The Real Practical Sword in the Warrior's Hands of Han Dynasty —— Ring Sword

The Real Practical Sword in the Warrior's Hands of Han Dynasty —— Ring Sword

As early as Shang dynasty, the ring-head knife existed, but it was only used as a production tool at that time. During the Western Han Dynasty, with the development of metal smelting technology, the shape of ring-head knife changed greatly. First, the blade body gradually becomes slender. Now the unearthed ring-head knife is about one meter long, which is suitable for holding with one hand.

Material analysis of round-headed knife

Ring head knife is a weapon made by "Hundred Steelmaking Technologies". The so-called "Hundred Steelmaking Technology" is that iron blocks are repeatedly heated and forged, which can reduce impurities in steel, make the internal composition of steel uniform, make the structure denser, refine the grains, and greatly improve the properties of steel. Speaking of which, you may feel a little familiar. The familiar Japanese knives also adopt the same forging process as the ring-head knives. Only later, this technology spread from China to Japan, and Japan became a world-famous mountain city.

However, folding forging alone is not enough to manufacture ring-head knives. In the Han dynasty, craftsmen also incorporated quenching technology into the forging process, which made the surface hardness of the ring head knife higher than the internal hardness, and it was more suitable for use as a weapon in the battlefield. Modern people found in the research of ring-head knife that the body of ring-head knife not only has high strength, but also contains a lot of chromium in its material, and the existence of a lot of chromium shows another mysterious technology in Han Dynasty-carburizing.

Before the Western Han Dynasty, the lack of technical conditions led to the smelting temperature not meeting the requirements, and the chemical reaction in the furnace was also very slow. Finally, the wrought iron with low carbon content and loose structure is obtained (when the carbon content is: 1.0%, the strength decreases. Therefore, forging high-strength steel needs to master that kind of exquisite pole, and ancient craftsmen also created carburizing technology through constant attempts. Carburizing technology is forging by mixing pig iron and wrought iron, so that active carbon atoms can penetrate into the surface layer of steel parts, thus obtaining high carbon on the surface layer, and maintaining the original composition in the center, thus obtaining high-quality cutting steel.

a workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well

In 307 BC, King Wuling of Zhao ordered to imitate the nomadic people "riding and shooting Khufu", from which the world saw the power of cavalry, and Zhao relied on cavalry to dominate for a while. However, the cavalry at that time was very simple. On the one hand, there is no stirrup, on the other hand, there is no weapon suitable for cavalry. But even so, Zhao's cavalry is also awesome, not to mention the "steel teacher" of the Han Dynasty.

As mentioned earlier, the length of the ring head knife can reach about one meter. The so-called "one inch long and one inch strong", it seems that the ring head knife is naturally equipped for cavalry units. Because of its "one-sided blade" and "thick ridge", the ring sword has a completely different attack mode from the traditional sword. On the battlefield, it can rely on the fast-running war horse to provide it with extra acceleration, and with the heavy blade, it often has the effect of killing with one blow. On the other hand, the weapon most commonly equipped by Xiongnu troops in those days was the "straight knife", which was far weaker than the ring-head knife in both steel and power, and nearly 30 cm shorter than the ring-head knife. Do you find it irritating? Therefore, the mighty ring sword is still very deterrent to Huns on the battlefield.

However, there was another problem at that time. 80% of the one-meter-long ring knife is a sword, and only a small part of the holding position is reserved. If a soldier wields a knife with all his strength on the battlefield, it will have a great reaction to his wrist (lever principle), and even lead to the release of weapons in melee. This fatal problem needed to be solved at that time. However, it was the Han soldiers who finally solved the problem. As they became more and more skilled in using ring knives, Han soldiers began to transform their weapons. Soldiers wrap a short piece of cloth around the ring head and tie it to their wrists in battle, so that even if the ring head knife is accidentally loosened, they can quickly recapture the weapon, because the hand and the knife are connected by cloth. The ring head originally used for decoration has become a life-saving skill with the wisdom of soldiers.

For thousands of years after the Han Dynasty, the sword with the ring head ran through the cold weapon history of the whole Chinese nation.

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the ring-headed sword evolved into a new shape-tangdao. The most remarkable difference between tangdao and the ring-head knife is that tangdao removed the ring head with both hands for beauty and convenience. Later, Japan imported Tang broadsword from the Tang Dynasty, and made imitation and sinicization improvement, which eventually evolved into the present Japanese sword. After the July 7th Incident, Japan invaded China on a large scale, and many Japanese commanders with Japanese knives committed heinous crimes in China. They may not know that the mountain city in their hands is from China.

In the face of aggression, the Chinese people did not flinch. In the face of well-equipped Japanese troops, many Japanese troops can only be equipped with broadswords. There is a very touching photo of a soldier walking calmly to the battlefield with a big knife, and the most remarkable thing on that big knife is the ring head. This weapon, which has gone through thousands of years, still defends the reproduction and glory of Chinese civilization with his indomitable spirit.

Ring sword can be called the "soul" of the Chinese nation!

Huanshoudao was born in the Western Han Dynasty in China. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of working people in ancient China and has made great contributions to the prosperity of the Han Dynasty.

Looking around the world, it's hard to find weapons such as ring-headed knives. It is like a "brand" that has followed our whole nation for thousands of years. The development of Huanshoudao has soaked the wisdom of the ancient ancestors of the Chinese nation and created unparalleled feats in the war of the Han nationality.