Chapter 40: The Archer

  Gao Yuan found a new excitement for the soldiers. Anyone has a natural curiosity towards something fresh, especially when it's highly competitive. Everyone wants to stay longer in the sandbag array, outdo others and win the capital to boast in front of everyone. Among them, Sun Xiao and Yan Haibo were the most enthusiastic. Sun Xiao was solid and steady, while Yan Haibo was young and full of energy.

  The ultimate goal of martial arts is to defend oneself and defeat others, without actual combat practice, it's just some fancy moves. This sandbag array simulates real combat to the greatest extent while avoiding unnecessary harm. Since this sandbag array was set up in the military camp, almost everyone in the team has been bruised, Cao Tiancheng had to run into the city every day to invite doctors to treat everyone's injuries, and it turned out that the doctor who specialized in treating injuries made a fortune.

  Cao Tiancheng himself had tried it before, but after all, he was already in his forties, and as soon as he went in, he was knocked down in an instant. He was lying on the ground, crawling out from inside, and Sun Xiao laughed at him for a long time. From then on, Cao Tiancheng looked at these sandbags with trepidation, and never dared to try again. He was afraid of being young and vigorous, but his age had already caught up with him, and his strength and reaction were no match for those of the younger generation. It was better for Old Cao to have foresight and let himself be in charge of the team's food and drink, and let the young people do this kind of hard work.

  Gao Yuan set up the sandbag array somewhere and then didn't bother to manage it anymore, nor did he go to instruct the soldiers under his command to practice. This thing still relies on a bit of intuition and constant practice. The more you get hit, the faster your reaction will naturally become, and at the same time, the more you get hit, the higher your resistance to impact will be. Now being bumped by the sandbag is just a small matter, but if you go onto the battlefield and get hacked a few times with a sword, it's not something to be taken lightly. Except for occasionally going to practice himself, he almost didn't bother to manage how Sun Xiao and the others practiced anymore.

  Gao Yuan's attention had already shifted to the team's only ten archers.

  Archers are extremely difficult to cultivate, a gunner can be trained in one or two months, and a knife soldier at most half a year, but an archer requires at least one to two years of training to be useful. In a hundred-man team, having ten archers is already a very high proportion. In this era of cold weapons, as a long-range attacker, the archer is an indispensable part of the army's composition.

  At the edge of the camp, more than a dozen targets were added, and ten archers stood in a row in front of Gaoyuan.

  "Who is the most powerful?" Gaoyuan stared at these ten people and asked directly.

  Nine people's eyes were fixed on a small and thin man in the team, who was about thirty years old and only about one meter tall, considered short among men. Gao Yuan is no longer confident in judging the age of these soldiers, having made mistakes several times, it seems that people in this era look older than they actually are, perhaps because they have lived a hard life before.

  "What's your name?" asked Gao Yuan.

  "Return to the infantry barracks, little one is calling for foot soldiers!"

  "What?" Gaoyuan's eyes widened in surprise.

  "The little man's surname is Bu, and his name is Bubing!" the Han man said loudly.

  Gao Yuan almost laughed out loud, infantry, indeed a good name.

  What is your best achievement?

  "Fifty paces in, every arrow hits its mark!" The infantryman said proudly.

  As for archery, it's not very clear what a high score is. Fifty steps, an arrow hitting the target every time, he wasn't quite sure what level that was," I often see in books something about 'hitting the poplar tree at a hundred paces'.

  "Quartermaster, that's just fiction, in reality it can't be done, a hundred paces away, if you can hit one person that's already considered a divine marksman, actually even if you do hit, there's basically no lethality to speak of, at most it'll just make the opponent itch, as for something like hitting a willow leaf at a hundred paces, it's simply impossible." The infantryman didn't give Quartermaster any face, directly refuting him.

  The old face that was hard to get turned red with a glance at the confident infantryman, pointing to the distant target, "Come on, all talk and no practice is just lip service, shoot a few arrows and let me take a look."

