Huayu: Starting with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu

Filming began at 2:00 AM.

The scene is that entire Oirat grain camp that has already been set ablaze.

This time, the fireworks team rekindled all the fires—the felt tents, the grain carts, the hitching posts. The flames flickered on the slope.

Three hundred cavalrymen assembled on the east side of the grain camp.

Chen Mo rode his chestnut horse, in the seventh position at the very front of the vanguard. The six horses in front of him were there to scout ahead.

His right hand gripped the seven-kilogram lance.

His left hand held the reins.

His eyes were fixed on the center of the grain camp.

In the monitoring booth, Commander Zhao used a walkie-talkie to repeat himself to everyone one last time.

"Attention all departments."

"The pursuit and slashing action is divided into three parts."

"First scene: Teacher Chen rushed into the southwest corner of the grain camp and stabbed the first extra next to the grain cart. The extra's name was Li Zhenyu. After hearing the sound of horses' hooves, Li Zhenyu came out from behind the grain cart and made a gesture of raising a curved knife. Teacher Chen slashed at him with a horse spear."

"Second paragraph: Teacher Chen continues forward and encounters a second extra named Wang Tao in front of a group of yurts. Wang Tao rushes out of a yurt, and Teacher Chen completes the second assassination on horseback."

"The third scene: Teacher Chen rushes to the center of the grain camp and encounters the third extra, named Has. Has is one of Mahmud's bodyguards. According to the script, he is the one who poses the greatest threat to Zhu Zhanji among the three. Teacher Chen completes the third assassination."

"The three assassination attempts were seamless and continuous."

"I estimate the total duration of the three segments to be thirty seconds."

"Action!"

Chen Mo's horse hooves began to rise.

Three hundred riders followed behind him.

The firelight cast the shadows of three hundred horses onto the slope, the black shadows pushing forward in the orange firelight.

Chen Mo's horse charged into the southwest corner of the grain camp.

Li Zhenyu emerged from behind the grain cart next to it.

Li Zhenyu raised his curved sword.

Chen Mo was on horseback, his right hand holding the lance horizontally.

The lance weighs seven kilograms, and in the past month, Chen Mo's right hand has developed a thick callus on the palm.

He did not use the action of "stabbing".

He made a "rowing" motion on the horse.

The tip of the lance grazed Li Zhenyu's left shoulder.

Li Zhenyu fell down following the rehearsed movements.

Chen Mo's arm was jolted the moment the lance passed over Li Zhenyu.

The force of that tremor was real.

The spearhead was covered with soft cloth, but underneath the cloth was real steel. When the steel hit a human body, the force of the impact was transmitted through the spear shaft to Chen Mo's arm.

Chen Mo gritted his teeth.

His face remained still.

He continued forward.

The second extra, Wang Tao, rushed out of the felt tent.

Wang Tao is taller than Li Zhenyu.

He was holding a short knife in his hand.

Chen Mo had to lean slightly to the right while on horseback.

This time, his lance didn't travel a horizontal path; it thrust diagonally downwards.

His right arm muscles tensed up at the stab.

He felt the weight of the lance travel from his wrist to his shoulder and then to his waist during that thrust.

The entire seven kilograms of weight pulled his body slightly to the right.

He was not pulled off his horse.

He squeezed the horse's belly tightly with his legs.

The spearhead pierced Wang Tao's chest protection layer.

The recoil was much greater this time than the last.

Chen Mo's entire right arm trembled.

He experienced a momentary numbness in the web of his right hand.

Wang Tao fell down as instructed.

Chen Mo did not stop.

His horse continued forward.

Grain Camp Center.

The third extra, Has, stood next to a burning hitching post.

Has was stronger than the two extras before him. He was a professional stuntman, and the crew specially chose him to play Mahmud's bodyguard.

Has was holding a long axe.

His reaction wasn't to stand still; he rushed at them head-on.

This was a move that action director Zhao added on the spot; he didn't tell Chen Mo beforehand.

Chen Mo had to react immediately.

He had one second.

In that split second, Chen Mo did one thing. He changed the direction of the lance.

He no longer draws horizontally, nor does he thrust diagonally downwards.

He gripped the shaft of the lance tightly in his right hand and then pushed it forward until the lance head was level with the saddle.

This action is a "carrying" action.

If a fifteen-year-old boy on horseback encounters an adult charging towards him, and he has not practiced how to deal with it, he will instinctively push his weapon forward to block the opponent.

Seven kilograms of horse spear.

Haas's body slammed into the spearhead.

