Warring States Eagle

After finishing the martial arts training, you can start the training of knife skills.Everyone held their knives and practiced basic knives against wooden tools. It is worth mentioning that the knives here are bamboo knives ordered by Zheng Liang.Nowadays, wooden swords are generally used, but this wooden sword is still very dangerous. If it is not done well, it will be broken by the wooden sword. The most typical example is that Miyamoto Musashi later smashed it with a wooden sword in the decisive battle with Sasaki Kojiro the latter's head.It is said that Nobuzuna Umizumi was the first to invent the bamboo knife, but this was after the late Warring States period.Now Zhengliang invented this bamboo knife in advance.Of course, these things must be strictly controlled and can only be circulated in the territory of the Luo family.

In addition to these, Zheng Liang also added some games, such as dividing these apprentices into two teams for joint battle games.The losing team will have to extend the training time.

Of course, it is impossible for Zhengliang to watch here all day, so he found a suitable teacher to replace him.

This generation of teachers is Shigemasa Yoshida.

Why did Yoshida Shigemasa agree to Masara's invitation? This will start from the beginning.

After receiving Masara's invitation to visit the Luo family's territory, Yoshida Shigemasa visited the Luo family as a guest while waiting for Kinoshita's recovery from his injury.After returning to the lord's mansion, Zhengliang originally thought that he would stay in the village outside the mansion to take care of Kinoshita Masao, but when Zhengliang was about to go out to inspect the territory, he automatically asked to go with Zhengliang, in the name of admiring the Luo family The scenery everywhere.

Zhengliang agreed to his request without thinking.In fact, Yoshida Shigemasa has always maintained a vague response to Masara's solicitation.Zheng Liang took advantage of this opportunity to recruit again.Of course, if Shigemasa Yoshida still insists on leaving in the end, then don't blame him for being ruthless.In order to prevent some technologies and conditions of the territory from being leaked, Yoshida Shigemasa is preparing to live a period of being "imprisoned".For this reason, Zheng Liang had already arranged for Black Eagle to make preparations in secret, and he would never be able to leave the Luo family's territory when the time came.

During the patrolling process, in their spare time, the two would also compete with each other.The current close combat effectiveness of Yoshida Shigemasa can be described as very average.Not at all an opponent of Zhengliang.The close combat ability is not as good as Masara, so he can only hope for his proud archery, but Yoshida Shigemasa soon found out.Even his old man is not as good as Zheng Liang in terms of actual effect. The most direct manifestation is that the two compete in archery through hunting.As a result, Masara's gains greatly exceeded those of Yoshida Shigemasa.In this regard, Yoshida Shigemasa was a little disappointed.

Zheng Liang secretly laughed at this.The current Yoshida Shigemasa can barely be called a master of archery, but he is still far from the level of becoming a master of archery in the future.The reason is very simple, if you want to achieve something.It must be experienced and understood.The current Yoshida Shigemasa is just a fledgling young man. Compared with Masara who can quickly upgrade without learning in archery, he is definitely not as good as him.

After being depressed for a while, Yoshida Shigemasa took the initiative to ask Zhengliang for his experience in archery. Zhengliang, who had been prepared for a long time, was of course happy in his heart, but on the outside he said in a pretentious way: "Chongzheng, do you know what the Dao is? "

"What His Highness said is the way of the Zen family?" Yoshida Shigemasa asked doubtfully.He grew up near Kyoto since childhood.It can be said that the knowledge is broad.I still know a little bit about Zen.

"Exactly," Zheng Liang said, nodding, "Zen is the 'normal mind', as the Zen masters said; 'normal mind' means 'eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are sleepy'. It is the bow, the arrow, the goal and the self. All integrated in Together, we can no longer separate them. When there is no need to separate them, this is the highest state of archery. It is also the great way of archery. It is ridiculous that this is what Zen masters call "normal mind" .”

"This..." Yoshida Shigemasa was puzzled by Masara's words.

"To comprehend the highest level of archery, at least three levels must be achieved first," Zheng Liang said seriously.

"What are the three realms?"

"Shoot arrows with your heart, shoot arrows without shooting arrows, and communicate with your heart," Zheng Liang continued.

"Your Highness, please do not hesitate to enlighten me." Shigemasa Yoshida was obviously caught by Masaragi's words.

"When the bow is fully drawn, it contains 'everything'." Zhengliang picked up the bow in his hand, stood in a solemn and solemn posture, flicked the bowstring a few times, and made a sharp sound with low chords.Then he put an arrow on the string and drew the bow very full.

