Chapter Twenty-Five: Have the Longbowmen Fallen Behind?

“The gunpowder era is already the peak of technology on this plane. If you wish to advance further into the Industrial Age, and to prevent the collapse of the world's laws, there are only two possible paths:

1. The host must sweep across the land, unifying all four continents of this plane. At that point, every intelligent race will bow beneath the iron heel of the host’s system. The collective consciousness that maintains the laws of the world will lose its vessel, and the system will fully subjugate this plane, turning it into a vassal. Then, the host may break through the limits of technology and advance into the Industrial Age, with a tremendous surprise from the system awaiting you. Please continue your efforts!

2. Every plane has a chance of leaving behind fragments of the Heart of the World in certain special regions. If the host finds any such fragment and fuses it with the system, the system will completely decipher the laws of the plane, allowing an early entry into the Industrial Age, far surpassing the technological level of the current world. However, the system’s special surprise will only be awarded after unification of the entire plane!

Please explore on your own and strive to unify the world as soon as possible to claim your surprise reward!”

“This system is really airtight with its rules. I thought I could simply roll out tanks, planes, and artillery to crush the muzzle-loading cannons. Looks like I’ll have to rely on sheer strength; the shortcut has been sealed off. I’ll need to personally travel across Europa to understand the power dynamics of this world.” Feeling a pang of regret at the requirements for advancing to the Industrial Age, Sun Li quickly composed himself and began comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the new units he had acquired.

“Xiaobai, this flintlock smoothbore musket has a range of less than 200 yards, with an effective range of only 100 yards, and its lethality peaks only within fifty meters. Its range is inferior to longbows and crossbows, and its accuracy is about the same. As I recall, on Earth, bows and crossbows were phased out mainly because they required too much training time and couldn’t be mass-produced quickly. I can understand replacing crossbows. Aside from the training time, crossbows cost more than muskets, their parts don’t last as long, they take up more space in formation, their firing density is lower, their range is not much greater, and their rate of fire is actually lower than muskets. Against armored targets, even the range advantage vanishes, and they can’t even use plunging fire effectively—at a slight angle, it works, but any steeper and the trajectory becomes unpredictable, with no way to tell if the arrowhead or the fletching will strike first.

But if we set aside training time, which doesn’t matter to me, the range and rate of fire of longbowmen are quite impressive. In the time it takes to reload a single musket shot, my elite longbowmen could fire three arrows! Even if they tire after fewer than twenty arrows, musketeers only get off a handful of shots before the enemy is upon them or charging in a rout.” Sun Li voiced his doubts about the system’s recommendations, ignoring the significant advantage of reduced training time and suspecting that longbowmen need not be phased out at all.

Helpless, Xiaobai began to explain to this military enthusiast—who clearly had no grasp of historical details—the basics: “First, and most importantly, is cost! Not only are well-trained archers rare, but quality bows themselves are incredibly expensive. Your English longbowmen use yew wood, which is scarce; without it, you simply can’t achieve such range. Ordinary longbows exist too, but their range doesn’t even match muskets! Traditional Chinese composite bows take years to make. Arrows are costly consumables. As Edward Longshanks of England once said: ‘Arrows are expensive, don’t waste them. Let the Irish take the brunt.’

In the system, a single longbowman costs as much as five line infantrymen, with enough left over for a sweet! The range you see in the data—two or three hundred meters—is the absolute maximum. Effective range is still under two hundred meters. The reason they were so deadly against orc armies within two hundred meters was because those backward brutes wore no armor! Even leather armor would reduce the effective range of bows and crossbows.

Now, Europa has entered the era of the first Industrial Revolution. Advanced countries already have water-powered hammers, so plate armor is as common as cabbage—every grunt can wear it. When longbows face human troops clad in breastplates and steel helmets, their plunging fire becomes a joke, and their armor-piercing power is even more diminished. By the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the English longbows had lost much of their effectiveness against the fully armored French.

That brings us to lethality: Smoothbore muskets are vastly more lethal than bows, crossbows, or any other projectile weapon. A hit from a musket will almost always put an enemy out of action, and it can punch through all kinds of armor. In short, though accuracy is poor, a lucky shot is always a critical hit—more often than not, it’s fatal. You might see a heavily armored warrior charging with arrows bristling from his body, still full of fight, but have you ever seen anyone take a bullet and keep going as if nothing happened?

Of course, I must admit that against unarmored foes, longbowmen are far more efficient—those orcs really are your beginner’s bonus pack!

But you can be sure that once your longbow corps appears on the battlefield, humans and the other advanced civilizations will send their heavy infantry to meet your muskets with musket fire!

Another key advantage of the musket is this: it doubles as a close-combat spear. If you rely on bows, you’ll need a separate force with melee weapons to protect the archers. As a commander, would you prefer every soldier to be both a ranged and melee fighter, or have some for archery and others for melee? On the battlefield, the goal is to maximize firepower and massed charges. Musketeers can bring the full strength of your army to bear, while half your longbowmen’s force would be standing idle as pikemen. Given similar troop numbers, your enemy would have more shooters and more shock troops. You can’t just send longbowmen into hand-to-hand combat—that’s exactly what the enemy would wish!

With bayonets fixed, muskets instantly become pike-like weapons, perfect for dense formations. The combination of pikes and square formations has been proven in countless battles—even when cold-steel troops close in, they can’t necessarily gain the upper hand against line infantry.

Aside from the training time, line infantry have three major advantages:

1. In close combat, line infantry are every bit as deadly as any professional cold-steel troops. Even if their training and fitness are inferior, professional cold-steel units will suffer one or two volleys—or even more—during their charge, incurring heavy losses and a devastating blow to morale. By the time they make contact, they’re often outnumbered and gripped by fear, while the bayonet-wielding line infantry form a hedgehog-like forest of points—the most formidable formation of the cold-steel age.

2. In long-range firepower, line infantry are not inferior to professional archers or crossbowmen. In terms of overall accuracy, lethality, and effective range, they are not at a disadvantage. Against armored troops, archers and crossbowmen rarely fight beyond a hundred yards, while at that distance, a volley from line infantry can easily suppress them entirely. During the Battle of Palikao, Qing cavalry tried firing from thirty meters away from line infantry and were utterly destroyed.

3. Even against cavalry, line infantry are not at a disadvantage. The advantage of the hollow square formation is well known. Trained line infantry can swiftly change formation to a hollow square, and cavalry are almost powerless against such a formation.”

After this long and detailed explanation, Sun Li was left speechless, falling into deep contemplation.