"Are you in such a hurry to come here to ask for help?"
Xu Huai stood in the corridor and saw Yin Peng standing at the gate of the courtyard, talking hesitantly for a long time. He wanted to ask Song Yuer to come over. He held the bow behind his back and said,
"If you can catch three of my arrows, I will give you Song Yu'er."
“…”
Yin Peng was stunned for a while. Before he could figure out what Xu Huai's condition was, he saw Xu Huai take out the hunting bow behind him and three arrows shot towards him.
Yin Peng's reaction was also quick. His eyes caught the direction of the first arrow and he suddenly moved his arm to the side to avoid the arrow. However, Xu Huai shot three arrows almost at the same time, and the last two arrows had already taken into account the direction of Yin Peng's avoidance.
The next moment, Yin Peng felt his left chest and left shoulder tighten. Although the arrow with a headless arrow deflected from the arrowhead still caused him pain as he was only wearing a thin shirt, his heart hurt more.
He didn't even dodge the second arrow? He was still dreaming of the good thing of a toad eating swan meat?
"..." Yin Peng saw that all the girls in the yard had regretful looks on their faces, and Song Yuer was even more disappointed. He patted the back of his head in frustration and sadness, trying to find a few words to ease the embarrassment in front of him.
"Take Song Yu'er away quickly. It's annoying to see her, but she's just doing odd jobs for you now. She's responsible for washing clothes and cleaning the house. Don't sleep with her until you can catch my three arrows!" Xu Huai waved his hand impatiently. "By the way, ask her to wash the clothes of the brothers in your shop and clean the house as well. Don't use other odd jobs!"
Low-level military officials of the time were accustomed to sending soldiers to do menial tasks.
There were only fifteen or twenty ordinary soldiers under a section chief. The section chief took two soldiers to do miscellaneous work, and two generals took one soldier. This became a common practice in the inspection office.
However, these four or five people relied on their close relationship with the ten generals and the governors, and not only did they neglect training, but they also thought highly of themselves in front of other soldiers, making the most basic military organization complicated.
As for the major aspects of the township camp, Wang Bing, Deng Gui and Lu Xiong help to control them, Xu Huai does not need to worry about anything. He has more time to focus on honing his martial arts, but he still needs to intervene and make some changes to the miscellaneous tasks.
"Thank you, Master Xu!" Yin Peng came back to his senses and happily walked over to hold Song Yuer's hand. Xu Huai raised his hand and shot another arrow, shouting, "You can't take my three arrows, and you are not allowed to hold hands! The village camp also has its own rules!"
“I know!”
The imperial guards of the dynasty were basically lifelong, so Xu Jiaxiao had to follow the army. Yin Peng had heard about many matters when Xu Wuliang was chatting.
"Which one of you doesn't want to be a target for me, and wants to run to that pretty boy surnamed Zhong to do odd jobs?" Xu Huai looked at the remaining three women and asked, "But you have to know that this pretty boy may look nice, but he is very cunning. He will drool over your bodies and say sweet words before he goes to sleep, but he may not look down on you in his heart. If you go to him, don't stick to him and fall asleep. In the end, you won't even get a name, and you will cry and make a fuss about slitting your neck and hanging yourself. I don't have the time to take care of this shit! It's not like I'm sleepy!"
"...Zhong, Master Zhong needs someone to take care of things. I, I..." A woman stood up and said tremblingly.
"Okay, go ahead! But you must listen to Master Zheng's orders regarding the chores in the shop. If anyone dares to think that he has the upper hand and gives Master Zheng a hard time, I will skin you alive! You can also tell Tian Yanyan about this." Xu Huai waved his hand and asked Song Yuer and the other two girls to help with the chores in the shop on both sides, and asked Yin Peng to bring a batch of long sticks and headless arrows when he went to the military camp to lead the soldiers.
The township camp had a camp supervisor, a general, three people at the festival level, and ten generals and sixteen officers. All the tedious matters such as organizing the troops, training the military formations, etc. were done by Jin Longquan and Tang Pan.
Although no more enemy troops approached in the afternoon, everyone knew that as long as the enemy troops did not leave, the dark clouds hanging over Huaiyuan would not dissipate and would become even thicker.
Six teams of soldiers were organized, and the patrol inspector also squeezed out twenty sets of leather armor, all of which were selected to wear by the strong and brave. By dusk, many things were ready. The drill field in the back yard was too small to accommodate more than 60 people to practice formation. The stone streets and lanes between the four yards were blocked with chevaux de frise and carts filled with earth and stones. As part of the township camp, it was also used to practice formation, advance and retreat, and charge.
Although forming a battle formation is the simplest requirement, among the sixty people in the rural camp, only more than twenty have received formal training for a long time.
The clan warriors who followed Zhonghe and escaped from Mopanling (the few elite farmhands of the Zhong family were almost all slaughtered) were not at all skilled in forming battle formations and advancing and retreating, not to mention those ruffians and the hot-blooded young men on the streets.
Xu Huai stood by and watched for a while, then took out his hunting bow and stepped forward, shooting volleys of headless arrows like heavy rain at the two teams of Yin Peng and Zhong He who were practicing forming a formation and advancing and retreating, causing many of them to hold their heads and stamp their feet and cry out in pain.