"Archery is not about building muscles. When drawing the bow, you don't use your whole body, but only your hands, and your shoulders and arms are relaxed, as if they were just spectators. Only when this is done, can you It can be considered that the initial conditions have been fulfilled, making the drawing of the bow and the shooting of the arrow spiritual." Masara shot the arrow with a "swish", then turned his head and said to Shigemasa Yoshida.I saw that the shot arrow accurately hit the trunk of a small tree with a diameter of less than 10 centimeters in the distance.

"Is that so?" Yoshida Shigemasa picked up the bow and arrow as Masara just did, buckled the arrow, raised his hands above his head, stretched his arms almost flat, and stretched his arms evenly to the left and right, gradually opened the bow, and gradually lowered his hands Move it until the left hand holding the bow reaches eye level, the arm is straight, and the right arm drawing the string is bent, slightly higher than the right shoulder, so that only a little point of the three-foot-long arrow protrudes beyond the edge of the bow- forming a very large Bow length.He had to stay in this position for a while before firing the arrow.This particular way of drawing the bow slowly made his hands begin to tremble and his breathing became a little heavy.

"Did you feel it?" When Yoshida Shigemasa finally shot the arrow, Zhengliang said, "Your hands are shaking, that's because your inhalation is not correct. After inhaling, you should gently press down the air to let it It's tense here," Zheng Liang patted his abdomen, "Hold your breath for a while, then exhale as slowly and evenly as possible, pause for a while, and then take a quick breath. Just keep inhaling and exhaling like this, naturally forming a rhythm. If If you can do it correctly, you will find it easier to shoot arrows every day. Because from this breath, you will not only discover the source of all spiritual power, but also make this source flow more abundantly and smoothly into your limbs, making you Easier."

"Hold the bow, nock the arrow, raise the bow, draw the bow and stay at the maximum tension, and then release the arrow. Each step starts with inhalation, then holds the breath in the abdomen, and finally exhales." Zhengliang picked up the bow again to demonstrate , "The result of doing this is that the inhalation is naturally coordinated. After you persist for a period of time, you will form your own unique shooting technique, and your individual positions and hand movements will be fixed. And according to your individual inhalation movements Weaving all movements into a rhythmic process. This is shooting arrows with the mind.”

Yoshida Shigemasa listened carefully, he had completely fallen into Masara's point of view.He used to learn some shooting skills at home.But it was the first time he heard of such a novel and seemingly effective method of shooting arrows, and he thought it was too incredible.

"After reaching the first realm, we can go to realize the second realm," Zheng Liang turned around.Looking at the forest in the distance, he said quietly.

"An arrow that doesn't shoot an arrow?" Shigemasa Yoshida asked behind him.He was even more puzzled about this realm. She arrows are originally intended to hit the target, but now they say they are shooting arrows not for the sake of she arrows?

"You shoot an arrow first," Zheng Liang said.

Yoshida Shigemasa picked up the longbow in his hand according to his words, and drew the bow again to prepare to shoot the arrow.I saw that when he drew the bow, his thumb was wrapped around the string and stuck to the arrow.Buckle into palm.Three fingers pressed tightly against the thumb.At the same time, clamp it firmly.To shoot an arrow is to open the fingers holding the thumb and let go of the thumb.Because the tension of the string is so great, the thumb will be straightened violently, and the bowstring will flick, and the arrow will fly out.Ordinary samurai and ashigaru will tremble suddenly because of this action, which affects the stability of the bow and arrow.Therefore, it is impossible to release arrows smoothly.Needless to say, some arrows must have been shot crookedly.Now because of the careful knowledge from my family since I was a child.Yoshida Shigemasa has basically eliminated this problem, but it can still be seen.The shoulders trembled slightly.

"Come and see me," Zheng Liang raised his longbow again and began to demonstrate.All movements are no different from Yoshida Shigemasa, but as long as you observe carefully, you will find that although Masara's right hand bounces back due to the release of tension, it does not shake the body at all.His right hand was at an acute angle before the arrow was released, but it was bounced away after the arrow was released, but it was gently straightened back.Unavoidable shocks are completely absorbed by the cushioning.If it weren't for the sharp "tight" sound of the trembling bowstring and the penetrating power of the flying arrow, no one would feel the power of the arrow when it was released.On Zhengliang, shooting arrows seems so easy and normal, it's like a child's play.

