The Chinese term for a general assault on a fortified place was ‘Fapi’ and means ‘ant attack’, which hints at the number of troops often involved. This, however, was only ever used when slower methods failed.
The Chinese armies made great use of wooden palisades and bamboo or thorny obstacles to defend their positions, and like nearly all eastern armies preferred fighting on the open ground, rather then in a castle or fortification.
But when a siege was unavoidable, they used their ‘bamboo technology’ against enemy fortifications as well, and with good effect. The Chinese siege forces used multi-decked boats, from which sharp shooters could harass the defenders, or wooded platforms, which could be raised or lowered to enable observers to see within the enemy’s walls. Some of these elevated platforms were mounted on carts. Other devices included the extendible ‘Cloud Ladder’, the wheeled ‘Heaven Bridge’, which was essentially a moveable siege tower, and the ‘Goose Carriage’, which also incorporated an extendable platform.
When besieged, a commander’s first action was the ‘Ch’ing’, or evacuation of the surrounding villages, then the foot of the defensive wall had to be cleared of all obstacles, while no buildings within arrow range could be as high as the fortified wall itself. Materials which an enemy could use to make scaling ladders had to be removed, available food supplies brought within the defended area, and surrounding water sources polluted. Local manpower would be recruited as militia, and the strongest women were enlisted as a labour corpse.
Once the enemy army arrived, it was fought outside the walls, and as a consequence, Chinese military architects never developed the idea of concentric or multi-layered defences. But the T’ang and Sung dynasties did develop specialised counter siege weapons, many of which later appeared in India and the Muslim world.
When attacked, the men on the walls used their bows as the enemy approached. They then dropped pots of quicklime and other missiles as the enemy tried to scale the walls; only men in the towers being allowed to use bows at this stage. Meanwhile, sharp shooters tried to pick off enemy officers.
If an assault came at night, flaming bundles would be dropped outside the walls so that the enemy could be seen and targeted. During the T’ang period there are many references to torches being hung part way up the walls, just as was done in the Muslim world at about the same time.
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