As the most powerful dynasty in the history of China, the Tang Dynasty is always unforgettable. The vast territory, bustling cities, magnificent poems ... these are the most authentic portrayal of the Tang Dynasty, and the reason why the Tang Dynasty is strong is because there is an army with amazing fighting capacity as a barrier. For hundreds of years, the army of the Tang Dynasty was invincible, and Xuanwei was connected to the western regions in the north, which made the four parties meet and made the famous Tang Dynasty spread far and wide across the ocean. As the equipment representative of Tang Jun, Hengdao has been following Tang Jun in various places.
Tang Heng Dao is a weapon worn by soldiers in the Tang Dynasty. It is about 70-80 cm long and has a narrow blade. The style is also beautiful, and it can break the enemy armor in battle, which is daunting. However, in the Song Dynasty, the Tang horizontal knife was no longer the mainstream weapon used by soldiers, and the short and wide Song hand knife became the mainstream. Why?
First, the difference between forging technology and cost
1, Tang cross knife forging process is complex and difficult.
Tang's horizontal knife is very sharp, but the forging technology is too difficult. There is an old saying in China, "A hundred steelworks become soft", which refers to the forging of weapons. Compared with the present, the ancient forging technology is far behind. A good knife first needs to select refined iron, and then it needs to be hammered constantly to remove impurities in refined iron.
After a long struggle, steel-making still needs Baotou Steel forging technology. Baotou steel technology is to make the outside of the knife into high carbon steel so that the blade will be sharp. This is a high-tech technology, which is difficult for ordinary people to master.
Of course, if you want to have a sharp blade, you need to quench and burn it, so that the blade has high hardness, but the blade body is very tough, and such a horizontal knife is not easy to break.
It is precisely because the forging process of Tang Cross Knife is very complicated that the cost of Tang Cross Knife is very high and the price is naturally expensive.
There were different kinds of knives in the Tang Dynasty. Volume 16 of Six Classics of Tang Dynasty records that there are four kinds of knives: one is instrument knife, the other is guillotine knife, the third is horizontal knife and the fourth is strange knife.
Horizontal knives are not only used by soldiers, but also by palace officials and palace guards. The horizontal knife is long enough and well-made. It is really imposing to wear.
But the cost of an exquisite horizontal knife is too high, so the horizontal knives owned by ordinary soldiers are not very good. Even so, the cost is high. This is doomed that once a large-scale army needs knives as weapons, the number of horizontal knives is difficult to meet.
The later maintenance of Tang's horizontal knife is also troublesome. For example, mountain cities need careful maintenance. Tang's horizontal knife is not easy to polish, so it can only be wiped with special materials and then painted to keep the surface of the horizontal knife from rusting.
In addition, the forging process of Tang cross knife is too complicated, and the repair process is more difficult. Once the Tang cross knife is curled and deformed, the repair cost is relatively high, so the service life of the Tang cross knife will be greatly reduced.
2. The forging process of hand knife in Song Dynasty is simple and the cost is low.
Low-carbon steel hand knives in Song Dynasty are easy to take care of after rusting, and the maintenance cost is low. The blade with large width is not easy to roll and deform, which greatly increases the service life of the hand knife in Song Dynasty.
The hand knife in Song Dynasty was forged by steel clamp technology, which means that the blade of the hand knife is low carbon steel, and the firing process is relatively simple. When the toughness of the knife is reduced, it is easy to roll the edge. In the past, the thin and long shape was completely unsuitable for hand knives and needed to be changed. In the Song Dynasty, the length of the hand knife was greatly shortened, the blade was widened and the weight of the whole knife was greatly reduced. But in this way, it is also very convenient to use.
It is precisely because of the reduction of forging cost that the hand knives in the Song Dynasty were mass-produced. You know, the most serious problem in the Song Dynasty was "redundancy". This country has assembled too many troops. If all soldiers wear horizontal knives with high manufacturing cost, the finance of Song Dynasty can't bear it at all.
Therefore, a low-priced manual knife is the best choice. Generally speaking, Tang Heng Dao can only be made by the official weapons manufacturing workshop, because its forging skills are extremely high. However, the forging skills of hand knives in Song Dynasty were relatively simple, and folk workshops could build them, so the use of short knives in Song Dynasty was much more popular than that of horizontal knives in Tang Dynasty.
Second, changes in the times have led to changes in weapons.
1, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty paid different attention to the army.
Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty are two different dynasties. The rulers of the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to force and army. Moreover, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was strong, and the rulers were willing to spend a lot of money to raise soldiers, not to mention being stingy in building weapons.
In addition, the Tang Dynasty emphasized the role of cavalry, and it was beneficial for cavalry to wear Tang's horizontal knife. After all, the cavalry is at a certain distance from the enemy when riding, and the longer horizontal knife is more conducive to long-distance puncture, which leads to the popularity of the horizontal knife in Tang Dynasty, especially among cavalry.
The situation in the Song Dynasty was different from that in the Tang Dynasty. The Song Dynasty itself valued literature over martial arts, and paid far less attention to the army than the Tang Dynasty.
