In costume films, especially when there is a siege scene, we will find that the defending side only throws stones and hot oil under the city, rather than overturning the ladder! After all, it is just an ordinary ladder, and if it is overturned, the enemy will not be able to climb up?
This involves the simplification of film and television dramas, and many crews are reluctant to restore the real history, so they simply carry out film and television. For the audience, if they do not understand what the real siege car in history looks like, it is easy to have such a question!
The real siege ladder in history is not a simple long ladder, but a precision war machine. The base of the siege ladder is quite thick and can be firmly fixed to the ground. And between the city wall, the base of the ladder and the ground, a solid right triangle is formed, so the structure is very stable. And the ladder is very strong, not the need to climb up with hands and feet in the film and television drama! The real siege ladder didn't use hands at all, just like going up the stairs now. That is to say, the structure, weight, etc. of the siege ladder itself make overturning an impossible task.
And when the attacking side has infantry to attack the city, there will also be catapults, archers, etc. in the rear for long-range support. If a bunch of people on the city walls want to overturn the ladder, there is no doubt that they will become a living target. Throughout history, we have not found any examples of the defender overturning the attacking cloud ladder, which also proves that this method is inappropriate!
And using stone and hot oil has a great advantage! Let's start with the stones. First of all, stone, brick, hardwood and other materials can be seen everywhere in the city, materials are easy to obtain, and the defenders can make extremely rich strategic reserves. Secondly, these things are of great quality, and smashing on soldiers can smash soldiers directly from the ladder, and can also cause some damage to the ladder.
The hot oil was so hot that it was spilled on the soldiers from top to bottom, and few people could withstand the damage caused by the severe pain! And after the hot oil is splashed on the ladder, the ladder will become very slippery, and it is not conducive to people climbing. What's more, hot oil is only the first step, after which the defender may find a way to fire the siege ladder! Wooden ladders that are tightly reinforced with hemp rope are flammable substances and lose their usefulness if they burn for a while.
At the same time, the burning ladder can bear the weight of the soldiers in time, but the combustion will cause a lack of oxygen around it, and it is also a fatal threat to the heavily burdened siege soldiers! Therefore, if the defender has the help of fire oil, the success rate of the defender will be greatly improved!
Therefore, the reason why ancient soldiers did not go to overturn the ladder was not that they did not want to, but that they could not. Of course, in this case, many methods of defending the city were also invented, in addition to the stones and fire oil mentioned above, there were also improvements in the city defense system such as urn city.