There are many stories about bows and arrows in English history. At the critical moment of success or failure, a small arrow becomes the decisive factor. 1066 In the Battle of Hastings, King Harold was shot in the eye by a flowing arrow, and William from Normandy was able to fight against customers. Thirty-four years later, Wei Er, the son of the "conqueror" and known as the "red-faced tyrant" by Jianghu people, was shot by a near minister while hunting, leaving a mystery of the "new forest". Another 99 years later, the sniper shot from Sharuz Castle killed Richard Lion's Heart. The legendary Robin Hood is even more stunted.
Longbow is a unique weapon of the British army in the Middle Ages, which played the most important and far-reaching role in military history.
Chapter one, the protagonist rebelled.
Archaeologists believe that bows and arrows appeared no later than 50 thousand years ago. The earliest bow excavated so far was made of hard Chinese fir, about 2690 BC. Its shape is irregular and its length varies, and the longest can reach 1.9 meters. British aborigines began to use bows and arrows as early as the Neolithic Age. But until the Norman conquest, a short bow was used, which was about 4 feet long and pulled 40-50 pounds (only about 20 kilograms), so it could shoot rabbits or kill unarmed targets at a medium distance.
Ancient archers, like spear infantry, were mostly temporary workers recruited when the war broke out, with poor families and poor equipment. From an ancient Bayeux tapestry handed down, we can see the scene of the Battle of Hastings. There are about 30 archers on the screen, but only one is a horse archer like Guan Yu, and the others are all legs like Zhang Fei. Only one person wore a little protection. 1 18 1 There are no archers in the army bill of England. But by 1252, this unit has become the focus.
Longbow originated in the south of Wales, and it is recorded around 1 150. Wales, located in the southwest of British Island, is warm and humid under the influence of ocean currents. The terrain is undulating, ravines are criss-crossing, and dense forests and mountain pastures are everywhere. The Welsh live a semi-nomadic life between these mountains. They are fierce and belligerent, especially good at using the terrain to carry out harassment attacks by small militia. So after the Romans retreated, the invaders such as Anglo-Saxons and Vikings failed to conquer them. In the long war, they invented the longbow, a simple and practical weapon.
Norman was much harder. After conquering England, the earl who was enfeoffed to the border began to invade Wales. By building castles that echo each other, they kept pushing into the hinterland of Wales. After 200 years of squeezing, King Edward I of England (1239- 1307) finally brought Wales into the territory.
Old love is a great hero in British history, with outstanding political and military talents. He was deeply attracted by the longbow. First, the obedient Welsh were recruited to fight for themselves, and then the longbow was popularized in England through legislation. From the end of 13 to the end of 16, the longbow has been an efficient and indispensable weapon for the British army. With it, they have won many battles, often winning more with less, or even turning defeat into victory.
Longbows are generally about 5 feet long (1.5 meters), which is roughly equivalent to the length of Mei Qi, and some are as long as 1.8-2 meters, which is even longer than the common 4-foot bows in Europe. This is an inevitable choice for a single bow to enhance its power. In order to pursue strong elasticity, it is necessary to use hard materials, which are not easy to bend, so it must be made longer. In contrast, China's composite bow does not need to be that long, because it uses composite materials such as wood, horns and tendons to enhance its elasticity.
The back of the bow is made of a whole piece of wood, and the strength of the longbow depends on it. A good bow is made of yew, which is hard and elastic. Raw materials come from the warm and humid Mediterranean coast, such as Italy, Tyre (present-day Lebanon), Crete (Greece) and other places, especially Castile (part of Spain). The king of England has made a special tariff for this-every barrel of wine produced in continental Europe has to pay several Chinese fir blanks. It's not that the British Isles don't produce high-quality yew, but the quantity is scarce, which is strictly managed by the wily British as a strategic resource reserve and is not allowed to be used. When Edward, the black prince, went on an expedition to Spain and defeated the local primitive javelin soldiers with a long bow, the Castilians were angry with the trees and made laws to eradicate all yew.
Hard materials such as elm, Fraxinus mandshurica and oak are also available substitutes, but their performance is always poor. Choose materials very carefully. The production should be rigorous, but not complicated. A skilled bowmaker can make a bow in 2 hours. We can try to make our own longbow according to the ancient method.
