During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang was in charge of the overall situation. What is the principle of his buffalo Trojan horse?

There is no description of the working principle and production principle of "Mu Niu Liu Ma" in the History of the Three Kingdoms and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and there are no physical objects and pictures left. There is a widespread view that Liu Ma is probably an automatic machine made by gear principle. And it seems that the lever principle is used. But there are different opinions in ancient and modern times, and it is difficult to conclude.

Pei Songzhi in the Southern and Northern Dynasties was the annotator of the History of the Three Kingdoms, and in his hand, he quoted a piece of record about Mu Niu Liu Ma in Zhuge Jiliang, which has now been lost, described the image of Mu Niu Liu Ma and recorded some dimensions of the Liu Ma. However, due to the fact that there are no physical objects and figures left in the later generations, the understanding of Mu Niu Liu Ma is always a little knowledge.

From all kinds of ancient books, we can see that the account of cow Liu Ma is very wonderful. However, there is not a word in the production principle and technology, which is not mentioned in Chen Shou's "History of the Three Kingdoms", and even less in Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

The only thing that can be tested is Zu Chongzhi's Record of Making a Wooden Bull and Flowing Horses, which provides evidence for the viewpoint of automatic machinery. This is a main point about the wooden ox flowing horse. It is considered that it is very common to manufacture machinery with gears in the Three Kingdoms period, so the wooden ox and flowing horse that we admire in later generations is probably an automatic machine made by using the principle of gears. And it seems to use the lever principle.

Extended data:

"Buffalo Trojan Horse", also known as Mu Niu and Liu Ma, was a means of transportation invented by Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu and Han Dynasties in the Three Kingdoms period, which was divided into Mu Niu and Liu Ma. It is a wooden transport device with a cargo box that is manually walked or wheeled or combined with walking and wheeled.

Zhuge Liang used it during the Northern Expedition from the 9th to 12th year of Jianxing. Its carrying capacity is "one-year-old grain", about 400 kilograms, and its daily trip is "ten miles for special lines and thirty miles for groups", providing food for 100,000 troops in Shu and Han dynasties.

But the specific way and appearance are unknown now, and there are different explanations. Some descendants think that herding cattle is a wheelbarrow with a front axle, while Liu Ma is a wheelbarrow without a front axle.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Mu Niu Liu Ma