At the same time as the establishment of the Qin and Han dynasties, the nomads in the northern steppes were also integrated by the Xiongnu, and the transformation from tribe to empire was initially completed. In view of the severe border defense situation, the Central Plains Dynasty had to spend huge sums of money to build a huge and complex defense line of the Great Wall, and put a large number of soldiers and materials into the major towns along the border to resist the attack of nomadic cavalry on the Han land. Starting from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court took over the Hexi Corridor, opened up the passage to the Western Regions, and could take the initiative to attack the hinterland of the Xiongnu from the flanks. But in this way, the border defense line of the Han Dynasty was stretched longer, and more resources needed to be invested, which increasingly became a heavy burden on the imperial court.
Most of the soldiers on the border need to be transported from the rear, and let them join the army as strong laborers, which will also bring great pressure to the place and their families. These soldiers used their youth and blood and tears to defend this Hu-Han dividing line, spreading the genes of Chinese civilization to distant foreign lands, their names may never be known, but their achievements will live forever. This article tries to make a brief analysis of the materials and ** of the clothes worn by these unsung heroes, so that everyone can have a more intuitive feeling of the border life of the ancients.
Because most of the military facilities such as beacons, post stations, and fortresses on the border are located in bitter cold places, there is a huge temperature difference between day and night even in summer, and the need for cold protection is usually the first place for clothing. During the Qin and Han dynasties, whether in China or Europe, cotton textiles were not the mainstream of clothing materials, and the "cloth" at that time was generally linen, and the materials were all kinds of ramie and linen. At this time, the clothing fabrics of China's nobles were mainly made of various exquisite silk fabrics. Whether it is linen or satin, their cold protection performance is obviously not very good, so the ancients would make them into "robes", that is, wide clothes with sandwiches, also known as "compound clothes" or "compound robes".
The interlayer of the robe will be filled with silk cotton and silk wool, and if it is rough, it will be a mess, and occasionally kapok will be used, but there are very few. In addition to robes, there are also many "furs", that is, clothes made of animal fur. For ordinary soldiers, "sheep fur" is the winter coat they often wear, and the effect of keeping out the cold is also above that of ordinary robes. As for the ** of these clothes, they are both given by the government and brought by themselves. According to the unearthed Han Dynasty Biansai bamboo slips, when the soldiers went to the county where they were located to reorganize, the local government would prepare clothes for them, including one or two sets of winter clothes and summer clothes, among which there were high-value Qiu and robes. However, there seems to be no strict official standard for this benefit, and it is entirely up to the county where the soldier is located to determine it on the basis of local financial resources.
During daily training, patrols, and combat missions, the clothes wear out quickly, and the few items issued by the government alone cannot last long. For a soldier whose family background is quite passable, his family will usually bring his own private clothes, and will also bring some cloth strips, silk wool and other things for sewing and repairing. If it doesn't work, they will write to their families and ask them to send some clothes through the government's post system. Of course, if the family is already poor, they can only try to struggle, and in the winter, they can wear all the clothes they can find, such as winter clothes, summer clothes, and face clothes, layer by layer, and then fill some rags and withered grass and other things, barely maintain their body temperature.
Unlike people's impressions, the administrative efficiency of the Han Dynasty was higher than that of the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations. Judging from the existing historical materials and the records of Biansai Hanjian, although the life of the soldiers at that time was hard, there were still some bottom lines, and if it was a "good family" with an innocent family background, it was not uncommon to change his life and achieve a class jump through military exploits. Therefore, the martial arts of the two Han Dynasty were at their peak, and they won countless brilliant victories in foreign wars.