The raw material should be the straight part in the middle of the trunk, with uniform texture and no knots as much as possible. Most of the sapwood of the log is cut off, and a bow back material with a cross section of 1.5 inch (about 4 cm) square and the same length as the shooter is obtained. From the cross section, we should take the middle part, half of which is wood core and half is sapwood. The wood core is soft and compressive, and it is placed inside, and the hard tensile sapwood is used as the outside. This can be judged by observing the wood grain of the section, and the relatively sparse side is the outer side.
Cut off one side of the wood core, trim the material to be thick in the middle and slightly thin at the two ends, and then narrow the two ends slightly, just like a pole. The two ends are further trimmed into an octagon with a plane. When trimming, the surface should be flat, symmetrical at both ends and uniform in thickness, so that the force can be uniform.
After cutting out the shape, it is necessary to check whether the elasticity of each section of the bow is uniform by bending test. Because naturally growing wood is difficult to be completely uniform, it may be hard in some places and soft in some places. It's just that the appearance is unified and the strength is not necessarily the same. Therefore, it should be corrected by observation, and the place with high hardness should be slightly thinner. After the back of the bow is roughly adjusted, you can file a 2-inch (5-cm) chord groove at both ends, with the outside of the back of the bow deeper and the inside slightly shallower.
"gazebo, rubbing wood, shooting strings with arrows." The most important process of making a bow is bending it. The longbow is a simple arc, without the complicated shape of China's corner bow. English people don't have to bake with fire, which will reduce the tension of the bow; You can't bend it into place at once. In that case, even if the arch back is not broken, it will cause internal injuries and lose elasticity. Just busy in vain. The process of bending is called "practicing bow", which is to make the back of the bow gradually adapt to bending. You need a special bracket to do this. The bracket can be made of hardwood, with one end vertically digging a groove to support the arch back and the other end vertically fixed on the ground as far as possible. 8- 10 chordal grooves are carved at equal intervals 1.5 inch (about 3.8 cm) from top to bottom, and the first chordal groove is 7.5 inch (about 20 cm) away from the bracket head. Tie the two ends of the rope when the arch back is loose, put the center of the arch back on the groove of the bracket, pull the rope evenly and slowly, and hang it in the first rope groove, so that the arch back is slightly bent. This is to carefully check whether the curve of the arch back is smooth and even, mark the place that is too stiff, and then trim and fine-tune the arch back after relaxation until it is satisfactory. Then pull the rope away, gradually increase the opening and hang the groove downward, and constantly trim the arch back until a satisfactory uniform arc is formed. Every three or four chords are opened, the rope can be tightened. This process should not be rushed, especially before each opening is enlarged, it is best to let the arch back "rest" for 20-30 minutes to release internal stress and avoid wood damage. Don't tighten too much at once. It is best to tighten one inch at a time.
When the archer reaches full bow opening, the bow is tamed. Full bow opening refers to the maximum opening that an archer can open, which is equivalent to the distance from the palm to the chest when the arm is horizontally extended. At this point, remove the bracket and brush several layers of linseed oil on the bow back as a moisture-proof protective layer. When the oil is dry, you can hang up the line. Bowstring is tanned with sheep intestines or sheep tendons, with good elasticity and toughness. When hanging the string, the fixed opening is controlled by the distance between the bowstring and the center of the bow back, which is a term in archery, equivalent to the height of clenched fists and thumbs up, about 15 cm. When tying the bowstring, tie it in a special "shooter's knot" to avoid slipping. The figure-of-eight knot is simple but useful, and the more you pull it, the tighter it gets.
When the bow is finished, the elastic coefficient can be measured by hanging weights. The harder the bow, the farther the range, but it also needs stronger brawn. Can you pull the bow of the overlord? Generally, it takes 100- 120 kg to pull the full moon with a long bow, that is, the force is 45-55 kg, and the strongest is 80 kg.
The manufacturing process is so simple, as long as there is enough material, the longbow can be mass-produced as a standard weapon, without cutting like a sword or armor. Archers themselves can also be made with simple tools, without relying on special equipment and craftsmen. However, the production of crossbows requires skilled cooperation of various types of work and complex equipment.
