Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 4

Entire war cart regiment was known as Da Ying (大營, large regiment), consisted of thirteen Xiao Ying (小營), or one hundred and sixty-nine war carts. With such a large number of war carts operating together, the regiment no longer had to be always on the defensive. Instead Yu Da You (俞大猷) opted for an aggressive tactics that bring the fight to their enemy.

Large Unit Tactics

Yu Da You's war cart formation (large), from 'Zheng Qi Tang Ji (《正氣堂集》)'.

Read more

Some thoughts on why Chinese never developed complex hilts on their swords

Extant jian probably dated to Ming period.

"Why Chinese/Japanese/other cultures never developed complex hilt" is a question that seems to be brought up fairly often. In honesty, this question feels quite Eurocentric to me, as it presuppose the development of European-style complex hilt as the natural and superior evolution of sword design, while in reality complex hilt appeared quite late and was more of an exception rather than the norm. The question should be rephrased "Why no one but Renaissance Europeans developed complex hilts", given that most non-European complex hilted swords such as Indian Khanda (खंडा) and Chinese Hu Die Dao (蝴蝶刀, butterfly sword) were likely influenced/inspired by European designs and not of local development.

Read more

Yu Da You's Du Lun Che (獨輪車) — Part 3

Circling up the wagons

Defensive formation of war wagons was fairly straightforward: war wagons were deployed into a rectangle or circle to form a makeshift fortification. However, owing to its lighter weight, the war carts of Yu Da You (俞大猷) could maintain some mobility even after a defensive circle was formed. This was very crucial to Yu Da You's war cart regiment, as Mongol horsemen were simply too fast and too unpredictable. A mobile defensive circle was a temporary defensive formation that protected the army so that it could relocate to a favourable position and deploy into a proper wagon fort.

Yu Da You drafted the following formations based on a medium sized battlegroup consisted of seven Xiao Ying (小營), or ninety-one war carts.

Battlegroup on the march: War cart battlegroup formed into a long column, with mounted scouts riding ahead and behind the formation.

Read more