216 The Sho

"Can it be used?" Prince William looked to Tang Yan and asked.

"Yes, it's perfect." Tang Yan nodded.

Li Guang was a Chinese figure of ancient times, the era when longbows thrived.

Nowadays longbows weren't so popular because they were more physically demanding and weren't as efficient as compound bows, due to their draw curves: with a longbow, the draw curve was essentially linear: so it took more strength to hold a bow the farther you drew it back.

But longbows still offered longer ranges and better accuracy at such ranges than a recurve bow.

"Okay, then I can't wait to see your performance." Prince William said excitedly.

At this time, Campbell also showed a slight smile.

Although he didn't know where Tang Yan's confidence came from, he didn't think that an archer who was accustomed to recurve bows could turn around and use a longbow better than he did a recurve bow.

Switching to a longbow to shoot an apple 150 meters away?

What a joke!

It would be hard to do on a gun without a scope let alone with a bow!

Although Tang Yan's previous performance was amazing enough, Campbell was unwilling to believe that Tang Yan could really do it.

In his eyes, Tang Yan's behavior was just bragging.

Sadly, even if he missed the shot, the prince probably wouldn't hold him accountable, because this in itself was a move to pursue the limit.

The guard with the longbow handed it to Tang Yan.

Tang Yan took up the longbow under everyone's gazes and appreciated it's weight. He pulled at the bowstring to get a sense of its tension.

Before letting go.

Twang!

The bowstring rebounded with a clear sound. Although it was old, he could still feel its power.

It was expertly maintained as expected of a royal gift.

"Your Royal Highness, let's go back first." Earl Louis reminded Prince William and the ambassadors.

"No, this might be my opportunity to witness a once in a lifetime shot, I want to be as close as possible. I don't want to watch from afar." Prince William rejected beaming with a smile.

As for the other nobles and the ambassadors, since the Prince didn't want to move back, naturally they couldn't go back either.

The group stood not far from Tang Yan as they watched him prepare the shot.

150 meters away, the guards had already put down the apple they had just picked.

Tang Yan walked to the white line, adjusted his posture, and took an arrow from a guard.

It was a wooden arrow, to match the longbow. It was made of Cupressus, with light grease on the surface, so as to prevent it spoiling over the decades. Compared with carbon arrows, it was relatively lighter, but the length of the arrow was less than half that of carbon arrows.

After Tang Yan nocked the wooden arrow and began to draw back the bowstring.

The conversion rate of the longbow's force value was very low. In order to shoot something 150 meters away, the force required was almost more than double that of an ordinary recurve bow.

Tang Yan slowly drew back the bowstrings to a full draw, his muscles straining and creaking under his clothes as he fought to maintain and stabilize the draw. The sense of power radiating off him drew a line in the sand and clearly showed the difference between a pro and an amature.

The excitement in Prince William's eyes grew stronger seeing this. The bow was of extraordinary origin. It was recovered from the Mary Rose, a ship of Henry VIII's navy that capsized and sank at Portsmouth in 1545. It was among 1 of 3 bows to be recovered and refurbished and brought back to life. The other two bows were currently in the Tower of London Armoury.

Campbell's hands shook involuntarily, Tang Yan's full draw made him feel a little nervous in his heart.

Tang Yan aimed at the point where the apple was in the distance, and then moved up by an angle of about thirty degrees.

Campbell kept trying to calm himself; he was being anxious for no reason, Tang Yan was on a completely new bow, and he hadn't even had a test shot. Why was he even nervous?

But as Tang Yan continued to aim, he couldn't help but suck in a breath.

Twang!

Swoosh!

There was the clear crisp sound of the bowstring rebounding and the arrow breaking through the air.

After the arrow left the string, it shot straight into the distance.

Compared with the speed of the previous recurve bow, it was much faster, even catching the arrow that Covington had shot from his compound bow.

Everyone's eyes followed the arrows in the air, without blinking, for fear of missing it.

After the arrow flew to its highest point, it turned into a shooting star and shot straight at the distant apple.

There was a look of excitement in Prince William's eyes.

Campbell still had an anxious look on his face.

"It's impossible..." Earl Louis murmured involuntarily.

Bam!

With a muffled sound, the arrow inserted into the apple and with stamina, continued through into the wooden platform.

"Fantastic!" Prince William saw this scene and couldn't help clapping.

The other nobles and ambassadors also clapped excitedly in awe.

Longbow, 150 meters, one shot, no doubt, this was brilliant, just brilliant.

Covington was also dumbfounded at this time. As an archer, he could comprehend the difficulty of what Tang Yan had just done more than the rest.

He turned to Duke Campbell, shaken, to see what he should do next.

But Duke Campbell, was still staring forward. Seemingly in a state of awe and disbelief.

Everything that had happened in front of him had completely deviated from his design.

Covington, who should have been the main attraction, was cast to the side and Tang Yan had become the protagonist.

"I think I need to add your name to the dinner tonight." Prince William looked to Tang Yan and said sincerely.

"I would be honored." Tang Yan said with a smile. He could judge that most of today's antics were the doings of Duke Campbell, and Prince William was mostly unaware.

"Great, wonderful." Prince William said with a beaming smile.

Signalling Tang Yan and Zhuang Jiajie to come along, he headed back for the palace whilst conversing with them.

The ambassadors and the other nobles followed after the prince.

But Campbell was still in place watching after them, when Ambassador Liu Xiaoming patted him on the shoulder before walking past with a smile.