The four examiners at the twentieth stack have received nearly 100 candidates, and everyone is a little tired, almost all of them are doing what they are doing in their hands mechanically, registering, timing, and scoring, and after one batch is over, a new batch comes, and the cycle repeats. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

But the arrow warrior who appeared in front of them frightened them, and ten arrows one after another, without a pause, shot in succession, and after the last arrow was fired, the time incense had just begun to show a little white head.

The final result stunned the people around them, only to see ten arrows densely packed on the small red circle in the middle, just accommodating, without a trace of extra space.

Li Yanqing put away the bow and arrows and said with a smile: "There is no violation!" ”

The four examiners looked at each other, they had never seen such a strong archery skill, the scorekeeper trembled his hands, and muttered in his hands: "Taixue! Too learned! ”

He was afraid that he would remember the wrong line, so he recorded the impressive score of 'ten arrows on the top' on Li Yanqing's column.

Li Yanqing clenched his fists and smiled, I am sorry for everyone, he handed the bow to the scorer, turned around and walked towards the exit, the four officials looked at Li Yanqing's back blankly and walked away, he even forgot that there were four samurai in line behind him.

"Lao Li, how is archery?"

As soon as Li Yanqing walked back to the resting place, several partners surrounded him, and Wang Gui was even more impatient and said: "I got the news just now, a soldier of the forbidden army shot nine arrows and one arrow, breaking the highest record of the previous session. ”

Tang Huai also said: "Everyone is very well prepared for this competition, and the masters are constantly emerging, I heard that at least seven arrows must be on the top, and you can't miss the target to have a chance to be shortlisted, don't let us worry." ”

"You two are too worried, when did Yanqing lower than the bullseye of the eight arrows?" Yue Fei shook his head on the side and said.

Li Yanqing saw that the time was almost noon, so he smiled and said: "The problem of the step bow should not be big, I ate too early in the morning, I am a little hungry at this time, let's find a place to have a glass of wine to replenish, I have a treat!" ”

Yue Fei hesitated, "Why don't you go!" I have to practice with Master Xu in the afternoon. ”

"What are you worried about, we have to practice archery in the afternoon, at most half an hour, it's rare for Lao Li to have a treat, how can he be worthy of his stomach if he doesn't slaughter him fiercely."

Wang Gui couldn't say anything, dragged Yue Fei away, and the four of them left the barracks and returned to Bianjing City from Chenqiaomen.

They found a tavern to sit down in the Zhoubei tile shop in Beicheng, the Song people did not eat the main meal at noon, generally drank tea and ate snacks, and filled their stomachs a little, so there were almost as many teahouses and taverns in Bianjing, several teahouses had a good business, and the guests were full, but the tavern where they were located was deserted, and in the lobby on the second floor, only a few of them were drinking and eating.

After drinking a glass of wine and eating a few pieces of meat, Li Yanqing's stomach warmed up a little, and he raised his wine glass and said, "I found that although this archery horse competition was lively, except for the people who came to see the excitement and the officials in charge, none of the other court officials could see it. ”

Wang Gui took a sip of wine and said: "That's for sure, the tradition of the imperial court has always been to emphasize literature over martial arts, and it's not surprising that these wine bags and rice bags don't come!" ”

He was in a bad mood and was still worried about not being able to participate in the mounted archery competition.

Li Yanqing shook his head, "Actually, you are wrong, the imperial court does not pay more attention to civil affairs than military affairs, on the contrary, military affairs are heavier than civil affairs, you see that the military attaché's subsidy is far more than that of civilian officials at the same level, and most of the annual income of the imperial court is used in the army. ”

"Lao Li has a certain point!"

Tang Huai said with a smile on the side: "I heard that the imperial court spent 500,000 yuan to hold this bow and horse competition, and every township soldier who entered Beijing to participate in the competition was subsidized. Also, the accommodation subsidy of martial arts is obviously much better than that of Taixue, you have experienced it yourself. ”

"Why is that?"

