Chapter 71: The Way of Benevolence and Forbearance (4)

  Years ago, the raid on White Wolf Mountain made the material rich, and Feng Dao ordered Zhang Laojiang to take charge of organizing a large number of people to search for a sheltered mountain valley in the back mountain, where they built rows of wooden fences and sheds. Only then were the captured cattle and sheep herded into them. As for the war horses, they were taken care of by the front camp soldiers like treasures, raised in the stables within the military camp. For this reason, Zhang Laojiang specially took a day off to lead his disciples to renovate the stables.

  After eating mutton and drinking goat's milk, the morale of the vanguard suddenly rose a lot. Everyone's face was flushed with excitement, and their energy was overflowing. The sheep wool and sheepskin obtained from the slaughter were also fully utilized, temporarily solving the food problem. The women and children then shifted their focus to making sheep coats. After half a month of intense labor, the soldiers in the vanguard were the first to change into new clothes, each adding a sleeveless short sheep coat over their military uniform. Wang Dalang's scouting team also added a sheepskin hat and a pair of sheepskin gloves, looking very similar to the Khitan cavalry's attire.

  The handling of over a hundred heads of cattle also sparked intense controversy between Li Chengzhong and Feng Dao. To recall, the two had already had many fierce arguments since they joined forces to take charge of the military and political affairs of Bailing Mountain, but most ended in Li Chengzhong's victory - after all, this was an era where the military leader held more power.

  Cattle were scarce resources, and even in the neighboring grasslands of Lulong Army, cattle were extremely important strategic livestock, not only used for farming, but also cowhide, bones, and tendons were main materials for bows, arrows, and leather armor. The Tang Dynasty did not allow arbitrary slaughter of cattle, and civilians who arbitrarily slaughtered cattle would be severely punished by the government. In line with the thinking of civil officials, and considering the need to gradually cultivate land outside the pass in the future, Feng Dao firmly disagreed with slaughtering these pasture cattle.

  But Li Chengzhong killed. He selected more than 30 heads of older cattle and slaughtered them all. Li Chengzhong knew that Feng Dao's consideration had a correct side, but he was more concerned about the equipment problem of the front camp soldiers. At present, about half of the front camp soldiers did not have leather armor, which lacked defensive capability in battle, and this had always been a heart disease for Li Chengzhong. As the commander of the front camp soldiers, it was his responsibility and duty to let his brothers wear armor.

  Li Chengzhong threw the remaining cow tendon and cow glue to Zhang Laojiang, letting him make bows and arrows. He was not very satisfied with the current arrow range, so he pinned his hopes on increasing the bowman's configuration, or in other words, letting every front camp soldier be equipped with a bow and arrow, trying to increase the long-range non-contact lethality. However, the horseback bow captured from the Khitan people had an insufficient range, and the truly long-range ones were still the longbows brought from Pingzhou, only sixty of them. Therefore, he required Zhang Laojiang to equip every front camp soldier with a bow and arrow by springtime.

  After listening to Li Chengzhong's request, Zhang Laojiang and his apprentices looked at each other for a moment before dryly laughing and saying: "Master Xuanjie is joking, it can't be done no matter what."

  Li Chengzhong said, "Is the material not enough? I'll slaughter some more cattle for you. As for wood, there are many elm trees in this mountain, and I know that elm is a good material for making bows. You can go and cut down the elm trees. If there's not enough manpower, I can arrange for more people to be sent over."

  "It has nothing to do with the materials, but rather the cycle. The production of a bow requires six materials, each taken at its proper time. In winter, cut and dry the wood; in spring, treat the horn; in summer, treat the tendon; in autumn, assemble all the materials; in cold winter, shape the bow body; and in severe winter, apply glue and varnish. Cutting and drying the wood in winter makes it smooth and dense; treating the horn in spring makes it moist and supple; treating the tendon in summer prevents the string from becoming tangled; assembling all the materials in autumn makes the bow body tight; shaping the bow body in cold winter ensures that it will not deform when drawn; and applying glue and varnish in severe winter allows them to dry completely. Only after a year of storage, with the bowstring installed in the second spring, can it be used."

  Li Chengzhong's eyebrows furrowed in concern as he asked, "You mean to say that making a bow will take two years?"

  "It's not bad, every year the old man has to send apprentices to join the official workshop, thousands of people work together, each process is done in an orderly manner, only then can we guarantee that every year there will be a batch of well-made bows and arrows delivered to the government."

  Li Chengzhong asked in detail about the various processes with a black line on his face, thought for a moment, and said: "Don't do it this way, it's too complicated. Let's just cut down the elm wood, pull out the bow shape and string it up? I see that those hunters among the common people can make their own bows and arrows."

  Zhang Laojiang wanted to speak but stopped, under Li Chengzhong's urging, he led several disciples to make this simple bow and arrow. What Li Chengzhong didn't know was that his idea of cutting corners would restore the production level of single bows from a thousand years ago. Zhang Laojiang didn't know how to explain it, and seeing that Li Chengzhong seemed to be in a bad mood, he could only reluctantly rush to work, hoping to tell this Li Xuanjie with facts that things can't be rushed.

  In just half a day, Zhang Laojiang brought back the roughly made bow and arrow. Li Chengzhong tried it himself, but found that it was not very handy, seemingly unable to control the distance of the arrow's trajectory, so he asked Meng Xuxing, who was good at shooting, to test it. Meng Xuxing didn't quite understand the intention behind Zhang Laojiang handing him this crude wooden bow, but he didn't dare ask too many questions, and according to Li Chengzhong's request, he shot an arrow with all his might. The effect of the arrow was as expected, only about 50-60 paces, not much different from the range of a mounted archer.

