Due to the fact that the elves need to recuperate for the time being, the position of archers in the Condor Legion can only be filled by human warriors themselves.

Considering that the current arrows were all wooden arrows and were not very powerful, Ning Yuan only transferred two hundred elven short bows from the elven warriors and temporarily formed a team of two hundred archers.

Although Ning Yuan invited the instructors of the elf clan for these human warriors, after a little operation on the ground, Ning Yuan didn't have much hope for them, at least in a short period of time, they would definitely not be able to practice.

Although Ning Yuan has never touched a bow and arrow in reality, after reading history books and watching film and television dramas, he is still very clear about the historical position of bows and arrows in the cold weapon period.

As a major killing weapon in the period of leading weapons, bows and arrows have very obvious advantages and disadvantages.

The biggest advantage of bows and arrows is that they can perform long-range attacks on enemies.

With the advantage of terrain, some bows and arrows with relatively large pull force can even attack the enemy hundreds of meters away, so that when the enemy has not rushed closer, it can kill and damage a large number of the enemy's living forces and weaken the enemy's overall strength.

Some excellent marksmen are even more terrifying to the enemy.

Bows and arrows are like modern sniper rifles in their hands, they can rely on accurate archery skills to constantly snipe those tricky enemies on the battlefield, and they can even change the trend of a war by directly sniping the enemy's commander.

The so-called open guns are easy to dodge and dark arrows are difficult to prevent, which refers to the assassination behavior of relying on bows and crossbows to carry out sudden cold arrows.

Of course, bows and arrows are not invincible, otherwise the two armies would simply fight more than which side has archers. As a ranged weapon, the bow and arrow's greatest nemesis is its thick shield and armor.

Bows and arrows are twice as effective when used to shoot soldiers with little protective gear, but they are less effective when they come across enemies with thick armor and hard shields.

And from ancient times to the present day, hoplites have always been the absolute nemesis of archers.

The hoplites, though clumsy, wore armor and shields that could not be pierced by arrows in the hands of archers.

Especially when they are advancing with their shields, they can be said to have no flaws in their bodies, and even the greatest marksmen have no way to deal with them.

At this time, the wisest thing for the archers to do is to retreat quickly, otherwise once they get close, what awaits the archers will be a massacre of great disparity.

Of course, this is only a situation in field warfare, and if it is a defensive battle, then as long as you don't shoot arrows, after all, it is difficult for those bulky tin cans to climb the city walls.

Because the advantages and disadvantages of the archers are too obvious, in the ancient cold weapon wars, when the two armies were fighting, they would give priority to finding ways to target the archer troops in the enemy camp.

In the field war, the heavy cavalry legion is simply a nightmare for the archers, in the face of the heavy cavalry rushing at high speed, the archers are simply powerless, once the heavy cavalry breaks through to the archer phalanx, then what awaits them will be a tragic massacre.

The archers' heavy attack and light defense make their survivability on the battlefield simply low.

The victorious side was a little better, after all, they were the superior side and could protect the archers in the formation well.

However, the archers of the losing side may not be so lucky, and they will become the main target of the enemy cavalry, and the only choice left for them is to surrender or die, after all, it is impossible for a two-legged human to outrun a four-legged iron horseman.

As a member of the infantry class, the archers, like other infantry brothers, will suffer the greatest losses if they are defeated.

However, it takes at least several years or even longer to train a qualified archer, so once your own archer troops are killed on a large scale, then it is really nerve-wracking.

In addition to excellent archery, a qualified archer also needs to have excellent arm strength, after all, constantly drawing a bow is a physical job, and ordinary people really can't do it.

Neither archery nor arm strength can be achieved overnight, it takes years of practice, and a qualified army of archers will need to be trained for at least several years before it can gradually take shape.

And this was often unacceptable to those rulers who were in a hurry to go to war, so in ancient times, archers ended up at two extremes.

The first is to train archers as all-round warriors, who need to be proficient in hand-to-hand combat in addition to their excellent marksmanship.

Once the enemy rushes closer, they pick up their swords and immediately become the most qualified melee soldiers.

They can bend bows and shoot arrows from afar, can wield knives to kill enemies at close range, and can adapt to various complex situations on the battlefield, and are the real elite of the army, but it will definitely take a lot of time to train such an all-round army.

The second is the pursuit of speed, the rulers have only one requirement for the archers, that is, to be able to shoot arrows into the designated area, and their main task on the battlefield is to shoot arrows to prevent the enemy from approaching.

As for how many enemies can be shot, it is all up to God's will, anyway, the commanders don't expect them to snipe the enemy alone, but more want to kill and injure the enemy by virtue of their numerical superiority, after all, so many arrows are shot, and the enemy must be shot.

The biggest advantage of this kind of rapid forming archers is that they only need to train a large number of rapid archers after a few months of urgent training.

So even if they suffer huge losses on the battlefield, the commanders of the army will not be too distressed, after all, it has not yet reached the point of breaking their muscles and bones, as long as there is a large number of reserves, they will soon be able to replenish them.

As a modern person, Ning Yuan must have hoped that all the soldiers under his command would be able to become the first kind of all-round warrior.

However, time is running out now, so he can only train a group of fast-forming archers for the time being, and the only good news may be that this batch of fast-forming archers are more proficient in melee combat.

Compared to their unsightly archery skills, their excellent hand-to-hand combat ability was Ning Yuan's only consolation.

Since everyone was new to bows and arrows, Ning Yuan didn't ask them to be able to shoot every shot now, he only made one request, that is, they could shoot arrows straight ahead, and the distance must be more than fifty meters.

Don't look at this requirement seems very simple, but for a layman who has just started to get in touch with bows and arrows, this is actually quite difficult, not to mention others, even Ning Yuan himself, only one arrow meets this requirement when he shoots three arrows.

The main reason is that the wooden arrows are still too light and not easy to control, as for those elven instructors, after all, they are racially talented, although the human race is good at learning, but learning also requires a certain amount of time to train hard.

Ning Yuan estimated that if his Terran subordinates wanted to reach the level in film and television dramas, they wouldn't even think about it if they didn't train hard for three or four years, and it seemed that the mixed army of Terran and Elves should also be on the agenda.