Today I have smoothed out these few interesting little things from the hands of my collectors. Although they look crude and not very exquisite, they are several very valuable cultural relics in ancient Chinese military history.
When we look at this thing, you may have seen it in many books or some movies, but they are even older. This thing is called " thorns " in the ancient Chinese military history, and some military ancient books directly call it " thorns ". To put it bluntly, this is the "sting horse nail". We see, it adopts a four-pointed vertebrae shape. No matter how you place it, there is always a pointed vertebrae that will face upwards. So what about this upward sharp vertebra, when the enemy's war horse and infantry pass by, it will stab the foot of the war horse, or the legs or feet of the infantry. This will delay the enemy's attack and cause greater trouble to the enemy. This kind of caltrop,
, we now see this caltrop, which is really made of iron, and its shape is very interesting.
We see that its shape actually tells us its age, which should be the caltrop of in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Its shape is actually two willow leaf-shaped iron sheets, and one of them is split into two corners, and the other one is not split into one corner. That is a single corner. Then, use two pieces of iron sheets and finally use them on the top to heat them together, and they become a four-pointed cervix. And we will find that in the middle of the caltrop, there will be a square or round perforation in the position where the two willow-shaped iron sheets are closed, most of which are square. It may be that when making, a square or round iron cone penetrates, forming such a perforation.
What is the use of this perforation? It is used when carrying and distributing caltrops. Let’s imagine that the ancients would use a very thin rope to wear many caltrops together, so that they can be carried when marching. When laying it out, it is easy to place a batch of caltrops directly into a large area.
You see, the process of these 5 caltrops is actually the same, which shows that when the army made caltrops at that time, the process was already highly standardized, which is a very interesting signal. It should be said that making caltrops in this way of making iron caltrops is still relatively reasonable in the Song and Yuan dynasties. It is obvious that the ancients have been thinking about it for a period of time and found a way to make such caltrops with the highest efficiency.
If we look at the thorns of the Ming Dynasty, we will find that the configuration is more reasonable and the production is more exquisite than this thorns. However, in terms of technology, it is actually more efficient than it, and the caltrops produced will be more standardized.
If we look further, to Han Dynasty , the caltrops at that time were made of bronze and were cast in one go, with such an annular perforation in the middle, but it raised outside the central part. It can be seen that the production of caltrops at that time was more labor-intensive and time-consuming. Because it was built in a wide range, it needed to melt the copper and pour it into a molding model. However, the way this caltrop is used is the same as that of later generations, posing a threat to the enemy's infantry and cavalry.
In fact, when using caltrops, they are not just sprinkled randomly as we imagined. Because this is easy to be directly discovered by the enemy, the enemy will not easily get involved in such dangers. In fact, caltrops may be more covered with this floating soil or camouflaged with vegetation. In this way, the caltrops will only reveal a pointed cone in the soil, which is very concealed.
History books have recorded that during the Southern Song Dynasty , the generals of the Song army used caltrops to fight against the cavalry of the Jin army.He first laid caltrops on his position, then pretended to retreat, and when the Jin soldiers' cavalry launched a large-scale attack, he accidentally entered the "caltrop formation". It is said that at that time, seven or eight out of the 10 war horses fell down, which gave the Song army a chance to fight back.
In the Ming Dynasty, in the infantry team of Qi Jiguang , his rattan players had to carry 6 strings of caltrops, each string was 10. Therefore, in Qi Jiguang's article, he vividly talked about the concept of "sequence". You can imagine that this little hole is doing this. 6 strings of caltrops are 60. So if many infantry squads carry such caltrops, they will give the commander more space in tactical applications. Especially during defensive operations, caltrops are laid around the embassy, which is a bit like today's mines. If the enemy can intimidate, and at the same time, if the enemy really attacks, his speed will not be increased too quickly, and he will gain a certain initiative for his side.
This is the caltrop in history. Although it seems crude, they are witnesses to the ancient war history of the Song and Yuan dynasties.
