1. Nest car

Nest car is also known as the building car, mainly as the strategic weapon of the ancient siege of the city, is a kind of lookout car specially for observing the enemy's situation, the bottom of the car is equipped with wheels, can be pushed, the car is erected with a solid wood two long columns, the top of the pillar is set up with a roller shaft (pulley), a small board house is tied to the roller with a rope, the board house is 9 feet high, 4 feet square, there are 12 lookout holes on all sides, and there are raw cowhide outside, in case the enemy is destroyed by arrows. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The house can accommodate two people, and it can be raised several feet by roller cart, so that you can observe the enemy soldiers in the city during the siege. During the Battle of Yanling in 575 B.C., the king of Chu, accompanied by Dazai Bozhou Plough, personally boarded the nest car to inspect the enemy's situation. When Wang Mang's army besieged Kunyang in 23 years, a large nest car with a height of more than 10 zhang was built to observe the dynamics of the defenders in the city, which was called a cloud car.

In the Song Dynasty, there was a kind of "watchtower car" that fixed the watchtower on a high pole. This kind of car is made of solid wood, 8 zhang high, the top is placed in a plate layer, 5 feet wide, the content is included in the white flag to watch the enemy's movements, and the soldiers below are informed of the enemy situation with simple flag language. Roll up the flag to indicate that there is no enemy, and open the flag to indicate that the enemy is coming; If the flagpole is stretched horizontally, the enemy is close, and if the flagpole is vertical, the enemy will reach; The enemy retreats and slowly raises the flagpole, and the enemy has retreated and rolls up the flag.

Watchtower car, there are wheels at the bottom of the car that can be pushed back and forth; There are pedglings on the poles for the sentries to climb up and down; The side of the vertical rod is fixed with a thick rope diagonally; The watchtower itself is equipped with a rotating shaft, which can be rotated on all sides for observation. This watchtower car is taller than the nest car and has a wide field of view. Later, with the continuous improvement of observation equipment, a fixed watchtower was installed to observe the enemy's situation.

Second, the wooden mantle

The wooden curtain is a kind of siege vehicle equipped with wooden planks as cover in ancient times. It was first found in the Warring States Period, when a large piece of material such as grass, cloth, wood, and leather was made of various materials such as grass, cloth, wood, and skin, and it was picked up and hung outside the city wall, so that the projectile could be buffered.

They are called "curtains", "curtains", "wooden curtains", "fences", "leather curtains", etc. "Book of Song: Emperor Wu Ji I": "Zhang Gangzhi attacked the tools, set up all the kit Kats, and the genus of the flying building and the wooden curtain were all prepared. "Tongdian Bing XIII": "With the board as the curtain, the orange tree is erected on the four-wheeled vehicle, and the curtain is forced between the city battlements, so that the ants of the swift are attached to it, and the arrows and stones cannot reach, which is called the wooden curtain." ”

3. Wheels

轒轀 (fenyun) car, the name of an ancient siege weapon. It is a four-wheeled bottomless wooden cart, covered with cowhide to resist the arrows on the city, and the people push the cart forward in the cart, which can cover the nurses and soldiers to attack near the city wall, but cannot directly destroy the city wall. A car can hide about ten people. According to the "Wujing General Essentials" record: the cart, the lower cover is empty, such as the axe blade (the ladder plate of the car is not applied to the plate, and the cart can accommodate people to land on the ground), carrying four wheels, and its cover is covered with a single rope as the ridge, and it is covered with raw cow leather. Ten people can be covered, and the tomb god pushes it, until it reaches the city to attack.

In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Hou Jing's improvement into a "pointed wooden donkey", according to the "Taiping Yulan", "Liang Shu" and "General Dictionary", because of the detailed records of the "General Dictionary and Military Dictionary": Liang general Hou Jing reversed, and the soldiers forced Jianye, all of which were in danger. Liang Jiang Yang Kan was the governor of the city, because of the false claim to shoot the book, Yun "The king of Shaoling and the Marquis of Xichang have reached the shortest road", which is Shao'an. The thieves are besieged by a pointed wooden donkey, and arrows and stones cannot be controlled. Kan made a pheasant tail torch, applied an iron arrowhead, poured it with oil, threw it on a donkey, and burned it.

