"What if I lose?" Kang Boyu always felt that His Majesty seemed to be plotting against him.
Lin Su smiled and said, "If you lose, you will become my eldest son's master and teach him riding, archery and martial arts. You are not allowed to shirk your responsibilities."
It really feels good to be able to order your subordinates around. No wonder the emperor likes to pile tasks on capable ministers.
"If Your Majesty wins, then naturally Your Majesty's martial arts are better than mine. Why doesn't Your Majesty teach me yourself?" Kang Baiyu asked.
Lin Su smiled and said, "I have to teach the Queen, so I am really too busy to do anything else. If General Kang has someone he loves, he will naturally want to leave the best things for him."
Kang Baiyu inexplicably felt as if he was being shown off by something.
"Or General Kang feels that he is inferior to others in skills before the competition even begins?" Lin Su asked.
Men are all competitive, and this method of provoking is quite useful for men.
Kang Baiyu would not admit defeat before the match even started. He clasped his fists and said, "I have no such intention. Let it be settled as it is."
Lin Su went to change into his riding clothes, and the two went to the palace stables. The horse riding and archery competition was about target shooting.
If they were standing calmly on the ground, both of them would have the ability to hit the target accurately from a hundred paces away. However, it was different on a warhorse. The warhorse neighed constantly, and one had to find the right opportunity at that moment. Otherwise, not only could the shot not hit the bull's eye, but it was also possible that the shot would miss the target.
Lin Su was dressed in riding clothes, sitting on his horse with a heroic look, his long hair tied up high, giving him a heroic air. Kang Boyu also took off his armor, and both of them rode their horses.
A palace servant brought a bow and arrow. Lin Su tested the strength of the bow and arrow, nocked it, and shot it, hitting the bull's eye. "Not bad."
"Your Majesty's riding and archery seem to have not declined at all." There was a fighting spirit in Kang Baiyu's eyes.
That was just a test firing, and the official start will be given by a palace maid raising a flag.
The bull's eye was ten, and Lin Su sharpened the arrow and said, "General Kang, come first."
Kang Baiyu had no objection. He put the quiver on his back and lightly clamped it under the horse's belly. Shooting arrows from a horse was the most common thing on the battlefield. He loaded three arrows onto the bow and shot them directly at the three bull's eyes. When the arrows passed through, Kang Baiyu had three more flags.
"Good!" a soldier cheered.
Lin Su stepped forward and when he drew his bow, five arrow feathers were caught between his fingers. When they hit the bull's eye, they were on par with Kang Baiyu.
"Your Majesty, the jackpot!!!"
"Your Majesty is amazing! You hit the target with all five arrows. Your horse archery skills are on par with the Divine Archery General of the Li Kingdom."
"Your Majesty will win!"
If he were in the former Southern Kingdom, Kang Boyu would not reveal his true strength when competing with Emperor Yuanhe. Instead, he would look at Emperor Yuanhe's level and then be slightly inferior, because emperors generally do not like their subjects to surpass them.
But when competing with Lin Su in archery, he would not hide anything, because not trying his best would be the greatest blasphemy to the emperor.
Kang Baiyu drew his bow and arrows again. This time, he fired three arrows at the same time, but in a different order. One arrow split the tail of another, but all of them passed through the bull's eye. The tip of the last arrow sank into the wall.
"Sanqi, General Kang is awesome!!!"
“Amazing!!!”
Shouts were heard from the wall of the archery field. Li Yuan bent down slightly, took Li Chen's hand, and led him to the stands.
Li Chen was quite breathless, and it was a little difficult for him to pat his chest with his little hands. Li Yuan helped him to calm down but did not hold him. It was not because he did not want to hold him, but His Majesty said that children should not be pampered too much. He was always afraid that he would get hurt or fall, which would make him unhealthy. Running, playing, and teasing cats and dogs were what children of this age should do.
What he said really sounded like a father. Thinking about the daily routine of climbing into other empresses' palaces to pick their flowers when he was young, Li Yuan felt that what he said did make some sense. Just by looking at Li Chen's increasingly blushing face, he knew that Lin Su's method was quite useful.
"Father!" Li Chen said, pointing to the horse farm.
Lin Surang called him that. Li Yuan lifted him up and said, "Yes, that's Father."
Li Yuan looked at the competition in the arena, his eyes fixed on Lin Su. He also practiced horseback riding and archery when he was twelve years old. The horse and bow and arrow at that time were given by his royal brother. He was full of vigor in those days and had imagined that he could shoot an arrow through the air from a hundred paces away on horseback like a man. Now, it was difficult for him to pull the bow and arrow again.
Judging from the flags of both sides, they are obviously on par with each other.
"Why is Your Majesty comparing riding and archery with General Kang?" Li Yuan asked the people around him.
The attendant hurriedly went to ask, and came back with the following statement: "The Queen, it is said that Your Majesty discussed matters with General Kang this morning, and after the discussion, perhaps feeling the urge to show off his skills, he decided to compete."
This kind of competition often occurs in the military camp. Li Yuan hesitated for a moment and said, "We haven't gotten married yet, so we can't call it that."
The attendant smiled and said, "This is a special permission from His Majesty, stating that even though you haven't married into his family, you are still his queen, and no one can neglect you."
"Mother, mother..." Li Chen was making trouble there.
Li Yuan patted his head and said, "Chen'er, don't be naughty. Call daddy."
Li Chen shook his head, looked at the audience and applauded, "Great, great..."
Two men on the field were shooting arrows, each firing several arrows at once, and none of them hit the target.
At the time of the handover, the two men high-fived each other across their horses, both full of enthusiasm, a perfect match between the king and his subject.
"Your Majesty and General Kang have a truly wonderful relationship," the attendant exclaimed. "Even their riding and archery skills are equally matched."
Li Yuan was envious at first, but suddenly something moved his heart. Kang Baiyu faked his death and escaped, but later surrendered to Lin Su's men. It seemed that the person who helped him escape was Lin Su himself.
I have no way to repay your kindness. It is because of your service on the battlefield that we have the good relationship between the emperor and his subjects today.
Kang Baiyu likes women, and Lin Su will not change his mind easily, but watching the two of them interacting with each other, Li Yuan inexplicably felt a slight sour taste in his heart.
Now that he has picked up the bow and arrow again, he is of course no match for Kang Baiyu. If he wants to compete with Lin Su, he will have to wait several years.
I wasn't jealous at first, but the more I thought about it, the more jealous I became. Without Kang Baiyu, there would have been other people. Lin Su would not have been single for his entire life, because he wanted to have a long-lasting empire and he needed to have many descendants.
But when he thought of that place, he felt that the calm and peaceful life in the Southern Kingdom's Palace was completely gone. He was the queen at that time and did not care about the harem struggles or where the late emperor had gone, because he did not love and did not care about that person.
But now he cares. He cares about the person in front of him, and he feels that those things are really unbearable if they happen to him. Even if Lin Su gives him power and enables him to leave, he probably has no intention of leaving.
Perhaps what his mother said was right. The most undesirable thing in the harem was deep affection. He believed that Lin Su would not change his mind, but even if he did not change his mind, he would not be able to accept him having offspring with other women.
The two teams were evenly matched. Lin Su was riding a horse and shooting arrows. When he glanced at the stands, his finger slipped and the arrow directly hit the target and hit the ground. He didn't care, but waved to Li Yuan.
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