There are many kinds of arrows, about 90 cm long. Of course, the head is iron, the shaft is thick, and it must be straight to fly smoothly. Made of poplar, poplar, elderberry, birch, willow and other light materials, it is called flying arrow and has a long range; Heavy arrows made of heavy materials such as Fraxinus mandshurica, hornwood, etc., because of their large weight and shorter range, have stronger close-range penetration, which is better than the current armor-piercing bullets; Made of uranium-containing alloy, it is called depleted uranium bomb, which is specially used to fight tanks. Feather sticks to the tail of the arrow 7-9 inches, which is not only fixed with glue, but also tied tightly to avoid falling off during rapid flight. Usually 24 arrows are tied into a bundle. Let's calculate the cardinal number.
It is ok to learn to make bows and arrows, but don't take them out and shoot them indiscriminately. What if you hurt the child? Even if it doesn't hurt people, it's not good to damage flowers and plants. At least, if you really shoot someone, please don't tell the police uncle, I taught you to draw a bow.
The maximum range of archery cluster launched by longbow can reach 400 yards (360 meters, one yard is equal to three feet, that is, 0.9 meters), but it lacks practical significance. A spent force has no lethality, and the aim has long been biased towards the claw depression. Long archers are qualified as long as they can hit a humanoid target 200 meters away, which is beyond the reach of ordinary bows and arrows. Judging from the maximum range of 400 yards, the initial velocity of an arrow can reach more than 60 meters per second, which is equivalent to a bolt falling from a 60-story building or a stone thrown at a car with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. It can penetrate leather, padded armor and fabrics within a distance of 240-280 yards (about 220-260 meters), or penetrate chain mail. At a distance of 200 yards, the plate or scale can resist its penetration; And a frontal hit within 100 yards can't even resist the plate armor; Within 50 meters, the long bow and sharp arrow can be said to be invincible. During the siege of abergavenny in 1 182, the Welsh fired a stream vector, which penetrated a four-inch (10cm) thick oak door panel. Four years later, the beloved priest told the story. In the same war, a knight under William de Brause of Blaus was shot, and the arrow penetrated his chain mail skirt, leggings, thighs, inner leggings and wooden saddle, and went all the way to the horse's back.
Experiments conducted by modern people show that the above statement is not exaggerated. The imitation longbow can shoot an arrow weighing 50 grams, penetrate 9 centimeters of oak at close range and still penetrate 2.5 centimeters at a distance of 200 yards. Lao Feng met chain mail, a medieval Englishman, in York. He is connected one by one with small iron rings, which can be made into armor to cover his body without affecting the activities of his limbs, and can also be worn under a helmet to protect his head and neck. However, the protective performance of this thing is not good, and it can only block a knife, a stroke and other weak blows. Faced with the rapid impact of sharp arrows, there is nothing to do. Arrows can easily cut or spread through the cracks in small iron rings. Plate armor is a whole steel plate, and fish scale armor is a small piece of iron. It is not only thicker and harder, but also has a smooth surface. If the arrow is not shot from a short distance along the normal direction of the cambered surface, it will slip and lose its strength.
At that time, crossbows, which were popular in European countries, had higher technology content and extended people's ability through machinery. The training of crossbowmen is much simpler than that of archers, and even no training is needed. Just pull the string and hang it on the trigger, and then aim the arrow at the launch. In this way, you can shoot the arrow far away without too much muscle. Although the tension is great, you can step on the crossbow head and pull the string with your whole body, instead of relying entirely on the upper body, especially the arm, like pulling a bow. Because there is a trigger, you don't need to pull to shoot, so it's easier to aim. Today, the special forces and special police in many countries and regions in the world are also equipped with crossbows when guns are not suitable.
The long bow is stronger than the crossbow on the battlefield, mainly because of its fast shooting speed. In terms of fire density, the fighting capacity of a long archer is at least equivalent to three crossbowmen. Qualified archers can accurately aim at 12 arrows in one minute. If you shoot arrows at will, the firing rate can be increased to 15, and some abnormal archers can even shoot 20 arrows. With this average firing rate, to 1866, the Dreiser rifle with a fixed breech in the Puo-Austrian War can only reach half of it. According to legend, when Robin Hood shot five arrows, the string of the competing crossbowman was not yet pulled. At this shooting speed, the crossbowman can shoot a black gun and stab the knife in the back, which will be disastrous when the two armies confront each other. When fighting, it's not just a question of numbers, but a question of winning or losing or even life. It takes about 90 seconds for heavy infantry and 15 seconds for heavy cavalry to charge 200 meters. It is obviously meaningless to shoot at such a moving target slowly and accurately. The key is the density of emission. One more arrow means one more hope for survival and victory.
