I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 17 Bow

The farming period was Luc's busiest time. With no shortage of meat, Luc had basically nothing else to do except working in the fields every day. He even didn't build the fence gate that he had agreed to build before.

Occasionally, when he has free time, Luc will go out to look for new food. Food is like money. No one will complain about having too much, only too little.

Luc thought he had explored all the surrounding woods, but unexpectedly, in October, he found a patch of apple trees in the east!

This month is the time when apples bear fruit. The red apples hang like rubies among the green leaves.

Luc rarely used the word "delicate" to describe apples, but when he saw the incredibly beautiful apple tree, he wanted to stick his eyes to the apples.

I picked a few to satisfy my craving, then went home and made a wicker basket out of wicker to fill it up.

After the crops had stabilized, Luc, now free, began to think about making bows and arrows.
Bows and arrows and spears can be said to be weapons unique to humans. No other animals in nature have ever possessed this ability to strike from a distance. At best, some monkeys can pick up a few stones and throw them.

The material used for the bow must be tough. Wood without toughness cannot withstand the pressure of opening the bow and will easily break.

Luc has this in spades. This broadleaf forest is a mixed forest, and both willow and oak trees can meet the needs of the bow.

As for bowstrings, deer tendon is one of the best materials, and cow tendon is the best.

In fact, it takes at least several years to make a truly good bow. Whether it is the bow body or the bowstring, the wood and tendons must be processed and stored for four or five years before they can be used for a long time without being damaged.

Of course, Luke didn't need to go through so much trouble. For him, the sooner the bow and arrow was made, the better it would be for him.

Luc picked up the axe and stood up, picked an oak tree to chop down, split out a three-foot wood core from it, and then polished it with a knife.

It was not like simply peeling off some skin to use as beams as usual. The bow was flat and narrow, and needed to be carefully polished. However, Luc lacked tools for polishing. After much deliberation, he could only use stone to process it. You can imagine how slow this was, so just this step made four days pass by in a hurry.

Once you have a smooth wooden board, you can carve the shape of a bow on it.

The bow is divided into the tip, handle and limb.

The bow handle is what the archer holds when drawing the bow and nodding the arrow, the bow tip is the end of the bow, and the bow limb is the rest of the bow.

These three parts of a good bow are completed separately and then assembled as one piece, but Luc built it directly as a whole.

First of all, the bow handle should be slightly thicker than the bow arm, which requires Luc to continue to narrow the bow arm part.

Luc was not a professional bow maker, just like he was not a professional architect. Everything he did was unconventional. After finally carving out the shape of the bow, the real difficulty just appeared:
The bow shape is out, but if you want to use it, you have to train the bow!

Bow training is simple to say, it is just to twist, bend and tighten the bow continuously, but it is very demanding on the technique. Luc is often sweating profusely from bow training - it does not rely on brute force, too much force will break it, but too light a force will not achieve the purpose of bow training.

This delicate state of gathering strength while being cautious is the most tiring.

Luc kept adjusting the bow to make it look perfect, but every time he closed one eye and looked at it from the side, he could always find the asymmetry of the bow.

Lacking specialized tools and experience, Luc had to grope his way through the process, and it wasn't until mid-October that he finally finished adjusting the bow.

The deer tendons that had been dried and soaked during this period were taken out, cut into thin strips, and then carefully twisted into a relatively thick rope, which was fixed to both ends of the bow tip. Luke picked it up and tried it. Although it was still a little awkward, it was pretty good overall.

Once the bow is completed, the next step is naturally the arrow.

Arrows, as the name suggests, the arrow shaft and arrow are both of paramount importance. Luke had no iron, so he could only sharpen deer bones to make bone arrows.

The arrow shaft was also quite troublesome. After Luke finally cut out an arrow, he drew his bow and pulled it, only to find that the arrow broke directly.
Luc sighed deeply. The manufacture of bows and arrows was more difficult than expected. Luc had no choice but to make another batch, this time simply drying them and making corrections.

It was not until the end of October that the bow-making work, which had lasted for more than half a month, was finally completed.

The weather is gradually cooling down in the Burgundy border forest
Luke took this bow, which in the eyes of experienced bow makers could not even be called a bow, and aimed at a hare.

Luc narrowed his eyes, held his breath, and drew his bow.

"put!"

The bow with good toughness drove the arrow to shoot out instantly. The sound of the arrow breaking through the air whistled in my ears. With a whoosh, it missed the target.

"Pity"

Luc sighed. It wasn't that he couldn't shoot arrows, he was just not skilled at it, and there was indeed something wrong with this bow.

A good archer is fed by arrows. In this spirit, he shot several times in succession. Although all the shots were off target, Luc could feel that he was gradually adapting to the bow. He believed that as long as he practiced for about another month, he would be able to conduct simple hunting.

Satisfied, Luc hung the bow in the wooden house and also hung twelve arrows tied with vines.

With the cross sword and round shield on the side, Luc found some of the feeling of a warrior.

The martial spirit has always been a consciousness lingering in the bones and blood of human beings. No matter whether you love fighting or not, your love for weapons will not diminish.

Especially for Luke in the wild, the appearance of bows and arrows is also a guarantee of survival.

Looking at the small round shield, Luc planned to make it into a leather shield with deerskin later.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

At this time, little Charlie at his feet stuck out his tongue and stretched his head towards him. Three months had passed in a flash. Little Charlie had grown a lot taller. In another three months, he would be able to hunt with him. But as a result, he became more lively and often did things that made Luc laugh and cry.

Luc pushed little Charlie's head away helplessly, turned around and went out to pick up eggs from the chicken coop.

That’s right, the pheasants have finally started laying eggs!

After three months of dating, the pair of pheasants turned from enemies into lovers. Although September and October were not the breeding season for chickens, they still laid eggs for Luc.
Luc cooked a bowl of egg soup in pottery, and the familiar taste made him savor it.

With gradually more food and more weapons, Luc's life became better and better. Compared with the embarrassment on the first day, he was now like a rich man.

Of course, there are still many things I lack.

At night, Luc and little Charlie went into the cabin to sleep, and Luc had a rare dream.

In his dream, he lived a life without having to work too hard and had enough food and clothing. There was an endless supply of delicacies from land and sea, making Luc's mouth water.

Before Luc could savor it, a chaotic voice reached his ears:

First there was the clucking of pheasants flapping their wings, and then little Charlie changed his gentle expression, facing the wooden door fiercely, and squeezed out a vicious roar from his throat.
Finally, there were bursts of mournful and sad howls, as if they came out of a dream.
Luke sat up from the bed instantly, his pupils contracted violently
这 是
Wolf!!

(End of this chapter)