In various film and television dramas about historical development, all kinds of war scenes can be seen everywhere. The form of war that often appears in film and television dramas is the familiar siege war. Moreover, in ancient times, emperors and generals were very concerned about the tactics and wins and losses of siege wars. It can be seen how important the siege war is of great strategic significance.
In the ancient era of cold weapons, fighting wars was very difficult because there were no long-range weapons, only hand-to-hand combat between people. Even if there were bow and arrow weapons in ancient times, they could at most assist armies in close combat. In siege warfare, the most commonly used tool is the ladder, which is relied on by the soldiers of the besieging side to climb the walls of the defending side in order to fight with the defending side. But in the strategy of the defenders, we have not seen soldiers push down ladders to resist enemy attacks. What is the reason why soldiers never push to the ladder? This starts with the siege.
Strategic position in siege warfare
In ancient times, no provincial road was as convenient and developed as in modern times. Most of the roads outside the city are in dense woods or in the mountains. So roads within the cities are usually the best official roads. The road is flat and relatively straight, which is more suitable for the rapid advance of the army in the direction where it needs troops. If you can successfully capture a city, the strategic value of the city is very great.
To get a new city is to get a new position, and the rural roads around this center can be used by the attacking side. And a new piece of land includes not only the size of the land, but also all kinds of materials on this land, and the people on the land.
If this is a city with countless rich lands, then the rich land and grain are the greater value added after the capture of the city. And because of these additional aspects, it also makes this land more worthy of capture, and its strategic position will certainly be more important than other cities.
Such a city with extremely high added value is of course worth the siege side to invest a lot of troops to attack. And the final harvest will be more worthwhile than the investment. Therefore, this extremely valuable war will certainly be more tragic and pay a greater price.
For the defenders, however, a large area of usable territory and various favorable materials on the land were lost. Therefore, in terms of territorial struggle, the siege battle is a very important battle. Both the siege and the defenders were very concerned about winning or losing the war. How important a piece of land is in war, how important is siege warfare. What about the city to attack this seemingly heavy casualty and attrition method?
The defense was tight and the siege equipment was diverse.
For the defenders, the city wall is not just a simple wall, but a relatively complete defense system: there are dense horse faces on the city wall. On top of it should be equipped with a series of protective devices such as shooting towers, sturdy crossbows, and even bed crossbows. Inside the city walls there are large military equipment such as high platforms, trebuchets and large crossbows. And these military equipment also made the city more indestructible, and the actions of the attacking side were more difficult.
Under the city wall, there are sheep and horse walls, moats, anti-horse stakes and other facilities, and the city gates should be small and numerous, so as to facilitate the garrison to go out of the city to support. The inside and outside of the city gate should be covered by an urn. More elaborate cities would build small temporary forts outside the city. If the city is close to the river, the Jiahe Corridor will be built near the river, and even various fortresses will be set up to protect the ferry.
When the attacking side does not have the right weapons for long-range attacks, attacking a city relies on climbing equipment and grain and grass from afar. There are many climbing equipment, such as flybridges, ladders, nest cars and so on. And these devices also have their own roles and use methods.
The flybridge was used to ensure the smooth crossing of the moat by the siege. The nest car was specially used to observe the defenders at close range and arrange offensive strategies. The role of the ladder was to allow our soldiers to climb the walls of the defenders for further attack. Therefore, the ladder is also a very important combat tool.
The reason the defender does not push to the ladder
Why, then, didn't the defenders simply tear down the ladder and cut off their path of attack, thus defending their city? Why would a siege choose such a thin ladder? Why would the people of the city prefer to throw stones down so aimlessly than to tear down the ladder, and wouldn't pushing the ladder be more once and for all for the aspect of defending the city?
The objective reason is simple. The real siege ladder is not just a simple ladder presented to us in the film and television drama, but a huge ladder, also called "Luban Cloud Ladder".
It is said that the ladder used for the siege of the city was invented by Lu Ban during the Spring and Autumn Period. According to the records of the famous Mojia inventors in the same period, the ladder is definitely not a thin and simple ladder in film and television dramas, but a heavy-duty car ladder. Of course, the so-called "car" is equipped with wheels, mainly relying on a lot of human power to complete the progress.
After several generations of development, ladders have been equipped with equipment such as broken wall cones during the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties. According to historical records, the Song Dynasty added leather armor near the bed car, and several soldiers with weapons ambushed in the car, which greatly enhanced the defensive and offensive capabilities of the car ladder.
In the design of the ladder, the middle part of the ladder is a foldable heavy ladder, which also allows the overall height of the ladder to be adjusted according to the height of the city wall. In general, besiegers often choose to adjust the height of the ladder under the city wall to reduce contact with the enemy before climbing the city and reduce the danger to the lives of soldiers.
The constant improvement of these equipment also makes it impossible for the ladder to be easily pushed, and the top of the ladder will be sharp and coated with high poison. Therefore, the defenders of the city would rather attack the attacking side with stones and hot oil than do the act of pushing down the ladder, which may endanger their own lives.
epilogue:
The reason why we have such doubts is because most of our understanding of war comes from the depiction of film and television dramas, and film and television dramas have also made corresponding adaptations on the basis of real history for the needs of shooting. Therefore, the question of why the defender did not choose to tear down the ladder also stemmed from our lack of correct understanding of the ladder and the lack of understanding of the ancient way of warfare.
In fact, the wisdom of the ancients is far beyond our imagination. For example, thousands of years ago, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is China's brilliant systematic martial arts book, which is still difficult to surpass. In ancient times, countries generally relied on attack and plunder to strengthen their national strength. But today, thousands of years later, with the prosperity of science and technology, we can get better development in peace. Therefore, peace and development also stand out in today's concept of a big country and have become an important concept of our development, and we must also cherish the hard-won nature of peace and do our part for the development of the country in the era of peace.
Reference: Early Autumn in Juncheng