I Became a Slave to a Mythical Shepherd

Episode 73. preparation (2)

Antandros is peaceful even today.

Birds sing, flowers bloom…

And on a day like this Skleos, Chancellor of Antandros,

“Skeleos! This is a message from the royal capital!”

“Hmm, who are you from?”

“It has the seal of Paris.”

I had to burn my beard at the blacksmith’s.

Skleos, who was doing his housework, hurriedly opens the letter and reads the lines. ‘Mister, is the smithy running well?’, ‘I hope Anoitos is taking good care of the village and the roads. The monsters will rampage.’ and···

“oh my god.”

The bomb fell.

Skleos walked in circles in place, lost in thought for a moment.

This, hmm, maybe good?

Is it time to go back to work after a long time? What to say to the blacksmiths, and a new agreement with the nearby forest fairies…

Still thinking, Skleos hurriedly put on the hem of his cloak and shouted to the people around him.

“You-all! Follow me right now!”

“Where is the Prime Minister going?”

“smithy. First of all, call the elders and all the regular callers to the forge. Artisans will also be gathered there.”

The attendants who were originally brought from the mansion to the official residence have been matching with the owner for quite some time. By the time Skleos left the gate, the staff was already ready.

Skleos leaned over the staff without hesitation.

Citizens passing by see the prime minister and deputy monarch and bow lightly. Skleos did not bother to respond to him and accelerated his busy pace.

Soon, the sound of hammering and shouting is heard in the distance.

Skleos covered his mouth with a cloth and called out to the artisans.

“everyone! Gather!!”

Only artisans gather and bow to Skleos amid the still smoke and flames. To him who has now become not only a colleague, but also the lord’s best vassal.

“Scleos-nim, what are you doing?”

“Soon the elders will gather. Anoitus is…”

When Skleos blurs his horse’s tail, the attendant shouts.

“You are probably patrolling a road construction site right now! You should be back by this afternoon!”

“good. I have something to say to everyone.”

Skleos unfolds and lifts the letter he was carrying in the form. It’s a small handwriting, but some with good eyes read the contents.

and be astonished

“From today, we are doubling the size of the forge by next year. Everyone who has it and who doesn’t have to gather it up with their own hands!

Buy artisans from other cities somehow, and tell the forest fairies that the bell trees have grown!”

“Hey, Mr. Skleos? So… what do you make with the steel you’re going to produce?”

Skleos pondered for a while, then said.

“Helmets, breastplates, spears, swords, shields… ah, even axles.”

“…”

And at that moment, the atmosphere around them becomes chilly.

“Scleos, where do you send all of them?”

“For now, they told me to bring it to the capital. Don’t worry, this time, you’ve opened up transportation by sea, which you haven’t allowed before.”

“That, in the capital, if it suddenly requires a lot of weapons…”

Handshakes happen. Blacksmiths combine the rumors they have heard and stretch their imaginations.

“Wouldn’t the fairies of the forest be very dissatisfied if they suddenly cut down trees like this?”

“For now, let’s send a letter back to the capital. If things suddenly turn like this…”

– Knock. Knock. Knock.

Then, Skleos tapped the table to draw attention.

“This is not just an order from the lord. Paris, Paris-sama’s order.

Who do you think made this place? Didn’t it all come from his reason?”

From nob le mt l. co m

Little by little the turmoil subsides. As the elders called by Skleos from afar approached, Skleos pounded the floor heavily with his staff and said,

“Paris, the ruler of Antandros, has commanded, and as his chancellor, Skleos, son of Oileus, speaks.

We make armaments.”

***

I walked to the throne room and bowed to Priam. Priam gestures and grants me the right to speak.

“First of all, I told Skleos to focus all of his capabilities on weapon production. Oh, and I also ordered new wheel axles for the tank. Durability will be much better than before.”

At my words, Priam nodded as if satisfied.

“okay. If so, you can arm hundreds of citizens with steel. Good job.”

Of course, it is close to impossible for all combat troops to fight wearing armor. Metal being precious aside from that, carrying and maintaining that much armor would be hellish.

Citizens go to war armed with their own money or with the money of their guardians, and not all citizens are wealthy enough to acquire metal armor.

If you run out holding a spear and wearing leather clothes, that’s just a soldier. Only a handful of generals can afford to climb into a glittering chariot while wearing armor and throw spears at enemies.

but···

“Father, how many men can fight in Troy?”

“Probably between 3,000 and 4,000 people. Why do you ask?”

I bowed my head and said.

“No matter how hard it is, I will make sure that more than half of the troops can wield steel.”

can do.

Steel is nothing special in terms of its hardness and elasticity.

It is only marginally better than a bronze weapon. It’s a little more solid, just a little less scratchy. There are even parts that are worse than bronze. It rusts more easily, so it is difficult to use it for things related to water.

“Hector and his 1,000 soldiers will all be able to fight while wearing armor made of steel. Their arrows will not pierce our armor.”

But steel is common.

Hittite, which is several times larger than the Korean Peninsula, had to suffer from a shortage of bronze for a long time after losing copper mines to Assyria, but we can supply materials ourselves even in Troy, the size of Gyeonggi-do.

Even if they don’t import tin from Achaia, at least they won’t collapse due to lack of armaments.

If anyone can be clothed in steel armor, victory is closer.

After I finished my report, I came out of the palace. While nodding lightly to some of the vassals and attendants who greeted me.

This time, we head to the mansion of Anchises, which is close to that wall. In the middle of the sound, I blocked my ears without knowing.

I knock on the door lightly and no one hears it, so I clenched my fist and knocked. Only then does the door open… revealing a messy interior.

“Paris! You’re here!!

-Pyong!!

