In the autumn of the first year of northern Jingdezhen (1004), Emperor Shengzong of Liao and Xiao Taihou marched south to the Song Dynasty. Under the stubborn resistance of the soldiers and civilians in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao and Song armies fell into a stalemate. At this critical juncture, LiLin Xiao, a famous Liao national, was shot by Song Jun's crossbow at the foot of Named City, and he was seriously injured and died, which dealt a blow to the morale of the Liao army. The willingness of Liao countries to send people to release the truce and peace talks to Song contributed to the alliance of Yuan Dynasty and the overall peace of Song and Liao countries for more than a hundred years. The wonderful performance of the bed crossbow is like a portrayal of the development of a large heavy crossbow to its peak in the Song Dynasty.
Individual crossbow
Among the crossbows equipped by individual soldiers in the Song Dynasty, there are not only weak crossbows such as jumping crossbows and open-arm wooden crossbows, but also strong crossbows such as black paint crossbows, birch crossbows, yellow birch crossbows, orpiment birch crossbows and divine arm bows. Among them, the arm bow is particularly worth mentioning.
The arm bow is called a bow, but it is actually a crossbow. The crossbow arm is about 98 cm long, the crossbow is about 140 cm long, and the chord length is about 77 cm. It is a strong crossbow equipped by individual soldiers. In the first year of Xining in northern Song Shenzong (1068), it was given by Ding Li, the leader of Tangut in the Song Dynasty. The crossbow is operated by a single soldier, which can easily penetrate the armor, and can "enter the elm for half a yard", that is, half a pole penetrates the elm, with a range of more than 240 steps (more than 360 meters), and its power can be imagined. Song Shenzong immediately decided to mass-produce this crossbow to equip the army.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Han Shizhong, one of the "Four Generals of Zhongxing", improved the magic pen bow and developed the enemy-defeating bow. This is also a pedal crossbow equipped by individual soldiers. Compared with the Divine Arm Bow, its crossbow arm is longer, and its maximum range can be as far as 360 steps (about 540 meters), which is more suitable for cavalry. When firing at the heavy cavalry of the 8 Jin Army, the enemy often "falls with one shot". Then the magic bow was derived, which was more powerful than the enemy's bow. However, because it takes about three times as long to pull a string and build a crossbow, the versatility of this crossbow is relatively limited. In a word, the arm bow and several kinds of crossbows improved from the arm bow are the most powerful among individual crossbows.
Arm arch (recovery):
During the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1068 ~ 1077), individual crossbows were mass-produced. The magic pen bow showed its super long-range shooting ability and penetrating power in the test shooting, so it was vigorously promoted by the northern song government and used until the southern song dynasty, and it was also outstanding in the anti-gold war.
Bronze crossbow machine in Song Dynasty;
The crossbow machine has a complete tooth hill and no hanging knife. Guo's front end is narrow, with a front slot and two opposite round holes on both sides. The inscription "Yunzhou Zuoyuan Zhang Anzao alone" is engraved on Mount Wangshan.
Large heavy crossbow
The large-scale heavy crossbow in Song Dynasty was further developed on the basis of Tang Dynasty, which was generally called "bed crossbow" (also called "bed crossbow") in Song Dynasty. As a common form of mass production, bed crossbows have various specifications: light, such as arm-to-arm bed crossbows derived from arm-to-arm bows, which can be operated by a single person and fired several arrows at the same time; Middleweight, such as double bow bed crossbow, big cicada crossbow, small cicada crossbow, The sub-crossbows are two crossbows, one in front and the other in back. It takes 4 ~ 7 people to turn the winch to tighten the string before they can operate. Heavyweights, such as the hand crossbow, the second crossbow and the third crossbow (also known as the "eight-ox crossbow"), are all equipped with three crossbows, with two ends and one back, which is unprecedented in strength. There are as few as twenty or thirty people and as many as 70 people. Before operation, turn the winch to tighten the strings. This level of bed crossbow also shoots different arrows: there is a so-called "one gun, three swords and three arrows", which is shaped like a javelin and has three iron feathers; There is a so-called "stepping arrow", which is nailed to the city wall after launch, so that the siege party can step on it.
Now Wei Pi, a workshop specializing in making weapons, with the help of Chen, a confidant of the King of Jin (later), designed and manufactured a giant bed crossbow-a thousand-step crossbow. In a test shot, the arrow landed 3 Song Li (about 1800 meters), which can be regarded as one of the longest-range crossbows in the cold weapon era. Later, many craftsmen who made these crossbows and crossbowmen who were good at using crossbows were captured in the Song and Mongolian War and used by Mongols. When the Mongols made their third expedition to the west, Xu Liewu attacked Arab cities many times with the eight-ox crossbows that fired rockets, so the Arabs directly called all kinds of bed crossbows originated from China "ox crossbows". As for the individual light crossbows made and used by Mongols, such as the arm bow, it was mastered by the generals of the Southern Song Dynasty at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty.
Three crossbows (recovery):
A heavy crossbow in Song Dynasty, which used three bows to shoot special arrows. "Wu Jing Zong Yao" records: "Three bows in bed, the first two bows, and the last one." In addition to firing iron-feathered arrows, feathered arrows and western Western jackdaw arrows, soldiers can also fire their arrows with gunpowder. However, although the three crossbows are powerful, they are very heavy and difficult to move. In addition, the low firing rate is also its weakness that cannot be ignored.
