greatmingmilitary posts
Posts: 173
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Infantry formations of the Imjin War — Part 2
Zhejiang infantry unit rotation『迭相進退, 左旋右抽, 各臻其妙。』"Then (they) arrayed in intervals (and) advanced and retreated by turn, spun left and drawn right, each had its own ingeniousness."From Korean description, it is evident that Imjin War-era Zhejiang troops still p...
Fei Qiang (飛鎗) and Fei Jian (飛箭)
And now for something completely different.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Ramblings on random topics
Siege of UlsanI finally completed all the maps for my Siege of Ulsan article, then I realised I might have to redo them all over again because OCD is serious business. For the time being though, the article is as complete as it could ever be, and I am quite proud of it. It is the most detailed and a...
Huo Long Chuan (火龍船)
I suppose it is the reverse Turtle Ship.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Post-Ulsan skirmishes
While Siege of Ulsanalready ended, hostilities between both sides did not simply stop. As a prelude to the coming Siege of Sacheon, a series of skirmishes was fought between Ming and Joseon army and Japanese troops under Shimazu Yoshihiro (島津義弘). While these skirmishes had little to no direc...
Zhao Shi Zhen's Ju Ma San (拒馬傘) and Ruan Pai (軟牌)
Not as cool as Kingsmen umbralla, but it's the closest thing you can get IRL.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Zhao Shi Zhen's Ying Yang Che (鷹揚車)
Who would've thought that steering wheel was invented in the 1600s (not really).Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
The bare-footed militia of Changning
Finally a new blog post! This article is about a rarely heard Ming auxiliary troops that, surprise surprise, fought barefooted.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Warfare Research Series Episode 3: Lamellar Revisited
Justin Ma and Blake Cole from The Way of Archery are back again! This time, they are revisiting the same lamellar armour tested in Episode 1, but with updated and more historically accurate arrowheads!Go watch it here, and don't forget to subscribe to The Way of Archery YouTube channel as well a...
Impression: TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III Grand Cathay reveal
At long last, the Grand Cathay faction has finally been unveiled! Which means it's time for an impression post!Overall impressionThe developers at Games Workshop and Creative Assembly present us Grand Cathay, the "fantasy China" in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. The empire is ruled by o...
Warfare Research Series Episode 2: Chinese Brigandine
Justin Ma and Blake Cole from The Way of Archery once again delivered their top-notch research and experimental archaeology! This new episode is a massive step-up from the first episode,as both of them not only improved their already meticulousand analytical methods , with historically accurate arro...
Impression: Age of Empires IV Chinese civilization
Well, this is actually old news (Chinese is one of the earliest revealed civilizations), but since E3 2021 just concluded and a new trailer dropped, I figure this will be a good time to have a look at Age of Empires IV's take on the Chinese.As before, this article will mostly comment on the visu...
Siege of Ulsan
Ten months in the making and more than 10,000 words long, the blog post about Siege of Ulsan is finally complete! Read it here!Well...only sort of. I am still not satisfied with how the maps turn out, and there are much more to write about this battle including analysis, strategic implications, refe...
Warhammer Grand Cathay hype and important elements to consider when designing a fantasy Chinese army
Happy Chinese new year!As it turns out, Grand Cathay has been confirmed as one of the starting factions of the upcoming Total War: Warhammer III! Much joy to be had.With that being said, while I am very stoked by the news and have high hopes for Creative Assembly, I also understand that it is very d...
Criminal underworld in ancient China: The many names of thief and burglar
I came across this information by chance. Although not directly related to Chinese military history, I thought this is interesting enough to share. A stern word of caution though: these were the names of petty criminals, not some kind of mysterious forerunner of ninja practising a hitherto unknown C...
Chinese siege defence (finally done)
It''s been...four months, I guess? I've been sidetracked way too many times over these few months, digging into topics that have nothing to do with siege defence, but finally I manage to get my sh*t together to finish this bloated mess of an article.You can read it here.
Some updates on old blog posts
Updated the blog post on Huo Dan (火彈) and added in an improved, rapid firing roman candle variant of the weapon.I've also detected that Mao Yuan Yi's description of Fei Kong Sha Tong (飛空砂筒) is erroneous and corrected it. The weapon was actually sensibly designed, but Mao Yuan Yi ...
Sheng You Yin Huo Che (盛油引火車)
Same tactic, but medieval.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Black Myth: Wukong trailer is awesome
I especially LOVE that the game atmosphere has a strong Seikro: Shadow Die Twice vibe to it, in the sense that it's a darker and edgier, but still highly faithful reimagining of myths and legends.The game title ("Black Myth" seems to be a spin of "Black History", a phrase origina...
The Siege of Ulsan (WIP)
Originally I planned to complete my previous blog post before I begin this one, but nah, Siege of Ulsan is too interesting so I start early. As of now, it is still WIP.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Xuan Feng Pao (旋風砲)
I used to sincerely believe that whirlwind trebuchet is a unique weapon that utilises some kind of centrifugal force to hurl its projectile, like a lethal version of carnival swing ride. I feel so silly now.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Chinese arming garments: A preliminary look
Chinese warriors had their own version of surcoat/tabard/jupon/jinbaori.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Elite unit of the Ming Dynasty — Jia Ding (家丁)
Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.(To be honest, I am somewhat surprised that I have so little good things to say about the most powerful military unit of the Ming Dynasty.)
A look into an interesting battle account
『順治十五年,有族兄旅寓鎮江，適海寇(明鄭)入犯鎮江，城中官軍悉出城拒賊。族兄與居民並派出登城守埤，因得縱觀戰事云。官軍出城，陣于江口，江中海寇巨艦抵岸，遙聞掌號聲。寇蟻附而上，集於沙洲， 約數千人，通為...
Telling apart Chinese polearms — EXTRA: Armour-piercing awl and hanging moon spear
In addition to the large groups of Chinese polearms detailed in my blog post, there exists a special sub-group of Chinese pole weapons that was very common during Ming and Qing period, but somehow remains in obscurity.Extra 1) “Armour-piercing awl”Po Jia Zhui (破甲錐, lit. 'Armour-breakin...
Chinese siege defence (WIP)
Pictured above is the Chinese anti-ninja device (joke).This is a blog post to supplement my Chinese fortification series. It is still a work in progress, so please bear with me. I will try to complete it as soon as possible.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
Impression: Stronghold Warlords (pre-Alpha)
*Images in this article are screenshots taken from videos of Fireflyworlds YouTube channel.Recently (recently as in four months ago during E3 2019. I know, I am late to the party), Firefly Studios revealed their next installment in the Stronghold series: Warlords. Unlike previous Stronghold titles, ...
Mu Huo Shou (木火獸)
It's a Totally Accurate™ weapon!Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
A critique of Samuel Hawley's The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China — Part 1.5: Truce and negotiations
Part 1.5 of my book critique translation that primarily deals with the negotiations that happened between the first and second invasion.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.TRIVIA:If we go by literal translation, Hideyoshi actually demanded the marriage of a "beautiful young maiden of...
Chong Feng Lei Dian Che (衝鋒雷電車)
My mental images when I was writing this article.Continue reading at my Great Ming Military blog.