“···this. Is this an assassination attempt on the prince by any chance?”

“No, I swear to Aphrodite that it was a pure accident.”

A short arrow made for crossbows is embedded in the pillar right next to me. The arrow still shuddered from the impact of the shot.

“If the lord of Antandros had been killed by the lord of Dardanos, then Dardanos would have been destroyed by the army that came from Antandros before the Hittites arrived, right? Then it’s annihilation.”

Anchises smiles and makes scary noises. He comes to my side and pulls out the arrow stuck in the post.

“Your idea is very, very interesting.

See, I misdesigned the lock, and I accidentally shot it and it only missed the target very slightly.”

If you look closely, there is a single target standing right next to the pillar where the arrow was stuck. The human-shaped target has dozens of arrows embedded in its chest and head.

“aiming? It’s very easy. what to fire? Even a child can do it with the flick of a finger. This is a great discovery. I’ll have to offer one to Apollo and Artemis as a sacrifice.”

Anchises puts down his crudely made crossbow and shrugs.

I nodded my head involuntarily at Anchises’ words. Anchises explained all the reasons why I wanted to develop a crossbow.

Although the bow of this period was looked down upon for combat, most upper-class citizens must learn how to use it for hunting and other purposes.

In other words, archery is an advanced skill after all.

Since it took a long time to become skilled, there were few archers at this time.

Even in the Iliad, only a few, such as Paris, subdue the opponent with a bow, and it is rarely seen that a large number of archers form a net with a volley.

Originally, just as Paris struck the heads and chests of several Greek generals with his bow, the bow and arrow were eventually used for the purpose of sniping key figures.

And ‘this’ can turn the game upside down.

Even for short-range factor sniping purposes, a crossbow with short range but good accuracy may be better.

Anchises leads me towards the source of the clicking sound. When I open the door there, a storm of noise hits me.

“Once you get used to it, you’ll be fine! For now, lightly cover your ear canals with goose feathers!!”

“All right. I’ve been a blacksmith for several years, and that’s about it…”

Before I could say anything, Anchises shoved a ball of hair into my ear. Soon, in the desolate silence, the surrounding scenery comes into view.

“Most of them were slaves who made bows. I paid a lot of money and called them. Of course, it takes a lot more work than making a bow, but it’s not bad. however···”

Anchises grunts and pulls the string to reload. After barely loading the crossbow, Anchises gasped.

“The loading is too inconvenient.”

“Why is that?”

“A bow has to keep pulling its string to fire an arrow. That requires strong physical strength, and isn’t arm endurance also important?”

“Yes.”

“But not this guy.”

Anchises caresses the crossbow with sharp eyes.

“This guy is unique in that once he reloads it, he automatically maintains the reloaded state after that. Wouldn’t that make it possible to use less force than before… and shoot the arrow more powerfully?”

“Are you getting the gist of what I introduced about this?”

“of course. How much did I lose in the war?”

So, crossbows are usually made of materials with higher tensile strength than bows.

I’ve seen it in museums, but later a crossbow was developed that had to be loaded with a special tool because it was so strong that it couldn’t be loaded by hand.

“Anyway, so, I tried to be greedy.”

Saying so, Anchises points to the appearance of the artisans at work. Each artisan bows down and returns to work after Anchises dissuades him.

As someone who has ever shot a bow, I could tell.

There is something strange about the hands of the artisans who cut and bend horns and trees.

It is understandable that the length of the bow is short for the size of the crossbow, but it is much thicker.

It is more difficult to pull, but it is designed to push the arrow with stronger elasticity.

“That way… it’s bound to be much more difficult to reload.”

“The mistake I just made to you was actually caused by touching the lock incorrectly while reloading…”

I can’t do this.

I didn’t invent anything new, I just brought and applied universal ideas.

Obviously, Anchises made the design of the crossbow difficult to load, but in fact, it is close to getting the direction I wanted well, and there are many crossbows that are more difficult to load than that in the original history.

…that’s what it is.

“I think I’m missing something, something?”

“I’ll have to figure out what that ‘something’ is…”

“For now, let’s continue thinking together.”

It’s like dying because I keep thinking with my head that doesn’t work.

From nob le mt l. co m

Let’s change our mind. I’m not thinking of solutions, I’m bringing precedents that already exist.

In my mind, I recalled the image of a crossbow in a movie I had seen.

First of all, there is a body. grooved for arrows to pass through.

A bow stick is placed across the body.

And there is a trigger for firing, and the trigger returns after being pressed.

···uh?

In the movie, there was something like a round ring at the front of the crossbow, but what is it used for?

Could it be of any use?

“Anchises-nim, put down that crossbow for a moment.”

“Oh yeah. Take it.”

I handed over the crossbow that Anchises had just assembled and put the arrows on the strings. Then, to pull the bowstring, he puts the crossbow down facing the floor and pulls the string toward himself…

“···I knew. I have a rough idea of how to make loading easier.”

Anchises’ eyes light up at my words. The other artisans also stopped ticking and turned their eyes to me, as if they were thinking of changing the structure of the crossbow at my words.

“Try stirrups in front of the crossbow. If you step on the stirrups with your foot and pull the string, it will be much easier.”

First, fix the crossbow with your body, load it, and then fire it at the target again. The arrow pierces the target in an almost straight line.

When I checked the trajectory and turned my head, Anchises’ reaction was calmer than I thought.

Why? I think I was very excited and asked for an alternative?

“stirrup?”

“yes.”

“Do you mind if I ask what it is?”

ah···

stirrup.

Of course you can’t know

“It’s like a rough loop. Designed to be stepped on.”

One such ring does not appear in Europe until 1,800 years have passed.

An idea enters my head like an arrow.