Chapter 132: Centaur Longbow

After some time, the two sides finally completed their trade. The Centaurs were very satisfied with the Iron Armor provided by Northguard Keep. Many of them immediately put on the Iron Armor.

After the trade was done, Su Lun’s group became larger. There were three hundred fine horses moving together. Luckily, these horses were already trained warhorses, so only a few people were needed to keep them following.

The return trip was much faster than the journey there. The twenty carts were basically empty. After returning to Northguard Keep and arranging for the warhorses to be settled, Su Lun then took a Centaur Longbow to test it.

The Centaur Longbow was longer than ordinary human bows, about one and a half meters long. Actually, this kind of bow wasn’t very suitable for cavalry use. The bow was too long, making it very inconvenient to use on horseback. Human cavalry bows were rarely over one meter long. Only the Centaurs’ special body type allowed them to use such long bows.

The range difference between ordinary cavalry bows and this kind of longbow was close to one-third or even more. Su Lun bought these Centaur Longbows to use as foot bows. From this, it was clear that Centaur light cavalry completely outmatched human light cavalry. They could kite human cavalry to death. This was a racial advantage.

The Centaur Longbow was made entirely of yew wood. The bow body was very smooth. Because it was a weapon made for Centaurs, it required great strength to draw. Someone without professional training couldn’t handle it at all.

[Centaur Longbow: Heavy bow, primarily made of yew wood. This is an excellent Centaur Longbow. It took a Centaur craftsman three years to complete. It has far greater flexibility and range than ordinary bows, but using it requires considerable strength. Long range, high power. Range +1, Armor Penetration +1, Required Strength: 10]

Arriving at the specialized archery range, Su Lun stood about one hundred and twenty meters from the target. He then picked up an arrow, drew the bow, nocked the arrow, aimed at the target, and shot.

‘Thud’

A sharp arrow instantly embedded itself in the bullseye.

Su Lun didn’t stop next. He grabbed the arrows stuck in the ground and rapidly fired at the target in front of him.

‘Thud, thud, thud!’

Five sharp arrows flew out one after another. With over one hundred points in archery skill, Su Lun’s level with the bow was already very high. This kind of rapid firing wasn’t difficult for him. From the first arrow to the fifth, only a few seconds passed. Five arrows hit the center of the target in barely a single breath.

Su Lun didn’t pause. He grabbed arrows and shot continuously. A quiver held thirty arrows. Su Lun used only half a minute to shoot them all. Every arrow on the distant row of targets hit the bullseye.

After some testing, these Centaur Longbows had an effective range one-fourth to one-fifth longer than the best human foot bows, and one-third longer than cavalry bows.

The Centaur Longbow could reach a maximum distance of three hundred and thirty meters. Its effective range reached two hundred meters. The best range was around one hundred and twenty meters. Within this distance, the shot arrows had strong penetrating power.

Among the bows at Northguard Keep, only Su Lun’s Steel-Reinforced Bow surpassed this Centaur Longbow. The longbows used by the Spirits of War had roughly the same range as the Centaur Longbow.

At one hundred and twenty meters, this bow could easily penetrate ordinary armor. Only armor made of Refined Steel could withstand such arrows.

Of course, the Centaur Longbow also had obvious drawbacks. Drawing these longbows required great strength. Ordinary people couldn’t use them at all. Only after professional training could one master them.

Currently, the new Archer recruits in the Military Camp couldn’t use these bows yet. Only when they upgraded to Longbowman could they use these bows. Using them flexibly required upgrading to Elite Longbowman. Even then, the number of shots they could make with this bow would be much lower.

For others, finding enough Archers might be somewhat difficult, but for Su Lun with his cheat ability, it was just a matter of spending more time.

Refugees recruited into the Military Camp would become qualified new recruits after three to six months of training. Actually, if these refugees hadn’t been physically weak before, their new recruit training would finish in three months. Then they would patrol the Territory with the Barbarian Guard. After experiencing a few battles, they could quickly level up to Longbowman or Elite Longbowman.

After understanding the power of these Centaur Longbows, Su Lun gained a clear understanding of the Centaurs’ combat power. If Su Lun had encountered a squad of Centaur Longbowmen when he first started his Pioneering Territory, there was a ninety percent chance his Barbarian Warriors would have been completely wiped out.

These Centaurs ran faster than Barbarians, and their bows shot farther and more accurately. As long as they didn’t let the Barbarians get close, the Barbarians were just a group of targets.

If Su Lun’s Territory had one thousand Elite Longbowmen, even if ten times the enemies came to attack the city, just these Longbowmen could eliminate the foes.

After realizing the strength of the Archer troops, Su Lun had decided to continue expanding the Archer force. Of course, building a large Archer army required increasing the population base sufficiently. Although Northguard Keep had tried many methods to grow its population, so far the population count was still less than three thousand people.

As time passed, the Northern Wilderness entered winter. In the mornings, a clear layer of white frost could be seen on the rooftops. When going outside, breath came out as white mist. Winter in Northguard Keep arrived over a month earlier than in the Southern Provinces.

After this month, the Northern Wilderness would start to snow. When that happened, heavy snow would block the roads, and the trade route between Northguard Keep and Karlt City would be cut off. So, if Su Lun wanted to rapidly increase the population this year, he only had this last month left. After that came the long three-month winter.

In the recent trade with the Centaur Tribes, Su Lun obtained three hundred jin of gold. Casting this gold into Gold Nars could produce at least thirty thousand coins. If he was unscrupulous and mixed in some other metals, making an extra ten thousand coins wouldn’t be a problem. After all, even the official Gold Nars minted by the Florence Kingdom contained other metals.

He planned to send Ji En to Karlt City during this last month to buy slaves in large quantities. This time, besides buying Serfs, Su Lun also intended to buy slaves with various skills.

Arranging a team of twenty Spirits of War and a squad of Barbarian Warriors, Su Lun had Jushi take fifteen thousand Gold Nars and accompany Ji En to Karlt City.

After organizing the Caravan, Su Lun began to consider the matter of those Drow Elves. Seeing that winter had arrived, and those Drow Elves hadn’t experienced the harsh winter of the Northern Wasteland yet, he thought this was a good opportunity to subdue them.