In addition to being easy to operate and convenient for replenishing soldiers, Zhao Hao's choice of muskets was also based on economic considerations. On the surface, the structure of the musket is complex and the manufacturing cost is high, but in fact, the maintenance cost and use cost are much lower than the bow and crossbow, which are the most commonly equipped in this era. In fact, after arriving in this world, Zhao Yu realized that it takes a long time to train a qualified archer, and it is also very complicated to build an ordinary recurve compound bow of a soldier.

First of all, there are more than a dozen kinds of materials used to make bows, and the wood used as bow arms also requires a specific kind of wood, and it also needs to be glued by dozens of processes such as horns, tendons, bamboo chips, gluing, lacquering, etc., which is by no means a piece of wood, or bamboo can be repaired and molded. In a word, it takes at least two years to manufacture a qualified one from material selection to completion, the manufacturing cycle is very long, the cost is naturally high, and it also needs to be carefully maintained, otherwise it is unbearable to use.

To say that the manufacture of a bow can be used for a long time, and can even be passed down from generation to generation, it cannot be said that the manufacturing cost is evenly shared. Arrows that can be used as consumables are mostly disposable. And Zhao Hao thought about some of the online articles he had read in his previous life, after traveling to ancient times, the protagonist would "standardize" the production of bows and arrows and establish an assembly line to produce bows and arrows, so that he could kill all sides at home and abroad.

At that time, Zhao Yu still felt that it was reasonable, and he watched it with relish. But when it was his turn, he only had a wry smile left, the distance between reality and fantasy was really the difference between heaven and earth. Some people think that arrows are consumables, as long as the wooden sticks are turned into round rods like chopsticks, and the arrows produced by casting and producing, the archery troops will have endless ammunition in their hands. But in fact, the production of arrows is far from simple.

First of all, the types of arrow clusters are said to be more than 1,000 kinds, some focus on breaking chain mail, some focus on killing, some hunting, and simple, do whatever you can do "fast arrows", it can be said that the functions are different, Zhao Yu has not seen all of them after coming to this world, and there are dozens of commonly used arrow cluster forms, which shows that it is basically impossible to produce all styles of arrow clusters in the form of casting. And even the cast arrow clusters need to be polished, and the 'special' arrows also need to be produced by forging, and the assembly line production can only be imagined.

It is worth mentioning that in ancient times, in the face of unprotected opponents, in order to widen the wound, a swallowtail-shaped arrow would be used. If you simply use the method of casting, under the technical conditions of ancient times, the dovetail head will be difficult to do, and if it is made, the dovetail will also be easy to break. And the arrow is very light and sharp, and the two wings of the arrow are equivalent to the thickness of a tin can, which is sharper than the utility knife on the market. With ancient technology, this could not be done by casting alone. That is to say, the ancients preferred to invest relatively large forged arrows, rather than blindly pursuing the cost and getting cast arrowheads.

In addition, the production of arrow shafts is also very difficult, and its cost is higher than that of arrow clusters. Why? Let's talk about why it is difficult to produce, a qualified arrow shaft should have the right length and deflection. In ancient archery, no matter what method of throwing arrows, the arrow was shoulder-level was a relatively general principle. This kind of shooting will have a larger pull distance than modern recurves, and will require a longer shaft. In ancient times, when there were only natural materials, it was necessary to ensure both straightness and length, as well as deflection.

Deflection refers to the linear displacement of the cross-sectional centroid along the perpendicular direction to the axis when the straight rod is bent and deformed, which is a modern engineering concept, although the ancients did not know it, but they also knew how to use it in practice. The shaft does not fly in a straight line when flying, it shakes in the air, and it will correct its flight attitude as it shakes.

In order to ensure that this index is qualified, the process is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming work. The more typical practice is called three uneven, that is, splicing bamboo arrows. It is made of hardwood as the core, and the outer part is spliced with bamboo pieces to form a shell, similar to the principle of Easton's outer aluminum and inner carbon composite arrow shaft; Or set the gear, using the grinding method to grind a round straight wooden rod into a shuttle-like streamline.

In addition, if the opponent's shield and armor are hard enough, the harder the arrow, the more irreversible damage will be caused to the shaft. The shaft of the arrow is destroyed, even if the tail of the arrow is split, it is useless for the opponent to get the complete arrow. On the contrary, if the quality of the arrow is not good, it will be shot on a hard object but will break through its own breakage, absorb the impact force fed back to the arrow shaft by the hard object, and protect the arrow shaft. Then the opponent really got a good pole for nothing, and he could really shoot back with a different head.

What's more expensive is that even if the shaft of natural materials is made of fine workmanship, its service life is not long. Even if the shaft is properly stored, it will deteriorate after a few years and will no longer be able to maintain its straightness and deflection. After a few years, the shaft began to decay. The shaft of the arrow is not rotten to be useless. As long as the shaft of the arrow decays to the point of discoloration, the arrow may break in the shooter's hand the moment it is released. And as long as the arrowhead is properly maintained, it can still be as cold as if it was just made after decades.

