In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the long weapons used by soldiers were halberds and long ge, and the short weapons were swords followed by knives, and there was no precedent for the use of blunt weapons. The weapons of that era were all copper, and because copper was not easy to rust, there were many ancient bronze weapons in existence. At the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, iron smelting technology continued to develop, and iron soldiers were sharper and stronger than copper soldiers, replacing copper soldiers as the mainstream of weapons. But iron is prone to rust, and not much survives now.
After the return of the Three Kingdoms to the Jin Dynasty, the Five Hu Chaohua and the unification of the world by The Sui Wen Emperor lasted for four or five hundred years, during which time wars continued and weapons underwent great changes. In the Han Dynasty, soldiers generally wore two crotch armor, made of iron or leather, and connected by straps on the arms and shoulders. Later, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Bright Light Armor was invented, and both sides were made of large pieces of metal, which shone brightly in the sun, which was very beautiful.
The appearance of the Bright Light Armor directly led to the great change of weapons and the birth of blunt weapons. Due to the use of a complete and strong piece of plate armor, neither halberds, knives nor swords can be split, and in the dense service, the heavily armored soldiers are almost invincible. Ran Min of the Sixteen Kingdoms frequently defeated tens of thousands of enemy soldiers with thousands of men and horses with heavy armored cavalry.
In the impression of modern people, it seems that only European soldiers are fighting each other in heavy armor, which is very good-looking, in fact, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties of China more than a thousand years ago, they first entered the stage of heavy armor fighting. Li Shimin's black-armored warriors swept across the world, relying on the Mingguang armor.
Offense and defense are always opposed, and the increase in the level of armor forced ancient generals to think of ways to break through heavy armor defenses. The first to come up with a method was The Taiyuan King Erzhu Rong of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Historically, Erzhu Rong was a person who "did more than Cao Cao and was worse than Dong Zhuo". He successively put down the rebellion of Ge Rong in the six towns, and Yuan Jing entered Luo and Wan Qian ugly slaves revolted, and reunified the chaos in the world. The later Northern Qi Shenwu Emperor Gao Huan, the actual Northern Zhou founding emperor Yuwen Tai, the Sui Wen Emperor's father Yang Zhong, and the Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's grandfather Li Chong, were all his subordinates. It can be said that the four dynasties of Qi, Zhou, Sui, and Tang were all under the account of Erzhu Rong, and everyone knew how cattle this person was.
Erzhu Rong's opponent Ge Rong rebelled in Hebei, Erzhu Rong was ordered to conquest, only 7,000 cavalry, in order to break Ge Rong's heavy armor, he made each soldier carry a sleeve stick (in fact, it was the predecessor of Gong). The hammer did not have a sharp blade, but it was very heavy, and the Erzhu Rong soldiers rushed into the enemy position and hit the opponent's heavy armor with a hammer, although the hammer could not cut the armor, but it could knock down the enemy through the heavy armor. He carried out a big detour in the Fu caliber, attacking back and forth, and defeating a million Ge Rong troops with only 7,000 cavalry, which is a typical case in Chinese history of striking more with less.
Erzhu Rong found a way to break through the heavy armor, and others followed suit, and for a time blunt weapons became popular. By the time of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people abandoned their sharp swords and switched to hammers and mallets, and some people used wolf's tooth sticks. During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's Qinglong Yanyue Knife and Zhang Fei's Zhangba Snake Spear Gun were thrown into history because they could not break the heavy armor. Back to Sohu, see more