Zhou Yong is right, learning archery is indeed not difficult, at least not more difficult than getting a driver's license.
Even if someone has never learned archery, if you give him a bow, he can still shoot an arrow. But those who have learned archery can be better at it. The reason for this improvement is in the following aspects - positioning, holding the bow, nocking the arrow, hooking the string, pushing the bow, opening the bow, fully bowing, leaning into position, aiming, and releasing. There are only ten steps and actions in total.
These movements, just like playing golf or tennis, have a set of rules and techniques that have been tested and honed over time. These techniques are not complicated, and are even simpler than learning a set of radio gymnastics from beginning to end. Usually, you just need to say it once, put the bow on your hand, try it, and then have someone correct you, and you will be able to do it. It is not difficult.
It took less than ten minutes in total. With Zhou Yong's guidance, Yan Liqiang was able to learn it almost immediately and quickly memorized the key points of the ten archery movements, which made Zhou Yong praise him endlessly.
After mastering the basic skills of archery, Yan Liqiang spent the entire morning in the barracks with Zhou Yong and the other soldiers, practicing archery, watching the soldiers' gun formation drills, and exchanging ideas with everyone about martial arts and cultivation experiences.
Many soldiers asked Yan Liqiang for the secret of horse stance. Yan Liqiang did not keep anything to himself. Apart from not telling everyone about the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing, he frankly shared with everyone some of his feelings when passing the horse stance test, such as his breathing state, the mental experience of floating and sinking, and the feeling of his body being tight on the outside and loose on the inside when passing the test. He shared all of this with everyone, and many soldiers benefited a lot from it. They were very grateful to Yan Liqiang. You know, these things, in this era, cannot be learned from everywhere.
In the blink of an eye, the morning was over. Hearing the call for lunch, Yan Liqiang went to the cafeteria with everyone else. After lunch, Yan Liqiang said goodbye to Zhou Yong and others, and returned to his own courtyard alone. He came to the attic where he lived, closed the door, took out the bow bag that Zhou Yong gave him, put it on the table, then opened the bow bag, took out the horn python bow inside, and admired it carefully.
This horn python bow is a little shorter than the long bow bag, but it also looks very prestigious. Holding it in the hand, it feels heavy and substantial, giving people a very solid feeling.
In the morning at the camp, Yan Liqiang appeared to be very calm, but in fact, after receiving the horn python bow from Zhou Yong, Yan Liqiang's heart was beating very fast and he was so excited that he could hardly control himself.
This is a horn python bow, an extraordinary horn python bow!
Coincidentally, in his previous life on Earth, just one month after breaking up with Lu Jiaying, Yan Liqiang happened to come into contact with archery. One of his clients liked archery and invested in a archery club in the city where Yan Liqiang was. Once Yan Liqiang went to visit that client, and that client took Yan Liqiang to the archery club to play for a while. Since then, Yan Liqiang has become fascinated with archery.
Before getting involved in archery, Yan Liqiang had tried other sports such as golf, tennis and basketball, but he had little interest in them. But for some reason, from the very beginning of getting involved in archery, Yan Liqiang liked the feeling of the arrow flying from his hand.
For Yan Liqiang, the moment the arrow flies out of his hand, his heart is always filled with quiet joy. He feels that he is not shooting an arrow, but like watching a captive bird fly out of his hand, and from then on it is free, with the vast sea and sky, and all kinds of forests are available to it.
Yan Liqiang didn't know whether this feeling was Zen or he had psychological problems.
The first time he went to the Kyudo club, there was no coach on the archery range. Yan Liqiang took a pulley bow handed to him by a customer and shot a few arrows crookedly. He felt like he was taking drugs and could not extricate himself from then on.
The membership fee to join the Kyudo Club is 150,000 yuan. That client only wanted high-end members. Yan Liqiang, who was short of money, had no choice but to hide the joy and excitement in his heart. He did not tell anyone about it, but quietly added another item to his list of life goals.
Unfortunately, before he could fulfill each item on his list of life goals, he was reborn.
…
Yan Liqiang gently stroked the black bow body, feeling even more excited than the first time he touched Lu Jiaying. The black bow body was smooth, delicate, full of texture, and had circles of strange spiral patterns. Touching it in his hand felt like touching metal.
In the eyes of many people, the Horn Python bow is more than just a bow, just like a Rolex is more than just a watch.
Generally, the production of a qualified war bow requires materials such as stem, horn, tendon, glue, silk, and lacquer. Not only are the materials expensive, the production process is also complicated, and the influence of various weather conditions must also be considered - the bow stem is dissected in winter, the horns are processed in spring, the tendons are processed in summer, and the various materials are brought together in autumn. In the cold winter, the bow arms are placed in the bow box to fix their shape, and the surface is repaired in the extreme cold of winter. It takes at least three years from the production to the completion of a war bow, which also determines that the price of a qualified war bow will be very expensive.
