Why is "mortar" called "mortar" and what does "forced strike" mean?

"Forced attack" refers to melee attacks. There are many theories about the origin of mortars. The predecessor of mortar is mortar gun. The world's first mortar used in combat was during the Russo-Japanese War, when it was called "lightning cannon". 19 15 years, mortars were gradually put into use on a large scale and were used by infantry battalions.

If we can't find the source of modern things in our country in history, it must be related to Japan, such as modern new words such as "policy", "principle", "electrical appliance" and "electricity", and so is the name of "mortar".

Mortar was invented in Russia, and the Russian name is миномет, so western countries also use the word "mortar" with similar pronunciation to Russian when naming mortars.

As the only big country in Asia, it is difficult for Japan to transliterate "spy" directly when developing mortar technology, so it is named "forced gun" because of its characteristics.

In Japanese, the meanings of "forced" and "forced" are passive and mechanical respectively. Mortar is a kind of artillery that fires with shells hitting the firing pin, which is different from the traditional artillery that fires with shells hitting the firing pin. At the same time, it is a short-range artillery that is often used in melee. In ancient China, the word "force" was defined as "force" and "proximity", so it was deeply influenced by ancient Japanese culture.

In the past, the correct pronunciation of "forcing a gun" was "püjipáo" instead of "pjipá o" now. The word "forced gun" has not been pronounced as "p? i" in Putonghua since ancient times, and this pronunciation was invented only in modern times.

▼ The picture below shows the American 120mm high-precision mortar, which was invented in Russia. The shape of this heavy-duty high-precision mortar is closest to the shape just invented by mortars in the past. Mortars first entered the battlefield during the Russo-Japanese War. I believe this is also the reason why the Japanese army attached great importance to the use of mortar tactics-it was too painful to be beaten by the old man. Mortar is still an important fire support weapon for infantry.

Then the question comes: why did the mortar that originally said "pò ji páo" become "Pijipá o"?

The answer is still related to Japan. After losing to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China's social atmosphere began to change from hostility to worship of Japan, which is also the reason why a large number of international students began to study in Japan at public expense in the late Qing Dynasty, and even more, they directly went to Japan to study at their own expense.

Chang is the representative of public-funded international students, and Cai E and Tang are the representatives of self-funded international students. After returning home, they quickly grew into generals of the new army.

The result of this ethos is a comprehensive study of Japan, so that almost all military regulations, codes and names of weapons and equipment are directly copied from Japanese standards.

The most typical names of weapons and equipment are rifles (called "infantry spears" in Japan), machine guns (machine spears), anti-war guns (anti-chariot guns), chariots (tanks, armored vehicles) and so on. Of course, mortars are also indispensable.

During the Beiyang period, local warlords no longer obeyed the central official system, and there was no unified standard for the names of weapons and equipment. Coupled with the illiteracy rate of 80%, local troops simply use their own local dialects as the names of various weapons and equipment.

The most typical representative is the German Mao Se pistol, which was named "7.63mm Mao Se pistol" by Beiyang government, while the local warlords have various names, such as box guns, self-invited guns, mauser guns, mirror boxes and so on.

▼ The picture below shows the original musket of Mao Se Arsenal. The name of this gun is very distinctive, which is the most representative in China. If mortars were as popular as mauser guns at that time, I believe his name would be as varied as mauser guns. Unfortunately, even though the artillery gun is only a kind of frontline support firepower with simple structure, it is still too high for China, so it only invented a name-"P (Ijipá o".

After the mortar was introduced from Japan, it was directly named after Japanese "forced gun", that is, "püjipáo". It can be seen that the word "force" was pronounced as "pǐ" in China and the old Japanese army, but it has never been pronounced as "P I" since ancient times.

However, the pronunciation of dialects in different parts of China is very different from that of Putonghua, including the word "forced". When reading persecution, persecution and coercion in most dialects, the word "coercion" is pronounced not "pú" but "pi", so when calling mortars, it is natural to pronounce it in the dialect "pi".

Over time, the word "pò ji páo" in Japanese became "pò ijipá o", and the pronunciation of the word "forced" was invented in this way, which is the natural "pò ijipá o" mortar that we are used to now, which shows that China culture is indeed profound.

So, in the future, when you see others reading "PIPá o" mortar as "PIPá o" mortar, don't joke, maybe they are right.