Some time ago, the aircraft carrier "Chinese Shandong Ship of the People's Liberation Army Navy" was officially delivered to the Navy for use at the Sanya Military Port in Hainan. This is China's second aircraft carrier, but also China's first domestic aircraft carrier, which can be described as of great significance, and our country has become the second largest military force in the world on the sea than the United States.
In ancient times, our country has always been one of the birthplaces of the world's ancient navies, from the 6th century BC to the end of the 16th century AD, about 21 centuries of long history, there was a powerful maritime armed force. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty due to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government that the Beiyang Fleet was defeated by Japan.
If you want to have a strong maritime military force, you must need strong ships, let's take a look at those powerful ships in ancient China.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Ships of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period</h1>
About 7,000 years ago, China's ancestors began water activities. Water activities have been clearly recorded in the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty, and there are already records of water warfare in the Zhou Dynasty, but there is no detailed record of warships.
The "Zuo Biography" records that "Xu Chengshuai's boat division will enter Qi from the sea", and the first naval military operation of the Chinese boat division was recorded in the tenth year of the Duke of Lu'ai (485 BC). At the time of the war between the State of Wu and the State of Vietnam, the Vietnamese army was 49,000 people, and there were 2,000 sailors. Later, when the Yue Guozhou Division went north to conquer the State of Qi, it dispatched 300 ships and 8,000 dead soldiers.
At that time, the relatively large warship was called "Big Wing", which was about 12 zhang (about 24 meters) long and about 1 zhang 6 feet (about 3.2 meters) wide, and could accommodate more than 20 warriors and 50 oarsmen. The weapons equipped on the ship include 4 long hooks, spears and axes, 32 crossbows, 3200 arrows, and 32 helmets.
The bronze bronze book of the Warring States Water and Land Offensive Battle Pattern unearthed in Shanbiao Town, Jixian County, Henan Province, vividly depicts the scene of driving a ship at that time.
The big wing warship belongs to the oared ship, which is divided into two layers, the upper layer is the warrior, and the lower layer is the oarsman. This kind of warship has a narrow hull and many oarsmen, so it is fast and suitable for activities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 02 warships of the Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms periods</h1>
In the Han Dynasty, the scale of the development of the water army was even greater, and the warships were more complete. At that time, there were both huge building ships with 4-story cabins, as well as boats under 200 axes, including building ships, sterns, first boards, red horses, scouts, and sills.
In the Han Dynasty, not only were there many ship types, but also the ship was quite complete, with the emergence of syllables, rudders and other ship tools, and the sails also developed rapidly. In the famous Battle of Chibi, thousands of ships were used by both sides, which is enough to illustrate the huge scale of the water war at that time.
The Shiplet Battleship records in the "Shiming Shi Ship": "The outer narrow and long ship is known as the ship, and the enemy ship is also in conflict." "Due to the narrow and long body, good speed and maneuverability, it can take advantage of people and carry out attacks." This kind of ship "covers the back with raw cow skin, opens the two compartments, and has crossbow window spear holes in the left and right fronts and backs, so that the enemy cannot enter, and the arrow stone cannot be defeated."
Battleship
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that when the Wu general Huang Gai attacked Huang Zu in Jiangxia, he once blocked Huang's escape route with a stern. In 208 AD, when Sun Quan, Liu Bei, and Cao Cao fought the Battle of Chibi, Huang Gai also took advantage of the Opportunity of the Wei army to connect the locks to the Ships to carry out a fire plan.
During the Western Han Dynasty, when South Vietnam was destroyed, Emperor Wu mobilized a naval army of nearly 40,000 people to drive into Guangzhou Bay, with nearly a thousand ships. Nearly 20,000 sailors were also mobilized during the annihilation of Minyue, and nearly 30,000 shandong naval troops led by Yang Shudu drove into the Yalu River, all of which used the Shipyard warships.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 Warships of the Sui and Tang dynasties</h1>
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people realized that the size of the wind was uncertain during the water war, and it was not possible to fight with arrogance, so they attached importance to the development of man-propelled warships, and multi-oared speedboats appeared.
Yang Su of the Sui Dynasty invented the Five-Tooth Warship, which had a five-story structure, was more than 100 feet (about 29.5 meters) high, and could accommodate 800 warriors. There are six clapping poles set up in front of and behind the left and right, and they are fifty feet high. Each wooden mast is topped with a boulder, and there is a rudder underneath, and when the enemy ship is approaching in battle, it can quickly use the reel to put the boulder down and smash the enemy ship.
Five-tooth warship
In 588 AD, the Sui Dynasty and the Chen War, Yang Su led the upper reaches of the Yangtze River water army, from Yong'an to the ship, out of the Three Gorges, down the river, the boat is powerful, unstoppable. The Sui army charged the enemy with four five-tooth warships, and successively sank more than ten enemy ships with clapping rods and captured more than 2,000 enemy personnel.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Sea Hawk warship was invented, which was created to imitate seabirds, with a lower bow and a high stern, a wider front and a narrower rear. The two sides are equipped with floating plates, such as the two wings of the crane, to increase the stability and wave resistance of the ship, the history says that "although the wind and waves are angry and there is no rolling", on the deck "with raw cowhide as the city", as a basis for battle, the ship can accommodate 108 soldiers.
