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"A little cold came first, and then the gun came out like a dragon!"
This is a comment used in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" to describe Changshan Zhao Zilong's masterful marksmanship and brave and good fighting.
As a famous general of the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, the loyal and brave Zhao Zilong held a spear and protected Liu Bei's youngest son Liu Chan in the Battle of Changbanpo, so that he returned to Liu Bei's side safely.
In the film and television work "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhao Zilong is even holding a gentian bright silver spear, killing seven in and seven out of Cao Cao's million-strong army, which is even more powerful than Guan Yu's feat of taking Yan Liang's head from the army.
Although "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a work after artistic processing, Zhao Zilong's bravery is recognized by the world, after all, his reputation as "a victorious general" and "a brave man" is not in vain.
The gentian bright silver gun in "Martial God Zhao Zilong".
And the reason why Zhao Zilong is so brave and good at fighting, in addition to his super martial arts and the night light jade lion BMW, is also inseparable from his weapon, the gentian bright silver spear.
As the saying goes, "the gun is the king of a hundred soldiers, the knife is the commander of a hundred soldiers, and the sword is the king of a hundred soldiers", the gun is recognized as the first of a hundred soldiers in the mainland, and the weapons of many famous generals in all dynasties are - guns.
Like the weapon held by Xiang Yu, the "Overlord of Western Chu", it is the overlord gun, the first of the top ten famous guns in ancient times, and Zhao Zilong's gentian bright silver gun is on the list.
But famous guns such as the Overlord gun and the Gentian Bright Silver Gun are extremely precious in terms of both the head and the material of the barrel.
However, this kind of spear made of stainless steel can only be used in actual combat by Xiang Yu, who can carry the tripod, and Zhao Zilong, who has an explosive force value.
These ancient famous guns often weigh nearly 100 catties, and ordinary people can't use them normally at all, not only that, but the price of the spears made of stainless steel alone is prohibitive for many people.
So what materials were the "guns" used by ancient soldiers made of?
"Bamboo and wood" marksmanship
The ancients were making iron
There is no doubt that the head of the gun is made of metal, and the mainland has mastered various smelting techniques for a long time, and with the continuous development of iron smelting technology, the head of the gun has also transitioned from bronze to more powerful iron.
As for the barrel of the gun, in ancient times, the barrel of most spears was made of wood, after all, the barrel of the spear should not only have hardness, but also toughness.
Modern imitation of the Zhanghachi spear
In ancient times, people had not yet mastered the method of making a tough metal rod, even if there was such a manufacturing process, the big iron rod that cost hundreds of catties at every turn was estimated to be only used by people like Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu.
Therefore, the tough, soft wood and easy to carve and polish have become the first choice for most people when making gun barrels.
In this context, the clever ancients summed up several materials suitable for making gun barrels and how to make them.
The ancient book "Arm Record" contains: "The gun material is Huizhou cattle tendon wood as the top, the sword spine wood is second, the red edge is strong and straight, and fragile, the ash is soft, and the stick is also." ”
Wu Zhen, a famous military general of the Ming Dynasty, mentioned an ancient method of making guns in the book of war, "Arm Records", and he believed that the beef tendon wood produced in Huizhou was a good material for making gun barrels.
As can be seen from the name of this wood "beef tendon", this wood must be very tough.
In fact, after a series of processing by ancient craftsmen, this material will be like beef tendon, which is not only extremely tough, but also not easy to break during use.
But in ancient times, the cow tendon wood has the reputation of "constantly picking the top", it is not an exaggeration to say that it is worth a thousand gold, this kind of wood is extremely rare, not to mention ordinary people, even for many wealthy nobles are also encounterable and unavoidable.
And even the "ash wood" that ranks the lowest in the "Arm Record" was a valuable wood in ancient times.
Ash wood is a wood that also has good flexibility and stability after processing, and is widely used in armies of all dynasties and generations compared to the "valuable gold" tendon wood.
Since the Song Dynasty, the mainland has gradually begun to rise the gun made of ash wood, and the production process of the ash barrel has developed to the Ming Dynasty, which has been very perfect.
At that time, the main equipment of the Ming Dynasty army was ash pole spears, and in order to ensure the ration of military supplies, the imperial court also specially ordered the planting of ash trees to ensure the military supplies in various places.
The scarcity of ash wood can also be seen from here, so in order to completely solve the problem of the scarcity of high-quality gun materials. Clever ancient craftsmen invented a unique gun-making process - "Jizhu Muzhu" gun-making method.
This is a barrel made of composite materials, but unlike today's various cash alloys, these composites are not made of metal.
In order to reduce the cost of manufacturing gun barrels and to achieve mass production, ancient craftsmen came up with a way to combine two different types of wood.
They found that if they didn't want toughness, they only wanted a hard texture, and many woods fit this characteristic, and as for toughness, the craftsmen set their sights on bamboo.
Bamboo is undoubtedly the most resilient wood known, but its only drawback is that it is too fragile.
The craftsman then chooses a piece of hard wood, wraps one or two layers of processed bamboo on the outside, and then binds the two together with strong silk threads.
Once the wood and bamboo are perfectly fitted, the craftsman applies the lacquer evenly over and over the outside.
The purpose of this is to make these materials tightly bonded into a single unit, and the finished gun barrel is smoother and more beautiful.
This is the ancient spread of the "bamboo and wood" gun method that was widely spread in ancient times.
It is rumored that the body of the Qi family gun used by Qi Jiguang's Qi family army is a composite gun body made by using the "bamboo and wood" marksmanship method.
Although this composite gun body is not made of very good guns, the craftsmen have made it have excellent performance that is not inferior to "cow tendon wood" by virtue of their amazing skills.
However, because the production process is more complicated, the production cycle is also longer, and the requirements for craftsmen are very high, so the spears made by this process are also not available to ordinary people.
Zhao Zilong in film and television dramas
As the head of a hundred soldiers, the gun can be described as the existence of a divine weapon on the ancient battlefield dominated by cold weapons, after all, whether it is a one-on-one, or the head of the enemy general in the army, the concept of one inch long and one inch strong is very applicable.
However, with the continuous development of society, especially now, the two countries have almost no cold weapons in the war, and the current war is often intercontinental missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers, and even atomic bombs.
Even soldiers in close combat rely on a variety of advanced assault rifles, so the spear now reflects more ornamental value and historical value.
The gun, as one of the weapons with the longest history of human use, is not only a combat weapon, but also embodies the craftsmanship of the ancients.
It is admirable that craftsmen in the old days were able to think of using composite materials when materials were limited, and this method, which even seems to be very advanced today, reflects the spirit of craftsmen who pursue perfection in everything.
Now it seems that not only in terms of guns, ancient craftsmen pursued perfection and perfection in all aspects, as large as a city wall, a bridge, etc., as small as a piece of porcelain, a handle, etc., can be passed down for thousands of years and are still highly sought after.
What are your unique opinions on this?
Article sources: "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Zhao Yun", "Historical Records, Volume 7, Xiang Yu Benji VII", "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Emperor Xianji", "Arm Record".