Because it is not a formal ceremonial occasion, the atmosphere in the whole garden is not rigorous. The whole field is divided into more than a dozen shooting fields, and there are torches everywhere, so the light is sufficient. Young people either wander between the various venues to admire, or gather in groups to compete, and there are not a few people like Xie Ai who are alone.

Xie Aiben is not from Zhongzhou, and the main reason why he wants to enter is to get some gifts for him to go to the library to borrow the "Xinshiguan Chronicles". In fact, his own archery skills are not too outstanding, but he was born in the border land of Liangzhou, and he has to be in contact with it to some extent. In addition to archery skills, there are also quite high requirements for etiquette, and this is his strength, and he often won the first place in Liangzhou School earlier.

In the center of the enclosure there is a shooting range that is several times the size of the other place, and it also gathers the largest number of people, almost hundreds of people inside and out. This is where the main battle is held, and whoever wins will receive a gift.

Xie Ai traveled all the way, and also listened to others talk about the Xinshi Pavilion often has such activities, in addition to the selection of talents, it is also to subsidize many cold people, the people are not ashamed of words, and even feel that it is a shame for talented people to be trapped in poverty. Either they are fame and reputation and have no benefit to the world at all, or they are perverse and cannot merge with the crowd. And those who are truly capable of political integrity should strive for the situation and position that match them.

By the time Xie Ai arrived, there had already been several battles on the field. Since it is not a formal village archery salute, the provision of instruments is also casual, including the ceremonial bow used in the ceremony of less than one stone, the standard one-stone bow in the army, and even some strong bows of more than two stones.

Although the equipment provided is different, the process of the contest still refers to the basic process of rural shooting, that is, it is repeated and scattered. Contestants compete in three rounds, each round can be issued with four arrows, and the leader wins. The first of these is not only a warm-up but also a practice of archery skills and posture, and is not counted in the score.

At this time, there is a burly, wearing a tight-fitting robe in the middle of the field as a teacher, his person holds a bow to the field, stands on the ground on the shooting symbol, first faces west, and then turns to look at the target 30 zhang away due south, both eyes level at the bull's-eye, and then slowly the bow flat end in front of the body, pull the string to lead the bow to the full place, suddenly fly out of the arrow, only to hear a soft sound, the arrow is in the bull's-eye as for the white arrow. The so-called white arrow is the arrow with sufficient power, and the target is so deep that the arrow is rubbed and turned white.

"Good archery!"

When the onlookers saw this scene, they all applauded, and someone on the side began to introduce the identity of this prime-aged teacher: "This one is the commander of the Shengwu Army under the command of Shen Dudu, although he is a captain, but now he has accumulated merit as the master of the Shengwu Army." The year before last, Nanyang rushed to a battle, it was this Mo soldier who led thirty warriors to rush straight to the rebel kingdom and beheaded the traitor to ......"

When everyone on the side heard this, they all praised it. Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, the children of the soldiers of the Shi family are the worst in the world, and they have always been despised, even if the situation has been reversed in recent years under the Huainan Governor's Mansion, but the long-term contempt of the world can not be swept away for a while. Therefore, whenever it comes to this Captain Mo, he is the next legendary figure in the Huainan Governor's Mansion. Although there are also soldiers who have been used in the follow-up, no one can surpass the great influence and wide praise when it comes to it.

Hearing the discussion of everyone around him, Xie Ai was also impressed by the eclectic use of talents by the Governor of Huainan Shen on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also deeply felt that Zhongzhou was really full of talents. He saw that the strong bow used by the Mo soldier was far more than two stones, but in his hands, it was as light as a weight, and there was a lot of spare strength, and it was no wonder that a mere soldier had such courage and bravery, and it was no wonder that he could be respected and used.

After the demonstration, the six contestants appeared in three groups. The first two people to appear on the stage were not very old, one of them was Xie Wan, a disciple of the Xie clan of Chen Jun who was in the gate control earlier, and he was still dressed in that slightly exaggerated dress. As for a young man on the other side, his face was hidden under his visor armor, and his bright light armor was covered by a body that had obviously not yet grown up, and it was shining in the light, which was quite majestic.

The two of them entered the room meticulously, simulating the movements of the Captain Mo just now, Xie Wan on the left shot first, and the arrow also hit the bull's-eye, but it was not a white arrow, and it could be seen that although the skill was there, the strength was not enough. Then the covered boy shoots again, if the four arrows are shot, in terms of hit rate, the covered boy is slightly better, but this is nothing, this round does not count the results. Then the two of them exited the field and switched to another group of two people who stepped forward to compete.

Compared with the first shot, the second shot is not so strict in terms of posture, but it must be formally recorded, not only the accuracy of the hit, but also the strength. As for the third shot, you have to start the fun, and the player must be at the fixed node of the ritual to launch, if you miss the node, although you don't count, the difficulty is several times stronger than the second one.

In the first round, all six contestants were not very old, but the results were very impressive, except for two who missed the node and missed the target in the third shot, the rest all hit the bull's eye, and occasionally shot white arrows.

After this round of competition, the surrounding onlookers were already full of applause. Although archery is a contest between gentlemen, there are not many who are really good at it, or miss the target or lose the fun. Even if Liangzhou Guangxuan scholars are enrolled, when the township shooting is held every year, the ones who can really get the best are only occasional. It is really rare for six people like this to be considerable, which shows that these six young people are definitely not ordinary people.

Sure enough, after the three shots, one person on the main seat got up to introduce the identities of these contestants, except for that Chen Jun Xie Wan, the rest are also children of the northern and southern families, or the family members of the officials of the Governor's Mansion, and some are already working in the Governor's Mansion. Especially when the young man who competed with Xie Wan took off his face armor, the host had not yet introduced his identity, and the surrounding onlookers were already applauding.

"At such an age, with such a good shot, you must not be mortal! Sure enough, this Lang Jun is the younger brother of Shen Dudu's sister-in-law, and Shen Ahe, the second son of Jiangdong Shen Servant! ”

Hearing such fierce cheers from the people around him and talking about the identity of that young man with great interest, Xie Ai was also a little curious in his heart, his curiosity about Shen Dudu was already so hot that he wanted to get a glimpse of his in-laws and brothers, but when he squeezed to the front of the crowd, those young people had already bowed and left, which couldn't help but make Xie Ai feel a lot of regret.

The competition continued, but with the stunning brightness of the previous six young people, the rest of the competition was inevitably boring, although there were many participants, but they were never able to achieve such brilliant results. Although there are occasional eye-catchers, there are no more people who are as good as the six players before. After all, in addition to simple archery skills, the school of the township archery examination must also have sufficient edification of etiquette and etiquette. Therefore, the village archery salute is also regarded as a double test of virtue and strength.

Xie Ai waited in the field for most of the hour before it was finally his turn. After recording the name of the villager, he waited with five other people on the wheel. Xie Ai himself is not known for his strength, and he doesn't plan to make a splash here, so he only chose the ordinary bow, and after waiting for his group on the turn, he stepped forward and completed the three shots, and the results were naturally unexpectedly the first place, especially in the third round of music shooting, which was blameless, and the three times and twelve arrows were all white shots, and thus won the applause of the surrounding audience.

"Ah He, this person is available, I have checked it just now, he is a distant person from Liangzhou, and he has not appeared in the museum before."

Just as Xie Ai was choosing a gift, he didn't know that someone on the other side of the shadow had already been eyeing him.