Of course, the longbow of Robin Hood era has not been introduced to England, and later generations obviously mixed their own lives when making up stories.
Another factor to increase the strike density is to increase the number of people. In the romantic and rambling Welsh people, the longbow is only an excellent individual weapon, while the old love who is good at fighting gathers thousands of longbow soldiers and launches a volley from the flank of the infantry front and the gap between positions. A thousand long archers can shoot at the same time, and tens of thousands of arrows can be shot in one minute, forming an out-and-out rain of arrows. In AD 1480, a businessman from Burgundy (a principality in southeastern France) wrote in his diary that while complaining about the weather in Bruges (a commercial city in France, now in Belgium), heavy rain poured down like an English arrow. Everyone usually says arrow rain, but he says it's just the opposite. It seems that the volley density of arrows has exceeded Ma Yu. Such coverage is a disaster for the enemy troops charged intensively. So the longbow team has become an invincible force that scares the enemy. In some battles, longbowmen accounted for 85% of the total British troops.
The armor of a longbowman is very simple compared with that of knights or heavy infantry of his time, and generally there is only a light helmet and chest protector. Because they are light-loaded, they can not only be hired in large quantities at low cost, but also be used flexibly on the battlefield, maneuvering to favorable positions in time and carrying out deadly launches. They are long-range suppression arms, and their self-defense weapons are only daggers or daggers, which cannot withstand the impact of cavalry. They need trenches, horses and spears in the hands of infantry comrades. In addition to bows and arrows, they usually carry obstacles such as sharpened wooden stakes and iron thistles, which are placed in front of the team when deployed to block the enemy's impact. But there are also cases where they can participate in melee or even win.
Longbow is so simple, cheap and practical, with high cost-effectiveness ratio, but Europeans did not follow the example of Britain to build their own longbow soldiers. The first is the concept. They advocate chivalry and chivalry, and think that archers come from humble origins and fight in a "despicable" way-hiding in the grass and putting an arrow behind them will take away a knight's "noble" life, which is extremely immoral. Knights should fight openly and be kind to prisoners. This is not out of humanitarianism-on the one hand, wars are frequent, and it is impossible to keep yourself captured next time, so you can't create fake enemies; On the other hand, catching a living aristocrat can get a large ransom. The same is burning, killing and looting. It is also kidnapping and extortion. Barefoot is called bandit, wearing shoes is called prince, wearing high heels is called bandit, and smooth feet are called trouble. This is all the difference.
English people are different. They are not only pragmatic, but also have a unique bow and arrow culture. 1066, conquerors from Normandy stipulated that obedient Anglo-Saxon property owners should not own knight's equipment, but bows and arrows were not prohibited. Soon, all ages in the former dynasty were equipped with such "legal" weapons, while ordinary people and serfs and other "inferior people" were not allowed to have such "aristocratic" weapons. Therefore, although bows and arrows are not as noble as their close relatives in the "Six Arts" in China, they still rank second only to the knight's sword and carbine, which is a status symbol. The legend of Robin Hood comes from such a social foundation. Therefore, when the elderly ask the whole people to practice archery, ordinary people think it is a compliment to their social status. Being able to shoot arrows can at least look like a local aristocrat, which is a matter of face. "I shot an arrow!" At that time, when the British said this sentence, the sense of pride was similar to that of today's petty bourgeoisie saying, "I bought a car."
At that time, the political power of England was unified, the politics was relatively stable, and the policy continuity was strong, which ensured the promotion of longbow. If there were as many princes in Britain as in France and Germany at that time, and the kings changed frequently like a merry-go-round, even if the benefits of the longbow were recognized, there was no way to implement it; If every new king has the impulse to set up an image project and sell his "symbolic weapon" like an official in China now, he will love bows and arrows, throw guns, fly knives and sell grenades for 200 years.
The powerful and scheming king of England is not afraid to distribute such a sharp weapon as the longbow to the people. The common feature of Chinese and foreign peasant uprisings is to point the finger of resistance at those who directly oppress them, that is, the old man said, "only against corrupt officials, not against the emperor", which is more obvious in Europe as resisting the lords rather than the kings. 138 1 put forward the most representative slogan-no one should have privileges except the king. Some people are against the local nobles, which is what the king wants to see most. But France is not. The power there is in the hands of the rulers. They must not let the ruled have the tools to rebel.
