Aztec Eternals

Xiulot pondered for a long time before finally realizing that he had confused the Eastern crossbow with the European crossbow.

However, in the history of the East and the West, the designs of the two are so different that they cannot even be called "crossbows" at the same time. They also moved toward different battlefield positions.

The Eastern Crossbow is an enhanced upgrade of the long-distance war bow. It has a large bow body, high pulling force, and long draw distance. It uses long and thin crossbow bolts similar to arrows. It has a special aiming structure. Many crossbows in the Han and Tang Dynasties can even be used as war bows after the arms are removed.

From a tactical point of view, from the Great Qin army uniting the six kingdoms to the Han Dynasty crossbow formation conquering the Huns in the north, the Eastern crossbows are extremely offensive long-distance weapons and are widely used in battles in vast terrain. In the Song Dynasty, the heavy crossbow reached its peak and became the only weapon for restraining heavy cavalry in field battles.

"Well, for example, the divine arm crossbow that is sure to exist but whose craftsmanship has been lost." The young man yearned for it, and shook his head slightly.

European crossbows are crossbows that focus on short-range armor-piercing. The shorter bow body, the same large pulling force, short draw distance, use thick, short and heavy crossbow bolts. The aiming structure has not yet been popularized in this era, and the effective flat shooting range is only Within seventy steps. In order to increase the pulling force, European crossbows first use steel sheets to store energy. In order to pull the winding, a special mechanical winding structure was invented. It also has a different trigger than the Eastern crossbow.

From the perspective of tactical applications, European crossbows are widely used in castle-centered defense battles. The main battlefield positioning is defensive armor-piercing weapons, which are used for shooting at close range to occupy the terrain. Its bow body is smaller in shape, and the draw distance is shortened. The reduced shooting power is exchanged for more troop deployment per unit distance, which is very suitable for the limited space of the castle.

In this era, European heavy-duty steel crossbows were wound by mechanical winches, the rate of fire was extremely slow, and the pulling force was as high as more than a thousand pounds. There was no armor to defend against within twenty steps, the armor was extremely strong, and the impact force was enough to damage the knights in the plate armor. In line with the characteristics of defensive warfare.

Shulot shook his head again, the heavy steel crossbow was still too far away. At this time, the transfer efficiency of the steel sheet material is relatively low, and a lot of energy will be lost. Relatively speaking, the medium-sized wooden crossbow is more practical, and the transmission efficiency under the same weight is much higher.

Thinking of this, Shulot smiled at the master carpenter with bright eyes.

Then, he beckoned to the warrior commander and made a writing gesture. Botard nodded knowingly, fetched the wooden board and the newly made charcoal pencils, and handed them to His Highness. The teenager's physics knowledge is still there, so he casually sits cross-legged on the ground, doing quick derivation and drawing.

Seeing this scene, master carpenter Kuxinji froze for a moment. He turned his head curiously, but saw that His Highness was writing unknown strange symbols, "m", "v", and "g". The horizontal style was like a priest's heavenly script. Then draw a rising and falling parabola, and mark "h" and "D". The last is the descending curve of various changes, marked with "F" and "L" at both ends, and the shadow area in the curve is painted with charcoal pencil. These figures are like the eyes of abstract gods, looking at him darkly.

Kusinki's eyes were dull and bewildered. Surprise finally replaced seriousness and appeared on his old face. Afterwards, he looked at Bertard solemnly, pointed to His Highness quietly, and then pointed to the heart where the soul is stored in the myth.

Bertard nodded seriously, pointed to his heart, and nodded again. He signaled that everything is normal, this is His Highness's daily operation, it is "divine inspiration" rather than "evil".

Of course, if you were an ordinary civilian without such a lofty identity and status, and rashly carried out inventions and creations, showing characteristics different from ordinary people, the result would probably be sent to the altar of sacrifice.

Xiulot was so absorbed in his attention that he didn't notice the silent conversation beside him. He first calculated the potential energy of the bow, the kinetic energy of the arrow, and the momentum of the arrow. Then the farthest shooting distance at a forty-five-degree angle was estimated at different muzzle velocities. Finally, the kinetic energy of the arrow as the pull force varies is evaluated.

After the calculation, the boy had a deeper understanding of the Eastern Crossbow and the European Crossbow.

