My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 30: Superb Archery Skills, Stunning Everyone

Li Shimin and others stood up and walked out of the hall.

Changsun Wuji was very excited. He trotted to the tree outside the hall and tied the copper coins to the tree with a rope.

Li Chengqian took the Juque Sky Bow and walked to the entrance of the palace with one limping step.

This place is about a hundred steps away from the big tree where the copper coin is tied.

Zhang Ananda took out special arrows. After all, the Juque Heavenly Bow was too long and ordinary arrows could not fit it.

"Okay, Prince, you may begin now."

Changsun Wuji's eyes were filled with excitement and his voice was trembling slightly.

Li Chengqian did not waste any time. He took the arrow from Zhang Ananda and drew the bow with the full moon.

Li Shimin was surprised when he saw this.

Everyone saw it with their own eyes and were shocked.

The reason why Juque Tian Gong is so famous is that it is a two-stone bow.

The normal bow force level is basically stable between eight dou, one shi, one shi and two to one shi and four.

Only a true warrior can use the two-stone bow. Ordinary people can't even pull out a full moon, let alone use it.

Even if they used it reluctantly, they would run out of strength after shooting one or two arrows, and would become a burden instead.

Regardless of how accurate his archery skills are, the strength displayed by Li Chengqian is enough to break everyone's previous perception of him.

He could pull it open so easily, obviously he was familiar with it and could shoot many arrows.

At this moment, everyone subconsciously held their breath, breathing carefully and gently, for fear of affecting the prince's shooting of the coin.

Li Chengqian didn't feel much. Man Yue was familiar with the bow, so he took aim and drew the bow.

Boom.

There was an explosion.

That's because the bow is too strong, making the sound of the arrow cutting through the air.

Everyone then looked at the copper coins on the tree, and suddenly there was a sound of gasps.

It really was a breath of cold air.

I saw that the rope on the big tree had fallen down. That was because the rope wrapped around the copper coin had been cut by the arrow.

The arrow was firmly nailed to the tree, and the arrowhead had penetrated completely into the tree, which showed how powerful the second crossbow was.

Ordinary armor is like paper in front of the two stone bows. Only heavy armor can block it.

At this moment, Changsun Wuji's face was flushed, as if he was drunk, which was caused by being too excited.

The strongest archery skills ever demonstrated by his most admired father have now been reproduced.

He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say, and his eyes were already misty.

Father, such an ancient noun, has been away from him for too long.

He had even forgotten what his father looked like. He tried hard to recall, but found that all he could remember was a vague silhouette, a silhouette that had once been as tall as a mountain.

After Li Chengqian finished ejaculating, he still felt unsatisfied.

To others, a copper coin a hundred steps away is just a small black dot, but in Li Chengqian's eyes, it is not much different from looking at it on his own face.

So he took another arrow from Zhang Ananda, bent his bow and shot again.

Boom.

There was another explosion.

The arrow went straight through the base of the previous arrow and shot into the copper coin again, pushing the tip of the previous arrow deeper into the tree trunk.

This time, everyone, including Li Shimin, looked at Li Chengqian with a changed look in their eyes.

But Li Chengqian did not stop.

He took out another arrow and shot it, and the same situation happened again.

"color!"

Wei Zheng cheered directly for the prince.

"The prince is unparalleled in archery." Chu Suiliang said.

"With such archery skills, he is the bravest among the three armies." Fang Xuanling also praised.

Li Shimin smiled with satisfaction and said, "You have the demeanor of me in my old days."

However, at this moment, an inappropriate voice sounded.

"woooooo"

Li Chengqian couldn't help but turn his head to look.

It turned out that Changsun Wuji was in tears, wiping his tears with his sleeves, and even sobbing. "Changsun Situ, why are you doing this?" Chu Suiliang asked curiously.

Chang Sun Wuji wiped away his tears and said in a choked voice, "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you all."

"The prince's behavior is like that of my father, and he missed me too much, and even lost his composure."

Li Shimin sighed and said, "Wuji is indeed a pure and filial person. The spirit of my father-in-law in heaven will surely be pleased."

