The weapon of the big knife

The big knife blade shape system, there are many types. Such as: the mouth of the knife is rounded like a half-string moon, the name of the crescent moon knife; knife body wide, the name of the broad-bladed knife; knife body slender, the name of the eyebrow pointed knife; there are flexing knife, pen knife, phoenix beak knife, picking knife, slice knife, tiger tooth knife, the knife, such as the elephant nose knife. The name of each part of the knife is: head, body (blade, back), hand guard, handle (upper handle, center handle, lower handle, handle tip), knife spike, and so on.

Modern martial arts movement, the general body of the knife is about 55 centimeters long, one side of the edge, the front sharp after the broad, the perch length of about 165 centimeters, the back of the knife convex teeth have holes hanging system red tassel. The root of the knife and the handle connection with the knife plate, the handle affixed to the disk part of the package with about 20 centimeters of copper skin, the name of the fixed hand. The end of the handle has iron casting. Big knife in the exercise are held in both hands, with the waist force force, a move a still show majestic, brave and decisive momentum. The knife method is rich in content and flexible. The basic knife skills are holding, stabbing, chopping, hacking, teasing, reverse chopping, flat chopping, cutting. Pouncing, striking. Point, clip flower, stab, draw, wipe, single flower, drag, pull, pivot, crutch, draw, hang, pick, cut, strangle, frame, block and so on. As the saying goes: the big knife to see the edge, that is to say, the action should be back (back of the knife), the edge (blade) clear, a variety of knife to do clear, not ambiguous. In addition, there are hands do not leave the disk, that is, when practicing the right hand can not leave the knife disk under the fixed hand. Big knife sets are: spring and autumn knife, mixed knife, the Big Dipper knife, fixed not knife, Yue Sheng knife and so on. The sparring sets are: Big Knife Demolition Stool, Big Knife Battle Gun and so on.

As one of the most typical traditional cold weapons, it is unique to China, and foreigners call it "Chinesebroad-sword", meaning "Chinese broadsword". This is because the general sense of the big knife, its type system from the Song Dynasty "hand knife", characterized by the front of the blade is wide and thick, powerful and heavy, and conducive to chopping. 19th century, with the popularity of guns, cannons and other hot weapons, the big knife is gradually declining, only as an auxiliary cold weapon use. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China, warlords and warlords were fighting one after another, and all factions were scrambling to expand their power, and for a while the equipment became a big problem, and the big knife was picked up again because of its simple manufacture and low cost, and even became the main weapon of many miscellaneous armies. Even in the mid to late 1920s, when the Chinese army gradually modernized its equipment, the machete was still retained as a main weapon. One of the reasons is that for the enemy, when encountered with the big knife, it is inevitable to have been lynched in public, has a certain deterrent effect; another important factor is that at that time the rifle basically relies on imports, the army is not equipped with bayonets, and domestic can rarely be replenished by themselves, only to the big knife to the enemy in a physical fight. Therefore, when the Japanese army invaded, the Chinese army they faced usually appeared such a strange landscape: the most primitive big knife and the most advanced tanks appeared on the battlefield at the same time. The main types of machete and saber used by the modern Chinese army are the machete type and the saber type.

