Human skin can be regarded as very thin and soft among all living things in nature. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Perhaps because we learned to make clothes to cover our bodies, and no longer need to rely on thick fur to keep us warm, over time, we have gradually evolved the smooth and soft skin of today, which is clearly distinguished from the thick and tough epidermis of most other mammals. And by extension, perhaps to the unbelievable of most ordinary people, the fact is that many creatures smaller than us have stronger epidermis than humans.

Hunters who often deal with wild beasts may be able to understand this more clearly, as we have mentioned in the previous chapters that the bow with a tensile force of more than ten kilograms and the blackened and hardened arrowhead made of wood are simple hunting tools that can be made in the wild by anyone with knowledge, but it should be mentioned here that such tools are actually only suitable for hunting birds such as young chickens and a few smaller mammals.

If you hunt an adult male deer with this bow and arrows, you will inevitably see a scene of him jumping away with several arrows stuck in his body.

Wild animals in nature are generally stronger than domestic animals, and their vitality is more tenacious, so the bow is not strong enough to pull and the arrows are not lethal enough, so many arrows are shot but can only stay in the skin, fat and muscle, and cannot really hit the vital point, which is very common in hunting. A higher-pull, more lethal bow combined with an iron arrow can make all of this a difference, whereas a bow used to attack creatures of human size and weight would normally require at least thirty to thirty-five kilograms of pull - and that's when the opponent is not armoured.

As we mentioned earlier, the thin, soft skin of humans is at the extreme of the spectrum, combined with the aforementioned leather armor and the cobbler's thing. As a nomadic people who raise cattle, horses and sheep for a living, the most widely used armor of the Absela people is naturally to peel off the cooked leather armor from the cattle and sheep raised.

Relatively soft and light sheepskin is suitable for clothing and gloves, while thick cowhide provides considerable defense. Most of the peasants of the sedentary peoples who had experience in animal husbandry had the experience of branding cattle with the mark of lord - the peasants did not own the cattle themselves, just as they did not own the land - and it was necessary to prevent the valuable lord's assets from being stolen by cattle thieves, and the red-hot soldering iron was avoided just by picking it up, and they did not react with any agitation when it burned the thick skin of the cattle.

Armor made of cooked hardened cowhide can resist arrows fired by a steppe bow weighing less than thirty-five kilograms. But that's not all, in an era when arrows were generally made of iron and rarely made of harder steel, ordinary bows, even if they were enough to pierce leather armor, were usually much weaker when they pierced the flesh, and could no longer penetrate deeper vital parts.

At this point, the longbowmen on Avenella's side actually have a higher advantage.

The arrows on the steppe are basically all common triangular arrows with blades, which can cause a larger wound area and cut through the tendons and major blood vessels to cause the death of prey or enemies as soon as possible, but when it comes to armor piercing, it is not as effective as the cheaper short conical arrows, which is why in this centuries-long struggle with the more well-armored mercenaries on the west coast and the southern border, although the steppe people are all soldiers, it has always been just a draw.

But as we often say, as long as human beings encounter problems, they will inevitably solve them, and the scarcity of iron ore doomed the steppe people not to make short conical arrows that are only suitable for armor piercing and killing like the West Coast people, but they have also made other changes in another aspect-

"Woo-"

Without the interference of the howling wind, the arrows can fly towards the target more effectively, even if the opponent is running and sprinting.

The western side of the steppe was the territory of another tribe, and the situation had not yet been fully understood, and Henry, who had only gone up to attack because they were threatened, was about to gain a tactical advantage when they were surrounded from another direction by another team of thirty or forty men who had suddenly struck out. The group was clearly in league with the men they were attacking, for after a brief assessment of the situation, they quickly lined up, and then condescendingly shot out from where they appeared, with their bows and arrows drawn towards a group of Prairie warriors of the Aries Clan who were rushing in front of them.

"The samurai class was a more warlike being than ordinary people, and although the time between the appearance and archery was very short, they still quickly and decisively changed formation. Only two men and two horses were shot by arrows, and both were slightly wounded—but just when everyone thought the situation was not too bad, the two horses running in the middle of the line suddenly fell to the ground with their front feet foaming at the mouth.

"Ahem-" The samurai, who was supposed to get out of the saddle quickly, also spat out a mouthful of blood as if he had lost consciousness, and the whole person was thrown out and slammed to the ground, and everyone who quickly realized what was happening immediately tightened the reins: "Keep the distance! Keep the distance!" The warriors shouted loudly, and Khalid and the others on the other side saw the other party open their short bows again, and realized that they were also in range, and they immediately stopped urgently and quickly turned their horses' heads.

