Can ancient magic soldiers really "cut iron like mud"?

Can ancient magic soldiers really "cut iron like mud"?

There are many legends about magic weapons in ancient China, and there are also many plots in martial arts novels that "if you gain the advantage of the sword, your skill will be twice as high". The story of "Yang Zhi selling knives" in Water Margin lists three criteria of this magic weapon: cutting copper and iron, finding fault, and killing people without seeing blood. So does this ancient magic weapon really exist? What is the earliest place of origin?

I. Bronze weapons in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

The primitive tribal period is divided into "Paleolithic Age" and "Neolithic Age". Whether it is historical records or archaeological excavations, it will be found that the production tools and weapons of this period are made of wood and ground stones. Bronzes began to appear in the Xia Dynasty. At least in Shang dynasty, weapons made of bronze appeared.

Compared with stones, bronze weapons are naturally much sharper, and troops equipped with bronze weapons are more effective than those equipped with stones. At that time, which country possessed more bronze resources took the initiative. Daggers made of bronze appeared in Shang Dynasty, but there was no way to make longer weapons due to technical reasons. However, the Zhou tribe has mastered some techniques and can make long swords out of bronze. Although this sword is shorter than the later generations, it has grown a lot compared with the merchants at that time.

It is this difference in bronze forging technology that leads to the fact that bronze weapons in Shang Dynasty can only use daggers or wooden poles to make spears, guns and other long weapons, while Zhou has been equipped with bronze swords. The power of bronze sword can be seen when it was recorded as "bleeding" in the battle of Makino in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. With a sharp bronze sword, you can easily stab your opponent with a bronze dagger, or you can personally defeat an army with wooden weapons. In this case, the opponent can only "run away" or "blood drift" caused by death.

Second, from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, "cutting iron like mud"

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bronzes were still the main weapons. With the improvement of smelting technology, knives and swords that were conducive to chopping began to appear and develop. During the Spring and Autumn Period, a large number of swordsmen appeared, among which Ou Yezi, Ganjiang, Mo Xie and Mei Chi were famous. They cast many swords as sharp as mud, the most representative of which is the sword of Gou Jian, the king of Yue.

1, the earliest magic weapon

The bronze sword of the King of Yue, the sword of Gou Jian of the King of Yue, 1965 was unearthed in Hubei, with exquisite shape and incomparable sharpness. During the excavation, an archaeologist accidentally cut his finger by a blade. After testing, this sword can easily cut 16 layers of white paper, which shows that its blade is still sharp despite thousands of years of burial. According to scientific tests, Gou Jian's sword is made of various metal alloys, especially the surface pattern is made of copper sulfide, which ensures that the sword body will not rust or corrode for thousands of years.

According to "Notes on the Collection of Relics", Gou Jian once asked Ou Yezi and other famous swordsmen to cast eight swords successively, such as covering the sun, cutting off water, turning spirits, hanging headlands, scaring giants, destroying spirits and being real. When Xue Zhu, a famous sword expert at that time, saw these swords, he couldn't believe that they would be magic weapons that could be found on the earth.

It is the emergence of the bronze magic weapon represented by the sword of Gou Jian, the king of Yue, that created the earliest myths and legends of "blowing hair and breaking blades" and "cutting iron like mud". From the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period, many monarchs were eager to forge unparalleled swords. They invited famous swordsmen to study and innovate at any cost, and finally cast a considerable number of magic weapons. Besides the Eight Swords of the King of Yue, there are other famous swords, such as Tangxi Sword, Mo Yao Sword, Hebo Sword, Deng Shi Sword, Feng Wan Sword, Longquan Sword, Tai 'a Sword, Moxie Sword and Ganjiang Sword.

The common feature of these famous swords is that other metals were added to the traditional bronze casting process at that time to make alloys, and then they were cast with Zhu and other molds. Compared with previous swords, most of them thicken the ridge of the sword body and strengthen the toughness of the sword. Other alloys are added to the blade, which increases the hardness of the blade. The toughness and hardness of this sword are guaranteed, and traditional bronze weapons can often be cut off when fighting with other weapons. This is the origin of the earliest "cutting iron like mud".

2, the emergence of steel

Besides those famous bronze swords, there are also iron swords. From 65438 to 0978, a steel sword was unearthed in the tombs in the late Spring and Autumn Period in Hunan Province, which was also the earliest iron weapon found in China. The carbon content of this sword iron is about 0.5%, which is obviously forged steel rather than pig iron. It can be seen that there was a mature steel forging process at that time.

Due to the limitation of steel forging technology at that time, there were few iron weapons before the Western Han Dynasty, and the quantity and quality were difficult to guarantee. However, many swordsmen find that iron can improve its toughness and hardness after repeated forging, which is incomparable to bronze. Once an excellent sword is made of steel, most bronze weapons can be completely cut off or even cut off by virtue of its high toughness and hardness. It can be said that for bronze, steel can really "cut iron like mud".

3. Development of ironmaking process

In the Han dynasty, the smelting of steel was greatly developed. In the past, iron was repeatedly forged with iron blocks, and the carbon content in different parts and grades of iron was different, which led to the quality of steel was not guaranteed. Or toughness is not enough, or hardness is not high. Occasionally, special suitable steel will be made, and forging is the magic weapon.

