I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 188 Crossbow (Part )
Meat, eggs and milk.

It is a rare delicacy.

Unfortunately, not even Luc achieved culinary freedom in the entire manor.

Especially meat. Apart from fish which is easy to obtain, bear, pig, deer and sheep are only tasted occasionally. Maybe in the future when the chicken population expands, we can eat more chicken.

Luc assembled the hamstrings and back tendons of the only four elk he had hunted in the past three years, and walked all the way to the logging site. After pushing aside the annoying branches, he saw little Maiman standing in front of the logging house, grinding something with a woodworking machine. Loud scraping sounds and wood chips kept falling around him.

"Hey! Little Maiman, what are you doing?"

"Ah, it's you, sir! I'm making some corks for the clay pots. I've got a lot of white maple syrup left lately, and I'm afraid it might spill accidentally."

Little Maiman raised his sweaty forehead and said hello, "Master, what can I do for you?"

"It's not a big deal, I just want you to make something."

Luc moved with his long legs to the side of little Maiman and picked up a piece of oak cork that had been made.

The cork has a simple shape and a smooth touch. Luc nodded and praised: "Not bad. If you keep going like this, you will surpass Ryan in the position of carpenter sooner or later."

"Nothing compares to Mr. Ryan, and I have you to thank for that, sir."

Little Maiman smiled shyly and caught a glimpse of the empty wooden house from the corner of his eye.

Unlike other free farmers, as a carpenter he had a special right: to cut wood at will.

So his house is a rare wooden house.

Although the area is not large, perhaps because of admiration for Ryan, the layout is very similar to Ryan's house.

“Besides, you allowed my mother to herd for you~” Little Maiman expressed his sincere gratitude.

Luc smiled lightly but didn't respond.

The textile factory had stopped operating. As there were only two female textile workers, in line with the manor's principle of not keeping idle people, little Maiman's mother was indeed asked to cooperate with Mary in managing the livestock.

It’s not that he thinks Mary is doing a bad job, it’s just that their family has too much land and Robert can’t manage it all by himself.

After a brief greeting, Luc stated the purpose of his trip.

"crossbow?"

Little Maiman took the deer tendon, his expression gradually becoming serious. "Sir, I've never made a crossbow before. I think I need some time."

"No problem, take your time. First, plan out the crossbow body."

"it is good!"

Little Maiman turned and ran to the wood room, where there were piles of many kinds of wood.

This is also why he was able to discover the white maple tree.

As a carpenter, one must learn to use different woods to make different tools. For example, for the crossbow body, little Maiman chose the harder oak.

Stepping on the two ends, little Maiman took the axe, chopped off a section with a few strokes, and then put it on the planer to grind it.

Next to him was a pulley made from the bear tendon, the original rope having broken.

Seeing little Maiman's skillful technique, Luc felt relieved and turned to walk towards the white maple tree area.

The white maple forest is about a hundred meters west of the logging cabin. Walking on the crisp green grass, you can reach the tree and touch it. On the sunny side of the maple tree, there are two semicircular tubes made of pine wood, and sap is flowing continuously to the wooden barrel at the bottom.

Little Maiman has always been very meticulous. For example, he said that the cork should be wrapped with linen soaked in vinegar to prevent the maple wine from becoming rancid.

That’s right, Luc also wants to make maple wine.

Sell ​​it together with nut candy.

Looking around, there are about a hundred maple trees in the forest. Although only ten have been collected so far, and only two tubes have been inserted into each tree, if we extrapolate based on the output on the first day, I am afraid that the ten trees can bring me more than a thousand pounds of sap a year.

Excluding the loss and dilution during boiling, filtering and fermentation, the final product weighs more than 400 pounds.

"It should be cheaper than mead, but definitely more expensive than ale. Excluding costs, perhaps around nine hundred pfennigs?"

Luc silently calculated the prices and finally got a good price.

This is more than ten mules' worth of charcoal.
Don't underestimate the purchasing power of the pfennig. You should know that the market price of 2,000 pounds of rye was only 200 pfennigs at the time. Nearly 1,000 pfennigs was definitely a valuable asset.

"Trade is still profitable."

Luke sighed, but if he wanted to maintain trade, he had to have military force, and the crossbow was one of the symbols of military force.

