In The Whole World, I Have 50% More Rewards - Chapter 26

Chapter 26 Selecting Archers

“Dong… Dong… Dong!”

At dawn, Zhao Gao got out of bed at the beating of the drums. He began to put on his armor, and walked towards the field.

After dealing with his daily ‘three urgent matters’, Zhao Gao and the others did not wait long before Chiliarch Ling came in with Adjutant Qian.

“Gather!”

Once they entered the field, Chiliarch Ling gathered everyone.

Zhao Gao and the others quickly got into line and looked directly at Chiliarch Ling.

Chiliarch Ling looked like he had something to say. Otherwise, he would have started training immediately as usual.

“As a defense, in order to deal with incoming enemies, we would need long-range attacks.’ Chiliarch Ling began to explain when he saw that everyone had gathered.

“As we live on top of the walls, only archers are most suited for attacks from above.”

“That’s why I’m going to select suitable archers amongst you.”

After explaining the purpose, Chiliarch Ling raised his hands and clapped twice.

After Chiliarch Ling clapped his hands, Zhao Gao and the others saw a line of soldiers come in carrying targets with them. The soldiers placed the targets by the wall. Then, they went out again and pulled in four carriages.

Two carriages were carrying a large number of wooden bows, while the other two carriages were carrying a large number of arrows.

After the soldiers unloaded the bows and arrows, they placed them respectively at the 50-meter mark and 100-meter mark from the targets. After they were done, the soldiers pulled the carriages out.

After the soldiers left, Chiliarch Ling began to make arrangements. “Now, there are 100 targets here.”

“Starting from the back row, 100 people were to stand at the 50-meters mark. Pick up your bows and arrows. I will teach you archery.”

“Yes!” Zhao Gao and the others began to move immediately.

As Zhao Gao was in the last row, he was naturally among the first to learn archery.

Zhao Gao chose the target closest to him and walked to the 50-meters mark.

Picking up the bow and arrow on the ground, he weighed the bow and arrow in his hand while quietly waiting for Chiliarch Ling’s instructions.

Holding the bow in his hand, Zhao Gao tried to pull the bowstring to test its strength.

With just a little force, Zhao Gao managed to pull the bowstring to its maximum.

He then gently returned the bowstring to its original position and flicked the bowstring with his finger to test the elasticity of the bowstring.

After doing this, Zhao Gao could somehow estimate the state of the bow.

In ancient times, this was a powerful bow which required a strength of 30-60 kg.

And in ancient times, one ‘shi’ (stone) was about 30 to 60 kilograms.

In calculating the bow strength, a bow was required to be fixed to the wall and a heavy object attached to its bowstring. When the bow was fully drawn, the weight of the heavy object hanging from the bowstring would be the strength of the bow.

In ancient times, a ‘One-shi Bow’ was considered a powerful bow.

In the Tang dynasty, archers used a ‘One-shi Bows” to shoot from battlements. Those on horses used ‘Seven-dou Bows'[1], which had a slightly lower bow strength than ‘One-shi Bows’ The Song family’s archers used ‘One-shi Bows’ as their standard bow.

As for this bow in Zhao Gao’s hands, it was about 50-kilogram bow strength.

It was considered a relatively light bow for the current Zhao Gao.

—–

–

While Zhao Gao was still observing his bow, Chiliarch Ling had already walked up to a person and had begun to demonstrate the standard movements of archery.

“Give me your attention and listen to every word I say. This will allow you to quickly learn the essence of archery.”

“The act of shooting an arrow may seem simple, but there’s also certain tricks to it. It requires a certain amount of experience to learn it well. Being able to grasp the standard movements will have an important effect on learning it quicker. The standard procedures for drawing the bow and shooting an arrow are as follows:

1. Standing position: The archer stands on the mark with his left shoulder facing the target. His left hand should be holding the bow. His feet should spread as wide as his shoulder width, and the weight of his body balanced on both feet. He could lean forward slightly.
2. Set up the arrow: Place the arrow on the shooting platform. Place the arrow with the main feather pointing towards oneself, and place the head of the arrow on the bowstring.
3. Buckle up the bowstring: Hold the bowstring using the index finger, the middle finger, and the ring finger of the right hand. The index finger is placed on top of the arrow. The middle finger and ring finger are placed below the arrow for support.
4. Prelude to shoot: As you lift the bow, your left arm will be lowered slightly. Rotate your elbow, and use your left hand to push out the bow and hold it in place.
5. Drawing the bow: Draw the bow by using the force of the left shoulder pushing against the right shoulder. Continue to push the bow until the right fist could rest near the chin.
6. Aim: In the process of aiming, make sure that your eye forms a straight line with the bull’s eye of the target. 7. Release: When the bow is drawn, pull the bowstring towards your right shoulder. Quickly spread out the three fingers holding the arrow, and the arrow will be shot out.
7. Relax: After the arrow hits the target, relax your left arm by softening your wrist, elbow, shoulder in consequential order. Finally relax your whole body.

“You must take note that as you draw the bow, your left wrist must be flat, and your right elbow must be leveled horizontally. And finally, the wrists and elbows of both your hands must be in line with the shoulders. These are the most basic movements.”

After the introduction, Chiliarch Ling released the arrow in his hand.

Zhao Gao and the others saw only a blurred image before the arrow hit the bull’s eye of the target 50 meters away.

“Ping!” With a loud sound, the arrow was firmly planted at the bulls’ eye, and the entire arrow head went into the target as well.

As for the tail of the arrow, it was still left trembling in the air.

After listening to Chiliarch Ling’s detailed introduction, Zhao Gao realized that there were so many things to take note of in simple archery.

He thought that all he had to do was draw the bow, aim, and shoot!

He did not expect that these three steps could be divided further into many sub-steps.

“Alright, follow my instructions and begin training. Remember, each of you have only half an hour to practice. Then you will have to give up your space for another person to train.” Chiliarch Ling ordered.

Zhao Gao could not wait to begin his journey of archery.

Zhao Gao had always been very keen to learn anything new and interesting, despite the fact that he was only enthusiastic about them for a short while when he was in Blue Star.

But over here, they were skills that would allow him to survive. Naturally, he could not take them lightly.

“Whoosh!” He took a deep breath to calm his excitement.

Zhao Gao then took the bow in his left hand and the arrow in his right.

Following Chiliarch Ling’s instructions, he clumsily raised his bow, set up an arrow, aimed, and shot.

With a swish, Zhao Gao released the arrow from its bowstring.

“Pop!” The sound of an iron weapon hitting wood rang out. Zhao Gao’s arrow was so far from his target that It hit the wooden wall above the target.

Zhao Gao’s face darkened as he complained helplessly in his heart, “This arrow is evil. I was aiming at the center of the target, but it actually flew towards the wall above.”

“This is not my fault. The fault lies with this bow and arrow,” Zhao Gao thought to himself.

“Yes, that’s right. It must be like this, ” Zhao Gao actually nodded his head, thinking it was true.

“Pop!”

“Ouch!” Suddenly, Zhao Gao felt a smack at the back of his head. Someone had hit him.

Zhao Gao thought to himself, “Who in the world has the guts to hit me? Watch how I deal with him…”

Zhao Gao turned around.

Zhao Gao was stunned when he looked back. Chiliatch Ling was actually the one who smacked him from the back.

[1] ‘dou’ is a unit of measurement in ancient times, whereby 10 ‘dou’ is equivalent to 1 ‘shi’.