Chapter Seven: A Leopard Dies and Leaves Its Skin

  Of course, it is similar to Dicí Stabbing Technique, but there are also differences, and even simpler than modern Pīn Stabbing Knife!

  The gun technique described in the "Ji Sha Pian" does not depart from the scope of Daoyin, but only repeatedly talks about how to use force and how to shoot faster, without specific moves. If you insist on saying there is one, it's just one move: thrust out! As for what sweeps, chops, wraps, circles, blocks, grasps, pounces, points, flicks, and dances flowers, none of these are mentioned!

  The shooting methods of later generations are complex, known as the "Moon Stick", "Year Sword", and "Lifetime Gun". Not only do most schools have gun methods passed down, but also famous generals have family-transmitted gun techniques, all of which are complex. However, the gun technique left behind by Li is contrary to that of later generations, with just one move - thrust!

  Li's shooting technique is a crisp and decisive killing art, not a single bit of ambiguity! Facing the enemy, drawing the gun, the faster the better! I'm faster than the enemy, the enemy dies; the enemy is faster than me, I die!

  Li QIN looked at the silk book and thought: "This shooting method is simply playing with one's life, not to mention defense, there is no defense at all!" He shook his head, Li's shooting method was indeed decisive to the extreme, more direct than Du Gu Nine Swords. When facing different weapons, Du Gu Nine Swords had nine moves, but the gun technique in front of him didn't care about anything, just one move, stab and kill!

  Look closely, and you'll see the key to this gun technique. First, face your enemy head-on. If they're directly in front of you, take a small step to the left with your right foot, so that your enemy is now at a 45-degree angle to your right. Then, aim for their right ribcage and fire!

  Li Qinxin thought: "This is a very simple method, but what if the enemy is left-handed? Hmm, then I'll just take a small step to the right and stab the enemy's left ribs. This doesn't need special explanation, after all, left-handers are not many. But completely ignoring the enemy's weapon and stabbing their right ribs seems too dangerous!"

  Only then did he realize that this kind of deadly marksmanship was achieved through practice. Because Li's shooting technique is used on the battlefield, it's a matter of life and death, there's no showmanship in it, its main purpose is to kill the enemy, so practice is the most important thing, everything else is nonsense!

  If the enemy is using a long weapon, then the left hand advances first, and the right hand takes charge of stability and power. If you are stabbed once, the long weapon will be useless, and another stab to the right rib can kill the enemy. And if the enemy's right hand is in front, it's even simpler. The right hand in front must be raised, and the right rib is directly an open door, where the fatal weakness lies!

  If the enemy is using a short weapon, holding a shield in his left hand, then if he wants to attack, no matter whether the right-hand weapon chops, hacks, stabs or thrusts, the right hand must be raised, and the right ribcage will still be an open gate. As long as the spearman's spear is fast enough, he can stab the enemy first!

  It's a very simple principle, just identify the enemy's weak point and shoot quickly enough. Even if you can't kill the enemy with one shot, it's basically no problem to wound them half to death!

  Li QIN smiled and thought: "This is not a spear that stabs itself, let the enemy go to their death! It really fulfills that saying, he is strong because of his strength, the clear wind sweeps the mountain ridge, he is arrogant because of his arrogance, the bright moon shines on the great river. What kind of weapon the enemy uses, how they make a move, it's all up to them, I just have one word, stab!

  After some thought, Li QIN felt that this method of stabbing the enemy in the right rib, if used in a formation battle, would also be very effective, similar to modern bayonet troops. When facing the enemy, as long as our soldiers form a line, regardless of the enemy in front, and only attack the enemy on the right front, they can still win; If they stand in two rows, the soldiers in the back row hold their guns high above their heads, specifically stabbing the faces of the enemies in front, then the success rate of the first row of soldiers will be even higher!

  Li Qin tilted his head and thought again, feeling that this battle method seemed to have its drawbacks. What if the soldiers didn't cooperate well? His head was hurting from thinking so much, he shook his head vigorously and was about to continue reading when he heard the sound of the door opening. His mother, He Shi, poked her head in with a smile and said: "Son, it's time for dinner, come out quickly!"

  Li Qin responded with a sound, put the handkerchief book into the jade box, went to his parents' room, put the jade box back in the box, and then went out for dinner.

  The villagers of Fu Jiao Village have been extremely poor for a long time, and every household has not even tasted a little bit of meat for years. Even the family of Zhao Ba Jin, who raised sheep, only took good care of the sheep and then took them into the city to exchange for food, never slaughtering them for meat, let alone other villagers' families.

  Today, Li Tian generously took out the leopard meat to share, and the villagers were even more excited than during the Chinese New Year. Every household came without exception, and all the men, women, old and young of the village gathered at the threshing ground, waiting for their share of meat and soup.

  Li Tian saw his son coming, beckoned him to come over, and said in a low voice: "Son, you're not young anymore. From now on, you'll be the pillar of our Li family. Today's meat and soup distribution will be done by you, and I'll help you with it."

  Li Tian was the village head, equivalent to the position of village chief. Due to the frequent migration of people in and out of Fuping County, the scope of the village head's jurisdiction had changed from before, but he was undoubtedly the number one person in the village. Li Tian knew that he was getting old and couldn't be the village head forever, so he thought about letting his son take over. Although being a village head didn't even count as a minor official, it could still deal with the government, which would help Li Qinday's future development to some extent. Therefore, he looked for opportunities to enhance Li Qinday's prestige in the village.

