Chapter 7 6 Hou Yi, the Archer

After Xia Qi became king, there was a tribe called Hu (sound hu) who refused to accept it and revolted.There was a war between Qi and the tribe of the Youhu clan. In the end, Qi wiped out the Youhu clan and punished the captives as shepherd slaves.When the other tribes saw Youhu's appearance, no one resisted any more. After Xia Qi's death, his son Taikang came to the throne.Taikang is a very fatuous monarch.He doesn't care about politics, but loves hunting.Once, Taikang took his entourage to the south bank of Luoshui to hunt.He fought harder and harder, and he has not returned home after a hundred days.

At that time, there was a tribal leader named Houyi (yi sound yi) of the Yi tribe in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, who was ambitious and wanted to seize the power of King Xia.When he saw Taikang go hunting, he thought it was an opportunity, so he personally led troops to guard the north bank of Luoshui.When Taikang returned happily with a large number of hunted beasts, he walked to the edge of Luoshui, and the other side was full of Houyi's army, blocking his way back.Taikang had no choice but to live in exile in the south of Luoshui.Hou Yi didn't dare to proclaim himself king, so he appointed Taikang's brother Zhongkang as the king of Xia, and took the real power in his own hands.

Hou Yi was a famous archer, and his archery was perfect.There is a myth that there were originally ten suns in the sky in ancient times, and the ground was as hot as scorching, which brought serious disasters to crops.Everyone asked Hou Yi to think of a way, Hou Yi picked up his bow and set up an arrow, and with a few "swish" shots, he shot down the nine suns in the sky, leaving only one sun.In this way, the climate on the ground is suitable and there is no longer any drought.It is also said that in ancient times there were many monsters in the big river, which often made waves, causing floods, submerging the seedlings, and drowning people and animals. It was Hou Yi who shot all these monsters to death with arrows, and people's lives returned to normal.These myths show that Hou Yi's archery skills are very good, which is recognized by everyone.

Hou Yi was just Zhongkang's assistant at first.When Zhongkang died, he simply drove away Zhongkang's son Xiang Xiang (sound nian) and took the throne of Xia Dynasty.Relying on his archery skills, he also became domineering.Like Taikang, he hunted everywhere and handed over state affairs to his confidant Han Yun (sound zhuo).Han Yun hides it from Hou Yi and buys people's hearts.Once, when Hou Yi came back from hunting, Han Yun sent someone to kill him. Han Yun killed Hou Yi and seized the throne, fearing that the Xia clan would compete with him again, he must kill the prime minister who was driven away by Hou Yi.

Wherever he fled, Han Yun chased him.Later, Xiang was finally killed by Han Yun.At that time, Xiang's wife was pregnant, and was forced by Han Yun, so she crawled out of the hole in the wall and fled to her natal family's Youzheng tribe, where she gave birth to a son named Shaokang. When Shaokang grew up, he took care of the livestock for his grandmother's family. Later, when he heard that Han Yun was sending people to hunt him down, he fled to Youyu, a descendant of Shun. Shaokang grew up in a difficult environment and honed his skills.He recruited troops from the Youyu clan and began to form his own team; later, with the help of ministers and tribes loyal to the Xia Dynasty, he counterattacked Hanyun and finally regained the throne.

From Taikang to Shaokang, the Xia Dynasty recovered after about a hundred years of melee.It was called "Shaokang Zhongxing" in history. Shaokang destroyed Hanyun, but the struggle between the Yi people and the Xia Dynasty was not over yet.The Yi people have many famous archers, and their bows and arrows are very powerful.Later, Shaokang's son Emperor Zhu (sound shu) came to the throne and invented a body armor that could avoid arrows, called "jia". He defeated the Yi people, and Xia's power developed eastward again.