As one of the four famous names, the "Water Margin" has repeatedly written about the wars between the good men of Liangshan and other forces, such as three dozen Zhujiazhuang, the great battle of Zengtou City, the attack on the Daming Mansion, the two wins in the land war, and the three defeats of Gao Li in the water war. Because of this, Many weapons and war tools have been mentioned in the Water Margin, such as swords, guns, swords, ladders, and artillery rockets.
In addition to these, the "ash bottle" is mentioned many times in the book.
When I got down the mountain and looked at the level, I had strong crossbows and hard bows, and gray bottle cannon stones.
But when he was about to look forward, he was hit by the gray bottle stones on his shore like raindrops.
The "gray bottle" here is actually a bottle used to hold dust, which is often used by the defenders. When the enemy comes to attack the city, the defender will scatter the dust in the bottle, the purpose of which is to make the enemy who is besieging the city unable to open his eyes, thereby weakening the enemy's combat effectiveness and slowing down the enemy's siege speed.
This kind of combat method of obscuring the enemy's line of sight is called the "blindfold method" for a while. Next, let's talk about the "blindfold method" in ancient warfare.
Drag wood to dust
Friends who have watched the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" should remember that during Cao Cao's southern expedition, Zhang Fei once shot at cao cao and retreated cao's army alone at Changsaka Bridge. The reason why Cao Bing retreated, in addition to Zhang Fei's three roars and scared Xiahou Jie to death, there was also a very important point, that is, Zhang Fei used the strategy of suspecting soldiers.
At that time, Zhang Fei only had more than twenty horses, what did he use as a suspect soldier?
The answer is dust. Zhang Fei saw that there were many trees in the east area of the bridge, so he asked more than twenty cavalry to cut down the branches and tie them to the horse's tail, and then galloped back and forth in the woods to wash up the dust. It was these raised dusts that made the later Wen Ping feel suspicious, so he did not rush forward to fight.
Why did Zhang Fei let the cavalry raise the dust and become a suspect soldier?
Because on ancient battlefields, generals would guess the strength of the other side according to the range of dust raised. Under normal circumstances, the fewer soldiers there are, the smaller the range of dust raised; conversely, the more soldiers there are, the greater the range of dust raised. Although Zhang Fei only had more than twenty people, he raised a large piece of dust, creating the illusion of ambushing a lot of soldiers, and finally deceived Cao Jun, which was a typical "blindfold method".
Raising dust to do blindfolding is not Luo Guanzhong's imagination, and there are also such a way of fighting in the main history, called "dragging firewood" or "dragging firewood and dusting".
Eastern Wei led Mo Duolou to Gucheng, marched forward, sent soldiers to make noise, and dragged firewood to dust. The loan writer thought that the army was coming, so he left. Bow chased after the loan text, passed on the head of the army. - "History of the North"
It can be seen from the "History of the North" that Li Bi is also "dragging firewood and dust" and played a blindfold method. Eastern Wei Mo duo Lou saw that the dust was rising, thinking that the army had arrived, so he scared away, and as a result, he was chased by Li Bi and killed. The "dragging wood and dust" here is to let the war horse or chariot pull the branches of the tree, rush up the dust in the sky, and create the illusion of a large army galloping.
The earliest war with "dragging firewood and dust" can be traced back to the Battle of Chengpu in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Fox fur sets two retreats. Luan Zhi made the public opinion drag chai and falsely fled, and Chu Shi Chizhi. - "Twenty-Eight Years of the Left Transmission and the Duke of The People' Republic"
Here, Luan Zhi is using chariots to pull firewood and dust, causing the illusion of the defeat and retreat of the army. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Du Pre, when making a note to "dragging firewood", specifically pointed out that it was "dragging firewood to dust and cheating the public". It can be seen that more than 2,600 years ago, dust was used as a cover-up in war.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, in the "Battle of Shiqiao" between Gongsun Zhan and Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao's subordinate Koji Yi defeated Gongsun Zhan's cavalry with infantry. When Gongsun Zhan's cavalry was still dozens of steps away, the Koji infantry "shouted in dust, clashed straight ahead, and thundered with crossbows", killed Gongsun Zhan's Jingzhou assassin Shi Yangang, and beheaded more than a thousand ranks to defeat the cavalry.
The reason why the Koji infantry wanted to "raise dust and shout" was to cover themselves and confuse the Gongsun Zhan cavalry, so as to buy time for their own side to rush forward.
Ash bottles, dust trucks and fan cars
There were many wars in the Song Dynasty, especially the defensive battles, in order to better protect the city, the defenders often used ash bottles.
The so-called ash bottle, Qi Jiguang said in the "New Book of Ji Xiao", "The so-called gray bottle uses lime inside." When an enemy attacks the city, drop the ash bottle, after the bottle is broken, the lime will rise with the wind, so that the enemy can not open his eyes, you can prevent the enemy from attacking the city. The Compilation of the Three Dynasties Northern League records that when Kou Hong was guarding haozhou city, he once "sent gold juice, gray bottles and arrows" in the city. However, there were too many golden people, so they could not be stopped all.
