| The Song-Jin war began in the seventh year of Xuanhe(1125)and ended in the first year of Duanping(1234).Song army based on the reality of infantry-based conditions,innovative weapons to restrain the Jin cavalry.The Jin army was good at cavalry tactics,so in the selection of weapons,pay attention to the adaptability of weapons and cavalry.The battle of attacking and defending the city and the water battle will also affect the application of weapons on both sides.The main battles of the Jin Dynasty against the Northern Song Dynasty were the Battle of Taiyuan,the Battle of Zhending,and the Battle of Bianjing.The Jin army attacked the Song army with fast and mobile cavalry,while attacking the Northern Song cities.In the Battle of Taiyuan,Song army prepared chariots and used bows and other weapons to resist the impact of Jin cavalry on the one hand,and actively responded to Jin’s stone throwers,caves,ladders and other siege weapons on the other.In the battle of Bianjing,the Song army mainly used bows and crossbows,stone throwing machines to attack the Jin army from high up,and also sent men and horses out of the city gates to cut down the Jin siege equipment and assassinate the Jin soldiers.The main battles between Jin and Southern Song were the battle of Huang Tiandang,the battle of Heshang Yuan,the battle of Xiangyang,the battle of Shunchang,the battle of Placebo,the battle of Caishi and so on.In the battle of HuangTianDang,the two armies mainly used long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows to attack each other.In the Battle of Heshangwon,the Song army innovated the method of firing bows and crossbows and won the battle.In the Battle of Xiangyang,the Song army used long spears and large axes to defeat the Jin cavalry.In the Battle of Shunchang,the Song army first used a new type of bow to repel the Jin army,then sent infantry to attack and finally defeated the Jin cavalry.In the battle of Placebo,the Song army used swords,axes and other weapons to hack the legs of horses and restrain the Jin cavalry.The Jin army fired bows and arrows intensively in the movement battle,which caused a lot of damage to the Song army.In the battle of Caishi,the Song army used new bows to block the river mouth and shoot the Jin army,which eventually won.Weapons widely used in Song-Jin battles were swords,sabers,axes,spears,bows,crossbows,firearms and so on.The Song army used knife-like weapons mainly in close combat and siege and defending the city.Song army’s saber is a new type of weapon used to break the cavalry of Jin army.The Jin army used shorthandled swords for close defense and long-handled swords for immediate slashing.Although sword-like weapons are not as important as swords,axes,spears and other weapons,but still can play the role of commanding the team or deterring the enemy.The axe-like weapons of the Song army developed into special weapons for breaking formation and plundering horses and attacking and defending cities during the battle.The Song army’s application of spears was rich and varied,with a focus on fighting the Jin cavalry.Jin army application spear weapon to cavalry as the core.The Jin cavalry focused on wielding spear thrusts in the Mercedes,while the infantry mainly used guns to protect the cavalry.Song army mostly used bones and sticks type weapons to defend the city as well as to knock down the Jin cavalry.The Jin cavalry wielded sticks during the charge and knocked down the Song troops.Song firearms were deeply integrated with cold weapons,using bows,crossbows and stone throwers to achieve greater killing effect.The new firearms invented and manufactured by the Jin army,such as fire cannon and Zhentian Thunder,could be used without relying on cold weapons,showing the quality of independent progress.As for the weapons such as cave,the Song army mainly used them for defense and the Jin army mainly used them for attack.Song and Jin armies showed obvious differentiation in the application of weapon selection.The bow and crossbow were the core weapons for the Song and Jin armies to generate combat power.In infantry position warfare,the Song army used the bow to block the Jin attack with covering fire;to build battlefield advantages with precise fire;and to control key points for land and water defense.The Song army established a multi-soldier system centered on the bowmen,training both bowmen to master other weapons and gunners and other soldiers to strengthen the synergy with the bowmen.The Jin cavalry used weaker bows and had less range than the Song army.Therefore,on the one hand,the Jin army carried out movement warfare mainly by roundabout maneuvers to avoid the Song army’s bows,on the other hand,after approaching the Song army’s position,they carried out mass shooting to suppress the Song army with numerical superiority.The crossbow was an important weapon for the Song army to win.Song military crossbow can be used in land warfare to guard the pass,waiting for the opportunity to attack the Jin army;can be in the water warfare to block the ferry,and then chase the Jin army;can be in the ambush war to lure the enemy deep,and then destroy the Jin army;can be in the defensive city to repel the Jin army attack.The Jin army kept imitating and learning the Song army’s crossbow weapon technology in the battle.The combined crossbow was so powerful that the Song army used it in defending Bianjing,but it was hardly used afterwards because of its inconvenience.The shin-arm bow was an important weapon for the Song army to turn the tide of battle.The Song army used it many times to repel the Jin army’s attack and turn the disadvantage.The Song army transformed the formation and established the core position of the shin-arm bowmen.After the Jin army saw the power of the divine arm bow,they took the initiative to collect intelligence to strengthen the imitation,but the results were not good because the divine arm bow did not match with the Jin army’s cavalry tactics.The Song army created a series of new bows and crossbows,such as the Keking bow and the Shenjin bow,on the basis of the Shenjian bow,but many factors,such as the loss of craftsmen,caused a number of follow-up problems.Stone throwing warfare was a key weapon for both Song and Jin armies in attacking and defending cities.The Jin army used intensive projectiles to repeatedly break through Song cities.The Song army defended the city with artillery,and the Jin army threw artillery stones at each other,while innovative stone throwing weapons,hoping to expand the battle results.The Song army also focused on setting up tents to intercept the Jin army’s stone projectiles and reduce battle damage.Due to the limitation of small space on the city wall,the Song army had difficulty in exercising the maximum power of stone throwing weapons,and a large number of cannon frames were abandoned outside the city,thus leading to the loss of Bianjing.In the subsequent battles,the use of stone throwing weapons was not as large as that in the late Northern Song Dynasty,as the Song and Jin were mostly fighting in motion.The Song people were technologically advanced and ahead of Jin.The Song army was able to deal well with the contradictory relationship between range,lethality,and ease of use when improving bows,crossbows,stone throwing weapons,etc.It is evident that the Song army’s weapon concept reached a considerable height.However,the Song army was at a disadvantage in the battle because of inadequate application of weapons,chaotic dynasty and tactical blunders.The weapon manufacturing level of the Jin army was in a relatively inferior position.The Jin army relied on wartime captures to quickly reduce the weapon technology gap with the Song army.At the same time strengthen the tactical application,disrupt the rhythm of the Song army’s attack,so that the disadvantage will be reversed.In short,the Song and Jin sides target each other’s weapons application,led to the change of Song and Jin warfare.In the course of the war,the weapon technology of both Song and Jin also developed and progressed. |