Sea Hawk Warship
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 Song Dynasty warships</h1>
In the Song Dynasty, cars and boats developed greatly. Gao Xuan, a smith who once made a giant combat vehicle and ship, with a length of about 20 to 30 zhang (about 60 to 90 meters) and 23 to 24 wheel oars.
Wang Yanhui made the "Flying Tiger Battleship", which has four wheels next to the ship, each wheel has eight blades, which is very light and agile, which is a typical example of commonly used cars and boats.
The Southern Song Dynasty naval command Feng Zhan synthesized the length of several ship types, built a multi-oared boat, with a length of about 8 zhang 3 feet (about 25.5 meters), with 42 oars, carrying 200 people, and the rivers, lakes and seas can be applied. It is recorded in the "Song Hui Zhi Manuscript and Food Goods" that "[multi-oared] boats are the bottom of the lake, the cover of the warship, the head and tail of the sea vessel, and the length is eight and three feet, and the width is two feet, and the ruler is accurate." Counting eight hundred materials, forty-two oars were used, and the rivers, seas, Huaihuai, and rivers were indispensable. Carrying two hundred armored troops, the traffic was extremely light. ”
The Qin Shifu of the Southern Song Dynasty built the Iron Wall-billed Seabird Battleship, which was 10 zhang (about 30.72 meters) long and 1 zhang 8 feet (about 5.53 meters) wide, and the bow and stern were equipped with iron plates, and below the waterline were equipped with plough-shaped iron punch angles. The hull structure is strong, with a base plate 6 inches thick, a portboard 3 inches thick and a longitudinal keel 9 inches thick. There are 10 poles on the top, 42 sailors, and 108 warriors, which can be used to attack enemy warships.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >05 Ming dynasty warship</h1>
By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ancient warships underwent significant changes, the first is that the clapping rod used to hammer the enemy ship has disappeared, and the enemy ship is sunk by the warship itself, and the second is that the warship is equipped with artillery from the Ming Dynasty onwards.
The Ming Dynasty's sea boats were headed by Wufu boats, while the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions mostly used sand boats to defend against the Wokou, and later sand boats, Fucang ships, and Dongguan ships.
The Dafu ship has a three-fold building, the bottom tip is wide, the head and tail are high, it can accommodate hundreds of people, and the shape and specifications of the Fuku ship are the most complete. In the forty years of Jiajing (1561), the warships of Ningtai Wenzhijie, Qi Jiguang, Hu Zhen and other warships engaged in close combat, ploughed and sunk more than 10 enemy ships, and burned 5 enemy ships.
During the Ming Dynasty, it also produced two "two-headed ships" with rudders and rapid retreats, as well as special warships with ring boats and zimu boats. The hull of the intercyclic boat is 4 zhang (about 12.4 meters) long, divided into two sections, the front intercept occupies 1/3, loaded with explosive firearms, and the rear intercept occupies 2/3 for the use of fighters.
The mother boat is 3 feet and 5 feet (about 11 meters), the first 2 feet are ships, the back 1 foot is only two side help plates, the abdomen is empty, hiding a child boat, the mother ship is angry and the enemy ship is burning, and the sergeant can drive the boat back to the camp.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >06 Qing Dynasty warship</h1>
In the early Qing Dynasty, sailors generally used 70 to 108 feet (about 22.4 to 34.5 meters) long reeling ships as the main warships, followed by sand boats and double-canopy ships that were 50 to 70 feet long (about 16 to 22.4 meters), and finally scare boats and sentinel ships that were 20 to 50 feet long (about 6.34 to 15.36 meters).
The reeling boat is a type of large Chinese lucky ship that can use combat boats, fish and transport timber. Because the bottom of the boat is often coated with white ash or white paint to prevent the corrosion of sea insects such as barnacles, it is also called "white bottom boat". The captain of the big catcher is more than 36 meters, the width is about 7 meters, 24 cabins, and can carry 1500 stones. Each ship is equipped with more than 30 sailors and shipwrights, and 80 sailors. The boat is 23 meters long, 6 meters wide and 2 meters deep, with more than 20 sailors and boatmen and 60 sailors.
During the Jiaqing and Daoguang years, the Tong'an suo became the main warship of the Qing Army's marine division, and the ships were divided into No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, Jizi No. and Chengzi No. 1 according to their size. During the Opium War, the Qing army generally had only 8 to 10 guns with anso boats, and only 4 to 5 guns in small ones.
During the Opium War, Lin Zexu sent people to buy back the British 1,060-ton "Kamilion" ship from American merchants into a battleship, which could be loaded with 34 guns, and purchased 3,000 kilograms of Portuguese cannons to be installed on the big war ship.
Ancient Chinese warships initially focused only on the speed of warships, and later began to pay attention to the performance of warships and the seaworthiness of ships. However, during the Qing Dynasty, the emerging capitalist countries in the West competed to develop ocean-going navies and compete for maritime domination, while the Qing government began to close the country to the country, resulting in the ancient Chinese navy being in a state of stagnation and backwardness for a long time.