open sea

Chapter 1081 Longbow
Coincidentally, Pan Sheng wanted to make an assessment of England's army, and Baron Brick of Gravesend also planned to show Pan Sheng their army after receiving the news of the visit.

Although the meeting was at the baron's manor, it was a meaningless greeting for the two of them. The real conversation began when the six squires, four knights and five soldiers arrived at the woodland near the manor near the river.

A baron is a member of the House of Lords, especially a baron whose fief is near London. He has great influence in the kingdom, and has his own fief, vassal knights and army.

The squires are different, they are farmers, ranchers, manor owners, factory owners or traffickers. Although the social structure of England has been changed by the opening of new sea routes, these people still have no aristocratic power today. What social status they have varies according to the annual estate income.

When the country seizes the opportunity of the influx of wealth, a lucky few will gain wealth and become enviable, which will lead to changes in the social atmosphere such as worshiping money, which seems to be inevitable.

While people envy these people who got rich almost overnight, just like the merchants of the Ming Dynasty had a little influence on local politics, the merchants in England had the same ability on the eve of the capital's influence on the political situation.

At the end of the regular introduction, Baron Brick's servant brought three pairs of longbows and three exquisitely crafted muskets of different lengths.

The baron is not tall, wearing brown leather tight-waisted egg trousers, a linen shirt under a solemn black jacket, short and thick limbs, he strung a long bow in a purple shirt with great force, and his cheeks were tightened with great force. Biting it, a vein popped out on his forehead, and said at the same time: "This is, one of three rare good bows, huh!"

Using different powers to string the three long bows one after another, he breathed a sigh of relief, moved his arms and fingers and introduced to Pan Sheng: "Flying bow, target bow, and war bow."

Several squires sat beside them in various postures, and the servants set up half-shaded tents for them, while the baron prepared drinks, looking relaxed and comfortable; the knights were similar, gathering together to discuss loudly about Southampton.

Only the soldiers who had been signaled stood crookedly beside them with their weapons in their hands.

In fact, they stand quite well. In most of the guards in Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to find a banner army that can stand like them. It's just that Pan Sheng has just come down from the French battlefield, and he is extremely displeased with those Nanzhili hooligans under Tang Er. Only those who act like soldiers will feel that these people are not doing well.

Queue does not represent combat effectiveness, it is only a small aspect of combat effectiveness.

For example, Yang Ce's troops in the Han Dynasty were ranked first in the world, but his subordinates knew nothing but queues.

Pan Sheng guessed that these four soldiers might be the most elite soldiers under the baron's command, because they all looked very strong... If everyone was strong, Pan Sheng would not think so, but these soldiers looked stronger than others. Those knights were strong.

Every time the baron said something, old Taylor would repeat it in Spanish. This was the first time the old carpenter had been invited into the manor by the baron in decades, which made him look a little stiff and his voice trembled. When Pan Sheng answered At that time, the old Taylor had to translate to the baron in English.

The second half of the process was extremely troublesome for the old Taylor, because Pan Sheng's Spanish was not very good, and sometimes he would use Fujian dialect, Portuguese dialect, French dialect mixed with Spanish dialect to express himself.

It is very difficult to communicate in this era. A small country like Portugal is okay. Other slightly larger countries are like Ming Dynasty. There are accents in various places, and their languages ​​are learned from people from various places. Their own The dialect accent is added to the dialect accent of the other party, and then you can say something you are not familiar with.

The difficulty of understanding is not much easier than directly learning sign language.

So the baron's words were heard in Pan Sheng's ears. The names of the three kinds of bows were "bird bow", "target bow" and "combat bow", but Pan Sheng couldn't tell the three straight sticks. What is the difference, I only know that these three bows are really good.

A well-maintained and long bow arm has a layer of oil mixed with oil and wax. It does not look more beautiful than the tendon-horn bows used by Jiubian, Jurchen, Mongolia, and Korea, nor is it more scientific than Japanese bows or longbows of the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

But just looking at the baron's strenuous effort, Pan Sheng knew that this kind of bow was very powerful.

The baron gestured with his eyes, and the servant inserted the feathered arrows one by one on the ground in front of him, then pulled out an arrow made of goose feather with long feathers, and opened the bow with a hand with a leather finger glove, and said to Pan Sheng: "Flying bow! The shooting range is long, and the heavy arrows of the war bow can deal with the armor, even the plate armor, the best archer can..."

Before he finished speaking, the longbow was drawn half-stretched and shot out. Its draw distance was not large, but the collapse of the string made a loud noise, and the plate armor placed about fifteen steps away was knocked into the air, and the leather belt was long. The servant of the sword ran away, and after a while, he picked up the breastplate with heavy arrows stuck in it.

Pan Sheng clearly saw that the chest of the plate armor was pierced by an arrow, about an inch deep.

"Actually the crossbow is more useful than this, but the price of making a steel crossbow is too expensive and too slow. It is reasonable to consider the limited metal to make plate breastplates and the most troops to use longbows." Baron Brick's face Rugged, strong in physique, but gentle in speech, he held out his long bow and asked Pan Sheng who was taller than him, "Sir, give it a try?"

To be honest, Pan Sheng regretted that he didn't bring the flag soldier he had transferred from Liaodong Town with him. He was a good bowman, and he?

He could only smile and shake his head, and replied bluntly: "I'm afraid I can't draw such a heavy bow, why not try this."

It's not so much that he can't pull it away, it's better to say that he is more willing to use the excuse of 'can't pull it away' to cover up his inaccurate shooting.

During his training, he was a heavy spearman, an excellent bird gunner, and then he became a small flag through meritorious service...but before joining the army, he was a butcher and never touched a bow.

Pan Sheng opened the wooden box placed next to him by his entourage, the Banner Army. He first spoke to the baron, then took the breastplate and tapped it twice, and ordered to his subordinates: "Your Majesty also has long guns, so it's better to have one gun for each person; go and get this Put it forty paces away."

Baron Brick shrugged his shoulders relaxedly, even with great interest, and said: "Don't be ashamed of this, there are very few people in England who can use such a heavy bow. I have been trained to use various weapons since I was a child, and I am already 30 Years. The next generation has no such will as mine, and the military duties of the nobility are not worth fivepence in their eyes, and it is gradually tiresome."

As he spoke, he looked around at the knights and squires who were talking and laughing loudly at Southampton's establishment of a trading port, showing a helpless expression. Then, he just picked up a musket and wanted to smile friendlyly at Pan Sheng. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the target being moved back. He stared, looked down at his musket, and muttered in a low voice, "Then, it's too far away."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)