Back to the prosperous Tang Dynasty to be the emperor

Chapter 235: Goose Hunting (2)

Wild geese, also known as swans, are large migratory birds. Every autumn and winter, they will fly from Siberia to the south for the winter. In the spring of the following year, they will return to Siberia from the south to multiply. A migration takes more than two months. The journey is nearly [-] miles away. Such a long journey cannot be completed in one go. There must be many places to rest on the way. Guangchengze, which has a radius of hundreds of miles, is lush with aquatic plants and full of fish and shrimps. It is the most important place for wild geese to migrate. One of the resting spots, every year since April, flocks of geese from all over the world come here to forage and play. The lake is full of geese flying and falling. To the right of this place, even though it is early summer, there are still five flocks of geese lingering in Guangcheng Lake, and each flock has a size of more than two hundred.

The meat of the wild goose is extremely fresh, one bite will definitely leave a lasting fragrance on the lips and teeth, but it is not easy to eat it, probably because wild geese are naturally alert, needless to say when flying high in the sky, ordinary bows and crossbows It is impossible to shoot so high. Even when resting at night, there are extremely diligent old geese watching the night. If there is a slight disturbance, the whole flock of geese will soar into the sky. The difficulty of hunting is really great. Even an experienced old hunter cannot guarantee success. If the success rate is half, he can already be called a wild goose killer. The odds of a billion-dollar prize are much lower, because there is no species of white goose in the classification of wild geese. Even the bar-headed goose with the most white feathers is not a pure white goose. There are few gray variegated hairs. As for gray goose, bean goose and other goose species, it is even rarer to see a few white hairs. The so-called white goose is just a wild goose with albinism. Bai Zhiyan is undoubtedly more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack, let alone hunting it down.

The task is more difficult, but unfortunately Li Xian has no choice. Not only must it be completed, but it must be completed as soon as possible. Otherwise, the situation in Luoyang City will inevitably change. In this way, Li Xian's earlier plan is very likely to fail It was completely invalidated, and this was obviously the result that Li Xian was 12 unwilling to see. Because of this, when Li Xian arrived at Guangcheng Garden, he supervised and led more than a hundred guards who had been selected in six small boats to quietly Hiding to the island in the middle of the lake.

The island in the center of the lake is said to be an island, but in fact it is just a small hilltop protruding from the lake, with a total area of ​​several tens of feet, with jagged rocks and sparse vegetation. Except for some weeds and shrubs, there is nothing left. The reeds along the edge of the island are extremely dense, and they are crowded together to form a vast expanse. As for the edge of the island on the west and north sides, there are continuous stretches of cliffs. Although they are not very high, they are very steep. Well, only the east of the island is a gentle slope, and this is the place where a group of more than [-] wild geese rest at night, so it is naturally the destination where Li Xian and others headed all night.

At the end of Yin time, the moon has set and the sun has not yet risen. It is the darkest time of the day. Of course, it is also the best time to sleep in the day. Not only people are like this, but geese are as well——On the east bank of Huxin Road On the gentle slope, hundreds of wild geese huddled together, or lying in the grass, or lying on the stone, with their heads buried in their wings, sleeping very sweetly, but there were three old geese who were always on the shore in good spirits. Patrolling back and forth, his vigilance was not much worse than that of the military patrols.

The goose sentinels are undoubtedly extremely conscientious. Even though the night is silent and peaceful, the goose sentinels are not careless in the slightest. They all keep their eyes open and watch the movement around them vigilantly. However, such conscientiousness meets human beings. The cunning, but it was just doing useless work—the six small boats had already quietly moved not far from the geese with the help of the cover of the reeds, and a bloody slaughter was imminent.

At three o'clock in the morning, the sky finally dawned, and the disc-shaped sun poked its head out from the distant horizon. The golden sun tore through the gray sky like a sharp sword. Stimulated by this dazzling light, he fell into a deep sleep The wild geese woke up. Countless wild geese stared at the slowly rising sun, uttering idle calls, and the whole habitat suddenly became noisy. At this time, he also relaxed his vigilance, flapped his wings lazily a few times, and swayed towards the chaotic flock of geese, as if he wanted to hand over his duties, but at this moment, a sudden change occurred !

"Fire arrows!"

There was a sudden shout in the reeds, followed by the sound of bowstrings. Hundreds of steel arrows rained down on the chaotic geese, even though the arrows were nearly twenty feet away from the geese. But for the steel arrows that hit the spurt, it was just a matter of a moment. In just a moment, more than twenty unlucky geese were shot and killed on the spot, and the rest became a mess.

"Yeah, eh..."

In the chaos, a huge head goose suddenly burst into a loud and clear cry, and took the lead to rush into the lake with flapping wings. Seeing this, the flock of wild geese rushed towards the lake, regardless of the situation. The attack of steel arrows shot one after another, desperately paddling the water and soaring up.

