Aztec Eternals Chapter 39

The pattering light rain came as scheduled, washing away all the blood and suspending all the killings. The birds returned to their nests in the forest, and the army was like wasps returning to their nests, quietly guarding the city of Ottopan, not knowing when the fruit would ripen and fall.

Seirot 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, that is, it is made of the same material, and it is also a longbow, its length is more than one meter four. The bowstring is made of treated deer tendon, which is tough and not elastic. The bow body should be oak, which is one of the better bow materials. The corners of the bows are repeatedly wound with cotton thread to fix, and then glued with bone glue.

Generally speaking, the craftsmanship is relatively skilled and the cost is not high, so it should be possible to produce on a large scale. The Tlaxcalans certainly had a sizable army of archers.

Shulot tried the power of the bow and arrow a few times, and it was very stable, killing no armor at 120 meters.

"Shisangendo Long Shot"! It is also a maximum of 120 meters away. Shulot patted his head and remembered the Tiantai sect temple he visited when he traveled to Kyoto in the past. It seems that this bow is on the same level as the bow of the Japanese samurai when they were first prosperous.

Ever since the last attack, Shulot has been pondering the long wooden bow in his hand.

Bows and arrows, this kind of equipment that deviates from the glory of warriors and cannot capture prisoners, has been neglected by the Mexicans. In fact, it is the most potential weapon of the Central American ministries. It has the smallest gap between its development limit and the Europeans, and can break the knight's plate armor in the future. It does not have a strong demand for metal, and it is just like the Jurchen, the most powerful weapon when the primitive civilization of the Mongols rises.

At the same time, Central America is also rich in high-quality wood resources. The best is naturally ironwood and sandalwood, the top woods with hard texture and the strongest energy storage. The quality of the bow is even higher than that of the yew of the English longbow. Thinking of this, Shilott chuckled. The names of high-level equipment such as iron wood bow and yellow sandalwood bow are very familiar in his memory.

The ones with a slightly lower production cost are the common spruce and oak, which are also high-quality materials for bow making. Fir bows and oak bows are widely used by the Germans throughout Europe. These trees are common in the Americas, and all spruce plants are of North American origin.

Develop bows and arrows! While thinking about the resources at hand and considering the future development, Xiulote quickly became excited. He finally found a bright road for the Mexicans to develop their military under the existing conditions!

Then, he continued to think about the shape and type of the 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 horn bow of the northern cavalry? Shulot shook his head, no cows, no horns, no livestock, no drama. The general's iron tire bow? No iron, don't think about it. Soon, he discovered that the classic bow shapes in ancient China could not be restored.

"Everything is a bow, which is dry in winter and liquid in spring, tendons in summer, three materials in autumn, cold and quilt, and then quilted in spring." It is mentioned in "Kao Gong Ji·Bong Ren" that the most classic production in ancient China The composite bow needs six materials: "dry, horn, tendon, glue, silk, and paint", namely wood, animal horn, animal tendon, adhesive, silk, and paint.

There are also four seasons of "spring, summer, autumn and winter". The wood is prepared in winter, the corners are treated to make bow angles in spring, the ribs are treated to make bow strings in summer, the bow body of composite material is made in autumn, the composite bow is shaped in winter, the strings are re-stringed and adjusted in spring, and finally painted to prevent insects.

Who can use this? Shirot shook his head. Although the compound bow is more powerful than the single bow of the same length, the rate of fire is faster and more accurate, but it is really unusable. He calculated with his fingers, the material was not enough, the production time was too long, and Central America was rich in rainfall and very humid, the composite bow was too easy to damage, and it was difficult to prevent moisture and insects.

In the history of the Celestial Dynasty, the Mongols and Jurchens had to avoid the rainy season of Huangmei when they went south. One reason is that the rainy season hurts the bow too much, and it is common to waste several bows in one summer. Forget it, it is better to develop a single-timber bow according to local conditions.

Counting single bows, Xiulote first thought of the various Japanese bows in the Dahe drama. They were made of bamboo and wood. They were more than two meters long, and their range was not as good as that of the horned bows that were half the size of the Celestial Dynasty. This is because Japan lacks high-quality wood, and if there are not enough cattle, it can only be recharged with bamboo. The kinetic energy of the bow comes from the charging of the bow body, and the charging efficiency of bamboo is too low, and the range and power cannot be increased.

The next thing that comes to mind is of course the famous English longbow. In European movies, all kinds of arrows rain down, and the knight falls tragically. After careful calculation, the famous British-French Battle of Agincourt was less than seventy years old. 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 England, only a few hundred casualties were lost, and the longbow's reputation has since become famous all over the world.

In general, the Hebow, Welsh longbow, and later English longbow are all single-piece bows with very low production technology, that is, a piece of wood is used to make the bow body. Longbow requires high-quality wood, as well as a larger and longer bow to achieve a higher charge and release more kinetic energy to the bow and arrow. High-quality English longbows are more than two meters in length.

