Whenever a compet.i.tion is involved, it will lead to an organization that doesn"t see the light but will always exist. If this organization doesn"t conform to the rules and regulations, it will affect the … gambling house greatly.
Yan people rough, good wine gambling.
And gambling on this kind of thing, to the Yan people, was not just a small game like rolling dice and pushing cards nine.
Some of the larger cities in the Yan Kingdom held horse races regularly every year. The stakes on the surface were already high, but the hidden stakes were so high that it was scary.
Thus, someone once said that if the Yan people suddenly seized all the money from their horses, they would be able to create a powerful army that could sweep away all of the other countries.
On the one hand, the military and the Ministry of Revenue were running out of funds to raise the military. On the other hand, there were thousands of gold and silver going in and out of the underground gambling house.
The Yan people"s wager involved all sorts of things.
For example, the internal compet.i.tion of any school or sect could lead to a gamble involving many partic.i.p.ants.
For a major event like the Martial Arts Academy Entrance Examination, there was naturally no lack of people secretly opening the doors.
And this year"s Martial Arts Academy Entrance Examination had a very big opening. It was so big that it exceeded one"s imagination.
This was because this year"s Martial Arts Academy had met with many major problems. Some even opened their own trap, betting that their lives would not be lost.
The gambling house of the Martial Arts Academy was still so big. After a period of the Ascension Ceremony, one could imagine how many people would put their lives on the line.
However, the dispute was always baffling. His way of doing things had caused the most experienced gamblers to fail again and again in their speculations.
While competing with Lang Jing in martial arts, someone had set up a gambling match and bet on who would win. In the end, they had collected quite a bit of money, but the result was contrary to everyone"s expectations.
To everyone"s surprise, An Zhe hired Lang Jing to become the first official instructor of the Heavenly Enlightenment Sect.
A new gamble was born when An Zhe entered through the gate of the Martial Arts Academy.
Will the strife be at the top of the list?
In just half a day"s time, the gambling stake involved was already so large that it left people dumbfounded.
When betting, it"s crazy enough to love and hate the fight.
How far did the Yan people gamble?
Even the military did not explicitly prohibit soldiers from gambling.
In other words, the Yankees are probably the best gamblers in the world today.
Soldiers bet too, but the loser will never deny his words, and the winner will not be arrogant.
In their view, gambling was a part of the life of the Yan and could never be eliminated.
After waiting for the people from the Martial Arts Academy to arrange their seats, An Zhan went into the Martial Arts Practice Hall to wait for the examination.
The Swallow were the only country in the sixteen kingdoms of the north that did not lack war horses. Even in the weakest and poorest times, the nomads of the north did not show any signs of strife with the Yan.
In order to maintain their relationship with the people of the prairie, the Yan people had to send large amounts of iron weapons to the prairie every year.
Exchanging iron weapons for iron cavalry, this was a strategy devised by the Wen King of Yan. Until now, no one dared to object or doubt.
Therefore, among the nearly six hundred thousand men of the Yan Clan, only around fifty thousand cavalrymen could remain.
The overwhelming majority of the cavalry was light cavalry, and the cavalry equipment was not very good. In the pursuit of speed, they almost gave up all of their defensive measures at the same time.
The cavalrymen were dressed in cotton armor and wielding sabers, and they came and went like the wind.
Amongst the cavalrymen, the most terrifying thing was of course the iron flowing fire of the Swallow Army.
This was also the only heavy armored cavalry within the sixteen kingdoms. It was like a war machine, and as long as it flowed with flames, it could form a steamroll on the battlefield.
Therefore, for the Martial Arts Academy exam, riding a rider was a must.
For each group, ten people and ten people would take the exam at the same time.
Riding is divided into two parts, part of which is fixed shooting.
Stand at a certain distance from the target, each of the five arrows, to see who scored the highest.
The second was movement archery, which involved riding a horse to shoot arrows at a target and five arrows each.
Every Swallow in An Zhe"s group looked confident. Even those who came from poor backgrounds were confident in their archery skills.
An Zeng got a half stone longbow. After weighing it for a moment, he walked in front of the examiner and asked, ""Mister, can I change the longbow?""