The machete type is based on the Qing Dynasty's "short-handled knife" evolved from the blade of different lengths, hand guards and hilts of different types. The Chinese army used in the early war is a typical machete type. Especially before and after the "seven-seventh Incident" the Nationalist 29th Army used the knife, a large part of the factory in Peking are processed, relatively more uniform and standardized, better quality, but also the most representative. This knife by the knife body, handle, hand guard 3 major components, the knife length is generally about 900mm, the quality of about 1.6kg, which is divided into the knife body tip, knife back, blade and other parts of the blade is 595mm long, the front of the knife body up to the widest part of the width of 57mm, the width of the latter part of the width of the narrowest part of the 38mm, the back of the knife part of the length of 540mm, the thickest part of the 5-6mm, the knife body is relatively sharp, the upper slant edge is 76mm long. The upper beveled edge of the blade is 76mm long, the hand guard is the common Yuanbao shape, there are two kinds of copper and iron, the height of the hand guard is 90mm, the thickness is 12mm, the width is 25mm, the length of the hilt is 215mm, and the diameter of the ring at the back of the blade is about 76mm. as for the other big swords used by the army and the homemade products of the people, the sizes and types are various, and the quality is also uneven. In addition, although the sharpness and angle of the tip of the different types of machete varied greatly, on the whole, the tip of the machete-type machete was not very sharp, so it could not stab, but could only stab and poke the enemy. Most of the blade has 1 or 2 blood grooves near the back of the blade, which are generally shallow and only serve to strengthen the blade. A small number of machete-type knife in the back of the knife with serrated or wear a number of copper, iron ring, the purpose is to prevent the back of the knife by the other side of the blade chopped bad. Most of the hilt and the body is one, the end of the hilt extension forged into a circle, that is, the knife ring (or called after the circle), but there are also many knife ring is welded on the back, its role in addition to preventing the hilt off the hand, but also can be hung with red silk cloth, in order to strengthen the momentum. Most of the knife handle and knife ring wrapped with cotton cloth, its winding method is relatively special, unfamiliar with the person is difficult to wrap tight. There are also some knife handle by copper, iron rivets fixed with two pieces of wood guard, and then on top of the cotton rope wrapped around firmly, has been wrapped around the knife ring part. Whether it is cloth or cotton thread, its purpose is to prevent the knife holder's hand due to sweat or blood and slip. The length and width of the hilt varies from knife to knife, and the ring has different shapes, such as round, oval, and curved hook. As for the hand guard, there are even more variations. In addition to a very small number of the same as the Ming and Qing waist knife can be separated from the disc-shaped handguard, most of the big knife handguard is fixed in the body of the knife, the most common is the Yuanbao-shaped handguard, the shape of its variations are also a lot of late iron handguard is often forged directly and the body of the knife into a single unit. There is also a class of anti-"S"-shaped handguard, the upper part is bent forward, can block down the back of the knife cut down the other side of the blade, the lower part is bent backward to protect the fingers of the knife holder. A few of the big knife handle for the traditional waist knife style, the end of the blade through the handle, the back of the riveted fixed, not removable. Very few large knife handguard used in Western swords commonly wrapped style, but the hilt fixing method is still similar to the traditional waist knife. At the end of the Qing dynasty for the execution of the big knife in the head, handguard more than the image of a ghost head, it is called "ghost head knife", and then no longer have this kind of decoration, but the name is still retained for posterity, often "ghost head knife" instead of the big knife. Republic of China on the knife is rarely specialized decorations, but also rarely have the maker's mark. From the point of view of the surviving objects, only a very small number of blade surface treatment, corrosion resistance is better.

Machete-type sword in a special category, that is, two-handed knife, similar to Guan Gong "Spring and Autumn Sword" in the shape of the "Green Dragon Crescent Knife" is a two-handed knife in a category, in addition to the handle is longer, the rest of the ordinary knife is no different. However, the Japanese army said the "Qinglong knife" is a general term for the Chinese big knife, not only refers to a long-handled big knife.

The saber-type dagger is from the Qing Dynasty "Yan Ling knife", "Pei Dao" development, and inherited the Ming Dynasty "long knife" features, the blade is more slender, and curved, the knife is more sharp in front, and obvious. The front part of the knife is relatively sharp, and obviously upward curved, and the Japanese sword is more similar, but the handle and the machete-type sword is no different, more with anti-"S"-shaped copper handguard. Characterized by cutting and stabbing, flexible and lightweight. In 1933, the Chinese army used the saber-type sword in the war of resistance in Jehol.

Additionally, there are a few special types of daggers, such as the Wuji knife. The shape of this knife and the Han Dynasty "ring head knife" is somewhat similar to the knife length of about 1m, the knife surface is not as wide as the machete-type dagger, only slightly wider than the handle, the tip of the knife like a sword for both sides of the edge, and the tip of the knife is more rounded and blunt, until close to the hilt of the knife like the traditional dagger as a single-sided edge, the handle of the knife as long as 264 to 333mm, is also the Both hands hold the knife at the same time.

The daggers also vary in their method of manufacture. Most of the folk knives are made according to the method of kitchen knives, which are made of cooked iron and inlaid with steel strips at the edge of the blade, which is called "wrapped steel". When the steel edge wears out after a long time of use, it is difficult to maintain the sharpness and sturdiness of the cooked iron blade. Of course, there are also all made of steel or iron sword, and the steel sword at that time even if it is a rare good knife.