"Spread out! Spread out!"

The identity of the chase and the chased person was immediately reversed because of this new force, as the other party had done before, and everyone quickly divided into seven or eight groups of several people in order to reduce the possibility of being hit, and the other party did not have an overwhelming numerical advantage It was a blessing in misfortune, and the area covered by more than forty arrows was pitiful, so when everyone dispersed, the team could no longer wait for the arrows, but had to drive their horses to chase them.

"Damn cowards, stupid little clans!" Khalid cursed aloud in the language of the steppes, and the mere bruising could kill a man or a horse, and anyone with a head would know that it must be some kind of poison smeared on the arrow. Human beings have a very long history of using poison, and all kinds of poisonous snakes and poisonous insects are naturally not rare in the vast grassland. However, the martial steppe people are surprisingly quite disgusted by the fact that the poison on the arrows is actually quite disgusted, although this kind of toxin that acts on blood circulation can eat meat after the death of the prey and there is no need to worry about poisoning as long as there is no wound in the mouth, but because the venom is still a relatively rare thing, the targets who will use it to attack are usually other humans.

This is different from what most people think, after all, in this era of low literacy, the vast majority of people's knowledge of poisons comes from the word of mouth of others, and the source of this oral transmission is usually the result of a scholar's research. The most common of these is that one gram of venom is enough to kill as many people as many cattle as possible, and this argument exaggerates the lethality of many poisons to a considerable extent, causing many civilians to talk about creatures that do not actually threaten humans.

It is true that the toxicity is very important, but there is another important factor that distinguishes many of the terrible creatures that are recorded in books from the poisons that actually cause the most human deaths in reality.

Venom doesn't come out of nowhere, and although there are many mushrooms and plant species that also have toxins, these plant toxins usually act on the digestive system, which means you have to eat them to be effective. Poisons that can directly attack the circulatory system are usually animal poisons, and as a precious hunting tool, animal venom requires a lot of energy and time to accumulate.

Venom-possessed animals are usually insects except snakes, a small number of smaller dragon lizards also possess toxins, and there is no other kind of venom among the homeothermic animals except for a few unproven wyverns - the most important reason for this is naturally consumption, reptiles such as snakes and dragon lizards are cold-blooded creatures that can last more than a month at a time. Compared to them, mammals such as humans, as well as other homeothermic animals, need to continuously eat to maintain the high consumption caused by the constant heat emitter, which makes it almost impossible for homeothermic animals to possess toxins.

Another thing that determines whether you have a toxin or not is your size, and the larger your size, the more energy you will naturally consume when you move, and if you reach a certain level, you can hunt without using venom.

In short, under the constraints of various conditions, it is impossible for animals that are too large and at a constant temperature to produce toxins or even if they are not too toxic, and even if they are too toxic, even if the poison is extremely toxic, due to their own limitations, the total amount of venom that can be produced by the venom glands and the amount of instantaneous toxin excretion will not be too high.

Poisons that can be captured and absorbed by humans can only be moderately detoxified to a certain extent, and then add a series of problems such as venom preservation caused by the strong direct sunlight in the Absera savannah, which has little shelter. The effectiveness of smearing poison on arrows has been greatly reduced, and as a result, it has not been widely used as a truly effective weapon on the frontal battlefield or as a hunting tool, just like the poisoned attack methods in other places.

Although brutal, it is very rare and cannot be the main combat force. The big clans were dismissive, and only the small clans that needed a little more self-defense would choose this dastardly weapon, and it was no wonder that Khaled, who came from the middle and lower clans, would spit on its users.

Either way, it's a fact that they're deflated. The commander of the new enemy team obviously knew how to use tactics and equipment to change the situation, and as soon as he entered the battlefield, he ordered his men to line up in a horizontal line to shoot poison arrows, and only one shot was needed, and Henry and his party on this side would definitely give up chasing the team in front of them.

Although people with a little experience knew that due to the preciousness of the venom, they could not bring all the poisoned arrows, but no one wanted to try this luck, and they vomited blood and died after being bruised, not to mention that they were already at a disadvantage after the appearance of this support army - anyone with a discerning eye could see that the other commander's experience was experienced, and although the move he made in a moment was a clear move, Henry and his party had to go with their wishes.

If they don't flee in all directions, they will be swallowed up and lose everything, but the result of running away on their side can only be to leave the entire caravan there to sit and wait to die.

