Chapter 28: Cuju

  The soldiers responded in unison, but they looked listless and followed Tang Jie and Tang Ren to the east city.

  Li Qin couldn't keep up and fell behind, he grabbed Meng Mu and asked in a low voice: "Uncle Meng, although the military rations are meager, they're still better than nothing. Why does everyone look so unenthusiastic, without any energy at all?"

  Meng Mu snorted, saying: "If it weren't for the fact that there's still a meal at noon and another in the evening, the brothers would have already taken their three days' worth of rations and gone back to their respective homes. What's the point of competing in cuju when the outcome is already decided?"

  Li Qian was stunned and thought: "No way, there's a fake ball at this age?" Without Meng Mu's explanation, he thought for a moment and knew who would win.

  Tang Biao had just become the leader of the troops, so he naturally wanted to win over his subordinates by doing them favors. He was a rascal and a hoodlum at heart, so before this, he must have threatened other troops to let him be the first, and others didn't dare offend him, so they could only agree. Tang Biao was Tang Ren's son, so this troop naturally had to come in second. Unfortunately for Meng Mu and Yao Xiu, two of the troops, after being soldiers for a year, they could only get three days' worth of rations.

  Four battalions were allocated benefits, some more and some less, at their convenience. The poor ones were the soldiers below, and Li Qin happened to be in Meng Mu's battalion. Doesn't that mean he could only get three days' rations? Wouldn't this show-off be for nothing?

  Meng Mu said: "Li Lang, you've just joined the army and don't understand some things. If you can bear it, then bear it. Otherwise, what else can you do? Be careful or the Tang family will give you a hard time!"

  Li Qin snorted and said: "I'm not wearing small shoes, at worst I won't wear shoes. We're barefooted, what are we afraid of those who wear shoes?"

  Meng Muhe smiled and said, "What you said is reasonable." He thought to himself, if he didn't agree, it would be better to have a good competition first, get the food in hand, and as for what happens later... that can be discussed later!

  Shen Yi, who was behind Li Qin, couldn't help but interrupt their conversation and said: "I'd rather be flogged than keep quiet. What's going on? Why should I tolerate this?"

  Li Qin turned around and said: "Now it's not time for training, you can say whatever you want, a few sentences will do."

  Wu Xiaosan and Wu Danzi immediately shouted in unison: What's there to endure? Can't endure!

  They shouted on this side, and the soldiers in the camp naturally gathered around, also shouting that they couldn't bear it. They knew about the dark secrets of their superiors, although they were indignant, but also powerless. Now someone took the lead, they had to follow closely. For a time, Li Qin's image rose high in the hearts of the soldiers in the camp, far surpassing Meng Mu.

  The soldiers of the other troops looked over, and Tang Biao snorted coldly, saying nothing. The soldiers in his troop thought to themselves: "If we can get more, then we should get more; if not, there's no need to complain." Many soldiers didn't dare look at their comrades from the other troops.

  The soldiers of Tang Yun's army didn't care at all, for them it didn't matter who got first place, anyway they would definitely get second, and the commander was the county lieutenant's own son, how could he not get second place? Watching others' excitement was enough!

  The soldiers in Yao Xiuzhen's camp shook their heads and sighed, looking at Meng Mu's camp, someone dared to resist, why didn't our camp have such a person? If Li Lang were one of us, it would be great.

  Yao Xiuzhen thought to herself, "Great, someone is willing to take the lead. My son is under Li Qian's command, if Li Qian succeeds in his scheme, my son will also benefit. However, this matter, my son cannot be the one to take charge of, it's better for him to keep a low profile and reap the benefits quietly."

  He turned his head to look at Mengmu's camp and saw that his son, Yao Qiu, was lowering his head without saying a word, the more low-key he was, the more low-key he became.

  The army marched on the street, and many civilians followed. Fuping County rarely had idle people, but the military exercise was a rare excitement all year round, so the civilians put down their work and followed to take a look.

  In the crowd, Jia Zheng was also among them. Although Jia Rong had not returned yet, his family had received Li Qiang's help and their days were much better. He also had the leisure to come out and watch the excitement.

  Before long, they arrived at the east gate of the city. On the open ground, the troops formed a large circle, with the civilians standing outside. Jing Ming instructed the attendants to quickly set up two wooden poles at each end of the open ground, five steps apart from each other, which served as the goalposts.

  The yamen brought over several hu benches for Tang Jie and his subordinates to sit on. Tang Ren asked the village heads, who would go first in the competition. Tang Kan spoke up first, he didn't pick a weak opponent, but instead chose Yao Xiu's village, wanting to compete first. The two villages each selected twelve people, took out a leather ball, and began competing.

  Li Qin looked at the field and asked Meng Mu: "I don't know what the rules of this competition are. Why do they compete in kicking balls instead of formation?"

  Meng Mu glanced at him sideways, a hint of surprise on his face, but then he thought that Li Qin had just joined the army and didn't understand some things, so he let it go and didn't think much of it.

