Taiheiki

Chapter 50 Bow Making
"You were born at the wrong time, so let me walk this path for you!" Wei Cong smiled, stood up, shook his sleeves, went down the hall and walked towards the backyard.

Like most clan-based powerhouses during the Han Dynasty, the interior of Zhangjia Wubao was largely similar to an ordinary village of the time. Of course, the house Zhang Bolu built for himself was larger and more magnificent. Behind his courtyard were several rows of two-story cottages, which served as housing for his guests and guards. After Wei Cong captured Wubao, these houses became vacant, and he used it as a base for his troops.

"Lang Jun!"

"Lang Jun!"

Seeing Wei Cong approaching, the soldiers who were training in the open space under the house put down their weapons and bowed to Wei Cong. Wei Cong nodded to everyone and said, "Is this house satisfactory to everyone?"

"It's agreeable, of course it's agreeable!"

"Yes, thanks to you, my dear, otherwise we wouldn't have such a house to live in!"

The soldiers answered in twos and threes, and one brave one even said with a playful smile: "It's a pity that it's a little small. If he gets married and has children, there won't be enough room for him!"

"Looking for a wife and having a baby!" Wei Cong laughed. "This is a temporary residence for my guards. If you want to look for a wife and have a baby, I'm afraid you'll have to go back to your own house."

"Our own house? We will have our own house?" The soldiers became excited.

"Hmm!" Wei Cong nodded. "Wait a moment! Once I'm done with the things I have on hand, I'll divide the land and houses for you. You'll be treated like officials, but the land is limited, so it can only be halved: one mu for the house, thirty-five mu for the fields, and fifteen mu for the mulberry fields! I'll divide it from the Zhang family's land, and try to complete it before next year's spring plowing. How do you do that?"

The field erupted in excitement, the soldiers scarcely daring to believe their ears. They had long heard that Zhao Yannian, Diwu Deng, Wang Shou, and the others would be granted land according to the standards of Bu Geng and Shang Zao, but no one considered it relevant to them. After all, everyone knew that titles had nothing to do with how much land one owned. Zhao Yannian and the others were granted land because of their seniority and achievements. He had only been with Wei Cong for a short time, and his contributions had already been rewarded with money, silk, and grain. Why should he be granted land on the same basis? Besides, Zhao Yannian and his men were only a few, and even if each of them had several hectares of land, it wouldn't add up to much. He had fifty men here, and even if each of them had twenty mu, that would still add up to ten hectares—a significant amount.

"Sir, you are not kidding us, are you?" a soldier asked cautiously.

"You're saying that! When have I ever lied to you?" Wei Cong laughed, "Is this kind of thing something you can joke about?"

The crowd cheered and danced to express their joy. Someone said, "Fifty acres of land, even if we pay half the rent, the rest will be enough to marry a wife and have children!"

"Yes! It's a bit tight, but it's enough to support the whole family! Coincidentally, my husband gave me some money a few days ago, and even the betrothal gift is here!"

"You need a dowry to marry a woman these days?" someone scoffed. "There's a war in southern Jing, and we're getting as many refugees as we want. People like us have a house, land, and food. If you're not picky, you can find a woman who can take care of your kids for free. Go to the dock in the morning, and someone will be sweeping the floor and making your bed by noon!"

"You already have fifty acres of land, but you don't look for a virgin girl, but a woman who takes care of children. I really can't understand!" someone laughed.

"What do you know?" the man sneered. "There are advantages to raising children. First, it proves that the woman is fertile. If you bring back a virgin, not only will it cost money, but what if she's infertile? What will you do? Secondly, if the child is five or six years old, after two years of raising her, she'll be able to herd cattle, raise chickens, collect firewood, carry water, and do all sorts of odd jobs. After another three or four years, a boy will be a good helper in the fields, and a girl can be married off to earn money and rice. Your own child won't be useful for at least six or seven years. Before then, you'll have to do all the heavy work by yourself, and it'll be exhausting!"

"That's right, you've thought it through very carefully!"

"You haven't even gotten your woman back yet, but you're already planning on taking someone else's child. You're quite vicious!"

Wei Cong was watching his men's joy with a grin. Just as he was about to leave, a soldier approached and bowed, "Sir, I have something to ask you. If those oarsmen and county soldiers also come to join you, can they also get a share of land like us?"