Domestic large knife materials from different sources, there is no uniform standardized process, the quality depends on the experience of the knifemaker. This has to do with the backwardness of the domestic basic industry at that time, there is no modern steel and machinery industry, coupled with the limited conditions in wartime, the manufacture of large knives can not take too much time and cost, as long as the knives can kill the enemy on the line, talk about what technology. A considerable number of swords were crude by today's standards, and often could not cut down more than a few enemies before the blade rolled or chipped and needed to be resharpened. The mass-produced high-carbon steel mechanism used by the Japanese army, compared with the Chinese soil-made machete, although sharp and lightweight, but hard and brittle, coupled with the narrower blade, when chopping, if the edge of the direct contact, often by the machete may be knocked off directly. In addition, the domestic big knife both appearance and inner quality, compared with the Japanese knife is a big difference.

Because of the large size of the big knife, long-distance carry generally have to carry on the body. A few were equipped with leather sheaths, which were open at the top of the back of the sheath to allow for easy drawing. The sheath itself is equipped with a belt that allows the user to sling the knife in the sheath across the body like a rifle. However, leather sheaths are prone to mold and rot, and the cost is high, so most daggers are unsheathed. In order to make it easier to carry, many big knives have small holes above the tip and at the highest part of the back of the knife, and one end of the rope is tied to the hole, and the other end is tied to the knife ring or handguard, and then hung on the body. The edges of the large knives are generally not very sharp, so even if they are exposed, they will not be much of a hindrance. In addition, there are also carrying methods such as rolling the large knife vertically in a backpack or inserting it into the belt at the back of the waist. The main opponent of the big knife in the war was the Japanese bayonet. After watching a variety of domestic antiwar film and television works, the people of China often think that the big knife is the restraint of the Japanese bayonet magic weapon, the reality is not quite true, because the film and television drama is very difficult to reproduce a more realistic big knife and bayonet fight scenes. For example, in the movie "The Mutiny of the Seventh Day of the 7th Moon", there is a section of Zhao Dengyu division commander and his subordinates to practice, and finally with a big knife will be subordinates of the rifle split in half, careful viewers will soon find that the rifle does not have a bayonet, and the holder of the rifle does not have any action to fight stabbing, but only as a rifle stick to resist the attack of the big knife, the rapid defeat is naturally inevitable. In a real white-knuckle battle, the gun thrusts are mainly rapid and powerful straight thrusts, aiming at the opponent's chest and abdomen, while the large knife is limited to its shape, mainly to the upper body of the enemy's chopping, and both have their own advantages and disadvantages. The big knife defense of the enemy's straight stab, only the other side of the gun or bayonet frame away, if there is not enough strength and skill is not easy to do. The advantage of the big knife is the knife is heavy and fierce, cut on the non-death or injury, but its role in the distance is limited, must be as close as possible to the enemy's body, so it is most suitable for use in the fortifications, houses, forests and other environments with limited space. In the open terrain or charge, unless the enemy is completely overwhelmed by their own momentum, or holders of the big knife is difficult to take advantage of. At the same time, the big knife requires the user to have relatively good martial arts skills and physical fitness, and after a long period of practice, in order to be able to use it freely, while the training of bayonet sparring is relatively simple. In addition, the big knife on the user's footwork requirements are also very high, because the big knife relative to the rifle with bayonet is relatively short, short military broken long weapon, the point is to foot speed and flexibility, so martial artists often have "short see long, feet busy" said. Wu Shu said: "the law of the sword hit real in hacking its gun pole, gun pole is hacked, constantly folding must stick. Rod is stuck, then can not flash turn upside down, knife more progress, will hurt carry on." But if the enemy's pace is also very fast (the physical strength and training level of the Japanese army at the beginning of the war is generally above the Chinese army), "hit the real" method will probably be reduced to the most dangerous "clumsy force" situation, the knife holder will lose. Moreover, in other forms of combat besides physical combat, the great sword is basically useless, and as an auxiliary weapon is also very reluctant.

