At that time, pontoon bridge was a rare thing. Only the emperor can use it, and when it is used up, it must be dismantled immediately. Later, this rule was broken and pontoons were widely used.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin unified a large area of land in northern China, leaving only a small court in the Southern Tang Dynasty, which was still fighting against the natural barrier of the Yangtze River. Later, Zhao Kuangyin adopted Fan Re-shui's idea and set up a pontoon bridge on the Yangtze River, which enabled the army to cross the Yangtze River, destroyed Nantang and unified China.
Fan Ruoshui is from Chizhou, Southern Tang Dynasty. He is very learned, but he failed in the exam many times. He was extremely dissatisfied with the corruption of the Southern Tang Dynasty, knowing that the world in the Southern Tang Dynasty would not last long, and he was determined to invest in the Song Dynasty. He often drives a boat with a silk rope, pretending to fish on the river, but secretly shuttles back and forth between the two sides to measure the river.
He accurately measured the width of the river, and investigated the hydrological and climatic conditions such as the velocity and wind direction of the river.
In the third year of Kaibao (970), Fan Ruoshui went to the capital of song dynasty and made a speech to Song Taizu, saying: Jiangnan is desirable, please build a floating beam to help the teacher. In other words, you can build a pontoon bridge, let the troops cross the river and destroy Nantang. Zhao Kuangyin adopted Fan Re-shui's opinion and promoted him as the right doctor.
Under the command of Fan Ruoshui, Song Jun first used thousands of yellow and black dragon boats in Shipaikou Town. Fan Ruoshui stole the Yangtze River waterway and built a bamboo boat on it, trying to build a pontoon bridge, and conquered Dangtu in one fell swoop when crossing the river. After the success of the experiment, Song Jun immediately moved the pontoon bridge to an important ferry-Caishiji. Thanks to careful planning, this l000-meter-long pontoon bridge was built in three days, and the scale is not bad. Subsequently, under the command of General Pan Mei, tens of thousands of Song Jun crossed the Yangtze River and advanced to Jinling (now Nanjing), the capital of Southern Tang Dynasty. Nantang's army went down the river from the mouth of the lake, trying to capture the rocky mountain, burn the pontoon bridge, and cut off the back road of Song Jun. Unexpectedly, a big north wind suddenly blew, but the fire destroyed Nantang's own ship, resulting in the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of troops. Li Yu, the queen of Nantang, easily gave in.
The pontoon bridge erected by Fan Ruoshui is the first pontoon bridge with detailed records in China and the first bridge on the Yangtze River.
The more the pontoon bridge is developed, the more perfect it is. There is still a story about this. 1852 65438+On February 30th, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom troops conquered Hanyang. In order to cross the river and capture Wuchang, Taiping Army built two 3000-meter-long pontoons on the Yangtze River that night. Why can the pontoon bridge be built so quickly? It turned out that two, three or four boats were connected into a section of pontoon unit on the riverbank, and then they were spliced one by one in the river to form a pontoon bridge. In the pontoon bridge, a raft was made. Cross with large rafts and arrange in several layers. The walls are surrounded by cowhide and wooden boards, and holes are made in the walls for external shooting. There is also a building on the raft to observe the enemy. Simple houses was built on the raft for soldiers to stay and store food, weapons and ammunition. There are dozens of big paddles on the raft for swimming in the river, so this raft is also called turtle boat, which is simply a kind of water fortress. This kind of pontoon bridge is a pioneering work.