Long archers need long-term training, which is also an important reason why other countries are difficult to emulate. Bowing has been listed as compulsory education since the beginning of self-love. According to the law, all able-bodied British men aged 65,438+02-65 must gather at the tinker near the church to practice bowing after mass every Sunday, and they will be fined if they don't take part in the training. In order to ensure the time and strength to practice archery, the law also prohibits playing football. At that time, football had just evolved from kicking the enemy in the head. This is a barbaric sport without any rules. The number of players on the court can reach 100 for a long time, which is the source of crazy English football hooligans.
Archery starts with dolls, and some children start shooting at the age of seven. Practice is too hard, and many archers' bones are more or less twisted. Nevertheless, in the era when the college entrance examination is not popular, it is a decent ideal for boys to learn archery and grow into a long archer. As a mercenary, going abroad to fight against a brave king or prince can earn more money than farming, and you can also get one-third of the spoils. Returning to China with these money and clothes is like a hero, and the experience of wandering in rivers and lakes is still the capital of bragging in pubs. Moreover, long-term war cases show that the British army with a long bow is almost unbeaten, and the possibility of dying is very small. Can such a low-risk and high-yield career not be popular all over the country? Some archers even returned to the team after retiring and became experienced professional veterans. With such employment prospects, people will also consider joining the army more than going up the mountain to be bandits. The government consciously organizes competitions and selects only those who are tall, strong and skilled in archery. So from the day the Longbow Army was born, it was decided that it must be a powerful force composed of elite soldiers, and it had a huge reserve army.
At the same time, Britain also has a complete bow and arrow manufacturing industry to meet the huge consumption caused by rapid shooting. At that time, other countries lacking political unity could not complete such a heavy guarantee task. To deal with a cavalry charge, you can shoot three or four volleys and then shoot freely. Take the battle of Cresset as an example. If an archer has a chance to shoot five arrows every time the enemy charges, then 7000 ~ 10000 people are 35000 ~ 50000 arrows. The French 16 times charged, but the British never stopped shooting during the whole battle. They must have used 500,000 to 800,000 arrows! No one has counted the exact figures. Later, it was described that another battlefield, Ginkul, was covered with heavy snow.
According to statistics, from 65438 to 0359, Britain produced 850,000 arrows, 20,000 bows and 50,000 bowstrings. This figure is considerable, but it is only enough for 1000 archers to shoot for 7 minutes. It seems that in peacetime, we should also produce reserves at any time. However, compared with bullets, arrows have the advantage that at least some of them can be recycled. It did happen in the battle that scattered arrows were picked up, and even arrows were pulled out from the wounded and the dead to shoot again.
In fact, the bow and arrow manufacturing industry in England has been quite developed and even standardized. 137 1 year, bow-making workers wrote to the people's government of London, demanding that a few illegal owners who worked overtime at night be investigated. Because of the poor production conditions at night, the products made are shoddy. The petition also calls for the establishment of a strict market access system to prohibit bow and arrow manufacturers from producing bows and arrows across industries. 14 16 Bowstring Industry wrote to ask the law enforcement units of the municipal government to strengthen market management, because some bowstring workers complained that they found fake and shoddy products and caused undue casualties, which damaged the reputation of the industry.
Although the longbow is sharp, it depends on the proper use of tactics to give full play to its advantages. The use of longbow tactics in the old love era depended entirely on the improvisation of commanders, but it was already typical in the Daplin campaign of 1332 and completely typical in the keresey campaign of 1346. The British are used to a tactic of attacking or counterattacking with defense. They formed a solid position with spears and obstacles, killed a large number of attacking enemies with bows and arrows, and then launched a counterattack as appropriate.
Discipline is the magic weapon of victory. Due to the stability of kingship, the British army is very professional, from aristocratic commanders, knights to grass-roots archers, all under the control of the commander-in-chief, and can fully implement tactical intentions. In contrast, the French imperial power is weak, the nobles are big, and the troops are all temporarily recruited vassal troops. The so-called "chivalry" that advocates bravery and cruelty does not listen to the command at all. The number of winners and losers is self-evident.
In 200 years, the position of longbow was irreplaceable. This made the British troops from remote islands often at a disadvantage in number and became a formidable force in Europe in the late Middle Ages. The British have reason to be intoxicated by the achievements of longbow in Falkirk, Duplin, Harry's mountaineering, keresey, poitiers, Ginkul and Taunton.