Chapter 159 - 121 Everything is Ready, Begin Taking Action [3-in-1]

Published Mar 30, 2026, 08:01 AM

Chapter 159: Chapter 121 Everything is Ready, Begin Taking Action [3-in-1] Although everyone is full of enthusiasm, bow-making is ultimately a craft that involves complex processes and cumbersome procedures. Casting the bow body, forging the bow arc, making grooves, stringing the bowstring, testing the pull strength—no matter which task it is, it requires extreme diligence and attention to detail. The more rushed one is, the easier it is to make mistakes, leading to material waste and making it not worth the effort. Those practicing archery outside can be passionate, but those making bows cannot, regardless of their enthusiasm; they must be serious and meticulous to ensure a high yield and avoid unnecessary waste. Stringing the bow and testing the pull strength are not difficult. Mu Dong has already successfully strung the bowstring for thirty-six Iron Core Bows, and his experience is highly extensive. As long as the bow body is ready, he can string the bowstring in less than half an hour. The most challenging part of bow-making is casting the bow body. Firstly, blacksmithing itself is a difficult, cumbersome, and time-consuming task. Secondly, in the whole camp, there are only seven people with forging skills, and three need to be allocated to mining. With only four engaged in forging, the efficiency is naturally extremely limited. Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and Zhao Long have just been introduced to forging, and although they’ve improved a lot over the past ten days, they can only forge at most one bow overnight. Xia Hong, being more experienced than the three, with higher Basic Strength, naturally forges more efficiently, making three bows overnight. The four combined can make six bows a day, whereas the three at the mine in Yuan Cheng, using Chewing Teeth Chisel, can extract only around 1200 pounds of iron ore per day, enough for just four bow bodies. Whenever there seems to be a shortage in the iron ore supply, Xia Hong would take Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan to the mine to replace the three from Yuan Cheng in mining. He can now mine up to 800 pounds a day; Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan are slightly stronger than the three from Yuan Cheng, thus mining a bit faster. The three from Yuan Cheng can extract at most 1200 to 1300 pounds a day using the Chewing Teeth Chisel, while the three of them can go up to about 1800 pounds when they take over. By doing so, the bow-making progress remains smooth, and for several days there have been no bottlenecks. The seven of them rest only for one or two hours each day, and under such an overloaded operational state, the efficiency of bow-making naturally keeps climbing. Especially Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and Zhao Long, whose forging skills improve rapidly, going from making one a day at the beginning to collaborating and producing an additional one to two bows a day later. On the first day, six product bows; On the second day, six product bows; On the third day, seven product bows; ... On the seventh day, eight product bows; ...... On the ninth day, as dawn broke. In the valley, everyone who practiced archery all night was looking weary, returning to the wood cabin one by one to get some sleep. Shi Ping, with a joyful look, came down from the second floor, exited the cabin, and hurriedly walked towards the mine. Clang... Clang... Clang... Walking into the mine more than ten meters, the crisp sound of chiseling came from ahead. Shi Ping quickened his pace, and upon seeing the three, Xia Hong diligently mining, he immediately bowed and said excitedly, "Leader, yesterday’s output was six bows!" Clang... Six bows? Xia Hong thought he misheard and quickly stopped to look at Shi Ping. Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan on the other side also paused and looked at him. Under their gaze, Shi Ping felt a little nervous, but still nodded and said: "Yes, six bows. Lord Zhao Long was the first to forge one, then he helped the three from Yuan Cheng forge, and according to the latest count, six have already been produced." "Zhao Long’s forging skill is improving quite rapidly!" Xia Chuan, who had stopped, couldn’t help but praise when he heard this. Xia Hong nodded, and after thinking for a moment, immediately understood. In this period, the person who made the most bows was undoubtedly him, but in terms of forging time, it had to be Zhao Long. Since there were only three Chewing Teeth Chisels, whenever the supply of iron ore couldn’t keep up, he would take Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan down, leaving Zhao Long above to continue blacksmithing. Over these eight consecutive days, six of them took turns mining, while only Zhao Long continued forging on top, so his skills naturally improved quickly. "How many Iron Core Bows do we have in the camp now?" While signaling to Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan to bring over the iron ore, Xia Hong turned his head and asked Shi Ping about the number of Iron Core Bows. "In the past eight days, a total of forty-nine have been made. Adding the previous thirty-six and the eleven originally in the camp, there are now ninety-six Iron Core Bows." "How many meters of Teng Jiao Spine are left?" "Twenty-seven meters." [Resources: wood 42102, coal 560, iron 188, silver 0, gold 0] Upon entering the mine, the iron resources were already exhausted. In one evening, the three of them extracted a total of 1880 pounds of iron ore. There are now 96 Iron Core Bows. After calculating in his mind, Xia Hong asked Shi Ping: "How many iron arrows do we have now?" All weapon-related supplies are managed by the Camp Supply Station. Xia Chuan had been busy, so Shi Ping was in charge of these matters. Upon hearing Xia Hong’s question, he immediately provided the answer. "We initially had 550 arrows, plus the 500 arrows the leader made five days ago; we now have a total of 1050 arrows." Making arrows is different from bows; forging arrow blanks is not difficult, and the sharpening process can be entirely handled by the Logging Realm, so the forging efficiency is very high. Upon learning that iron arrows were insufficient five days ago, Xia Hong immediately set up a batch. He forged the arrow blanks himself and gathered twenty to thirty people for sharpening. In two to three hours, they produced 500 iron arrows. "Each bow needs to be paired with 50 arrows, which means we still don’t have enough arrows!" Xia Hong’s expression turned slightly solemn, thinking that the iron ore at hand was barely enough to produce 600 arrows, and felt slightly helpless.

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