Aztec Eternals

The light rain came as expected, washing away all the blood and suspending all killing. The flock of birds returned to the forest, and the army, like wasps returning to their nest, quietly guarded the city of Ottopan, not knowing when the fruit would ripen and drop.

Shulot was sitting in the hut of 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 long bow, and its length is more than 1.4 meters. The bowstring is made of treated deer tendon, which is tough but not elastic. The bow body 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 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.

Xiulot tried the power of the bow and arrow a few more times, and it was very stable. Shooting from a small angle, there is no armor within 70 steps.

"Sanjusangendo long shot"! This is a difficult eighty-step flat shot. Xiu Luote patted his head, thinking of the Tiantai sect temple he visited during his travels in Kyoto in the past. It seems that this single bow is slightly inferior to the composite and bows used by Japanese samurai when they first emerged.

Since the last attack, Shulot has been thinking about 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 ignored by the Mexica. In fact, it is the most promising weapon for the Central American ministries. Its upper limit of development is the smallest gap with that of Europeans, and it will be able to break through the chain mail of ordinary knights in the future, and damage the horses that plate armor knights cannot protect tightly. It does not have a strong demand for metal, and it is the most powerful weapon for the rise of primitive civilizations like Jurchens and Mongols. Dense bows or crossbows are the best way for the Mexica without cavalry to deal with the conqueror's cavalry.

At the same time, Central America is also rich in high-quality wood resources. The best are naturally ironwood and sandalwood, which are hard and top-grade wood with the strongest energy storage. The quality of bow materials even exceeds that of English longbow yew. Thinking of this, Xiulot laughed. The names of advanced equipment such as ironwood 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 making bows. 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.

Evolve the bow and arrow! While thinking about the resources at hand and future development, Xiulot quickly became excited. Under the current conditions, he finally found a bright road for the Mexica to develop their military!

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 cattle, no horns, no livestock, no show. General's Iron Tire Bow? This should also be a difficult compound bow, don't think about it. Soon, he discovered that the classic bow shapes in ancient China could not be restored.

"Everything is a bow, it is dried in winter and the horns are liquid in spring, the tendons are cured in summer, the three materials are combined in autumn, the body is laid in cold, and the strings are laid in spring." It is mentioned in "Kao Gong Ji Bow Man" that making is the most classic in ancient China. A compound bow needs six materials: "dry, horn, tendon, glue, silk, and lacquer", which are wood, animal horn, animal tendon, adhesive, silk, and paint.

There are also four seasons of "spring, summer, autumn and winter". Wood is prepared in winter, horns are processed in spring to make bow angles, tendons are processed to make bowstrings in summer, bows made of composite materials are made in autumn, composite bows are shaped in winter, strings are tuned in spring, and finally painted to prevent insects.

Who can afford it? 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 rate of fire, it is really unusable. He counted with his fingers, the materials were not enough, the production time was too long, and the rainfall in Central America was abundant and very humid. The composite bow was too easily damaged, and it was difficult to prevent moisture and insects.

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

Counting the single bows, Xiulot first thought of the various Japanese bows in the Dahe Opera, made of bamboo and wood, more than two meters long, and the shooting range was not half as big as the horn bows of the Celestial Dynasty. This is because Japan lacks high-quality wood and does not have enough cattle, so bamboo can only be used to make up the number. The kinetic energy of the bow comes from the power storage of the bow body, but the power storage efficiency of bamboo is too low, and the range and power cannot be increased. Of course, with the introduction of Chinese technology, Japan also began to make composite bows extensively later, using larger draw lengths to make up for the power of bows.

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 falls tragically from the horse. Schlott calculated carefully, and the famous Battle of Agincourt between Britain and France 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 were killed, and nearly 10,000 knights were killed. However, England only suffered hundreds of casualties, and the reputation of the Longbow has since become famous all over the world. Although the terrain had the greatest effect in this battle, and the command of the French army also had great problems, the large-scale combat capability of the longbow was also affirmed.

Generally speaking, early and bows, Welsh longbows, and later English longbows are single bows with low production technology. It is a bow body made of wood, with large draw force and long draw distance, and the power storage efficiency comes from wood, which is lower than the high-cost compound bow. Therefore, the longbow requires high-quality wood, and a larger and longer bow body to achieve higher power storage and draw distance, and release greater kinetic energy to the bow and arrow. High-quality English longbows are more than two meters in length.