The production cost of the longbow is much lower than that of the composite bow, the maintenance requirements are low, and the production speed is also extremely fast, because there is no process of bonding the composite material. If the compound horn bow is compared to a samurai sword, it needs meticulous care. That longbow is probably a big iron rod. It can be thrown away for half a year, and it can be played with it when you take it out. Shirot thought and smiled again.

Compared with the horn bow, the biggest disadvantage of the long bow is that the bow body is too long for the same pound weight, so it cannot be used on horseback, and it cannot be used by cavalry. "America doesn't have any horses anymore." Also, the rate of fire is too slow, the accuracy is slightly lower, and the sound is loud. "Large-scale bow battles don't care about this." In the end, it was too much wood, especially high-quality wood. "There is no shortage of high-quality wood in Central America." After repeated weighing, Shilot finally made a decision, "Longbow, it's you!"

The technical development route has been decided, and the next step is the specific technical implementation.

He said what he said and did, and Shilot immediately summoned the craftsmen bestowed 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, and a few carpenters were hesitant to be listed, obviously not confident enough in their own skills. Only an elderly craftsman looked at the long wooden bow carefully for a while, then nodded and stepped out.

"Respected Priest. This is Tlaxcala's long wooden bow. I copied it and can do it." The old man smiled confidently, wrinkling his face.

"Okay! What's the name of the master craftsman?" Shulot was overjoyed.

"Sir Priest, I am Cuod, one of the chief carpenters of Tenochtitlan. This time, I was recruited by the king to participate in the construction of the camp on the march."

Tenochtitlan, carpenter. Shirot thought for a while and asked, "Do you know Cussola?"

The old carpenter was a little surprised: "This is a junior of our family. He is a very good craftsman, but he later became a samurai."

Shulotte nodded: "He is my follower and sacrificed for me in the previous battle. When I get back to the capital, take me to his home to see."

Kuod nodded respectfully. Afterwards, the two formally discussed the production of the longbow, and a few carpenters nearby also helped for reference.

"I need to make a big bow that is long enough. The bow body should be more than two meters. The shape is very simple, just a long line with an arc. The bowstring should be made of deer tendon or deerskin. Next, you need to study how to use cotton thread or twine thread. Make a replacement bowstring..." Shurot left only Cuod and a few carpenters, and let the other craftsmen disband.

The short discussion lasted only half an afternoon, and then came the official production.

Shulot found the red sandalwood wood left over from making trebuchets in the past, and chose a three-meter-long straight piece of wood. Then several craftsmen took out copper tools and cut out wooden strips with a length of 2.5 meters and a width and thickness of about 8 cm.

Next, Kuod 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 from the wood.

In the first attempt, Shilot did not dare to make the bow too thin. Since the pursuit of practicality, there is no need to consider the decoration of the bow. Everyone directly started training the bow, a process of tuning the wood.

Bow training is done on the bow training stand. The bow training stand can be simply understood as a long stick with equal-length card slots. Kuod first hooked the two ends of the bow with a string, then stuck the center of the bow on the top of the long stick, and then pulled down the two ends of the bow one by one.

Pull one frame every quarter of an hour, and pull the bow from straight to arc until it reaches the maximum, and then stay for twenty or thirty minutes~www.mtlnovel.com~ to release the stress of the bow. Then recover, rest for another quarter of an hour, allow the bow to recover, and then train the bow again.

Because the wood used was too high-quality, this bow training came at night. The aroma of food wafts from afar, this is the taste of night. However, Shulot had no intention of eating, and just raised a fire in the house to pay attention to the work of the craftsmen. After a while, Bertard brought him a few tortillas, and the two continued to watch as they ate.

It was not until the bow training was over that the hungry Kuod took over the tortillas from Sherlot and had a simple dinner. Next was another delicate job. The old carpenter used obsidian tools to polish the arch body carefully, and worked for half an hour until the arch body was smooth enough to handle.

The last thing is oiling. In Mexico in this era, oil is a precious commodity. Whether it is Chinese tung oil or West African oil palm, it has not yet spread to Central America suitable for planting, and lard butter is out of the question.

After begging for a long time at night, Shilot got a small bottle of sunflower oil. He also squeezed a bottle of expensive avocado oil. If he had time, he could roast some pine oil. Kuod smeared the bow body with oil without any distress, and then everyone just waited for the oil to penetrate and the bow to dry.

Before you know it, the night has fallen, and it is already time to rest. Kuod took the craftsmen to leave. All that was left was the tossing and slumbering Shulot. The young man lifted the curtain and stared at the bright galaxy in the sky. Under the galaxy is an ancient city-state and nation, which has not changed for thousands of years.

Turning around, he looked at the longbow in the center of the tent. The body of the bow is white and smooth, with a length of two meters and two, which outlines the curve of strength and beauty. She is like a peerless beauty, hiding a fierce murderous intention.

Shulot looked at it in a trance, with a longing look on his face, his thoughts drifted away: "What kind of power is this longbow?"

Chapter end

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