The history of leggings
In Chinese anti-Japanese dramas, we often see the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army firmly tied to a strip of cloth on their calves. This thing is called leggings, which is the most common equipment of the Eighth Route Army in the War of Resistance Against Japan. The Eighth Route Army may not have guns in those days, but it was definitely not without leggings. Because it is simple to make, the materials are easy to obtain, and the effect is very large.
The origin of the bandage is now unknown, but according to retrospectives, there were already things similar to leggings as early as the Qin Dynasty and the Roman Republic. Later, with the development of time, leggings have appeared in many countries in modern times, especially soldiers on the battlefield and residents of remote mountain settlements.
The role of leggings
The leggings have a long history, mainly due to their huge usefulness. First of all, the biggest and most obvious use is that leggings can eliminate fatigue in people's legs. When people walk for a long time, blood accumulates in the legs, generating and accumulating lactic acid. The presence of leggings prevents excess blood from flowing into the legs, thereby eliminating fatigue. So in that era when transportation was basically on the legs, leggings were an artifact.
The second is the three defenses. Cold, scratch and venomous snake scorpion protection. Cold protection aside, scratch prevention and anti-venomous insect snake scorpion is a very important function. When people travel long distances, it is inevitable to walk on some inaccessible roads. There are no people in these places, and all kinds of thorns, weeds, snakes and scorpions are overgrown with poisonous insects. People passing by these places, either by the grass and trees scratching the calves everywhere, or by the bites of various snakes and scorpions.
It can be seen that whenever you need to walk for a long time, the leggings are a simple but effective piece of equipment. However, such a good equipment once disappeared from our army for a while, that is, during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. If we look at the film and television dramas or historical materials related to the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, we rarely find that volunteer soldiers used leggings. So why were the leggings used by the whole army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression not used during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea?
Why did the volunteers eliminate leggings?
In fact, there are two main reasons. The first is that our army has learned a profound and bloody lesson on the Korean battlefield. Compared with the Japanese army, the weapons and equipment of the US army are much more varied. In the hands of the U.S. military at that time, there was a very famous weapon - napalm. This kind of thing was invented during World War II, because of its low cost and lethality, it quickly became a common weapon on the battlefield.
A Chinese doctor once commented on napalm, saying that it was like lard paste, viscous and resistant to burning. If only a small amount of drips are applied to clothing, the clothing can be quickly removed to avoid further burns. But if the clothes are taken off slowly, the napalm will make the clothes stick to the body, causing a continuous burning of the person. It was in this context that the leggings were eliminated by the volunteers, because the leggings were time-consuming and laborious, and once a small amount of napalm was contaminated with the leggings, it would immediately change from a protector to a perpetrator.
The second reason is that the function of the leggings is no longer practical. North Korea is a high-latitude region, snakes and scorpions are rarely seen, and there are few long-distance marches on the Korean battlefield. Therefore, during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, leggings would do more harm than good to our army, and it was normal to eliminate it.