As early as tens of thousands of years ago, after the birth of the bow and arrow, it subverted the tribal war form at that time. In the past, hand-to-hand combat, after the appearance of the bow and arrow, it can also be turned into ambush long-distance combat, and even a few people can defeat powerful opponents with bows and arrows.
After the Xia Shang, as the scale of the war expanded, the weapons were constantly upgraded.
Take the bow and arrow as an example. The bow is constantly upgrading, for the sake of range, there are compound bows; for the sake of continuous fire, there are repeaters; for precision, there are crossbow machines and bed crossbows. In parallel with the bow, the arrow is also constantly improving.
Originally, the arrow was just a sharpened stone tied to the shaft of the arrow, which had no barbs. Later, bronze tools appeared, and the shape of arrows and hammers was also increasing.
To increase lethality, the copper arrows of the Shang Dynasty were double-winged collars. This type of arrow has a raised ridge in the middle, on both sides are triangular wings that extend outwards, and on the outside of the wings are sharp blades. The two wings converge forward to form an arrow blade, and backwards form a counter-front barb, and the lower end of the ridge, which is the collar, is used to mount the arrow shaft.
Later, the shape of the bronze arrow was constantly changing, such as the two wings were enlarged, the barbs were sharper, and the blood grooves were added to the two wings. This can increase the area of enemy injuries, accelerate blood loss, and pull out is not easy. In a word, it is to effectively kill and injure the enemy.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, diamond-shaped and triangular arrows appeared, and at the same time, the arrows became slender, and some of them could be up to 40 centimeters long.
During this period, especially in the Warring States period, the three-sided arrow of the Qin state was the most famous.
The State of Qin not only had to compete with the Six Kingdoms, but also had to deal with the nomads in the north. And the nomads are good at riding horses and archery, and how to deal with them has become a big problem. During the long war, they found that the crossbow was effective against the nomads.
The Qin crossbow is a stepping crossbow, which must be held with the feet and pulled the string with the help of the strength of the whole body, and the range can reach 300 meters. The arrows used in the crossbow are three-sided arrows.
Archaeologists found many Qin triangular arrows in the tomb and examined more than 900 arrows at the same time. They found that the three edges of these arrows were within 0.02 mm, which was almost exactly the same!
The triangular arrow is a streamlined shape, just like the modern bullet. This design, in line with aerodynamics, the arrow is the same as the airflow up and down the left and right during flight. In this way, when the arrow is in the air, it will not flutter and can hit the target smoothly. Of course, this shape can also reduce air resistance, so the shooting distance is farther than the arrows of the biplane arrows.
The Qin army's crossbow and arrow attack power was thus strengthened.
In 214 BC, after Qin Shi Huang unified Lingnan, he launched an all-out war against the Xiongnu. In one year, 300,000 Xiongnu cavalry were completely defeated, and a large area of land south of the Yellow River was recovered.
Among them, crossbows and three-edged arrows played an important role.
Another point is that the unified standard of arrows can be used by soldiers in different places, without the need to vary from hammer to hammer. In this way, the combat experience of the soldiers will not be wasted, and the efficiency will be greatly improved.