  Cuī Mu said, "Cuī Jū is just a way of training soldiers. This is much more practical than training in formation. We Great Han people call this the way of governing the country and practicing martial arts. As for rules, I've heard that the Central Plains people have many more rules than Cuī Jū, but our Fù Píng is very simple, with only two rules: one is not to use your hands, and the other is not to take lives; that's all."

  Li Qincheng let out a loud cry and thought to himself: "What's going on? This isn't a competition, it's a fight to the death!"

  Cuju, the ancient form of football, began during the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Han Dynasty, cuju was a regular military training exercise, with one book, "Cuju Twenty-Five Pieces", written specifically on the subject by an unknown author, which was later recorded in the Book of Han by Ban Gu, clearly stating that "Cuju Twenty-Five Pieces" is a military text.

  After the Tang and Song dynasties, due to the prevalence of Confucianism, Cuju gradually changed from a confrontational sport to a performance-oriented one, focusing on the skills of the ball kickers while neglecting physical confrontation. Although it became more colorful and visually appealing, from a military perspective, it was a serious step backward, and ultimately failed to develop into a sport similar to modern football.

  Now it's the Han Dynasty, no one cares about what is mediocre or not. Cuju in the Han Dynasty should be considered as the origin of leg-based martial arts and can be called a prototype of national art. Many schools of martial arts in later generations have the shadow of cuju when it comes to legwork.

  Li Qins silk book goes even further, using the techniques of Cuju to train riding skills. This is related to the immaturity of stirrups, once the manufacturing method of stirrups matures, then the techniques of Cuju will not be used to exercise legwork.

  Li Qin watched the game on the field and had some understanding of the rules. In a big city like Chang'an Luoyang, how can they not know about Cuju? It should be gentle, after all, many nobles love to kick the ball, but the Cuju of Fuping Army is not gentle at all.

  Each team has a goal, which is those two wooden posts without crossbars. Whichever team kicks the ball into the opponent's goal three times first wins. As for the competition among soldiers, it's just like fighting against enemies on the battlefield, except that they don't use their hands. It's a typical case of survival of the fittest, where the winner is king, as long as no one gets killed.

  Soldiers also have this mental preparation before going into battle, and do not think that getting injured is unjust. Winning makes you a hero, losing makes you a loser. If you lose, you can't blame the other side for being ruthless, you can only blame yourself for lacking ability or blame bad luck!

  At the beginning of the game, Yao Xiu's soldiers were still fighting hard and unexpectedly scored a goal first. However, Tang Yan's soldiers immediately counterattacked and kicked down one of Yao Xiu's soldiers. Tang Yan on the sidelines cheered loudly, while Yao Xiu remained silent, turning his head away, seemingly indifferent.

  The troops were so worn out that they naturally lost morale, and the outcome was already decided. What's the point of competing if you get injured and your superiors don't even pay for your medical expenses? You have to bear it yourself as a soldier! The first half was still watchable, but the second half was very dull. Tonglu's troops scored three goals in a row, ending the match with a score of 3-1.

  Meng Mu jumped up from the Hu bench, pulled Li Qin's hand, and strode to his own team, shouting: "All of Li Lang's men are on the field, I'll lead the team myself. You, you, you, and you, also come on." He pointed out five sturdy men with his hand, making up a total of twelve people.

  Li Qinxin thought to himself, "If it's good fortune, then so be it. If it's bad luck, then we can't avoid it. Either we don't do it at all, or we see it through to the end!" He shouted, "Brothers, are you men? If you're men, then you must fight with your lives, for the sake of our brothers in this village! We can only win, not lose. Winning means we get to eat well, losing means no one will pity us!" He tore open his upper garment and threw it to the ground, revealing his bare chest, and strode into the arena with large steps.

  Shen Yi and Wu Xiaosan shouted: "Right, damn it!" They took off all their tops and threw them to the ground. Especially Shen Yi, he was shirtless, instantly revealing his tattoos, and with his appearance, he looked even more ferocious and frightening, shaking his shoulders, following behind Li Qin's back, also going down.

  The soldiers in the camp saw this and shouted loudly together, shouting loudly, stomping their feet and clapping their hands to help Li QIN.

  Meng Mu saw this and laughed: "Goodness gracious, Li Lang is much more fierce than me, he's a ruffian!"

  In the crowd, Old Master Jia shouted: "Look at that, the one walking in front is my little half-son. He has this strong momentum today, all thanks to my careful teachings!"

  The people around him were surprised: "Your little half? What does this mean?"

  Jia Zheng said with a smile, "Don't you understand? A biological son is a whole son, a daughter-in-law's brother is half a son. Li Lang is my daughter-in-law's younger brother, isn't he just a little half-son?"

  Old Mr. Jia shouted loudly: "Li family's young son, kick with all your might, kick according to the method I usually teach you!"

  He never taught Li Qín anything, but when it comes to boasting, he is not the slightest bit embarrassed. It's likely that his reason for naming his son "Huà" also has something to do with this aspect of his personality, as "huà" also means "to boast". Isn't this exactly like his current behavior?!

  ——

  It's so hard to rush up the rankings! Brothers and sisters, please help me out. I sincerely thank you for your support, recommendations, and collections. I'm begging everyone, thank you so much, thank you so much!