Xu Huai stood there with his bow retracted, and said with a look of disdain:
"I told you rascals to hold shields so that you can cover your heads, faces, hands and feet. I will shoot you with arrows without heads, and you will keep on making noises. When the bandits come with sharp arrows, you will be shot by an arrow and can only lie on the ground and watch your wives groaning with other men! Tang Pan, Yin Peng, the two of you use hunting bows to shoot these sons of bitches from thirty steps away. At night, pick the five people with the most bruises on their faces and feet. At dusk, you are forbidden to eat fat geese and roasted lamb. I believe they will not have the face to eat and drink for free!"
Xu Huai kicked another long stick to Zhong He and said, "I see that you are quite good with spears and sticks. How many of Tang Pan's troops can you handle at the same time?"
"Except for Tang Jieji, Tang Xia and Tang Qing, I can still barely handle the other three or four people together." Zhonghe said proudly.
The team led by Tang Pan was mainly composed of military soldiers. They were strong and sturdy, and they were all familiar with boxing and kicking. They had no problem forming a formation and advancing and retreating. However, Xu Huai had higher requirements for them. He said to Zhonghe:
"You can only fight three or four people alone, what's so great about that? You can pick the five weakest ones among them, and you hold a long stick, and let them form a shield formation to attack each other. Whoever loses will be banned from eating fat goose and roasted lamb at dusk - don't fucking think that it's easy to get by with a stutter here, I'm not as stupid as you think!"
Seeing that Xu Huai had given the order, he actually squatted on the stalk of the field with his collar lifted up, as if he was watching a monkey show. The arrogant Zhong He's mouth twitched. He wanted to show off his skills, so he signaled Tang Pan to arrange five people to fight against him.
Zhonghe was good at using a stick and was quite strong, but he was at his limit when fighting against five warriors.
The five soldiers formed a tight formation and advanced and retreated together. Zhonghe was unable to break the shield formation with the long stick in his hand. However, the five soldiers wanted to encircle Zhonghe, but they suffered repeated losses. He took every opportunity to whip the soldier on the flank several times.
Zhonghe took advantage of the opportunity to advance and retreat, luring the Wuzu to advance lightly and then defeat them, so he could be considered a winner this time. However, for the lower-level generals and soldiers, being able to get a bite of meat was too tempting, so they pestered Zhonghe to compete a few more times.
Zhong He couldn't hold these veteran soldiers back and agreed that the first time would not count. However, these veteran soldiers learned their lesson and in the next competition, they stuck together desperately, not seeking merit but avoiding mistakes. Zhong He failed to break the five-man shield formation after several attacks.
Looking at Xu Huai squatting on the side, grinning and laughing, he said angrily: "Who can break this turtle shield formation?"
Xu Huai chuckled, picked up a long stick, held it like a spear, and first used three-point stabbing to activate his tendons and bones. Then he roared and exploded all his energy. The long stick stabbed out five afterimages like a python, and almost simultaneously hit the wooden shields held by the five soldiers.
However, before the shield formation was opened, the long stick in Xu Huai's hand broke into two pieces.
Xu Huai threw the half-broken stick aside, but he did not blame the stick for its poor quality. He shrugged and said to the people around him, "My Five-Colored Flying Spear Skill is still a little lacking in quality!"
"The soldiers in the military camp are all the best and most skilled soldiers selected by each family. The shield formation they form cannot be broken by brute force..."
Zhong He coldly watched Xu Huai walk towards the front yard, and couldn't help but make a few remarks, but he saw Tang Qing and Tang Xia standing opposite him, stunned, looking like they had eaten a pound of cow dung . He turned around and saw five soldiers, four of whom had their wooden shields shattered at this moment, and only the last one had a hole in his wooden shield...
When Xu Huai killed three thieves in the street before, it was more about precise control of timing and courage.
Theoretically, Tang Pan, Zhong He and Yin Peng could also do it as long as they have enough courage and good enough luck.
Otherwise, Tang Pan would not have been provoked to go alone to fight against the four bandit riders before noon.
Apart from Xu Huai's amazing archery skills shown in the morning and his fast shooting just now, they have not yet had the chance to see Xu Huai's pure display of martial arts.
He broke four shields in a row without hurting the person, and he couldn't break the last shield with explosive force because he was afraid of hurting someone, so he forcibly broke the long stick - in addition to his extremely strong strength, how precise and subtle must his control of strength be to achieve this level?
When Xu Huai left, he seemed dissatisfied with the attack.
Zhonghe felt his face burning with anger when he thought of his arrogant attitude just now. He also understood more and more why Lu Xiong had been emphasizing from early morning to afternoon that the purpose of their presence on the battlefield was to support Xu Huai from the flank and rear. It would be enough to prevent Xu Huai from being surrounded by bandits and fighting alone.
Considering Xu Huai's cultivation level had already far surpassed everyone else, this was the best they could do.
Tang Pan looked at the short bow in his hand and couldn't help but wonder, can he, Zhong He and Yin Peng restrain this reckless Xu Huai on the battlefield?
Or perhaps any one of the three of them, holding a thick iron shield, could really block the force of this flying spear?
However, the ordinary soldiers had already been defeated by Xu Huai's archery skills in the morning. The shock they felt at this moment was not as strong as that of Zhonghe, Tang Pan and the others. They just laughed and shouted, "This shield is too fragile. Next time, cover it with a layer of iron armor. Then General Xu will be defeated..."