Speaking of the Three Kingdoms, most people are familiar with the story of the straw boat borrowing arrows, to the effect that Zhou Yu was jealous of Zhuge Liang and forced Zhuge Liang to establish a military law to produce 100,000 arrows in 10 days, but Zhuge Liang said that it would only take three days. On the last day, taking advantage of the foggy weather, leading boats full of grass people approached Cao Ying, and then drums and shouts rang in unison. Cao Jun didn’t know what was false, so he could only shoot arrows nonstop, and Zhuge Liang’s result Cao Chuan "borrowed" 100,000 arrows for nothing. In this way, Zhuge Liang spared Zhou Yu's plot by virtue of his ingenuity, and also supplemented Sun and Liu's army. Many people can’t help but scream when they read the story of drafting a boat to borrow an arrow, marveling at Zhuge Liang’s wisdom that is different from ordinary people, but some smart readers have a little question-why didn’t Cao Cao release a rocket when Zhuge Liang borrowed an arrow from a straw boat? If Cao Cao set off the rocket, wouldn't Zhuge Liang and his straw boat have no return?
Actually, the story of Zhuge Liang's straw boat borrowing arrows was just made up by Luo Guanzhong in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the true history of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang did not use straw boats to borrow arrows. As a literary work, many plots in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms are not in line with the official history. For example, Cao Cao did not assassinate Dong Zhuo; it was not Guan Yu who killed Hua Xiong, but Sun Jian; Guan Yu only killed Yan Liang and did not criticize the ugliness; Zhang Fei is not an uneducated martial artist. It is not Zhang Fei, but Liu Bei who flogged Duyou. The three of Liu, Guan, and Zhang did marry, but they did not marry in Taoyuan. Zhou Yu was not a petty person. Huang Gai was the one who burned Chibi. Figured it out. In addition, there are many plots that are inconsistent with the official history, and the story of the grass boat borrowing the arrow is both the story of the Lieutenant General Luo Guan Sun Quan taking a boat to observe the incident of Cao Ying and the story of the Tang general Zhang Xun "the grass man borrowing the arrow" during the Anshi Rebellion. Combined with Zhuge Liang's body, here, I have to admire Luo Guanzhong's superb adaptability and fabrication ability, which adds a lot of interest and drama to "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
The closest thing to the story of borrowing arrows from a straw boat in the history of the Three Kingdoms is Sun Quan. According to the "Three Kingdoms" record: Quan came to watch the army on a big ship, the minister sent his bows and crossbows randomly, arrows his ship, the ship would be overturned, Quan returned to the ship, and received the arrow on one side, the arrow was flat, but returned. It means that when Cao Cao confronted Sun Quan, Sun Quan took a big ship to inspect Cao Cao’s navy. Because Cao Cao’s water battle was not as good as Soochow, he ordered a salvo of bows and crossbows. The arrows were shot on Sun Quan’s ship. Too much, resulting in unbalanced forces on both sides. When the ship was about to tip over, Sun Quan ordered to turn the bow of the ship so that the other side also received an arrow. The hull slowly became balanced, and Sun Quan returned to his home camp. This story took place in the eighteenth year of Jian'an, which is five years after the Battle of Chibi. Through the records of "Three Kingdoms", we also found that the "grass boat borrowed arrow" was not intentional by Sun Quan, because he was not tied to the boat at that time. Cao Ren, and he chose to turn the bow to get arrows on both sides of the hull, also to prevent the ship from overturning as a last resort.
In history, the real use of grass to borrow arrows happened in the Tang Dynasty. During the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang general Zhang Xun ran out of arrows when he was defending the city, so he became wise and ordered the soldiers to make more than a thousand grass men, and then again Wrap the grass people in black and hang them under the city at night. The enemy soldiers on the opposite side can’t see clearly. They only fight to shoot the grass people. It took a long time to realize that they were all grass people, but it was too late. Because Zhang Xun has "borrowed" 100,000 arrows. This incident is clearly recorded in the "Zi Zhi Tong Jian": The city has run out of arrows, and there are more than a thousand people who patrolled the manuscripts. They were dressed in black and under the city at night. The tide soldiers quarreled to shoot them. For a long time, I knew the author; One hundred thousand.
However, although the protagonist of "Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows" is not Zhuge Liang, the problem above is still true. Whether it is Sun Quan inspecting Cao Ying on a large boat or Tang Jiang Zhang Xun’s "Grassman Boring Arrows", why didn't the other party release rocket What? This has to talk about the history of ancient rockets.
The earliest record of rockets in China can be traced back to the "Zhou Li", but the official large-scale use of rockets in actual combat was until the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the rocket technology of the Three Kingdoms and the mid-Tang Dynasty is still immature. There are only two ways to make an arrow set on fire, either by bundling combustible materials, such as oil, or bundling gunpowder. The gunpowder did not have a relatively mature development until the Song Dynasty. The cost of oil in ancient times was too high. Whether it was squeezing oil or extracting animal oil, the process was extremely long. Moreover, people did not necessarily have enough oil to eat at that time. If it was used in war, the cost would be unimaginable.
In addition to cost reasons, inadequate technology is also the main reason. If you want the rocket to effectively attack the enemyFor people, the combustibles bound to the arrow must be just right. It is necessary to ensure that the fire will not blow out when the rocket is launched in the air, and it must also ensure that the rocket does not carry too much weight and cause the shooting distance to be too short. However, the bow and crossbow technology of the Three Kingdoms period could not solve these technical problems perfectly. At that time, rockets were also used, but they were usually used to perform special tasks, such as burning the enemy’s food and grass. At this time, rockets would be used, but also in comparison. Only a short distance.
Based on the above summary, we find why the grass boat is not broken by fire with arrows? Answer: The first point is that the cost of rockets is high and it is impossible to use them at any time; the second point is that the rocket technology at the time is not in place, and the enemy is far away, and the rocket can not be shot through; the third point is that it was foggy. Cao Cao couldn't see the opposite. Fourth, Luo Guanzhong didn't think so much when editing.
