Su Shi's "Former Chibi Fu" poem Yun: "Drunken linjiang, yokozuna fu poetry, Gu I No. Ichi's Xiongye." "Describe Cao Cao's poetic and spirited appearance."
The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said: "Zhao Yun embraced the lord, went straight through the siege, cut down two sides of the banner, and seized the three pieces of the hammer" The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" takes "capturing the three points" as one of the battle achievements.
What exactly is the "hammer"? I'll talk to you today.
A heavy mounted gun from the late Han Dynasty
"Explanation of the Text": "Hammer, spear also." "Interpretation of the Name": "The spear is eight feet long, and it is held immediately, and it will be killed when it is said." "Popular Text": "The spear is long and the spear is eight words." "In simple terms, the mallet is a heavy riding spear developed from the end of the Han Dynasty. It is a standing weapon for heavy cavalry and was developed from the general cavalry spear.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties after the Han Dynasty, practical stirrups appeared. The earliest stirrup artifacts, unearthed in Liaoning, are estimated to be in the mid-3rd century or early 4th century AD. Stirrups can provide stable and powerful support for the rider's feet, so that the rider can use the horse weapon more powerfully and flexibly, especially allowing the rider to shock himself when hitting the enemy at high speed, without worrying about the force of the hit enemy. Before the invention of stirrups, the cavalry could only swing and stab weapons with the strength of the upper limbs, and could not rely on the momentum of the horse when sprinting. The appearance of stirrups provides a good opportunity for heavy cavalry weapons.
According to the texts, the length of the mallet was customized, and the spear used by the cavalry was called a mallet. If calculated according to the length of the book "Interpretation of Names" in the era of writing, one hundred and eight is equivalent to 498.6 centimeters today. The shape of the mallet is relatively simple, it is basically composed of a mallet handle and a hammer head, the hammer head is 50-84 cm long, and the shape is like a long sword. Sometimes at the root of the blade, a nostalgic complex is added to prevent the enemy from piercing during the charge and cannot be removed.
Slightly longer iron blades increase the lethality of both blades and increase the kinetic energy of stabbing. And because the horse mallet is mostly used for heavy cavalry impact, the strength of the hammer handle is very high, so many high-quality wood is selected. In addition, the opponent is also wearing heavy armor, so there are certain requirements for the material shape of the hammer head. In addition to the use of better steel, the blade is narrow and straight, and in the later stage, there are more angular armor-breaking cone-shaped spearheads.
Three years of construction, the value is not cheap Sui Tang made the hammer fierce like a cloud
Southern Dynasty Liang Jianwen Emperor wrote "Horse Hammer Genealogy Sequence": "The horse mallet is used, although it is not an ancient law, it has been passed down in modern times, and it is slightly an art." The hammer can be called "art", not only refers to its use method, but also its production method. Instead of being made of a wooden pole like a spear, the mallet is made of a high-grade tough wood trunk, peeled off into a uniform thickness, and glued together. The intermediate process is complicated, lasts up to three years, and the success rate is only 40%, so the cost is amazingly high. Therefore, since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the horse mallet has always been a symbol of the generals of the family, or only the heavy cavalry of great value can bear it. But a successfully crafted hammer, which is light, tough, and strong, can be used directly to charge with horsepower, or it can be wielded in melee combat, or even slashed with a knife, and the mallet makes a metal sound, but it does not crack. Therefore, unlike the Western heavy mounted gun, the hammer will not break due to sprinting, and it is not a disposable weapon.
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes preserves a mural from the Northern and Southern Periods, "Five Hundred Bandits Becoming Buddhas", which depicts the battle scenes of armor and horses in the Western Wei Dynasty. The armor in the painting is divided into the middle and tail ends of the horse mallet, and the stab is stabbed obliquely downward during the impact, showing the technique of the heavy cavalry of the North and South Dynasties using the horse mallet to attack the infantry.
With the increasing popularity of the horse armor armor that appeared at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the heavy horse armor provided good protection for the mounts of the cavalry, and the threat of long-range weapons (such as bows and crossbows) to the cavalry was greatly reduced, forcing the infantry to abandon other long-range weapons and turn to the spear array to fight it. Due to the transcendent status of the horse mallet in this period, the spear used by the infantry was often called "rifle" in reverse.
In the era when the horse was dominant in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, a large number of master generals emerged, but it was necessary to mention the famous general of the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, Wei Chigong. Legend has it that Wei ChiGong not only made him a good hand, but also was good at avoiding the enemy's horse mallet, and even grabbed the hammer and stabbed it. Legend has it that he once competed with Li Yuanji, the fourth son of Tang Gaozu, who was also a master of horse mallets, but won easily, and even took the horse mallet in Li Yuanji's hand several times. According to historical records, other famous generals such as Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong, and Shan Xiongxin were all first-class masters of the forge.
However, the Song Dynasty entered a decline
However, the mighty hammer slowly declined around the Song Dynasty. First, because the Song Dynasty lost the origin of horses, it was difficult to form a powerful cavalry force, and the powerful knightly weapon of the mallet lost its user. Second, the production cost of the horse mallet is high, and it is not suitable as a standard weapon, and it is difficult to meet the demand for weapons with "infantry riding" and infantry as the main force. The heavy cavalry lacked speed and was easily attacked by the formation spearmen, and the type of cavalry turned to light armor, so the heavy weapons were useless, and the horse mallet also went into decline.
(End)