As we all know, a good bow and arrow can cause unimaginable destructive power.

If bows and arrows were made in this era, it would be equivalent to mastering guns in the age of cold weapons, and it would be an exaggeration to say that they were invincible.

It can also raise the survival status of apes to the top of the food chain in one fell swoop, and it is impossible for Wang Yang not to care.

The history of bows and arrows is at least 30,000 years, and bows and arrows from 30,000 years ago were unearthed in a certain place, when bows and arrows were still very weak, with low rate of fire, short range, and small penetration, but it greatly changed the living conditions of human beings.

It was also since then that the development of mankind has formed an uncontrollable situation, with the emergence of tribal forms and the birth of civilizations, followed by a super storm of development that swept the whole world.

Of course, it was also due to the fact that human beings had almost evolved at that time.

But stable development is inseparable from a stable life, not afraid of any beast, full of food and clothing, only then can there be a series of later.

The bow and arrow were one of the most important reasons, and for the first time humans really had the strength to fight head-on and large-scale beasts.

Wang Yang wanted to do the same.

He didn't know much about bows and arrows, but he did know a little.

Bows and arrows are generally divided into two main categories, single bows and compound bows.

To put it simply, a monolithic bow is a bow made from one material.

Compound bows are made of a variety of materials.

The single bow has a small strength, low speed, and short range, which was used by humans 30,000 years ago.

The power of the compound bow is too great, the speed is fast, the range is long, and it is improved when there is a conflict between humans themselves.

It can be said without mercy that humanity now has so many powerful weapons and means of defense, all against humanity itself.

Like a gun, you dare to say that those inventors worked hard to make such a thing out just for hunting?

The range, speed, and power of the compound bow are enough to easily dominate the land.

Wang Yang doesn't plan to become a fat man in one bite, and directly make compound bows, first of all, he has not been exposed to specific production, whether it is level or skill, it is all on paper.

Secondly, a compound bow, even in ancient times, was an expensive thing.

Why? Compound bows require a lot of materials and take a long time, and it takes about two years for a bow to be ready for use from being made.

Two years is not a long time, but it is not a short time, for Wang Yang, he has many two years.

But he remembered a profound sentence, there are several years in life.

He could never have spent two years just to make a bow and arrow that he didn't know if he would succeed.

Besides, with his current equipment, stone knives and stone axes, if he wants to make them, I'm afraid two years will be a luxury.

What he thought was to do a single bow out first, after all, the time spent was short, the difficulty was small, and it was more in line with the actual situation.

In general, the emergence of compound bows is more to deal with humans themselves, and it is a bit wasteful to use them for hunting.

If you think about it, it's a problem if you can't see things that are tens or even hundreds of meters away, and it's a question if there's such an open area for you to shoot.

Just do it, Wang Yang is not a person who grinds.

On this day, he came to a large pile of wood with a large pile of stone knives, stone axes, stone cones, and a series of tools.

Wang Yang had long wanted to deal with these large piles of trees in the canyon, and he didn't know where to use them.

It's winter, so I don't have anything to do, so let's test it.

First, he took a piece of stake one and a half meters long, and then removed the corners of the large pieces, leaving a rectangular bow embryo.

And then it chiseled little by little.

What he wants to chisel is a crescent-shaped embryo with a small arc, which is very small, not directly made into a large arc arch.

It is necessary to explain this point, people who don't understand have a misunderstanding, thinking that the strength of the bow is on the string, and the greater the elasticity of the string, the more powerful the arrow.

In fact, the strength of the bow and arrow is not in the string, but in the bow itself.

Everyone also often sees on TV that after the bowstring is opened, the bow is also being stretched, and the secret is here.

A string, no matter how elastic it is, how much power it can have.

But a piece of wood, if you bend it and let it go, it has infinite strength.

The simplest is the ruler, the ruler hurts enough in the palm of the hand, right?

And the greater the elasticity of the string, the greater the rebound must be, and when shooting an arrow, you will find that for every arrow shot, there is an extra blood mark on the hand holding the bow.

It's like Mr. smacking the back of your hand with a ruler, pumping and shrinking, and you have to shoot so many arrows a day, and you can draw harder than Mr.

What's even more problematic is that once the elasticity of the string is large, as soon as the arrow leaves the string, it will be S-shaped and uncertain, and the accuracy will be as outrageous as it is.

Therefore, the choice of string cannot be elastic, and the less elasticity, the less interference with the arrow.

The small arc of the bow made by Wang Yang gives a very large stretching space and enough power to pierce the fur of the animals.

He began to chisel with a rectangular piece of wood.

The process is extremely long and tedious, much more laborious than making a spear, after all, to make the top and bottom symmetry, it requires patient comparison.

If one is not good, it will be chiseled.

Moreover, the wear and tear of the stone tools is somewhat serious, and it is easy to chisel the tip to crush with a stone cone, which is a bit thankless.

So by the time this little crescent was made, it was already two months later.

In the past two months, Wang Yang has made the crescent moon and polished it smoother, and now it is about one meter high and half a finger wide.

Of course, this is the first step in making a bow, which is still wood, very hard, and needs to be softened and made flexible and able to bend slightly.

This is the second step, soaking in water.

The purpose of soaking in water is to soften it, soft things are not easy to break, and have the strength to rebound.

The best way is to boil it in warm water.

Wang Yang didn't have the pottery to boil water, so he had no choice but to melt the snow and put the bow in it to soak.

The process is watching and waiting.

There are also difficulties, if you soak for too long, the wood will be soaked directly.

Or soak it too much, and when it's dry, it cracks.

So Wang Yang took it out every three days to test his toughness.

After a while, when it was almost soaked, Wang Yang picked it up and bent it while it was still a little soft.

He pressed first on the front of the radian, and then on the reverse side of the radian.

Again, this makes sense.

Anyone who has studied mechanics knows that when a bow is bent, the surface of the bow must be compressed, which drives the inner layer to be compressed.

Since the inner layer has been eating in one direction, it is easy to break.

But if you press in the opposite direction first, the inner layer will be compressed in the opposite direction first, and when you pull the bow in the positive direction, the inner layer will find a balance point and it will not be easy to break.

Therefore, the direction with the radian is the opposite direction, that is, the arc will not be used to shoot arrows.

Instead, break the arc to the other end and shoot an arrow from this side.

Wang Yang knew this, and he still watched a previous exploration and discovery show, and he loved watching this at that time, and he benefited a lot.

(You can check out one of the episodes of Discovery Discovery, called "Long Range Strike", which is about ancient bows and crossbows.) ）