Long Yuan took refuge in Liu Xiu, and the relationship between the two became much closer. Long Yuan asked: "What are your plans for the future, my lord?"
Liu Xiu did not reply immediately. He was silent for a while and then said quietly: "If there is a chance, we should eliminate the reckless thieves and restore the Han Dynasty!"
He had never said this to anyone before. In his family, the person who most often shouted, "Get rid of the reckless thieves and restore the Han Dynasty" was his eldest brother Liu Yan.
On the surface, Liu Xiu never agreed with his elder brother's remarks, but in his heart, recovering the Han Dynasty had long been his greatest wish.
When Long Yuan heard this, his face was filled with joy, and he said word by word: "My lord has such great ambitions, my loyal uncle will swear to follow my lord to the death, and never leave him!"
Liu Xiu smiled, and after a while, he asked with bright eyes: "Uncle Zhong, if you dare to assassinate Wang Mang, you must be very powerful in martial arts, right?"
Long Yuan's face turned red, he lowered his head in embarrassment, and said, "I'm ashamed of myself." If his skills were really powerful enough, Wang Mang's head would already be in his hands.
In fact, Long Yuan is still too self-effacing. Wang Mang is not an ordinary person, but a prince. He is surrounded by countless guards. Who in the world can get close to Wang Mang?
Liu Xiu patted Long Yuan's arm and praised with a smile: "I think you are more powerful than Jing Ke!"
"Ah?" Long Yuan didn't react and looked at Liu Xiu in confusion.
"Jing Ke died in the Qin Palace in battle, but you managed to escape!"
Long Yuan's face turned red and he smiled bitterly and said: "My lord does not know something. We took advantage of Wang Mang's inspection of Lantian County to seize the opportunity and assassinate him." There is no comparison with Jing Ke's assassination in the palace of Qin.
"Then it's great that you managed to escape!" Liu Xiu asked enthusiastically: "Uncle Zhong, how about you teach me how to practice martial arts after you recover from your injury?"
Long Yuan's spirit was shaken, and he said seriously: "My lord is willing to learn, and my subordinates should give their own money to teach you." After a pause, he asked tentatively: "My lord, have you ever learned martial arts before?"
When Liu Xiu helped him to the cabin in the mountains, he could feel that although Liu Xiu was slender and frail, he was very strong and his body muscles were very strong.
"I have learned some martial arts, but I only have a superficial understanding of it." Liu Xiu learned some martial arts from his elder brother Liu Yan, but they neglected to practice and could not be said to be very proficient.
Long Yuan asked him to practice the martial arts he had learned.
Liu Xiu was not pretentious. In the cabin, he vigorously performed a set of boxing skills taught to him by Liu Yan.
After looking at it, Long Yuan smiled and said: "It can be seen that the master does not practice boxing often."
Seeing the embarrassment on Liu Xiu's face, Long Yuan added, "But this is fine, so that I can help my lord lay the foundation."
Hearing this, Liu Xiu's face showed joy. She walked up to Long Yuan, sat cross-legged, took out the food from the bamboo basket, and said, "Let's chat while eating."
Long Yuan responded: "Okay!" Just as he was about to get the millet rice, Liu Xiu stuffed the meat soup into his hand and said, "You are injured. Eating meat soup will help you recover from the injury."
"My lord, you eat." Long Yuan pushed the bowl of meat soup in front of Liu Xiu.
"You need it more than me now." As he spoke, Liu Xiu pushed the meat soup back to Long Yuan again.
Looking at the bowl of meat soup being pushed back and forth by the two of them, Long Yuan's eyes were moist and red. To be honest, he had never been treated with such courtesy by anyone since he was a child, even when he was in Guangqihou Mansion.
He secretly swore in his heart that in this life, he would be determined to be the lord Liu Xiu.
After dinner, the two sat in the wooden house chatting about martial arts and the current situation until evening. When it was almost dark, Liu Xiucai said goodbye to Long Yuan, left the wooden house, and returned to his home.
Now Liu Xiu lives in his uncle Liu Liang's house. He did not go through the front door, but entered through the back door. He and his younger sister Liu Boji also live in the backyard.
As soon as they entered the yard, the door of the wing opened, Liu Boji came out, looked at Liu Xiu suspiciously, and asked: "Third brother, why did you come back so late? Where have you been so late?"
Liu Boji is three years younger than Liu Xiu. She is slim and charming, with long eyelashes that flicker like small fans, and black eyes that are as bright as obsidian.
Liu Xiu was in a good mood, smiled and casually replied: "I'm going to visit a friend."
Liu Boji asked: "Which friend? Do I recognize him?"
"You don't know." Liu Xiu couldn't tell his sister about Long Yuan. If the little girl said it, it would bring disaster to the entire family.
Liu Boji curled her lips and suddenly asked: "Did the third brother fall in love with a girl from some family and sneak away for a private meeting at night?"
Liu Xiu was amused by her younger sister's words. He walked up to Liu Boji, pushed her into the side room, and said: "Go back and be your female celebrity. It's not something you should worry about. Don't ask so many questions."
Liu Boji was pushed by Liu Xiu and returned to her room angrily.
When the elder brother has a sweetheart, the younger sister is usually very unhappy at the beginning and feels that her elder brother is going to be taken away by others. Liu Boji is now in this age group.
The next day, Liu Xiu got up earlier than usual. In addition to bringing farm tools for plowing, he also brought an extra ax. Then he thought about it for a while, then went down to the cellar and took out a basket of millet and two pieces of bacon.
After walking out of his house, he went straight to the cabin in the forest.
There are cooking utensils left by the hunters in the cabin. It is not a problem to light a fire inside and cook. There is also a stream nearby, and it is also very convenient to get water.
