Chapter 38: New Type of Repeating Crossbow

  (Thanks for the continuous rewards from "Zhao Wu Xu 2014" and "Evil Wolf Star"!)

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Inside the Hangul temple, Mong Yuan and Xiao Ma followed a Hangul cavalry guard to a white felt tent, where the guard reported: "Commander, they have arrived."

  The curtain was lifted to reveal a thin little face, which turned out to be Ma Shuai's servant, Ah Su. He nodded at the three of them and said, "General ordered that once you arrive, come in."

  At the front end of the tent, a person sat with a large bow in hand, it was Ma Xun. Beside him, behind a low table, knelt a bright-eyed and white-toothed beautiful girl, who held a brush and ink to draw something on a piece of sheepskin that had been treated with saltpeter. Hmm, it was Ma Xun's personal maid Nianslave.

  On that day, a fierce battle was fought at the foot of Xiaozhi Mountain. Meng Yuan and Xiao Ma were relatively far apart, and with the crowd surging forward and the horses galloping wildly, it was hard to get a clear view. At this moment, seeing his idol-like hero up close, he involuntarily knelt down on the thick felt, trembling with fear, saying: "Little slave Meng Yuan (Ma Jun), pays respects to the commander, thanks the commander for sparing my life, and will repay him with my own death."

  Ma Xuan waved his hand: "No need to call yourself a little slave, from the moment Han people enter the gate of Hangugou Village, their slave status is automatically lifted. We also have slaves in Hangugou Department, but they will never be Han slaves. Meng Yuan, I heard that you are fleeing to find your wife and children, there are many rescued women and children in Hangugou Department, have you found your wife?"

  "Many thanks for your concern." Mong Yuan's expression turned gloomy, "Unfortunately, I didn't find it..."

  "Don't worry, and set your mind at ease. I will continue to put pressure on the Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes, and demand that they return the Han slaves they have taken. As long as your wife is still alive, she will one day be returned to you."

  "Th-thank... you... General..." Meng Yuan's lips trembled, and he was already at a loss for words to express the gratitude in his heart.

  Ma Xianglan comforted her and then led into the main topic: "I heard that you are a bow maker?"

  "Yes, Xiao Nu... I was originally a bow maker under the command of General Lu Jing in Luoyang. In the first year of Zhongping, I took my wife back to our hometown to worship our ancestors. When we arrived at Yuyang, we were kidnapped by the Wuhuan people and separated from each other..." Meng Yuan's voice trailed off.

  Nian Nu listened on the side, and her eyes also turned red.

  The atmosphere inside the tent was somewhat oppressive, so Ma Xun had to pull the topic back again and handed the leopard bow (infrared sight removed) to Meng Yuan: "How's this bow of mine? What else can be improved?"

  Meng Yuan respectfully accepted it, and as soon as he held the bow in his hand, his humble expression changed instantly, as if he had become a different person, focused and confident. Ma Xun looked at him and nodded secretly, such a person, even if not a great master, is still an excellent craftsman.

  At this time, Meng Yuan had already tried plucking the strings, inspecting the bow arm and trying to draw the bow. He respectfully returned it to Ma Xun and said: "This bow of yours is made from excellent mulberry wood, has a fine lacquer finish, has excellent elasticity and strong bow force, truly an exceptional infantry bow."

  Ma Xun did not receive the bow, but instead stared straight at him: "What else can be improved?"

  Meng Yuan held up the bow and said: "This bow is already perfect. Even the bows used in the Imperial Armory of the capital are no better than this."

  Ma Xun finally put his mind at ease, the reason he asked this was because he found that whether it was the Youzhou army, Jizhou army, or the Wuhuan people and Xianbei people, all of their bows lacked a certain auxiliary device. It's unknown whether this era hadn't invented it yet, or if the northern people and Hu slaves' bows and arrows were simply crude and imperfect. Meng Yuan was once a craftsman in the Han court's Imperial Workshop, he would know best, and he said there wasn't one, then there really wasn't one. It seems that they could regain some advantage in terms of weaponry.

  Ma Xun walked forward, pointing to the junction of the bow's limbs and string, saying: "If two pieces of leather pads are added here, will it eliminate the recoil force of the bowstring after shooting arrows and make the arrow fly more accurately?"

  Meng Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then exclaimed with joy: "Right! The faster the bowstring returns to stillness, the faster the next arrow can be drawn and the more accurate it will be!"