However, the Horned Python Bow is more expensive than the war bows made using this process. The reason for its high cost is not because of anything else, but because the entire bow body of the Horned Python Bow is a natural one, not something artificially processed.
The bow body of the horned python bow is the entire head of the horned python.
The horned python is a strange beast that only exists in this world. Compared with ordinary pythons, the horned python has a pair of long horns on its head that are like bull horns. The pair of long horns and the head together look like a graceful and slender bow. For this reason, the horned python is named horned python.
The pair of horns that grew on the head of the horned python were different from the horns on the heads of other animals. The two horns on the head of the horned python were completely connected to the bones on the top of its head. They were completely integrated and extremely strong. In addition to being strong, its two horns were also full of strong toughness and elasticity. Under strong force, its two horns would be deformed, but in an instant, as soon as the force was released, its two horns would bounce back to their original positions.
The double horns on the horned python's head are even better than the bow body of a war bow made of human bows. It is precisely because of this characteristic that the head of the horned python has become the best material for making the bow body of a war bow, and the tendons of the horned python have become the best bowstring to match it.
It can be said that in the eyes of many people, a horned python is almost equivalent to a good bow.
Horned pythons live in the wilderness. Not only are there not many of them, but they are also very dangerous and aggressive. Three or five ordinary people, even with weapons, can only run for their lives when they encounter a horned python. In this case, the value of a horn python bow can be imagined, and it can easily cost more than a hundred taels of gold.
Yan Liqiang had never thought that Zhou Yong would have such a good bow in his hands.
Holding such a good bow, Yan Liqiang could hardly let it go, and his eyes scanned every inch of the bow.
The bow body and bowstring of this horned python bow have been carefully processed by craftsmen. The handle in the middle of the bow body no longer has the shape of a complete horned python skull, and it has been cut off and covered with a layer of non-slip leather with a layer of tight silver wire wrapped around the leather. The depression at the eye socket of the horned python skull has been turned into an arrow rest after processing, and the bow buckle at the tip of the bow is also wrapped with metal to facilitate fixing the bowstring.
At first glance, the whole bow looks very well made.
In addition to these, there are five circles of beautiful dark red patterns at different positions of the horn-like bow arms at both ends of the bow. The patterns are not added by craftsmen, but like the age on a tree trunk, they represent the age of the horned python. It is said that a circle of patterns will grow on the horns every four years after a horned python is born. The five circles of patterns represent the age of the horned python, which is twenty years old, and also represent that this is a five-stone strong bow.
Every four years that the horned python grows, its horns become tougher and more elastic, so it takes more force to pull them apart. As luck would have it, this amount of force is only about one stone.
Looking at the five circles of patterns, Yan Liqiang could only sigh for the horned python. You say you are a good python, the horns on your head can be used as the body of a bow, the tendons in your body can be used as strings, and even the patterns that record your growth and age can be used as a label of the bow's strength. How can anyone let you go
Zhou Yong said that he couldn't pull this five-stone bow, and Yan Liqiang was naturally embarrassed to show off in front of Zhou Yong, so when he was shooting arrows in the camp just now, he used another bow with only two stones.
Thirty jin is one jun, four jun is one shi, and each shi is one hundred and twenty jin, or sixty kilograms. To draw a five-shi strong bow, you need at least three hundred kilograms of strength in your hands. It is impossible for an ordinary person to draw such a bow.
After playing with the horn python bow in his hand for a while, Yan Liqiang stood up, held the bow handle with his left hand, pulled the string with his right hand, took a deep breath, exhaled and started to play, supported himself with his left hand and pulled back with his right hand, and with the strength of his legs, waist and back at the same time, the horn python bow was slowly pulled to its full length by Yan Liqiang.
After mastering the horse stance, Yan Liqiang had the strength of a rhinoceros horse. The five-stone bow did not seem difficult to him, but just right.
As soon as I loosened my grip, the bowstring snapped like thunder, and the air in the room exploded with a crackle, like a firecracker...
“Hahahaha…” Thinking that he had actually gotten what he wanted here today, Yan Liqiang laughed out loud in the room, extremely happy.
After trying out the Horned Python Bow, Yan Liqiang put the Horned Python Bow back into the bow bag, which he then placed in the room. Anyway, this courtyard was the most important place in the entire Artisan Camp, with countless people watching it, and no outsiders could come in, so there was no need to worry about leaving the bow here.
After putting away the bow, Yan Liqiang looked at the pile of sulfur in the corner of the room, and finally remembered something. He then closed the door, left the yard, and came to where Qian Su lived.
(End of this chapter)