Eric

In the first days of August, he finished work on a simple design of locking a crossbow. The product turned out to be quite technological and consisted of three bronze details of complex shape and spring. I had to master the casting directly at the courtyard - in a blacksmith barn. After several unsuccessful attempts, things went smoothly, and parts for crossbow locks of 3-4 sets each day began to arrive in the warehouse. The next stage in designing a high-quality and simple rifle tool was the creation of a body (bed and butt) and a method of attachment. The basis was taken by the French type of rifle butts, which was necessary for a comfortable aiming. The guide cha

The time of operational tests has come. For this purpose, five crossbows and 25 bolts to them were identified, as well as a group consisting of experienced shooters who passed through the battle of Edessa and the shootings that preceded it. Opposite to five targets, made in the form of silhouettes of human figures, marks were made for every ten steps up to one hundred and fifty. Then they began to fire. Each shooter produced five shots in each of the positions. At the same time, the percentage of the hit, the scatter, and the necessary elevation above the target were recorded. It turned out so that from a distance of up to fifty steps the bolt got into the growth figure with 100% accuracy. When the distance was increased to eighty steps, the accuracy decreased. Now every fifth bolt, on average, went past the target. From a distance of one hundred paces, every second bolt beat "into milk. " With a further increase in the distance, the accuracy fell to such an extent that shooting became possible only in large clusters, since getting into the growth figure of the person turned out to be completely random. In addition to ballistic characteristics was tested and the rate of fire of the new crossbow. At volley fire "on the sly" the rate of fire went out to the set six shots per minute. When the fire "on readiness" - fell to four, since more time was required for aiming. But it was with the last method of shooting that impressive accuracy was achieved. Since he had many soldiers from the Slavic lands, who fired well from the bow, he decided to compare the ballistic characteristics. For this purpose, two good Hungarian onions were specially purchased, with a pulling force of forty kilograms. Fired five people in turn. The overall result was very depressing - already from a distance of forty paces half of the arrows steadily passed by. Thus, the resulting crossbow received a double superiority in the range of aiming a hundred steps against the forty. Considering that the human step averages about 0. 75 m, the aim range with fifty percent accuracy for the growth infantry was 75 and 37. 5 meters, respectively. Which, in general, was expected. Now let's move on to the question of punching armor. Instead of targets, poles with pig carcasses fixed on a wooden support were installed. One carcass was as is, the other is covered with a good, tightly quilted aketon, and the third, in addition to the latter, also had chain mail over it. After a two-day shelling from different distances and angles, the whole inspiring result was obtained. The crossbow bolt leaves in pig's carcass for 2/3 of its length, flying from a distance of one hundred and fifty steps. It's a pity that we got into the pig only from the fifth shot. Given that the entire length of the bolt was about seven and a quarter inches, that is, something slightly more than 18 cm, then an entry of 2/3 of length spoke of a hole about ten inches deep. This defeat was enough to hurt the vital organs. From a distance of one hundred and ten steps, a similar result was achieved, but when firing at a carcass covered by an aketon. The last, the strongest nutlet, was taken from a distance of eighty paces. Accordingly, the penetration fell when the angle between the target and the attack vector of the bolt changed, but at seventy steps, all targets were defeated at very solid angles of attack. Onions in this plan showed rather modest results, because the chain mail was punched with the arrow left in soft cloths on the width of the palm with only ten steps. With sixty paces, the arrow of the bow pierced only the skin, without causing any particular harm. In general, these tests showed the correctness and reasonableness of the choice that Eric did. Now it was necessary to develop a training program. An important task was that his men had to conduct an organized fire with adequate and operational control. Therefore, all pro-mines and sergeants passed a small course during the week, which our hero had to give birth during the course of his deployment. The goal of the course was to explain to the children not only the basic features of the shell's behavior in the air, that is, elementary ballistics, but also to explain how and what they will be doing.

In mid-September, there was a small tragedy. Late in the evening, going into the kitchen, in order to quench his thirst, the Baron saw a Morrigan dancing in the noose. Next to her on the table lay a cloth with a small corpse. This poor girl had a miscarriage, and she took it so much to her heart that the last one nearly stopped. Ru