In the history of our country, the Song Dynasty is the most interesting dynasty, it is economically developed, culturally prosperous, but the military ability is very weak, it seems that it has been fighting against foreign enemies from beginning to end. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, there were also many novel weapons, such as the Ruyi chariot, which is one of the representatives, but unfortunately, this chariot also has a fatal shortcoming, so that none of them have been preserved. What are the weaknesses of ruyi chariots? The following Xiaobian will reveal the secret to you from scratch.
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In 960, the Later Zhou general Zhao Kuangyin Chen Qiao mutinied and established himself as emperor, and since then the Song Dynasty has been established, known in history as the "Northern Song Dynasty". By 1125 AD, the Jin army went south to launch the Jingkang Rebellion, and the Northern Song Dynasty collapsed. Later, King Zhao of Kang ascended the throne again at Yingtianfu, known in history as the "Southern Song Dynasty", until 1276 AD, when the Battle of Yashan broke out and the Southern Song Dynasty collapsed. To sum up, the two Song dynasties enjoyed 319 years of national fortune, which was longer than the national fortune of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, second only to the 410 years of national fortune of the two Han Dynasties. In the field of history, experts have many nicknames for the Song Dynasty, such as "Rich Song" and "Weak Song", "Rich Song" refers to the unprecedented economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty, and the per capita GDP at that time far exceeded that of Western countries; and "Weak Song" refers to the Song Dynasty's idea of light literature and military force, resulting in the country's military weakness.
Looking at the later emperors of the two Song Dynasties, none of them had the heroic ambitions of the Qin Emperor Han Wu and the Tang Emperor Song Zu, so the words that appear most often in the annals of the Song Dynasty are "Huihe", "Indemnity" and "Retired Soldiers". The Song Dynasty struggled to survive in the cracks between Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and Mongolia, and although there were anti-Jin heroes like Yue Fei, they could not defeat traitors like Qin Ju who stabbed them in the back, which was extremely sad. It is worth mentioning that in the military equipment of the Song Dynasty, there are actually some good inventions, such as the famous Southern Song Dynasty general Wei Sheng, who was a military scientist and inventor, and developed an artillery.
According to historical records, Wei Sheng was born in 1120 AD after Wei Zheng, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty, and personally experienced the difficulties of Jing Kang in his childhood, so he planted a strong patriotic feeling in his heart. After Wei Sheng grew up, he actively participated in the cause of resisting Jin, he was brave and fearless, invincible on the battlefield, once repelled 20,000 horses of Jin soldiers with 300 people, and successfully recovered Haizhou, so he also made Jin Bing feel frightened. Wei Sheng is not only brave and good at fighting on the battlefield, but in his daily life, he has a flexible mind and likes to study the art of war. Once, Wei Sheng studied alone for more than half a month and invented a kind of artillery vehicle.
Wei Sheng improved the original chariot, installing artillery and shields in front of the chariot, and then installing guard plates on the sides, and inserting long guns through holes in the guard plates. Such a chariot was unprecedented, because the original chariot was a chariot and the artillery was an artillery, and Wei Sheng combined it into one to become an artillery vehicle. In addition, in addition to installing artillery, Wei Sheng also used bow and arrow cannons instead of artillery, in the actual combat process, if the enemy is dense, use the mounted artillery chariot attack, if the enemy army is sparse, use the bow and crossbow cannon, if the distance is very close, use the long gun, so this is also a multifunctional military chariot.
According to historical records, Wei Sheng named this chariot "Ruyi Chariot", because it won many victories in many confrontations with Jin Bing, so it was attributed to the chariot, so it was named "Ruyi". Soon Wei Sheng's Ruyi chariot was highly respected in the Song Dynasty, but what made later experts wonder was that since the Ruyi chariot was so powerful, why did none of them survive to this day? After the fall of the Song Dynasty, to the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these three dynasties rarely mentioned the Ruyi Chariot, why is this? Later, after in-depth research, historians finally found the reason for the disappearance of the Ruyi chariot.
Experts said that the Ruyi chariot was very advanced at the time, but it also had a fatal flaw, that is, it was a wooden chariot. As we all know, the natural nemesis of wood is fire, so later the Golden Soldiers also discovered the "key" of the Ruyi chariot, so they attacked the chariot with a rocket, and as a result, the chariot would be ignited after a short time after being hit by the rocket, and it would soon be burned to ashes. Therefore, in the later days, ruyi chariots became less and less, after all, it took several days to build a chariot, and it only took a few minutes to burn a chariot, so after several wars, Ruyi chariots could not be supplied, and eventually gradually disappeared on the battlefield.
Although Wei Sheng invented the Ruyi chariot, it was not able to save the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, but for Wei Sheng personally, he still made a great contribution. Historians say that Wei Sheng's Ruyi chariot was the prototype of later artillery, and their army was also called "artillery", so it can be regarded as the first artillery in China's history. From a military point of view, Wei Zheng and his inventions have great progressive significance, so it is worth remembering.
In ancient wars, weapons were one of the important conditions for victory, and the more advanced the weapons, the more likely they were to achieve victory, but in today's peaceful era, although there is no war in the general environment, this truth is still not outdated. Therefore, we must actively develop science and technology, develop more advanced weapons, protect ourselves, and deter the enemy.
Resources:
"Weapons of the Song Dynasty" by Mei Wen, Publisher: Huangshan Book Society
Wenlan Hairun Studio Editor-in-Chief Wen Xiucai, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang's