In the past 5,000 years, there have been countless dynasties and kings in China, but none of them can be compared with Qin Shi Huang's contributions.
Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, invented the title of emperor, changed the feudal system to the county system, and the book was the same as the literary car and the same track, and any thing can be boasted of for a lifetime.
What people don't know, however, is that Qin Shi Huang also had two other inventions that have been difficult to imitate so far.
For a long time, bows and arrows were the masters of the battlefield, and we often see scenes of thousands of arrows firing in TV dramas. Ancient warfare was basically like that.
But the salvo of 10,000 arrows looks spectacular, but in fact, the lethality is very limited. Because the accuracy of the bow and arrow depends purely on luck, and the arrow falls in a parabolic line, its power is not as good as before.
Therefore, these arrows either do not hit anyone, or they can only injure the opponent and cannot be fatal. If the opponent is fully armored, the effect of the bow and arrow is even more minimal.
In order to solve this problem, the crossbow was born. South Korea, the one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, is the weakest of the Seven Heroes, but it is a big crossbow maker. With the help of the crossbow, Korea was able to compete with the other six countries. And the famous Wei Wushu of Wei is also very good at using crossbows, and everyone is a marksman, which shows the importance of crossbows.
But it was the Qin State that really carried forward the crossbow.
The strength of Qin's crossbow amazed the other six countries, and their crossbow was not worth mentioning at all in front of Qin's crossbow.
Under the instruction of Qin Shi Huang, the craftsmen of the Qin State racked their brains to strengthen the Qin crossbow in all directions.
The first is range. The maximum range of the Qin crossbow is a few hundred feet, which is equivalent to about 300 meters. Its effective killing range is also 150 meters. For ordinary crossbows, the maximum range is only 200 meters.
And in order to make the Qin crossbow have such a range, the craftsmen also made some changes to the Qin crossbow. In addition to the wood, the main body of the crossbow is also equipped with bronze components, which are used to reinforce and ensure that the Qin crossbow can withstand the tension of the bowstring.
And in order to ensure the efficiency of the shooter's use of the Qin crossbow, the main body of the Qin crossbow is wound with strips of cloth to prevent slipping. And the lower end of the Qin crossbow is also made to resemble a wavy shape, which is easy to grasp. In this way, the Qin crossbow is not easy to slide and shake in the hand, which ensures the frequency and stability of shooting.
In addition, the craftsmen of the Qin State also invented something called "Wangshan", which somewhat resembles the aiming holes found on modern firearms. Using the principle of two points and one line, shooters can easily aim at the target.
You know, it's very difficult to train a marksman. But with the "Wangshan", the Qin Dynasty could mass-produce marksmen. Although it is not enough to hit 100 shots, 10 arrows can hit 78 arrows, which is already very impressive.
This is not over, the craftsmen of the Qin State also transformed the crossbow arrows used by the Qin crossbow. Using a triangular arrowhead that was common in later generations, it was similar in shape to a bullet, and they both used aerodynamics to reduce drag, allowing the crossbow to shoot farther and penetrate more powerfully.
Interestingly, after we all used crossbows for more than a thousand years, Europeans still used bows and arrows. The first time they came into contact with crossbows was through Arab merchants.
At that time, the European aristocracy liked hunting, and they were pleasantly surprised to find that the crossbow was much better than the traditional bow and arrow, so they switched to crossbows for hunting.
In this way, the crossbow slowly spread in Europe. What they don't know is that the Chinese have been using this thing for more than a thousand years. It can be said that it is far ahead.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the casting technology of bronze ** was very mature, but at that time, the main use of long handles such as Ge and spears was used in the war, on the one hand, they had a long attack distance, on the other hand, they used wood in addition to the top ** part, which could save bronze.
However, this type of long-handled** has a fatal flaw.
On the one hand, according to the principle of leverage, if the ** is too long, the force will decrease in the process of transmission, and ten percent of the force may only be able to exert three or four percent in the end.
On the other hand, these long-handled** are not flexible to use. Long-range attacks are inferior to crossbows, and close-range attacks are inferior to swords.
And in the standard of the Qin State, in addition to the Qin crossbow, it is the Qin bronze sword.
Of course, there are still many differences between the bronze swords of the Qin State and the bronze swords of other countries.
The first is that the length is not the same.
The bronze sword of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is generally about 20 centimeters in length, which is very different from the sword we know, more like a dagger.
This is also easy to understand, after all, the main melee weapons at that time were miserable and spears, and bronze swords were only used for auxiliary, so save some materials if you can.
However, the bronze sword of the Qin State is more than seventy centimeters long, although its attack range is not as good as that of Ge and the spear, but generally as long as he dodges the opponent's first blow and gets close, the soldiers of the Qin State holding the bronze sword can kill the Quartet.
After all, the strength and flexibility of the Qin Bronze Sword are not comparable to those long-handled.
When Jing Ke assassinated the King of Qin, Jing Ke "tried to see the poor dagger", Qin Shi Huang drew his sword while dodging the attack, but he didn't pull it out for a long time, because Qin's sword was too long, and even Qin Shi Huang himself was not used to it, so he still drew his sword according to the posture of drawing a short sword. But when Qin Shi Huang pulled out his sword, Jing Ke had no chance of winning.
But the Qin Bronze Sword is more powerful in two points.
First, Qin bronze swords are far sharper than traditional bronze swords.
I have to say that the Qin State has taken great pains in this regard. They improved the bronzing process and increased the purity of the bronze sword, which allowed them to create thinner tips.
According to ancient sayings, the Qin bronze sword was enough to sharpen iron like clay.
Second, the Qin bronze sword has a certain toughness. This makes them less susceptible to damage when colliding with other weapons.
In 1974, archaeologists found a Qin bronze sword in the terracotta warrior ruins. At that time, the bronze sword had been bent by a heavy object.
But when the people moved the heavy object away, this Qin bronze sword miraculously slowly recovered. The blade of the sword became straight again.
It wasn't until many years later that people figured out that the original Qin bronze sword was cast using a technology similar to "chromium salt oxidation". As for how the ancients mastered this technique more than 2,000 years ago, it is still unknown. But what is certain is that among all the bronze weapons in the world, only the Qin bronze sword uses this technology.
Once again, Qin was far ahead of the world.
Through the Qin crossbow and the Qin bronze sword, it is not difficult to see that the Qin State under the rule of Qin Shi Huang experienced an "industrial revolution", which made the Qin State's manufacturing technology advance by leaps and bounds. It was with such great strength that Qin Shi Huang was able to establish the Qin Dynasty and leave so many "legacies" for future generations.