In ancient times, war was a constant theme. Some of the battles were large-scale, like thousands of arrows, and left a deep impression. And some of the smaller ones are just a few strokes in the history books, and almost no one knows about them.
There was a variety of tactics in ancient warfare, and both the ** and the tactical means were varied. For example, before some battles in the TV series, soldiers would stick feces in their bows and arrows, which made Wang Mang feel a little puzzled.
He didn't understand why the soldiers behaved this way, for superstition or for some other reason. In fact, this behavior was very common in ancient warfare. Because feces are rich in bacteria, and in ancient times, it also had an elegant name - golden juice.
As a ranged **, arrows can cause fatal damage as long as they hit an enemy. Especially if the shot is an enemy vital point or blood vessel, combined with vigorous exercise, it will cause a lot of blood loss, which can lead to death.
One might wonder, why not use poisoned arrows? This is mainly due to the fact that wars on the battlefield often require large quantities of consuming poisons, which are uncommon and require a tedious process of plant extraction to make.
In contrast, feces are an everyday item that can be accessed at any time. Sometimes, a small amount of the poison is boiled with the feces and then sealed for a period of time to allow bacteria to grow.
During the siege, the soldiers defending the city will directly splash boiled feces and a small amount of poison on the siege soldiers, and some gold juice that is too late to seal will be used directly in case of emergency.
Under the action of boiling water, the gold juice will be poured on the besieging soldiers, resulting in broken skin, redness, swelling and pain, coupled with a large number of bacteria, which can lead to large-scale infection, and if not timely, it can even lead to death.
Sometimes, soldiers would stick arrows into their dung and shoot them out, using the germs on the arrows to attack the enemy.
On the battlefield, if the enemy's wounds are not treated in time, they are very likely to become infected and even kill in serious cases. And for enemies without visible wounds, infection can also occur due to the presence of bacteria.
In such a situation, some people choose to escape**, but the consequences are often unimaginable. Just like Guan Yu in the Battle of Xiangfan, although Hua Tuo's bone scraping process was painful, he understood that if it was not treated, the infection would spread throughout the body and eventually lead to death.
Therefore, only a few people are able to bear such pain and accept **.
Although this method is highly lethal, it is difficult to use on a large scale due to the high cost. Although feces are readily available, boiling gold juice takes a lot of time and is not easily carried on the march, potentially increasing the risk of infection for soldiers.
Applying gold juice also comes with a time cost, so it's usually only used in key campaigns and characters. The wisdom of the ancients was endless, and they always skillfully exploited the seemingly impossible, whether in war or otherwise.
Although this method is inhumane, since ancient times, there has been no humanity in war, and the ultimate goal is to kill the enemy and win and seize the city.