The mallet is a cold weapon in China, one of the "Eighteen Weapons", and is one of the types of spears. The hammer resembles the "Red Gun" and the axe in appearance and attack intensity, but is far from the two in terms of specific form.
▲ Hammer
According to the different use scenarios, the mallet can be divided into horse mallet, step mallet and miscellaneous mallet. As the name suggests, the horse mallet is the weapon used when riding a horse, the rifle is the exclusive use of infantry, and the miscellaneous hammer is a general term for other weapons similar to the "mallet" that are unique in appearance and difficult to verify.
As a member of the Hammer family, the Horse Hammer was the most commonly equipped weapon in the heavy cavalry unit, especially in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the status of the Horse Hammer in the arsenal was a prominent one. So, what kind of role was the hammer in ancient times? What is the difference between it and a gun? Who is better?
Many people believe that the earliest period of the appearance of the hammer was the Han Dynasty, but in fact this statement is biased. In fact, as early as the pre-Qin period, the mallet was already regarded as a weapon used in warfare. However, the hammer at that time had another name: beryllium.
"Beryllium" is a southern dialect word derived from it. According to the scholar Wang Xueli in the article "Long Beryllium Spring and Autumn", it first appeared in the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period.
The bronze weapon unearthed in Jiangling, Hubei Province in 1983 is said to be the weapon used by Wu Wang Fuchai in that year, and the inscription on it clearly points out that the name of this weapon is "beryllium". However, because archaeologists, when interpreting the inscription, regarded the word "beryllium" as a generic character for "spear", the weapon was named "Fucha Spear".
In fact, beryllium and spear are quite different, in terms of length alone, beryllium is about twice as long as a spear; secondly, the shape of beryllium is closer to the shape of a sword than a spear. However, the assembly and use of beryllium is similar to that of spears, which is also a fact that cannot be ignored.
▲ Tang Dynasty Bearer ("The Twelve Hours of Chang'an")
Beryllium is also divided into beryllium and beryllium, which has the highest similarity in appearance to the sword, and the beryllium is made by absorbing the shape of the northern flat sword, and the beryllium section is slightly flattened hexagonal. Because of the shape of the flat-headed beryllium, it is often the case that the beryllium head falls from the coffin (the handle of the beryllium) in combat. This shortcoming was not effectively improved until the Han Dynasty, so with the needs of combat, the flat-headed beryllium was gradually eliminated, and only the beryllium commonly used in the south was passed down.
At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, tried to drive out the Xiongnu and marched in person, but was trapped in Baideng for several days and almost died. Because the Xiongnu at this time were all cavalry combat, the infantry units of the Han Dynasty could be said to have no chance of victory in front of the Xiongnu, so Liu Bang was forced into a dangerous situation.
When the country was rich during the period of Emperor Wu of Han, the first thing Emperor Wu did was to introduce cavalry troops. The cavalry unit required high-quality war horses and well-trained cavalry soldiers, and although this cost a lot of money, it won the opportunity for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to drive out the Xiongnu and expand the territory.
The rise of the cavalry force gave beryllium a good opportunity to show its skills, because in the battlefield of cavalry, beryllium can achieve the goal of hitting the enemy at a long distance, so it replaces the original short sword and becomes the standing weapon of the cavalry.
During the Western Han Dynasty, the use of beryllium was very common, and the army of the Western Han Dynasty once had the post of "Captain of Long Beryllium", which referred to the commander of the force who specialized in using this weapon. Compared with the pre-Qin period, the shape of beryllium at this time has undergone great changes, especially after the appearance of beryllium with a handle, the texture, size and shape of beryllium are very different from before.
With the continuous development of iron smelting technology, all the beryllium in the Han Dynasty changed the bronze raw material to iron, and the beryllium made of iron far exceeded the beryllium of the pre-Qin period in terms of sharpness and durability.
More importantly, beryllium at this time had a new name: 矟. "矟" and "槊" are homophones, so at this time some people also called "beryllium" as "槊". The hammer (or "hammer") refers to the long weapon used by cavalry, which is not only longer than the spear, but also has a sharp blade.
At this point, beryllium really grew into the "mallet" in the "Eighteen Weapons". It is precisely because this title appeared at this time that people mistakenly believe that the emergence period of the hammer was in the Han Dynasty. In fact, if you want to trace the origin of the mallet, you can find that its history is much longer.
Looking at the history of the hammer, it is not difficult for us to find that the hammer is not a weapon that appears out of thin air, but a weapon that gradually develops its own form after absorbing the various characteristics of other weapons in a long battle. Because of this, the hammer often "collides" with other weapons.