Because of the inherent disadvantages of the big knife against the bayonet, at that time, the domestic insights have been studied, and tried to improve the knife from the method to overcome. Here are a few people can not be ignored. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Hebei Yanshan County martial artist Huang Linbiao learned two-handed sword from Tianjin Ji, and then passed on to his disciples, such as Ma Fengtu, etc. Around 1925, Ma Fengtu in Zhangjiakou Chahar Province as a counsellor, part of the two-handed sword adapted to become a simple and easy to learn "broken blade eight knives", has been in the Northwest Army to promote. In the early years of the Republic of China, Han Mu-ch'an (1877-1954), a native of Tianjin, founded a martial arts school, and in 1927 he became an instructor of the Tianjin Wushu Troupe. Zhang Xueliang was very interested in Han's suggestion of "saving the country through martial arts" and specially allocated 1,000 soldiers to form a martial arts group and appointed Han as the chief instructor. Han Mu Man will be "Bagua Xingyi" variation on the application of the sword, fan, chop, chop, chop, butt, wrong, simple and practical action. It is especially worth mentioning that after the fall of Tianjin, Han Mu Man broke his left wrist and refused to be used by the traitors, whose national integrity is admirable. Li Yaochen (1876-1973), a native of Jixian County, Hebei Province, and a dart master at the end of the Qing Dynasty, was hired by Tong Lincuo, deputy commander of the 29th Army, as the chief instructor of martial arts in 1931 and practiced in Yangquan, Shanxi Province. Aiming at the drawbacks of the original sword method, which was complicated and difficult to function without good training, Li improved and created a set of "Wuji Knife" method by combining the traditional "Liuhe Knife" method, which was simple and effective with chopping and stabbing. To deal with the enemy bayonet with a large knife, a commonly used move is: out of the knife, the knife diagonally to the lower right, the mouth of the knife towards themselves, when the other side of the bayonet stabbing, the large knife diagonally swung to the upper left, to the back of the knife knocked away the enemy's gun, and at the same time the blade of the knife immediately forward to split down the chopping, chopping as a single entity, the opponent could not return to the defense, has been separated from the body and the head. Li Yaochen in the 29th Army, the backbone of his direct teaching, and then by them to the whole army. 29th Army Great Sword Team in the Great Wall War in the use of this set of sword method.

But, after all, the actual battle is not martial arts sparring, especially in dealing with the enemy with modern equipment, the effectiveness of these swordsmanship to improve the combat effectiveness of such primitive weapons as the big sword is obviously very weak. Even the "Xifengkou victory" can not prove the effectiveness of the big knife, despite the sudden launch of the night attack, and before the attack also threw a large number of grenades to the enemy tent, the total number of annihilated but more than 800, the 29th Army's own casualties but nearly 600 people, Wang Changhai regiment, deputy head of the Hu Chonglu, battalion commander Wang Fengzhi, Su Dongyuan are in the night attack on the Caijiayu battle died. The battalion commanders Wang Fengzhi and Su Dongyuan all died in the night attack on Caijiayu. Although most of the casualties occurred during the retreat, I am afraid that if any other weapon had been used, the results achieved would not have been below that of the machete.

The same 29th Army, the same big knife, four years later in the "seven-seventh Incident" and then failed to achieve similar results in Xifengkou. After the end of the Great Wall War, the 29th Army was able to occupy the affluent Pingjin area, and spent a lot of money to buy the Czech Republic and other countries to manufacture advanced weapons such as step, machine guns, equipment can be significantly improved, but the practice of the big sword as a troop tradition is still retained. After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", the army commander Song Zheyuan organized resistance, issued the order "Wanping City and Lugou Bridge as the graves of our troops, a foot and an inch of the country can not be easily ceded" On the night of July 11th, He Kifeng Brigade Jixingwen Regiment once again with the big sword in melee combat, one of the 19-year-old soldiers Chen, who had been in a combat zone with the big sword for a while, was a soldier with the big sword, but he was not a soldier. One of the 19-year-old Chen soldiers cut 13 Japanese soldiers and captured one, and finally two battalion casualties of nearly 3/4 of the cost, recapture the railroad bridge. However, Song Zheyuan had the intention to make peace and did not actively continue the attack, although the 29th Army achieved some results, but could not fundamentally change the fate of the loss. 28th, the Japanese army in Pingjin increased to 3 divisions and attacked Nanyuan, Shahe. 29th Army officers and men with swords and flesh and blood with the enemy planes, tanks, and one day that is the casualties of 5,000 people, deputy army commander Tong Lincuo and division commander Zhao Dengyu were killed in action. The night Song Zheyuan led the retreat to Baoding, the ancient capital fell. 30 days, the 29th Army in Tianjin also withdrew from Tianjin to the south. 29th Army after the loss of Pingjin demoralized, can not fight, can only be transferred to the rear of the recuperation, the Great Sword has become the last song.