  In general, every time an arrow is shot, the bowstring must vibrate violently and needs to be gently stroked with the palm and fingers to restore it to stillness, so that the next shot can have a higher hit rate. However, on the battlefield where every second counts, especially in horseback archery duels, being slow even for a moment will lose the initiative, and life and death will be decided in an instant. Therefore, installing a bow stabilizer to gain an advantage is very meaningful.

  The bow pad is one of the symbols of the Qing bow, and the Qing bow is a kind of bow with relatively strong power in modern times. Ma Xun was originally also playing with bows and crossbows, so he wouldn't know nothing about it. However, he called Meng Yuan over, not to install the bow pad or something like that, but rather...

  Ma Xuan nodded to Nian Nu, who picked up the sheepskin on the table and walked over to hand it to Meng Yuan. Meng Yuan took it with a puzzled expression, his face growing more and more astonished as he looked at it. Little Ma also leaned over to take a look, her face equally shocked.

  Xiao Ma was what kind of person, Ma Hong didn't know clearly either, just thought he was Meng Yuan's apprentice, otherwise wouldn't have called him together, naturally also wouldn't stop him from looking at the new type of mounted crossbow diagram he had drawn.

  That's right, the crossbow drawn by Ma Huan is a replica of the strong crossbow he used in the jungle of Guatemala. He is so familiar with this weapon that he can draw it without any difference even with his eyes closed. No matter whether the craftsmanship of this era can be made or not, we have to try. The reason why Ma Huan thought of manufacturing new weapons is mainly because the battle of Xiaozhishan had a great impact on him.

  At the beginning, the small branch of Shan Mountain fought against the Wuhuan people. Facing the same skilled archers and horsemen, the under-trained "Mangudai Battle Method" could not demonstrate its due power. The Mangudai Battle Method was mainly used to deal with infantry and heavy cavalry, but it was not very effective against light cavalry, especially archer cavalry. If you want to use it to fight against archer cavalry, you have to solve two key problems: the range of arrows and the speed of horses.

  The speed of the horse is easy to solve, and selecting a good warhorse can be done by launching a surprise attack - that is, running first. As long as the distance is opened up, unless the enemy's warhorses are overall of higher quality, it would be impossible to catch up. However, the range of the bow and arrow is a difficult problem. Tang Nu, Wu Zhui, and others have mentioned a clumsy method - gathering strong archers from the tribe who can pull more than two stones, and forming a special team. But how many good archers are there that can pull two stones? Even they themselves only use it with difficulty, and those heavy cavalrymen may be able to do so, but their shooting is inaccurate, having power but no precision is also in vain.

  He can both draw a strong bow and is a divine shooter, such high-quality soldiers, even in the vast northern grasslands that produce masters of archery, are hard to find. With the current population base of the Han Go Department, how many such skilled riders and shooters can be gathered? Is there even one team? Obviously, this kind of elite combat tactic is not feasible for the Han Go Department at present.

  Since human power can't solve it, use mechanical power, this is the thinking that every modern person has.

  The bow can no longer solve the problem, only the crossbow can. The crossbows of the Two Han and Three Kingdoms periods had a considerable range, such as the waist-mounted crossbow used by the vanguard warriors led by Yu Yi, which was the famous large yellow crossbow of the Han Dynasty, which Li Guang once used to shoot into a stone. However, this type of crossbow has a long enough range, but it is too heavy and too large, and it takes effort to draw the string again, requiring great strength, making it impossible to use on horseback. The only crossbow that can be used on horseback is the mounted crossbow.

  The Gaizhang Nu, also known as the purely arm-powered crossbow, is the shortest-range type of crossbow and even inferior to the two-stone bow. However, its accuracy is better than that of a bow, and it can be used on horseback. The drawback is that its firing speed is too slow, and if it were to engage in a shootout with bows and arrows, it would be completely suppressed. It seems that this approach won't work either.

  The solution is to use a new type of crossbow with modern elements added.

  Ma Hu's new type of mounted crossbow had two major technical breakthroughs: one was the bowstring. If the bowstring is short, the tension of the crossbow arm is insufficient, and the power is weak, so the range is not far; if the bowstring is long, the crossbow arm is too long and cannot be used on horseback. This is a contradiction that is difficult to reconcile. Ma Hu's solution was to use a compound bowstring. The so-called compound bowstring refers to the addition of two or three fulcrums on the crossbow handle, then crossing and connecting the bowstrings (like the lacing method of shoelaces), so that the strong pulling force produced by the long and tough bowstring is limited to an extremely small area. In this way, it can be installed on a short, light, and convenient crossbow, solving the problem of use on horseback.

