Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 280 Are you kidding me?
Chen Fan is so irresponsible. He hugged her and then ran away, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Jiang Lili sat in the chair with the second chapter of "On the Field of Hope" spread out in front of her, the book she most wanted to read. However, her eyes were not on the manuscript at all, and her mind was a complete mess.

The face held in her hands felt like it was being held in the warmth of a winter stove, burning hot.

So what exactly did he mean?

……

Chen Fan, riding his horse to the brigade headquarters, showed no remorse for running away after his antics. Oblivious to his own danger, he bowed to Lin Yuanxiang with both hands, saying, "Senior, please!"

Lin Yuanxiang, with his left hand behind his back and a pipe in his right, looked at Chen Fan with interest. "This morning I made 24 moves in a row, and you couldn't withstand a single one. Who gave you the courage to challenge me this afternoon?"

Chen Fan raised his head slightly and said with righteous indignation, "Revolution fears not the hardships of the Long March, regarding ten thousand rivers and mountains as nothing. Although I do not have the abilities of my predecessors, I do not lack the determination to learn from them. It is better to suffer a hundred defeats than a hundred battles. Please enlighten me."

He discovered that after secretly learning 24 moves of freehand fighting from Old Man Lin, his kung fu seemed to have improved significantly.

What? How was that determined?
武术LV3（10/100）飙升到武术LV3（66/100）算不算？

Before this, his martial arts skill experience points had stopped increasing for several days, and it would take several days of practice to gain one experience point. But today, he gained so many points all at once, which was equivalent to two or three months of hard training. How could he give up such a good opportunity?

Lin Yuanxiang looked at Chen Fan, who was full of righteousness, and his eyes twitched slightly. He wondered what this kid was up to.

He didn't believe that Chen Fan could have made such great progress in just half a day.

Xiao Liewen, who was watching the commotion from the sidelines, said with a pipe in his mouth, "Good lad, you've got ambition."

Then he shouted, "Old Lin, beat him up and make him face reality!"

Chen Fan glanced away, his face blank with disbelief.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Yuanxiang suddenly took two steps to cover a distance of two or three meters and slapped Chen Fan on the head.

Chen Fan immediately jumped back, "How dare the old senior disregard martial ethics!"

Lin Yuanxiang kept moving, "Bah, who talks about martial ethics on the battlefield?"

Chen Fan was already inferior to him, and now he could only defend himself, with no power to fight back.

However, the experience points gained were not for nothing. Compared to not being able to withstand a single move in the morning, he could now parry left and right and was no longer knocked away in one blow.

Lin Yuanxiang's eyes shone brightly, as if he had discovered some rare treasure, and he couldn't help but slow down by a third.

Chen Fan was unaware that he was holding back; he only felt that he could seize an opening and immediately launched a counterattack with a forward-moving punch.

And that was it.

Lin Yuanxiang looked at Chen Fan, who was sitting on the ground rubbing his shoulders, and asked curiously, "You didn't have Tai Chi skills this morning, but that move just now seemed to have some resemblance to Tai Chi Cannon Fist?"

Chen Fan grinned and pointed to the cloth bag next to him, "I bought a book called 'Tai Chi Exercises' at the recycling station yesterday, and I just learned it when I got back."

What a huge loss! This time, Old Man Lin didn't use any new moves; they were all just random, unstructured attacks without any strategy whatsoever.

Thinking of this, Chen Fan was even more heartbroken. Not only did he not learn any new moves, but he was also beaten up by someone using freehand fighting. Had he practiced a fake martial art?
Upon hearing his words, Xiao Liewen immediately ran over, flipped through the book, and looked at it in his hand, speechless.

That's it?

Lin Yuanxiang didn't even go over there; he just glanced at the cover from afar and knew what was inside. "This is from a Japanese civilian delegation that visited in the 1950s. They said that Tai Chi was very good in front of Mr. Li. Later, Mr. Zhou instructed Chief Editor He to compile a book to promote Tai Chi. At that time, they found more than a dozen famous Tai Chi masters, discarded the dross and took out the same stuff that Yang Luchan used to fool the powerful and wealthy back then, and compiled it into this book."