"This..." Wei Cong was stunned when he heard this. After thinking for a moment, he smiled and said, "You were all refugees originally, so that's fine. But they are good local citizens. If they also come to serve as my subordinates, then there will be a lot of complications!"

"That's true!" The soldier nodded. "It's just their bad luck!"

"No luck?" Wei Cong frowned. "That's not the case, is it? Don't they have their own land?"

"Yes, but fifty acres isn't much!" the soldier laughed. "Not to mention, the Zhang family owns good land, much better than what ordinary people own. And most importantly, no one would complain about having too much land!"

Wei Cong finally understood after hearing the soldiers' explanations. It turned out that those oarsmen and county soldiers were generally young and strong men in their early twenties. At this age, most of their parents were still alive, so naturally, they didn't own the family property. Unless they were the eldest son, their lives were not much better than those of the family servants. Even if the family was divided early, unless they were from a wealthy family, the ordinary children would only receive 20 to 30 mu of land, which was considered a great achievement. If they could get 50 mu of land from Wei Cong, even if they were just soldiers, they could leave their share to their brothers, and naturally they would flock to it.

"I see!" Wei Cong nodded: "I didn't think of that. Let's put this matter aside for now! But don't talk about this matter outside, otherwise there might be changes!" "We will follow your orders, sir!" everyone responded in unison.

After passing the guards' quarters, Wei Cong left the yard through a side door, crossed an alley, and came to a secluded courtyard. The steward at the door saw Wei Cong and hurriedly bowed and saluted: "My dear, you are here!"

"Hmm!" Wei Cong asked casually, "Is everyone here?"

"They're all here!" the steward said with a smile. "These past few days, the craftsmen have been arriving before dawn and leaving only when the lights turn on. They're working non-stop day and night!"

"Oh? Everyone's working so hard?" Wei Cong walked up the stairs and asked the steward, "Then are we providing enough meals every day?"

"Oh, my lord has given orders. Who dares to play tricks here?" The steward opened the door for Wei Cong and said with a smile, "My lord, please come in!"

Wei Cong smiled, but didn't listen to the manager's words. Since ancient times, there have been countless cases of middlemen taking bribes, and it has long become an unspoken rule. Can a few words from him make them stop? No one would believe it. Forget it, after they settle down, just give money to these craftsmen and let them elect their own people to take turns buying vegetables and rice, and set up a communal kitchen and canteen!

Wei Cong walked in and heard the craftsmen arguing in the yard.

"In my opinion, it's best to use three layers of bamboo, then glue a layer of tendon on the outside, and glue the inside with sheep horn pieces. This is the cheapest way!"

"If you want to save money, you can just skip the outer layer of reinforcing fibers and use silk or fine linen instead, right?"

"In my opinion, we can just glue three layers of bamboo, mulberry wood, and bamboo together, and make the bow longer. We can even save on sheep horns and beef tendons. It's the cheapest!"

"You're all thinking about saving money, but you've forgotten that these are bows and crossbows that will be used in battle to kill bandits. If we follow your method, we'll save money, but what if we can't penetrate the bandits' armor?"

"Look at what you're saying. It's not us who need to save money, it's my husband. And my husband also said that as long as the bow shape is good, it doesn't matter if the bow material is a little inferior. Not to mention that he taught us how to use water vapor to bend various bow materials and then glue and laminate them. It really is possible to make a good bow without the finest ox horn or mulberry wood!"

"That's right. No matter how much we save, the bows we make must be tested. If they don't meet the requirements, we won't produce them in large quantities and use them for the soldiers!"

"Hmph, you think I don't know that the bows you made do meet the requirements, but they're only just meeting the requirements. Once they're in the hands of the soldiers, they'll be soaked in water and roasted in fire. They'll become soft and brittle in a few days, and will only cause serious consequences!"

"Don't worry about that. As long as the paint is good, it won't be easily affected by moisture. As for the soldiers, bows and arrows are life-saving items. As long as we tell them in advance to take good care of them, they won't mess with them carelessly!"

