ryethenovel Chapter 121 Learning Wrestling
Chapter 121 Learning Wrestling
When Chen Tuo returned to the Beishan settlement, he didn't wear the flashy Soviet-style leather boots that outsiders would think, but instead put on the cold-region big-toed shoes that Bai Long had modified for him.
He was wearing a standard border guard robe and a leather belt.
With Xiao Kai giving him leeway, Chen Tuo was to put on the armed belt with eight leather bullet boxes hanging from it.
In the ammunition box, besides water-filled bullets, there were also buckshot bullets that the town's armed forces department had replenished.
He still carried two guns on his back, an old-fashioned water-jet sling on his shoulder, and a Russian Tula single-barreled gun in his hand.
This time, Guan Dunzi and his father didn't bring their old foreign cannons, but instead used Beretk, which was neither new nor old.
This was also the result of the two men's last trip into the mountains to hunt wolves, which they exchanged for an old foreign cannon at the town's armed forces department.
According to the Armed Forces Department, they should also replace their water beads with the same ones as Chen Tuo's.
But Guan Dunzi was unwilling to buy bullets, so he switched to an old Buick that could reload itself.
Once the sled was a little further away from the educated youth settlement, Zhang Taibao, who was driving the horse, finally spoke up about the feud between Xiao Kai and Guan Tianpeng.
"Tianpeng, you've made him fall eight or nine times, and he was bedridden three times. He didn't hold it against Chen Zhiqing out of consideration for him, but you still have to go along with it."
Zhang Taibao, who owned a dog, had a good relationship with the Guan family. After the two went into the mountains to hunt, they would bring back food for him to feed their dogs.
In return, Zhang Taibao would use a tractor from the forestry bureau to pay them back when they were farming.
Guan Tianpeng, a man of few words and ruthless nature, responded with a snort.
Chen Tuo, who had been wanting to take the two of them up the mountain and pass on his wrestling skills to the officers, readily agreed.
"Tianpeng, are you good at wrestling? Can you teach me?"
Chen Tuo, who was sitting behind Zhang Taibao, spoke up. Guan Tianpeng glanced at him but did not respond.
As Chen Tuo thought, the Guan family wrestling technique was a family tradition. It wasn't that it wasn't passed on to outsiders, but rather that it couldn't be passed on casually, as that would be demeaning to their own craft.
"Just tell me, it's nothing more than a few moves. What we know, other schools know too, and they have even more variations!"
Unlike Wu Laowai, who wanted to retire in the mountains, Guan Dunzi agreed to go up the mountain because he had a younger brother named Guan Wang who worked in a sports team down there.
According to his younger brother, land leases have already started down the mountain, and leasing land means paying public grain taxes.
Neither Guan Dunzi nor his nephew Guan Tianpeng were honest and hardworking people who could settle down and farm, so when Wu Laowai mentioned it, the two of them got the idea.
When running in the Xingan Mountains, each person not only has their own hideout, but also their own territory.
Although it's not a rule, it's not explicitly stated that hikers from the foot of the mountain cannot freely enter the hunters' hunting grounds.
But if you accidentally wander into a hunter's hunting ground, even if you catch something, you might not be able to bring it back.
Although the Xingan Mountains are vast, there are even more settlements and hunting settlements on them.
Guan Dunzi and his nephew didn't want to go into the deep mountains; it was just that the edges of the deep mountains were hunting grounds for hunters.
The conflict with the hunters in the mountains involved only the uncle and nephew, who were clearly no match for them.
So, like Wu Laowai, they spent most of their time wandering around the outskirts of the Greater Khingan Mountains, and their hunting grounds also extended eastward to the Lesser Khingan Mountains.
Chen Tuo was able to go up the mountain to become a hunter. Guan Tianpeng ignored him, so Guan Dunzi kicked his nephew and asked him to talk about wrestling techniques.
"If you want to learn wrestling, you must first train your strength. You have to stretch iron chains, shake leather belts, jiggle water tanks, and twist bricks. And you have to learn it slowly!"
After being kicked, Guan Tianpeng began to talk about the official wrestling of the three northeastern provinces, following the methods his grandfather Guan Deng had taught him.
But as soon as he opened his mouth, he was kicked again. This time, Guan Dunzi almost kicked Guan Tianpeng off the sled.
"Chen Zhiqing, what Tianpeng said is just the kind of slang we use to make money in our family. To put it bluntly, wrestling skills are just a few moves: hand pull, foot twist, shoulder and back, waist thrust."