The shooting of long-range weapons is the process of converting the potential energy of the bow body into the kinetic energy of the arrow. Energy is the product of force and distance, and the kinetic energy of an arrow is determined by both the pulling force and the pulling distance, and is the integral of the pulling force and the pulling distance during the release process.

The lethality of the arrow depends on the momentum, which is the deformation of the arrow and the target after collision. When the lethality of the arrow increases at a constant speed, the demand for kinetic energy will increase quadratically, resulting in a sharp increase in the volume of the crossbow body, eventually developing into a giant bed crossbow. Increasing the weight of the arrow and increasing the momentum under the same kinetic energy are the most common ways to increase lethality.

Among them, the pulling force is the so-called pounds. The type of crossbow determines the changing effect of the pulling force. The pulling force of the bow body and the crossbow body, usually at different speeds, gradually decays as the draw distance decreases when the bowstring is released.

The Mexica longbow currently used by the Alliance is a straight-drawn bow, which has a relatively large attenuation of tension and the simplest process. The advanced recurve bow can store a large amount of elastic potential energy in advance, the tension curve is smoother, and more kinetic energy can be transmitted.

Eastern recurve bows are also often compound bows, with rigid tips at both ends to balance the draw curve. The ones that achieve the ultimate in bow tip are the bright bow and the clear bow, with large recurve, large draw distance, and high draw force. It pursues the ultimate energy transfer, and does not hesitate to produce the vibration of the bow, sacrificing the stability of long-distance, in order to pursue the one-hit kill of close-range armor penetration.

What is even more outrageous is that the tension curve of the modern pulley bow is almost a horizontal line with constant tension. The energy storage under the same tension and distance is fully twice that of a straight-draw bow.

Thinking of this, Shulot nodded and shook his head slightly. The production of compound bows and crossbows can only be considered when there are a large number of horns and tendons. The pulley crossbow was far away and impractical. By the time technology has developed to high-efficiency steelmaking and precision machinery, the era of gunpowder weapons has already begun.

Draw length is the distance over which the pulling force acts. It is another important factor in determining the kinetic energy of an arrow, but it is often overlooked. Due to the rapid attenuation of the pulling force when the crossbow is cast, increasing the pulling distance can effectively increase the integral area of ​​force and distance, and the growth of kinetic energy will exceed linear. In other words, a long draw length will greatly increase the functionality of the arrow.

The boy recalled the images in his memory, meditating silently.

Still take the clear bow preserved in the photo as an example. The bowstring drawn by the archer can reach the shoulder on the other side, and the draw distance is the entire arm plus the width of the body. According to the theory that the wingspan is the same as the height, the draw distance of Qing Gong can even reach more than one meter. The kinetic energy brought by this pull distance is terrifying. Coupled with the momentum damage of heavy arrows, it can break heavy armor within fifty steps.

And the draw distance between the bow and the bow is between 90 cm and one meter, which is used to compensate for the low energy storage of the bamboo body, which can also achieve good results. The English longbowman in the oil painting can only be drawn to the cheek, which is similar to the shooting of the Tang Dynasty longbow warrior in the mural, and the draw distance is about 80 cm. This is what is often said to listen to strings. The Turkish bow is also at this level of draw length, but a high-strength composite bow body is used to reduce the length of the bow while maintaining the draw force.

Further down, there are only American hunting bows with a small draw length and small cavalry bows with a draw length of 70 cm. These bows are usually mainly for hunting, and the damage to armored warriors is very limited.

Xiulot thought of the captured Tlaxcala bow. Its draw length was also within this range, so its power was relatively small. As for the shorter and weaker primitive bow, it is the weapon of the tribe hunter, and the threat to the Mxican leather armor warrior can be ignored, unless it is a sharpshooter who can shoot in the eye within thirty steps.

Corresponding to the bow is the draw distance of the crossbow, which can be judged by the distance between the stringing position of the crossbow and the body of the crossbow.

In the murals of the Han Dynasty, the chord of the crossbow is single-handed, which can reach half of the arm, and the draw distance is about 40-50 cm. The winding of the kicking crossbow is to step on both feet, apply force with both arms, and stretch to the end of the thigh. Juveniles estimate that the pull distance is at least 70-80 cm. As for the waist-tensioned crossbow with the strongest pulling force, the body of the crossbow is unusually wide. It requires a strong crossbowman to sit on the ground, exhaust all his strength, and wind up the string like a rowing machine until it is pulled past his knees, and the pull distance should also be 40-60 cm.

