Chapter 26: The Way of the Bow (Part 2)

Li You couldn't help but sigh in admiration; he had previously used the two composite longbows of Li Zhao and Wu Yicheng, yet one had a limb that was too thin, constantly twisting the string and affecting accuracy, while the other was even more absurd, warping as soon as the weather grew hot.

So Li You had never seen such a perfect bow, and he dared to assert that not only he, but even his father and Uncle Wu might not have seen one either.

"How many 'li' of draw weight is this?"

Li — in ancient and medieval China, bow strength was measured in 'shi' (stone); by the Ming Dynasty or slightly earlier, likely due to advancements in bow-making technology, it shifted to being measured in 'li'.

One 'li' equals nine jin and fourteen liang (or some say nine jin and four liang); legend holds that ten 'li' equal one 'shi'.

"Haha... this is a heavy bow; let the young master try pulling it open first before saying anything else!"

Liu Jiandao spoke cheerfully, handing him a shaft of arrows; these arrows had flat, acute-angled arrowheads with plum-needle tips featuring small holes in the center, wooden shafts, and were over three chi in length, resembling a small javelin entirely.

"Heavy bow?"

In Li You's memory, such things should belong to the category of soft bows.

However, he didn't dwell on trivial details; he had been worried all morning about not being able to draw the bow, and here was a ready-made opportunity.

He wasted no words, took the arrow, glanced at it a couple more times, then pointed with his index finger, clamped the arrow against the inner side of his thumb, pushed the bow with his left hand, drew the string with his right, aligned his back and bones, and reached full draw with a level posture...

"Whoosh... hush-hush..."

Li You executed a flawless release; the arrow became a black dot, "thwack..." piercing a poplar tree as thick as an arm over eighty paces away, passing completely through the trunk, with fully two-thirds of the shaft embedded!

This seamless action made Liu Jiandao nod repeatedly; without years of bitter practice, one could never assume such a posture of five levels and three rests; seeing Li You's rhythmic tremor in the bow-hand upon release, Liu Jiandao knew this was the technique of 'dian shao' (tip-tapping).

When opening a heavy bow exceeding one hundred jin, the residual kinetic energy after the arrow leaves remains in the bow, causing the body to vibrate and sway, which not only injures the hand but severely impacts rapid firing.

"Good, good, good!"

As if entirely unsurprised that Li You could draw his bow, Liu Jiandao looked toward the poplar tree and exclaimed excitedly, "Truly Li Guang reborn!"

Li You was extremely excited; he estimated this bow weighed at least 260 jin and upwards, far surpassing the heavy bows used by Mongol eagle hunters or Manchu Baiyala archers.

Qing cavalry archery mostly employed six to eight 'li' bows, emphasizing the precision of a single sword-thrust to the throat, yet judging by their foot archery, they used bows of at least ten 'li', equivalent to around 150 jin.

Beyond that, they wore heavy armor; the heavy armor of elite soldiers reached three layers: an outer layer of iron armor, a middle layer of iron-studded cotton armor, and an inner layer of chainmail, weighing a total of thirty to forty kilograms.

From Huang Taiji to the Kangxi era, military examination candidates were required to draw nine-'li' bows; the more formidable Hongyala and Baiyala archers likely reached around 160 jin, while eagle hunters possibly reached around 170 jin, after all, modern people can draw heavy bows of around 250 jin. 【Note】

However, Li You's Iron Spine Bow, relatively speaking, had a modest recurve curvature; compared to the Qing bow, its mechanical structure was not perfect.

The Later Jin Qing bow evolved from the border army's composite longbow; yet as a fishing and hunting people, they were more familiar with the mechanics of bows and arrows, leading to improvements in their usage.

This Qing bow is very unfriendly to beginners because it suits the firing of heavy arrows; heavy arrows retain high energy, and their kinetic energy loss during flight is far lower than the lead pellets of firearms; their shafts are about 1.1 meters long, weighing at least one liang, while strong archers' shafts reach around two liang; to put it bluntly, this is already a small spear.

Whether admitted or not, the Qing bow represents the pinnacle of cold weapons and holds a place in the history of world archery; so, can it pierce heavy armor?

The evaluation table given in 'Knights and Furnaces' takes the common six or seven 'li' Qing bow as standard; the arrow's kinetic energy is 130 joules; against soft steel of thickness 2 (only two-thirds the strength of modern medium-carbon steel), it will definitely pierce armor within 10 meters and possibly pierce armor within 20 meters.

Secondly, whether it is the 'Three Arrows on One Horse' in 'Wubei Zhi' or Qi Jiguang's 'Three Arrows at Battle', according to the aforementioned theory, in a hundred-meter charge, the Qing bow's first arrow can kill the unarmored, the second can pierce iron armor and chainmail, and the third can pierce cotton armor lined with steel plates.

Within the same charge distance, a firearm can only fire once...

The development of things is a unity of forwardness and tortuousness; initially, they are often weak and sometimes unable to contend with mature old things; this is a fact everyone can understand.

That is to say, the Ming army's technology tree at that time could not overwhelm the Qing army, and the Qing army also fought using firearms.

Yet during the transition from Ming to Qing, people were result-oriented, ignoring the fact of the Ming dynasty's internal political failures, and blindly disparaging the Ming army.

As for this bow, without this immense strength, Li You wouldn't even have thought of drawing it.

"Old Liu, how was this bow made? It is incredibly stable, and these 'pu tou' arrows are crafted to be remarkably smooth and sharp!"

"Take this bow!"

Liu Jiandao whispered, "I received this bow from my master; legend says it was used by Kuang Zhong. I simply cannot draw this heavy bow... Young master, I think you are a good person; perhaps I will die one day, so take this bow for use; if my daughter also dies, please find an opportunity to draw the bow for me!"

Having spoken, he knelt before Li You.

"Please draw the bow for me..."

Hearing this, Li You's heart tightened; he thought of Liu Jiandao, who had been taken as a concubine by Wu Datou. He naturally understood what Liu Jiandao meant by 'drawing the bow once', yet he momentarily could not comprehend why Liu Jiandao dared to speak such words so rashly to him.

"Does he not want to live? Sigh, perhaps he truly does not want to live, or perhaps he truly trusts me."

Having thought this, Li You spoke aloud, "You will live well; everyone here, including Xiao Juzi and the others, and Liu Jiandao... as long as I am here, you will all live better and better..."

Before he finished speaking, Ceng Ruan suddenly shouted and ran over, saying there were rabbits in the mountains and calling for him to go hunting... Li You, having lived two lives, rarely made promises, for a promise itself represents cowardice, yet this time he had to promise; life here was too desperate, and he must bring them some hope.

Li You went to retrieve the arrows, took a leather finger guard from Old Liu, along with three 'pu tou' arrows, one iron-bone sharp-cone arrow, and one shovel arrow; he mounted his sharpened Miao Dao, tidied everything up, and then Ceng Ruan led Li You, heading toward the West Pit.

Along the way, Wa Qingyun and Liu Longjin saw them and followed up.

"Young master Li, where are you going?"

Wa Qingyun looked at the double-sheathed bow on Li You's back and asked, "Is that Liu Jiandao's iron bow? Why carry this iron bow?"

"It's not entirely iron," Li You smiled.

"Hah, what difference does it make if the bow is as hard as iron? Four 'zhang pan' couldn't draw it; are you carrying it to fluff cotton?"

【Note】: Guinness World Record, for a 260-pound bow.