As a historian, Zhao Xin is interested in longbows, not only watched the video, but also studied the longbows in Chinese history, before the Tang Dynasty, there were still some single bows, but which kind of single bow, walking with the English longbow, is a completely different technology tree, he attaches more importance to the powerful power, the general bow power is large, used by Hercules, as a battlefield break, or precision shooting to use. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the gradual popularity of compound bows and recurve bows, under the premise of the same power, the short bow that is more convenient to carry has become the mainstream of development, and the single bow is more placed on the ballista or the three-bed crossbow, which has almost lost the direction of development.

Pure silk, or flax silk, among the natural fibers, is considered to be more elastic, compared with real animal tendons, the difference is still huge, which is also the fundamental reason why these two have not become bowstrings.

In the general hard bow, when it is more than 3 stones, it is equivalent to nearly 300 pounds in later generations, which is the common bow power of elite shooters in the army, even if it is an ordinary army shooter, 1 stone bow is the minimum, which is also more than 100 pounds, but the longbow, 120 pounds is more fierce, such a pound, just equivalent to an ordinary bow, compared with 2 stones, 3 stones, or even 4 stones, the difference is huge, not to mention the moon bow, the unimaginable 15 stone hard bow, then it is not a bow, it is a crossbow, it is a manually operated ballista.

Because of the unique structure of the longbow and the huge bow body, to a certain extent, it plays the role of a force arm, so the longbow can store more energy than the short bow, so the power of the longbow is greater, but when it comes to the pulling force, it is reduced a lot. The longer the arm, the more effort is saved, which is also the terrible thing about the English longbow.

England not only used the longbow, but also invented tactics suitable for the use of the longbow, at the peak of the English army, three-quarters were longbowmen, with the longbow to attack the flanks, cavalry and infantry as auxiliary, the number of heavy cavalry could not be very many, light cavalry and heavy cavalry without vests, simply could not block the strong heavy arrows shot by the longbow, this is the right direction for the development of the longbow.

The strongest is never the most suitable, and after proving that the longbow is not suitable for development, no one will spend effort in it, and because of this, the longbow did not appear in China, but it just missed this weapon that was more suitable for the Northern Song Dynasty.

That's right, it's the most suitable, because he has the possibility of mass production, and at this point, he completely explodes all kinds of bows and crossbows, because he uses a kind of mass-produced in China, which is not scarce, as a material, and it is simple to manufacture, which means that such a bow can be mass-produced.

The bow body of the longbow is made of the most common elm wood in China, this thing, wild forests are all over the mountains, even if it is produced on a large scale for decades, it can not be used up, even if it is used up, it can also be planted, basically about 10 years of elm, you can become the material of the longbow, you don't have to wait until 30 years, 50 years, that year can also be more than hard, but the toughness is not enough, but it is not suitable.

As for the material of the bowstring, Chinese silkworm farming has been around for thousands of years, and this unique Chinese product has almost always been cultivated in large quantities in China, and rarely appears abroad. It was only after the 19th century that it slowly spread.

China's silk production, even in the Song Dynasty, is quite amazing, among them, some of the cocoons that are not very suitable for silk, will also be lost, just take out this part, it is enough, for silk, broken threads, or some coarse places, must be truncated, after truncation, it can not be spinning, but for the longest longbow of only 1.85 meters, even if it is broken, it is long enough, turning waste into treasure, this is how wise.

It is precisely because of the huge output that this huge is relative to the bowstring material of the ordinary composite bow, whether it is animal tendon or meteoric wire, there is no universality, an animal, how much, it must be a cow, horse, pig and other large animals can be used, a tendon is scrapped, there is no way to use, this is the key to restricting the large-scale emergence of bows and arrows, the Northern Song Dynasty poor national strength, that is, hundreds of thousands of bows, this is already the limit, but if you change to a long bow, it is easy to exceed a million.