Schlott then thought of the war scenes in European oil paintings. He was impressed by the crossbowmen in it.

These European crossbowmen are tall and slender, but they often hold a crossbow that is only half-armed, and the draw length should be within 30 centimeters. The pulling force of European steel crossbows is huge, but the pulling distance is extremely short, and the kinetic energy that can be transmitted is actually limited. The kinetic energy delivered by the 160 lb longbow and the 800 lb short draw crossbow was very similar in testing. It's just that the heavy arrows of the steel crossbow have excellent momentum, and they are excellent at piercing armor in a short distance.

In general, the development of the Eastern crossbow has gone through three thousand years, the technology is more mature, the structure is more efficient, and it is the absolute main force in the history of Chinese warfare. The development time of Western crossbows is relatively short, and they have been continuously suppressed by the church in the middle, and they are only used as an auxiliary for defensive armor in war.

In fact, large-scale crossbow warriors were also a sharp weapon against heavy armored cavalry in the past dynasties. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Tang and Song Dynasties, their development was far more advanced and mature than that of Europe in the same period, and their range and power were stronger.

Xiulot pondered for a moment, then decided to adopt the development route of the Eastern Crossbow. According to the pictures in his impression and the current level of craftsmanship, he decided to copy the usage specifications of the Han crossbow and establish a three-level crossbow warrior system of arm, kick and waist.

The boy turned over the wooden board full of formulas and curves, and then used a black charcoal pencil to carefully draw the general shapes of the three types of crossbows on the back, as well as the actions of the warriors winding up.

Xiulot painted and corrected, and it took a while to finish the painting, and he sighed in satisfaction.

Then, the boy raised his head slightly, looking at the distant sky in the west. He crossed the ocean and the millennium, recalling the vast and vast all-out war between the Han and the Hungarians, and the subsequent decisive battle between the Han and the Hungarians, he smiled complicatedly and emotionally. These detailed memories all come from here, but I just didn't expect to use them here.

After waiting for a long time with their hands tied, His Highness finally stood up. He put down the wooden board full of strange pictures and symbols, picked up a simple wooden crossbow, and smiled confidently again.

"Kusinki, come here."

Shulot waved to the master carpenter not far away, and then pointed to the picture on the wooden board. The master carpenter looked at it vigilantly for a moment, and confirmed that His Highness had returned to normal. Only then did he approach and look at the mysterious wooden board.

"The problem with shooting stability is that I forgot at the beginning. You should not use thick and short arrows. They should be similar to feather arrows, but a little shorter is good for flying. Then, the position of the groove on the crossbow arm is slightly tightened, and the arrow The feathers are slightly clamped. In this way, although the arrow will be slightly blocked when sliding, the trajectory will be more stable after shooting."

Kuxinji thought for a moment, then nodded. Long arrows are easy to fly, increasing friction to fix the orbit, although he can't explain the root cause of these principles in life, he still has practical experience and understanding.

Then, Shulot talked about Wangshan, a very important aiming tool in the Han crossbow.

"A long vertical bar should be installed on the crossbow, and the side is used to assist aiming and determine the accuracy of the shooting target. At the same time, five large scales are carved on it, and each scale is divided into two and a half degrees. In order to determine the aiming position , specify the specific shooting angle."

Arriving here, Kusinki pondered for a while. He looked at the figure drawn by His Highness, found a wooden strip, and carved the angles into equal parts. Then, he put the wooden stick in front of the crossbow and gestured for a while, and finally realized it.

"Your Highness has a good idea!" The master carpenter's admiration was just a short sentence. Immediately, he continued to ask new questions.

"Speaking of this ballista, it can hook the bowstring and wait for the time to launch, the idea is really good!

But this small part bears a huge force, but it starts to deform after dozens of arrows are shot, especially the part where the bottom pin and the crossbow arm are combined. It's easy to break here, and I've already patched it once. How can such a fragile weapon last on the battlefield? "

With that said, Kuxinji pointed to the lower end of the crossbow. The position fixed by the crossbow arm had already been obviously worn and deformed. This was just a light wooden crossbow.

Shulot was silent. He remembered the crossbow machine unearthed in the Han Dynasty. On the one hand, it was made of bronze, and on the other hand, it seemed to have a special box. The young man thought about the principle, analyzed it and gave detailed suggestions.

"The crossbow can be made of tough and wear-resistant sandalwood or iron wood, as well as strong antlers. When the bronze is abundant, I will give you a batch of durable bronze crossbows.

