The development of weapons and equipment of the Qin army has gone through four periods of tempering, and reached its peak during the reign of King Yingzheng of Qin and the general Wang Jian. The four periods are:
The first period was the new army founded by Qin Xiaogong and Shang Ying. The new army took the most powerful Wei Wushu at that time as a model, discarded the old-fashioned military system dominated by chariots in the Spring and Autumn Period, and established the first infantry cavalry field army. Because it was the initial period, the iron weapons of the Qin army were relatively poor compared to the large offensive and defensive equipment. However, in the battle to recover Hexi, Shang Ying used 5,000 Qin new troops against Gongzi Wei and 10,000 Wei cavalry, and the Qin army was able to completely annihilate the other party, which shows that the Qin new army was well-equipped.
The second period was the major restructuring of the equipment of the Qin army under King Qin Zhao and Bai Qi. At this time, with Sima Cuo's thousand-mile chin Shu, Li Bing controlled the water in Jiangyan, Bashu was rich as the country of abundance, and the Qin State gradually became strong and rich in goods. After Bai became a general, the Qin army increased the number of major battles, so on the one hand, it vigorously expanded the base of the Qin army, and then made every effort to build and improve various large-scale offensive and defensive equipment, so that the Qin army became the most powerful heavy army at that time. It was from this time that the Qin army's large-scale repeater became the unrivaled number one killer weapon in the world.
The third period was the Great Leap Forward in which Lü Buwei was appointed as the prime minister of the Qin State, and the weapons were refined, large-scale, and institutionalized. Lü Buwei, who was born in the Warring States Period, used to do his biggest business in salt and iron weapons, so he was familiar with all the processes of weapon workshop manufacturing and had a very strategic vision in the transformation of Qin State weapons. His greatest achievement was the promulgation of a decree for all armor-making workshops, which clearly defined the standards for the production of various types of weapons. In today's terms, Lü Buwei is also the originator of the standardized production of China's weapons.
More than 2,000 years later, the weapons unearthed in the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum are engraved with the names of three levels, namely: the top Xiangbang Lü Buwei, the middle is the name of the workshop officials, and the bottom is the manufacturing craftsman. And the most surprising thing is that the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum unearthed physical objects such as arrowheads, tens of thousands of arrows in style, length, and materials are exactly the same, which shows the norms of management at that time and the fineness of the requirements. After the standardization of Daqin's weapons and equipment, the benefits are obvious, and the exchange and combination of weapons parts and components are of great significance for long-distance conquest.
The fourth period is Qin Wangzheng and Wang Qian. At this time, the battlefield faced by the Qin army underwent two major changes. The Qin State began the Great War of Annihilation, and the first thing to consider was to conquer the capitals of the Six Kingdoms, and the capital of each country Chengdu has experienced the reinforcement and elevation of many generations of kings, and this kind of difficult battle requires larger siege machinery and equipment. If the capitals of the six countries can't be captured, how can they dominate the world? Then it is necessary to consider the equipment of the army, which seeks to destroy the main forces of the enemy in a war without leaving any trouble, and this equipment must ensure that it has a deterrent force to destroy the enemy's foundations. Under such a grand strategy, both cavalry and infantry have heavy armor and heavy weapons, and carry large offensive and defensive equipment, so that the Qin army can be independent. In addition, Wang Jian also pioneered a heavy equipment battalion with a large repeater crossbow as the main axis, concentrating all kinds of large-scale offensive and defensive equipment, which can be used to garrison troops for a long time under any fortified city.