group walked out of the Mingde Hall and headed north, and along the way, the palace maids and attendants bowed down one after another, needless to say. Everyone wore flowers through willows, walked through a long road, stepped on the main road of bluestone slabs, and came to two vermilion wooden doors.

Long Shaoyang looked up, only to see that there were three big characters written on it, the font was neat, solemn and atmospheric, and he knew that he had arrived at the north gate of the East Palace.

While watching, I suddenly heard the soldier guarding the door exclaim: "It turned out that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was coming." He bowed, turned and ran inward.

After a moment, I saw a person wearing iron armor, running straight from a distance, and the cloak behind him fluttered in the wind, which was very cool.

Long Shaoyang looked at it flatly, it was the crown prince's right guard who came to escort General Gu on the night of Shangyuan a few months ago. He was followed by a dozen soldiers, all of whom were well dressed and full of spirit.

I saw him running a few feet in front of everyone, changing from running to walking, quickly stepped forward, knelt on his right knee, and arched his hand: "I don't know that His Royal Highness the Prince is here in person, and Weichen has missed the distance, and I hope to forgive my sins!"

Xiao Minglong smiled and waved his hand, signaling him to get up without being polite, turned around, and said, "Brother Long, this is my side, the crown prince's right guard who I mentioned to you, led General Gu Yungu—you have met before. ”

Long Shaoyang hurriedly took a step forward, bowed his hand, and said: "Shaoyang has seen General Gu! I heard the name of the general earlier, like thunder, and when I saw it today, I am really fortunate to have three lives!"

Gu Yun hurriedly said: "Brother Tai is in love! In the future, you and I will be on an errand in the East Palace together, so you don't have to see each other like this!"

He had already learned that there was a young man named "Long Shaoyang" who had received the long-vacant position of the crown prince Zuo Wei Rate, but he was busy with official business, and he had not had time to find out who this person was. At this moment, he raised his hand to return the salute, but he was chanting Xiao Minglong's words "You have met before", at a glance, he remembered that the young man in front of him was the person he met on the night of Shangyuan, and his mind suddenly flashed, and he seemed to understand something instantly, and he was stunned for a moment, but his face did not show a strange look.

Seeing this, Xiao Minglong said with a smile: "Left and right guards, you will be the right-hand man of this palace in the future, and the safety of this palace in the future will depend on the two of you." Saying that, he took Long Shaoyang and Gu Yun, one left and one right, and entered the door.

Long Shaoyang looked at it at a glance, and saw that this martial arts arena was huge, but the terrain was very flat and regular, a group of soldiers were practicing in pieces, this piece was fighting with weapons in hand, that piece was wrestling with bare hands, and some were pulling bows and arrows to practice shooting, the people were noisy, in full swing, and they were busy, and the formation should be more than a thousand people.

The group walked to the edge of the martial arts arena, and the news that all the soldiers had arrived, bowed down and knelt on the ground one after another, and shouted in unison: "See His Royal Highness the Prince!" Xiao Minglong took Long Shaoyang, Gu Yun and other people to the parade platform on the edge of the martial arts arena unhurriedly and stood in the middle.

Long Shaoyang looked around, only to see the soldiers kneeling on the ground in the dark, all of them with very respectful faces, glanced at Xiao Minglong on his side, and saw that he was looking down condescendingly from the left and right, his expression was quite proud, and he suddenly felt that his chest seemed to be blocked.

was stunned, only to hear Xiao Minglong say: "General Gu, what subjects do the soldiers mainly practice today?"

Gu Yun said: "Back to Your Highness, the soldiers have been practicing the formation for a while, and they are practicing the skill martial arts in pieces. ”

Xiao Minglong smiled and nodded, but some of the East Palace officials accompanying him were ignorant. Long Shaoyang knew that the military training at that time could be divided into two categories: "technique" and "exercise". "Shu" is technology, that is, the technical ability of soldiers to fight alone, the skills of using spears, ge, guns, and halberds, or the "shooting" and "royal" in the "six arts" such as "etiquette, music, archery, royal, calligraphy, and mathematics", and so on; "Cao" is the formation, which is the battle formation, the banner of advance and retreat, and the "one-word long snake formation", "the two-dragon water array", "the three-talent formation of heaven and earth", ...... "four-door bottom array", and "ten-sided ambush array", have existed since ancient times.