Chen Fan was dumbfounded. "Huh?"

"Remove the essence and keep the dross"? Are you mispronouncing that?
Lin Yuanxiang bit his pipe and blew out a breath, immediately expelling the remaining ash from the pipe, which drifted far away.

He took out his tobacco pouch, refilled it, and then slowly said, "You think you can learn kung fu by reading a book? What are you thinking? Besides, can real martial arts be just casually spread around? Ordinary people can't learn it, but what if it's learned by unscrupulous martial artists?"

Chen Fan pointed at the book in Xiao Liewen's hand, his face full of disbelief, "You mean, this isn't real Tai Chi?"

"That's not it."

Xiao Liewen shook his head again, his expression somewhat complicated, and said, "This is also Tai Chi, and it was created by Tai Chi master Yang Luchan, and his son Yang Banhou carried it forward as a proper Yang-style Tai Chi. But how should I put it, this thing can only be used to strengthen the body and fight with people."

At this point, he suddenly snorted twice, "Relaxation, calmness, gentleness, and slowness? That's just part of the Chen family boxing health regimen. If you fight someone with that, you'll be beaten to death."

As he spoke, he looked at Chen Fan with an even stranger expression. This kid actually managed to comprehend that move from a set of boxing techniques used for fitness. Does he really have such extraordinary talent?
Chen Fan got up with a complicated expression and asked, puzzled, "Then what is real Tai Chi?"

Lin Yuanxiang suddenly stomped his foot, then turned around and punched the wall with his backhand. He took two steps back and said with a proud look on his face, "See that? This is the real Tai Chi."

Chen Fan opened his eyes and saw a footprint on the ground that had crushed two blue bricks into powder. Looking at the wall, he could clearly see a shallow pit that was half an inch deep.

What if this hit someone? Xiao Liewen walked over quickly, inspected the damaged area, and couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. "There are so many broken stones around, you could have just picked up a couple and used them. Why did you have to damage this place? Now we have to fix it."

Lin Yuanxiang ignored him and said with his head held high, "Everyone knows that Xingyi Bengquan is unparalleled in its power and Bajiquan is unmatched in its strength, but they don't know that in terms of the power of the fist, Taijiquan, which emphasizes relaxation and gentleness, is even better than these two."

The more fluid and graceful a boxing style is when practiced, the more powerful and fierce it becomes in actual combat. Conversely, a hard and rigid style like Zhuangquan requires the skillful use of joint locks to maximize its destructive power.

He paused for a moment, then continued, puffing on his cigarette, "Furthermore, if you practice boxing but not internal strength, you'll end up with nothing in your old age. If you practice internal strength but not combat skills, you'll just be a punching bag. Internal strength is power; without power, all the boxing stances are just for show. But no matter how well you develop your power, if you can't hit anyone, you'll only become a target."

Chen Fan feigned interest, moved a chair from the next room, and placed it behind Old Man Lin. "Please sit down and tell me slowly."

Lin Yuanxiang didn't refuse. He slowly sat down in the chair, crossed his legs, and said to him, "What is training for battle? Battle is real combat. You just said I don't care about martial ethics. In real combat, who cares about martial ethics? Will the enemy care about martial ethics on the battlefield?"

So-called martial virtue is actually similar to the morality spoken of by scholars; it's a form of self-cultivation, a principle of conduct, not a set of rules for fighting.

Chen Fan listened respectfully, nodding as he asked, "You just said you wanted to practice real combat. How exactly do you plan to practice real combat?"

Lin Yuanxiang gave a cold laugh and glanced at him. "It's simple. You'll learn real combat skills by fighting a few more battles."

Chen Fan said with a long face, "If we don't practice, won't we just get beaten up in real combat?"

Lin Yuanxiang: "Hmph, how can you learn real combat skills if you don't get beaten up?"