"Why is this so?",

"Don't think about what you should do, don't think about how to complete it. Only when the shooter is caught off guard, the arrow will shoot smoothly. The bowstring should cut through the thumb. You must not deliberately let go of your right hand." Zheng Liang Said.

Shigemasa Yoshida still doesn't seem to understand.

"It seems like a centipede, if it suddenly wants to figure out the order of its feet, what do you think will happen in the end?" Zheng Liang asked.

"It must be impossible to move the scales," Yoshida Shigemasa replied after thinking for a while.

After that, Yoshida Shigemasa tried several times according to the method Masara said, but he was still not satisfied.

"You hold the drawn bowstring like a baby holding its fingers stretched out in front of it. The strength of his little fist is astonishing, yet there is no jolt when he releases his fingers. Do you know why? Because The baby doesn't think: I'm going to let go of my fingers to grab something else now. He goes from one thing to another, completely involuntarily and without purpose. We say the baby is playing with something, and we can also say, it's the thing I'm playing with the baby." Seeing Shigemasa Yoshida's suspicious head, Masara said, "You know why you can't wait any longer? Why do you pant before you shoot the arrow? The correct shooting never happened because you refused to let go You are yourself. You are not waiting for completion, you are preparing for failure. As long as this continues, you will have no choice but to conjure something on your own that should happen naturally, and as long as you continue to conjure like this, your hand It cannot be released properly like a baby's hand, and it cannot open its skin naturally like a ripe fruit."

"This... is really impossible to understand," Yoshida Shigemasa said with his head bowed.

"When you shoot your arrow, you have nothing to ask for. There is no target. The more stubborn you try to learn how to shoot an arrow to hit the target, the less successful you will be, and the target will be farther and farther away from you. It is your heart that hinders you. Too much. You think if you don't do it yourself, things won't work

Happened," Zhengliang continued, "the shooter pierces the sky with the upper end of the bow, and the lower end of the bow hangs from the earth with strings.If there is a slight vibration when shooting the arrow, there is a danger of the bowstring breaking.For the scheming and violent people, this rupture is permanent, and they fall into the terrible situation of being unable to reach the sky and unable to reach the ground. "

"Is this the arrow that doesn't shoot?" Shigemasa Yoshida raised his head and asked.

"Well. Let go of yourself, abandon yourself and your everything, until there is nothing left but an unintentional tension. This is the second realm of archery, the arrow that does not shoot the arrow", Zhengliang nodded in response.

"Does this seem to be a stage on the way to "emptiness" and "transcendence" as the Zen say? " asked Shigemasa Yoshida.

"Yes, this is the way to the great road of archery."

"Then, Your Highness, what is the meaning of the third realm of archery, heart-to-heart communication?", although temporarily unable to comprehend the first two realms of archery, Shigemasa Yoshida decided to understand the last realm.

"This kind of state must start from giving up all attachments, and become completely selfless; then the soul will return to the inner, and enter the nameless, shapeless, endless original." Zheng Liang thought for a while, and finally said, "It's a pity Yes, I will not be able to reach this level."

After receiving Masara's guidance, Yoshida Shigemasa seemed to have learned a lot.In the next few days, he continued to accompany Zheng Liang on his inspections, while practicing archery, trying to comprehend the realm of archery that Zheng Liang said.Seeing this, Zheng Liang secretly laughed in his heart.In fact, in terms of archery, Masara's level is actually only slightly higher than that of Yoshida Shigemasa.But what Zhengliang is now moving out is the archery theory that has been proven by later generations, and of course the level is much higher.Zheng Liang intends to attract the other party through these advanced archery theories, so as to attract the other party again.

Seeing that the time is ripe, this day, Zheng Liang pretended to accidentally talk about the upcoming Luo's dojo, and even expressed that he was going to look for swordsmen with outstanding swordsmanship, archery and spear skills as teachers.

Unexpectedly, Shigemasa Yoshida immediately expressed a strong interest.Zheng Liang strikes while the iron is hot, and kindly invites him to be the archery teacher of the Luo family on the spot. At the same time, as the teacher of the Luo family's dojo, he is responsible for the daily training of the archers in the territory and the archery guidance for those with small surnames in the Luo's dojo.Of course, Zhengliang also emphasized that it is only necessary to teach basic archery and archery formation. After all, he left because he was unwilling to pass on his family's archery to the young master of the Liujiao family.What Zhengliang valued more was his basic archery guidance to the archers in the territory and the arrow arrays in those battles, especially the "fan rain" arrow array that Yoshida Shigemasa was familiar with.