At the same time, install a wooden box on the outside of the crossbow machine, let the pin pass through the wooden box first, and then snap into the hole on the crossbow arm. This kind of outer box can fix the bolt and prevent the shaking when shooting from affecting the accuracy. The force between the crossbow arm and the bolt is distributed to the outer box and the bolt to share, which is more durable. By the way, the pins are small and can be replaced with copper pins. In the future, the wooden box will also be replaced by a copper box. "

Shulot added thoughtfully.

The invention of the outer box is a great progress of the Han crossbow. First of all, the crossbow is stabilized, fixed at three points, which increases the accuracy. Secondly, the single-point force is distributed to multiple points, so that the pulling force of the crossbow can be doubled, and the service life is also greatly improved. Since then, strong crossbows have been popularized and become the standard equipment of the Han army.

Hearing His Highness's suggestion, the master carpenter thought about it, gestured around the crossbow again, and nodded slowly.

"It makes sense, this should last for a long time! I'll make one today and try it out. But how can we make the crossbow's range and power exceed that of the longbow?"

Hearing this, Shulot smiled knowingly, and what Kusinki was thinking of was to surpass Kuod. The boy nodded and pointed to the crossbow body to propose.

"The power of the crossbow comes from the tension of the body and the length of the bowstring. Winding and shooting have been separated into two separate parts by the crossbow. Therefore, there is no need for a continuous power supply when winding, but an explosive full-body Power. In other words, you can thicken, thicken, or even lengthen the body of the crossbow to double the shooting power!"

Xiu Luote paused, saw the master carpenter suddenly realized, and spoke again without giving him a chance to ask questions.

"Look, Kusinki, these are three crossbows I designed in different shapes.

The first type is a crossbow that is wound by the arm, that is, the arm-stretched crossbow. You should have heard that when I made the longbow, I proposed a new unit of tension, the pound. You need to refer to this picture to make the real thing, which is roughly the enhancement of today's wooden crossbow.

The pull force of the crossbow needs to reach 150 to 200 pounds. The pull distance of the crossbow is more than half the length of the arm, and the maximum throwing distance is 130 steps. To leather warriors. Overall, the crossbow should be slightly more powerful than the longbow. Each shot is about the time of four longbow arrows. "

Seeing the surprised look in the eyes of the master carpenter, Xiulot smiled slightly. This was just the beginning.

"Then there is the crossbow that is stringed by the foot, that is, the crossbow. Its body needs to be further thickened, stretched by the stringer, and the pulling force needs to reach 250 to 400 pounds. One hundred and ten paces is required for flat shooting. Such a slightly elevated shooting can completely break through the leather armor within a hundred paces.

This kind of crossbow will become the main long-range weapon, and I will build a large-scale kicking crossbow warrior. You have to plan for batch manufacturing and simplify every step. It is best to have a uniform size to facilitate the control of the angle when shooting collectively.

In addition, when this kind of crossbow is wound, both feet need to step on the body of the bow, and use the strength of the waist and legs to pull the string to the end of the thigh. Its draw length is half longer than that of the armband crossbow, and at the same time, you need to wrap two layers of silk twine in the middle of the crossbow body as a buffer to prevent trampling and damage the crossbow body during winding. There should be an auxiliary winder as well, or so."

While Xiulot explained in detail, he added marks to the pictures on the wooden board to remind Kusinki of the details that he needed to pay attention to. Unlike the Warring States period, the crossbows of the Han Dynasty did not have ankle rings, and the archer directly stepped on the arms of the bow to wind up, so that he could exert greater strength with his feet.

"The last of these is the waist-stringed crossbow, that is, the waist-tensioned crossbow. In addition to thickening, its body can be further lengthened, and it can surpass the longbow. The draw force of this heavy crossbow is between 500 and 700 pounds. , the draw length is similar to that of the arm-stretched crossbow, estimated to be slightly more than half a meter. Such a heavy crossbow usually requires the assistance of equipment and multiple people to string it together. Its throwing range is about 200 steps, and it must use an extremely strong arrow shaft.

