Chapter 25: The Way of the Bow (Part I)

Li You skillfully retrieved a piece of blade stock that was nearly formed from beneath the tree stump and set it into the furnace fire.

He had been busy forging two weapons recently; the prototypes in his mind were the Miao saber and the Nepalese kukri of later generations.

For this, Le Bao-fu had specifically found him top-quality steel; this steel had already been quenched and polished, revealing pine-like patterns and a slightly curved shape on its surface.

This material was already very close to high-carbon steel; crucible smelting could produce high-carbon steel, though the yield rate was almost in the realm of metaphysics.

The master of Lame Liu had once worked in the Bureau of Crafts, so he had provided Li You with much guidance—for instance, that breaking armor with a blade requires hardness and a narrow edge, while durability requires toughness, which is why the Miao saber adopted the most advanced laminated steel technique.

Using wrought iron as the outer skin with hundred-refined steel sandwiched in the middle, and applying partial quenching—that is, clay-tempered edge burning—to parts of the blade, the edge would be hard enough to hack and break armor, while the body of the blade would remain tough, undeformed, and durable.

Li You, however, felt that was too troublesome; he did not need durability, he only wanted sufficient hardness, so he simply relied on his own strength, drawing upon the techniques of folded steel and partial quenching.

Because of the advanced smelting technology of the Great Ming, one could forge directly with high-carbon steel and then use Qian Chengzhi’s advanced heat treatment methods (such as clay-tempered edge burning) rather than relying on folded pattern steel or composite structures.

The two blades only had some finishing work left, so with the help of Li You, Qian Zhong, and Qian Yong, after two hours of toil, they were finally completed.

One long and one short; the long Miao saber had a slender body, over four feet long, and with the long hilt, it approached one meter and seventy centimeters—this was Li You’s deliberate choice to lengthen it according to his own height, making it taller than even Lame Liu.

This combined the characteristics of both a saber and a spear, and could be used with either one or two hands, making it easy to exert the full power of the waist and back; when used in battle, it allowed for swift, continuous strikes, rapid and fierce movements, with the blade following the person, its momentum like splitting bamboo, possessing immense lethality.

The metallic luster shone on the blade, and there were threads at the front and back of the hilt so that a long ironwood handle could be screwed in, allowing it to be used as a nine-foot great halberd saber.

The short blade was designed by Li You as a Gurkha knife, also known as a Nepalese kukri; the belly of the blade was wide and curved forward like a dog’s leg, and there was a V-shaped groove at the junction of the blade and hilt to drain blood in actual combat so as not to stain the hilt—this was the recurve blade recognized by the world in later generations as the most compliant with the principles of mechanics!

Qian Zhong and Qian Yong were both clicking their tongues in wonder, while Qian Chengzhi praised Li You endlessly, feeling that this scholar was completely different from those bookworms, as if he knew a little bit about everything.

Just as everyone was fiddling with the two blades, Lame Liu took out a copper-bodied, iron-backed bow from somewhere; it must have been extremely heavy, as Lame Liu was carrying it with great difficulty.

"Come, my lord, try this Dragon-Spine Bow!"

"Is this an iron-bodied bow?"

Li You hurriedly took it; it felt extremely heavy in his hands. The bow back was created to replace the wooden bow, with iron strips inlaid into the bow back to increase range and power, also known as an "iron-spine bow."

Song Zhao-xiong stated in the *Stele of King Han Qi*: "In the military prefecture's trials, only the iron-bodied bow is used; whatever it points at, even if it is metal or stone, is pierced through."

This iron-bodied bow had extremely high requirements for the archer; even the eagle-shooting archers of the Mongols or the White-Tail soldiers of the Manchus might not be able to draw an iron-bodied bow!

Li You inspected it; this bow was naturally a heavy-duty large-ear bow, similar in shape to the hemp-backed bow, with a bow core that looked to be laminated from sandalwood, using mulberry and elm wood for the bow tips.

It used ox horn and hardwood for the bow grip, the overall bow body was wide, and the bowstring was bright and thick; one look told him it was made by soaking, drying, and binding the square tendons from the spine of a prime ox.

"Perfectly natural, ah, what a fine bow!"

"Hehe, my lord, try first to see if you can draw it!"

[Note]: It is beyond doubt that leaf cards appeared during the Tang and Song dynasties and are the world's earliest playing cards. Regarding the origin of modern poker, there are various theories, one of which is that modern poker originated from the leaf games of China.