Chapter 16 Section 9: Old Rules of City Defense Experts and "Records of City Defense"

Chen Gui was a civil servant in the Song Dynasty who advocated fighting against the Jin Dynasty, and he had outstanding achievements in the fight against the Jin Dynasty.He and Tang (Wang Shou) [shu Huan] co-authored "Shouchenglu", which systematically discussed various aspects of city defense theory and city defense warfare from the combination of theory and practice. A monograph on city defense with high value. Old rules, characters are, from Anqiu (now Shandong) in Mizhou.Born in the fifth year of Xining (AD 1072), he was familiar with military books in his early years.In the first year of Jingkang (1126 A.D.), he knew the affairs of Anlu County, De'an Prefecture through Tong Zhilang.After taking office, he made every effort to strengthen the city defense, renovate the city, create long bamboo muskets, improve stone throwing machines, and lead his troops to defend De'an City.From the first year of Jingkang to the second year of Shaoxing (1126-1132 A.D.), there was a group of rebellious troops who were defeated by the Jin army and turned into robbers.At that time, all the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains fell into the hands of the Jin army, but De'an City was still firmly in the hands of the Song army and remained motionless.Due to his meritorious service, Chen Gui was promoted to the magistrate of De'an and the governor of Hanyang Army Town in Fuzhou, De'an Prefecture.Later, he was appointed as the magistrate of Shunchang (now Fuyang, Anhui).In the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140 A.D.), Chen Gui assisted Liu Kai, the deputy left behind in Tokyo (now Kaifeng City), to defend Shunchang, repelled the siege of hundreds of thousands of troops from Jin Wushu, and was promoted to a privy direct bachelor because of his meritorious service.In the eleventh year of Shaoxing (1141 A.D.), after the peace talks between Song and Jin, he moved to the prefect of Luzhou (now Hefei City) and the pacifier of Huai'an.The following year, he died of illness.

Tang (Wang Shou), courtesy name Junbao, was born in Liuyang (now part of Hunan).The date of birth and death is unknown.Jinshi in the 14th year of Chunxi (AD 1187), he served successively as a professor in De'an Prefecture (now Anlu, Hubei), Taixuelu, and Shaoqing of Dali Temple. "Shouchenglu" consists of three parts, a total of four volumes, about 17,800 words, written in three periods.The first part is the volume of "Host Preface", which was written by Chen Gui in the tenth year of Shaoxing (AD 1140) when he was guarding Shunchang.The second part is the volume of "Secrets of Shoucheng", which was written by Chen Gui when he was in Shoude'an.The third part is the first and second volumes of "Jianyan De'an Shouyulu", which was written by Tang Yu when he was Professor De'an in the 14th year of Chunxi (1187 A.D.).The contents of these three parts were originally written separately, but they were compiled into one book after Song Ningzong (1195-1224 AD).Later, it was included in "Siku Quanshu", "Shoushange Series", "Mohai Golden Pot Series", "Pinghua Bookstore Series", "Series Integration First Edition" and other books. "Mingbianzhai Series" selects "Secrets of Shoucheng" and "Jianyan De'an Shouyulu".There are also manuscripts from the 40th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1775), as well as manuscripts from the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods.

"Host Preface" is the preface written by Xia Shaozeng's "Jingkang Chaoye Yanyan".Xia's "Qian Yan" recorded the beginning and end of the Jin army's capture of Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) during the Jingkang period. Chen Gui wrote the preface after reading it, and was later included in the "Compilation of the Northern League of the Three Dynasties" by Xu Mengshen.In this preface, Chen Gui summed up the lessons learned from the fall of Bianjing and expounded the strategy of city defense. "Secrets of Guarding the City" discusses in detail the system of city gates and oars and the methods of defense, and also records the organization of the army and civilians defending the city, the use of power, and the implementation of various defenses. "Jianyan De'an Shouyulu" records in detail the deeds of Chen Gui's defense of the city. "Shouchenglu" comprehensively reflects the old-fashioned thoughts of city defense. In general, there are the following points.

One is to reform the old city system.The old rules rebuilt the original one wall and one moat in De'an City into three walls and two moats, increasing the defense level and depth of the city wall, so as to effectively defend against the siege catapults. The second is to open more city gates.Stereotypes advocate the defensive strategy of attacking while defending, and oppose the previous thinking of keeping behind closed doors.For this reason, he opened more side doors in each city wall, and usually made simple seals and added camouflage to make it difficult for the enemy to detect.In wartime, it can be pushed away to allow the defenders to attack from the side door.This kind of city gate played its due role in repelling the chaotic army that attacked the city.

The third is to transform and create new types of defense weapons.The old rule is to choose solid wood, hire skilled carpenters to make various applicable stone catapults, prepare mud bombs and stone bombs of various specifications weighing 30-60 catties, and train soldiers on the mechanical use of catapults.The stone-throwing machines that were originally placed on the city were placed in a favorable position in the city, and the soldiers on the city guided the throwing, which accurately hit the attacking enemy, so that the stone-throwing machines played an important role in the battle of defending the city.More importantly, he personally organized military technicians to use artillery powder to make more than 20 long bamboo muskets. The long bamboo musket team consisted of 60 people, and cooperated with 300 fire ox bundles of dry bamboo and firewood. In August of the second year of Shaoxing (AD 1132), Li Heng's rebel army repelled the attack on De'an City with a large siege bunker "Tianqiao".The long-barrel musket created by Chen Gui is the earliest tubular firearm in the world.Chen Gui himself is hailed by historians as the inventor of tubular firearms.

In the eighth year of Qiandao in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1172), Song Xiaozong issued an edict to change the old rules of "Secrets of Keeping the City" into "Records of De'an Shoucheng", promulgated it nationwide, and ordered the generals who guarded the city to follow suit. influences. Many contents in "Shouchenglu" were quoted and transcribed by some military books in Ming and Qing Dynasties.