At first, people couldn't distinguish between "sword" and "beryllium"; later, people couldn't understand "spear" and "hammer". Today, there are still people who "point the mallet as a gun", probably because the two are too similar in appearance. However, in the "Eighteen Weapons", the "hammer" and the "gun" have never been transformed into the same weapon because of their similarity, which shows that the hammer and the gun are two weapons that are essentially different.
In terms of appearance, although the hammer and gun are assembled with hardwood as the main material and iron weapons, in terms of details, the two are very different.
First of all, in terms of length, the length of the mallet is much longer than that of the gun. In long-range cavalry combat, in order to ensure sufficient attack range, this requires the weapon to have a sufficient length; if the length of the hammer is too short, so that the enemy has the opportunity to come to the horse, then the possibility of cavalry defeat will be greatly increased. The hammer is composed of two parts, the hammer and the hammer, and the blade of the hammer can reach fifty to sixty centimeters, which greatly exceeds the length of the gun blade.
The gun is made up of a blade, a barrel, a gun, and a gun, each of which has its own usefulness, the most prominent feature of which is that the blade of the gun is short and sharp, which is to ensure that the user can attack the opponent with precision and maximum lethality. Precisely because the blade is short enough, when stabbing at an opponent, the soldier can put all his strength on the blade and inflict great damage on the enemy.
▲ Gun
Secondly, if we compare it carefully, we will find that the barrel of the mallet is not only longer than the gun, but also thicker and harder, which is determined by the technique used by the mallet. Under normal circumstances, when cavalry uses a mallet in war, the most commonly used techniques are: splitting, covering, intercepting, blocking, it can not only defend when the enemy comes, block the enemy's attack, but also give the enemy a fatal blow at a long distance, surprise it.
However, these techniques require the weapon itself to have a certain hardness, because these techniques have a large force, if the weapon itself is not hard enough, it is easy to be broken due to excessive force, affecting the operation. Even, in order to gain stronger attack power, iron is sometimes used instead of wood to make a mallet. For example, General Wang Yanzhang's hammer was made of iron, and Shi Jingyan, a famous military hammer master in the late Ming Dynasty, also particularly loved iron hammers.
Unlike the mallet, on the battlefield, guns are more often used to throw and kill enemies, somewhat similar to the role of arrows, which requires the gun to be light and convenient, so weapon makers often use lighter wood when creating guns, while reducing the dimension of the gun body. If the gun is too heavy, the user is unable to throw it, and the gun loses its offensive effect.
Moreover, the hammer is very different from the head of the gun.
The head of the hammer is small and blunt, but the blade has obvious broken armor edges, and the best horse blade is like a sword, with eight faces, infinite power, able to quickly remove the enemy's armor. Whether it is an ordinary fish scale armor, or a slightly better bright light armor, or a lock armor, it is vulnerable in front of the hammer.
Guns, on the other hand, are known for their sharp blades, and their heads are long and sharp. This is because the gun is mainly used for chopping and stabbing, the longer the tip, the more convenient it is to kill; the sharper and sharper the tip, the more powerful it is at the time of assassination.
Moreover, the hammer usually creates a "nostalgic complex" when making it, and the "nostalgia complex" sounds like a warm pulse, but it is actually fierce. Because the "mercy complex" allows the cavalry to use the horse mallet to penetrate the enemy, it can still freely take out the weapon, preventing the next wave of attacks because it cannot be pulled out. From this point of view, the "nostalgia complex" is not only not "merciful", but also very "ruthless".
It can be seen that although the mallet and the gun have many similarities in appearance, in fact, the two are not the same, and if you pay attention, it is not difficult to distinguish between the two.
The mallet occupied a place in the "Eighteen Weapons", and then shined after the rise of the cavalry unit, leaving an indelible chapter in the history of China's cold weapons.
Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the cavalry unit has been the decisive force for various ethnic minorities to chase deer in the Central Plains, and the horse mallet is the key factor in the repeated victories of the cavalry. It was precisely with the cavalry troops with horses in their hands and brave and good at war that the Sui and Tang Dynasty's door valve families could calm the chaotic world and rejuvenate the country.
Many heroic figures in history also loved the hammer, and Gao Ao Cao, the son of The Northern Dynasty Eastern Ji Prefecture's assassin Shi Gaoyi, once held a horse mallet in his hand and fought against a hundred; Emperor Taizong Li Shimin's beloved general Wei Chigong was also extremely good at using the hammer, and Emperor Taizong once said: "There is Wei Chigong who follows me alone, and I am not even afraid of a million male masters." There was also Qin Qiong, a famous general of Li Tang, who once destroyed the enemy's camp with a horse in his hand, and Wan Fu praised.
