Did Rurik ever play with a bow? Gould could say that he had watched Rurik grow up, and he had no memory of the child playing with a bow.
But Rurik had played with bows, specifically, the bamboo bow he made himself in another dimension. Although it was a bamboo bow, he felt that the strength of the bamboo bow was much stronger than the "toy" in his hand.
The reason why he thinks so is that when the bamboo bow shoots homemade arrows, the arrow clusters hit the concrete floor, and the arrows often collapse due to the strong force.
Even after shooting on the board, you still need to hook the claw hammer on your shoulder and use the lever principle to pull out the arrow cluster.
If that bamboo bow "toy" can be considered a serious bow and arrow, it can be said that according to the low standards of Northern Europe, Rurik is indeed born to understand bow and arrow.
How many pounds can the “toy” on hand weigh? Rurik pessimistically estimated that this thing might only weigh ten pounds.
In reality, there were many deviations in Rurik's estimate.
The short hunting bow he had on hand, made of oak core, already weighed twenty pounds. Just for hunting, this bow shoots light arrows and has absolutely no problem shooting down rabbits and birds. However, trying to shoot brown bears and wild boars is overestimating oneself.
Of course, Rurik is not an ordinary little boy. His physical fitness is excellent among boys of his age, and his strength is not small now.
Coupled with the bloodline inherited from this body, it is destined to have great strength.
He can completely draw a twenty-pound bow. As a boy, being able to do this is already a considerable ability.
But for an adult strong man, he can draw such a bow effortlessly.
Of course, some hunters in the Ross tribe have higher-pound bows, but to use a single bow made of a piece of wood well requires long-term training. In the war against Gotland, the arrows of the tribal hunters gave the Russians a good tactical advantage, so Otto began to pay attention to them, so he took the tribal hunters with bows to try their luck in the east. Because Otto wanted to hunt a bear along the way, or something interesting.
Speaking of outdoors, Gould found three scrap ship planks for Rurik and combined them into larger planks as targets.
Compared to serious targets, it's just too big.
"They must think I know nothing? Maybe. The guy in my hands is not a good thing either."
"These are the arrows? Yes, at least three feathers. What are the arrow clusters?"
Muttering, Rurik bent down and picked up an arrow about one meter long. He paid special attention to the arrow cluster and found that it was iron.
"Did they first knock an iron pipe, then heat it, and knock out an arrow cluster at one end? That's fine, the wooden stick can be inserted into the iron pipe very well."
On the other hand, many people had gathered in the small empty space in front of the Gould family's meeting hall.
At this moment, Gould had a big belly, was wearing fine clothes, and was holding a glass full of wine in his hand.
He watched the scrutinizing movements of the child Rurik with great interest, and also asked about his former mercenary captain Yevlo.
"You've been training those boys these days, how are they?"
"My lord, they are all brave." Jevro said sincerely.
"Besides being brave, what else is there?"
"Very united."
"Uniting around Rurik?"
"It's more than that. They're brothers to each other."
"Oh! This is a good thing." Gould felt secretly happy. He felt that compared to other tribes, the younger generation of the Ross people seemed to be naturally more organized.
"So now that Rurik likes bows, what is he going to do?"
Jevro said without hesitation: "He wants to train those girls to be archers. Maybe he will also decide to let all children learn archery."
"Forget it." Gould shook his head: "If bows were really excellent weapons, I would have equipped you with one a long time ago. Listen, only spears and axes are universal tools for killing enemies. Bows are still used for hunting. Bar."
"Sir, maybe this child will create some miracles. He is the son of Odin after all." Jevro said sincerely.
"Okay, I believe those rumors too. But a bow is just a bow, just a flexible wooden stick. Stop talking and look at Rurik's actions."
Rurik didn't care at all about the comments of the onlookers, even though there were more and more people watching. Even the maids who can live here, they all know that their master has a strange long-cherished wish, that is, everyone has a bow. If the owner would be happy to become a master of hunting, everyone would be happy to learn archery. The children even realized the benefits of learning archery. They could eat more by hunting and roasting bird meat.