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out from the courtyard gate. The craftsmen turned to see Wei Cong, and they hurriedly saluted in unison. Wei Cong waved his hand and said with a smile, "This is where we get our work done. Let's put aside all the formalities for now. By the way, how are you all doing with the method I suggested last time, where you guys heat the various materials with steam and then layer them together to make the bow?"

"Reporting to my lord, we have tried to make seven or eight kinds of these days, and we are arguing endlessly!"

"That's fine!" Wei Cong said with a smile, "You mark each one with the materials used, the craftsmanship, the materials consumed, and the labor, and then submit them one by one. I will give them to the soldiers to try out, and then, based on their opinions and combined with other factors, I will finally select two or three for the final customization!"

"Follow the order!"

It turns out that the main product of Wei Cong's craftsmen was four-wheeled carriages. Among the various processes of making four-wheeled carriages, a lot of wood needs to be bent to achieve the required shape. The wheels, in particular, require bending the hard wood into a circle and then enclosing it with an iron hoop. If the wheel is not round enough or the wrong size, it will affect the performance of the carriage. In ancient times, this was often done by first baking the wood over fire, bending it into the required shape after it softened, and then fixing it into the required shape after it cooled. However, this method often destroys the original toughness of the wood, making it easy to break.

Wei Cong provided another idea - steam heating bending method: the wood to be bent is placed in a closed container, and then a large amount of hot water vapor is added. After the wood is heated by the water vapor, it is fixed on the corresponding mold to make it into the required shape. After the wood cools down, it will maintain the required shape. Compared with the original baking method, the water vapor heating method has much less damage to the original mechanical properties of the wood.

In addition to the steam heating bending method, Wei Cong also provided the craftsmen with a lamination method, which is to first cut natural materials such as wood, bamboo, silk, hemp rope, snake skin, sheep horns, tendon silk, etc. into different thin slices, and then glue them together in different proportions and structures to form various original composite materials.

These various new composite materials, at the same size and thickness, possess far superior mechanical properties compared to virgin materials. This offers significant advantages in crossbow construction. Traditional ancient Chinese horn bows typically utilize a sinew-bamboo-horn composite structure, with animal sinews, known for their excellent tensile strength and high elastic modulus, positioned on the outermost side of the bow, animal horns, known for their excellent compressive strength, positioned on the innermost side, and a bamboo bow core in the center, bonding the sinews and horns together. The tips of the bow, which don't need to deform during the drawing process, are made of hardwood and connected to the bow with a mortise and tenon structure. This provides a wider range of deformation, saving the archer effort through the principle of leverage, making them undoubtedly exceptional traditional bows.

As mentioned above, the primary energy storage locations for Chinese horn bows (and indeed, all horn bows) during bowing and shooting are located on the inner and outer sides of the limbs, specifically the outer sinew and horn layers. Therefore, ancient Chinese bowmaking placed great emphasis on the selection of sinew and horn materials. For example, the preferred sinew was ox back sinew (also known as sirloin tendon), and the horn was top-quality water buffalo horn, with each buffalo horn being used to make only one bow. Everyone knows the significance of cattle to ancient agricultural China. Therefore, the cost of high-quality horn bows in ancient China was extremely high, with some high-quality water buffalo horns even being worth the price of an entire ox. (The "Zhou Li" Kaogongji, "Archers" states: "The horns are two feet and five inches long, and the three colors are not out of place. This is called ox-wearing-ox." Zheng Xuan's note: "The three colors are white in the base, green in the middle, and plump in the end. Zheng Sinong said: 'Ox-wearing-ox, the horns are straight as an ox.'")
But after adopting Wei Cong's lamination method and steam heating bending method, the source of ox horns is no longer a big problem. If there are no ox horns, goat horns or sheep horns can be used. The longer the horns are, the longer they are. However, they usually become very twisted as they grow longer, and there are some straight horn pieces. But with just steam heating, they can be trimmed into the desired shape. Compared to the traditional mulberry wood favored by bow makers, Wei Cong actually prefers to use bamboo, especially tea-stem bamboo. He splits it into bamboo pieces of corresponding sizes, then planed off the inner bamboo flesh, leaving only a thin outer layer, and you can get a bow material with very excellent performance. Then, he glues the polished horn pieces together with tendons and silk layer by layer, fixes them into the desired shape with a special mold, and after the glue dries, he can make a very good bow body.

(End of this chapter)