Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 4 Two Bows Draw Their Bows

The five bandits sat on the ground, looking at the stolen horses, chatting and laughing with each other, and were very satisfied with the results of this battle.

"There are quite a few Han people grazing today. If there were fewer, the five of us could seize all their cattle and sheep." Scarface said with some regret.

"hey-hey!"

"I've seen it several times, that Han woman has a nice figure. If there weren't so few of us, I really want to snatch her back." The pockmarked Hu man said with a lewd grin.

Scarface sneered and cursed, "There are many Han people in Chanhekou, don't act rashly. When the matter is done, are you still worried about not having women?"

"Did the leader say when we will attack the Han people in Chanhekou?" asked the Hu man with messy hair.

"The Han people have a city at Chanhekou, so it's not that easy to attack them!"

Scarface hesitated for a moment and said, "Spring is coming. The leader will first find a place with abundant grass and water to live in temporarily. Other matters can be discussed later."

Before he could finish his words, a figure suddenly flashed through the bushes and the sound of horse hooves approached.

"who?"

Scarface was the first to react, and stood up abruptly, looking towards the bush. However, due to the obstruction of his vision, he could not see the specific situation clearly.

"嘘嘚~"

The muffled sound of horse hooves echoed from the undergrowth, echoing continuously.

Scarface listened attentively, trying to judge the number of people in the woods.

"one person!"

Scarface nodded to the messy-haired barbarian and said, "You two go into the forest and investigate the situation. If anything goes wrong, get out of the forest quickly. The rest of you stay with me and be alert to the surrounding movements."

"it is good!"

Under the order of Scarface, two Hu people rode their horses and carefully entered the forest; three Hu people stayed where they were, ready to gather the scattered horses around.

While the Hu people were gathering their horses, Zhang Yu rode out on his horse.

"嘘嘚~"

The sound of horse hooves rang out again, quickly alerting the remaining Hu people. They looked in the direction of the sound and saw Zhang Yu riding his horse down the slope, aiming directly at the pockmarked Hu bandits who were gathering their horses outside.

"there!"

Upon discovering Zhang Yu's trail, Scarface roared in a deep voice, warned the other two, and quickly went in the direction where Zhang Yu was coming from.

Zhang Yu controlled the direction of the black-maned horse with his waist and hips, held the riding bow in his left hand, and reached for the arrow in the quiver with his right hand.

The black-maned horse stretched out its limbs, and thanks to the support of the iron horseshoes, it ran very fast, sweeping past like a hurricane, and the grass foam and dust on the meadow flew everywhere.

Seeing Zhang Yu suddenly appear and rush towards him, the pockmarked Hu man was startled, but he reacted. He gave up the task of gathering the horses, rode his horse and held a bow to meet him, while moving closer to his companions.

Zhang Yu's eyes were sharp as a torch, constantly calculating the distance between the two and observing the movements of the three Hu people.

"Seventy-five steps!"

Estimating the distance between the two, Zhang Yu decisively raised his horse bow, held three arrows in his right hand, put the first arrow on the string, and aimed at the pockmarked-faced Hu man.

More than seventy steps in the Han Dynasty was equivalent to more than one hundred meters in later generations. This was the range of a strong bow, and it was a distance that only a good archer could shoot.

It should be noted that the effective riding and archery distance of outstanding Xianbei people was no more than sixty steps, while that of ordinary Xianbei people was about fifty steps.

Compared with Zhang Yu's archery skills, it was obvious that the pockmarked Hu man could not draw the bow from more than seventy steps.

"Whoosh!"

The arrow flew out of the bow, hitting the pockmarked-faced barbarian.

Hearing the sound of the arrow breaking through the air getting closer, the pockmarked-faced barbarian suddenly felt something was wrong. Although he was panicked, his hands and feet were unable to react, and he could only wait for the arrow to arrive.

Soon, the arrow passed by his side and Zhang Yu's first arrow missed.

"Ha ha!"