  The next question is the pulling force, that is, how to pull it open? This compound crossbow is actually equivalent to transferring the pulling force of a foot-operated crossbow to a hand-held one. How can you pull it open with your hands when you need to step on it to open it?

  Ma Hu's solution was the pulley lever. Most modern bows are pulley bows, which save effort, and even teenagers can open nearly 100-pound bows. It's not because of great strength, but because it saves effort. So Ma Hu didn't spend much thought on it, and directly took out this labor-saving plan. On both sides of the crossbow handle, two to three metal gears were used to form a pulley group, which pulled the bowstring up with the lever board. The strong pulling force that required foot pedals was transformed into effortless manual stringing.

  Compound bow, crossbow, gear, pulley set... all sorts of new things that opened up Mong Yuan and Xiao Ma's eyes. Mong Yuan was naturally excited because he was a bow maker by profession, seeing these new weapons that could change the face of battle. But why were Xiao Ma's eyes shining too?

  "What? Can you control it?" Ma Yun's words startled both of them awake.

  "Can!" Meng Yuan responded subconsciously, this unprecedented strong crossbow, if not tried, he was afraid that even his sleep would be unstable. "It's just that I'm illiterate, the explanation on it..."

  This inscription was dictated by Ma Xiang and written down by Nian Nu, but unexpectedly Meng Yuan couldn't recognize it, rendering Nian Nu's beautiful small regular script useless.

  Just then, Little Horse said: "I know the words, I can read them out loud for Uncle Meng...Uncle Meng to hear, and..."

  Ma Han frowned. This kid was actually a stutterer. It was quite uncomfortable to listen to someone with a speech impediment, but Ma Han still pinched his nose and continued to listen: "Go on."

  The little horse got encouraged, his face turned bright red, and he stuttered even more: "And, and, I, I think, can still, improve, improve to, a repeating crossbow..."

  Ma Huan looked at Little Horse with some surprise and praised: "Not bad, there's an idea, it can indeed be equipped with a quiver and modified into a repeating crossbow. However, this will affect the range, and the impact is great. At present, what I need most is range, not rate of fire, so... Of course, you can think carefully and strive to unify both, taking care of both range and speed, which would be a great improvement. If there's a new breakthrough, I won't hesitate to reward it."

  "Hmm!" Before Meng Yuan could respond, Xiao Ma nodded vigorously, his wooden face radiating a resolute aura, his eyes shining brightly.

  Ma Huan couldn't help but be slightly surprised and blurted out: "What's your name?"

  Ma Jun.

  Ma Huan thought for a moment and had no impression of this name. What he didn't know was that if there was one person in the Three Kingdoms era who could improve the repeating crossbow, it would be this gentleman - Ma Jun.

  A report came from outside the account: "Report to the commander, Tian Congshi requests an audience."

  "Alright, you can go now. Do a good job and don't worry about the expenses. If you're short of manpower, money or materials, just come to me for help. I only need you to produce qualified products. Also, be sure to keep this confidential and don't let unrelated people see these drawings."

  Meng Yuan and Ma Jun obeyed immediately, then carefully rolled up the sheepskin, bowed and retreated, leaving the tent.

  Ma Huan beckoned to Ah Su, who was standing at the entrance of the tent. When Ah Su approached, he whispered: "From now on, your most important task is to keep an eye on them. If they do well, that's fine. But if anything goes wrong, report to me immediately."

  He nodded heavily and left with his orders.

  Before long, the curtain was lifted and Tian Yu entered with a copper plate in his hand, showing it to Ma Xun: "Brother Jinglong, do you know what this is?"

  Ma Xun held the copper medal in his hand, turning it over and over for half a day. Except for the strange flower patterns engraved on it, there was not a single word, and he couldn't even start guessing.

  Tian Yu no longer called him difficult, smiled and solved the puzzle: "This is Xianbei's adult Kou Bi Neng, asking Yan Shi brothers to hand over the meeting card to the department commander, equivalent to our dynasty's please advise, Kou Bi Neng is inviting the department commander to attend the Xianbei people's conference."

  Ma Huan was taken aback: "Conference? What conference?"

  Tian Yu smiled slightly: "The Xianbei people's 'August Linhe Grand Assembly'."

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Don't forget Sanjiang ticket.