"Seventh brother, hurry up, hurry up, oops, why don't you kill it, the geese are about to run away, you should hurry up!"

The boat that Li Xian was on did not participate in the siege and killing of the wild geese, but just quietly docked outside the reeds. Although the dozen or so soldiers on the boat raised their bows and arrows, none of them fired a single arrow. Silently waiting for Li Xian's general order, this inaction made Little Taiping jump up in dissatisfaction, screaming wildly in a high-pitched voice--the little girl has stayed up most of the night, picture Isn't it just the excitement of hunting? This time, seeing others enjoying themselves, I can only sit and watch. There is no reason to make a fuss. Unfortunately, Li Xian doesn't care about it at all. Moved, he stood solemnly at the bow of the boat, his eyes full of solemnity.

Seeing the flock of geese starting to take off, Li Xian's mood is not as calm as it appears on the surface, it is natural to be anxious, because there is only one chance to make things seamless - there is a chance in Guangcheng Ze Li Xian didn't know if there were no white geese, but how many did Li Xian have in his hand? Of course, they were all Xibei products. The small team that had been lurking in Guangchengze since the beginning of the day trapped dozens of live geese and made a recipe for fading with vinegar, ginger juice, and lime water. The feathers of the live geese were faded. I have a few of the most successful "works" as spares. There is no shortage of stock, and I am not afraid that someone will be able to verify the authenticity. No doubt, the scene of shooting white geese can only be sung once, if there are too many, I am afraid it will not be justified, even if it is a fake show, but no matter what, it must be sung for real, right?

With the lead of the head goose, the wild geese escape very quickly. In just a split second, most of the wild geese have plunged into the lake, and in a few more breaths, they will all take off together. , at that time, the geese will be able to escape the killing smoothly, but it is a pity that no matter how smart the prey is, it will not escape the hunter's calculations. At the moment when the head goose just took off, a fast boat suddenly rushed out of the reeds. After coming out, like a sharp arrow, it crashed into the desperate formation of the geese horizontally. With the sound of crossbows and crossbows, dozens of geese were shot and killed in panic again, and the rest were all thrown into chaos. Jumping up and flying, there was a dark chaos on the lake. In the chaos, a panicked white goose was quietly thrown from the fast boat into the lake. This poor white goose was free for a while, how could it dare to come back again? Staying in place, paddling forward frantically, after flapping its wings a few times, it flew up into the sky, soaring towards the boat where Li Xian was.

"Seventh Brother, Bai Yan, look, Bai Yan!"

Little Taiping's eyes were very good, when he saw a white wild goose among the geese flying over from Cang Kuang, he jumped up excitedly, danced and screamed.

"Fire arrows!"

Well done, it's finally here!There was no need for Xiao Taiping to remind him, Li Xian had already spotted the prey, his mind was lifted immediately, and with the force of his arm, the big iron bow he was holding was pulled into a full circle. It was just an arrow, but when the bowstring sounded, the carved feather arrow had torn through the space like a flying rainbow penetrating the sun, and with a strong whistling, it accurately shot into Bai Yan's chest. At the same time, the ship was already on standby. The guards also opened their bows and shot one after another, dozens of feathered arrows soared into the sky, and shot the flock of geese flying in all directions.

"Shoot it, hit it!"

The white goose that was hit by the arrow wailed, and plunged into the lake. The sharp-eyed Princess Taiping immediately clapped her hands excitedly and yelled endlessly, her little face was flushed with excitement. As for Li Xian, what? There was nothing special to express, just the corner of his mouth curled up, revealing a playful smile... "His Royal Highness, the King of England has hunted a white goose and is rushing to Luoyang!"

In the study room of the East Palace in Luoyang City, Prince Li Hongzheng, dressed in bright yellow single clothes, buried his head in the pile of notebooks that could never be corrected. The sweat was dripping on his forehead, but he didn't bother to wipe it off. Such selfless diligence It made Wang Dequan feel sad to see it, but he didn't dare to go forward to persuade him, because he knew very well that his master was suffering in his heart, and he was using work to suppress the depression and irritability in his heart. When the eunuch reported the news about Guangchengyuan, Wang Dequan couldn't care about the prince's feelings anymore, he rushed to the prince's side, put his ear close to the prince, and whispered the news.

"Ok?"

Hearing this, Li Hong's hand trembled involuntarily, and the pen he was holding tilted, a striking cinnabar trail stained the notebook being corrected, the dazzling red was as dazzling as blood, but However, Li Hong didn't care to pay attention to it. He looked at Wang Dequan with a gloomy face, gritted his teeth, and his face twitched. After a long period of silence, he let out a sigh of relief: "I know, go, please Yan." The prime minister will immediately enter the palace to discuss matters, hurry up!"

"Yes, the servant obeys!"

Wang Dequan knew the importance of the matter, so he dared not be negligent in the slightest, he hastily responded, and hurried out of the study, he went to summon Yan Liben without mentioning it.

(End of this chapter)