In order to increase the stability of the vehicle, the wheel of the appliance was increased to six, with a length of one zhang and five feet (4.7 meters) and a height of eight feet (2.504 meters). "Wu Bei Zhi. Military Attack II" records: ancient siege chariots. Six wheels, the upper horizontal big wood is the ridge, one zhang five feet long, eight feet high, the upper tip is below, the outer cover is covered with raw cowhide, and ten people are carried inside; Push the city and use the siege as a tunnel.

Fourth, crashing

Crash is the main weapon to destroy the city wall or city gate in ancient China, relying on the force of the collision to destroy the city's defensive measures. "Sancai Tuhui - Instrument with Five: Crash Diagram" records: "Crash: Set up a crash wood, wrap its head with iron leaves, migrate one by one, and wait for the flying ladder to come to the city, then hit it." ”

Fifth, Linchong

Linchong, also known as Linchong Lv bus or Lv bus, according to legend, this car was invented by Jiang Taigong, because it was sealed in Lv land, so it is called Lv Gong. In fact, the earliest formation of Linchong Lu bus should be traced back to the Song Dynasty, and there were more applications in the Ming Dynasty.

The Linchong Lu bus is a giant siege chariot in ancient times, and it is also the largest chariot in the world. The car is several zhang high, dozens of zhang long, the car is divided into five layers, each layer has a ladder to go up and down, the car can carry hundreds of samurai, equipped with machine crossbows, poisonous arrows, guns, halberds, knives and spears and other weapons and equipment to destroy the city wall facilities.

During the attack, the people pushed the cart to the foot of the city, the roof of the car could be level with the city wall, and the soldiers rushed to the city through the overpass to fight the enemy, and the car underneath the city wall was destroyed by hitting the wood and other tools. This kind of behemoth-like military vehicle is not common in battle, it is bulky and limited by the terrain, it is difficult to exert its power, but its sudden appearance often has a huge deterrent effect on the defenders of the city, thus confusing its position.

6. Ladders

The ladder should be the most familiar ancient siege equipment, which was used by the ancients to climb over the city wall and siege the city. It's not the most common thing in many film and television works, it looks like a bamboo ladder. This kind of device has wheels under it, which can be pushed to drive, so it is also called "ladder car", equipped with anti-shield, winch, grappling hook and other equipment, and some have lifting equipment with pulleys.

The inventor of the ladder is generally believed to be the Spring and Autumn Period of the Lu State skilled craftsman Gong Yi Pan (Lu Ban), when the King of Chu Hui in order to achieve the purpose of dominance, ordered the Gong Pan to make the first cloud ladder in history. Xu Shen noted in "Huainanzi Soldier Training" that "the ladder can stand according to the clouds, so it looks at the enemy's city", indicating that another use of the ladder can be used to climb high and look far away to detect the enemy's situation.

The cloud ladder of the Warring States period, judging from the pattern shown in the bronze of the Warring States period of water and land attack patterns, is composed of three parts: the bottom is equipped with wheels, which can be moved; The ladder body can be lifted up and down, carried by manpower, and leaned on the city wall; The top of the ladder is equipped with a hook to hook the edge of the city and protect the head of the ladder from being pushed and destroyed by the defenders.

The ladder of the Tang Dynasty was a great improvement over the Warring States period: the ladder (main ladder) was fixed on the chassis at an angle; In addition to the main ladder, a movable ladder (auxiliary ladder) is added, and its top is equipped with a pair of rollers, which can slide up and down along the city wall surface when ascending the city, which is called the flying cloud ladder; At the bottom of the ladder, "a large wooden bed with six wheels underneath". Because the main ladder adopts a fixed device, the ladder erection procedure is simplified, the ladder erection time is shortened, and the design of the movable upper city ladder greatly reduces the height of the ladder before engaging the enemy.

When attacking the city, you only need to stop the main ladder under the city, and then set up the ladder on the main ladder to "sleep on the city", so as to reduce the danger and difficulty of setting up the ladder in front of the enemy, and at the same time ensure that the ladder is not too early to approach the edge of the city before ascending the city, so as to avoid being destroyed by the defenders. The structure of the ladder in the Song Dynasty was greatly improved, adopting a folding structure connected by a rotating shaft in the middle, and adding protective facilities at the bottom of the ladder.

