The drizzle of rain came as expected, washing away all the blood and suspending all killings. The birds returned to their nests in the forest, and the army, like wasps returning to their nests, quietly guarded the city of Otopan. I don’t know
When will this fruit mature and fall?
Shulot was sitting in the hut in the camp, carefully looking at the Tlaxcala long wooden bow in his hand.
This kind of bow is obviously a single bow. Even if it is made of the same material, it is also a long bow. Its length is more than 1.4 meters. The bow string is made of treated deer sinew, which is tough and has no elasticity. The bow body
It should be oak, which is one of the better bow materials. The corners of the bow are repeatedly wound and fixed with cotton thread, and then bonded with bone glue.
Generally speaking, the craftsmanship is relatively skillful and the cost is not high. It should be possible to produce it on a large scale. The Tlaxcalans must have a large army of archers.
Shulot tried the power of the bow and arrow a few more times, and found it to be very stable, capable of killing without armor at a distance of 120 meters.
"Sanjusangendo Long Shot"! It is also the furthest one hundred and twenty meters. Shurot patted his head and remembered the Tendai Sect temple he visited when traveling in Kyoto. It seems that this bow is similar to the one used when the Japanese samurai first emerged.
On the same level as the bow.
Since encountering the last attack, Shulot has been thinking about the long wooden bow in his hand.
Bows and arrows, a piece of equipment that deviates from the glory of warriors and cannot capture prisoners, has been ignored by the Mexica. In fact, it is the weapon with the most development potential among Central American tribes. Its upper limit of development is the smallest gap with that of Europeans, and it can be used in
In the future, it will break through the chain armor of ordinary knights and damage the war horses that cannot be closely protected by plate armor knights. It does not have a strong demand for metal, and it is the most powerful weapon when primitive civilizations like the Jurchens and Mongols rose. Dense bows and arrows
, is the best way for Mexicans without cavalry to deal with the conquistadors' cavalry.
At the same time, Central America is rich in high-quality wood resources. The best is naturally ironwood. Sandalwood is a top-grade wood with a hard texture and the strongest energy storage. The quality of the bow material even exceeds the yew wood of the English longbow. Think of this
, Shulot chuckled. The names of high-end equipment such as ironwood bow and rosewood bow were very familiar in his memory.
The ones with slightly lower production costs are common spruce and oak, which are also high-quality materials for bow making. Fir bows and oak bows were widely used by the Germans throughout Europe. These trees are common in America, and all clouds
Cedar plants all originate from North America.
Develop bows and arrows! While thinking about the resources at hand and future development, Xiulote quickly became excited. He finally found a bright road for the Mexicans to develop their military under the current conditions!
Then, he continued to think about the shape and type of bow, and searched the remaining memories in his mind.
The first thing that comes to mind is naturally the scenes in various costume dramas. The northern cavalry's ox-horn bow? Shulot shook his head, no ox, no horns, no livestock, no use. The general's iron-tied bow? No iron, no need to think about it. Soon,
He discovered that the classic bow shapes of ancient China could not be restored.
"When making a bow, the dry part is separated in winter and the liquid is used in spring, the tendon is cured in summer, the three materials are combined in autumn, the body is laid in cold, and the string is stringed in spring." It is mentioned in "Kao Gong Ji·Gongren" that the production of the most classic classics in ancient China is
A composite bow requires six materials: wood, horn, tendon, glue, silk, and paint, which are wood, animal horn, animal tendon, adhesive, silk, and paint.
There are also four seasons of "spring, summer, autumn and winter". In the winter, the wood is prepared, in the spring the angles are processed to make the bow horns, in the summer the tendons are processed to make the bow strings, in the autumn the composite bow body is made, in the winter the composite bow is shaped, in the spring it is strung and adjusted, and finally it is painted to prevent insects.
Who can afford this? Shulot shook his head. Although the compound bow is more powerful than a single bow of the same length and has a faster and more accurate shooting speed, it is really unaffordable. He counted on his fingers and found that the materials were not enough and the production time was too long.
The weather is long, and Central America has abundant rainfall and is very humid. The composite bow is too easily damaged and difficult to prevent moisture and insects.
In the history of the Chinese dynasty, the Mongols and Jurchens had to avoid the Huangmei rainy season when they went south. One reason is that the rainy season is too harmful to the bow, and it is common to discard several bows in one summer. Forget it, let's develop single-wood bows according to local conditions.
Thinking of the single bows, Shulot first thought of the various Japanese bows in the Dahe drama. They were made of bamboo and wood, more than two meters long, and their range was not as good as the horn bows half the size of the Celestial Dynasty. This is because Japan lacks high-quality
As for wood, if there are not enough cattle, we can only use bamboo to make up for it. The kinetic energy of the bow comes from the energy storage of the bow body, and the energy storage efficiency of bamboo is too low, and the range and power cannot be increased.
The next thing that comes to mind is naturally the famous English longbow. In European movies, all kinds of arrows rain down, and the knight tragically falls from his horse. Hulot calculated carefully that the famous British-French Battle of Agincourt was less than seventy years ago.
.In this battle, 8,000 English longbows defeated 30,000 French knights. The French marshal was captured, 5,000 nobles and nearly 10,000 knights were killed in the battle. However, England only suffered hundreds of casualties, and the reputation of the longbow became famous throughout the world.
Generally speaking, Japanese longbows, Welsh longbows, and later English longbows are all single bows with very low technical content. They are made of a single piece of wood. Longbows require high-quality wood, and more.