  Li QIN understood his father's painstaking efforts, and he didn't decline, standing beside the meat table. The meat table was already piled high with strips of meat, each strip roughly the same size, with any discrepancies made up for by smaller pieces of meat, all exactly one catty. Li QIN had the villagers line up, first calling out those who had gone to hunt the leopard, giving them their share of the meat. With each piece of meat he handed out, he loudly praised the person's efforts during the leopard hunt.

  His way of praising, the villagers of Fu Jiao Village had never seen before, and they all felt novel. Especially those who followed to catch the leopard, were even more excited, in fact they didn't have any merit, but through Li Qin's mouth, it became a big deal.

  When the meat was divided until it reached Xu Xiaoni, Li Qin pulled up Xu Xiaoni's hand and shouted: "Fellow villagers, do you recognize this person?"

  The villagers burst out laughing, of course they recognized him, wasn't this the young master of the Xu family?! Although they were all familiar with each other, Xu Xiaoni's face was still flushed bright red, with a somewhat shy demeanor, clearly a simple and honest young man.

  Li Qindao said: "This is Xu Xiaoni, the brave warrior of our village, a good son of the Xu family. Last night when we were hunting for leopards, he was running in the front with a torch in his hand, not afraid of the leopard's ferocity at all. It was because of him that we could find the leopard, otherwise everyone would not have had the chance to share the meat and soup! Everyone says, should we give three cheers for Xu Xiaoni?"

  The villagers burst into loud laughter, clapped their hands and shouted: "Well done, young man from the XU family!" They praised him repeatedly, more than three times.

  Xu Xiaoni's face was as red as a large red cloth, one hand was held up by Li QIN, and the other hand didn't know where to put it, with infinite gratitude to Li QIN in his heart! And Xu Lao Nidi in the crowd was also extremely excited, he clenched his fists and said to the villagers beside him: "Look, that's my son!"

  The villagers all burst out laughing, saying of course they knew he was your son, they've known since the day he was born! The villagers couldn't help but feel envious towards the father and son duo, who had gone out together the night before. Each person got a catty of meat, and according to the household division, they could get another catty, which made it three catties of meat in total. Old Xu's family was indeed rich!

  Li Qian praised Xu Xiaoni, then let Old Man Xu come forward, and again praised him for raising a good son. He also told the story of how he bravely rescued Li Tian last night. This time, it was Old Man Xu's turn to blush like a red cloth, while Xu Xiaoni whispered at the bottom: "See? That's my dad!"

  After boasting, Li Qin divided the meat among households. For each household he shared with, he held up the meat with both hands and said: "Born in Fu Jiao, support each other!" Reminding the villagers that from now on they should unite, the whole village of Fu Jiao is one big family.

  Before long, the meat was all distributed, and Li Qin also divided the meat soup among the villagers. Each villager's bowl had a large piece of meat and was full of meat soup. After the meat soup was distributed, the villagers sat or stood in the threshing ground, eating meat and drinking soup with big mouths, and the whole field was filled with laughter and cheers.

  The three members of the Li family crouched at the edge of the field. Li Tian took a sip of soup and said, "Son, tomorrow you and Zhao Ba Jin will go into town. His sheep died, so he has to sell it quickly. You can also sell the leopard skin then. I left half a rack of ribs for your sister, as well as two catties of fine meat. Take them to her first, then go sell the leopard skin. Your brother-in-law is not around, and she's having a hard time taking care of her parents-in-law alone. She probably can't even eat enough bran."

  Li Qin hummed, in his memory, his sister Li Jia was a very virtuous woman, married to a poor but honest scholar who had escaped from afar, but that scholar ran off to the provincial capital to seek his fortune, leaving her and their parents-in-law at home. Li Jia made ends meet by doing needlework for others, living a rather frugal life. However, in his memory, there wasn't much about his brother-in-law, possibly because that poor scholar had been away from home for too long, so the memories were vague.

  He sighed and said, "I don't know when Jia Wen will be back. He said something about seeking a career advancement, but I don't know if he's found one or not."

  Li Tian hummed and said, "If we had found her, wouldn't we have taken our parents and wives to enjoy good fortune long ago? How could there be no news for so long? Perhaps she's already dead outside! At the time, I was really deceived, thinking that finding a filial daughter-in-law would allow my daughter to live a good life, but in the end, it harmed my daughter instead."

  As soon as the three words "Jia Wenhu" were mentioned, Li Qin thought of a little something about her brother-in-law, but it wasn't anything good. It seemed that Jia Wenhu was one of those people who weren't good at anything except talking, he never took the lead in doing things, instead he would instigate others to do them and then he would make reckless decisions from behind, after a long time, everyone discovered that he had too many tricks up his sleeve and wasn't sincere enough, so they all stopped paying attention to him.

  Jia Wenhu couldn't make a living in his hometown, so he fled to Fuping. He still couldn't make a living in Fuping, and had to leave again. Now I don't know where he is making a living!

  Li Tian and Mrs. He were very dissatisfied with their son-in-law, saying a few words before stopping, only letting Li Qiming go see Li Jia tomorrow, stay overnight at his sister's house, and do some chores for his sister, Li Qiming naturally agreed to everything.

  After having "the whole leopard banquet", the villagers went back home one after another to attend their own affairs, and Li's family of three was no exception.

  The next morning, Li Qin got up early, drank some leftover meat soup from the day before, packed the leopard skin on his back, carried a basket in one hand with the spare ribs and tender meat for Li Jia, and held a wooden stick in the other hand. He left home to find Zhao Ba Jin, as they were going into town together.

  ——

  Xiao Qin walked out of the small village and into the city. The new book ranking has risen from 52 to 49, everyone please help top it up, collect and recommend votes, thank you for your support!