If it was just Chen Tuo and Zhang Taibao on the sled, then it would be correct to start with his nephew Guan Tianpeng from the beginning.
But Old Wu, with his pipe in his mouth and eyes squinted, sat to the side, and his words were anything but evasive.
After all, the old man's father was a powerful figure in the underworld, a pillar of the criminal organization, and a man who had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds.
The Guan family were just江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the underworld or江湖江湖义气, a code of honor among ...), while the Wu family were of respectable lineage.
In the Xingan Mountains, who doesn't have a few special skills when running in the mountains?
Those without that special skill would have died in the mountains long ago.
Wu Laowai was able to roam the Xingan Mountains for thirty years, so his skills must be exceptional.
As the saying goes, "Don't beat around the bush in front of an honest person." If nephew Guan Tianpeng talks so much, he'll easily be taken advantage of by Wu Laowai as a fool.
To Chen Tuo, Guan Tianpeng's explanation sounded more professional, while Guan Dunzi's words seemed perfunctory.
"That simple?"
"Chen, what's so difficult about this? 'Official wrestling' is just a term used in the three northeastern provinces. In the mouths of the Eight Banners children in the capital, this is what we call 'wild wrestling'."
When talking about his family's traditions, Guan Dunzi didn't first explain what wild wrestling was, but instead started talking about his family's background.
"Chen Zhiqing, although our family name is Guan, we are not Manchus. We were just wrestlers hired by the General's Mansion back then, and we were farmers."
After explaining the ingredients, Guan Dunzi pointed to the distant mountains and forests and began to describe in detail the official wrestling of the three northeastern provinces.
"The official wrestling of Shanpu Camp originated from Mongolian wrestling. We don't know where wrestling started, but it's similar to the sheep wrestling of Guanzhong."
"Whether it's official wrestling, Boke, or Naoyang wrestling, they're all techniques for throwing people—techniques that involve pulling someone up, slamming them to the ground, and throwing them to their death!"
"No matter where you wrestle, strength reigns supreme. That night when we were hunting wolves, I saw that Chen, the educated youth, had a stable lower body and strong grip on his gun; he was a formidable opponent!"
Guan Dunzi went around in circles, then turned and picked up Chen Tuo's lower frame, making his words even more unbelievable.
"Uncle Guan, I just want to learn a couple of simple skills."
"Learning a couple of moves is easy. Pull with the front hand and tear with the back hand. It's all about creating a swaying motion. Sway back and forth, left and right, sway ... back and forth, sway forward and backward."
Chen Tuo wanted to learn wrestling, so Guan Dunzi started demonstrating on the sled, gesturing as he went.
"When your feet leave the ground, the swaying force must be transformed into an upward force, pushing upwards and twisting backwards. If you have the strength, slam your head into the ground; if you don't, smash it sideways!"
"When a person lands, you have to stomp on their head; if you miss, you stomp on their hands and feet. That's official wrestling!"
Although Chen Tuo felt that Guan Dunzi was just going through the motions, what he was teaching was indeed the essence of Liaodong official wrestling.
Their family's wrestling style originated from the military, and the reason it's called "wild wrestling" is quite simple.
This is because official wrestling is not primarily about throwing people, but about killing them.
To be more specific, Liaodong official wrestling teaches techniques for melee combat in armor on the battlefield, without many fancy moves.
Of course, these killing skills must be adapted to market conditions when they reach the wrestling arena.
Therefore, the wrestling techniques within the Guan family were quite diverse, including official wrestling techniques as well as the fancy moves of Beijing wrestling, Boke, and Naoyang wrestling.
What Guan Tianpeng said was the kind of rhetoric used by the Guan family wrestling style to make a living in the martial arts world.
If you really want to learn wrestling, those with a foundation can learn it just by listening.
Even those without a foundation can learn it in ten days or half a month.
But if you really want to find a master, it takes three to five years to get the basics down, and ten to eight years to barely get inside.
When he can learn it depends on when the host family can no longer afford to support him.
"Kid, Old Guan taught me a special skill. Even if you learn and master that move, don't try to master it. He only came here because he broke people."
Similar to Chen Tuo's thoughts, Wu Laowai also felt that he should learn from Guan Tianpeng.
It wasn't that Wu Laowai was fooled, but rather that the true wrestling techniques Guan Dunzi spoke of were completely unusable now.
If you slam someone's head down on the ground, they'll face a lawsuit...