In addition to being easy to operate and easy to replenish soldiers, Zhao Bing also considers economic aspects. On the surface, the musket structure is complex and the manufacturing cost is high. In fact, both maintenance and use cost are much lower than the most common crossbows in this era. In fact, after entering this world, Zhao Bing realized that it would take a long time to train a qualified archer, and it was also very complicated to create a soldier's ordinary recurve compound bow.

First of all, there are more than a dozen kinds of materials to make bows. The wood used as bow arms also requires several specific types of wood. It also requires dozens of processes such as bonding horns, beef tendons, bamboo sheets, glue coating, paint, etc. It is by no means made by making a piece of wood, or repairing and forming bamboo. In short, it takes at least two years to make a qualified handful of materials from material selection to completion. The manufacturing cycle is very long, and the cost is naturally high, and it also requires careful maintenance, otherwise it will be unbearable.

If you want to make a bow, it can be used for a long time, or even passed on, and the manufacturing cost can not be said to be too high. However, arrows as consumables are mostly used at one time. However, after Zhao Bing thought about some online articles that he had read in his previous life, the protagonist would "standardize" the production of bows and arrows, establish an assembly line to produce bows and arrows, and he could kill all directions in China and abroad.

At that time, Zhao Bing felt reasonable and was enjoyable. But when it was his turn, he only smiled bitterly. The distance between reality and fantasy was really a difference between heaven and earth. Some people think that as long as the consumables such as arrows turn wooden sticks into round poles like chopsticks, and the arrows cast and produce them, the bow and arrow troops will have endless ammunition in their hands. But in fact, the production of arrows is not that simple.

First of all, there are more than a thousand types of arrow clusters, including those who focus on breaking chain mail, those who focus on killing, those who hunt, and some simple "fast arrows" that do whatever they want. It can be said that they have different functions. Zhao Bing has not seen them all after coming to this world, and there are dozens of commonly used arrow clusters. It can be seen that it is basically impossible to produce all types of arrow clusters in casting form. Even the cast arrow clusters need to be polished, and the "special" arrows need to be produced through forging. The assembly line production can only be thought about.

It is worth mentioning that in ancient times, in order to expand the wound, a dovetail-shaped arrow would be used to expand the wound. If casting was used simply, under the technical conditions of ancient times, the dovetail head would be difficult to make, and the dovetail would be easily broken. Moreover, the arrow was very thin and sharp, and the two wings of the arrow were equivalent to the thickness of the iron can, which was sharper than the utility knife on the market. With ancient technology, simple casting could not do this. In other words, the ancients preferred forging arrows with relatively large investments instead of blindly pursuing costs and casting arrows.

In addition, the production of arrow shafts is also very difficult, and its cost is higher than that of arrow clusters. Why do you say so? Let’s talk about why it is difficult to produce. A qualified arrow shaft should have a suitable length and deflection. In ancient times, no matter what method of scattering the arrow, the arrow is horizontal to the shoulders. The distance of this shooting posture will be larger than that of modern recurves, and a longer arrow shaft will be required. In ancient times, when there were only natural materials, both straightness and length must be guaranteed, and deflection must be guaranteed.

Deflection refers to the linear displacement of the cross-section center in the direction perpendicular to the axis when the straight rod is bent and deformed. This is a modern engineering concept. Although the ancients did not know it, they also knew how to use it in practice. The arrow shaft does not fly in a straight line when flying. It will shake in the air and correct its flying posture while shaking.

In order to ensure that this indicator is qualified, the process is a very labor-consuming and time-consuming task. The more typical method is called "Three Uneven", that is, splicing bamboo arrows. It uses hardwood as the core, and the outside is spliced ​​into a shell with bamboo sheets, which is similar to the principle of Easton's outer aluminum and inner carbon composite arrow shaft; or set up a set and use the milling method to grind a round straight wooden rod into a streamlined shape like a shuttle.

In addition, if the opponent's shield and armor are hard enough, the harder the arrow will cause irreversible damage to the arrow shaft. If the arrow shaft is destroyed, even if the arrow tail is slashed, it will be useless for the opponent to get the complete arrow. On the contrary, if the arrow is of poor quality, it will hit the hard object and then break through its own breaking and breaking, absorbing the impact force feedback from the hard object to the arrow shaft and protecting the arrow shaft. Then the opponent will be really good and can really shoot it back if it changes its head.

What’s even more expensive is that even if the natural material arrow shaft is carefully crafted, its service life is not long. Even if the made arrow shaft is properly kept, it will age in a few years and cannot maintain straightness and deflection. In a few years, the arrow shaft will begin to decay. The arrow shaft will not be used until it is rotten. As long as the arrow shaft is rotten and discolored, the arrow may be broken on the archer’s hand at the moment it is scattered. As long as the arrow is properly maintained, decades will still be as cold as it has just been done.

