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 channel for the bolt was made of copper, by coining in shape. At the maximum swing of the bow at sixty centimeters, he gave the move a string of fifty centimeters. At this stretching he provided the claimed two hundred kilograms. No special pile and extra details were not present in them. A bronze lock of three parts, including the trigger, a clamp for the bolt, and a stirrup for the rest with the foot. The vzvedenie was carried out by means of the so-called "goat's leg", which was somewhat modified. The technique of cocking was as follows: the crossbow is lowered down, fixed with the foot by the stirrup, the "goat's leg" is put at point-blank range and stretches itself to the click, which indicates the fixation of the bowstring in the lock. After that, a bolt is installed and you can shoot. The whole operation, if it is done, takes about ten seconds. First of all, due to a very intelligent lock, which is self-mounted after each shot. The main problem in it was a spring, which had to be made from an oak board of sufficient elongation, so that it would deviate by 5-6 degrees, no more. This approach allowed to maintain a long time the rigidity of the spring, especially as it was covered with several layers of varnish, and in the place of working contact with the parts of the lock - a small copper plate. The varnish perfectly retained moisture inside the wood and protected from external influences. The most important advantage of this approach to the manufacture of small arms was the uniformity of its tactical and technical characteristics, and, in the first place, ballistics. Work on the production of crossbows went quickly, but not as we would like. The fact is that the butt and the bed were cut from the oak stock, and this required great effort with the existing tools. So it turned out that having a bow and a lock, you could do no more than one crossbow every five days. To accelerate this process, a parallel production of four lines was organized. In general, on September 1, there were only twenty-five new crossbows in the warehouse.

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. Running, he lifted her legs up and began to call for help. In general, we had time. The poor girl was almost in the next world, but almost does not count. Alas, now your activity will have to be seriously reduced, since this lady needed supervision, and his personal. I had to spend five hours with her every day, to bring her to life, that's not counting the night. The side effect was that this woman was now running after him like a ponytail behind a dog, and literally looked into her mouth. In general, nothing good. Even annoyed. But it could be understood - it took so long to achieve reciprocity and such an annoyance turned out. In general, she was able to calm down only closer to December, when she again became pregnant. In order not to allow the recurrence of the excess, Eric put a strong and caring servant to her so that she would not let her into the noose and help in business and hygiene. The very same Morrigan he completely shielded from work, especially associated with stress. The main time she skated around the city, spent in the pool, bed and mastered the letter. The fact is that he continued to study with her in the evenings. Since she actually became his wife, they must have a way of communicating so that no one can understand them from the outside. The modern Russian language in its colloquial form was practically abracadabra, even for the Old Slavonic carrier. In addition to writing and some practice in a conversation in Russian, she worked with Eric to improve his Latin and master the Greek. As for the cases, he was very lucky with his assistants - things were moving, although not as vigorously as with his help. In October, they began to teach the bulk of the warriors shooting, both individual and collective. Every Sunday in the big hall, which he equipped for classes, he had to read a certain theoretical course for everyone. Of course - the material was greatly simplified and included only the most necessary knowledge, such as the basics of ballistics, the construction of a crossbow, some things related to the tactics of small combat - the choice of position, the evaluation of the distance, the speed estimate and so on. The training went very slowly, because for these wooden heads such knowledge was completely unaccustomed and incomprehensible. However, by December, this had affected the accuracy of the shooting - at the salvo fire the same accuracy was achieved as in the single shot, that is, all the bolts reached the target. Another problem is that often one goal became familiar with two or more projectiles. This is a serious embarrassment, and its work was actively worked on with both officers and ordinary soldiers. Needless to say, he did not just shake the air in front of sleeping dummies. The verification of the assimilation of knowledge was very strict and precise. In addition to the main task - to lay down in the heads of their fighters an understanding of what they are doing, that is - the projectile flies where it is directed, and not where the demon drags it, it posed another task - the selection of cadres. He needed people who would master this material more quickly and better, in order to separate them into a platoon of heavy weapons, that is, to put them behind the ballista. In early January, there were about two thousand bolts in the warehouse, another four hundred were in operation, so he cut the conveyor by half and transferred people to a new project - it was time to manufacture heavy rifle machines. Since June, he worked on a small consolidated team, which was engaged in the preparation of tendons from the legs of the most massive bulls. The main task of the treatment was to remove the connective tissue, leaving only the fibers, and treat them with tannic solutions. Tanning was the most dangerous, as protection from decay should not damage the basic properties of fibers - resistance to stretching. At the output, thin elastic fibers were obtained. Therefore, in the next stage of them, long and strong bundles wove - thirty steps each. In total, no less than six such products were needed, but in December there were already eight in the warehouse of the farmstead, so it was decided to make four cars.