The examiner in charge of the riding compet.i.tion was Chang Huan. He frowned slightly, ""This is the standard arrangement. Every candidate"s bow is the same.""
An Zeng pulled the bowstring back, and with a kacha sound, he snapped the bowstring. ""It"s a little too light.""
The one in charge of supervising the exam was the fourth grade General Ying Yang, w.a.n.g KaiTai. Seeing how An Zhe easily broke a stone and a half bow, he couldn"t help but shout out, ""Good!""
As expected of a good man from my side army!
""You did a good job, An Zeng. Remember to hand over the money for the broken bow later.""
An Zhan: ""...""
The a.s.sistant examiner Xu Chao laughed, picking a three-stone iron bow and handing it to An Zhan. ""Use this.""
The longbows Yan Jun used were usually composite materials, not wooden bows.
With bamboo and net layer by layer of adhesion, flexibility is excellent.
There weren"t many wood materials that were suitable for making longbows by nature. The boxwood trees on the gra.s.sland could be made, but there weren"t many in the Yan Kingdom that could do such a thing.
Soldiers with astonishing arm strength loved iron bows the most. They were heavy and powerful.
A three stone iron bow could easily send a heavy arrow over three hundred meters away.
An Xuan took the iron bow and weighed it with his hand. The weight was still a little light. With a casual pull … with a snap, the bowstring snapped. The iron bow was bent into a shocking arc.
An Zhan shook his head. ""Are there any heavier ones?""
All the examiners couldn"t help but look over, thinking that this guy was just showing off intentionally. But since the military liked this kind of young man the most, most of them didn"t have any reaction towards him.
w.a.n.g KaiTai waved his hand. ""Bring him my bow. Lend it to him for use. Also...""
An Xuan said, ""I"ve paid for the Iron Bow in a while …""
w.a.n.g Kaitai nodded his head in approval. ""Yes, I can give you a discount.""
Before long, two st.u.r.dy janissaries carried w.a.n.g KaiTai"s longbow over.
The bow was more than a meter and a half long, and the bowstring was as thick as a finger.
An Zhe took it and weighed it. This bow weighed at least one hundred and twenty pounds.
If it was an ordinary man who did not practice cultivation, it would be extremely difficult for him to level the bow with one arm.
This bow was not made of iron, but wood. With just a glance, An Zhe could tell that this bow was made of Ribbon wood.
Iron pear trees on the cliff walls were extremely rare, and even a bracelet made from wood over a hundred years old would be worth ten thousand gold coins.
To be able to create such a huge longbow, the value of it in the outside world was already immeasurable.
An Xuan held the longbow to express his grat.i.tude, and picked up the quiver at the same time.
Each arrow was thicker than a thumb. Moreover, the arrow shaft was made of fine steel, and the tail feathers were all sharp blades.
According to the rules, the most basic distance was fifty meters.
Fifty meters away, five arrows each.
In order to judge the level of the arrow, people who thought they could shoot at a longer distance could put it forward.
Other than the peaceful dispute, the other nine people had already given up fighting for first place.
They felt unlucky to be in the same group as An Zhe.
All they had to do was fight against the other eight.
It had to be said that the arrows shot by the nine men were all extraordinary. They didn"t even have the time to take aim or pause.
Nine people, the slowest one, fired the fifth arrow in two minutes.
As for An Zaiyue, he didn"t even shoot a single arrow.
Chang Huan was slightly angry, ""You said to change the bow, but you said to exchange it. You used General w.a.n.g"s bow, but now you don"t even shoot an arrow. Are you intentionally stirring up trouble?""
An Zhan shook his head, ""We"re too close, I"m afraid of hurting the people behind the target.""
""So I request that you step back a bit, please allow me to take the exam.""
Before Chang Huan could reply, w.a.n.g KaiTai said, ""As long as I draw my bow, it won"t be difficult for me to send the arrow five hundred meters away. So, why don"t you let him retreat?""
Chang Huan did not say anything else and could only nod her head, ""You can go now. Others think that if you shoot from a distance, you can also retreat.""