But Rurik, he was never a complete beginner.
He holds the bow in his left hand, with his index finger pointed straight at the target, and the other fingers holding the bow tightly. The arrow shaft was placed on his left hand, and his right hand immediately grasped the nock of the arrow.
Perhaps the skill of human archery is innate. A completely ignorant person can imitate others by just looking at others' archery postures. After practicing for a period of time, he will become a hunter again.
Rurik's posture was completely Eastern. His body naturally leaned forward, and the arrow shaft tried its best to be parallel to his line of sight.
The breeze blew across his face, and the golden pony tail behind his head fluttered in the wind.
He closed his left eye, used his straightened fingers as a crosshair, and naturally simulated a trajectory in his mind. His right cheek was also pressed against the hemp rope bowstring.
The most subtle thing was the way he drew the bow, which made Jevro's eyes widen. He thought about the way Liuli was pulling the bowstring in the house just now, and at that moment he became interested.
Unexpectedly, the child's actions at that time were not a coincidence at all.
"Rurik, after all this, you still say you don't know how to shoot? You completely understand the archery method of our Finns."
In Jevlo's surprise, Ruriksa let go.
The distance between the shooter and the target was less than ten meters, and the target was one meter wide. Rurik's eyesight is also very good, not to mention that he has no experience in archery. If it can still miss the target, it would be a miracle.
Rurik's body was still too young for him to draw his bow to its full length. In addition, the bow weighs only twenty pounds, so don't expect it to store much energy.
The arrow flew out. Because the three feathers were sticky, it was actually due to poor craftsmanship that they were not completely straight with the arrow shaft. Rurik was surprised to notice that the arrow hit the target while spinning.
The onlookers immediately started talking, and a group of little girls also became restless.
"He actually hit it." Gould praised, even forgetting to drink.
"It's only a dozen steps away. He can definitely hit it." Yevluo said.
"Can he continue?"
"It must be possible. I can see that he must have deceived me. He used a bow."
"Forget it." Gould shook his head: "He has never used a bow. You know, I have watched him grow up from birth to now. He will definitely say that he learned this from Valhalla. Skill. You know, he has always said this."
Rurik shot ten arrows in a row. With such a low-pound bow, he didn't feel any pain in his arms after shooting the arrows. Since all the arrows hit the target, he was a little excited.
But when he walked into the target and pulled out the arrow without much effort, he really felt that the thing in his hand was just a toy.
"What do you think?" Gould approached and heard the news kindly.
“The arrows are good, but the bows are terrible.”
"So you still think your wishes are correct?"
"Yes! Gould!" Rurik looked up and looked into the old guy's eyes: "I want to make more bows and arrows for you. We agreed, now give me five bows, fifty bows Arrow, I have to train my girls tomorrow.”
"Is that them?" Gould casually pointed at the little girls who had gathered and were chattering.
"That's them! This bow is like a toy, a toy that a kid like me can draw. My people need practice in this before I can make a better bow. This thing is not for combat. A good bow is indeed a treasure for training.”
"Okay. I understand." Gould sighed: "By the way. You also said you can't use a bow? I think Jevro has something to say."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yevlo walked over with a sullen expression and a raised chest.
The man asked directly: "Why? Rurik, you know the archery method of our Finns."
"Your archery method." Rurik looked at the bow in his hand, then put on another arrow and began to draw. "Is this how you hold a bow?"
"Your right hand." Jevro pointed and said; "You are indeed different from others. Your thumb hooks the bow string, while others use the index finger and middle finger."
"Really? I still feel comfortable shooting like this."
"It's not comfortable at all." Jevro shook his head and said: "There are indeed better wooden bows in the world. I heard that there is also a kind of bow made of gluing horns. If you want to draw a bow like that, the archer's The thumb must be protected. Looks like I need to give you a gift."
After saying that, Yevro took out a yellow-white ring from the leather pocket on his waist and put it into Rurik's hand.
"You put this thing on your thumb, and when you come across a better bow, you have to draw the string to match it."
