Knife ranks first among the eighteen weapons, which is the most widely used weapon in ancient wars in China and the most popular weapon in the hands of soldiers. Knife has been highly valued by military strategists since it became the main melee weapon of soldiers in Han Dynasty. Even in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, there is still a "broadsword team" that uses combat knives. Moreover, in the Red Army troops lacking bayonets, the red tassel knife is also an indispensable role in hand-to-hand combat.

Knife is the main subject of martial arts in the war, aiming to let ordinary soldiers master their weapons as soon as possible, so as to quickly become a qualified soldier. Ji Xiaoxin's Book, edited by Qi Jiguang in the Ming Dynasty, has a lot of detailed descriptions of knife-cutting, while Wu Xun's The History of Weapons in the late Ming Dynasty also contains the formula and experience of using single-knife and double-knife weapons.

It is only important to note that moves and military martial arts cannot be confused. For example, in various martial arts routine competitions, the kind of knife flowers that are wrapped in silver and can't splash water is not so much a knife technique as a gymnastics performance.

It is an act of putting the cart before the horse to discuss the actual use of knives on the battlefield and study them from individual knife methods or knife methods. Because if we really want to discuss the knife method of the army array, we need to combine the actual situation of the battlefield.

After the popularity of the ring sword in Han Dynasty, leather, sword and other weapons were replaced. To a great extent, this is because the ring-head knife in the Han Dynasty adopted the horizontal knife type, because it contains the practical use and function of defensive weapons such as swords and swords, and then replaced these weapons.

First of all, the shape of the Han ring sword comes from the technological inheritance. The two-stage design of its front blade continued to the later Tang horizontal knife, and then inherited the Japanese knife. In fact, this design was first applied to bronze swords in the Warring States period, so it was given the dual functions of stabbing and cutting.

In the battle map of the Warring States period, we can see that warriors with swords and guns are mostly charged at the front line. The sword in the warrior's hand is the main weapon to kill the enemy, while Ge is used to block or hook the opponent's weapon, so that his array can break through the enemy's defense. In addition, nearly half of the 22 long swords found in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Qin Emperor's Mausoleum were found on or around the archers in the front line of the whole army.

It can be seen that in the Qin Dynasty, as the vanguard of the whole army, crossbowmen not only used long-range weapons to shoot the enemy, but also needed to cooperate with the rear long-handled weapons to rush into the array.

It can be seen that the soldiers who hold the ring sword have the same status in the war as the soldiers who charge with swords and daggers, and they are all front-line hand-to-hand combat arms.

The research report on the first grinding of the ring head knife in Han Dynasty describes: "The center of gravity of this knife is located 530 mm in front of the ring head, and it feels forward when held with one hand, so it is not as comfortable as expected. The holder of this knife should be a strong warrior. " It can be seen that the center of gravity of Han Huan's first knife is in the front, and it is a bit laborious to swing, but the corresponding swing strength is unexpectedly strong. Therefore, although the blade of Han Huan's first sword looks slender, it is easy for opponents who use long-pole weapons to fly their weapons at once and then break through in the melee. If the ring-head knife is used in combination with the shield, it will be very terrible to destroy the enemy's array.

At the same time, the cutting force of the ring head knife is not weak at all. Tao Hongjing of Nanliang recorded in The Record of Sword that Dong Yuancheng, a general of the State of Wu, was young and brave, and had personally built an iron knife. Later, he used this knife to cut the bow of Huang Zu's "Meng Chong bucket boat" into two pieces and diverted it, so he was named Fu, and people called this treasure knife "Duan Meng Dao".

In addition, the use of carburized steel armor has been recorded in China since the Western Han Dynasty, and the popularity of armor armor is also increasing. Facing the increasingly impenetrable defense, we naturally need strong and sharp weapons. Because the ring-head knife adopts the structure of large obtuse angle blade and two-stage blade, it is much more robust than the double-sided sword, and the blade damage is less when armor is broken, and the maintenance is more convenient. So it is not difficult to understand why Huan Jian can quickly replace Ge Hejian in the war.

Generally speaking, in the war, there are only two basic actions used by the ring sword:

First, chop. This is an effective means of attack. During the attack, when the long-handled weapons break into the enemy's array, the enemy's long-handled weapon formation is destroyed.

Second, the thorn. This is a means to take care of the compactness of the queue when defending with a shield, and at the same time effectively attack the opponent without destroying the formation.

The rest of the so-called knife method is just the development of these two movements. From this, the defensive action "knock" and the offensive action "lift" evolved from chopping action, and the "twist" evolved from stabbing action.

In war, the specific application of knife method depends on the specific opportunity. When landing in the city, teasing is the only magic weapon. The purpose is to use the weight of the blade to swing the opponent's weapon and open the way for his backup companion.

When the array moves slowly or defends, chopping up and down and stabbing with small moves are the main means to keep the array neat and effectively kill the enemy through the combined attack of various weapons. For example, the strange sword array in the Tang Dynasty or the horse-chopping knife array in the Song Dynasty are all techniques used in the array.

In infantry melee combat, the ring knife can be used with both hands, or it can be used with one hand combined with shield or hook. Compared with Ge and Jian, the ring knife has obvious advantages in fighting. It has two advantages: the action of stabbing is small and sudden, and the swing of Ge is powerful and lethal. At the same time, it has no shortcomings such as the length of ge's sword, high cost, easy damage and inconvenient maintenance. Moreover, after the emergence of "Hundred Steelmaking" technology, this advantage has been further strengthened.

In addition, the first knife of Han Huan is actually a double-edged sword. Because the center of gravity of the thick ring first knife is in the front, the rider can cut off his opponent with only one effective swing. If the opponent is wearing armor, even if the armor is not cut, a heavy blunt blow is enough to cause serious internal injuries. When chasing a horse, cavalry with a length of more than 120 cm can also stab an opponent with an effective jab.

Knife changed significantly from the end of Jin Dynasty to Sui and Tang Dynasties, because there were obvious differences between cavalry knives and infantry knives during this period. In the Song Dynasty, the shapes of knives and weapons became more specialized. Infantry combat knives use a large number of large long-handled broadswords with long handles and heavy bits in order to use their length to prevent cavalry from impacting. At the same time, the guard weapon was replaced by a low-cost hand knife, which is consistent with the characteristics of heavy infantry in Song Dynasty who were good at guard and array operations. At the same time, cavalry began to use long-handled light combat knives, such as pen knives, which are beneficial to stab out immediately and have certain cutting function. In addition, due to the continuous development of armored vehicles, cavalry tends to be blunt, such as iron mace and iron whip.