When this kind of crossbow is wound, you need to sit on the ground and exert all your strength like rowing a boat. When shooting, you should use your shoulders to resist, because the rear force is very strong, to prevent violent shaking. Its killing is mainly based on projectiles. When it rises to a very high place and then falls obliquely, it can nail the enemy at the landing point to the ground. Only extremely strong warriors can use it, so it won't be built too much, it's just used for ultra-long-range morale blows and formation disturbances. "

The young man secretly imagined that a stone in the Han Dynasty was slightly more than 30 kilograms, nearly 70 pounds. Seven stones to ten stones is an astonishingly powerful crossbow. The tallest ten-stone 700-pound heavy wooden crossbow, also known as the rhubarb crossbow, has a range of more than two hundred steps. Only absolute warriors or teams that cooperate with each other can use it.

The rhubarb crossbow will also deliberately lengthen the draw distance, which is specially used for sniping against the enemy commander. The Han army sniped the leader of the Huns more than once during the Northern Expedition. There should be some way to increase the accuracy of long-distance shooting.

Xiulot thought hard for a while, then sighed longingly. Due to the advantage of two to three times the draw length and the lower transmission loss of wood than medieval steel, waist tension crossbows of the same poundage far outperform pulley-stringed steel crossbows, and can pose a deadly threat to heavily armored targets.

In fact, as long as there are enough heavy crossbow warriors, they can effectively kill European heavy cavalry. Under the intensive long-distance shooting, the cavalry will be hit continuously, losing their horses and lives. However, the strong impact brought by the close-up shooting within more than ten steps can cause damage to the terrifying plate armor knight. Of course, the most effective armor-piercing weapons are still firearms.

For the Mexica, these three Han crossbows all belong to the scope of production allowed by technology. It just depends on how much it costs, how much copper mine needs to be consumed, and whether it can be popularized on a large scale.

As for the more powerful bed crossbow, according to the records of the Song Dynasty, it was 20-30 stone. The length of the crossbow arm should be more than two meters, the draw distance is actually 1-3 meters, the crossbow machine is 30-40 cm long, the arrow is like a 2-meter javelin, and the shooting distance is 1-2 miles. This kind of weapon already belongs to the equipment for ultra-distance siege strikes, which is completely beyond the current technical capabilities.

Shulot closed his eyes and opened them again. He withdrew his thoughts, returned from the long river of history, no longer thinking about it, just nostalgic for the old dreams like water, imagining the colorful falling flowers.

Then, the boy looked at the master carpenter. Kusinki has been completely obsessed with the great power of the crossbow. He looked at the picture on the wooden board and kept making gestures with his hands. After a while, he came back to his senses and looked at His Highness dissatisfied.

"Your Highness, what is the specific arm length of this waist-tensioning crossbow? Can the crossbow really withstand such a strong force?"

Shulot was stunned again. After thinking for a while, he was sure that the ink in his belly had been cleaned out, so he gave vague instructions.

"It is definitely possible. As for the specific shape, it is nothing more than lengthening, thickening, strengthening, and using better materials. I have pointed out the most difficult direction for you, and you have to explore the rest. You are the most Excellent master carpenter, you must believe in your own ability! By the way, I will give priority to the trial production of the crossbow, and I will come to check it after the New Year sacrifice.

If there are hundreds of crossbows in the coronation war after the autumn harvest, it will be safer! Kusinki, the great cause of the league depends on you! "

After leaving a word of encouragement at the end, the young man stood on tiptoe, patted the shoulder of the master carpenter with a smile, then turned around majestically and walked away quickly before the other party continued to ask questions. Bertard followed silently with a calm face.

Next, Shulot will look at the enhanced military equipment, cloth face armor and rattan armor. There are also improved folk technologies, including woodblock printing, paper improvement, charcoal firing, glass manufacturing, and brick kiln construction.

Behind him, at some point, Kuxinji raised his head again, staring quietly at His Highness who was going away. After a long time, the master carpenter looked at the sky, and the sun god had ascended the supreme throne, and his light was shining down on the world.

"Is there really a divine revelation in this world? Is the distant sun god really paying attention to the world?"

After thinking for a moment in a daze, Kuxinji bowed his head silently again. With all his attention, he started the trial production of the crossbow. The breeze in the courtyard brings the fragrance of wood. Soon, lost history will reappear again!

I wrote this chapter for two full days and read a lot of materials. It can be regarded as a brief combing of bows and crossbows, and I have a lot of clarity about some history. At the end of the chapter, I posted two illustrations of the steel crossbow and the Han crossbow. The data in this chapter come from relevant literature and calculation derivation. Well, finally, I sincerely ask for recommendations!