Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 55 The Four-Stone Bow (Please continue reading)
"You can exchange things, so it seems you're quite intelligent, big guy. Alright, you give me a mouse, and I'll give you a chicken in return."

The falcon perched on Zhang Xian's shoulder, preening its feathers with its wings slightly spread, emitting a strange odor.

"I'll give you a bath later. Don't worry, with me here, you won't get sick."

Zhang Xian walked to the chicken coop and picked up the hen that was standing there dumbfounded. It had been stunned by the hawk, and this chicken wouldn't live for more than a few days if it wasn't killed today.

So let's just hatch a new batch of chicks; this batch is beyond saving.

I took the thirty-four eggs out of the basket and put them back into the henhouse. After a slight adjustment, I could see the incubation progress displayed on the tops of the eggs.

[Remaining incubation time: 69 hours.]

The eggs hatch every three days. If they are not collected, they will hatch into chicks after three days.

Then, within seven days, they grow into adult chickens capable of hatching eggs.

The reason for putting all the eggs back is that the hatched chickens will be either male or female, and we will have to select only one rooster and keep all the others as hens.

The extra chickens were raised in Taoyuan.

Wearing an undershirt, with a falcon perched on his shoulder and a chicken in his left hand, Zhang Xian walked back to his small courtyard.

"Zhen'er, help me kill the chicken and pluck its feathers."

"Yes, sir."

The two children were lying on a table, flipping through the little drawings he had made in his spare time.

He didn't draw many, and he used wooden pieces, so he only made seven or eight drawings. But Li Zhen and Huang Xu would look at them more than ten times a day, as if they would never get tired of them.

Li Zhen straightened up from the table, pushed the wooden piece into Huang Xu's hands, and took the hen from Zhang Xian's hands and ran to the kitchen to boil water.

"Sister Zhen'er, let me help you start the fire."

Don't underestimate a ten-year-old child; they can do a lot of things. After a few months of adequate nutrition, their bodies have become sturdy.

When Huang Xu saw that Li Zhen was about to leave, he hurriedly followed. Li Zhen, who had been suffering from chronic illness for many years, was actually his first friend of the same age, so they were very close.

However, he still added, "Has Xu'er taken his medicine?"

"Eat, eat."

The person was nowhere to be seen, only two voices were heard.

Zhang Xian chuckled upon hearing this and shook his head slightly: "This can be considered childhood sweethearts."

His gaze then shifted to the falcon on his shoulder.

"You should come down first too. Don't fly around. I'm going to change my clothes."

A falcon let out a soft cry, which echoed throughout the room.

Holding the eagle by its two claws, Zhang Xian placed it on the table.

He then went back to the inner room to change his clothes and put a piece of leather on his shoulder.

"Come."

He called out to the falcon, and the falcon hopped and obediently landed on his shoulder.

"He is quite intelligent."

Once outside the room, Li Zhen had already slaughtered the chicken in the kitchen, but the water wasn't hot yet, so they were waiting for it to heat up and the feathers to fall off.

"Zhen'er, go play after the chickens have plucked their feathers, but remember to put out the fire."

"I know."

Li Zhen and Huang Xu were chatting and laughing when they heard Zhang Xian's words and responded in their direction.

The [Spiritual Partner] has been bound. Next, Zhang Xian will test the extent of his control over this falcon.

What can be confirmed now is that the falcon itself is not unintelligent, and after establishing a connection, it has been able to understand some of its commands.

For example, words like 'go' and 'come'.

Since it can understand some simple commands, if we reinforce its understanding of certain commands a little more, it might be able to be trained into a good helper for reconnaissance and message delivery.

So he took the falcon for some intensive training.

After several hours of exhaustion, Zhang Xian had completely mastered the correct way to use the falcon, rendering it utterly immobile.

First of all, it is possible to send a message, but the recipient needs to wear a marker beforehand so that the falcon can lock onto it.

Eagles have excellent vision; although they can't see things very clearly up close, their ability to lock onto objects becomes stronger the farther away they are.

This is easy to solve. Whether it's marching in the future or sending a message to a specific place, we only need to use a familiar and special mark that the falcon recognizes to anchor it, and the falcon will be able to deliver the message.

However, reconnaissance is a bit more troublesome. The current falcons cannot understand it yet and need to make a deep impression through repeated observation.

noon.

The eagle, already soaked to the bone, was now completely wrapped up.

Zhang Xian dried it off. Wild falcons inevitably have dirt and parasites on their bodies that they can't clean themselves, so he cleaned and prepared it for it.

It's thanks to the hub connection of the [spiritual partner], otherwise getting a falcon to take a bath would be no easier than killing it directly.

While wiping the water off it, Zhang Xian fed it meat strips with his other hand.

The meat was naturally chicken slaughtered that morning, along with the large rat meat brought back by the falcon itself. All the meat was briefly boiled in hot water to improve nutrient absorption and also to disinfect it.

"Master, I've returned."

Huang Zhong walked straight into the thatched hut, and what came into view was a chick that looked like a drowned rat, obediently squatting in its master's arms, which surprised him.

"Master, when did you become interested in cockfighting? Where did you choose this cock from?"

Dog fighting and cockfighting were a popular pastime among wealthy and powerful people, so Huang Zhong was not surprised by them.

Zhang Xian looked up at him, pointed to the wet falcon in his arms, and laughed, "Hansheng, why don't you take a closer look?"

Reminded by him, Huang Zhong took a closer look, and what he saw startled him.

"That's a peregrine falcon?!"

Zhang Xian laughed: "That's right, it's a pity Han Sheng went out this morning, otherwise you could have shot him down yourself."

I fed the falcon another piece of meat, and its body was almost dry.

He looked at Huang Zhong: "Have you bought all the timber and reinforcing bars?"

Huang Zhong nodded: "I bought some. I heard it was for the estate owner. Several timber vendors brought out their best timber."

"The wood is all well-preserved and has more than enough to make a powerful bow."

"Can you make a bow with a strength of several stones?" Zhang Xian asked.

Huang Zhong: "I am most skilled with a four-stone bow, but if it is for ordinary guards to practice defense, a one-stone bow is sufficient. If it is for military equipment, then a three-stone bow is appropriate."

The 240-jin (approximately 160 catties) strength of the Four Stone Bow is truly terrifying. Is this really a bow that a human could draw? Zhang Xian glanced at Huang Zhong in surprise.

Although I knew Huang Zhong was formidable from the start, hearing this still made me uneasy.

Even a one-stone bow weighs sixty jin (approximately 30 kg), which is equivalent to a modern bow weighing over fifty pounds. The weapons we purchased before were only slightly stronger than a one-stone bow, weighing around eighty or ninety jin (approximately 40-45 kg).

Now that Huang Zhong has said that the military equipment should be three shi (a unit of weight), then let's use three shi. The people of Taoyuan have plenty of meat and oil; how can we manage without putting some pressure on them?

(End of this chapter)