Chapter 71: The Way of Benevolence and Forgiveness (4)
The attack a year ago greatly enriched the Bailang Mountain military camp. Feng Daoling, Zhang Laojiang, took the lead and organized a large number of manpower to find a leeward mountain col in the back mountain and build a patchwork of wooden shacks.
Then he put the cattle and sheep he had obtained into pens. As for the horses, they were collected like treasures by the soldiers from the front camp and kept in the stables in the military camp. For this purpose, Mr. Zhang specially set aside a day to lead his disciples
The stables were renovated.
After eating mutton and drinking goat milk, the morale of the front camp suddenly rose a lot. Everyone's face glowed red and their energy seemed to be extremely energetic. The slaughtered wool and sheepskin were also fully utilized, which temporarily solved the problem.
Since the problem of eating was concerned, the women and children shifted their focus to making sheep jackets. After half a month of intense work, the soldiers in the front camp first changed their clothes and each put on a short shoulderless sheep jacket over their own military uniforms. Wang Dalang
The scout team he brought was equipped with a sheepskin felt hat and a pair of sheepskin gloves, which already looked very similar to the attire of the Khitan cavalry.
The handling of more than a hundred cows caused a fierce dispute between Li Chengzhong and Feng Dao. Speaking of which, the two have had many quarrels since they teamed up to take charge of the military affairs of Bailang Mountain, but most of them ended in Li Chengzhong's victory.
Who made this an era where the military is the most powerful?
Cattle are in short supply. In the pass, even for the Lulong Army, which is close to the grassland, cattle are extremely important strategic livestock. Not only are they used for farming, but their hides, bones, and tendons are also the main materials for bows, arrows, and leather armor.
The Tang Dynasty did not allow the killing of cattle at will. If the people killed cattle at will, they would be severely punished by the government. Adhering to the thinking of civil servants and taking into account the need to gradually farm outside the customs in the future, Feng Dao firmly disagreed with the slaughter of these cattle.
But Li Chengzhong killed them. He selected more than thirty older herd cattle and slaughtered them all. Li Chengzhong knew that Feng Dao's consideration was correct, but he was more concerned about the equipment of the soldiers in the front camp. Currently, the front camp
About half of the soldiers do not have leather armor and are extremely lacking in defensive capabilities during combat. This has always been a worry for Li Chengzhong. As the chief officer of the former battalion soldiers, it is his conscious responsibility and obligation to make all his brothers wear armor.
Li Chengzhong threw the remaining beef tendons and glue to Zhang Laojiang and asked him to make bows and arrows. He was not very satisfied with the current arrow range, so he hoped to increase the configuration of archers, or to let every soldier in the front camp
They were all equipped with bows and arrows to maximize the long-distance non-contact lethality. However, the riding bows he captured from the Khitan people did not have enough range. The only ones that could really shoot at long distances were the longbows he brought from Pingzhou, only sixty of them.
Therefore, he asked Mr. Zhang to equip every soldier in the front camp with bows and arrows when spring comes.
After listening to Li Chengzhong's request, Mr. Zhang and his apprentices looked at each other for a moment, and then said with a helpless smile: "It's impossible to complete the declaration no matter what."
Li Chengzhong said: "Is there not enough material? I will slaughter some more cattle for you. As for wood, there are a lot of elm in this mountain. I know that elm is a good material for making bows. You can cut down the elm. If you don't have enough manpower, I can.
Prepare it for you."
Zhang Laojiang sighed and said: "It has nothing to do with materials, the key is the cycle. Bow making pays attention to the six materials that must be picked at the right time. The so-called cutting and drying in winter, curing corners in spring, curing tendons in summer, combining materials in autumn, shaping in cold winter, and curing in severe winter
Table. Cutting the stem of wood in winter can make the bow stem smooth and dense; curing the corners in spring can make the bow corners moist and soft; curing the tendons in summer can make the bow string less tangled; closing the wood in autumn can make the bow body tight; in the cold winter
By fixing the bow body, the bow will not be deformed when drawn; in the severe winter, when it is extremely cold, apply glue and paint to completely dry the glue and paint. In the second spring, install the bowstring and store it for another year before it can be used."
Li Chengzhong frowned when he heard this, and said in disbelief: "You mean, it takes two years to make a bow?"
"Yes, the old man sends apprentices to join the official workshop every year. Thousands of people work together, and various processes are staggered to ensure that a batch of finished bows and arrows are delivered to the government every year."
Li Chengzhong asked about each process in detail with a black look on his face. After thinking about it, he said: "Don't do this, it's too complicated. How about we just cut down the elm wood and pull out the bow shape to string it? I think those hunters among the common people are just like this."
Those who can make their own bows and arrows."
Old Craftsman Zhang hesitated, and at Li Chengzhong's urging, he led a few disciples to make this simple bow and arrow. What Li Chengzhong didn't know was that his idea of cutting corners was tantamount to reverting to the production of single bows a thousand years ago.
Mr. Zhang didn't know how to explain it, and saw that Li Chengzhong seemed to be in a bad mood, so he had no choice but to rush to work, hoping to tell Li Xuanye with facts that nothing should be rushed.
After only half a day's work, Old Craftsman Zhang came back with the simple bow and arrow he had made. Li Chengzhong tried it himself, but found that he was not very good at it and seemed unable to control the distance of the arrow, so he called in Meng Xuxing, who was good at shooting.
, let him test it. Meng Xuxing was not clear about the purpose of the crude wooden bow handed over by his family Xuangjie, but he didn't ask any more questions, so he tried his best to shoot an arrow according to Li Chengzhong's request. The effect of the arrow can be imagined.
, it’s only fifty or sixty steps, and it’s not much different from the range of a riding bow.