The advantage of the longbow is that its production cost is much lower than that of the compound bow, the need for maintenance is low, and the production speed is extremely fast, because there is no process of bonding the composite material in it. If you compare a composite hornbow to a samurai sword, it needs careful care, it cannot be dry or wet, and it needs to be warmed up before it is used in cold weather. The longbow is probably a big iron rod, it can be thrown away for half a year, and it can be played casually when it is taken out. Shulot smiled after thinking about it.

Compared with the hornbow, the biggest disadvantage of the longbow is that the bow is too long for the same weight, so it cannot be used on horseback, and cavalry cannot use it. "Anyway, there are no horses in America now." In addition, the rate of fire is too slow, the accuracy is slightly low, and the sound is loud. "Large-scale infantry battles 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, Xiulot finally made a decision, "Longbow, it's you!"

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

Doing what he said, Shulot immediately summoned the craftsmen bestowed by the king, and then took out the Tlaxcala long wooden bow and asked, "Who has bow-making experience?".

Dozens of craftsmen looked at each other, and a few carpenters were hesitant to come out, obviously not confident enough in their skills. Only an elderly craftsman looked at the long wooden bow carefully for a while, then nodded and stepped out.

"My lord priest. This is the long wooden bow of Tlaxcala. I have imitated it and can make it." The old man smiled confidently, wrinkling his face.

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

"My lord, I am Kuod, 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. Shulot thought for a while and asked, "Do you know Cusola?"

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 warrior."

Xiuluo nodded: "He is my follower, he died for me in the previous battle. When you return to the capital, take me to his home."

Kuod nodded respectfully. Afterwards, 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 body of the bow should be more than two meters. The shape is very simple, just a long line with a curvature. First, use deer tendon or deerskin for the bow string. Next, you have to study how to use cotton thread or hemp thread Making replacement bowstrings" Shulot left only Kuod and a few carpenters, and let the other craftsmen dismiss.

The short discussion lasted only half an afternoon, and the next step was the formal production.

Xiulot found the rosewood left over from making the trebuchet before, 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 centimeters.

Next, Kuod used a tool similar to an ink fountain to draw the center line, and then drew the specific shape of the longbow based on the center line, and then cut and polished it carefully to make the bow shape out of the wood.

At the first attempt, Xiulot didn't dare to make the bow too thin. Since the pursuit of practicality, there is no need to consider the modification of the bow. Everyone started bow training directly, a process of tuning wood.

Bow training is done on the bow training frame. The bow training frame can be simply understood as a long stick with equal-length 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, pull the bow from straight to arc, to the maximum, and then stay for 20 to 30 minutes to let go of the stress of the bow. Then recover, rest for another quarter of an hour, let the bow recover, and then practice the bow again.

Because the wood used is too high-quality, this bow training is at night. The aroma of food floats from afar, which is the smell of night. Xiulot didn't care about eating, but set up a firepit in the house and paid attention to the work of the craftsmen. After a while, Bertard brought him some tortillas, and the two continued to watch while eating.

It wasn't until the bow training was over that the hungry Kuod took Shulot's cornbread and had dinner briefly. Next came another delicate job. The old carpenter used obsidian tools to finely polish the bow, and worked for half an hour until the bow was smooth enough to handle.

The last is oiling. In Mexico in this era, oil was a precious item. Neither tung trees in China nor oil palms in West Africa have yet spread to Central America, which is suitable for planting, let alone lard and tallow.

After begging for a long time at night, Shulot got a small bottle of sunflower oil and asked someone to press a bottle of expensive avocado oil. If he had time, he could roast some pine oil. Kuod spread the oil all over the bow body without hesitation, and then everyone just waited for the oil to seep in and the bow dries up.

Before I knew it, the night was deep, and it was already time to rest. Kuod took the craftsmen to leave. Only Shulot, who was tossing and turning, was left behind. The young man lifts the curtain and gazes at the bright galaxy in the sky. Under the galaxy are ancient city-states and nations that have not changed for thousands of years.

Turning around, he looked at the longbow in the middle of the tent again. The bow is white and smooth, fully two meters long, outlining the curves of strength and beauty, she is like a peerless beauty, hiding a fierce murderous intent.

Xiu Luote watched intently, looking forward to it, and his thoughts drifted away: "How powerful is this longbow?"