Liu Xiu and Long Yuan first made breakfast, and then Long Yuan guided Liu Xiu in martial arts training.
The two walked into the mountain forest. On a gentle slope, Long Yuan stopped and patted a tree that was half as thick as an adult's waist. It felt quite strong. He first used a dagger to mark a circle on the tree trunk.
Then he reminded Liu Xiudao: "Pay attention to my footwork and techniques!"
As he spoke, he took a step next to the tree and swung his knife. The blade hit the mark he just made. Then, he took another step and swung the knife again, still hitting the circular mark.
.
He circled the tree, took exactly seven steps, and swung seven swords at the same time. None of these seven swords deviated from the mark on the tree trunk.
He circled the tree three more times with the same footwork and knife skills. Fang stopped, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked breathlessly: "Have you remembered everything, my lord?"
This is the most common exercise he does on a daily basis. He can go around a hundred and eighty times without any problems. But now that he is injured, he can only go around four times and he is already exhausted and covered in sweat.
Liu Xiu looked at it seriously and nodded at Long Yuan. Long Yuan took a few steps back and said, "My lord, come and try."
Taking a deep breath, Liu Xiu took the ax and walked to the tree. Following the method taught to him by Long Yuan, he took a step and swung the axe.
Long Yuan watched from the sidelines, stepping forward from time to time to correct Liu Xiu's movements.
Liu Xiu was really talented in martial arts. After being corrected several times by Long Yuan, he started doing it well again, but his speed was slow.
Long Yuan found a stone nearby and sat down. While watching Liu Xiu practice, he explained: "If you just train your arm strength without training your leg strength, you can only be considered half disabled. Likewise, if you just train your leg strength, you won't be disabled."
Training arm strength is half a disability. When fighting with others, the body is in high-speed motion most of the time, which requires us to move quickly and accurately when moving at high speed. If one move cannot hit the enemy's vitals,
Even if there is only a slight difference, it is very likely that we will die next."
"My lord is just practicing now. You don't need to ask for speed, just standard movements. After a while, my lord needs to complete fifty turns and three hundred and fifty strikes in the time of one stick of incense."
…
In the next period of time, in addition to doing farm work in the fields as usual, Liu Xiu would run into the woods to practice martial arts with Long Yuan whenever he had time.
Long Yuan recovered quickly. In just half a month, most of his injuries had healed.
Liu Xiu's progress in martial arts training was equally rapid, which even surprised Long Yuan.
In less than a month, Liu Xiu had mastered the footwork and striking skills he had taught him.
Long Yuan originally thought that he would have to wait two or three months before he could ask Liu Xiu to complete fifty turns and three hundred fifty blows in the time it took to burn an incense stick, but now in less than a month, Liu Xiu had already done it.
A month later, Long Yuan no longer asked Liu Xiu for speed, but asked for his strength. He stipulated that within one day, he must chop down a tree by circling and walking.
Liu Xiu failed to do it in the first two days, but on the third day, Liu Xiu actually chopped down a tree as thick as half a man, although it took him more than three hours and used a total of thousands of axes.
, even he himself can’t remember clearly.
By teaching Liu Xiu to practice martial arts, Long Yuan also gained a better understanding of Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu has a tenacity that refuses to admit defeat or be discouraged. As long as he sets a goal, no matter how hard and tiring he is, he will grit his teeth and complete it.
He noticed that the blisters on Liu Xiu's palms had doubled in the past few days. He usually bit the blisters, squeezed out the pus, and then continued to practice swinging the ax as if nothing was wrong.
This kind of perseverance and patience is not something everyone possesses.
Through this, Long Yuan became more certain that Liu Xiu must be a person who could achieve great things, which also strengthened his determination to follow Liu Xiu.
Another half month passed, and Long Yuan's injuries had completely healed.
This morning, Liu Xiu came to the cabin early as usual.
At this time, Long Yuan had already prepared the meal. When he saw Liu Xiu coming in, he bowed and saluted and said, "My lord!"
Liu Xiu looked at the millet rice and side dishes that had been laid out, and asked with a smile: "Uncle Zhong, why are today's meals cooked so early?"
Every morning, they go out to practice for a while, and then come back to cook and eat.
Long Yuan said seriously: "My lord, now that my subordinate's injury has recovered, I plan to go to Lantian County."
Liu Xiu was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Uncle Zhong, are you leaving?"
"No, lord, I'm going to Lantian County to find Long Zhun and Long Bo."
"Are you sure that Long Zhun and Long Bu must be in Lantian County?"
Long Yuan slowly shook his head and said: "I am not sure, but even if the two of them are not here, I will leave a mark at the agreed place and ask them to come to Caiyang County to find my subordinate."
Liu Xiu nodded, thought for a moment, and then asked, "How many days will this trip take?"
Long Yuan silently calculated the time in his mind and said: "It can take as long as a month, or as low as half a month."
Liu Xiu frowned and said with concern: "But your portrait is still there. This trip is dangerous, so why not do this? I will go with you and I can help you cover it!"
"It's absolutely impossible!" Long Yuan was startled, and he hurriedly waved his hands and said: "I am a subordinate who has nothing to worry about. Even if he encounters an enemy, he is confident that he can come and go as he pleases."
If he takes Liu Xiu with him to Lantian County, he will have to take care of Liu Xiu if he is pursued by the government, and neither of them will be able to escape.
Liu Xiu understood that with his current ability, following Long Yuan would be a drag on him, but he really couldn't trust Long Yuan to take risks alone in Lantian County.
Long Yuan said with a smile: "Don't worry, my lord, my subordinates have already made preparations."
As he spoke, Long Yuan untied the cloth band around his head and took it off. Liu Xiu took a closer look, and his eyes suddenly widened.