However, the steel blasting method in the Western Han Dynasty and the steel pouring method in the Eastern Han Dynasty have successively improved the process, which can reduce and ensure the carbon content in iron. Relatively speaking, the toughness and hardness of steel can be adjusted by carbon content.

The appearance of a large number of famous swords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty reflected the achievements of iron and steel smelting's technological development in the Han Dynasty. Cao Cao's heavenly sword, green sword, Sun Jian's ancient spindle knife, Liu Bei's "Eight Swords of Shu" and Sun Quan's "Six Swords of Wu" are all famous swords produced in this period.

In addition, during Zhuge Liang's administration, he also invited the famous swordsman Puyuan to build 3,000 treasure knives to equip the army. This kind of knife adopts exquisite first-come quenching technology, which makes the blade reach the most reasonable hardness and can split the bamboo tube filled with iron beads with one knife, and is known as the "magic knife". During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the steel casting method was popularized throughout the country.

Third, tangdao in Sui and Tang Dynasties: the real magic weapon.

The Sui and Tang Dynasties was the peak of China's ancient sword forging technology, and tangdao in this period was the most outstanding representative of standard weapons in ancient cold weapons. Tangdao is the collective name of four kinds of military standard weapons in Sui and Tang Dynasties, mostly referring to Tang straight knives. It is developed and created on the basis of ring-head knife. Tangdao generally has a narrow blade, a single blade, a straight blade and an acute angle at the tip.

Tangdao, whether it is a kick or a horse chop, or even a stab, can exert great lethality. Moreover, because tangdao has adopted the most advanced ladle blade method and earth-covering blade burning technology, its toughness and hardness are maximized, and it is easy to store and the blade is not easy to deform, so it is very durable.

1, ladle blade method and soil-covered blade combustion method

The ladle blade method adopted by tangdao is a tool forging process that has been used up to now. Traditional steelmaking methods can only produce a single steel grade, or lose toughness because of too high carbon content, or have no hardness because of too low carbon content. The rule of ladle blade is that the blade body is forged by wrapping wrought iron with wrought iron, so that the blade body is tough because of the middle wrought iron, and it is not easy to deform and break, and the skin part uses the hardness of wrought iron to create a sharp blade body. You can kill two birds with one stone.

The method of covering the soil and burning the blade is based on the method of wrapping the steel blade, which locally quenches the blade of the tool to make the angle of the blade extremely small, and wraps the part of the blade that does not need high hardness with soil. After the cutting edge is made, it will be quickly cooled and shaped by cold water, but the mud-coated blade will not be affected. So that the toughness of the cutter body and the hardness of the blade achieve the best effect. Up to now, many famous tool brands in the world are still using ladle blade method and soil-covering blade burning method.

2. The power of Tangdao

In the Tang Dynasty, there were many masters and military commanders who used tangdao, and there were also many records of using tangdao. "Biography of Qiu Gong in Old Tang Dynasty" records: "My father-in-law held a long knife in front of the imperial horse, jumped up and shouted, beheaded several people, and suddenly got out and joined the army"; "Biography of Fu Gongyou in Old Tang Dynasty" records: "There are thousands of men and women in Gongshui, all holding long knives ... every time they kill a few people, no one can do it before."

"The Book of the New Tang Dynasty and Biography of Li" records: "At the beginning of the army, strange knives were used, but the inheritance was particularly good. In every battle, it must be a pioneer, and it will destroy the north ... that is, it will kill dozens of people with long knives and reorganize the array. " And "lead the strange swordsmen to board the ship first when they are in danger and strive to kill the enemy." When the time comes, defeat the Tubo army and behead 5,000 soldiers.

As can be seen from these records, Qiu, Fu Gongyou, Li, etc. Tangdao is used in the army, and tangdao is used to exert the greatest fighting capacity. These people were active in various periods of the Tang Dynasty, so it can be seen that tangdao was used throughout the Tang Dynasty, and according to the records of "strange knives were used for the first time in the army" and "thousands of men and women held long knives", it can also be seen that there were troops specially equipped with tangdao in the Tang Dynasty.

And whether it is to pacify internal invasion or resist external invasion, tangdao is also useful. It can be seen that tangdao's great power, long service time, large quantity of equipment and wide application scope are rare.

3. The influence of Tang Dao.

The production techniques of tangdao and tangdao were later spread to Japan, where they were inherited and developed according to the characteristics of Shai Jian and became a mountain city in Japan. Tangdao, the earliest tangdao discovered in Japan, is still in Zhengcang Academy in Japan, providing the embryonic form for the development of Japanese swords in later generations.

In Song Dynasty, Japanese swords could surpass China in quality. Ouyang Xiu wrote in Song of Japanese Knife: "Bao Dao is near Japan, and Judd of Yue is in Haidong", which shows that Japanese sword was a symbol of quality at that time. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many records that Japanese weapons were cut off by Japanese knives during the Sino-Japanese War.

After the Tang Dynasty, China's sword craft gradually developed to a small scale. This is related to the policy of "emphasizing literature over martial arts" since the Northern Song Dynasty. The high cost of ladle blade method also determines that it cannot equip the army on a large scale, and it is directly related to the ruler's control of weapons such as swords. The indirect result is that it is difficult for China people to see the magic weapon of "cutting the copper and cutting the iron", "finding fault" and "killing without bloodshed". Although this word is too flattering, there are always many magic weapons between the two sides to kill without bloodshed.