  Li Chengzhong asked Zhang Laojiang again: "How can we increase the range of this bow?"

  Zhang Laojiang thought for a moment, 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's curvature, and there were also some other details that needed to be changed. Professional matters should be left to professionals to handle, so Li Chengzhong simply asked Zhang Laojiang to try his best to increase the range and let him go back to work on it again.

  To meet Li Chengzhong's requirement of a shooting distance of 150 steps for direct shots and 200 steps for projectile shots, Zhang Laojiang repeatedly made several attempts. As a result, a huge single-body bow that was the same height as Li Chengzhong appeared in front of him. The arrows shot from this bow fully met Li Chengzhong's requirements, with direct shots reaching 180 steps and projectile shots reaching around 230 steps. Moreover, the arrow's force was very strong, and within 100 steps, it could penetrate three layers of leather armor!

  The bow was very effective, but another problem presented itself to Li Cheng: apart from Meng Xu Xing and Jiao Cheng Qiao, there were hardly any people in the entire vanguard who could shoot this bow.

  Li Chengzhong is considered one of the top in terms of physical strength among the front camp soldiers, and there are less than ten people in the entire front camp who can match his height. As a result, most front camp soldiers cannot use this bow due to their height. Moreover, simply lifting the bow is very difficult because it is too heavy, requiring too much arm strength, and without sufficient force, it is impossible to guarantee stability while holding the bow. The even more difficult problem lies in the fact that the bow's operability is not good, compared to the bows produced in Pingzhou, this single-body bow lacks many designs that balance the bow body, which are only found on composite bows. Therefore, without skilled techniques and years of experience, hitting the target is a high-difficulty task.

  In summary, this bow has a low production cost, an extremely short production cycle, a relatively long range, and extremely strong arrow penetration. However, the drawbacks are also very obvious, requiring high demands on the archer. It is difficult for Li Chengzhong to form such an archery team.

  What Li Chengzhong did not know was that the bow he had come up with had a resounding name in medieval Europe - the English longbow. The ability to use this bow and arrow benefited from the unique tall stature of Europeans, as well as the thick archery culture atmosphere of England's national archery practice. The English longbowmen troops, which were formed with the English longbow as the main combat weapon, were a force to be reckoned with in Europe.

  Li Chengzhong furrowed his brow in deep thought, and Old Man Zhang mustered up the courage to remind him that the bows and arrows used during the prosperous era of this dynasty had a range and hardness that was not inferior to this giant bow. Moreover, the bow body was shorter and lighter, and the requirements for the soldiers' archery skills were not high. In those days, almost every soldier in the Great Tang army was equipped with one. The reason why the bows and arrows used now cannot reach the range of that time is because the national strength has declined and the craftsmanship is not up to par, so the materials and manufacturing tools used do not meet the requirements. Old Man Zhang patted his chest to guarantee that as long as he was given the necessary materials and manpower, he had confidence that within three years, he could produce the bows and arrows used during the prosperous era of this dynasty.

  Regarding Zhang Lao Han's "three years" agreement, Li Cheng Zhong directly ignored it. He continued to think deeply about the pros and cons of this giant bow, and finally made up his mind. He asked Zhang Lao Jiang to shorten the bow body, reduce the unnecessary decorations on the bow body as much as possible, in order to lighten the weight of the giant bow. When the bow body was shortened to the height of Li Cheng Zhong's nose, the range was reduced to a straight shot of 130 steps and a throwing shot of 180 steps, which is slightly farther than the current step bow. Fortunately, the northerners are generally tall and big, and the shortened bow body height also makes it possible for almost all the soldiers in the front camp to use it. Of course, compared to the southern-born soldiers, this giant bow still seems a bit too high. The disadvantages still exist: the bow body is too heavy, not convenient to carry, and the biggest problem of single-body bows - difficult to control.

  Despite this, the low cost and simple process still make this giant bow have value. Li Chengzhong intends to issue one giant bow for each vanguard soldier, stored on a wooden cart during battle, as for control and accuracy issues, Li Chengzhong's requirements are very low, he plans to modify the archery training of the vanguard soldiers.

  The changes are in two aspects: increasing arm strength training and conducting regional coverage shooting exercises.

  There are many ways to train arm strength, and Li Chengzhong focuses on two: push-ups and pull-ups. Every morning, he gathers all the soldiers in the camp for push-up practice, starting with 100 per person and gradually increasing to 300. At the same time, he also asks Zhang Laojiang to set up a row of wooden frames on the edge of the training ground, which is actually a single bar in shape, requiring each soldier to start with 10 pull-ups and gradually increase to 50. All soldiers must complete the task of the day, otherwise they will be punished in various ways. To encourage the soldiers to practice, he even holds a camp-wide competition every five days, rewarding the winners with various rewards.

  Area coverage shooting is easy to understand, and the soldiers in the front camp have practiced it in previous battles. This shooting does not require accuracy, only requires launching arrows to reach a designated area. The key to practice is to form a good coordination of shooting order among all troops and teams to ensure continuous coverage of long-range arrow curtain.

  In Li Chengzhong's future combat concept, the area in front of the formation was divided into two intervals. At a distance, the enemy would first be subjected to uninterrupted arrow fire from the entire camp's giant crossbows. When close, the gunners and knife-shield soldiers abandoned their giant crossbows, holding short-range blades in formation, while the archers switched to Tang army standard bows and arrows, using as accurate flat shooting as possible to repel the enemy's impact.

  Of course, such a tactical configuration also implies that in future battles, the vanguard soldiers will not be able to leave the heavy logistics vehicles.