Li Chengzhong asked Mr. Zhang again: "How can I increase the range of this bow?"
Zhang Laojiang thought for a while and then gave Li Chengzhong an explanation, but this explanation was a bit professional. Li Chengzhong listened for a while and only roughly understood that the key point was to increase the length of the bow body, and there were also some other details that needed to be changed.
Professional matters were left to the professionals. Li Chengzhong just asked for the range to be increased as much as possible, so he left it to Mr. Zhang to fiddle with it.
In order to achieve the shooting range of 150 steps of direct shooting and 200 steps of projectile required by Li Chengzhong, Zhang Laojiang made it several times. As a result, a huge single bow with the same height as Li Cheng appeared in front of him.
In front of him. The arrows shot by this bow fully met Li Chengzhong's requirements. The arrows could be shot directly up to 180 steps and thrown at about 230 steps. Moreover, the arrows were very powerful. Within a hundred steps, they could
Wear three layers of leather armor!
The effect of this bow was very good, but another problem faced Li Chengzhong. Except for Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao, few people in the entire front camp could shoot this bow.
Li Chengzhong is considered to be the tallest in the front camp. There are less than ten people who can match his height in the entire front camp. Therefore, due to height issues, most of the soldiers in the front camp are unable to use this bow. In addition, the mere action of raising the bow
It is difficult to complete because this bow is too heavy and requires too high arm strength. Without a certain strength, it is impossible to guarantee the stability of holding the bow. The more difficult problem is that the bow is not very maneuverable.
For the bows and arrows produced in Pingzhou, the single bow lacks many designs to balance the bow body. These attachments are only found in compound bows. Therefore, without skilled skills and years of experience, it is difficult to shoot the target accurately.
of work.
To sum up, this kind of bow has low production cost, extremely short production cycle, long range, and extremely strong arrow penetration. But the shortcomings are also obvious. The requirements for archers are very high. Li Chengzhong wants to form an army of such archers.
, is a difficult thing.
What Li Chengzhong didn't know was that the bow he tinkered with had a resounding name in medieval Europe - the English longbow. Being able to use this kind of bow and arrows was due to the unique tall stature of Europeans and the ability of all people in England to practice bows.
There is a strong cultural atmosphere of bows and arrows. The English longbow unit, formed with the English longbow as its main combat weapon, is a formidable force in Europe.
Seeing Li Chengzhong frowning and thinking deeply, Old Man Zhang bravely came up to remind him that in fact, the range and hardness of the bows and arrows used in the heyday of this dynasty were not as good as this giant bow, and the bows were shorter and lighter, which required the soldiers' archery skills.
It’s not that high either. Almost every soldier of the Tang Dynasty could afford it. The reason why the range of bows and arrows used today cannot reach that of those days is because the country’s current strength is weak and the craftsmanship is insufficient. The materials and tools used to make them are
He failed to meet the requirements. Zhang Laojiang also patted his chest and promised that as long as he was given the required materials and manpower, he was sure to make the bows and arrows used in the heyday of this dynasty within three years.
Li Chengzhong simply ignored the "three-year" agreement made by Zhang Old Man. He continued to think hard about the pros and cons of the current giant bow, and finally made up his mind. He asked Old Craftsman Zhang to shorten the bow body and reduce the redundant decorations on the bow as much as possible.
Reduce the size and weight of the giant bow. When the bow is reduced to the height of Li Chengzhong's nose, the shooting range is shortened to a distance of 130 steps for direct shooting and 180 steps for projectile. This range is slightly smaller than that of the currently used walking bow.
Fortunately, northerners are generally tall, and the reduced bow height allows almost all soldiers in the front camp to use it. Of course, compared to soldiers born in the south, this giant bow is still a bit too tall. The shortcomings still exist:
The bow body is too heavy, which is not convenient for carrying, and the biggest shortcoming common to single bows is that it is difficult to control.
Despite this, the low cost and simple process still make this kind of giant bow valuable. Li Chengzhong plans to issue a giant bow to every former battalion soldier and store it on a wooden cart during combat. As for the issues of control and accuracy,
Li Chengzhong's requirements were very low, and he planned to make changes to the bow and arrow training of the soldiers in the former camp.
The changes lie in two aspects: increasing arm strength training and conducting regional coverage shooting exercises.
There are many methods of arm strength training, and Li Chengzhong chose two of them: push-ups and pull-ups. Every morning, he would gather all the soldiers in the battalion to practice push-ups, starting with 100 per person and gradually increasing to 300.
At the same time, he also asked Mr. Zhang to erect a row of wooden frames beside the school field. In terms of shape, they were actually horizontal bars of later generations. The training requirements started with ten pull-ups per person and gradually increased to fifty. All soldiers
The tasks for the day must be completed, otherwise various punishments will be imposed. In order to encourage soldiers to practice, he even held a battalion-wide competition every five days and gave various rewards to the winners.
Regional coverage shooting is easy to understand, and the soldiers of the former battalion have practiced it in previous battles. This kind of shooting does not require accuracy, but only requires that the arrows be launched and reach a designated area. The key to the practice is to form various formations.
All, the soldiers of each team cooperated well in the shooting order to ensure the formation of uninterrupted coverage of the long-distance arrow screen.
In Li Chengzhong's future combat concept, he divided the area in front of the array into two intervals. At a long distance, the enemy will first be hit by an uninterrupted curtain of arrows from the entire battalion's giant bows. At close range, the spearmen and swordsmen will
The shield soldiers abandoned their giant bows and stood ready with melee weapons in hand, while the archers replaced the Tang army's standard bows and arrows to withstand the enemy's impact with flat shots as accurately as possible.
Of course, such a tactical configuration also indicates that in future battles, the soldiers of the front battalion will be unable to do without the heavy baggage vehicles on standby.