Chapter 46: Stunning

Li You knew what they were mocking, and Wu Zhuge and the others standing nearby naturally knew as well.

Because Li You was holding a large-ear bow; most people believed that mounted archery required small-ear bows like the trough-dam bow or the Chenzhou bow, as true heavy-bow shooting required force to rise from the feet, conduct upward through the erector spinae core, and only then could it be drawn.

But when a person is on horseback, their feet are off the ground, so the force conduction is naturally cut off; furthermore, with the horse running and jolting back and forth, without three or five years of practice, one could not even draw a light bow of five or six units of force, let alone the hard bow in Li You’s hand, which measured over four feet after being strung.

"Does anyone have a small bow?"

Wu Zhuge had originally felt uncertain about Li You entering the battle, only knowing that since he had seen Li You kill Tian Si that day, he must have practiced with a blade; as for arrows... could it be that he really had to believe what Wa Qingyun said about one arrow piercing eight wolves?

Wu Nai and Wang Qiong were both terrible shots and hadn't brought bows; Miao Xianzu searched among the people around him and found three bows, but unfortunately, they were all large-ear bows, and two of them were so poorly maintained that they looked like they were about to warp, so Li You doubted they could be used at all.

"Forget it, I'll just use this one!" Li You said with a smile.

In fact, in the history of cold weapons, it was never said that hard bows could not be used for mounted archery; the later belief that mounted archery must use small bows mainly stemmed from the Ming Dynasty’s "Records of Military Preparedness," which recorded: "Soft bows and long arrows, fast horses and light blades."

With the appearance of the term "soft bow," many experts naturally assumed that mounted archery bows must all be bows with low draw weights.

However, when people speak of "soft bows," many always feel that soft bows, hard bows, and draw weight are positively correlated; to be precise, soft and hard refer to the feel of drawing the bow, just like the Qing bow used in Manchu mounted archery, which has a long-ear design and a progressive draw (33-36 inches), making the increase in weight gradual and easy to draw, appearing "soft" and requiring long arrows—so, isn't the Qing bow a soft bow?

Of course, if one follows the opinion of Liu the Lame, Liu Jianbao, and others that anything over eight units of force is a hard bow, then so be it.

But if one follows the feel of drawing the bow, then the 1.2 to 1.3-meter Tatar bow, the meter-plus Scythian bow, and the 1.1-meter Turkish bow, with their draw lengths of about 28-30 inches, would be more strenuous to draw fully than the English longbow or Qing bow; weaker archers might not even be able to draw them at all, so they are the true hard bows.

We humans are sometimes the laziest, lazy to the point of not wanting to use our brains, so we have always assumed that a soft bow is just a small, short bow, and therefore mounted archery must use small bows!

During the transition from the late Ming to the early Qing, there was the intervention of localized thermal weapons, so bows and arrows basically followed the "long bow and heavy arrow" school; within a certain distance, its power even exceeded that of a matchlock musket, and because hard bows had high initial velocity and efficiency, they shot further, often using short bows, but this does not prove that long bows cannot be used for mounted archery.

Li You took the reins handed over by Wang Qiong and leaped onto the horse.

Opposite him, Xu Daxi had already mounted his horse; seeing Li You was ready, he said, "The place in front is the drill ground, which has four archery targets. You and I will gallop for one lap; whoever hits the bullseye the most times wins. Of course, the speed cannot be too slow either!"

Li You looked up at the drill ground, which was roughly a circle with a diameter of thirty paces.

The horse track was uneven and had certain obstacles; on the north side were the first and second targets, about eight paces from the track, while on the opposite south side, on a straight line about twelve paces away, were the third and fourth targets.

If one didn't know how to shoot from both sides, one would have to turn the horse around at the third and fourth targets on the south side, which would waste a lot of time.

The archery targets erected within dated back to the High Tang; the material was simple, but the design was quite ingenious.

They were divided into three rings: the first ring was the bullseye, about the size of a fist; the second ring was slightly larger; and the third ring was about the size of a human head. These three wooden rings were actually sawn apart and then fitted together; as long as an arrow hit a ring, that ring would automatically fall off, not only distinguishing the order of time but also making it clear at a glance.

The rules were simple and clear; both men stood side by side. A bandit from Mao'erba holding a bronze gong stood in front of them, nodded at the two, raised the gong hammer, and struck it suddenly.

"Damn!"

The moment the gong sounded, the Nine-Spotted Leopard under Xu Daxi’s seat bolted out with a "clatter...", leaving Li You’s mount behind by three or five paces. One had to know that the mount under his own seat was Wu Zhuge’s Black-Dappled Horse, specially provided for him, named Flying Beast, which was still a bit inferior to that Nine-Spotted Leopard.

Li You hurriedly controlled the horse to accelerate and nocked an arrow in advance. Seeing he was about to reach the first target, he just tilted the Dragon Spine Bow and was about to draw...

"Snap," a sound rang out; the bullseye had already fallen to the ground. Xu Daxi, relying on the speed of his horse, had long since arrived about five paces from the target and hit the bullseye with one arrow.

Immediately, cheers erupted from outside the field, while the atmosphere on the Longmen Mountain side was much colder.

"Sigh, you idiot, why don't you hurry up and retract the bow to charge at the second target? What are you still drawing for?"

Wu Nai watched as Li You stood there like a fool; even though the bullseye had already been shot down by Xu Daxi, Li You was still drawing his bow to eighty percent...

Wu Zhuge’s face was also a bit dark, and Wang Qiong, clutching his shoulder, was also looking tense.

"I didn't expect this bookworm could actually ride a horse... oh my... what is he doing? Why is he still drawing the bow?"

"Haha... isn't that just being blind? Or does he really not know the rules? The bullseye at the first spot is clearly down, what are you still drawing your bow to shoot at?"

"I think he only knows how to ride a horse... oh, and he’s drawn it full..."

"Whoosh... whir... snap..."

The sound of the bowstring rang out, the arrow flashed and vanished, and another bullseye fell down. It wasn't the second target, but the fourth bullseye far across the field, which had been hit and knocked off by his arrow!

"What happened? What’s going on?"

"Hey... he... he... he actually shot the target on the opposite side!"

"My mother, how far is that? Not shooting the close one, but shooting the far one? That’s really impressive!"

"Nearly forty paces, he’s crazy, he’s crazy, his mounted archery is so far, and he’s actually this accurate!"

"Is this damn guy really just a scholar?"

The smile that had been rippling on Liu Jianbao’s face froze, but he secretly thought that this Li You was very clever; no matter what, the "Nine-Spotted Leopard" was much faster than the "Flying Beast" under his own seat.

If he kept trailing behind Xu Daxi, he would never have a chance to play, but Li You had actually thought of this move...

"Motherfucker, too powerful!"

Wu Zhuge stood up, his face flushed with excitement, and slammed his fist onto the table, making the bowls and dishes on the table clatter.

He was truly stunned by this move of Li You’s.