Yuzhou Island, Suchenggang.

In the afternoon, the weather in Haizhou Bay suddenly changed. There was a strong wind blowing from the sea and the drizzle fell. In the midst of the wind and rain, a ferry boat shakingly approached the dock of Suchenggang.

It is winter now, and almost all the merchant ships leaving Haizhou Bay have sailed far away. Therefore, the entire bay is empty, and Sucheng Town on Yuzhou Island has become deserted. There is only a bleak winter scene on the pier. There are few people walking around inside and outside the pier warehouse. Only some fishermen who returned from fishing and fishing have transported their captures from small fishing boats. There are also a few fishmongers who came from Sucheng Town who are looking at the goods without a glance, without showing any desire to buy.

The celestial guest house, which stood by the sea and looked three or four feet tall, was not very popular, and all the windows were closed. Only the flag recognition on the flagpole at the entrance of the restaurant was fluttering with the sea breeze.

Even the sea water in Haizhou Bay also showed a stern blue-black appearance at this time.

However, the ferry that is approaching the dock is unexpectedly filled with passengers, and it is not the most common merchant in Haizhou, but a scholar wearing Confucian uniform.

"Dear guests, be careful, the boat is on the dock!"

With the boss shouting, the small ferry hit the dock with a "bang".

Fan Zhiwen, who was a little dizzy when he was sitting on the boat, did not stand firm, and rushed forward, and quickly supported the bottom of the long sword in his hand, but was still shaking and almost falling.

A middle-aged Confucian scholar in his thirties reached out to support him, so that Fan Zhiwen could not fall into the cabin.

"Thank you, brother." Fan Zhiwen stood firm and hurriedly thanked him, and then saw clearly the kindness who supported him.

This man is also a Confucian scholar, in his thirties, a little fat, with a gentle smile on the corner of his mouth, and he looks very elegant. A servant in his twenties was also following him, carrying a cage and bag, and leaning on a wooden stick.

Seeing these two people, Fan Zhiwen was already in a vain. This gentleman must have come to Yuzhou Island to study and learn from him like him. Moreover, this person is mostly a bit of a family property, and maybe he is from an official family.

Thinking of this, Fan Zhiwen gave another tribute: "In the lower Yunzhou Fan Zhiwen, I don't know the name of the noble brother Gao."

"Lu Haowen in Xia Shouzhou." The middle-aged fat Ru replied with a smile, "Brother Fan also wants to join the Sumen when he comes to Yuntai Mountain?"

Fan Zhiwen came to Yuntai Mountain to study in order to join Su Dongpo! Nowadays, among the scholars of the Song Dynasty, in addition to being regarded as a new scholar of Confucianism, the biggest mountain is undoubtedly Su and Shu. Su Che has been the prime minister after all, and Su Shi is also a talented man with countless fans. Of course, his popularity has surpassed Cheng Yi, who is so old-fashioned.

Nowadays, the government is used between the old and the new. I think the authentic position of Confucianism will not always be dominated by the new students. Sumen’s knowledge...but the market is bullish!

So after the news that Su Dongpo's brothers settled in Yuzhou Island spread, many Confucian scholars wanted to study and become disciples, including Fan Zhiwen, who was the last imperial examination.

He originally had the idea of ​​abandoning the civil service and practicing martial arts to take the imperial examination, but the cost and difficulty of practicing martial arts made Fan Zhiwen a little discouraged.

Now, in addition to the "Seven Books of Military Arts" and "Strange Skills" that are not difficult for scholars, the martial arts of the Song Dynasty also have two subjects: riding and shooting and staircraft shooting. Originally, riding and shooting and shooting were not difficult, because it was not required to hit the target. You only need to be able to pull the staircraft bow of eight or nine dou and the staircraft bow of seven dou are actually practicing arm strength. As long as you are a young and strong Confucian scholar who practices well with the coach of the rural bow and arrow club for one or two years, you will know it.

However, since the fourth year of Shaosheng, the difficulty suddenly increased, and he actually asked to hit the target by archery not the bull's eye, but the target!

Well, the "martial arts examination" for the Song Dynasty's Wu Jinshi exam is really not difficult at all! The three women, Ximen Qing, Luo Hanmai and Oliga, can pass it casually in Wu Haogu's family.

But for Fan Zhiwen, it is very difficult to hit the target, especially if you ride on a horse and shoot an archer. Because you can’t find someone to help lead the horse in the Wu Jinshi exam, right?

In theory, the Wu Jinshi had to lead troops to fight against the Khitans and Xixia people, so they should be skilled in bowing and horses. How could someone lead the horse when riding and shooting? Oh, it's still the case that the horse stood still.

Therefore, riding on the back of a horse, breaking his hands and shooting arrows, it still tests the horse control ability of both legs, even if the horse does not need to run, it is not low! Because when shooting archery, the waist and legs are inevitably forced to exert force. The war horse (perhaps walking) under the crotch will feel the person on the back being moving, so they will inevitably move together for a few steps, or take a few steps, or shake it a few times.

There will be no other big moves. Those who are riding very well-behaved horses for the martial artists, and those with bad tempers will never appear. Otherwise, they would have to kill many of them after a martial arts Jinshi exam...