Everyone knows that feathers are pasted on the tail of an arrow, called arrow feathers. This seemingly ordinary thing is very particular. The feathers of poultry are absolutely not good. The best one is to use eagle feathers, followed by swans, ground webbing, and then owls. The second one is to use geese, and the only ones that can be used are a few hard feathers on the wings, and nothing else is needed. Anyway, the feathers of a raptor that eats meat must be the feathers. The better the raptor, the thicker the feathers, the more stable the arrow's trend and the stronger the penetration.

Zhao Bing heard that he was sucking his teeth. These birds are protected birds in modern times. If you dare to use their feathers as arrow feathers, you will have to go to prison to eat steamed buns tomorrow. Even in ancient times, eagle eagles were very common, but not everyone could catch them at will. It requires a special team to capture them. Instead of this, in addition to ensuring the aerodynamic effect and maintaining balance, there is another function that is to increase lethality.

Modern people know that if a person has deeper wounds when he is injured, he must break tetanus injections. The ancients did not understand these, but they learned experience in practice and understood that when arrows fly, the feathers carry a strong wind and will be poured into the wound, which is much more likely than the tetanus at the edge of the knife. The hair of a bird of prey is because the wind is much greater. Therefore, Zhao Bing sometimes sneered at modern film and television dramas. In order to show his heroism, the fierce generals in the drama pulled them down after being shot. In fact, this is a desperate situation on the battlefield. The arrows cannot be pulled out at all, so they must find a doctor to slowly remove the medicine.

The complex manufacturing process must be reflected in the price. In the Song Dynasty, an ordinary arrow was around 70 to 80 cents, and many of the materials were collected in the form of taxes, which was actually no different from "free". Even so, the price of a twelve arrows was almost the same. Buying a few more arrows would be almost enough for the price of a cow. Obviously, this is not cheap.

But in fact, even if it is very expensive, people are still very willing to invest in the cost of producing arrows. Because if you pursue cheapness too much, it will not cause effective damage. When such an arrow is shot, it will waste not only an arrow, but also extremely limited shooting opportunities on the battlefield. Every time you waste shooting opportunities, your opponent will be one step closer to you and your teammates. Especially in ancient times, there were cavalry, and the impact speed of cavalry is so fast that it greatly compresses the shooting time of archers.

There are definitely people who think that since arrows are so precious, it is enough to recycle the arrows left on the battlefield, and you can even learn to learn from Zhuge Liang to borrow arrows on a straw boat. Then Zhao Bing will tell you with a hurry that the use of arrows is basically one-time, either the arrow shaft is broken or the arrow feathers are damaged. There is no possibility of picking up the arrows shot by the enemy and shooting them back, okay?

As for the legend of the straw boat borrowing arrows, there were legends, but there were indeed several times in history, so it was definitely an emergency measure that was forced to do nothing. According to the records in "Biography of Zhang Xun", when Zhang Xun defended Yongqiu, he used up all the arrows in the city, so he tied the poles into thousands of straw men, put them in black clothes, and tied them with ropes at night to put them under the city. The soldiers of the rebel Linghu Chao rushed to shoot arrows, and it took a long time to find out that they were straw men. So Zhang Xun got hundreds of thousands of arrows.

After that, Zhang Xun put down people from the city wall at night, and the rebels found it funny and unprepared. As a result, this time it was a real person - Zhang Xun's 500 suicide squad! As a result, these 500 people rushed to Ling Guchao's military camp and killed Ling Hu Chao's army to defeat. It can be seen that the straw man could really borrow arrows, but he only used it once or twice. If he had too many times, the enemy would not be fooled.

So, what if the arrows are used up and the enemy also sees through the strategy of borrowing arrows, and what should we do if we can't borrow arrows? The ancients were still very wise in this regard. The method is actually very simple, just cut one arrow into several sections and use one as a few. Isn't that enough? And this happened in the current battle between Mongolia and Jurchens in the first few decades.

In August of the first year of Tianxing, the Yuan soldiers besieged Luoyang, Zhongjing of the Jin Dynasty. Since the former Jin army guard Ren Shouzhen had already been defeated and died in Zhengzhou, the people in the city recommended Qiangshen as the leader. At that time, the Yuan soldiers were very siege and the weapons in the city were exhausted. Qiangshen then put the remaining arrows shot from the Yuan soldiers into four pieces, and mobilized the money into a sieve.

But this is easier said than done. As we all know, when you use a bow to shoot, you have to put the arrow on the bow arm before you can shoot it out. However, the power stored by the bow arm is different when the same bow is pulled apart. Now that the arrow is shorter, the draw distance will be much smaller, basically not far away, and there is no lethality. Obviously, arrows cannot be used simply by truncating them.
Chapter completed!