The knife is one of the oldest weapons, its origins are at least five thousand years old, but the use of short knives in cavalry is much later and rare.
The practice of heavy knives began in the Han Dynasty
According to historical records, the cavalry of the Han Dynasty often used short knives, which were mainly related to the heavy knives of this dynasty.
Zhou Wei's "Draft History of Chinese Weapons" said: "The habit of heavy swords began in the Han Dynasty." In the Han Dynasty, both warriors and literati had the habit of sabre. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records: "The famous subject of Han is in a peaceful world, and the sword is not separated from the body." "The era of such a heavy knife is bound to be reflected in combat. For example, on the banner of the masonry tomb door of the portrait of Yinan in Shandong Province, there is a battle image engraved, showing the cavalry holding a ring-handled knife in his right hand and a shield in his left hand, and is leaping horses to kill the infantry. This kind of scene of cavalry and infantry fighting with swords and shields is rare in history.
The Tang Dynasty general Ge Shuhan "ran rampant in Qinghai at night with a knife, and the Western Tushi Fort took the purple robe", and showed his mighty style in the riding battle. The Wengong Tanyuan says that "Song HuYanzan often used to break the sword", killing the enemy and riding like a mountain and a sea. The "Record of Swords and Swords" says: Later Shu lord Li Xiong ordered that the cavalry be equipped with "five hundred Tengma Swords", and as a result, in the riding battle, the Tengma Sword slashed quickly and won consecutively. See also "Jade Sea": Song Xining five years "made a slashing sword, the length of the knife is more than three feet, the length of the hammer is more than a foot", this kind of knife has a large ring at the beginning, the production is very exquisite, for a time it became the Song cavalry's "sharp weapon for attacking the battle front", and once played a great deterrent in the riding battles with the Liao and Jinmabei peoples.
Ancient horseback fighting short weapons are indispensable
In addition to short knives, ancient horseback short weapons also include hammers, double knives, large axes and so on.
For example, the Three Kingdoms Sun Jianbu will "make a double knife (Nagu ingot knife) and ride a flower mane horse"; Kong Rongbu will make Wu Anguo "iron hammer flying horse". Yuan Shaobu put "Pan Feng on the horse with a large axe in his hand and zhan Huaxiong". It can be seen that this kind of horseback martial art has appeared in the Three Kingdoms period, but because this kind of horseback short soldier is relatively bulky, it is difficult to immediately make the double knife difficult, so this kind of short soldier is not popularized among cavalry, and the use of such short soldiers is rarely seen in the Tang Dynasty riding war.
In short, in ancient cavalry warfare, although the power of short weapons is not as good as that of long soldiers and long weapons, but as equipped with weapons is indispensable, especially when cavalry in close combat, melee and jungle combat, short weapons are powerful with their strength, heavy blows, close and fast, stable and accurate killing, showing the irreplaceable assassination effect of long soldiers and long soldiers.
This article is reprinted with permission from Chinese Wushu magazine