Niu Gao was a little confused, "Lao Li, I don't understand, can you tell me." ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly: "That's because Lao Gui confused martial affairs with martial arts, the imperial court is heavy on martial affairs and light on martial artists, all the high-ranking officials who hold military power are appointed by civil ministers, Di Qing served as a privy envoy when Shenzong, it was like a hornet's nest at that time, Di Qing was resisted and besieged by hundreds of officials in the imperial court, and he couldn't issue a single decree, if it wasn't for Emperor Shenzong's trust in him and blocking arrows for him again and again, he could be a privy envoy for four years?" In the end, he was not dismissed from office, and he died of depression a year later, so I said that the most powerful in the Song Dynasty was not the Son of Heaven, but the entire civil official group. ”

"Civilian-official clique!"

Yue Fei was very interested in this new word, he smiled and asked, "Yanqing seems to be quite emotional, what happened?" ”

"It's nothing, I just think that this bow horse competition can be used as a talent selection competition, but the imperial court is indifferent."

Tang Huai smiled beside him: "This is Tong Guan's bow and horse competition, how can he tolerate Cai Jing interfering in it, even if Cai Jing wants to interfere, he can't do it!" On the contrary, Tong Guan is digging Cai Jing's corner. ”

"How so?" Everyone asked in unison.

Tang Huai smiled mysteriously, he looked to both sides, lowered his voice and said to everyone: "Taixue!" ”

Wang Gui and Niu Gao were still confused, Yue Fei had an understanding, but Li Yanqing immediately understood, Taixue has always been Cai Jing's core territory, Cai Jing during his tenure as Xiangguo, expanded Taixue twice, increased Taixue from 2,400 to 3,600 people, improved the status of Taixue, and at the same time vigorously established state schools and county schools, Cai Jing did not really attach importance to education, but wanted to firmly grasp the cradle of talents in Taixue, and the outstanding talents he cultivated became his protégés.

And Tong Guan also wanted to take the army's outstanding talents into his own hands, but he used Taixue to have archery lessons as an excuse to pull Taixue, who had little to do with the army, into the bow and horse competition, which was obviously digging Cai Jing's corner.

That's why there is a bow competition, which is tailor-made for Taixue.

It's just that the first session did not dig, Guozijian responded negatively, only let Taixue send five ordinary scholars to participate symbolically, and finally the bow competition did not even enter the top 100, Taixue is not without riding and archery talents, many of the powerful children who studied in Taixue are very powerful in riding and shooting, and the negative response of Taixue made these powerful children have to borrow the quota of the township soldiers of Kaifeng Mansion to participate in the bow and horse competition.

And this time, Guozijian was still unmoved, and still asked Taixue to only send thirteen people to participate in the archery and horse competition, including ten foot bows and three horse archery, but there have been subtle changes in this, Taixue sent mounted archery warriors, this is also because Sun Li is sleek and doesn't want to offend Tong Guan too much, Li Yanqing was selected by Taixue to participate in the competition because of Tong Guan's background.

Thinking of this, Li Yanqing suddenly had a hint of foreboding, this time the bow horse competition was afraid that he would become the focus of the battle between Tong Guan and Cai Jing again.

........

After eating, Yue Fei and Wang Gui returned to martial arts, but Tang Huai accompanied Li Yanqing back to the exercise ground to wait for the results.

"I'm not like the three of them still have to train, I'm fine!"

Facing Li Yanqing's strange eyes, Tang Huai spread his hands and said, "Anyway, I'm idle, I'm idle, just look at the excitement!" ”

"Lao Tang, how do you know the contradiction between Tong Guan and Cai Jing?"

Only when everyone was gone, Li Yanqing asked this question that puzzled him, although Tang Huai has been a jack of all trades since he was a child, but it is not to the point of knowing the inside story of the imperial court, he can't reach this height, so how can Tang Huai know about the open and secret battle between Cai Jing and Tong Guan? Li Yanqing looked at Tang Huai with a puzzled expression.

"I actually heard from an old-timer about this."

Tang Huai hesitated and said, "Have you heard of Zong Ze?" ”

Li Yanqing was taken aback, "How do you know him?" ”

"He lives in the Tang Inn, he heard that I am a martial arts master, so he often chats with me, this person dares to speak out, and I have a lot of benefits from him."

"Is he still at the inn?" Li Yanqing asked anxiously.

Tang Huai shook his head, glanced at Li Yanqing suspiciously, and said, "He just went to Beijing to do business, and he has already returned to Dengzhou yesterday, do you want to meet him?" ”

Li Yanqing was very sorry in his heart, he had always wanted to see this famous general at the end of the Song Dynasty, and this time he had the opportunity, but he still missed it.