In the wilderness, a black horse galloped alone, with neither a rider nor a companion to accompany it, but pulled up a long line of dust and smoke behind him, and the rhythmic sound of hooves echoed between heaven and earth.

Inevitably, some beasts will take it as their prey, but once they get closer, they all give up the pursuit, because the black horse is so strong and runs incredibly fast.

It is Changle's mount Dire, which has grown into a level 9 beast in the beast soul space at this time, so even if there is a lion and tiger pounced, it is doubtful who will win and who will lose in the end, and Dire's iron hooves are enough to pierce the beast's head with a single blow.

It is precisely because of this that Chang Le is relieved to let it gallop alone.

Now the position of the two is diametrically opposite to usual, Dire is out on the road, but Changle is in the beast soul space, and the beast soul bell is hanging on Dire's neck at the moment.

Therefore, although the beast soul space is eternally static, its interface to reality, or "spatial anchor", is heading south with the Dire.

If you're always looking for pleasure, you can go into your dwelling, sleep in a comfy bed, and wake up to the end of the line.

But he didn't have that leisure, and he was standing on the big grass carpet in front of the Beast Soul Tower at the moment, looking at the various weapons and armor that covered the ground.

These are all the fine equipment he has collected and sorted out, and he is going to bring it back to the Red Mountain camp for his subordinates.

However, the timing was unfortunate, just in time for the outbreak of the Great War, and even iron ore became a strategic material within the empire, and ordnance was strictly controlled, making it difficult to purchase in large quantities.

Chang Le couldn't help but turn his head away, and looked beyond the small lake into the distance, where there was a steep hillside, and below the slope was an endless plain.

Ever since his Beast Soul cultivation had risen to the third order, this new "functional area" had been born with a roar, and Anita called it the "Animal Husbandry Reclamation Area".

The lower slope is almost in a different world from the upper slope, with more intense simulated sunlight below, and natural weather such as wind, rain, thunder and lightning, where grazing can be carried out and planted.

The animal husbandry area is self-contained, Changle can break the space barrier to go down, but the creatures there can't come up, they can't see the main base above, and at the same time, they don't occupy the creature capacity of the beast soul space, and they won't become Changle's soul servants.

As a result, they do not have an automatic replenishment of vital energy and will starve to death if they do not eat, which is why the pastoral areas mimic the natural ecology and grow grass there.

Chang Le originally wanted to buy a few hundred horses and use this vast space to graze them, where even if they were separated from the main base, the concentration of source force was still much higher than that of the outside world, and the horses would be much stronger than ordinary people after a period of growth, and they could be used to enrich the cavalry troops at the right time.

It's a pity that due to the same war factor, not a single horse can be bought at the moment, and even the military itself is not enough.

It is said that in the newly formed regiment, many cavalrymen were still training on foot, all of them raised swords in one hand, grasped the reins in the other, bent their legs and pretended to ride horses, and practiced the charging formation at the command of the commander, and the spectators were all amused.

However, only a professional army like the Guards, with the royal family in charge of all equipment, will face such a dilemma, and the mobilized soldiers recruited by the nobles are generally equipped with their own equipment, and the troops are determined by equipment.

For example, a vassal nobleman rode his own horse and wore his own armor, and when he joined the team, he was naturally a heavy cavalry.

If a peasant carries a dung fork and wears a single coat to enlist, he can definitely only be a light infantry, and the next thing is to carry a dung fork to the battlefield, and the noble lord will not even match him with a hat, let alone a helmet.

Since the horses were all collected by the royal family, Chang Le no longer had the luxury of buying them, but he had already thought of the most suitable source and "borrowed" them from the Marquis of Philip, so that he could plan his actions after he returned.

And the several bows and crossbows in front of him were the weapons he valued the most, and he was equally disappointed.

He picked up an ash longbow, took the arrow, pulled it full, released the string, and with a "whoosh" sound, the arrow flew out more than 200 meters and slanted to the ground, which was the limit.

Since the projectile of arrows completely depends on the elasticity of the longbow, no matter how strong Changle himself is, he will not shoot farther than a well-trained ordinary archer.

Moreover, the longbow was too tall for a man to use on a horse, and the short bow he prepared for his men was even more pitiful, with a range of barely more than a hundred meters, and it was difficult to penetrate iron armor.

In this way, his light cavalry still had no way to take the heavy infantry phalanx.

He had previously consulted with Amy, Blacksmith, and Elton about this issue, and all three of them were puzzled by his idea of focusing on building light cavalry, which had always been used as a reconnaissance aid, and had not heard of any famous general using a large number of light cavalry to win.

If it were possible, Chang Le himself would also want to sweep the world with a mighty heavy horse, but looking at the goods under his hands now, they are all yellow-faced and thin-skinned pariahs, who have never eaten a few full meals since they were children, and they can't even lift their arms when they wear heavy armor, let alone cut people.

But the lads were more clever than the other, light in their movements, and quick in their reflexes, so the only way to play to their strengths was to find a way to play the tactics of the light cavalry.

Uncle Blacksmith's solution to this was to specialize in refining steel, using steel as a bone to strengthen the bow to increase the range, which was vetoed by Chang Le, because the small thin arms of the untouchables could not pull the "steel bow".