A larger and longer bow body can achieve higher power storage and release greater kinetic energy to the bow. High-quality English longbows are more than two meters long.
The cost of making a longbow is much lower than that of a compound bow, requires less maintenance, and is extremely fast to make because there is no bonding process of the composite materials. If the compound angle bow is compared to a samurai sword, it requires meticulous care.
It can't be used dry or wet, and when it's cold, it has to be warmed by yourself before it can be used. The longbow is probably a big iron rod. It can be thrown away for half a year, and you can take it out and play with it. Xiulote laughed again after thinking about it.
Compared with the horn bow, the biggest disadvantage of the longbow is that the bow is too long for the same weight and cannot be used on horseback, and cannot be used by cavalry. "There are no horses in America anyway." In addition, the rate of fire is too slow and inaccurate.
The speed is slightly lower and the sound is loud. "Large-scale infantry and bow battle formations don't care about this." In the end, it consumes too much wood, especially high-quality wood. "There is no shortage of high-quality wood in Central America." After repeated weighing, Shulot finally made a decision,
"Longbow, it's you!"
The technological development route has been decided, and the next step is the specific technical implementation.
Just as he was told, Shulot immediately summoned the craftsmen given by the king, then took out the Tlaxcala long wooden bow and asked, "Who has experience in making bows?".
Dozens of craftsmen looked at each other. A few carpenters wanted to go out but were hesitant, obviously not confident enough in their skills. Only one old craftsman looked at the long wooden bow carefully for a while, then nodded and went out.
"Dear priest, this is a long wooden bow from Tlaxcala. I have copied it and can make it." The old man smiled confidently, showing wrinkles on his face.
"Okay! What do you call the master craftsman?" Shulot was overjoyed.
"Master Priest, I am Cuaud, one of the chief carpenters of Tenochtitlan. This time I was recruited by the king to participate in the construction of the camp during the march."
Tenochtitlan, carpenter Xiulote thought for a while and asked: "Do you know Kusola?"
The old carpenter was a little surprised: "This is a descendant of our family. He is a very good craftsman, but he later became a samurai."
Xiulote nodded: "He is my follower and died for me in the previous battle. When you return to the capital, take me to his home."
Kuod nodded respectfully. Then, the two formally discussed the making of the longbow, and several carpenters nearby also helped with reference.
"I need to make a large bow that is long enough. The bow should be more than two meters long. The shape is very simple, just a long curved line. The bow string will first be made of deer sinew or deer skin. Next, you will have to study how to use cotton thread or hemp thread.
Make a replacement bow string..." Shulot left only Kuaud and a few carpenters, and let the other craftsmen disperse.
The short discussion lasted only half the afternoon, and then came the formal production process.
Xiulote found the leftover rosewood from his previous trebuchet and chose a three-meter-long straight piece of wood. Then several craftsmen took out copper tools and cut out a piece of wood with a length of two and a half meters, a width and a thickness of about eight centimeters.
Wood.
Next, Kuaud used a tool similar to an ink fountain to draw the center line, and then based on the center line, he drew the specific shape of the longbow, and then carefully cut and polished it to make the bow shape out of the wood.
In his first attempt, Xiulote did not dare to make the bow body too thin. Since he was pursuing practicality, there was no need to consider the modification of the bow. Everyone started training the bow directly, a process of adjusting the wood.
Bow training is completed on the bow training stand. The bow training stand can be simply understood as a long stick with equal-length slots. Kuaud first hooks the two ends of the bow with a string, and then clamps the center of the bow.
At the top of the long stick, pull the two ends of the bow down one slot at a time.
Pull one stroke every quarter of an hour, pull the bow from straight to arc, until it reaches the maximum, then stay for twenty or thirty minutes to release the stress on the bow. Then recover, rest for another quarter of an hour to allow the bow to recover, and then train the bow again
.
Because the wood used was too high-quality, this bow training took place at night. The aroma of food wafted from far away, which was the smell of night. Shulot had no intention of eating, but raised a fire pit in the house and paid attention to the work of the craftsmen.
After a while, Bertard brought him some corn tortillas, and the two continued to watch while eating.
It wasn't until the end of the bow training that the hungry Kuaud took Xiulote's tortillas and had a simple dinner. Next came another detailed work. The old carpenter used obsidian tools to polish the bow body carefully, which took half a day.
hours until the bow is smooth and smooth.
The last step is oiling. In Mexico in this era, oil is a precious commodity. Neither the Chinese tung tree nor the West African oil palm has spread to Central America, which is suitable for planting, and lard and butter are out of the question.
Shulot begged for a long time at night before he got a small bottle of sunflower oil, and also asked someone to squeeze out a bottle of expensive avocado oil. If he had time, he could bake some pine oil. Kuod didn't feel bad about it.
After the oil is applied all over the bow body, all you have to do is wait for the oil to penetrate and the bow to dry.
Unconsciously, the night was deep and it was already time to rest. Kuaud took the craftsmen and left, leaving only Shulot who was tossing and turning. The young man opened the curtain and stared at the bright stars in the sky.
, under the stars are ancient city-states and nations that have not changed for thousands of years.
Turning around, he looked at the long bow in the middle of the tent. The bow was white and smooth, and it was two meters long. It outlined the curves of strength and beauty. She looked like a peerless beauty, hiding a fierce murderous intention.
Shulot watched in trance, with a look of longing on his face, his thoughts drifting away: "How powerful is this long bow?"