Xiao Minglong said to Gu Yun: "General Gu, tell the soldiers to continue, don't let us disturb everyone's drills!" As he spoke, he turned to the group and said with a smile: "Everyone, you can only see the formation from a distance, and you can see the thickness but not the details, and you can see it clearly when you look closely." Let's go down there and take a look. He turned around and walked to the audience.

Gu Yun nodded, some soldiers had already waved their military flags, and the soldiers on the ground got up one after another, and for a while, the noise started again.

The group walked slowly along the edge of the martial arts arena, looking at the neat military appearance and serious training soldiers in the field, everyone looked at each other and nodded, couldn't help but point, clapped their hands and praised, and some people applauded loudly.

Long Shaoyang saw that these soldiers were strong and vigorous, and he knew that these people were good at one in a hundred, and he couldn't help but secretly respect them.

When he came to the side of the archery martial arts field, Xiao Minglong stopped and stopped to take a closer look. When they saw this, they stopped, formed a semicircle, and looked into the field.

I saw a row of soldiers standing on one side of the field, all carrying quivers on their backs, bending bows and arrows one by one, dozens of steps away to release a flying hoove, arrow feathers flying, the sound of breaking the air swished, it turned out that this group of soldiers was practicing archery.

Xiao Minglong stepped forward, rolled his eyes a few times, and said with a smile: "Soldiers, today this palace wants to test your archery skills to see how good your ability is." Regardless of the order, the last winner, the palace will be rewarded!" After that, he turned to the inner servant beside him and said, "Go, take the red sandalwood carved bow in my room, whoever can beat the crowd, this bow will be rewarded to him!" The inner waiter responded, turned around and ran away.

There was a commotion in the crowd.

This red sandalwood carved bow has long been famous all over the world, and it is rumored that the red sandalwood is the body, and the dragon tendon is the string, and its quality is like iron, but it is very light. The body is decorated with patterns, exquisite, and was given to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince by the current Emperor of Daqi.

One person responded: "The villain is willing to sacrifice ugliness, and His Royal Highness Prince Bo is happy." ”

When everyone looked, they saw a sturdy soldier about twenty years old, who came over at the moment, took up his longbow, and swished with a feather arrow. Everyone looked at it, hit the red heart, and couldn't help but cheer in unison:

"Good archery!" the young man shot three arrows in a row, but he was among them.

The crowd was in an uproar.

In the midst of the cheers, several soldiers stepped forward to challenge, or missed the arrow target, or missed the red heart, and were defeated one after another.

Seeing that there was no one to challenge, the soldier was still complacent, only to see a soldier come forward and say: "At such a distance, it is not surprising that even the red heart is hit, if the arrow target is retreated twenty steps, I wonder if this brother can still shoot?"

The man who spoke was about twenty-six or seventeen years old, and his stature was not very tall, but his arms were extremely long. He stepped forward, took the longbow from the soldier just now, and bent his bow and arrow, and the soldier had already retreated twenty paces back from the target.

Long Shaoyang was slightly shocked in his heart: "This arrow target, which is already dozens of steps away, retreats twenty steps like this, and the distance should be about 100 steps, it seems that this person is really a master of art and bold." While thinking about it, I only heard a thunderous sound of joy. Looking up, the arrow was impartial and hit the bull's-eye, and I couldn't help but be impressed.

The soldier fired three arrows in a row, and he also hit three arrows in a row. Seeing this, the soldier quietly stepped aside, apparently knowing that he was inferior, and bowed his head and admitted defeat.

For a while, there was a crowd of people and discussions, but no one stepped forward to challenge.

After a few moments, no one stepped forward.

At this time, Gu Yun stepped forward and said, "This brother is really good at archery!" As he spoke, he looked at the soldiers and said in a loud voice: "Is there anyone who is not convinced, please come over and compete with this brother?" asked three times, but no one answered.

At this moment, Xiao Minglong stepped forward and said with a smile: "This brother can be described as a hundred steps through Yang, and his skills are good, it can be seen that General Gu is well-trained on weekdays, and the soldiers are like this, which is really my blessing for Daqi!"

Gu Yun and the soldier hurriedly bowed their hands.

Xiao Minglong turned around and said, "Everyone, since no one wants to end the competition, this palace is here to roll call, I don't know what you think?"