Why do you say that you can put knives in ancient homes, but you can't hide your armor?
Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty also said:? Recently, I heard that people have no weapons and cannot defend themselves. Thieves benefit from this, and good people suffer. Today, both artillery and armor are not suitable for people to use, but they are still strictly prohibited. Its three-eye guns, shotguns, bow and arrow knives, guns and horses, etc. , is well known and cannot be banned. ?
Simply put, people are not allowed to keep guns and armor, but they can privately collect weapons such as three-eyed guns, birdguns, bow and arrow knives, guns and horses. In this sense, in the eyes of the Qing emperor, armor is more harmful than guns and can be compared with cannons.
As for the sword, even in the Qin Dynasty, when the sword was strictly controlled, Han Xin could still flaunt his sword everywhere, but no one cared about him. Not to mention the song dynasty, where the sword control was relatively loose, heroes from all walks of life dared to walk around with giants; Yang Zhigan sells knives in the street; Even the flower monk Lu can find a blacksmith's shop and build a weapon.
In this sense, the possession of armor by ancient emperors was basically zero tolerance, and it would never be tolerated; But for this sword, but turn a blind eye, as long as you don't use it to kill people, the government will not pay attention to it.
Many people must be curious about this, because the sword is an offensive weapon and the armor is a defensive weapon, and the damage of the sword is far greater than the armor. But why should emperors guard against armor?
In fact, this is mainly because the living environment of ancient people is not good. Due to the limited productivity and underdeveloped traffic in ancient times, many places have not been developed, so people not only have to face the phenomenon of all kinds of wild animals, but also often encounter all kinds of bandits and thieves who rob houses.
In this context, as ordinary people, they need swords to defend themselves and protect their lives.
At the same time, people's daily life can not be separated from all kinds of knives, such as kitchen knives for cooking, firewood knives for chopping wood, and sickles for cutting rice. In this sense, the rulers of past dynasties actually have no way to completely ban swords.
As for armor, because in ancient times, the manufacturing process of armor was very complicated, the cost was very high, and the maintenance cost was also very expensive.
According to historical records, it takes a blacksmith several months to complete the general armor. It takes thirty or forty blacksmiths half a year to make a high-quality armor, and then it can be barely finished. It can be seen that the production is very difficult.
So for ordinary people, armor is actually an unattainable luxury. Even, most people don't have access to armor in their lives, because there are armor for public sale in the market, unless it is customized, but for ordinary people, it is the legendary prosperity of Kanggan, and most people just mix food and clothing. Where can they afford custom armor?
Therefore, in a sense, the rulers of past dynasties banned the possession of armor, not for the broad masses of the bottom people, but for local gentry.
For these people, they are not short of money, food or labor, because many of them have hundreds or thousands of guards, helpers and tenants at home.
Of course, they are not short of weapons, and even have special retired officers or martial arts experts as their bodyguards. In this context, compared with the imperial army, the armed forces of these giants only lack armor. If the emperor allowed the people to hide their armor, it would be easy to equip their guards with armor with the financial resources of these wealthy families.
In this way, there will be many armed forces of different sizes similar to the imperial army, which is obviously unacceptable to the emperor.
Because, to a great extent, this will shake the foundation of the emperor's rule, because some powerful strongmen themselves are the embryonic forms of local warlords; These powerful, powerful and armed families are not conducive to the rule of local officials to a small extent.
It is precisely because of this that emperors of all dynasties strictly guarded against armor and did not allow people to collect armor privately, even court officials, otherwise it would be tantamount to rebellion.
For example, Zhou Yafu, a famous Western Han Dynasty star, was knighted and worshipped when he crusaded against the rebels of the Seven Kingdoms for Emperor Han Jing. Such a big man was reported to have hidden 500 pieces of armor at home, and was jailed for treason, and finally died of hunger strike.