Unfortunately, the big sword as a symbol of the spirit of resistance, to a certain extent, has been overly abused, the rear media often appear "big sword for the country" or "decapitation x x yu" of the words, Mr. Lu Xun in his miscellaneous essays, "the barbarians to fight against the barbarians," in which he said. Mr. Lu Xun, in his essay "Countering the Barbarians with the Barbarians", satirized this phenomenon by saying, "I behead the enemy 200 times, and the enemy beheads me 200 times". The consequence of such propaganda was that the general public and soldiers often had unrealistic misunderstandings about the role of the big sword in modern warfare. At the beginning of the war, there were many instances of the Chinese army charging en masse under Japanese machine-gun and artillery fire with machete in hand, which naturally resulted in unnecessary sacrifices for nothing. There were even cases where the people at the back of the country used all the money they collected to buy machetes and sent them to the front line after a long and arduous journey, while the troops put them to no use.

The most direct evidence that the spiritual value of the machete is greater than its combat value is that, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance, except for a few exceptions (such as those used by the Judge Advocate General's Office or the War Guards), the KMT's regular army was no longer equipped with this weapon. The last large-scale use of the machete on a frontal battlefield was during the First Battle of Changsha in 1939, when Liu Ruming's 68th Army machete team annihilated 300 Japanese soldiers in physical combat, but was then attacked by a Japanese gas attack that poisoned more than 400 people. Although the Chinese army was severely short of rifles throughout the war, the Kuomintang army almost entirely switched to the use of the bayonet in physical combat on the frontal battlefields after 1939. The People's Army likewise used the machete. Since its birth, in view of the objective environment of enemy strength and weakness, coupled with the fact that it had almost no military industry of its own, our army relied on battlefield seizures for most of its weapons, and due to the unstable source and insufficient quantity, it had to use a large number of primitive cold weapons such as machetes and pikes as supplements. Nowadays, the iconic sculpture in Honghu City, Hubei Province, still consists of three big knives, with the tips pointing straight up to the blue sky, symbolizing the history of the Red Army's creation of the Honghu base area with the big knives back then. The Red Army has emerged in many groups of heroes and classic battles related to the big knife, such as the strong take white war pass, Xu Haidong, Xu Shiyou, Qin Jiwei and many other founding heroes in the Red Army period have also had to rely on the big knife to kill or win the victory of the experience.

In the early days of the war, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were also heavily equipped with and used the machete, and although there is a factor of inheriting the tradition of the Red Army, the rapid expansion of troops in the early days of the war led to a lack of weapons is the most direct and the main reason. From the fall of 1938 to July 1940, the total number of troops of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army expanded by more than 10 times, and the four companies (the old Red Army family base) that entered Jinnan developed into a force of 20,000 within a few months, and there were also a variety of guerrillas, advance parties, and other local and quasi-local armies of various nomenclatures. All these new troops needed to be armed, and the combat captures of the same period were far from enough, so only primitive weapons like machetes and pikes could be used in large numbers. Although its effectiveness is far less than firearms, but after all, so that the fighters are not bare hands, dare and can make face-to-face struggle with the Japanese invaders, and through the battle constantly seize the enemy equipment to arm themselves. Another important significance of the big knife is that it makes it possible to widely mobilize and arm the masses and carry out mass guerrilla warfare. Because of its simplicity and cheapness, destroyed enemy cars and railroad tracks are good raw materials for the big knife, which can be manufactured in large quantities even in rural areas with no industrial base, and its simplicity of use, which can also be used by children and women, it is easy to promote in rural areas of China, where there is a tradition of martial arts, and it is much easier to popularize it than firearms.

In the early days of the war, there were some twists and turns in our army's understanding of the backward weaponry of the machete. For example, around 1939, because of the rapid development of the troops, the New Fourth Army military repair institute was ordered to stop imitating rifles and bayonets, and specialize in the production of large knives and spears. Soon after discovering this situation, Army Commander Ye Ting ordered the resumption of rifle and bayonet production, saying, "The enemy uses airplanes and artillery, but we use big knives and spears; isn't this a wasted effort to send the enemy to death and make fun of us?" However, the production of the big knife did not stop later, for only its production and cost were sufficient to quickly arm the newly organized troops, and it was an important wartime supplement for the old troops who were seriously short of supplies of firearms and ammunition. All divisions of the New Fourth Army have always made the big sword an important part of their military training, requiring everyone, from division chiefs to ordinary soldiers, to familiarize themselves with the big sword, which played a key role in many subsequent battles.