In addition, Cheng Yaojin is also a famous master of using the mallet. In this way, everyone may feel surprised, after all, in novels such as the legend of Sui and Tang heroes, Cheng Bite Jin is the best at gossiping Xuanhua Plate Gate Axe. In fact, the horse mallet is his favorite.
It is said that once the Wagang army and Wang Shichong's army fought fiercely, the Wagang army mistakenly fell into an ambush, the situation was critical, the general Pei Xingyu was also picked down in the battle, the enemy besieged one after another, seeing that Pei Xingyu was about to die at the hands of the enemy.
At this moment, Cheng Yaojin held a horse mallet, stepped on a white horse, and came to the rescue alone. Because the war report was delayed and the troops marched too slowly, Cheng Yaojin alone could only arrive at a rapid pace, and the large troops were still behind. The enemy army was even happier when it saw the situation, thinking that it could take this opportunity to take down the two generals of the Wagang Army in one fell swoop. I didn't think that Cheng Jin would wield a horse mallet, rush into the encirclement, and then pick off all the enemy troops who came to provoke. Suddenly, Wang Shichong's army died a large area.
Just as Cheng Biting Jin helped his comrade-in-arms Pei Xingyu onto his horse, Wang Shichong's army rushed out another general and stabbed Cheng With a spear. Cheng bit Jin had no time to avoid it, and unfortunately was stabbed in the arm. But he was not as wounded as the enemy expected, and Cheng Yaojin suddenly rose up, broke the enemy's spear, and then raised the horse mallet in his hand and killed the enemy at once. When the crowd saw the situation, they retreated one after another and did not dare to come forward, allowing Cheng to bite Jin and take away the injured Pei Xing, who did not dare to move.
Since then, the deeds of Cheng Biting Jin holding a horse mallet to break through and save people have become a legend, which has been circulated among the Wagang Army.
It can be seen that from the time when Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty expelled the Xiongnu with cavalry to the Song Dynasty when the cavalry retreated to the second line, in this thousand years, the hammer and the cavalry occupied a large chapter in military history, but with the decline of the cavalry, the hammer also gradually lost its former glory.
▲ Horse mallet riding
After the Song Dynasty, the northern region was invaded by ethnic minorities, which was once the best source of good horses, the country did not have good horses for combat, and the cavalry troops no longer played a powerful offensive role. On the contrary, with the development of standard weapons, the combat effectiveness of traditional infantry can be revealed, infantry gradually become the main force of the battlefield, the Song Dynasty began to "ride with infantry", cavalry became the standby unit of infantry, and the invincible and powerful weapon naturally lost its user.
In addition, the cost of the hammer itself is very expensive, the manufacturing process is cumbersome, not only consumes a lot of time, but also the probability of failure is also very high, once the mistake, it will lose a lot of materials, resulting in waste. It has been calculated that the wood used to make a mallet can be used to make ten good bows. The Song Dynasty was already very stingy about military expenditure, and gradually the army no longer used such expensive mallets.
In addition, the suppression of the family door valve is also an important reason for the decline of the hammer.
Before Li Tang, the people who used the mallet were all rich and noble families, because they had enough money to build the mallet and were able to systematically guide the soldiers in the use of the mallet. However, after the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty, the policy of "civilian officials ruling the country" was implemented, and the family gate valve lost the opportunity to control the army, and the use and inheritance of the hammer lost the promotion crowd.
It was due to the combined influence of various factors on appeal that the mallet gradually declined and was replaced by other weapons.
Although our sentimental glory years are no longer there, we also have to admit that the decline of the hammer is also the result of the development of the times, and the advanced things will surely replace the backward things, and this theory is not only applicable to other fields, but also very obvious in the history of weapons.
The weapons of the cold weapon era seem to have become synonymous with backwardness today, but we must not erase the huge role they once played in a specific historical stage. After all, many of today's new weapons are inspired by the manufacture of cold weapons, or to better replace cold weapons, which is probably the true meaning of inheritance and development!
Text/Yuanqi Girl qmq
Resources: 1. "The King of Weapons in the Qin and Han Dynasties", Taiji 2. "Cheng Biting Jin in Real History", Wen Yongqiang 3. "Speaking of Beryllium", Ye Wenxian