Mulberry silkworms in the south, silkworms in the north, Zhao Xin even remembered a data, before the liberation of China, silk output was basically between 25,000 tons and 35,000 tons, of which there may be two or three percent of the waste, this part is as high as 5,000 tons, a bowstring only uses a silkworm cocoon, about 10 mulberry cocoons, this is how much, 5,000 tons of waste, a silkworm is only about 20 grams, and the silkworm is only two or three grams, 5,000 tons per year, representing how many bowstrings.

More than 20 million, it can be said unceremoniously that the biggest bowstring problem that restricts bows and arrows no longer exists, and silk is not even the first choice, as early as the Han Dynasty began to grow flax, but also the best bowstring, it is even more than silk, but the processing is a little more troublesome, and there is also the problem of occupying land.

Numerical superiority, it is enough to overwhelm everything, the era of thermal weapons in later generations, there was the ability of steel projection, effectively solved the nomads and cavalry, the longbow can not be said to have reached the level of thermal weapons, but has the rudiments of thermal weapons, compared to ordinary bows and arrows, longbows can shoot more arrows, steel projection ability is greater, slightly trained longbowmen, can complete 120 shots, which is unthinkable in ordinary archers.

In ancient China, some people may study the truth and literature, but no one studies these physics, and there is no systematization, and it is wrong to miss such an excellent weapon, and now, Zhao Xin reproduces it, as long as the court attaches importance to it, with the productivity level of the Song Dynasty, such a cheap and easy-to-manufacture bow, you can make a lot at any time, make gradients, and it is not difficult to train, which is the advantage of the longbow.

The material of the compound bow can also be mass-produced, based on the dynasty, and can be controlled by various methods, but compared with the cost of the longbow, it is a heaven and an earth, maybe the Great Song Dynasty can squeeze it again, and it can also squeeze out tens of thousands of compound bow materials, but there are not so many archers, a well-trained archer, that is not something that can be achieved in a short time, first of all, the strength is enough, and then there is a certain talent, and finally, after professional training, long-term training can be, about two or three years to have.

Because of this, the emergence of thermal weapons has replaced bows and arrows, the initial thermal weapons are not even as powerful as bows and arrows, but he is easy to train, as long as he masters the way to shoot, a little training can be on the battlefield, longbows also have similar advantages, compared to ordinary recurve bows and compound bows of archers, first of all, to be able to pull the bow, more than 1 stone of strength, and then to long-term training to form a feeling, on the battlefield, to refer to the wind, displacement, and even the amount of advance, these are done well, is a qualified archer.

The longbow is different, first of all, its maximum strength is only 1 stone, and the small one is less than half a stone, which increases the range of materials, as long as it can be a soldier, except for a very small number of special, ordinary middle-aged men, can have such strength, elite longbowmen, of course, like short archers, require a lot of professional skills, but in the battle array, it is not so fine, because the longbow has never been precisely designed, and its appearance is a range of shooting.

One or two elite archers, with a dozen or twenty longbowmen, form a team, commanded by them, and then, with the way of projectile, intensive attack, preliminary longbowmen, they only need to train the simple method of opening the bow, know the angle, how much force to shoot, and then according to the command of the squad leader, carry out regular shooting, this is the end, maybe professional training, still need to be strengthened, but these are enough to go to the battlefield.

Longbowmen also have a huge advantage, that is, training, the training of archers, to put it bluntly, or the number of archery, even if it is like Sun Ji, 60 arrows in a row will cost a lot, you must rest, longbowmen in the projection ability of long arrows, is more than 3 times the same power of short archers, what does this mean, the same talent, all have to train the same number of archers, the training efficiency of longbowmen is at least 3 times more than that of short archers, or even longer, so that it is easier to accumulate experience and train forming.

Under the premise that there is no change at all, the archers of the army will be expanded by 20 times at once, what is this concept, the sea of bows and arrows will be formed, the entire period of the Northern Song Dynasty, except for a small number of heavy armor, even the horses are also heavily armored heavy cavalry can not be dealt with, the rest are not sideways, at most, with about a quarter of the infantry and a part of the cavalry to guard the flanks, to prevent being sneak attacked.