Chen Mo's entire right arm was almost knocked off his hand by the impact.

He did not sell it.

He felt a sharp, real pain in his right palm.

His left leg loosened from the horse's belly.

But he immediately made up for it with his right leg.

Has slid down from the head of the lance and fell next to the hitching post.

Chen Mo's horse continued forward.

He rushed out of the grain camp center.

The three hundred riders behind him were charging in and out of the grain camp from all directions along the route.

The firelight was behind him.

Chen Mo rode his horse and charged out of the outer perimeter of the grain camp.

The voice of Commander Zhao came through the walkie-talkie.

"Charge! Charge! Teacher Chen, catch up with the defender!"

Following instructions, Chen Mo slowed down, allowing his horse to merge into the rearguard of one hundred riders.

They retreated to the edge of the slope.

The entire battle scene ends here.

Luo Yifeng's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Pass!"

Chen Mo dismounted.

His right arm felt numb the moment he dismounted.

He steadied himself by holding onto the saddle with his left hand.

He was still holding the lance in his right hand.

He held the lance upright.

There was a little blood on the spearhead.

It wasn't the blood of an extra.

The spear shaft recoiled from Has's impact, hitting the web of his right hand and tearing the skin. Blood seeped down the shaft and onto the spearhead.

Chen Mo did not bandage it immediately.

He handed the lance to a stagehand.

Then he did something that actors who have just finished filming wouldn't usually do.

He followed the route he had taken earlier, walking backwards.

He first went to the southwest corner of the grain camp and found Li Zhenyu.

"Teacher Li, were you shaken by that jolt just now?"

"It's okay, the shot was fired at the thickest part of the protective layer."

Chen Mo nodded.

He walked forward and found Wang Tao among the yurts.

"Teacher Wang, the chest?"

"My chest is fine; the protective layer covered it."

Chen Mo nodded again.

He eventually reached the center of the food camp and found Has.

Has stood beside the hitching post, watching him walk over.

"Teacher Ha, I almost dropped it just now."

"I know," Haas said. "I can see it, but you held on."

When Haas said this, his tone was a bit stronger than the previous two extras.

As a professional martial artist, he could tell at a glance that Chen Mo had used all his strength to lift that weight.

Chen Mo didn't say anything more, and nodded to Has.

Then he turned and walked toward the monitoring shed.

Inside the monitoring booth, Luo Yifeng was reviewing the footage.

The replay showed the entire scene of Chen Mo charging into battle.

Luo Yifeng didn't slow down the video; he watched it at normal speed.

After watching it once, he paused it.

He paused on that frame on the screen.

The frame on the screen was the moment Chen Mo had just stabbed the third extra and the horse continued to charge forward.

Chen Mo's face was coming from the side in the firelight.

His face was expressionless.

There was no panting, no smugness, no disgust, no shock.

The face of a fifteen-year-old boy, who had just stabbed three people with a lance, was now bare.

That kind of absence is a very strange kind of "absence".

That kind of emptiness is like the emptiness on the face of someone who has just finished a routine task.

Luo Yifeng stared at the screen for a long time.

He suddenly remembered a judgment that Wang Xueqi had made to him privately on his first day on set.

Wang Xueqi said at the time that the core of Zhu Zhanji's character was a kind of coldness that "treats killing as a job." It was not cold-bloodedness, but a normalized reaction to death that his grandfather had trained him to do.

Luo Yifeng agreed with this assessment at the time, but he wasn't confident that he could capture such a thing on camera.

Because this kind of thing is too difficult to act.

An actor cannot portray coldness, bloodshed, or enjoyment; an actor must portray a sense of calm, as if they have just finished work.

That kind of flatness needs to be solid, it needs to look like it's not acting, it needs to give the audience goosebumps subconsciously.

That frame just now was flat.

Luo Yifeng captured the frame where the screen was paused.

He opened his phone and sent the screenshot to Wang Xueqi.

After sending the message, he put down his phone and suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

He is fifty-seven years old this year. He has starred in three films that won the Huabiao Award for Best Film. He has also helped produce two Huabiao Best Actor winners and one Golden Eagle Best Actress winner.

He had never felt this tightness in his chest after filming a scene before.

My phone vibrated.

Wang Xueqi's reply has arrived.

The reply consisted of only three characters.

"He understands."

Luo Yifeng stared at those three words for five seconds.

Then he smiled.

Looking at the young people on the screen, the more I looked at them, the more pleasing they seemed to me.

He will surely achieve great things one day!