  The infantry marched out in big strides, after nearly a month of training, these soldiers' every word and deed, movement and stillness, already had some of the style of modern soldiers.

  He raised his bow, grasped the arrow, placed it on the string, held his breath and calmed down, pinched the feathered arrow with his index and middle fingers together with his thumb, suddenly drew the bow, the force was not bad, the bow opened like a full moon, with a "hiss" sound, the feathered arrow flew out of the string with a sharp whistle, and with a "thud" sound, it hit the target fifty steps away.

  "Good!" The onlookers around all applauded with great effort.

  "Let's shoot a few more arrows and see!" Gao Yuan nodded slightly.

  The infantry stood with one foot in front and the other behind, and then shot four arrows in a row. As he said, every arrow hit the target. After the four arrows, he started to breathe heavily. "Bing Cao, it's been too long since I last held a bow, my strength can't keep up. Give me some time, Bing Cao, and I can shoot ten arrows in one breath."

  "Not bad, your aim is good, but you're a bit off in terms of force." Gao Yuan said thoughtfully, "I don't understand archery very well, but I've seen pigs run even if I haven't eaten pork. Your wrist is stable enough, the moment the arrow leaves your hand, the tremble between your wrists can make your arrow deviate by a hair's breadth, and miss by a thousand miles. Look at that human-shaped target, although all five arrows hit it, only two of them hit vital spots that could be fatal with one shot, the other three were far off."

  "Yes, what you said is right!"

  Gao Yuan smiled slightly, it can be seen that the infantry still had some dissatisfaction.

  "Let everyone come and try!" Gaoyuan waved his hand at the remaining nine people.

  Another nine archers came forward one by one, each shooting five arrows. Indeed, they were far inferior to the infantrymen. Among the five arrows, the best one only hit four, some hit three, two or not at all, and the worst one only hit one, with a face full of shame and redness.

  "Your common problem is that your arms and wrists are not stable enough. For this period of time, you will practice arm and wrist strength first!" Gaoyuan didn't care what the infantry thought, walked to the edge of the field, picked up a stone, weighed it in his hand, and threw it at the infantry. "Hang this on your wrist, then hold the bow and aim, you don't have to shoot an arrow, each time persist for one incense stick or longer, the time is set by yourself, but cannot be less than one incense stick, others do the same! Practice for ten days first, I will come back to see your results."

  "Is this useful?" The infantryman's face was full of doubt, just a moment ago the soldier had said that he didn't know much about bows and arrows.

  "Useful or useless, you'll know after trying!" Gaoyuan took the bow and arrow, holding it level in his hand, saying: "Infantry, come and feel my wrist!"

  Looking at the distant level of his arm, the infantry stretched out one hand and grasped Gao's wrist, pulling it gently, but Gao's hand didn't move a single thread, nor did it tremble in the slightest. Astonished, he added force to his hand, still like a dragonfly shaking a pillar. His heart was shocked, and with a sudden burst of strength, this time he finally moved Gao's wrist.

  "Not bad, your strength is pretty good!" Gaoyuan nodded, a skilled archer should have stronger arm strength than ordinary people, otherwise it would be impossible to pull the bowstring multiple times. Hand over the bow to the infantry, "You hold on!"

  The infantryman stood at attention, his posture perfect, and he had already understood what Gao Yuan meant. His arm was tense with anticipation. Gao Yuan smiled and lightly tapped him on the wrist, and the infantryman's hand dropped down, his heart sinking suddenly.

  "I haven't used my strength yet!" Gaoyuan threw down a sentence and turned to leave, leaving the stunned infantry behind.

  "Tian Cheng, come with me!" Looking back, he had already walked far away, beckoning Cao Tiancheng who was watching the commotion in front of the sandbag array. Meanwhile, Sun Xiao and Yan Haibo had already started fighting, standing together in the sandbag array, punching and kicking to send the sandbags flying everywhere. From time to time, they were hit by the flying sandbags, but they gritted their teeth and refused to give up.