In the afternoon, Jiang Sanlang and his family sat together to have dinner.
"Dad, Uncle Zhang Meng wants to teach my brother martial arts."
Yingbao told her parents: "He showed us a set of boxing today. It looked pretty good to me. He should know some tricks."
Jiang Sanlang was not surprised at all. "Zhang Meng and Xu Kun are both soldiers guarding the border. They are old acquaintances of Wen Fu, so their martial arts skills are probably comparable."
He didn't know much about Zhang Meng and Xu Kun, but he knew that Wen Fu was an excellent fighter.
Jiang Sanlang asked his two sons: "Do you really want to learn martial arts?"
Jiang Jie shook his head repeatedly: "No."
He had seen Uncle Xu Kun hitting Uncle Zhang Meng with a hammer before, which scared him, so he didn't want to learn martial arts from those two.
Jiang Wu blinked and nodded: "I want to learn, and my sister will learn too." He meant that his sister would learn with him.
Jiang Sanlang flicked his son's head and said angrily, "If you want to learn, then learn. If you don't want to, then don't go. Why do you have to involve your sister? Your sister is a girl. How can she wield a sword or a gun?"
The key point is, how can I let my daughter worship a man as her master? This is absolutely inappropriate.
"Why not?" Jiang Wu held his forehead and said dissatisfiedly: "If my sister doesn't want to learn, I won't learn either."
Jiang Sanlang didn't want to pay attention to his son, and buried his head in drinking porridge. "It's up to you. If you don't want to learn martial arts, study hard and take the imperial examination in the future."
Jiang Wu: …
He doesn't want to take the imperial examination, and he won't pass it anyway.
Because every time the teacher randomly checked his recitation of the textbook, he was slapped on the palm. If he was not afraid of being beaten by his parents, he would not go to school.
Frowning and thinking for a while, Jiang Wu asked: "If I learn martial arts, does that mean I don't have to study?"
"Who said you don't need to study to learn martial arts?" Jiang Sanlang glared at him. "Why would you learn martial arts if you don't study? What have you learned from the Three Character Classic? If jade is not carved, it will not become a useful object. If people don't study, they will not know righteousness. Didn't the master teach you that?"
Jiang Wu's face fell.
After dinner, the two boys washed up and went back to the room and climbed onto the kang.
Jiang Jie listened to his brother sighing and said quietly, "You are so stupid. If you practice martial arts every day, you won't have to stay in the school all day. You will have something to say when you can't memorize the books in the future."
How could this be possible? Jiang Wu suddenly realized.
Yes, since he is learning martial arts with Uncle Zhang, he definitely won’t have time to go to school, and the teacher won’t be able to hit him on the hand when the time comes.
"Hehe, the teacher also said that I was born with talent that will be useful. If studying and taking the imperial examinations don't work out, I can still do other things in the future. As long as I work hard and attentively, there will be champions in every field. I will be a champion in martial arts in the future."
Although their teacher is old-fashioned, he is sometimes open-minded. He does not mind whether his students can pass the examination or not, but students must ring the bell every day they study under him, and if they do not study seriously, they will be beaten on the hand.
The next day, Jiang Wu got up early and ran to tell Uncle Zhang that he had decided to learn martial arts while his parents were not paying attention.
"Have your parents agreed?" Zhang Meng was very happy to hear this, but he was also worried that it was just the child's wishful thinking.
If Jiang Cunzheng disagrees, I can't accept this child as my apprentice privately.
"I agree! We all agree! They also said they are going to prepare a ceremony to become a disciple." Actually, they didn't. But as long as I promised to study martial arts well and not interfere with my studies, my parents would not object.
Zhang Meng laughed and patted Jiang Wu on the shoulder, "Okay! In that case, let's get started now."
"Start what?" Jiang Wu was confused.
"Pull the big tendons!" Zhang Meng said, "The first step in learning martial arts is to learn how to pull the big tendons in various parts of the body so that they can be used freely."
Seeing that Jiang Wu was still confused, Zhang Meng picked up a branch and broke it in two. "See? This branch is like your bones. It will break if it is bent without protection."
