Introduction of Qin Dynasty Army Weapons

Introduction of Qin Dynasty Army Weapons

Among those heroic terracotta warriors and horses, we can see the majestic momentum of Qin Jun more than 2,000 years ago. In the era of cold weapons, the two major elements of war are the army and weapons. In the six countries where Qin is unified, the victory of weapons is one of the necessary factors to attack the city and plunder the land.

Most of the weapons unearthed in the pit of Qin terracotta warriors and horses are bronze weapons, reaching more than 40 thousand pieces. The number of iron weapons is very small. Only 1 iron spear, 1 iron arrow, 2 iron collar. The unearthed iron weapons only account for one tenth of the total unearthed weapons in the figurine pit.

This shows that although iron has been widely used in agricultural production since the middle and late Warring States period, due to the high requirements for iron in weapons, according to the iron smelting level at that time, it is still in the stage of block ironmaking and green cast iron, and the hardness and strength of these two kinds of iron are not enough, which is not suitable for large-scale manufacturing of weapons. Bronze was widely used at that time, so the Qin people used a large number of bronze weapons with increased alloy ratio, which pushed the bronze smelting process in China to a new milestone.

Both in quality and productivity, Qin Jun's weapons have been greatly improved compared with the previous generation, including almost all kinds of weapons prevailing at that time, such as ge, spear, halberd, sword, crossbow, hammer, cymbal and bronze cymbal. , and the first discovery of long beryllium and gold (Wu) hooks, some weapons have complete inscriptions.

According to their functions, they can be divided into three categories: the first category is short weapons, including swords and gold hooks; The second category is long-handled weapons, including spears, spears, halberds, cymbals, scorpions, beryllium and so on. The third category is long-range weapons, such as crossbows and bows. These weapons are all cast, and the main components are copper, tin and lead, as well as trace elements such as nickel, magnesium, aluminum, zinc, iron, silicon, manganese and titanium.

In the long-term bronze smelting practice, the ancients intuitively understood the relationship between alloy composition, properties and uses, and summarized the law of "six gases". The so-called "six vessels" are six different copper-tin ratios used in six different bronzes.

In this respect, the description of "Six Qi" in Kao Gong Ji written by Qi people at the end of the Warring States Period is the earliest scientific summary of alloy proportioning law in the world. For the first time, human beings have obtained alloy materials with different properties and suitable for different purposes by consciously controlling the composition ratio of copper and tin.

From the analysis of the alloy proportion of various bronze weapons of the unearthed Terracotta Warriors and Horses, it is basically consistent with the proportion of "Six Qi" in Kao Gong Ji. Explain that Qin had learned to absorb and use the advantages of others for his own use at that time, and standardized this ratio. For example, the bronze swords unearthed from the terracotta warriors' pits have tin contents ranging from 18% to 2 1%, which is very close to the hardness of medium carbon steel after tempering.

At that time, Qin Jun claimed to have millions of infantry, thousands of chariots and tens of thousands of war horses, and the number of weapons needed was extremely large, so the guarantee mechanism of weapons manufacturing was particularly important. Qin people's practice is to institutionalize weapons production, standardize molds and technological processes, and use laws to constrain them.

"Eighteen Kinds of Qin Laws: Commercial Laws" clearly records that the size, length and width of utensils are the same. The same is true of all similar artifacts unearthed from the Qin terracotta warriors pit, such as the copper crossbow in the weapon, and the same parts on each crossbow machine are interchangeable. For example, the head of a bronze cymbal is triangular, and the three faces and edges are processed into parabolas, which are basically equal.

Magnifying the three surfaces of cymbals by 20 times, it is found that the three-surface errors of the same cymbal are less than 0. 15 mm, and the errors of different cymbals are less than 0.2 mm, which is a very high accuracy standard.

Matching with the law is the implementation of the reward and punishment method of "testing the sincerity in the name of the worker", which requires that the name of the year of production, organization, supervisor and specific producer be engraved on the weapon, so that the ingenuity of the craftsman can be fully demonstrated and affirmed.

None of the weapons unearthed in the pit rusted, because there was effective rust prevention technology at that time. Analysis by electron probe and laser technology shows that there is a chromium salt oxide layer on the surface of bronze weapons, which is very common in weapons, indicating that this is not caused by accidental factors, but is formed after intentional technological treatment, which plays a good role in rust prevention and makes weapons bright as new and extremely sharp.

It is precisely because of strict system management that the Qin Dynasty applied the most skillful bronze manufacturing technology at that time to weapons production, which provided sufficient weapons support for the Six-Nation War and created one miracle after another in the history of weapons.