Efforts to restore An Duong Vuong's Crossbow

There are many approaches to the history and legends of ancient Vietnam, and the story of the magic crossbow is one of them. There are many opinions that the magic crossbow has existed since the Hung King era, and with one shot it can kill many enemies, helping the Vietnamese defeat the Qin army and making Trieu Da afraid to ever invade Van Lang - Au Lac. The special principle of the crossbow is thanks to the force of gravity, the maximum power at the farthest distance to kill the enemy.

Senior Lieutenant General, Academician, Doctor, Hero of the People's Armed Forces Nguyen Huy Hieu, former Deputy Minister of National Defense, said that there is much direct evidence proving that Trieu Da never occupied Co Loa citadel and invaded Au Lac. The ancient Vietnamese had a victory over the Qin army and that great victory helped preserve the territory, culture and identity from 2,300 years ago.

The crossbow shot from the towering 9-story spiral-shaped Co Loa citadel made the bronze arrows penetrate iron armor at their highest speed when they hit the enemy, while the enemy had no way to harm us (illustrative photo).

One of those direct evidences is the crossbow, a powerful weapon with high lethality. Through research and practical experiments, engineer Vu Dinh Thanh has proven that the crossbow is real, a weapon capable of killing many enemies with one shot.

Surely all of us know the legend of Trieu Da many times attacking our country, soldiers were shot by the magic crossbow and their corpses were scattered all over the fields, then Trieu Da used a trick to neutralize the magic crossbow and started a thousand years of Chinese domination? However, according to the legend, it is not mentioned how Trieu Da later used the magic crossbow, and the archaeological results of the Trieu Dynasty tomb also did not find any trace of the magic crossbow... therefore, this fact also gives suggestions that Trieu Da did not invade our country.

Another explanation is that all the prestigious Chinese history books that appeared at the same time as Trieu Da, such as Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian or Hoai Nam Tu, did not write about Trieu Da conquering Au Lac. Why is that? Many explanations suggest that the simple reason is that at that time our magic crossbows were the terror of the North, so no force thought of causing trouble.

On a smaller scale, the story opens in another direction: up to now, no one has asked why the shooting method of the magic crossbow cannot be restored?

Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Huy Hieu (left) and engineer Vu Dinh Thanh.

Currently, engineer Vu Dinh Thanh has recreated the method of shooting a series of Co Loa bronze arrows using a tube. This has been verified many times by a number of historians. Specifically, on a small crossbow, engineer Thanh placed dozens of bronze arrows in the tube and when fired, the arrows flew up to 150 m. This proves that in the past, with large crossbows, our ancestors could shoot many arrows flying hundreds of meters at the same time.

Another aspect is that engineer Thanh discovered the principle of how the crossbow works: the crossbow does not shoot straight at the target but shoots up high so that the arrows fall faster and faster. What is special here is that our ancestors came up with a way to make arrows so that the rotational force around the axis increases when falling faster and faster from top to bottom, thereby greatly increasing the lethality.

According to Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, the terrain at that time was described as: "Thousands of feet wide, rolled up like a snail, so it was called Loa Thanh, also called Tu Long citadel, the Tang people called it Con Lon citadel because the citadel was very high". With such architecture, the power of the bronze arrow would increase many times over.

Engineer Vu Dinh Thanh shared that the discovery of the principle of the magic crossbow originated from seeing the archer on the Ngoc Lu bronze drum stepping on a string to hold the shaft of the arrow when shooting an arrow, so if the shaft of the arrow was replaced with a quiver, many bronze arrows could be shot at once. From there, engineer Thanh discovered the secret of the crossbow, which is how to separate the bronze arrow cluster from the quiver. According to engineer Thanh, the bronze drum dates back to the Hung King period, so the magic crossbow must have also been around since this period.

The principle of the crossbow or the principle of shooting the Co Loa bronze arrow is a way of shooting arrows without direct force on the arrow, the arrow must be separated. This method is clearly depicted on the Ngoc Lu bronze drum and the Co Loa bronze drum.

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/nhung-no-luc-phuc-dung-no-than-an-duong-vuong-214956.html