As it happened, Pan Sheng wanted to make an assessment of England's army, and after receiving the news of the visit, Baron Berlik of Gravesend, also planned to let Pan Sheng see their army.

Despite the meeting at the Baron's manor, it was a pointless exchange of pleasantries for both of them, and the real conversation began when the six squires, four knights, and five soldiers arrived at the woodland near the manor, near the river.

Barons are members of the House of Lords, especially those with fiefdoms near London, who have a lot of influence in the kingdom, as well as their own fiefdoms, vassal knights, and armies.

The gentry, on the other hand, were ranchers, ranchers, manors, factory-owners, or maritime merchants, and although the social structure of England had been changed by the opening of new shipping routes, they still did not have the power of the nobility, and their social status changed according to the annual income from the estate.

When the country seizes the opportunity of a large influx of wealth, it seems inevitable that a few lucky people will gain wealth and attract envy, and then change the social atmosphere such as money worship.

While people envy these people who became rich almost overnight, just as the merchants of the Ming Dynasty had some influence on local politics, the merchants of England had the same ability to influence the political situation on the eve of capital.

At the end of the regular introduction, Baron Burric's servant brought three longbows and three muskets of varying lengths and fine workmanship.

The baron was not tall, wearing brown leather tight-waisted egg trousers, a solemn black short tunic with a linen shirt, his limbs were short and stout, and he wound a long bow of a purple shirt with great force, and his cheeks were bitten tightly with great strength, and a green tendon appeared on his forehead, and at the same time he said: "This is, a rare and good bow, whew!" ”

Using different forces to wind the three longbows one after another, he let out a long breath, moved his arms and fingers and introduced to Pan Sheng: "Flying bow, target bow, war bow." ”

Several squires sat beside them in various postures, and the servants set up half of the tents for them, and the baron prepared drinks, looking relaxed; The knights were similar, gathering together to discuss the matter of Southampton aloud.

Only the soldiers who had been signaled to come stood crookedly with their weapons.

In fact, they stand very well, in most of the guards in the Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to find a flag army that can stand like them, but Pan Sheng has just come down from the French battlefield, and he is extremely unaccustomed to the style of those Nanzhili pro-soldiers under Tang Shuang, so he feels that these people are not standing well.

The queue does not represent combat effectiveness, it is only a small aspect of combat effectiveness.

For example, Yang Ce's troops of the Han State are all first-class in the world, but his subordinates don't know anything except queues.

Pan Sheng guessed that the four soldiers were most likely the most elite soldiers under the Baron's command, as they all looked strong...... Pan Sheng wouldn't have thought the same if everyone was strong, but these soldiers looked stronger than the knights.

Old Taylor repeated every word the baron said in Spanish, and for the first time in decades the old carpenter had been invited into the manor by the baron, it made him look a little reserved, and his voice trembled, and when Pan Sheng answered, old Taylor had to translate to the baron in English.

The second half of the process was particularly troublesome for old Taylor, because Pan Sheng's Spanish was not very good, and sometimes he would use the Min dialect, Portuguese dialect, French dialect mixed with Spanish dialect to express his meaning.

In this era, it is very difficult to communicate, a small country like Portugal is easy to say, and other slightly larger countries are like the Ming Dynasty, where they already have accents, and their language is learned from people in various places, and their own dialect accent plus the other party's dialect accent to say things that they are not familiar with.

It's not much easier to understand than it is to get started with sign language.

So the baron's words sounded to Pan Sheng's ears, and the names of the three kinds of bows were 'bird bow', 'target bow', and 'battle bow', but Pan Sheng couldn't see any difference between these three straight sticks, he only knew that these three bows were really good.

The well-maintained long bow arm has a layer of oil mixed with grease and wax, and it does not look more beautiful than the tendon and horn bows used in the Jiubian, Jurchen, Mongolian, and Korean dynasties, nor is it better than the Japanese Japanese bow or the longbow science of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

But just looking at the baron's laborious appearance, Pan Sheng knew that this kind of bow was very strong.

The baron gestured with his eyes, and the servant stuck the feather arrows one by one on the ground in front of him, and then pulled out an arrow made of goose feathers as a long arrow feather, and said to Pan Sheng while opening the bow with a hand with leather finger covers: "The range of the flying bow is long, and the war bow can deal with armor with heavy arrows, even if it is plate armor, the best archers can ......."

Before he could finish speaking, the longbow drew half a force and shot out, its pull distance was not large, but the string broke with a loud sound, and the plate armor that was about fifteen paces away was knocked away, and the servant with the leather belt and the long sword galloped away, and in a short time he picked up the chest armor with the heavy arrow inserted.

Pan Sheng clearly saw that the chest of the plate armor was pierced by an arrow, about an inch deep.

"Actually, the crossbow is better than this, but the price of making a steel crossbow is too expensive and too slow, and it is reasonable to consider the limited metal plate cuirass and the use of longbows by the largest number of troops." Baron Burric, with a rough face and a strong physique, but a gentle speech, handed out his longbow and asked Pan Sheng, who was taller than him, "Sir, give it a try?" ”

To be honest, Pan Sheng regretted a little that he didn't bring the flag army he transferred from Liaodong Town, that was a good hand with a bow, and he?

He could only smile and shake his head, and replied bluntly, "I'm afraid I can't pull such a heavy bow, so it's better to try this." ”

It's not so much that he can't pull away, it's better to say that he prefers to use the excuse of 'can't pull away' to cover up that he can't shoot accurately.

The process of his training was that of a heavy spearman, an excellent bird gunner, and then a meritorious service to become a small banner...... And before joining the army, he was a butcher and never touched a bow.

Pan Sheng opened the wooden box placed next to the entourage banner army, first said to the baron, then took the cuirass and tapped it twice, and ordered his subordinates: "The honorable driver also has a long gun, it is better to have one gun for one person; Go and put this forty paces away. ”

Baron Burlick shrugged his shoulders with a relaxed expression, and even was full of interest, and said: "Don't be ashamed of this, there are very few people in England who can use such a heavy bow, and I have been trained to use all kinds of weapons since I was a child, and it has been thirty years now. The next generation did not have the will of mine, and the military duties of the nobles were not worth the fivepence in their eyes, and they were gradually getting tired of it. ”

As he spoke, he looked around at the knights and squires who were talking loudly and laughing at the trading port in Southampton, showing a helpless expression, and then just picked up a musket and wanted to smile friendly at Pan Sheng, Yu Guang saw that the target was moved back, his eyes narrowed, he looked down at his musket, and muttered in a low voice: "That, it's too far." ”/14_14088/