Chapter 19 Congtai Riding and Shooting

Congtai is located in Handan City. It is a training ground for Zhao Yong to practice the army. Its scale is so large that it can accommodate tens of thousands of iron riders to gallop and practice.

Congtai riding and shooting, formerly known as Xingong drill, originated from the time of Zhao Liehou's reign. It is a grand martial arts performance held every spring in the State of Zhao. Most of them are the young children of the nobles. At that time, the king of Zhao will select excellent people from them to join his own Yulin guards, so as to maintain the good martial arts style of the children of the aristocracy.

The State of Zhao is located in the northern Xinjiang, and the folk customs are almost similar to Hu Feng. Most of them are proud of being good at fighting. Because he fought with the three nomadic tribes of Linhu, Loufan and Donghu in the north all year round, he was deeply influenced by the tactical ideas of the cavalry. While the Central Plains countries were still following the old tactics of chariots and infantry left in the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Zhao had taken the lead in getting rid of the bulky chariots and armor, and gradually switched to cavalry with better mobility and flexibility as the main mode of combat.

After Zhao Yong launched the "Hufu riding and shooting", he even promoted the cavalry to the highest level of the army. Zhao Jun has a very strict method for selecting cavalry. He is under 40 years old, more than seven feet and five inches long, strong and powerful, excellent, etc., etc., and wait for the bow to shoot, swing back and forth, cross the ditch, climb the military mausoleum, take risks and block, drive the strong enemy, and mess up the public - the end is strict and meticulous. These carefully selected knights are the elite cavalry of the State of Zhao, known as the "hundreds of gold".

So far, most of the generals in the Zhao army were directly promoted from the best in the cavalry, which also confirmed the strategic idea of the Zhao army to focus on cavalry operations. In the past, the era when Gongqing's children served as lieutenants of the army was gone forever, and Zhao Jun became a young army full of vitality. However, in order to appease the Gongqing family, Zhao Yong set up a Yulin Qin army, which was served by the best of the nobles as the reserve officer regiment of the Zhao army.

And Congtai's riding and shooting is the riding and shooting test of the master's selection of Yulin, so over the years, the children of Zhao Guogui and Qi have been attracted to it, and they are all proud of being selected as Yulin.

Originally, according to the regulations, it is necessary to be at least 15 years old to participate in the selection of Yulin. Zhao Xin is just over 14 years old, and his age is still not enough, but he is the Lord's father, so naturally there can be an exception.

Zhao Xin is wearing a brand-new riding suit today, with a martial crown tied tightly on his head, a short sword on his waist, a long bow on his back, and worked hard to straighten his waist on the back of the horse. He looked a little heroic.

Although Zhao Xin is young, he can be tall among his peers. He is more than six feet long when he is only 14 years old. Coupled with the excellent appearance inherited from the Li family, he is particularly attractive in the crowd. There were a lot of noble women onlookers onlookers. Zhao Xin's good appearance attracted a lot of attention, and even many bold women smiled and pointed at him. Further away is the human wall composed of more than 10,000 Zhao's soldiers in iron armor, blocking more than 100,000 onlookers of Zhao Min in the periphery.

Zhao Xin didn't pay attention to these points. Now he is focusing on the mount with his legs, and the palms of his hand holding the rein are full of sweat, and he is a little nervous. He didn't learn equestrian to shoot for a few months. Now he can barely balance his body and shoot arrow feathers when he runs, and he doesn't know where to fly.

So when his father came home a few days ago, he told him to participate in Congtai's riding and shooting in advance. He was full of bitterness in his heart. He was self-aute, and he was embarrassed by his half-baked water products. However, the king's order had been given, so he had to come bravely.

I looked up and glanced at several teenagers around me. I saw that they were also full of nervous faces. In the cold weather, there was even sweat on their foreheads. It was the first time I participated in such a large formation. Maybe there were a lot of smugglers who came to support the scene like myself. Thinking of this, Zhao's confidence was much relieved. He gradually loosened the rein of the horse and began to look at the people around him with a smile.

A total of 276 children of noble relatives participated in the riding and shooting of Congtai this time, most of whom were from 15 to 18 years old, which were divided into groups A and Group B. Group A is relatively elderly, accounting for more than half of the people. These people are the best among the children of noble relatives. In addition, they are slightly older. Whether they are system or skillful in riding and shooting, they are far above Group B. This is the most attractive point in today's test.

Comparatively speaking, the younger group B is not very ornamental. Here are all fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers. Most of them have not yet taken shape, and their faces are also childish. Most of them are the first time to participate in Congtai riding and shooting. Every year, the Lord chooses very few Yulin from the second group, and most of them will not have a chance to be selected until they are older for the second or third time.

Zhao Xin turned his head and looked around, but he accidentally saw two acquaintances. Behind him was Zhao Yi, the culprit of the last incident. When he saw Zhao Xin's eyes, he looked away with a guilty heart. He seemed to be afraid of Zhao Xin. It was the last time Zhao Xin's red eyes and wanted to kill him for revenge, which left a big shadow in his heart.

A more resentful look was staring at Zhao Xin, but Zhao Xin smiled and grinned. Seeing that he was not afraid of himself at all, Zhao Quan's heart was even more hateful, and he clenched his fingers and rattled.

