Empire of Shadows

Chapter 83: English longbow

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"My lord, I plan to form a team in which each member has a longbow with a range of more than 300 meters and a throwing distance of more than 500 meters... as well as a three-shot crossbow to deal with rapidly charging cavalry; and another quick-fire bow to deal with infantry. In this way, I will be able to deal with all types of troops on the continent and will no longer be a burden to other troops because of the lack of those equipment. Of course, since my troops are equipped with three types of bows and crossbows, they may need to carry a lot more equipment. So I would like to ask my lord to equip each of our soldiers with an extra warhorse." After talking about the basic range of the longbow, I hesitated for a moment, and then continued to explain to Sack the other equipment I needed.

"A range of 300 meters? A projectile of more than 500 meters? Plus, you are archers, so aren't you going to threaten the collective attack range of the magicians? But as far as I know, the longest range of the bow on the continent is less than 200 meters, and the maximum projectile range is less than 400 meters... Could it be that you...?"

"Sir, do you still remember the spring I mentioned? The same material is made into a thin sheet, and then made into four different lengths... You see, it looks like this... Finally, the bowstring is made of the most elastic Mogado mad cow leg tendon on the continent, you say..." I explained my improved English longbow to Thacker with gestures, and those bows made of mulberry wood or bamboo were changed by me to be made of spring steel, and their style is completely dependent on the shock-absorbing spring steel plate of modern trucks. I think the elasticity generated by the superposition of multiple layers of spring steel plates can completely surpass those rubbish longbows by several times. The only worry is the strength and height of the bow puller. Damn, strength alone is enough. When riding on a horse, do you still have to worry about not being tall enough

"Okay, if you can let me see the power of the thing you mentioned first, as long as the projectile distance can reach the distance you said, then I will assemble such an army for you. Even if the higher-ups don't agree to the cost, I will find a way for you. But you must be prepared to complete the entire process from showing me the sample to forming an army within a few months. By then, we may take action..."

"..."

God, how many months? English longbowmen cannot be trained in a short time. Although the soldiers in this world, especially the elite soldiers, are indeed stronger than the British on Earth, other aspects of training cannot be completed in a short time. In addition, using the current backward technology, it will take about a month to produce the spring steel plate I need, right? Add in the molding and subsequent processing, and it may take another month...

Under Sack's arrangement, a blacksmith known as the best in the imperial capital moved into the backyard of the Duke's Mansion. At my request, they began to forge the iron sheets I needed. The longest was over 2 meters long, the shortest was only half a meter, 40MM wide, and only a few millimeters thick. The iron sheets were forged by hand one by one.

Then, after tempering, grinding and forming through the crude heat treatment process of this era, I took those parts into a small room alone. When I came out, I had discarded most of the materials that could make 20 bows. In the end, only 5 longbows could be made, and then, 2 longbows that I thought were not suitable for equipment were thrown into the furnace.

When the longest bow, which was 2.5 meters long and the shortest 2 meters long, appeared in front of Thacker, his eyes lit up immediately. No one could deny the power that such a big thing could produce, but to what extent it could be achieved was a question for all those who were preparing to test the power of the bow.

While everyone was pointing fingers at these longbows, I was thinking about the problem of mass production of those longbows. It was unbearable for me that the best blacksmiths could produce so many spring steel sheets and nearly 70% of them would be waste.

Melting cold shut, slag inclusion, hot cracking, and even shrinkage, while forging and heat treatment also produce a lot of waste. If this situation also exists in formal production, not to mention that the production time will be very long, even the time I spend on surface flaw detection of those materials will cost me my life. (The most basic flaw detection method, color flaw detection: use a cleaning agent to clean the surface of the workpiece, then use a liquid with strong permeability and eye-catching color to penetrate the product, and finally clean the penetrant on the surface of the product and apply a color developer {even chalk can be used}, wait for a period of time, if the product surface does not have the pigment of the penetrant, then it is considered a qualified product, and if the product surface has defects, then the product will have the pigment penetrant seeping out at the defective place, and the same shape as the defect will appear on the surface of the color developer.)

"Hanlong, come here. Why is there such a big difference in the elasticity of these bows? The lightest one can be pulled open by even the stronger men in our empire, not to mention the soldiers with strong arms. But the strongest one cannot be pulled open even by me without using my fighting spirit. Except for the one in the middle, I think they are of no value!" After trying to pull a few bows, Sack called me over with a questioning look on his face.

"Well, sir, you know that I can't even pull a bow, so I can only make a few more, and then let you try it yourself, and finally finalize the production. I have to wait until today's test before I can decide how to produce it..." Thinking of how I tried my best to pull the worst bow but couldn't do anything with it, I felt discouraged, and at the same time I made the strongest bow, which I thought only perverts could use. But I didn't expect that the bow that I couldn't pull with all my might turned out to be a piece of rubbish that almost anyone could pull except me, which made me feel like vomiting blood. What's even more incredible to me is that the strong bow that I thought no one could pull was pulled by Sack, who looked more elegant, or I should find a way to learn it. . . . . .

"Flame Legion standard bow, target distance 200 meters, wind speed..." Under Sack's order, one of Sack's guards commanded a team of Flame Legion soldiers to begin test shooting the Empire's standard archer cavalry war bow.