The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were more flexible in the tactics of using the machete than the Kuomintang army. They commonly used a method of warfare is a big knife plus a barge gun, far from the gun, close to the knife, although the Japanese army is well-trained, but in the close-range melee because they can not casually shoot, and on the situation of the knife and gun, but the disadvantage. This method of warfare than a separate spatial bayonet or cleaver to count much more in the white-knife battle with the Japanese army has a certain effect, but the application is not very common, because there are conditions to use a barge gun only commanders and guards and so on a few people. Commonly used by ordinary soldiers is the combination of a large knife and grenades. Position to fight blocking the enemy first forced into the 30m or so within close range, and then focus on throwing one or two rows of grenades, to be the enemy was killed to a certain extent, and then hit one or two rows of subguns, when the enemy's attack was completely disrupted or even began to flee in defeat, the fighters then jumped out of the trenches, with the machete and bayonet to clean up the remnants of the enemy. When the enemy and the close-range tug-of-war, often in the form of a three-person combat team, three people are armed with rifles, grenades and machetes, and cooperate with each other, far away from the shooting, a little closer to the grenade, and then closer to the knife. When attacking, they would first focus on throwing grenades to force the enemy out of the fortifications or compounds they were defending, and then quickly receive the enemy and split them up, so that the enemy's heavy firepower could not be brought into play, and then they would fight with their machetes.

The sword has a deterrent effect on the Japanese army, mainly because the Japanese people believe in Shintoism and Buddhism, believe in the cycle of life and death, although the bushido "teachings" so that they are not afraid of death in battle, but to a certain extent still want to keep the whole body. Moreover, the Japanese believe that the soul exists in the head, once the head is lost, the soul will not be able to return to the country, and can only be a lonely ghost in a foreign land forever, so the big sword on the battlefield can sometimes achieve unexpected results. Such as in December 1942 in Zhu Jiagang battle, the New Fourth Army, four divisions of the 26th regiment, a platoon leader Wang Kang rate of a section of the traffic ditch, repulse the enemy many times after the charge, the troops casualties, Wang Kang will be tethered to their own red silk knife inserted in the ditch along the edge of the enemy ready to fight the last, I did not expect to have long been exhausted, the Japanese army was scared, until the end of the battle no longer dared to launch an attack, the last miraculous to keep the position.

When the enemy base through the most difficult years, after the beginning of the local counter-offensive, with the increasing number of seizures, the regular army equipment conditions have greatly improved, the big knife was soon eliminated, even the militia and other local armed forces, in the enough guns, including the big knife, including a variety of primitive cold weapons gradually replaced, to the period of the war of liberation has been rarely used. However, the big knife has not completely disappeared, the early liberation period until the early 1960s, the big knife in some places are still used as the militia to protect the fall, against wild animals in the use of tools. Then the big knife gradually changed its role from a weapon to a stage prop, and its frequency of "appearances" reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution, and it even became a symbol of the Chinese Revolution and the red armies in the movies and plays at that time.

This is a story about Chinese men defending their homes and women.

Japanese saber steel is good, high hardness, tough mouth thin, kill the unarmed people good use, taboo edge of the mouth phase grid; Chinese big knife thick, must be strong waist, heavy backhand knife, in the battlefield hacking also machete ...... The predecessor of the 29th Nationalist Army is Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, started in the barren Northwest China, the equipment is relatively poor. Therefore, the emphasis on physical combat training, coupled with the people's swarthy style, the soldiers are especially good at using the big knife, in the warlords and warlords in the period of the Northwest Army's big knife team is quite famous. After the Central Plains War, the Northwest Army was integrated by the Nanjing government and downsized to the 29th Army, but it was discriminated against in terms of treatment and supply, so the big knife was kept as a supplementary weapon.