Zhao Quan has been spoiled by the prince since he was a child, and he is extremely proud of his talent. However, he was hurt by Zhao Xin to break his leg and stayed in ** for more than two months. According to how his proud nature can stand it, if Gong Zicheng hadn't repeatedly told him not to make trouble before riding and shooting, he would have taken people to Zhao's mansion.

Now it's the enemy's meeting, and they are particularly jealous. Zhao Quan stared at Zhao Xin fiercely, and thought about how to find an opportunity to make him look good for a while.

Just as Zhao Quan was calculating, the master's father led the young King of Zhao to the large-scale Congtai, and behind him, Feiyi, Gong Zicheng, Zhao Yi and other ministers and generals followed him one after another. Zhao Xin narrowed his eyes and looked for a long time before he found his father from a lot of ministers with the same clothes. Zhao Jian sat calmly in the slightly back seat. Unexpectedly, I saw that the master Xinqi was also in the general's queue, standing behind the master.

The master and Zhao He sat on the wide throne, clapped their hands heavily and smiled, "Let the children wait for a long time, let's start."

The majestic and majestic trumpet slowly sounded, and with the sound of the shocking drums, Sanqian, dressed in cavalry, carried the rein of the horse and entered the horse farm with a neat pace, got on the horse in unison, and began the routine inspection before the shooting of the congtai.

These three thousand knights are the elite of Zhao Jun. They have been fighting around with their master all year round. They are really a tiger division, and it is no exaggeration to be one. Most of these knights are cold-looking and fierce, which is frightening.

The red flag of the former army turned over, and the 3,000 iron riders ran slowly, slowly accelerating, faster and faster, like a pouring flood, which was unstoppable.

The horse's hoof hit the ground heavily with the sound of war drums, raising dust all over the sky. The iron horse was like a stream, the horse was like thunder, and the murderous spirit soared in an instant. Even Zhao Min, who looked at the appearance of hundreds of feet, changed color and stopped his breath.

Almost for a moment, the knights on the horse's back had bowed and arrows in their hands, holding the horse's abdomen tightly with their legs, and their spare hands had drawn arrows from the arrow pot and put them on the bow string.

"Pray!"

The arrows have been removed, and 3,000 feather arrows rose in the air like dark clouds. After drawing a radian in the air, they pierced the shooting range hundreds of steps away. With the help of the horse, the huge momentum of the arrows easily shot through the thick grass man, and even shot through the wooden stakes. After a round of arrow rain, the shooting range was in a mess, and there was no longer a standing grassman.

Before everyone came back from this scene, the second round of arrow rain came one after another, followed by the third round. In just 400 steps, the cavalry of the State of Zhao unexpectedly shot three rounds of arrow rain. It can be imagined that if the enemy's army is facing the opposite side, the three rounds of arrow rain before the charge alone is enough to make all resistance go away.

A hundred steps came in an instant. The horse's cavalry quickly put down their bows and arrows and pulled out their swords at their waists. The movements were like clouds and flowing water, which was astonishing. With the huge momentum of the horse, three thousand iron riders fiercely inserted into the grass man array and crush everything in front of them into dust.

The more than a hundred young knights were just behind the shooting range, facing the front of the cavalry charge. Although they were far away, they could still clearly feel the murderous atmosphere. When the rain of arrows rose, most of the people turned pale with fear and subconsciously fell off their horses and wanted to escape. Zhao Xin looked at the blood surging, clenched his fist tightly, and almost roared loudly with excitement.

This is the place where men win fame, and this is the place where men should die! If you can't be like this, what's the fun!

The cavalry chiseled through the battle and turned quickly. The movements were neat and there was no intention of stagnation. The team bypassed a perfect arc and returned to the original place. With the hand of the general in front of him, the whole army stopped abruptly, like a person.

Three thousand people and horses, riding and shooting, sprinting, turning and stopping, but no one fell behind. Such a strong soldier is not in the world!

The commander-in-chief of the Zhao army in the front row drew his sword and held it high. In fact, 3,000 people raised their swords together and shouted long live. The shout quickly infected the hundreds of thousands of military names present. Every Zhao people waved their arms high and shouted vigorously. Long live the sound is like a landslide and tsunami, shocking the birds in the forest, hovering over the platform for a long time and never dispersing.

Zhao Yong has stood away from the throne, led Zhao He forward, and was extremely proud to accept the love of his subjects. At this moment, his ambition was like his wings. He felt more and more that with such an invincible iron horse in the world, what wish did Zhao Yong not wish? First, Zhongshan, the State of Qin, and then Qi Wei, Han Chuyan. The world of the world can only be my Zhao Yong alone. All my subjects must submit to my Zhao Yong's knees! I want to be the king of kings and the unique emperor in the world!

But Zhao Yong, who was intoxicated, did not notice that there was a trace of envy and jealousy in his youngest son's eyes.

Zhao He has recognized that the leader is his eldest brother Zhao Zhang. The eldest brother who was supposed to sit in his current seat is now crawling at his feet. However, Zhao He was not happy at all, because he didn't like to be the king of Zhao at all. He didn't like to be used as a puppet by others and asked him to do this and that all day long. He was not allowed to do this or that.

Suddenly, he envied his eldest brother. He could accompany his father for a long time and enjoy his father's favor all the time. He can ride a horse, walk through every mountain and river, and fight with thousands of troops and horses. He has everything he doesn't have, and what he has is just a magnificent cage.

Father, you are too biased!