The Tang Empire became the center of the world at that time through enlightened politics and strong military power, from the unification battle in the early Tang Dynasty to all the internal and external wars in the Tang Dynasty, all appeared in the history of cold weapons and had a great impact on later generations of weapons - Tang Dao. At that time, there were two famous knives that were famous in the world with the Arab Damascus sword, and they reached extremely high achievements in both technology and art, and can be said to be the pinnacle of the history of swords in our country.

The Tang knife is divided into two development directions, one is the Mo knife, which is basically used by soldiers, and the other is the ritual knife, which is worn by senior officers, and what Wang Hanzhang wants to build is the instrument knife.

About the appearance of the Tang knife, 1, the knife ring: first of all, the important mark of the knife is the ring, the ring is mainly the dragon and phoenix as the main decoration, the dragon and phoenix and the whole ring body gilded, the dragon and phoenix ring is connected with the knife body in the form of butt welding or riveting, such a production is very ingenious, the production process of the knife ring is exquisite, the decoration is exquisite, and it is operated by a separate craftsman. The forging of the blade is a special forging craftsman forging, so that the two processes ensure the exquisite combination of the whole knife and the excellent forging of the blade, such a process also appeared in the ring hand knife of the Han Dynasty, and the inheritance is orderly and can be seen in general.

Knife handle: more winding gold and silver wire or decorative gold and silver sheets, from Xi'an City unearthed this year a Tang ring hand knife and Japan Tokyo National Museum unearthed ring knife hand, the production of the handle is very close, coincidentally these two large knives have the wrong gold or wrong silver inscription on the back.

Blade: The blade of the Tang knife is a straight knife, no arc, there are two kinds of spine, one is flat, and the text will be inlaid on it, and the other is that the back of the knife has a ridgeline, and such a spine is also in kind in the ancient Tibetan knife. The thickness of the blade near the handle is the thickest, and then it is evenly reduced to the tip.

Knife tip: There are two kinds of knife tip, one is that the tip of the knife is not curved, like the Arabic numeral "7", and the other is the arc of the tip of the knife, which is naturally combined with the blade, and the ancient Tibetan knife strictly follows this shape and retains it.

Knife stop: Judging from the murals and sculptures, the early ceremonial knives did not have a knife stop. The appearance of the knife stall was after the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and some murals and statues vaguely found that the knife stall of the Tang Yi knife was diamond-shaped and relatively small.

Scabbard: The sheath and sheath tail began to be wrapped in metal, and gold and silver were carved. In the early days, there was no ring, it is estimated that the belt was still worn obliquely inserted into the belt to carry, and after the middle period, the hanging ring process of the scabbard was complex, extremely decorative, and the "Jinyindian Zhuang Tang long knife" of the Shosoin can fully reflect the majesty and exquisiteness of the instrument knife in the Tang Dynasty.

Forging: The forging of Tang knives should inherit the "hundred steel" technology invented in the Han Dynasty, and the forging of blades is also composed of compound forging.

At present, the world's Tibetan knives, Korean knives, Japanese knives, Tibetan knives and Korean knives are closer to the shape of Tang Yi knives, that is, sabers equipped with senior personnel.

Wang Hanzhang wants to establish a country and be called the emperor, so he naturally needs some inherited things, in the West it is for the marshal, and the marshal's cane is used for command, but in the East it is a knife, and only the appearance of the Tang Yi knife in the Chinese knife is most suitable for making jewelry with it, and the officers wear it majestic.

Wang Hanzhang since he had extra free time, he began to arrange people to find folk craftsmen, and later generations due to various reasons, China has been devastated for more than a hundred years and the corrosion of Western culture has not much of the legacy left by the ancestors has been artificially cut off again, and when they have passed away at that time, their skills have become loess with their people, so many things can only be sealed in the memory of history.

It's like how shameful it is to not be able to make a Tang knife in later generations, so one is to reward officers for the need for something special to be an emperor, and weapons, especially majestic ones, are the favorite of soldiers. The other is to protect the tangible and intangible cultural heritage left by our ancestors.

In the past few months, the following people have collected a lot of folk knife masters, and there are also many scholars and Confucians who are very interested in ancient culture, and they are tirelessly creating the Tang knife that Wang Hanzhang needs.

First of all, they understand the data of all aspects of the Tang knife, look for the record of the appearance of the Tang Yi knife from the historical records, restore the Tang Yi knife, and then use various means to create a sharp, lightweight, wear-resistant, and hardness Tang Yi knife.

To put it bluntly, it is to cut against the Japanese sword, even if Tang Yi's knife can't cut him, he can't cut it off, otherwise if he really wants to fight the bayonet, then his few generals will be killed by himself, Wang Hanzhang needs not only gorgeous appearance, but also his practical value.

Many people who don't know in later generations have a Tang knife that is not durable and not easy to use, in fact, they are wrong, the loss of the Tang knife is not that he is bad, but that his cost is too expensive.

Think about the fact that when China fights a war, it will be at least tens of thousands of people, or even hundreds of thousands, millions of people, if you are equipped with Tang knives and do not use the enemy to fight, you will be dragged to death.

And there is basically no war in Tibet, so the continuation of their Tang Yi knife Tibetan knife has been handed down, and the change of the Joseon Dynasty is actually not much real war, the scale is not large, and then I know that the country does not have many troops, otherwise I don't want China to protect it.