On March 9, 1933, a joint advance party of the Japanese Hattori and Suzuki brigades invaded Xifengkou, and the Great Wall War broke out. The 29th Army in Zunhua, Song Zheyuan's department rushed to the rescue, and the friendly army ministries to fight against the enemy. At that time, the 29th Army was poorly equipped with weapons, which can be described as "soldiers without guns, guns without ammunition", and each person had only "a large knife, six grenades".From March 10 to 11, the 29th Army started a tug-of-war with the superiority of the Japanese army in Xifengkou and other places, and many times fought in physical combat, with heavy casualties. The 29th Army was in the middle of the night, and the Japanese were in the middle of the night. The 29th Army then adopted a roundabout night attack tactic. Zhao Dengyu, commander of the 109th Brigade, selected more than 500 men to form a large-sword team and personally led it, inserting itself into the enemy's rear from both sides at night, and attacking the Japanese campsite directly. Although it was reported afterwards that "killing more than 1,000 enemies at night" was somewhat overestimated, the Japanese were caught off guard by the 27th and 28th brigades of the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade and the 2nd brigade of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, and suffered a heavy blow during the night attack, and many of the enemies became ghosts of the sword in their dreams. Subsequent Japanese reinforcements arrived, both sides fought each other, killing sound earth-shattering, the big sword team while fighting and spreading, fighting until 2:00 p.m. on the 12th before being withdrawn, only more than 30 of our troops are still alive. This battle is the famous "Xifengkou great victory".

While the overall view of the 29th Army in the Great Wall War of resistance performance is not satisfactory, but the 29th Army of the Great Sword team of courage to kill the enemy, the heroism of the enemy quickly spread throughout the country, the Japanese army "invincible" myth has been shattered, sweeping since the "9-18 Incident" since the successive loss of power. Since the "September 18th Incident", the myth of the "invincibility" of the Japanese army was broken, and the gloom of the successive loss of power and land and the prevalence of the theory of "war will lead to the destruction of the country" was cleared away, greatly encouraging the anti-Japanese zeal of the nation's people and army. Is engaged in anti-Japanese salvation movement in Shanghai, only 23 years old Sun Mo Xin (Mai Xin) heard the news, blood boiling, immediately made a "big knife march" a: "big knife to the ghosts of the head to cut, 29th Army brothers, the day of resistance has come, the day of resistance has come! In front of us are the Volunteer Army of the Northeast, behind us are the common people of the country, and we of the 29th Army are not alone. Look at the enemy and destroy it! Destroy it! Charge! Swords to the heads of the devils, kill!" At that time, the lyrics were accompanied by the subtitle "Dedicated to the 29th Army's Big Swords". His work was then sung all over the country and became one of the most inspiring war songs of the resistance period. Since then, the 29th Army Great Sword Unit and the Great Sword have become the symbol of the whole country, and even the whole Chinese nation, for rising up against war and resisting foreign invasion. He Xiangning once wrote a poem in praise of the 29th Army, saying: "There is no need to cross the sea to kill the enemy; tens of thousands of Japanese slaves are waiting with their necks. The steel feet and night eyes of the Green Dragon Sword, the sound of the victory was applauded by all. The 29th Army is a national light, and the Japanese warlords are mad at you. When will we forget the national hatred and vow to go to Tokyo to drink the agar."

The Great Victory of Xifengkou established the reputation of the Great Sword, and even miraculously "pushed back" the Japanese invaders encamped in Qingdao.

The situation in Jiaodong was tense when 1,500 Japanese marines landed in Qingdao in March 1937 under the guise of protecting the Japanese nationals. Under the circumstances, the Chinese side to send troops directly may cause more trouble, therefore, with the consent of the Shandong Province Chairman Han Fuju, the military commission of the national government deployed the 3rd and 5th sub-groups of the tax police regiment to Qingdao on the grounds of anti-smuggling, and at the beginning of April the tax police regiment stationed in the outskirts of the city, although they were one of the best-equipped armies of the Chinese army at that time, but taking into account that the Japanese troops had a deep impression on the big swords of the Chinese army, they added the big swords drill to the public drill to deepen the Japanese army's understanding of the big sword. The big sword drill was intentionally added to the public drills to deepen the fear of the Japanese. After the outbreak of the "7-7 Incident", the tax police regiment immediately drove into the Qingdao city, and quickly occupied the city's strategic points, the soldiers patrolled along the streets with big swords on their backs, and when they saw the Japanese, they intentionally took off their big swords and affirmed that "once the war starts, we will take them to sacrifice our swords first", and declared that "North China, Shanghai has started the war, the General Administration of Taxation and Police is determined to defend this place, swore to survive with Qingdao ***", the Japanese army in Qingdao, taking into account the tens of thousands of expatriates and the safety of the industry, and was soon forced to evacuate the expatriates from Qingdao.