Seeing Zhang Yu's arrows miss, the pockmarked-faced barbarian laughed a few times, drew his bow and arrow, and said sarcastically, "My turn~"

"what!"

Before he could finish his words, an arrow hit the pockmarked Hu man in the chest.

Feeling the pain, the arrow in the pockmarked barbarian's hand dropped, and he showed an incredible look. The second arrow came so quickly!

"Whoosh!"

Before he could make any move, the third arrow came and pierced through his fur clothes. The arrowhead embedded itself between his heart and lungs, and bright red blood oozed out.

The pockmarked-faced Hu man staggered and fell off the galloping horse, dying instantly.

"Rapid Arrows!"

Seeing his companion being shot to death, Scarface couldn't help but exclaimed in shock.

Rapid-shooting arrows are also called continuous arrows. Archers often need to take 2-3 arrows in their hands first, and then shoot them one by one. Since they don't need to take arrows from the quiver, the shooting speed is very fast. Although this kind of archery is fast, it will affect the shooting posture and thus the accuracy. The archery skills of this Han man are so superb that he can not only shoot the bow at steps, but also shoot continuous arrows. He is definitely a rare warrior among the Han people.

"i!"

The scarred Hu man was shouting frantically and was particularly afraid of Zhang Yu.

Under the order of Scarface, another Hu people gave up riding bows and chose to use spears to charge at Zhang Yu. Apparently because they were afraid of Zhang Yu's archery skills, the Xianbei people wanted to use long bows and short spears to attack Zhang Yu.

Seeing this, Zhang Yu controlled the black-maned horse to constantly change its position to avoid the cooperation of the two.

In the vast field, the two riders galloped from left to right, roaring angrily, in an attempt to scare Zhang Yu. Erhu sandwiched Zhang Yu in the middle, with the spear riders on the right and the bow riders on the left, trying to seize the advantage of their accustomed side and defeat Zhang Yu.

But they obviously underestimated Zhang Yu. While Zhang Yu was shooting at the archers, he was also observing the spearmen. At the same time, in order to reduce the vigilance of the Hu cavalry, Zhang Yu deliberately turned around with difficulty and shot at the spearmen from the left.

Seeing this, the spear riders were very excited, thinking that Zhang Yu did not know how to draw the bow with his left hand, and they kept speeding up their horses and charging forward.

When the enemy approached ten steps away, Zhang Yu lowered his head to avoid the arrows from the archers, then immediately changed hands to draw the bow, holding the bow with his right hand and stringing the arrow with his left hand, and shot the spear cavalry head-on with an unexpected force.

The spear rider was hit in the face by an arrow and fell to the ground immediately, bleeding all over his face.

Shoot left and right!
Seeing how skilled Zhang Yu was in archery, Scarface was horrified and gave up the idea of competing with Zhang Yu in archery. He spurred his horse around and tried to escape.

How could Zhang Yu let Scarface escape!

Hold the bow with the left hand and take the arrow with the right hand. The bow is like thunder and the arrow is like cold light!
"what!"

In the blink of an eye, the arrow hit the man's chest and back. Scarface screamed and fell to the ground immediately, his life or death unknown.

Zhang Yu slowed down his horse and first checked the conditions of the three people one by one, and then wanted to go into the forest to assist Zhang Liao.

When he was about to enter the forest, he saw Zhang Liao riding out, holding a spear and driving away a Hu bandit, with the head of another Hu bandit hanging on the spear.

Seeing Zhang Liao escape unscathed and capture and kill one of the Hu bandits, Zhang Yu was more and more impressed. His reputation was indeed well-deserved. Although he was still young, he already had the demeanor of a man who could defeat thousands of enemies in history books!

"You are both a man of great talent in literature and martial arts. If it weren't for Jun Yuyi's help, it would be difficult for me to seize the horse." Zhang Yu couldn't help but praise.

"Don't dare!"

Compared with Zhang Yu's praise, Zhang Liao was more surprised by his ability to shoot and kill three Hu bandits, and said: "The Hu bandits are good at shooting. You shot and killed three people. Your shooting skills are superb. Liao has rarely seen such a thing!"