Japan fought with dozens of people, hundreds, and at most only a few thousand, all of which were fought by the daimyos, and their daimyo were equivalent to Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Qin, Qi, and Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, but the whole of Japan could not be compared with any of these countries, not to mention that it was a small city-state in Little Japan, and it was really at most the same as those big landlords in China, with a private armed force of several hundred people.

After the Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains, China's cold weapons began a new round of development, a large number of new spears, long knives, axes, and crossbows were born and armed with the Song army, and the heroic Mo knife became a luxury war equipment, the main direction of the war in the Song Dynasty was the same northern nomads, in order to deal with the cavalry of Liaojin, spears and axes began to become the main weapons of the army, and a large number of equipment of axes and axes began to be used from the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts" And the Song Dynasty stone carvings can be corroborated, the production and use of the axe is simpler than the Mo knife, the same effective against the cavalry, the Yue family military "Ma Knife" "Catch the knife" "Chang Ke axe" to break the Jin Army "chain horse", effective and inexpensive weapons are always an important weapon of the army equipment, the luxurious Tang knife has gradually withdrawn from the war stage, and disappeared extremely completely, is the regret of China's cold weapons.

"Report," a voice came after three knocks on the door.

Wang Hanzhang said: "Come in." ”

Someone came in, it was Wang Hanzhang's adjutant who came in with a person, and he was still holding a knife in his hand, and Wang Hanzhang remembered that it was Tang Shou, the person in charge of building the Tang knife.

Because Wang Hanzhang had stopped the affairs in his hand, he didn't wait for him to speak, and asked him, "Is this a newly built knife?" ”

Tang Shoudao: "Yes, we have built two before, and after slashing with the devil, the performance meets the requirements of the general, this is newly built, I will send it to the general as soon as possible, please take a look." He said that he handed the knife to Wang Hanzhang.

Wang Hanzhang has been to the knife factory several times before, and has also communicated with the knife masters, this time Wang Hanzhang believes that if they didn't think they could have given it to Wang Hanzhang.

Wang Hanzhang took the knife and slowly pulled it out, only to feel a cold light flashing out, Wang Hanzhang's first feeling was a good knife.

However, Wang Hanzhang's feeling is a feeling, and he still has to try it, Wang Hanzhang said: "Let's go to the yard to try." ”

After that, several people came to the small tree with a diameter of 15 centimeters in the courtyard, Wang Hanzhang took out his knife and looked at the trunk with the greatest strength, Wang Hanzhang didn't know how to describe the sound, but with a knife down, the tree was actually cut down.

Wang Hanzhang secretly said that it was powerful, and then looked at the blade, except for a little resin left on the blade, the knife was not damaged, and there was no roll or notch.

Wang Hanzhang nodded, and said to Tang Shou: "Last time I went, the moral quality was still far behind, why did you build the knife so well in less than three months?" ”

Tang Shou smiled lewdly: "During this time, more and more craftsmen from all over the country are coming, they have their own characteristics, we are also a fusion of forging processes from all over the world, and the specific ones are not clear for a while. ”

Wang Hanzhang saw that Tang Shou was so mysterious, and he didn't ask anymore, as long as he got the knife he wanted, he didn't care about the rest.

Wang Hanzhang said to Tang Shou: "If you go all out to produce now, how many such knives can you make in a month?" ”

Tang Shou said embarrassedly: "If you want to build exactly the same, the working time of a knife will take a month and a half, but we can build multiple knives at the same time, if we go all out, the current manpower can be built at the same time, and if there is a steady increase in manpower in the future, the number will also increase." ”

Wang Hanzhang sighed, he didn't expect that the mass production was so small and took so long, Wang Hanzhang said: "Why does it take so long, and is this amount too small?" ”

Tang Shoudao: "There is no way to do this at present, we are strictly following the general's wishes, this is still all the people who built knives in the city before, and they are all masters who are very familiar with forging swords, so there is such an amount." If you want to increase production, unless you add more manpower, you can only sacrifice the quality of the knife, or there is really no way. ”

Of course, Wang Hanzhang will not accept shoddy things, Wang Hanzhang himself is a person who loves perfection, if you let yourself know that there is a better one, and you have to choose such things by yourself, it is even more uncomfortable than killing yourself, Wang Hanzhang no matter why he takes so long, no matter how many quantities, but the quality is the most basic, and this article must not be violated.

Wang Hanzhang said: "We must ensure the quality, I will find you the manpower, and you will try to produce the knife." ”

Tang Shoudao: "Yes, but this time we have produced three together, in addition to one here, the other two have been completed, do you send someone to send them?" ”

Wang Hanzhang thought for a while and said: "No, you take this one back, and then engrave the names of Wei Lihuang, Dai Anlan, and Du Yuming on it with small seals, and send it over." ”

Tang Shou said, "Yes," and then retreated with a knife.

Wang Hanzhang is very satisfied with this knife, and believes that the people below will definitely love it when the time comes, as for giving the three knives to Wei Lihuang, Dai Anlan and Du Yuming, it is completely a political need.

Wang Hanzhang asked the adjutant to send more people to collect knife fighters, Wang Hanzhang hoped to build at least fifty Tang knives as soon as possible, otherwise the reward would be more difficult to distribute.