In addition, there are many forms of ladders (auxiliary ladders) in the upper city, including flying ladders, bamboo flying ladders, tiptoe flying ladders, etc. These improvements made it easy and quick to enter the city and engage the enemy. After the Ming Dynasty, due to the rapid development of firearms, this kind of cumbersome wooden ladder was gradually abandoned and withdrew from the stage of historical warfare.

7. Trench bridges

The moat bridge, also known as the "Flying River" or "Flying Bridge", was used by the ancients as a convenient bridge for the mobility of the siege army in order to pass through obstacles such as moats or moats outside the city.

Since the Warring States Period, there are records of the use of trench bridges in China, according to the records of "Liutao, Hutao, Military": "Crossing the ditch and flying bridge, one is one zhang five feet (4.7 meters) wide, two zhang (6.26 meters) long or more, with a turn, a wheel, eight bodies, and a ring to open the rope." It can be seen that before the Song Dynasty, China was extremely mature in the development of moat bridges, not only the use of pins, rollers and other mechanical devices, the width of the bridge is up to one zhang and five feet, if eight are used at a time, it can provide a front of twelve zhang (37.56 meters) wide for the troops to pass.

According to the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", the moat bridges in the Song Dynasty were generally equipped with wheels and made into models for easy migration. There are a total of five kinds of moat bridge equipment in the Song Dynasty, and the width of the moat depends on the width of the moat or moat, and most of these moat bridges were made from local materials after the attacker observed during the siege.

In order to facilitate transportation, there are two large wheels under the abutment of the moat bridge, so that the besieging army can deploy the entrenchment bridge unexpectedly, so that the troops can quickly pass through the bridge deck and carry out storming operations. In order to ensure the stability of the bridge deck, there are two small wheels at the front end of the trench bridge to make the bridge more stable when the small wheels sink into the soil on the opposite bank, which is obviously more advanced than the previous method of fixing with many ropes.

In the Tang Dynasty, the moat was as wide as two zhang. It is not easy to find huge timber in the manufacture of moats; When the bridge is too long, it is also inconvenient to use. Therefore, when the ditch or moat is too wide, a folding bridge with a more complex mechanism is used.

8. Catapults

The catapult must be familiar to everyone, it is a large manpower long-range weapon that uses the principle of lever to throw stone projectiles, and its appearance is the progress of technology and the need of war. For example, the cannon of the Chinese chess black square is written as "cannon (stone bag)", which is a catapult, and the cannon on the side of the word fire mostly refers to cannon branding in ancient texts.

It has been used in the Spring and Autumn Period, and has become an important weapon for attacking and defending cities after the Sui and Tang dynasties. However, the Song Dynasty was further developed than the Sui and Tang dynasties, and was not only used to attack and defend cities, but also to use it in field battles. The "throwing stones" and "flying stones" in the ancient books refer to the catapults.

The original structure of the catapult was very simple, just using a huge lever, the long end was a leather case or a wooden basket loaded with stones, and the short end was tied with dozens of ropes, and when the order was given, dozens of people pulled the ropes at the same time to throw the stones using the principle of levers.

The first large-scale use of catapults in the history of Chinese warfare should be when Li Xin attacked Chu, the Chu army secretly prepared a large number of catapults, when the Qin army crossed the river suddenly launched at the same time, countless sharp stones smashed towards the Qin army like dark clouds, 200,000 Qin troops were completely defeated, and Li Xin himself was defeated and committed suicide, which shows the power of the catapult at that time, which can be called the king of ancient long-range weapons. With the development of technology, catapults have become more and more advanced, and many "thunderbolts" in the Three Kingdoms games are an improved form of catapults in the Warring States period.

China's catapults reached their peak in the Song Dynasty, and it was recorded in the Song Dynasty's military book "Wujing General Essentials" that "all cannons, sharp weapons in the army, and offensive and defensive divisions are used", which shows the importance attached to catapults.

Ancient siege shells were unearthed from ancient tombs that had blasted through ancient canals and helped armies destroy a city.