Manufacture and consumption of arrows
People often use the words "arrows like rain" to describe shooting scenes on the battlefield. It is not difficult to imagine that the arrows in ancient wars will be consumed as much as ammunition in modern wars. When Li Ling, the general of the Western Han Dynasty, was besieged by the Xiongnu army, he "consumed 500,000 arrows a day", and the arrow consumption rate was amazing. During the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, when Zhang Xun was guarding Qiu Yong, he used up all the arrows in the city, disguised himself as a sneak attack force in the lower city at night, and lured the besieged enemy to shoot arrows at random, and was supplemented by hundreds of thousands of arrows overnight.
In the early period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was only one central organization, the Bow Arrow House (formerly known as the South Arrow House and the North Arrow House), which undertook at least16.5 million arrows making tasks every year, not counting the annual output of local weapons workshops such as the State Army's workshops, the Governor's Academy and folk arrow making workshops. Even in the seventh year of Huizong Zhenghe in the Northern Song Dynasty (117), 50 million arrows were needed without a large-scale war. When the crossbow is used as the main combat weapon, the huge demand for arrows can be seen.
Excerpt from "Uncovering the Bowl": This volume is copied from Li's "Uncovering the Bowl" in Song Dynasty. The picture shows a part of the scroll, showing the soldiers of the Ministry of Magic who use the crossbow, in which the crossbow used by the bull's head is composed of two bows connected in series.
Arrows made by crossbow archery also include tactical weapons-rockets. In the Song Dynasty, rockets were skillfully used. 10 (11), Li Bao, a general of the Southern Song Navy, launched a surprise attack on the Jinshui Navy who was preparing to attack Lin 'an from the sea in the waters near Chenjiadao, Jiaoxi. Song Jun used canoe rockets to hit the tarpaulins of eight Jin Jun warships, and jumped to help carry out hand-to-hand combat on the golden ship that was not on fire. As a result, hundreds of enemy ships were burned and captured, and eight Jin armies were almost wiped out. Dare to attack the golden fleet of 70 thousand people with 3000 troops. In addition to knowing in advance that this army is large in number but generally does not understand water, more importantly, he has rockets and other arms that can destroy the enemy. At that time, Song Jun was more experienced than 8 jin j in using technical weapons such as rockets and cannons (catapults that fired incendiary bombs). In addition, the two sides also have technical differences in the manufacture of specific weapons.
How to use a crossbow
In the face of a large number of cavalry of the northern regime, the main weapon of Song Jun's resistance is undoubtedly the crossbow, especially the strong crossbow such as the arm bow. The Song Dynasty not only made great progress in the manufacturing technology of crossbows, but also made great breakthroughs in the practical application of crossbows. Take the battle of guarding the city as an example. In the Song Dynasty, a special crossbow was built in the fortification, which was the same height as the city, and a shed was built on it, which stood out from the facade of the city wall. Each crossbow table can accommodate 25 crossbowmen. These crossbowmen can shoot not only the enemy in front, but also the enemy in the fire corner of the side wall, which greatly improves the toughness of defense.
The use of the heavy crossbow, similar to the revolver recorded in Mozi's North Studies, continues to be favored by Song Jun. The so-called "turret" is a defense facility that sets the large crossbow on a launcher that can rotate at a certain angle. Just like a turret, it can bring a wider range to a bed crossbow that is too heavy to move. And as long as the position is cleverly set, it can also make the enemy's counterattack difficult to work.
On the battlefield, considering the actual effective range and firing frequency of crossbows, well-trained cavalry can use the gap between the two rounds of shooting to quickly rush to the crossbowman, destroy the formation of the crossbowman and completely destroy the array of the crossbowman. So in the Tang Dynasty, the crossbowman's second attack and third attack took turns shooting. But this is not the main tactic of choosing diversified Tang Jun after all. On the other hand, in many cases, Song Jun does not have the conditions to implement diversified tactics like Tang Jun (for example, Song Jun usually does not have the possibility of implementing large-scale riding and riding coordination due to the lack of military horses). In this case, we must give full play to the role of crossbowmen.
Archers in the Master Book of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Alternate shooting method
As one of the main tactics of crossbowmen in Song Dynasty, taking turns shooting developed three modes:
The first is inherited from the Tang Dynasty, where crossbowmen arranged in several arrays, strung strings, preparing and shooting, repeatedly changing the front, and carrying out continuous strong crossbow attacks at short shooting intervals.
The second is to form an array of three people, the last one is responsible for pulling the string and arrow, the middle one is responsible for passing the ball, and the first one is shot by a crossbowman with high shooting skills, which is also a continuous strong crossbow attack with short shooting interval.
The third is the stacking method founded by Wu Lin, a famous soldier in the Southern Song Dynasty: "In every battle, the pike is the first, you can't sit up, the strongest bow is the second, the crossbow is the second, and the knee is the second. Make an appointment with the enemy, and within a hundred steps, the arm of God will start first; Seventy steps, strong bow concurrent; The second time was like this. Refuse horses every time, and the iron hook is connected. Once injured, it will be replaced. In alternative cases, drums are festivals. Ride out the wings to cover the front, the formation is completed, and the cavalry retreats. This is called stacking. " This is no longer a simple crossbowman tactic, but a multi-arms mixed cooperative operation with crossbows as the main body.
The above tactics, no matter what mode, have higher requirements for the ability of generals to arrange troops, the ability of grassroots officers to command on the spot, and the discipline of officers and men. Therefore, no matter what mode, it needs long-term training to maintain normal play.
Song Dynasty is the peak of crossbow manufacturing technology and application ability. Less than 300 years after the death of Song Dynasty, crossbows faded out of the sight of most military strategists. Although these situations are somewhat regrettable, they are also the normal results of the rolling wheel of history. It was not until modern times that crossbow, as a special-purpose weapon, first appeared in the west, and then regained its position in the world.