Weapon of the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty was an important era for the development of iron and steel weapon in ancient Chinese history. During the reign of emperor Wendi and Jingdi, the social economy developed very fast, especially metallurgical industry, the steel and iron weapon began to replace bronze one bit by bit. From the weapons unearthed from Han Yangling Mausoleum, we concluded that iron and steel weapons have taken a dominant place during that time. The method of launching a war have changed profoundly, chariot war was replaced by infantry and cavalry and became the main services of the army. The weapons in the Han Dynasty mainly composed of knife, lace, spear, sword, crossbow, halberd, axe, battle-axe, which were mainly used by infantry and cavalry. Long sword, long knife with round handle, long knife with long handle successively became the indispensable weapon for infantry and cavalry. The crossbow in the Han Dynasty had a complete structure. Iron armor was the main protective equipment for infantry and cavalry in that period, even the horse armor was used during the war, which showed the strengthening of protective equipment in the Han Dynasty. In the battlefield those effective weapons complement each others very well with combination of long and short weapon strengthening the fighting capacity.