If we say that Zhang Yu is a man of extraordinary courage and insight, this is the first impression Zhang Liao has of Zhang Yu; and that he is an excellent archer is Zhang Liao’s second impression of Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu saw that it was still early, so in order to get closer to Zhang Liao, he decided to rest with him on the spot.

In the afternoon, the sky was cloudless and the sun was mild.

On the meadow, Zhang Yu and Zhang Liao sat on the ground and shared wine and food with each other.

Because of the friendship they had fought together, their relationship quickly heated up, and coupled with the boldness of frontier men, they hit it off right away.

"Wenyuan is an official in Yanmen County. Why is he in Dingxiang now?" Zhang Yu asked.

Zhang Liao did not hide his identity and said frankly, "I was ordered by the governor of Yanmen to deliver a letter to the governor of Dingxiang. On my way back, I stopped by the stream to rest and unexpectedly ran into Brother Ji'an."

Zhang Liao smiled and said, "I saw you riding alone to chase the Hu people. I couldn't bear it, so I followed you to help. I never thought you were such a good archer... I underestimated you."

It was purely a coincidence that Zhang Liao met Zhang Yu, who was chasing the Hu bandits, on the way. As for why Zhang Liao accompanied Zhang Yu to help him, it was entirely out of his inner appreciation and sense of personal responsibility.

Seeing that what Zhang Liao said was not much different from what he had guessed, Zhang Yu liked Zhang Liao more and more, and wanted to recruit him for his own use.

With the experience of later generations, Zhang Yu deeply understood that in order to build a career in troubled times, in addition to the leader's own talents, he must also have talented people to assist him.

Where do talents come from? There are generally two channels.

First, after a leader has made some achievements, he can recruit high-quality talents; second, if a leader knows how to cultivate, he can introduce talents with potential and train and cultivate them in the process of starting up.

For example, the foreign trade company run by Zhang Yu in his previous life was started by him and his cousin in the early days. After a long period of training and experience, his cousin shared a lot of pressure with Zhang Yu.

If he wants to establish a foundation, he must have talented people to help him. Although Zhang Liao is still young, with the talent he has shown and the guarantee in history books, he will surely become a great man after some training, and perhaps even better than the original history.

Of course, although Zhang Yu thought so, he also knew that given his current situation, it was impossible for Zhang Liao to follow him.

With the above in mind, Zhang Yu pointed to the herd of horses foraging and said with a smile: "Wenyuan, you have helped me with great righteousness. I am very grateful. Now I have nothing to repay you, so I am willing to give you six horses as a reward. I hope you will not refuse such a small gift."

Zhang Yu took back six horses from the Five Barbarians, plus the four horses captured from the Five Barbarians, for a total of ten horses. Now Zhang Yu directly used six horses as a reward, which was far more than Zhang Liao's contribution.

Zhang Liao refused, saying, "The fine horse originally belonged to you. How dare I accept it? If I were a greedy person, why would I follow you to take the risk and attack the Hu?"

In Zhang Liao's eyes, he was helping out of a moral obligation. If he took the lion's share of the spoils, he would feel that his behavior was distorted.

Of course, morality is morality, and Zhang Liao is not a person who does not love money. If Zhang Yu gave him two or three horses, Zhang Liao would feel that he had made a contribution and would most likely accept them after some hesitation.

As for Zhang Yu's stinginess and not sharing the spoils with him, although Zhang Liao would not care about it, he would still label Zhang Yu as unsociable.

The reward Zhang Yu gave today was beyond Zhang Liao's imagination. How could Zhang Liao accept it with peace of mind?

Zhang Yu seemed to have expected Zhang Liao's refusal, and asked, "This is a response that Wenyuan should give, and we must accept it. Does Wenyuan know about Zi Gong's redemption of people in the past?"

Zhang Liao shook his head and said, "I don't know. I have never read the classics before. I hope you can help me solve my doubts!"

(End of this chapter)