Furthermore, everyone knows that feathers are pasted on the tail of the arrow, which is called arrow feathers. It is also very particular about such a seemingly ordinary thing, the feathers of poultry are absolutely not good, the best is to use eagle feathers, followed by swans, then webs, then owls, the most inferior to use geese, and can only use a few hard feathers on the wings, nothing else. Anyway, it must be the feathers of a meat-eating bird of prey, the better the bird of prey, the thicker its feathers, the more stable the movement of the arrow, and the stronger the penetration.

Zhao Yu listened to the straight tooth flower at the time, these birds are protected birds in modern times, if you dare to use their feathers as arrow feathers, you will have to go to the prison tomorrow to gnaw the nest head. Even in ancient times, eagles were very common birds, but not everyone could catch them casually, and it required a special team to catch them. In addition to ensuring the aerodynamic effect and maintaining balance, there is also a role to increase lethality.

Modern people know that if a person is injured and has a deep wound, he must go for a tetanus shot. The ancients did not understand this, but they learned from practice that when the arrow flies, the feathers carry a strong wind and will pour into the wound, which is much more likely than the tetanus of the knife. And the use of raptor feathers is because it carries much stronger winds. Therefore, Zhao Hao sometimes scoffs at modern film and television dramas, and the fierce generals in those dramas pull them off after being hit by arrows in order to show their heroism. In fact, this is death on the battlefield, and the arrow cannot be pulled out at all, and the doctor must be found to slowly remove the medicine.

In the Great Song Dynasty, the price of an ordinary arrow was around 70 or 80 yuan, and many of the materials were levied in the form of taxes, which was actually no different from 'white take'. Even so, the price of a dozen dozen arrows is close to the same, and a few more are almost enough for the price of a cow, which is obviously not cheap.

But in fact, even if it is very expensive, everyone is still very willing to invest in the cost of producing arrows. Because if you pursue cheapness too much, you will not be able to create effective killing, and when such an arrow is fired, it is not just an arrow that is wasted, but an extremely limited shooting opportunity on the battlefield. Every time you squander a shot, your opponent will get one step closer to you and your teammates. Especially in ancient times, there were cavalry, and the impact speed of cavalry was so fast that it would greatly reduce the shooting time of archers.

There must still be people who think that since arrows are so valuable, it is not enough to recover the arrows left on the battlefield, and even learn from Zhuge Liang to borrow arrows from a straw boat. Then Zhao Hao will tell you with a white face that the use of arrows is basically disposable, either the arrow shaft is broken, or the arrow feather is damaged, and there is no possibility of picking up the arrows shot by the enemy and shooting them back, okay?

As for what straw boats borrowed arrows, nine out of ten are legends, and there have really been a few 'borrowed arrows' in history, which must be an emergency measure after being forced to have no way. According to the record in "Zhang Xun's Biography", when Zhang Xun defended Yongqiu, all the arrows in the city were used up, so he tied the straw into thousands of straw men, dressed them in black, and tied them with ropes at night and put them under the city. The rebels caused the Fox Tide soldiers to scramble to shoot arrows, only to learn for a long time that they were straw men. As a result, Zhang Xun got hundreds of thousands of arrows.

After that, Zhang Xun lowered people from the city wall at night, and the rebels felt funny and defenseless. It turned out to be a real person this time - Zhang Xun's 500 death squad! As a result, these 500 people rushed to Ling Guchao's military camp and killed Ling Huchao's army. It can be seen that the straw man can really borrow arrows, but he only uses them once or twice, and the more times he does, the enemy will not be fooled.

So, what if the arrows run out and the enemy sees through the strategy of borrowing arrows, and can't borrow arrows? In this regard, the ancients were still very wise, and the method is actually very simple, that is, to cut the original arrow into several sections, and use one as a few, isn't this okay? And this happened in the current war of the Mongols to destroy the Jurchens in the first few decades.

In August of the first year of Tianxing, the Yuan soldiers besieged Luoyang, the central capital of the Jin State. Because Ren Shouzhen, the previous defender of the Jin army, had been defeated and killed in Zhengzhou, the people in the city pushed Qiang Shen as the leader. At that time, the siege of the Yuan soldiers was very urgent, and the weapons in the city were exhausted, so Qiang Shen cut the remaining arrows shot by the Yuan soldiers into four, and melted the money into arrowheads.

But this is easier said than done. As we all know, when shooting arrows with a bow normally, the arrow must be placed on the bow arm before it can be shot. And the same bow has different reserves of strength at different distances. Now the arrow is a lot shorter, and with the original bow, the pulling distance will be much smaller, basically not flying far, and it will not be lethal. Obviously, arrows are not simply truncated and can be used.

Jin Jun thought of a way to solve this problem. To put it simply, it is to find a bamboo tube, split it in half, and use it as a container for arrows. This will allow you to shoot very short arrows......