Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

Chapter 46 - 39 Longbow

The drizzle arrived as expected, washing away all the fresh blood and temporarily halting all martial prowess. The birds retreated to their nests in the forest, and the vast army, like returning hornets, silently guarded Otapan City, uncertain when this fruit would ripen and fall.

Xiulote sat in the small hut in the camp, closely examining the Tlaxcala long wooden bow in his hands.

This type of bow was clearly a self bow, made from a single material, and was indeed a longbow, with a length of over 1.4 meters. The bowstring was made from treated deer sinew, tough and without elasticity. The bow’s body was likely made of oak, one of the better materials for bow-making. The ends of the bow were wrapped and secured with cotton thread, then glued with bone adhesive.

Overall, the craftsmanship was rather skilled, and the cost wasn’t overly high; it should be possible to produce them on a large scale. The people of Tlaxcala certainly had sizable archer troops.

Xiulote tested the bow’s power several times and found it stable. With a small angle of shooting, it could kill at 120 meters without armor.

"The Thirty-three Hall Long Shot"! This high-difficulty flat shot over a distance of 120 meters. Xiulote slapped his forehead, remembering his visit to the Tiantai Sect temple in Capital City during a past trip to Kyoto. It appeared that this self bow was slightly inferior to the composite Japanese bow used at the beginning of the samurai era.

Ever since the last attack, Xiulote had been contemplating the long wooden bow in his hands.

Arrows and bows, equipment that strayed from the samurai’s glory and couldn’t capture prisoners, were widely overlooked by the Mexica people. Yet they were actually the weapons with the most development potential among the various parts of Central America. Their development ceiling had the smallest gap with the Europeans and they could potentially breach the chain mail of ordinary knights in the future, harming cavalry horses that even armored knights couldn’t protect perfectly. They did not have a high demand for metal, which made them the most powerful weapons for rising primitive civilizations similar to the Jurchens or Mongolians. Dense volleys of arrows or crossbow bolts were the best method for the Mexica, who had no cavalry, to confront the conquerors’ cavalry.

At the same time, Central America was rich in high-quality wood resources. The best naturally were ironwood and sandalwood, types of wood that were very hard and had the strongest energy storage, with a quality even surpassing the yew used for English longbows. Thinking this, Xiulote chuckled. Names like Ironwood Bow and Sandalwood Bow were very familiar in his memory.

For those with slightly lower production costs, there were the commonly found spruce and oak, which were also quality materials for making bows. Spruce bows and oak bows were widely used throughout Europe by the Germanic peoples. These trees were all very common in America, and all spruce species originated from North America.

Develop the bow and arrow! While pondering the resources at hand and considering the future, Xiulote got swiftly excited. He’d finally found a bright path for the Mexica people to develop their military might under the current conditions!

Following that, he continued to ponder the design and types of bows,

Xiulote nodded, "He was my follower and sacrificed himself for me in the previous battle. When we return to the Capital, take me to his house for a visit."

Kuode nodded respectfully. Then, the two began to formally discuss the making of the longbow, with the other carpenters helping to consult.

"I need to make a sufficiently long greatbow, over two meters in length, with a simple form that is just a curved line. For now, use deer sinew or deer hide for the bowstring. Next, you must research how to make replacement bowstrings using cotton or hemp cord..." Leaving only Kuode and a few carpenters, Xiulote dismissed the other craftsmen.

The brief discussion lasted only half an afternoon, and then it was time to start the actual manufacturing.

Xiulote found some leftover rosewood from the previous catapult construction and chose a straight, three-meter-long piece of lumber. Then, the craftsmen took out their bronze tools and cut a wooden strip about two and a half meters in length and eight centimeters in both width and thickness.

Next, Kuode used a tool akin to a marking gauge to draw the center line and then, following that line, sketched the shape of the longbow. He carefully cut and sanded, forming the shape of the bow from the wood.

As it was a first attempt, Xiulote did not dare make the bow too thin. Since the goal was practicality, there was no need to consider decorative elements. Everyone began training the bow directly, a process of conditioning the wood.

Training the bow was done on a training frame, which could simply be understood as a long stick with even grooves. Kuode first hooked the ends of the bow with a string, then placed the exact center of the bow at the top of the long stick, and gradually pulled down both ends of the bow, one groove at a time.

Every quarter of an hour, they pulled down a notch, bending the straight bow into an arc until its maximum, then held it there for twenty to thirty minutes to relieve the tension in the bow. Then, they restored it to its original shape, rested for another quarter hour to let the bow recover, and proceeded to train it again.

Thanks to the superior quality of the wood used, this training took until evening. The scent of food wafted from afar, a flavor of the night. However, Xiulote had no appetite for dinner, instead lighting a fire in the hut and focusing on the craftsmen’s work. After a while, Bertade brought him some cornbread, and the two continued to watch while they ate.

Only after the training was finished did a famished Kuode accept Xiulote’s cornbread and hastily finished his dinner. What followed was a delicate task; the old carpenter painstakingly polished the bow with tools made of obsidian for a full half hour until the bow was smooth and sleek.

The final step was oiling. In Mexico of that era, oils were precious commodities. Whether it was tung oil from China or palm oil from West Africa, neither had yet spread to the suitable climates of Central America, and the likes of lard or tallow were even more out of the question.

Xiulote negotiated for half the night to obtain a small bottle of sunflower seed oil and even had someone press an expensive bottle of avocado oil; if there was time, one could extract some pine resin oil. Kuode generously coated the bow with the oil, and then all that was left to do was wait for the oil to seep in, and for the bow to dry.

Before they knew it, the night grew deep; it was far past rest time. Kuode bid farewell with his fellow craftsmen, leaving a restless Xiulote behind. The young man lifted the curtain and gazed at the bright Milky Way in the sky, beneath which lay the ancient city-states and nations, unchanged for thousands of years.

Turning back, he looked again at the longbow in the center of the tent. Its body was white and smooth, over two meters in length, outlining the curves of strength and beauty; it resembled an otherworldly beauty, concealing a fierce potential for martial prowess.

Xiulote watched entranced, full of anticipation, his thoughts drifting far away, "What power might this longbow hold?"

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