"What is the taste?"

Luc was thinking about something when he suddenly smelled a pungent odor. His eyes unconsciously swept around and finally stopped on the wooden barrel.

That seemed to be the source of the smell.

Luke's heart suddenly tightened. He hesitated for a moment, bent down to smell it, and then his face turned extremely ugly. "Damn it, why does the sap smell so bad?!"

……

"Master, as you expected, it has indeed lost its sweetness and even become a bit bitter."

In front of the logging cabin, little Maiman used a new type of filter made of horsetail to simply complete the filtration, then took the yeast and brewed it until the evening. He tasted it as the shadows lengthened at dusk, and finally informed Luc of the bad news with a bitter face.

Although Luc on the side had a premonition, he couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"All the maple syrup turned bitter?"

".Yes."

Luc looked at the ten buckets of juice and felt a headache when he heard the answer.

The maple wine plan, is it just ruined like this?

Nine hundred pfennigs!
After a moment of distress, Luc scooped up a spoonful of sap and asked, "Could it be because the maple tree has sprouted?"

Since the first batch of sap contains sugar, there is no reason why the subsequent sap becomes bitter. After much thought, there is only one reason, that is, the sap stops producing sugar due to germination.

"It was discovered too late. If it had been discovered three months earlier, perhaps this wouldn't have happened."

I put the scoop back in frustration and stopped looking at the failed maple sap. Fortunately, there is gain in loss. After an afternoon, the crossbow body was basically polished.

Looking at the crossbow body that was two and a half feet long, three inches wide, and one inch thick, Luc knocked it twice and found that the texture was good, and his mood gradually improved.
Next, you just need to continue to build the crossbow string, crossbow arm, and crossbow mechanism.

In fact, making a crossbow is not complicated, and the principle is very simple: use a bow-shaped crossbow arm to put on the crossbow string, install it on the main crossbow body, pull it back, and then pull the crossbow trigger to fire.

Each step is not difficult, and even the most complex-looking crossbow mechanism is just a basic lever principle. However, the power of crossbows made by different people is different.

Because there are many little tricks involved.

After carving grooves into the crossbow body, Ryan came over in the evening and brought a meal. They kept Ryan and the three of them worked in the dark to make the ash crossbow arm.

"Little Maiman, bring the deer tendons and fish maw!"

"Ok."

There was no shortage of fish glue in the woodworking shop, so little Maiman soon brought out a small jar.

His mother had returned and was standing by, lighting a torch for the three of them.

This is the half that was left when the grain was transported.

In the light of the fire, Luc looked at the crossbow arm that was thick in the middle and thin on both sides, and flexibly attached the deer tendon that had been torn and dried long ago to the back of the crossbow arm vertically with fish glue.

Luc was very careful, layer upon layer,
Keep pressing until it feels hard.

He lifted it up and shook it to see if there was anything wrong. He handed it to Little Maiman and said, "Okay, let's dry it in the shade."

Seeing little Maiman take away, Luc washed his hands. This was a simple method he figured out to increase the range of the crossbow.

Bow and crossbow, the two have always been similar weapons.

The bowstring itself does not require much tension. For example, the deer tendons that Luc had dried were very hard, but in comparison, the crossbow requires less bowstring elasticity.

It can even be said that almost no elasticity is best.

The key factor affecting the lethality and range of a crossbow is the sturdiness of the crossbow arm.

Because of this, Luc, who had no steel, decided to use deer tendons to reinforce the ash crossbow arm, which could also further prevent it from cracking.

He grabbed the remaining deer tendons and prepared for Ryan to knead them into bowstrings.

Looking at the empty animal rubber bands, four elk were just enough to make a crossbow, and the cost of using it was indeed high.

"By the way, remember to go to Oliver's and get some beeswax to coat the bowstring to prevent moisture."

"Don't worry, sir."

Beeswax is a good thing.

After giving the instructions, he told little Maiman to build the crossbow together tomorrow. Luke took Ryan and prepared to go to the church.

——There is a very important person waiting for me there.

As he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of the useless maple sap from the corner of his eye and paused before saying, "Let's have someone move it to the castle later."

Ten small buckets of maple syrup.

If possible, see if you can find a way to recycle waste.

(End of this chapter)