Datang New Order

The attack a few years ago made the White Wolf Mountain Military Village very rich in supplies. Feng Dao ordered Old Craftsman Zhang to take the lead, organized a large number of people, found a leeward col in the back mountain, and built a series of wooden houses. Only then did the cattle and sheep that had been obtained be raised in pens.As for the war horses, they were collected by the soldiers of the former battalion like treasures and kept in the stables in the military camp. For this reason, Old Craftsman Zhang dedicated a day to lead his disciples to remodel the stables.

After eating mutton and drinking goat milk, the morale of the front battalion suddenly increased a lot, everyone's faces glowed red, and they seemed extremely energetic.The slaughtered wool and sheepskins were also fully utilized, temporarily solving the food problem, and the women and children shifted their labor focus to making sheep jackets. After half a month of intense work, the soldiers in the front battalion first changed their clothes, and each A short sheepskin jacket with no shoulders was worn on his military uniform, while the scout team led by Wang Dalang had a sheepskin felt hat and a pair of sheepskin gloves, which looked very similar to the outfits of Khitan cavalry.

The handling of more than a hundred cows has aroused fierce disputes between Li Chengzhong and Feng Dao.Having said that, since the two joined forces to take charge of the White Wolf Mountain military administration, many quarrels have erupted, but most of them ended in Li Chengzhong's victory. Who made this an era when the military leader is the most powerful?

Cattle were in short supply. In the pass, even for Lu Longjun, who was close to the grassland, cattle were extremely important strategic livestock. They were not only used for farming, but also the hide, bones, and tendons of cattle were the main materials for bows and arrows and leather armor.Datang does not allow cattle to be slaughtered at will. If the people kill cattle at will, they will be severely sentenced by the government.Adhering to the thinking of a civil official, and considering the need to gradually farm fields outside the customs in the future, Feng Dao firmly disagreed with slaughtering these cattle.

But Li Chengzhong killed him.He selected more than [-] grazing cattle with older teeth 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 battalion.At present, about half of the soldiers in the front battalion do not have leather armor, and they are extremely lacking in defense capabilities during combat. This has always been a heart problem for Li Chengzhong.As the chief officer of the former battalion soldiers, it is his conscious responsibility and obligation to put all his brothers in armor.

Li Chengzhong threw the remaining beef tendon and beef glue to old craftsman Zhang and asked him to make bows and arrows. He was not very satisfied with the current range of arrows, so he hoped to increase the configuration of archers, or let every soldier in the front battalion They are all equipped with bows and arrows to increase the lethality of long-distance non-contact as much as possible.But the riding bows he seized from the Khitans were not capable of shooting, and the longbows he brought from Pingzhou were the ones that could really shoot long distances, only sixty of them.Therefore, he asked Old Craftsman Zhang to equip every soldier in the former battalion with a bow and arrow when spring came.

After listening to Li Chengzhong's request, Old Craftsman Zhang and several of his apprentices looked at each other for a moment, then said with a helpless dry smile: "Xuanjie was joking, it can't be done anyway."

Li Chengzhong said: "Is there not enough material? I will slaughter some 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 elm. If there are not enough people, I can do it." Arrange for you."

Old craftsman Zhang sighed and said: "It has nothing to do with the material, the key is the cycle. Bow making pays attention to choosing the six materials at the right time, the so-called cutting dry in winter, trimming corners in spring, curing tendons in summer, combining materials in autumn, shaping in cold winter, and curing in severe winter." Table. Splitting the wood and drying it in winter can make the bow smooth and dense; curing the corners in spring can make the bow corners moist and soft; When the bow body is fixed, the bow will not be deformed when it is drawn; when it is extremely cold in winter, the glue and paint can be applied to make the paint dry completely. In the spring of the following year, the bowstring is installed and stored 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?"

"That's right. The old man has to send apprentices to join the official workshop every year. Thousands of people work together, and the various processes are staggered to ensure that a batch of ready-made bows and arrows are delivered to the official every year."

Li Chengzhong inquired about each process in detail with a black face, thought for a while, and said: "Don't do this, it's too complicated. How about we just cut down the elm and pull out the bow shape to wind it? I think the Orion among the common people is Those who can make their own bows and arrows."

Old craftsman Zhang hesitated to speak, and under the urging of Li Chengzhong, 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 equivalent to returning to the production level of single-piece bows thousands of years ago. Old craftsman Zhang didn't know how to explain it. Seeing that Li Chengzhong seemed to be in a bad mood, he had no choice but to rush to work. , hoping to tell this Li Xuanjie with facts that one cannot rush for success in everything.

In just half a day, Old Craftsman Zhang came back with the simple bow and arrow he made.Li Chengzhong tried it himself, but found that it was not very convenient, and he seemed unable to control the distance of the arrow's aim, so he asked Meng Xuxing, who was good at shooting, to test it.Meng Xuxing was not quite clear about the intention of his family Xuanjie to hand over this crude wooden bow, but he didn't want to ask more questions, so he shot an arrow as best he could according to Li Chengzhong's request.The effect of the arrow can be imagined, it is only fifty or sixty steps, and the range is not much different from that of a riding bow.

Li Chengzhong asked Old Craftsman Zhang: "How can I increase the shooting range of this bow?"