As the Martial Arts Academy was taking the exam, people kept pa.s.sing out the latest news.
The gambling house outside the Martial Arts Academy would change the odds based on the latest news.
Regarding the results of the compet.i.tion, the people outside had always been paying the most attention to them.
Therefore, there were at least a few dozen people observing outside of the arena.
Everyone knew that they couldn"t compete with An Ying, but they didn"t want to easily admit defeat to others. Therefore, the other nine people also retreated and increased the distance between them.
Some people retreated 70 meters away, some were 80 meters away, some were 100 meters away, and some were more than 150 meters away.
When they stopped, they all went to find out how far away he was.
Then, everyone saw An Zeng standing there unmoving, looking at his target as if it were a cross.
Chang Huan could not help but ask, ""What are you doing?""
An Zhan smiled and said, ""Make a note of your position. It"s ready now.""
Then he started to retreat, step by step, farther and farther away.
As he walked back, those in charge of observing had no choice but to walk back.
The people in charge of supervising the exam also had no choice but to follow An Zeng. They pa.s.sed through a flowerbed, walked past a long corridor, then walked around a row of houses … and finally climbed over a wall and left the Martial Arts Academy.
A few dozen people followed him as he climbed over the wall, while the examiner had no choice but to climb over the wall without a care for his personal appearance.
As he walked, An Zeng counted the number of steps he had taken, followed by a large group of people who were getting more and more surprised.
The target of the arrow was at least one kilometer away from the outer wall of the Martial Arts Academy. He climbed over the wall and pa.s.sed through a street, then came to the Jun Xin Tower, which was located more than a hundred meters away from the gate of the Martial Academy. He actually carried the Iron Ribbon Bow into this brothel, and then, under the astonished gazes of a group of customers and women, went up to the second floor and then the third floor.
It was as if he had randomly chosen a room to open the door and enter. A young girl wearing only a light shirt exclaimed in surprise, subconsciously blocking the fair skin on her chest.
An Zhan smiled apologetically: ""I"m sorry big sis, sorry for disturbing you. However, I am currently partic.i.p.ating in the Martial Arts Academy"s examination, so I hope that big sis can help.""
The woman was around twenty years old and was as beautiful as a flower. Perhaps she had slept late last night, so she still had a lazy beauty.
She subconsciously nodded, though she had no idea what An Zhe meant.
Before she could react, a dozen or so people followed her in, and all stood there, staring at An Zhe without blinking.
An Zeng picked up a kettle from the table and poured a cup of water. After taking a sip, he turned to the woman and smiled, ""It smells good.""
The woman"s face immediately turned red. She was actually a bit happy.
He took a sip of water and opened the back window.
The distance from here to the target on the Martial Arts Practice Field was at least one thousand and five hundred meters.
With his right hand, he pulled the steel feathered arrow that had been hanging in the quiver behind him the entire time. He slightly adjusted his breathing, then released his grip and shot out the steel feathered arrow.
The steel arrow flew diagonally upwards and then slowly descended in a beautiful arc.
An Zhan turned around and said to the invigilator, ""Could I trouble you to come over and help me check it out?""
The man ran out of Jun Xin Lou"s house, gasping for breath. He had actually forgotten to walk through the gate of the Martial Arts Academy. He ran back to take a look, and then ran back with a confused face. ""Hong Xin... pointed to the left and shot through.""
An Zhan nodded slightly, ""Thank you.""
He raised the Iron Ribbon Bow once again and shot out four steel arrows in quick succession. Not even a second later, the four steel arrows flew out in a straight line.
Then, An Zhe smiled at the woman and said, ""Thank you, Big Sister, for buying me some rouge.""
He put a silver ingot on the table and strode away.
The woman stared at the youth"s back and was stunned for a while.
The group of people followed An Zaihai back to the Martial Arts Courtyard, and then they were all stunned, their faces full of confusion.
Except for the first arrow, which pierced the left side of the heart, the other four arrows had pierced the center of the heart, leaving only a round hole.
As for everyone, including Chang Huan, they had yet to recover from their shock.