In the Ming Dynasty, ash bottles were used more.
It is mentioned in the "Record of Lonely Loyalty on the River", "
The city rushed to use the golden juice ash bottle, trying its best to defend
"; the Huangming Jingshiwen Compilation records,
"Hanging roller and ash bottle cannon hit together" "Fried cannon ash bottle" "Ash bottle 16,000 pieces"
。 As for the "Ming Dynasty Northern Strategy", "Dongtang Rizha", "Wu Change Incident", "Jiading County Yi Unitary Chronicle" and other historical materials, it is also mentioned many times that soldiers defended the city with ash bottles.
There is also a kind of fan car, which can also retreat from the enemy by raising dust to achieve the purpose of defending the city.
According to the General Outline of the Martial Classics, if the enemy is encountered in the tunnel, the soldier can retreat to the fan car and use the fan car to scatter lime, fire or smoke to force the enemy to retreat. In this way, the enemy can be prevented from entering the city through tunnels.
Among the war tools used in the Song Dynasty to shield the enemy's vision, in addition to ash bottles and fan cars, there were also dust trucks, which were recorded in the General Outline of the Martial Classics.
Its car and the smoke are the same, waiting for the smoke to be strong, that is, pushing the cart to force the city and raising its dust. If the defender cannot survive, he must avoid and gather to the side, and the siegeman can be on the edge (lime is the best).
Unlike ash bottles, dust trucks are used during sieges. There are four wheels under this type of car, the middle of which is elevated, and on the shelf there is a square box-like ash bucket, which is specially used to hold dust, and the ash bucket is controlled by a rope. When approaching the city, pull the ash bucket up to release dust. Of course, it is better to use lime, because quicklime powder enters the eye and will react with tear fluid, causing eye burns. When dust blows towards the defending sergeant, the sergeant will avoid it, so that there will be a vacancy in the city wall and the siege sergeant can ascend the city here.
During the siege, there was more than one dust truck, and there could be as many as twenty or thirty.
Dust trucks need to be covered with smoke, otherwise, the enemy may concentrate fire to destroy the dust trucks after seeing them. If there is no wind or the wind is too small, soldiers also need to install blowers, such as fan cars, on or behind the car to blow dust and increase power. In addition, dust trucks can also be used to release poisonous smoke, etc., which is more harmful to the enemy and can be regarded as a chemical weapon.
Smoke balls and spray canisters
The Song Dynasty also had a method of using wet grass to release smoke, called "line smoke". In the Five Classics, the definition of "walking tobacco" is "
With hay as the heart, wet grass outside, the wind is fierce, and smokes in the upper wind Banbu
”。
Wet grass can produce a lot of smoke, which can not only obscure the enemy's line of sight, but also very smoky, once into the eye, the eyes not only can not open, but also will be in tears.
After the Song Dynasty, firearms appeared and developed rapidly, and the "blindfold method" was also upgraded.
For example, the poison smoke balls of the Song Dynasty can not only explode, but also emit gas to obscure the enemy's vision. The most frightening thing is that this gas is poisonous, because the smoke ball is a mixture of wolf poison, arsenic, sulfur, charcoal powder, etc., and weighs several pounds, and needs to be launched by a stone car. The "General Outline of the Martial Classics" records that "if its qi smokes people, it will bleed from the mouth and nose."
It can be seen that the poison smoke ball can not only obscure the enemy's line of sight, but also directly cause damage to the enemy, and the lethality is greatly improved.
In the Ming Dynasty, more lethal spray canisters appeared.
The spray canister is a kind of bamboo flamethrower, which can not only spray fire, but also be used to spray sand, iron bullets, arrows, poisonous smoke, poisonous fire and so on. For example, "a handful of lotus", "poison spray canister", "poisonous dragon fire breathing god tube", "drill hole flying sand god fog tube" and so on. When using spray canisters to spray poisonous smoke and sand, the enemy army is dizzy and does not distinguish its position, and at worst, it is blind in both eyes and poisoned to death.
For example, the poisonous dragon fire-breathing god cylinder used for siege is to put gunpowder in the bamboo cylinder, and when it is used, it should be hung on a high bamboo pole, and ignited when approaching the enemy battlements, and the flame can be sprayed two or three inches away.
Because of its great power, it was later also used in water warfare, which can burn enemy warships. Until the Qing Dynasty, spray canisters were widely used. The Qing Dynasty's "Imperial Dynasty Classics and Literature Compilation" also mentioned that "
Poison smoke from spray canisters to confuse the enemy and make it impossible to fire foreign guns
In general, in the wars before the Song Dynasty, the blindfold method was often "dust"; in the Song Dynasty and later, the blindfold law was upgraded, not only "dust", but also poisonous smoke, etc., and the power was much greater than before.
References: "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "General Outline of the Martial Classics", "Zuo Zhuan", "Northern History", "Records of The Lonely Zhonglu on the River", "Huangming Jingshiwen Compilation", "Ming Ji Beiluo" and so on.