Chapter 46: Stunning

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

Because Li You was holding a Great Bow, most people believed that mounted archery primarily used small bows like the Caoba Bow or the Chenzhou Bow; truly drawing a heavy bow required power to rise from the feet, transmit upward through the erector spinae core, and only then could it be drawn.

And when a person is on horseback, with both feet off the ground, that power transmission naturally shuts off; moreover, the horse's gallop bounces back and forth, and without three or five years of skill, one cannot even draw a light bow of five or six jin, let alone the hard bow Li You held, which, after the string was nocked, measured over four chi in length.

"Does anyone have a small bow?"

Wu Zhuge had originally felt uncertain about Li You fighting, but having seen Li You kill Tian Si that day, he was certainly skilled with a blade; as for the bow... could one really believe Wa Qingyun's claim of an arrow piercing eight wolves?

Wu Nai and Wang Qiong were both terrible archers and had not brought bows; Miao Xianzu checked the people to his left and right and found three bows, but unfortunately they were all Great Bows, two of which were poorly maintained and looked ready to warp; Li You even suspected they were unusable.

"Forget it, let's use this one!" Li You said with a smile.

In fact, in the history of cold weapons, it was never said that mounted archery could not use hard bows; the later belief that mounted archery must use small bows mainly stemmed from the Ming Dynasty's *Wubei Zhi*, which recorded: "Soft bow, long arrow; fast horse, light blade."

The emergence of the term "soft bow" led many experts to naturally assume that mounted archery bows must be of low poundage.

Yet the "soft bow" they spoke of, many people always assumed that soft bow, hard bow, and poundage were positively correlated; more precisely, soft and hard referred to the feel of drawing the bow; just like the Qing bow used by Manchu mounted archers, with its long recurve design and progressive draw length (33-36 inches), the poundage increase was noticeably gradual, making it easy to draw and appearing soft, requiring long arrows; so was the Qing bow truly a soft bow?

Of course, if one follows Liu Quezi, Liu Jianbao, and others who consider anything over eight jin to be a hard bow, then so be it.

But if judged by the feel of drawing, then the Tatar bow of 1.2 to 1.3 meters, the Scythian bow just over one meter, and the Turkish bow of 1.1 meters, with draw lengths of about 28-30 inches (60-7), would require more effort to draw fully than the English Longbow or the Qing bow; weaker archers might not even be able to draw them, so they are the true hard bows.

We humans are sometimes the laziest, too lazy to use our brains, so we have always assumed that a soft bow is a small bow, a short bow, and therefore mounted archery must use a small bow!

During the late Ming and early Qing periods, there was partial intervention of firearms, so bows basically followed the "long bow, heavy arrow" school; within a certain distance, its power even exceeded that of a matchlock, and because infantry used hard bows for their high initial velocity, efficiency, and long range, they often used short bows, but this did not prove that mounted archery could not use long bows.

Li You took the reins Wang Qiong brought, leaped onto the horse.

On the opposite side, Xu Daxi had already mounted; seeing Li You ready, he spoke: "The field ahead is the training ground, containing four arrow targets; we will gallop one circuit, and the one with more hits on the red center wins; of course, speed cannot be too slow!"

Li You looked up at the training ground, roughly a circle thirty paces in diameter.

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

Thus, if one could not shoot from both sides, at the third and fourth targets on the south side, one would have to turn the horse around, wasting much time.

The arrow targets erected within originated in the High Tang; their materials were crude, but the design was very clever.

Divided into three rings: the first ring was the red center, about the size of a fist; the second ring was slightly larger; the third ring was about the size of a human head; these three wooden rings were actually sawn apart and then fitted together; whenever an arrow hit a ring, that ring would automatically fall off, not only distinguishing the order of time but also making it immediately clear.

The rules were simple and clear; both men stood side by side on their horses; a bandit from Mao'er Ba holding a bronze gong stood before them, nodded to the two, raised the gong hammer, and struck down suddenly.

"Damn!"

As soon as the bronze gong sounded, Xu Daxi's Nine-Spotted Leopard Horse leaped out with a "thump thump...", falling three to five paces behind his mount; know that the mount beneath his buttocks was Wu Zhuge's Black-and-White Horse, specially for his use, named Flying Beast, which was still somewhat inferior to that Nine-Spotted Leopard Horse.

Li You quickly controlled the horse to accelerate, nocked an arrow early; seeing he was nearly at the first target, he just tilted the Dragon Spine Bow sideways and was about to draw...

"Snap!" a sound rang out; the red center had already fallen to the ground; Xu Daxi, riding fast, had long since reached about five paces from the target and shot an arrow straight into the red center.

Immediately, cheers erupted from outside the field; compared to that, Longmen Zhai was much quieter.

"Sigh, you fool, why not quickly lower the bow and charge at the second target? What are you still drawing for?"

Wu Nai looked at Li You as if he were a fool; the red center had clearly been shot down by Xu Daxi, yet Li You had actually drawn the bow eight-tenths full...

Wu Zhuge's face also darkened somewhat; Wang Qiong, clutching his shoulder, wore an expression of extreme tension.

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

"Haha... isn't that just blind? Or truly doesn't know the rules? The first target's red center has clearly fallen; what are you drawing your bow to shoot?"

"I think he only knows how to ride a horse... Ouch, he's drawing it full..."

"Whoosh... hush hush... snap..."

The bowstring sounded; the arrow flashed and vanished; a red center fell down; it was not the second target, but the fourth red center far across the opposite side, shot down by this single arrow!

"What happened? What's going on?"

"Hey... he... he... he actually shot the target across the way!"

"Oh my god, how far is that? Not shooting the near ones, but shooting the far ones? Truly awesome!"

"Nearly forty paces, crazy, crazy; he shoots mounted archery that far, and with such accuracy!"

"Damn it, is he still a scholar?"

Liu Jianbao's smile, which had been dancing on his face, paused; inwardly he thought this Li You was very clever; the "Nine-Spotted Leopard Horse" would, no matter what, run much faster than the "Flying Beast" beneath his own buttocks.

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

"Damn, too amazing!"

Wu Zhuge stood up, his face flushed with excitement; he punched the table, causing the bowls and dishes on it to clatter loudly.

He was truly stunned by Li You's move.