Old craftsman Zhang thought about it for a while, and then explained it to Li Chengzhong, but this explanation was a bit professional. After listening to it for a while, Li Chengzhong only understood that the key point was to increase the length of the bow, and there were other details that needed to be changed.Professional matters were left to professionals. Li Chengzhong only asked for the maximum range, so he let Old Craftsman Zhang go to work on it.

In order to achieve the shooting distance of 150 paces for straight shots and 180 paces for projectiles required by Li Chengzhong, Mr. Zhang repeatedly made it several times, so a huge single bow with the same height as Li Chengzhong appeared in front of him.The arrows shot by this bow fully meet Li Chengzhong's requirements. The direct shot can reach 230 steps, and the projected arrow can reach about [-] steps.Moreover, the strength of the arrow is very strong, within a hundred steps, it can wear three layers of leather armor!

The effect of this bow was very good, but another problem was posed in front of Li Chengzhong. Except for Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao, few people in the entire front battalion could shoot this bow.

Li Chengzhong was considered to be the tallest in the front battalion, and there were less than ten people in the front battalion who could be compared with his height, so the height problem prevented most soldiers from the front battalion from using this bow.In addition, it is very difficult to complete the action of simply raising the bow, because this bow is too heavy and requires too much arm strength, without a certain amount of strength, it is impossible to guarantee the stability when holding the bow.The more difficult problem is that the operability of the bow is not very good. Compared with the bows and arrows produced in Pingzhou, the single bow lacks a lot of balanced bow design, and these attached shots are only available in compound bows.Therefore, without skilled skills and years of experience, it is a difficult job to hit the target.

To sum up, this kind of bow has low production cost, extremely short production cycle, long range and strong arrow penetrating power.But the shortcomings are also obvious. The requirements for archers are very high. It is very difficult for Li Chengzhong to form such an archer team.

What Li Chengzhong didn't know was that the bow he made had a famous name in medieval Europe - the English longbow.The ability to use this kind of bow and arrow benefits from the unique tall stature of Europeans, as well as the strong bow and arrow cultural atmosphere of England's people practicing bow and arrow.The English longbowmen unit formed with the English longbow as the main combat weapon is a daunting force in Europe. …,

Seeing Li Chengzhong frowning in thought, old man Zhang bravely came up to remind him that the range and hardness of the bows and arrows used in the heyday of the dynasty were not inferior to this giant bow, and the bows were shorter and lighter. Not too high. Almost everyone in the army of the Tang Dynasty could afford it.The reason why the range of the bows and arrows in use today cannot reach the range of that time is that the current national strength is weak and the craftsmanship is not enough, and the materials and utensils used cannot meet the requirements.Old craftsman Zhang also patted his chest and promised that as long as he was given the materials and manpower he needed, he would be sure to make the bows and arrows used in the heyday of the dynasty within three years.

Li Chengzhong directly ignored Old Man Zhang's "three-year" agreement. He continued to ponder over the pros and cons of the current giant bow, and finally made up his mind.He asked Old Craftsman Zhang to shorten the body of the bow and minimize the extra decorations on the body of the bow, so as to reduce the size and weight of the giant bow.When the bow body is reduced to the height of Li Chengzhong's nose, the shooting range is shortened to 130 steps for direct shooting and 180 steps for throwing, which is slightly longer than the current step bow.Fortunately, the northerners are generally tall, and the reduced height of the bow makes it almost possible for the soldiers in the front battalion to use it. Of course, compared with the soldiers born in the south, this huge bow still seems a bit too high.The disadvantages still exist: the bow body is too heavy, it is not easy to carry, and the biggest problem common to single bows is that it is not easy to control.

Despite this, the low cost and simple process still make this giant bow valuable.Li Chengzhong planned to distribute a huge bow to each soldier in the front battalion, and store it on a wooden cart during battle. As for the control and accuracy issues, Li Chengzhong had very low requirements, and he planned to change the bow and arrow training of the soldiers in the front battalion.

The change lies in two aspects: that is, to increase the strength training of the arms and to conduct regional coverage shooting exercises.

There are many ways to train the strength of the arms, and Li Chengzhong focuses on two: push-ups and pull-ups.Every morning, he would gather the whole battalion to practice push-ups, starting with [-] per person and gradually increasing to [-].At the same time, he also asked Zhang Laojiang to erect a row of wooden frames on the side of the school field. In terms of shape, it is actually the horizontal bar of later generations. The training requirements start from ten pull-ups per person and gradually increase to fifty.All soldiers must complete the task of the day, 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 well understood, and the soldiers of the former battalion have practiced it in previous operations.This kind of shooting does not require accurate head, only requires that the arrow be launched and reach a designated area.The key to the practice is to form a good coordination of the shooting order of the soldiers in each capital and team, so as to ensure the uninterrupted coverage of the long-distance arrow screen.

In Li Chengzhong's future combat concept, he divided the area before the array into two sections.At a long distance, the enemy army will first be hit by the uninterrupted curtain of arrows from the giant bows of the whole battalion. Try to shoot as accurately as possible to resist the impact of the enemy.

Of course, such a tactical configuration also indicates that in future operations, the soldiers of the front battalion will be inseparable from the standby of the supply truck.