Chapter 125: The Product of Showmanship
The mortise and tenon structure on the bow, which was made of polished bamboo strips, was so exquisite that Zhou Xu, who was holding the bow, subconsciously became more careful in his movements.
[Hey! Why should I be so careful?! ]
Complaining in his heart about his instinctive reaction, Zhou Xu reached out and pulled at the bow body that was made of mortise and tenon structure. However, it was not as loose as he expected. While he was pulling it, the combined structure of the bow body did not move at all.
During this time, Zhuang Mengdie, who was standing by, saw this and explained...
"The structure of this piece is locked by the piece next to it, so you can't pull it off by pulling it like this."
Hearing this, Zhou Xu turned around and went to get the piece next to it.
"That piece is held by that one, and there are two bamboo pieces interlaced between these pieces."
“…”
“This one is also…”
“…”
“And this one…”
“…”
[Wow, this is a very interconnected and cross-combined system, right?]
Zhou Xu had never expected that Zhuang Mengdie, who had only been briefly reminded by him, could actually make such a complex and exquisite combination by her own ability, and use this combination to construct an entire bow!
And according to Zhuang Mengdie, the structure of the bow is linked together, and each piece of bamboo can pull the entire bow to ensure sufficient integrity and stability. The exquisite design made him, who proposed the idea at the time, amazed.
[It can’t be…]
As his thoughts raced, Zhou Xu seemed to have thought of something and directly opened the "Eye of Insight" to check Zhuang Mengdie's attribute panel.
As expected, Zhuang Mengdie's intelligence star level has reached the same level as him, three stars.
This result can be said to have made Zhou Xu overjoyed.
After all, Zhuang Mengdie is an important core talent under him. The more comprehensive Zhuang Mengdie's intellectual development is, the easier it will be when she is needed to independently develop any equipment in the future.
"Well done, Mengdie. The results you produced this time have completely exceeded my expectations! It's amazing!"
Zhou Xu was generous with his praise, but it made Zhuang Mengdie feel a little embarrassed, and she hurriedly said...
"No, no, in fact, many of the structural designs on this bamboo bow are based on the structure you drew before, Chief."
"That's impressive enough. Without the corresponding talent, you won't be able to use it even if I give you the structural drawings."
What Zhou Xu said was quite right.
Zhuang Mengdie, feeling embarrassed by the compliments, quickly changed the subject.
"This bamboo bow is not yet completely finished. In order to further ensure its stability, the bow will be reinforced with animal skin ropes."
"It shouldn't take long to wrap it with an animal hide rope, right?"
"It will be fine soon."
As he spoke, Zhuang Mengdie took the bamboo bow and immediately started working.
This matter did not require much of her energy, so Zhou Xu stood aside and asked some questions.
"The arrows should be ready too, right?"
"It's done."
While speaking, Zhuang Mengdie directly handed an arrow to Zhou Xu.
Holding the arrow in his hand, Zhou Xu looked at it carefully.
The arrow shaft is made of bamboo of appropriate thickness. It does not require much polishing and can be used after simple processing. The tail has feathers, which are obtained from pheasants to increase the stability of the arrow.
A thin crack was split on the arrow head, and the polished stone arrowhead was clamped there and then tied with a thin rope.
The entire arrowhead was polished to be very thin and delicate. When Zhou Xu's fingertips ran across the tip, he could feel its sharpness.
I believe that as long as some force is applied to it, it will definitely be able to create enough destructive power.
At the same time, at this moment, Zhou Xu realized that the bamboo bow made by Zhuang Mengdie seemed to be a little beyond his expectations.
He originally just wanted Zhuang Mengdie to develop a low-profile and cheap bow and arrow, but now, the other party showed off his skills and made him a bamboo bow that was so exquisite and complicated that it almost made his scalp tingle.
Although Zhuang Mengdie is still doing the final processing on this bamboo bow, it definitely took a lot of effort to make it. Under this premise, it must have been tested before this.
Considering this point, the effect of this bamboo bow is undoubtedly worth looking forward to.
While Zhou Xu was thinking this, Zhuang Mengdie had already skillfully wrapped the animal skin rope around the bamboo bow.
"Chief, it's done."
"Let's go and give it a try."
Taking the bamboo bow, Zhou Xu strode out of the camp.
Since Zhuang Mengdie started developing the bamboo bow, in order to test the performance of the bamboo bow, they naturally made a simple target.
The entire target is made of circles of grass rope as thick as fingers.
While saving trouble, it can also better protect the arrowheads. After all, polishing an arrowhead is a time-consuming and laborious job. You can't let them wear out the arrowheads that have been polished with great difficulty one after another during the test and subsequent archery practice? Although this thing is simple, it is very sophisticated!
At the same time, while rushing to the testing site, because his entire attention was completely attracted by the mortise and tenon structure designed by Zhuang Mengdie, he really didn't pay much attention to other parts of the bamboo bow.
It was not until now that he noticed that the bamboo bow was not light in weight and was quite long.
Comparing it with his own height, Zhou Xu roughly estimated that the length of the bamboo bow was probably about 1.5 meters, definitely a longbow.
When he first told Zhuang Mengdie that he wanted to develop this bamboo bow, he just gestured a rough size at first. After that, he put forward his own requirements, saying that Zhuang Mengdie could improve the bamboo bow according to those requirements.
The longbow in front of you is undoubtedly the result of the improvement.
Obviously, Zhuang Mengdie discovered that directly increasing the length is the simplest way to increase power and range.
However, the increase in length also directly increases the weight, greatly reducing the convenience of this weapon.
But this is a trade-off inherent in the bow and arrow weapon itself. For now, he is not dissatisfied with this longbow.
Arriving at the open space for testing weapons, Zhou Xu thought about it and then said...
"In order to more accurately determine the range, power, and stability of this bamboo bow, we will conduct this test step by step. Let's put the target twenty steps away first."
In their tribe, the distance unit of "step" was first proposed by Zhou Xu. Based on normal walking, one step is basically half a meter, and twenty steps are generally about ten meters.
Simply put, he had no idea at all.
In the original world, he had no hobby of archery. If he set up his bows 20 to 30 meters away, wouldn't he be embarrassed if his arrow missed the target? However, Zhuang Mengdie and the others didn't think much about it. In fact, in Zhuang Mengdie's opinion, their leader's performance was undoubtedly a serious attitude, and her respect for Zhou Xu deepened.
Putting on the animal leather finger guards for drawing the bow and taking a deep breath, Zhou Xu did not hold back in order not to lose face in front of everyone. He bent the bow and drew the arrow, using all his strength right from the start.
During this process, he could clearly feel the resistance from the bowstring, but since he had used all his strength, he did not falter and pulled the bow like a full moon in one go.
After careful aiming, the bowstring was released and the arrow flew out. Soon, accompanied by a dull sound, the entire arrowhead along with a section of the arrow shaft sank into the target!
(End of this chapter)
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