In an instant, Rurik understood what Yevro said. This so-called ring was obviously a ring!
Rurik directly exclaimed the word "banzh", which is simply Chinese. However, there is no word to describe the ring in the Norse language. At most, "ring" is used to refer to it. But the ring is a kind of decoration after all, and the ring is a tool.
"This is my gift," continued Jevlo. "I made it from the calf bone of a deer, and you see, I carved the image of a deer on it."
Rurik took a wide look and saw four deer heads carved on the ring finger. The huge antlers were really lifelike.
"Jevro, he is your tool, you don't need it anymore?" Rurik asked curiously.
"I can make new ones. I can even make a bronze ring. And you need it very much now."
"Okay then, I'll accept this gift."
It is certainly a joy to receive a gift from a subordinate, but this gift is very dreamy.
Of course, Rurik's performance now is also very dreamy. He performed a "Finnish Archery" with distorted postures for Javlo.
Rurik did not like the Mediterranean shooting method. Even without a trigger finger, he still liked to hook the bowstring with his thumb. Therefore, the archers under your command should abandon the Mediterranean two-finger string pulling method from the beginning and embark on the broad road of the finger pulling style.
The British longbowman shows his two fingers to make a V, which also means victoria, and also mocks the enemy for "having the ability to cut off my string-pulling fingers."
If those guys in Agincourt were all wearing spanners, would their taunting gesture turn into giving the French a thumbs up, while shouting, "You looked so stupid for falling into the mud pit"?
After some speculation, Rurik even thought of an archer's etiquette, which is to wear a wrench and give a thumbs up.
The next day, Gould took out five bows and fifty arrows as promised. He also sent his men who were good at making wooden bows to chop some oak wood and start making bows now.
Gould had this intention, and his eldest son Snoleva became the overseer.
After all, the Gould family is definitely good at doing business!
There are one hundred and fifty little boys, and an equal number of girls. Rurik's intention is clearly that both boys and girls will undergo military training. Based on his understanding of these children, Gould believes that Rurik will definitely do what he says. arrive.
So there is a huge consumer market here.
It is not difficult to simply make an oak bow that can be used for hunting, but it is more difficult to make matching arrows. Let’s make them anyway, and Rurik will foot the bill in the end.
Gould even mentally priced his bows. The oak bow costs three silver coins, and the arrows cost ten silver coins each. Compared to bows, arrows are indeed cheap. In fact, the real quality of an arrow lies in its raw materials. The arrow cluster must be made of bronze alloy, the arrow shaft must be an oak shaft that is processed and polished to be extremely straight, and the arrow feathers must be gray goose flight feathers. With this set, the labor cost and material cost are beyond the reach of ordinary hunters.
Gould's own family blacksmith didn't have time to process a batch of iron arrowheads. Wouldn't that be a waste of iron?
If you just plan to make an arrow that can hunt branch doves, you don't need such extreme materials.
As for arrow feathers, you can simply capture some ducks and turtle doves and remove the makeshift feathers. There is no need to glue three feathers together. It is enough to keep two of them crooked and very stable.
The arrow clusters were simply made of bones, and finally bundled with hemp rope. The arrow shaft needs to be machined if it is crooked, and it does not need to be too straight, because no one expects an inferior bow to shoot the arrow too far.
On a new day, the boys practiced alone as usual.
The girls also suspended long-term queue training. After so many days of training, Rurik was very pleased to see that not only did they distinguish left and right, but they could also form a neat queue, walking at exactly the same pace, maintaining a matrix. Under the command, proceed in the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest.
There is no doubt that Carlotta has truly become the trusted female leader of the girls. Even though Carlotta, the female leader of Ostara, was only nine years old, she looked like she was training children. Everyone, including herself, felt that she was doing a good job as a leader.
The bows and arrows arrived, and without any delay, the archery training for the girls began immediately.
For a time, arrows were flying in the woods, and some tree trunks used as targets were soon filled with arrows. Things turned out just as Rurik thought. The girl took advantage of the bow and arrow almost instantly. Once you get started, whether you can hit the target accurately is another matter.