Elton was born in the military and had a wealth of combat experience, and he proposed that since the untouchables were weak and could not split the armor of the heavy infantry with their swords, they could switch to a chain hammer, and they could smash the enemy's helmet with their speed and weight, without the need for their own strength.

It was a good idea, and Changle remembered it, but the issue with the bow remained unresolved.

Elton then suggested that he go to the southern Kayan Forest to find a mysterious race, the green-skinned creatures who call themselves "elves", but according to anthropologists, are just a variant of the Japanese orcs.

The "elves" used a very strange bow, not a smooth arc, but with a curve, that kind of bow has a range of more than 400 meters, and it is not difficult to penetrate plate armor.

The troops of the Cayan Empire must be equipped with strong shields when they fight against them, otherwise they will suffer heavy casualties. If Changle needs to find a strong bow, he can go there.

Chang Le also remembered this rule, and could even consider directly recruiting the "elf clan", but at present, he didn't have time to go to the south at all, and this method was not urgent.

Amy's advice is more practical than the previous two.

The widow is not a cultivator or a soldier, but she is an experienced armament expert, and her advice is very feasible, and at the same time, she is full of tyrants.

She thinks that blindly strengthening the bow will only cause the untouchables to be unable to pull it, even if they really get the strong bow of the elves.

So she suggested increasing the elasticity of the bowstring and changing it from the normal cow tendon to the monster tendon, such as the tendon of the earth demon lizard in the Devil's Forest.

The magic lizard tendon has strong fatigue resistance, will not relax after a long time, and has super elasticity, especially for the short bow with a small opening amplitude, which is equivalent to adding the slingshot effect, and then making the arrow longer, the range will inevitably increase.

In addition, to improve armor-piercing, you can use goblin teeth to make arrow clusters, especially super goblin canine teeth, which are far sharper and harder than metal arrow clusters.

It's a pity that goblins live underground in groups, which is not easy to find, and it is difficult to hunt without a super team.

And these tasks can be rewarded to the adventurers in the camp, as long as the price is appropriately increased, it will prompt them to deliberately hunt down the above-mentioned monsters and orcs.

"Of course, this is very expensive, and if you are in a hurry, you can only do it. Amy was smiling brightly.

"Just do it, in special times, the money should be spent. I'll take care of the goblin teeth, and you collect the lizard tendons. Chang Le replied at the time.

Goblin teeth are a big problem for others, Changle wants as much as he wants, and Queen Istella's subjects pay some pain, anyway, goblin teeth can grow longer if they are extracted.

However, the magic lizard tendon is still very expensive, and during this war period, Amy's business with adventurers is becoming more and more difficult, and the gold coins in her hand still have to be saved, so Chang Le will find Anita and ask her if there is a more economical solution.

The artificial intelligence beauty can only exist in the beast soul space, and she did not participate in the meeting between Chang Le and Amy and others, but she knows things clearly, and when she heard Chang Le's question, a smile appeared on the beautiful phantom face:

"Master, instead of having trouble with a bow, you should study gunpowder kinetic weapons. ”

"What is gunpowder?

When Chang Le heard about it for the first time, he was full of curiosity, and Anita patiently began to explain:

"Using gunpowder as a power to push a projectile into a distance and rely on kinetic energy to kill and injure the enemy, this is a gunpowder kinetic energy weapon. ”

She then began to elaborate on the recipe for making gunpowder, as well as the basic principles of kinetic weapons.

Hearing this, Chang Le's own memories seemed to be touched, and some fragmentary images vaguely appeared in his mind, probably because of the original soul activation, he received many strange things from the alien soul, including something similar to what Anita said.

Suddenly, his heart shook;

"No! that's demonic fire!"

Legend has it that in the reign of the Demon King, there was a fire brought from hell, which was the so-called "black powder", which seemed harmless to humans and animals, but it could shake the heavens and the earth at any time and destroy all things!

Anita smiled as usual:

"Master, you call yourself the son of the devil, and you are still afraid of the fire of the devil?"

Chang Le pondered for a long time and shook his head:

"At least for now, I can't turn into a recognized demon, the power of the Church of Light is too strong for even the most powerful cultivators to fight against. ”

"So, you can continue to study the bow and arrow yourself, please forgive Anita for not being able to help you, I don't have any information on this primitive kinetic weapon in my database. ”

The difference between a strong bow can only be used by a strong man, but a gunpowder kinetic weapon can help a child kill a strong man, and Chang Le is quite clear about the difference between the two, and his weaker untouchable troops need it very much.

After thinking about it for a while, he changed his mind and immediately sent a message of his mind, contacting Serra, who was staying with Istella, and Xiaoxi, who was by Amy's side, asking the queen to keep an eye on the deposits of sulfur or miscanthus and asking Amy to start purchasing these two raw materials immediately.

Then he smiled at Anita:

"Just be prepared, please tell me the detailed principle of the launcher. ”

At this time, Anita became serious:

"Master, please remember that you can use this weapon to improve the combat effectiveness of your subordinates, but you yourself must not rely too much on it, soul cultivation is the path of the real strong!"

"Okay, okay, I understand!

As a result, this journey back to Red Mountain has also become a bad supplement for relevant knowledge, and a weapon more powerful than a "bow and arrow" is about to come out.