The decision was a dilemma, and the raiding party of the steppe people, which had increased to about eighty people, immediately gathered and rushed in the direction of the caravan stationed on the high ground - at this time, not to mention those words that would damage the honor of leaving their comrades and fleeing, from a realistic point of view, the carriage carried a large amount of supplies, even in the rainy season when the supplies were relatively abundant, and it would be very difficult for them to survive if they abandoned such supplies and fled on their own.

And if you go back, you will inevitably have to fight each other again.

"Damn!" one of the mercenaries shouted loudly, and the steppe people on the other side were already on the offensive.

The mercenaries and merchants who stayed where they were trembling raised their shields and other things to protect their bodies, and the rain of arrows shot by the eighty or so people was already dense, and they could only try to protect their bodies to avoid being hit and killed.

The mercenaries received more than two hundred arrows in ten seconds, but these steppe people were not fools, they stopped immediately after shooting three rounds, and a young merchant who realized that the rain of arrows had stopped stupidly came out to check and then was directly hit by an arrow, and fell from the corner of the carriage on his back.

- They changed their tactics and began to play freely after a few clusters of arrows and rain attacks. The war horse under the crotch ran back and forth in a circle nearby, condescendingly towards the mercenaries and merchants in the encirclement, and the arrows that shot diagonally did not hurt the allies on the other side, and one after another the mercenaries who were caught in the gap were hit, although most of them were only slightly injured due to the cover of the carriage and shield and the excellent metal armor on the body, and a few arrows were bounced away before they even failed to penetrate, but it was still not a way to be besieged continuously.

Changing the salvo to scatter was clearly an attempt to stall for time, and the steppe man's approach succeeded in shaking many people here.

"Damn, we need to go back!" shouted the mercenary who had started scolding earlier, and many others followed suit.

But the sage and Khalid shook their heads in unison, stopping their companions from sprinting back.

The situation seems to be very urgent, but the most important thing on the battlefield is to lose your head with a surge of blood. The mercenaries and merchants, who had prepared earlier, had a makeshift line of wagons, shields, and armor that was like a moving wall, and although the horses they used to travel were greatly wounded, the archers had no effective way to capture them for a while.

The arrows will be consumed, and the average steppe person carries about thirty to forty arrows when they go out. Half of the eighty people have been consumed in the previous battle, most of the remaining arrows at this moment are in the single digits, while Henry is waiting, these people are still consuming, the archers are relatively weak compared to the lifting cavalry in the face of this kind of stubborn enemy, the bows and arrows in their hands can only be used to open the gap and then rush in on horseback, and use the trampling and melee of the horses to expand and collapse the opponent's line, but at this moment, there are still more than twenty or thirty people in the distance, if they rush into the array and cannot be quickly defeated, they will be surrounded by Henry's group instead。

The opposing commander was not mentally retarded, and instead of firing in a cluster to open a gap and break the defensive line, the commander of the opposing side scattered his subordinates in turns, in order to create the illusion that the situation of the attack was critical, but to retain firepower. Their goal was still Henry and their thirty or so horsemen from the beginning, and if there were no experienced and level-headed men on this side, the Sage and Khaled, and the team ran back in anger when they saw that their own camp was under attack, they would inevitably be eaten and wiped out, and then the caravan without external reinforcements would be completely routed by increased firepower.

- It is precisely in order to save the caravan that it is necessary to save them at this moment. After Henry briefly explained the situation and calmed down the mercenaries in the team, the group rearranged the array, and prepared to storm with Henry's group of heavy cavalry in front of the Aries clan and the archers in the rear, but stayed out of the range of the short bow, thinking about waiting for their arrows to run out before rushing over.

"Why the fuck can't you just come to us!Are those bastards going to keep us here and die!" Negative emotions began to pervade in the caravan, which had produced many casualties, but it was also at this time that the steppe commander, who had shown excellent qualities from the beginning, raised his hand and ordered his men to stop shooting.

"Whew-"

The stagnant wind blew again.

There was a moment of calm.

The two sides were at a stalemate again, and there was a commotion among the steppe people two hundred meters away, and then suddenly they saw someone in front of them, perhaps the new commander, holding high and waving a flag, and took a few steps forward.

"You're a tough bone, how about giving each other a step back!"

He shouted loudly, and the sound was heard far away in the open grassland, and Mira and the others next to him subconsciously turned their eyes to the most stable sage, and Henry's expression was unwavering.

Continue. (To be continued.) )