For Fan Zhiwen, once the horse under his crotch moves a few times, the arrow he shoots will be inaccurate and may even fall down.

To keep the horse steady, you must have certain riding skills. You can control the horse with your legs without relying on the reins. This needs someone to teach you and practice hard.

However, for a "big landlord" like Fan Zhiwen, it is not easy to train riding. If you want to practice riding, you must at least raise a good horse, right? You don't have any horses, how to practice? And you can't raise a horse too bad. After all, during the exam, you rode a war horse provided by the imperial guards, not a rabbit horse from Jiangnan and Huaihe River.

A good horse (of course it is not a first-class war horse with a shoulder height of four feet and seven inches), so why does it cost seventy or eighty pieces? Old Man Fan's salary was gone for half a year.

And you have to know how to raise a horse after buying it. You have to hire a horse? You have to have good horse feed, right? A horse eats more than a few bites of people! With the expense of feeding horses, you have to have dozens of crunches a year.

Then, I have to ask my teacher to teach horse riding and archery. This is an ordinary horse that cannot be taught at all. I have to go to the Ximen family in Yanggu to invite a famous teacher to teach. Can it be possible without dozens of shredded slaughter a year?

With a horse, Ma Yi and the horse master, you still have to have a bow. A good bow is not cheap either! And you can't just have one, you have to have one set, from a soft bow that children play with, to five-dou bows, seven-dou bows, and nine-dou bows, adding a little bit.

In addition, there must be a venue for equestrian training! Today, Jingdong East Road is a densely populated place, where can I find open space? I can only circle dozens of acres of fertile land for Fan Zhiwen to practice, and the income from these dozens of acres of land is gone.

Finally, Fan Zhiwen and his martial arts teacher have to keep up with the food. Every day, the nutrition of tofu and vegetables cannot keep up with it. How can you practice strength? This is another expense.

After all, if Fan Zhiwen wants to master the ability to "riding and shooting" within three years, he will not be able to save on investment of hundreds of pieces.

Moreover, it is not possible to get the few hundred pieces of money that Wu Jinshi can get! Because recently, there is news that the newly appointed official, that is, Song Huizong, believes that when riding a horse and shooting archery, the horse should run. Why don’t you get off the horse and shoot? If you dismount, change to Zhang Bukou and shoot far!

If you want to run horses and shoot archers, you have to hit the target... With Fan Zhiwen's foundation, how can you train it without six years? The cost will increase a lot now, and horses will also have birth, old age, sickness and death. It is very likely that they will have to change horses in six years, which is another big sum of money.

How could the Fan family bear such expenses?

By the way, the difficulties encountered by Fan Zhiwen in practicing riding and shooting are actually the deadlock encountered by the Han people based on the small peasant economy when maintaining cavalry armed forces.

When the economic foundation of the Han people was still in the era of manor economy, the gentry clans who owned large manors could still afford to support "knights". Not only because the gentry clans were relatively rich, but also because the self-sufficiency of the large manors exceeded that of small farmers and landlords, they could maintain their own horse farms and horse herds, so horses were assets rather than consumer goods.

For example, Wu Haogu is now able to build his own horse farm and horse herd, and can gradually improve his horse breeds. However, "big landlords" of Fan Zhiwen's level cannot maintain a horse farm and horse herd, so they must buy horses through the market to maintain their training. This expense is something that most people in the Song Dynasty cannot afford.

Although Fan Zhiwen was able to pay the expense, he still couldn't bear it after all. At that time, he heard about Su Dongpo's school and enrollment of apprentices in Yuntaishan, so he began to think about joining Su Jun.

In fact, he didn't expect to be a disciple of Su Dongpo. As long as he could be a gentleman or a scholar of Su Jun, he would be satisfied.

Su Dongpo came from a subordinate, and even if he failed to pass the Jinshi exam in the future, he would easily become an aide and might even get a recommended official.

So he bid farewell to his father and brought his ancestral black cloud sword to Haizhou. But as soon as he arrived in Haizhou, he realized that there were still many people who thought about it with him!

Look, those who ferry on the same boat as Fan Zhiwen are all scholars who admire Su Dongpo.

There are so many competitors... it is probably not easy to join Sumen!

"Brother Shuntu, have you been to Yuntai Mountain?"

When he followed the fat Confucian scholar to Sucheng Town, Fan Zhiwen was already familiar with him. He knew that his name was Lu Haowen, whose courtesy name was Shuntu, and he was from Shouzhou, and he was also a child of an official. He accompanied his father to return from Hezhou. When he passed by Xuzhou, he heard that Su Dongpo was recruiting disciples in Yuntai Mountain, so he came to take a look.

"I've been here," Lu Haowen replied with a smile, "Just follow me. Let's go to the inn in Sucheng Town to settle down first... It doesn't matter if the inn is full, just rent a monk's house at Faqi Temple in the mountain. After settling down, go to Sumen to attend the class."

"Can you listen to the class?" Fan Zhiwen asked guiltily. It is true that he is a Confucian scholar, but a true great scholar has no chance to be seen, so he doesn't know the rules.
Chapter completed!