2 Training and arriving at the Capital

It took Jizhong a total of three days to finally collect all the materials he needed to produce the re-curve bow. He obtained the bamboo for the main body of the bow and mulberry wood for the arrows from the forest nearby. He bought linen fiber cloth from the market to make strings for the bow body and bowstrings by using the method of reverse twisting to make it stronger than simple or looped strings.

Obtaining the horn of the buffalo was a little tricky but he was able to obtain it from a craftsman who used them to make combs , buttons etc. After obtaining all the raw materials it took him another two days to carefully craft the bow and finally the arrow. It was not excellently crafted but it was good enough for the time being.

With this out of the way his training finally started. Jizhong aimed to be an archer who is capable enough to join the fray of the battle at the forefront like Legolas rather than being stationed behind under the protection of the infantry units.

So he found himself a place in the lush foothills of the mountain near his farm and marked the trees as the targets for practice. Even though he had trained with the bow for nearly five years in his previous life he had no experience of using it with his new body, moreover he used to use compound bows which are generally used for the sports and had never used traditional reflex bows, hence he stared his practice by shooting targets at various distances while being stationary.

This continued for around six months till he became sure he had regained an acceptable posture and got a feel for using this new bow of his. His daily routine now consisted of getting some exercises done in the morning like pushups , some weight training , running to increase his stamina etc. then practicing archery till afternoon , tending to the fields after this and then doing some carpentering which helped him relax and calm his mind as well as gain deeper concentration.

After continuous training for all these months he was able to shoot up to around 170-180 meters. This seemed to be the current limit of his bow, any farther than this and the penetration of the arrow fell steeply. He then started to train shooting at trees while dashing in the woods , which served as an obstacle course. This training was much more harder than before because you needed to be very sharp and precise to hit the targets while darting and zig-zaging between the trees.

He avoided using a finger tab to hold the string as he might have to quickly draw another weapon when he ran out of arrows or while fighting at close combat, hence due to the excessive training, some times his fingers would start to bleed but he would still continue practicing by switching his hands. This way he was training himself to use the bow ambidextrously which might be helpful in the future.

He even made scarecrows of logs and set them as targets as he knew that many people used heavy armor in the military which might be tough to penetrate so he has to focus on targeting the vulnerable spots to injure them seriously.

To be able to shoot arrows accurately even in low visibility he would shoot arrows at reeds hanged from the branches with his eyes covered. He would use the sound generated from the reeds under the effect of wind to find his target.

In this manner seasons passed and it was finally going to be another new year , the year of the rebellion 245 B.C.E. Jizhong decided that it was finally time to visit the capital city of Xianyang. He knew that there would already be some undercurrents in the capital city. Different factions may have already started their preparations , among these is also the king's faction.

As far as Jizhong could remember the king's loyal retainer Chengwenjun is also darting around preparing for the upcoming rebellion and is making various arrangements to keep the king safe during all this. Different factions would also be recruiting soldiers which would make it the perfect opportunity for him to join the soldiers under Chengwenjun.

Some may wonder 'Why would he not wait until all this mess is over and join the campaign against Wei?'. Well the reason for this is twofold, first he wanted to be considered a trustworthy ally in the king's faction and wanted his standing in this faction to be good later on as this will be very helpful to him at providing a solid foundation in the future.

The second reason was the king Ei Sei himself. He really wanted to know what kind of person the man he would be serving under is. Although this world may be similar to the fictional world of kingdom manga but it is his reality now, he wanted to know the characters he admired from the manga in reality and judge for himself as one can never be too sure as to whether every thing here is the same as in the manga.

As they say ,'the real nature of a person is brought out in the time of adversity' , so he would get to see who the king really is if he follows him through the rebellion.

He had already accumulated some currency from his harvest and his savings from his carpentering work to travel to the capital as well as being able to afford some accommodation there for a few days , but before going to the capital there was one last thing he needs to do. He needs to hunt the boar that had chased Jizhong the day he arrived here. This was to remove the knot he had in his heart because of that boar which had made him slip and hit his head. This would also help him in gaining experience at facing a killing intent and fighting back , although the killing intent of the wild boar might not be as refined as that of seasoned warriors, it will be a killing intent nonetheless.

With these thought in mind Jizhong prepared his bow and arrows and started to carefully approach the place where he had encountered that boar earlier. He had to search for another hour after arriving at the place when he finally saw some movements behind the thicket and was able to see the wild boar. But unfortunately for him the boar also noticed him and stared to charge in his direction.

At this moment Jizhong's body was shaking ,he was sweat profusely and he started feeling heavy. He didn't even notice that he slowly backing away with unsteady steps , may be this was his body's natural response to the trauma of facing the same boar once again after one and a half years, only now the boar was even bigger.

When reason returned to Jizhong momentarily he noticed his condition but steeled his resolve to face the boar.

"ggrrr..."

'I have to overcome this hurdle in order to move forward' he thought as he nocked an arrow on his bow and started running sideways while aiming at the boar. At that moment he felt as though he has broken through some chains which had held him that he himself didn't know about and his body felt light again.

Now he was totally concentrated on taking down the boar.

"whooshh..." , and the arrow hit the boar's hide but that didn't seem to slow it down and only made it even angrier.

"grrarrahh..."

Jizhong nocked another arrow and aimed it at its eyes and released it and as it faltered a bit he released another arrow at the boar's head while drawing the string to its limit.

"whooshh..." "whoosh..." ,

These two arrows found their targets perfectly and penetrated them. After shakily running for a while the boar finally fell down and took its last breath. Jizhong too took a deep breath and started making preparations to move the boar down the mountain. The wild boar would fetch him some good money for his travel to the capital.

Two days after the boar incident at the morning Jizhong finally packed his things, took one last look at his house and farmland and left for the nearby market. He had arranged for his travel to the capital with some merchants that were going there today.

As the journey was on a bullock cart it took nearly two and a half days to finally arrive at the capital and it was already dusk when the outer city walls came into view. Jizhong would be lying if he said that he wasn't surprised to see it.

Even though this was a medieval world but still the architecture of the city and its sheer size was awe inspiring. Even though it was evening the city was lit up from various lamps and there was a conglomeration of all sorts of people bustling around.

After arriving at the city Jizhong inquired from his traveling companions about a nice and cheap place to lodge in for a few days and bid them fair well. He went inside the inn that was suggested and booked a room for two days. As he was already very tired from the long journey he had his dinner and retired to his room. He decided to look around the city and inquire about joining Changwenjun's army tomorrow morning.