Modern warfare combat diversification and informationization, troops on the battlefield, may not even see the enemy, just a missile directly over was taken away, ancient times there is no such advanced equipment, can only meet each other in a short time, after the Song Dynasty, long-distance weapons began to appear artillery, muskets, but are too rare, the most basic long-distance attack tool is the bow and arrow.
Were ancient bows and arrows deadly? The earliest bows and arrows existed before the Zhou Dynasty, but the materials made were bamboo and wood, and people used stone knives to sharpen one end of the branch into a simple arrow. How powerful this kind of power can be imagined, but china has long appeared in the myth of "Houyi Shooting Sun", and the arrow culture was still formed relatively early in China.
Later, bronze arrows and iron arrows appeared in China, these bows and arrows use catapult plus gravity potential energy, the power is much more powerful than the previous wooden arrows, but the ancient war is still based on short soldiers, and the bow and arrow is at best the consumption and auxiliary tools before the charge, which shows that the importance of the bow and arrow to the army can not be as great as the later musket.
Why? We can refer to modern gun bullets, bullets contain gunpowder, in the moment when a person is shot by a bullet, the bullet will detonate gunpowder in the body, causing secondary damage to the human body, coupled with the huge impact of the gun, the target can be incapacitated in an instant.
The bow and arrow certainly does not have this function, it is not immediate to the harm to people, referring to the Dianwei in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the body suffered dozens of wounds, hit several arrows, and still shouted "The lord and the prince go fast" alive. Moreover, in "Water Margin", there are many generals who lost the battle and returned with arrow wounds, and did not fall on the spot.
If the above is a novel, then let's look at another example, Zhang Qiong is the guard of Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, and when Zhao Kuangyin crusades, he covers Zhao Kuangyin, hits three arrows, and is still like a person who has nothing to do.
"History of Song": "The crossbow on the city car is sharp, the arrow is as big as rafters, Qiong urgently covers Taizu with his body, and the arrow hits Qiong's stock, and dies and recovers." Clamped to the hip bone, unstugal. Joanso's cup of wine was full of wine, broken bones, blood flowed several liters, and he looked at ease. ”
The destructive power of the bow and arrow is not strong, and it cannot destroy the combat effectiveness of the person at the first time, but it has sufficient "staying power", and we can see from the inverted hook arrow of the arrow that if the arrow person wants to pull out the arrow is not an easy task, it is likely to open the wound again.
Ancient medical technology is very backward, and there is no special antibiotics, so many people often die of wound infection after fighting, the most significant is the wound caused by the bow and arrow, the wound is small, the wound is deep, it is easy to cause the reproduction and infection of anaerobic bacteria, many people are dead on the bow and arrow wounds.
One of the most famous figures is Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, who was shot by an arrow during the conquest of Yingbu, and the wound was not only not good, but worsened, and Liu Bang returned to Chang'an and fell ill and died.
In order to strengthen the ability of arrows to infect other people's wounds, some soldiers also deliberately took them to the urinal to soak, and experts said that soaking in this way would have killing power. Because the filth will be stained with bacteria, the wound will become infected. Some simply coat the arrows with poison. Therefore, although the ancient bow and arrow could not cause immediate damage, the ability to kill with one arrow was still there, and the bow and arrow also became the most feared weapon for the two sides in ancient times.