Since the beginning of the war, the formation of troops has been passed down as a science, and in order to become a leading general in ancient times, it is necessary to learn this knowledge. So the question is, the situation on the battlefield is ever-changing, there are many variables, once the two armies are at war, chaos, how can the general pass his temporary orders to every soldier without radio?
In fact, the generals have long solved this problem, and it is very simple, that is, the use of loud drums to control the advance and retreat of the army through the rhythm of beating. At the same time, combined with different colored flags, it is natural to control the entire army. The slow beating of the drum is the march, the rapid beating of the drum is the drum of death, which means that it cannot retreat, and the Mingjin is the retreat of the army, which is almost common knowledge in the history of ancient Chinese warfare.
This method of passing orders continued until the Song Dynasty, and by the time of the Song Dynasty, it began to change. We all know that Zhao Kuangyin was originally a general of later Zhou, and became emperor because of the Chen Qiao mutiny. Although he became emperor, there was always a shadow in his heart. He began to suppress the warriors, and he was always wary.
In his old age, Zhao Kuangyin's suspicions became more and more serious, and he was afraid of hearing the drums. As soon as I heard the drums, I thought of the little emperor and general of the Later Zhou, and it was often difficult to sleep at night. In order to solve this problem, Zhao Kuangyin ordered that the army should not use war drums in the future, and would instead use cloud plates for transmission.
The cloud plate is actually a very large, thick iron plate or alloy plate, and there are clouds at both ends. After the Song Dynasty, the Han Dynasty began to use the cloud plate to command the advance and retreat of the army, and also specially designed a set of use systems for the cloud plate, what kind of rhythm the army should do, this is all prescribed, and the war drum is the same.
This system was also learned by the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled the Central Plains, and has been passed on ever since. Zhu Yuanzhang also used cloud plates to control the advance and retreat of the army when he rebelled against the Yuan, so the Ming Dynasty also learned this system and has always used it. During the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens living in Liaodong also learned this system from the Ming army and have always used it.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, some historians, after reading the records of cloud plates in ancient books, became deeply interested in this kind of antiquity and eagerly wanted to find a cloud plate, but at that time they never found a piece of cloud plate that was handed down. There are roughly two reasons for this.
One of them is that most of the materials of the cloud plate are pig iron, this kind of thing is not resistant to preservation at all, and the army pursues practicality, naturally it will not be anti-corrosion treatment, some buried in the ground cloud board can not help erosion, naturally will be corroded, nothing can be left.
On the other hand, after the Qing Dynasty, China has been in a chaotic world for a long time, not only civil wars, but also invasions by external forces, and many precious cultural relics have been lost, including cloud plates, and the remaining cloud plates have become national treasures. In the 1970s and 1980s, when an expert was inspecting Liaoning, he undoubtedly found that there was a primary school with a bell that resembled a cloud board, and after verification, the expert found that it was a cloud board in the Nurhaci period! I didn't expect to find it in an elementary school!
In fact, the use of cloud boards is not only in war, but also in civilian times. For example, in some temples, cloud plates are used to knock on the time of the hour. For example, some large families use cloud plates to gather people in the clan to discuss, and there are many uses.
The cloud board is the crystallization of the wisdom of our ancestors, and it is also an important object for studying the lives of our ancestors, and has an important position in the field of historiography.