He paused for a moment, then finally stopped being sarcastic and said seriously, "To learn boxing, you must first learn to take a beating. Only by taking a lot of beatings can you learn how to avoid vital points, how to hit people, where to hit the opponent that hurts the most, and where to hit to kill them with one blow. There is absolutely no other way to go."

Looking at Chen Fan, who seemed to be deep in thought, Lin Yuanxiang said softly, "In 1929, a national martial arts tournament was held in Hangzhou. At that time, people in the martial arts world regarded it as a 'martial arts gathering.' From south to north and from east to west, all schools and sects sent their masters to participate. Some even mobilized their entire sects, vowing to make a name for themselves in the martial arts world."

In the end, more than 500 people from all the sects participated, and more than 300 competed. The judges of this martial arts tournament were all top masters at the time.

The chief referee was Li Jinglin, the number one swordsman in the world. Sun Lutang, the number one hand in the world, and Du Xinwu, the great hero of the North and South, were all members of the judging committee and personally made the decisions on the spot.

Before the competition began, many renowned "experts" declared they would take first place, but guess what happened?

Chen Fan's eyes darted around slightly. "They lost?"

Lin Yuanxiang sighed softly, "Not only did we lose, we lost miserably."

He took a drag of his cigarette and said quietly, "Liu Gaosheng, the famous Shanghai martial artist known as 'Copper Head and Iron Arm,' possesses unfathomable skill in martial arts. He can break a bamboo pole as thick as an arm with a single palm strike."

Chen Fan couldn't help but gasp in amazement. Bamboo poles are resilient, and splitting a bamboo pole is much harder than splitting a brick.

Lin Yuanxiang continued, "But once he got onto the stage, he was easily defeated by a junior and started acting like a scoundrel while lying on the stage."

There were also two contestants from southern Jiangsu and eastern Zhejiang. They were very energetic during their performance, but when they actually fought, all they did was swing their fists at each other's faces. They didn't know how to use their fists or feet, and they didn't even know how to dodge. They were not even as good as a child's wild punches.

In addition to these, there were also people grabbing hair, kicking groin, tearing clothes, and biting ears.

In the end, almost all the so-called "masters" were wiped out, while the majority of the victors were youngsters. In particular, the top fifteen "warriors" who emerged victorious were mostly students of the Nanjing National Martial Arts Academy.

Lin Yuanxiang looked up at Chen Fan and snorted twice. "Tell me, did those famous masters who lost really not practice 'real combat' at home?"

Chen Fan pursed his lips, speechless.

Back then, professional martial arts practitioners couldn't avoid real combat training, because they relied on their fists for a living. If they didn't train in real combat, what would happen if they got slashed while guarding homes or escorting goods?
But even after practicing this kind of "real combat," it was useless. Once in the ring, there was almost no difference between me and someone who had never practiced.

At that moment, he understood why he was so easily defeated by Old Man Lin.

They're veterans who fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and what about me? Have I ever even seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood?
Thinking of this, he turned his head and looked at Xiao Liewen with a resentful expression.

Captain Xiao, were you kidding me before?

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lin Yuanxiang softened his tone a bit, "Little Chen, your talent is quite good. You can make a name for yourself by reading such a lousy book. The problem is that you've learned too little, so you don't have enough methods to use. Also, you have almost zero practical experience. You're really too weak."

Chen Fan, ... thank you for your comfort.

Lin Yuanxiang coughed lightly and continued, "I really appreciate talented and virtuous young people. If you don't want to become my apprentice, that's fine too. Anyway, I'll be staying here for a while. If you're interested, you can stretch your muscles with me every morning, which will also serve as practice for real combat."

Chen Fan's eyes darted around, and he said with a fawning smile, "No problem."

Then, changing the subject, he said, "However, Uncle Lin, as you just said, I don't have enough methods at my disposal. How about you teach me a few more tricks?"

Lin Yuanxiang glanced at him and thought to himself that this kid was really shameless and would definitely amount to something in the future.

He then said, "Whether I teach you or not, I can only show you during a battle, and then we'll see if you can learn it."

(End of this chapter)