He then took up two ropes and wrapped them around the branches, "These ropes are like your tendons. Not only can they protect your bones from external damage, but they can also help you exert your strength to attack others with the strongest force."
Jiang Wu nodded, staring at his master without blinking and listening attentively.
Zhang Meng pinched Jiang Wu's shoulders, arms, lumbar spine, thighs and calves, "There are big tendons here. You must first train your tendons and bones to be strong and flexible, so that you can always use the tendons to protect your limbs. Only then can you learn the moves."
Jiang Wu seemed to understand.
Zhang Meng added: "Your tendons are not strong enough now, so we need to strengthen the tendons first. This is called picking the tendons."
"Okay, Master, you can choose." Jiang Wu looked expectant.
Zhang Meng's face twitched, thinking that there was still a lot of time, and he couldn't scare away his new apprentice now. "We'll start formally after you become my disciple. Now I'm just telling you how to use your muscles to exert force."
"Okay, okay!" Jiang Wu responded excitedly.
At noon, Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang brought gifts and their son to pay homage to the master.
Chunniang had no idea what gift to prepare for Master Wu, so she just prepared some practical things, such as two pieces of pork, two new clothes, two new pairs of shoes, and a five-liang silver gift.
Zhang Meng and Xu Kun were very satisfied and accepted it gladly.
Afterwards, Jiang Wu knelt down and kowtowed, formally becoming his disciple.
This bow also refers to two masters.
Zhang Meng is good at boxing and swordsmanship, while Xu Kun is good at fighting on horseback.
But the Jiang family doesn’t have a horse at the moment, so they can only train the children’s physical fitness first and learn riding skills later.
Next, Jiang Wu finally realized what it meant to shoot himself in the foot.
He was exhausted as a dog on the first day. His legs were shaking when he walked. He didn't recover even on the second day.
Jiang Wu regretted his decision and refused to get up, but his father showed no mercy and picked him up and threw him to his master, asking him to continue the horse stance he had done the day before and to punch with both hands to exercise the muscles in his arms and back.
This action alone almost cost me my life. I couldn't sleep at night because my whole body was in pain.
Jiang Wu ran to his sister crying and complained that he didn't want to practice martial arts anymore and wanted to go to school.
Yingbao handed him a bowl of water and whispered, "Don't give up halfway when doing something. You must walk the path you choose well. If you give up today, you will have to give up again when you encounter other difficulties in the future. Do you want to be a hero who stands tall and upright, or do you want to become a good-for-nothing second-rate person who can do nothing?"
Jiang Wu sobbed and said, "I, I want to be a good man."
My sister said that second-rate people sleep in pig pens and eat pig food all day long, and even dogs despise them, so she would never be a second-rate person.
Yingbao touched his head and put the bowl in his hand: "Come, drink the water and go to sleep, your legs won't hurt tomorrow."
Jiang Wu drank the bowl of water obediently.
You know what, after drinking it, I felt warm all over, and the pain in my waist and legs was gone.
After waking up, Jiang Wu felt refreshed. Not only did his body not hurt, but he seemed full of strength.
Today he actually held the horse stance for more than three incense sticks, which made Zhang Meng and Xu Kun marvel.
Even Wen Fu praised that the child was indeed a good seedling and a martial arts genius.
After a few days, Jiang Wu could already do horse stance for more than an hour without feeling tired, and then jog for two or three miles to warm up.
Seeing this, Zhang Meng gave him more exercises, asking him to lift half a bucket of water with his arms outstretched to build up the strength of his shoulders, back and arms. He was allowed to take a short rest only after completing these exercises.
Because the space in the vegetable garden was not big enough, Jiang Sanlang simply built a martial arts training ground on the wasteland next to the orchard, and also smashed some plum blossom stakes on the side of the field according to Zhang Meng and Xu Kun's requirements.
Yuanbao, Huzi and other boys in the village had never seen such a scene before and were very curious. They often came to watch Jiang Wu practice martial arts, and some even followed him secretly.
Even teenagers like Jiang Quan and Jiang Cheng found it quite fun and secretly climbed up the plum blossom pile at night when there was no one around. However, they accidentally fell down and their buttocks hurt for several days.