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the army expanded blindly. However, the quality of soldiers is relatively poor, and it is difficult to confront the enemy on the battlefield. Therefore, in the war, the Song Dynasty often took the number of troops as the advantage, which also led to the serious phenomenon of "redundant soldiers" in the Song Dynasty. The continuous expansion of the ranks of soldiers will naturally cause a great financial burden to the country, so it is not surprising that there was a phenomenon of "redundant expenses" in the Song Dynasty.
Due to the difficulty of financial expenditure in Song Dynasty and the policy of valuing literature over martial arts, the army naturally would not be equipped with expensive horizontal knives, and the low-cost and practical hand knives became the first choice.
2. Hand knives are more suitable for the battlefield of the Song Dynasty.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, sixteen states of Youyun were ceded to Qidan by the late Jin Emperor Shi Jingtang, which not only opened the north gate of the Central Plains dynasty, but also made the Central Plains dynasty lose its natural pasture for raising horses. Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty was extremely short of Ma Ziran and could not organize a powerful cavalry regiment.
The small court in the Southern Song Dynasty was in a corner of the south, so there was less room for raising horses, and naturally there were fewer cavalry. Then it is very useless for cavalry to use smooth horizontal knives. There were many infantry in the Song Dynasty. Compared with long horizontal knives, short and wide short knives are more flexible and popular.
In addition to the different policies of the rulers, the change of battlefield form also makes the horizontal knife no longer applicable. During the Tang Dynasty, the ethnic minorities who fought abroad had a weak degree of sinicization, their productivity was not very high, and the armor worn by soldiers on the battlefield was also weak.
Tang's horizontal knife is extremely sharp and can pierce such armor, which is extremely lethal. However, the ethnic minorities faced by the Song Dynasty were highly sinicized regimes. The regime established by Liao, Jin and Xixia coexisted with the regime of Song Dynasty. Their troops are not only brave and good at fighting, but also wear strong armor to protect themselves.
Dure that Song dynasty, cold forged armor with strong protective ability was widely use. To deal with this kind of armor, Tang's horizontal knife puncture method is not very useful. The blade of the first knife in Song Dynasty is wide and short, but it is effective to chop the armor, which makes the first knife in Song Dynasty more popular with soldiers.
Third, the popularity of gunpowder and other weapons has left Tang Hengdao in the cold.
1. Firearms were further used in war in the Song Dynasty.
Gunpowder appeared in the Tang Dynasty, but it was not widely used in military affairs, and was mostly used in daily life. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder was finally used in the military. During the Song Dynasty, the application of gunpowder developed greatly and was widely used in the war.
During Song Shenzong's time, there were workshops specializing in gunpowder in the institutions that made weapons. The History of Dust, a historical material in the Song Dynasty, recorded the grand occasion of gunpowder weapons production at that time: "Seven thousand gunpowder arrows for crossbows, ten thousand gunpowder arrows for bows, three thousand tribunes and twenty thousand leather guns rose at the same time". It can be seen that the Northern Song Dynasty attached importance to gunpowder manufacturing.
During the Song Dynasty, there were many wars with the northern minorities. The Song Dynasty, which mastered the "cutting-edge" technology of gunpowder weapons, often used gunpowder as a weapon to fight against ethnic minorities.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin people attacked Bianjing City, and the general Li Gang beat back the Jin army with firearms. This kind of firearm is called thunderbolt, which is extremely lethal.
Another kind of firearm, thunderbolt, was also born in the Song Dynasty. Jin people have seen the power of thunderbolt. The History of Jin once recorded the power of thunderbolt: "The gunpowder exploded, and the sound was as loud as half an acre. People and cowhide are broken without a trace, and armor and iron are through. "
2. Widespread use of heavy weapons
With such a powerful firearm, the soldiers in the Song Dynasty naturally did not rely so strongly on the sharp horizontal knives.
Of course, in the Song Dynasty, many heavy weapons were much more useful than horizontal knives except hand knives. Like hammers, maces and the like. This is because ethnic minorities who often fought in the Song Dynasty generally armed their military forces with armor. Especially the heavily armed war horse, it is extremely difficult to deal with, such as the iron tower, which once gave Yue Fei a headache.
Compared with knives, heavy hammers and heavy hammers can hurt heavily armed soldiers and horses by hitting them, so they were widely used in the battlefield of Song Dynasty.
Tang Heng Dao can be said to be the pinnacle of China's cold weapons, and the Japanese mountain city also originated here. But unfortunately, it has been ignored because of the changes of the times.
The practical and cheap Song short knife has entered the historical stage, and it is still an important weapon for China soldiers to fight against invaders in modern times after continuous changes in later generations.
In today's peaceful times, the short knife has become an indispensable weapon in the martial arts circle, and many people who love martial arts will learn how to use it. Therefore, both the horizontal knife in Tang Dynasty and the hand knife in Song Dynasty are cultural treasures worthy of our pride.