When Changsun Sheng died, Li Shimin was only eleven years old. He had only met him once from afar in the court of the Sui Dynasty, following his father.

At that time, Li Shimin naturally would not have thought that he would eventually marry Changsun Sheng's daughter as his queen.

"Your Highness is very good. He has lived up to your grandfather's reputation."

Changsun Wuji's tone was sad.

Li Shimin was a little unhappy.

The Crown Prince is my son and my father's eldest grandson. How come the fame has gone to your eldest grandson's family?

This is to enhance the prestige of our Li family.

Forget it. Seeing Changsun Wuji like this, Li Shimin was too lazy to care too much.

"Your Highness is a master of martial arts and archery, but as a prince, how can you rule the country with martial arts?"

"Your Highness, you must not give up the way of literature. You must know that governing the world depends on civil governance rather than military prowess."

"If you indulge in war, it will be the root of disaster."

Wei Zheng came to his senses and gave advice.

Others nodded in agreement.

A prince who is too powerful is not a good thing for the ministers who assist him.

Not every emperor can listen to advice like Your Majesty does.

So everyone hoped that the prince would give up his martial arts and concentrate on government affairs.

After the archery competition, everyone returned to the main hall, and Li Chengqian sat back in his wheelchair.

But the way everyone looked at Li Chengqian was completely different now.

"What Duke Wei said makes sense. I wonder what government affairs you and the emperor were discussing just now."

Wei Zheng said: "The imperial examination ended a few days ago. This meeting is to discuss the crime and punishment of the governors of various provinces for failing to recommend candidates."

The imperial examination system when it was first established in the Tang Dynasty was different from that of later generations. There were a wide variety of examination subjects, including scholar, classics, jinshi, law, calligraphy, mathematics, one history, three histories, Kaiyuanli, Daoju, and boy, etc.

The Xiucai exam requires candidates to write five essays on the country's major policies and strategies. The exam aims to select high-level talents with a macro-global awareness, so the requirements for candidates are very high.

In the circle of scholars during this period, scholar was the highest title.

Often, the scholar class will be vacant for one or two years and no one will be admitted.

If one passed the imperial examination, he would be assigned to the corresponding official position according to his good performance in the subject.

If the candidates are recommended by local provincial governments and fail to be hired, the provincial governors will be punished and held accountable for their poor recommendation.

Li Chengqian asked: "Excuse me, Lord Wei, in the 360 ​​states of the Tang Dynasty, are there candidates recommended in each state?"

Wei Zheng replied: "Of course not. Most states have lost their talents and there is no one to promote them."

Li Chengqian asked again: "Then do the governors of the prefectures who did not recommend any candidates need to be punished?"

Fang Xuanling looked up at the prince and he felt what the prince meant.

Chu Suiliang also looked over, his eyes somewhat complicated.

Wei Zheng hesitated for a moment and said, "Since no one recommended him, he won't be punished."

Li Chengqian followed up and said, "Those who recommend talents will be punished, while those who don't recommend will not be punished at all."

"Why should the governor of the prefecture recommend talents? Instead of being punished for recommending talents, why not turn a blind eye? Even if it is not a merit, it is not a fault either. Why take the risk?"

Wei Zheng frowned and said, "Recommending talents is the duty of the governor of a prefecture. If we turn a blind eye to talents, wouldn't it be a waste of reading the books of sages?"

Li Chengqian said: "Mr. Wei is upright and honest, I admire him very much. If everyone is like Mr. Wei, the government will be clean and the world will be peaceful."

"But there is only one Duke of Wei in this world."

Hearing the prince's flattering words, Wei Zheng suddenly didn't know how to respond.

Li Shimin smiled and said, "What do you think the prince should do?"

Li Chengqian said naturally: "The governor of the prefecture is very busy, and recommending talents is just one of the tasks. It is really unfair for him to be punished for this."

"So those who recommend talents should not be punished. If the recommended person passes the exam, he should be rewarded."

"If a scholar or a number one scholar emerges from a prefecture, the prefecture chief should reward him generously and record his great achievements."

"In this way, the prefectures and cities will naturally work hard to recruit talents, and all the talented people in the world will be in the hands of our Tang Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)