Chinese Northern and Southern Dynasties (II/79)

 

Eastern Jin's war-wagons

 

Proposer: Duncan Head

 

Proposal:

 

Add the following lines under the existing heading "Only southern dynasties:"

  

War-wagons with heavy crossbows, pavises and archers – Reg WWg (O)                  0-8

Downgrade under-manned wagons improvised from baggage-carts – Reg WWg (I)   any

  

Justification:

 

Eastern Jin, the first of the southern regimes,  used carts or wagons

against cavalry-heavy northern armies on several occasions:

 

"Southern armies were driven to adopt various expedients to compensate

for their weakness in cavalry. One, employed with considerable success by

Liu Yu during his conquest of the Southern Yan in 409-10, was to bring a

large number of wheeled vehicles with the army. These do not seem to

have been war chariots modelled on those of antiquity, and there is no

evidence that they differed at all from the ordinary two-wheeled baggage

carts of North China, more likely to be drawn by oxen than by horses.

The carts could be deployed to create instant field fortifications to cover

the army's flanks or buttress an infantry formation about to be

attacked by cavalry."

(David A Graff, Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900, p.125.)

 

In 416 AD, Liu Yu led an Eastern Jin army north and was opposed by

the Northern Wei at the Yellow River. Liu pushed a bridgehead of 700

men with 100 wagons across the river, in a defensive semi-circular

formation with its flanks on the river. His main force under Zhu

Chaoshi crossed elsewhere, 2,000 with 100 large crossbows - 20 men

with one crossbow on each wagon. They also set up a shield on the

front shafts of each wagon. When these large crossbows shot, they

were accompanied by archery – from the other men on the wagons, or

from other specialist archers?

 

(From http://www.chinahistoryinfo.com/index.php?id=20,103,0,0,1,0

based on the Song Shi biography of Zhu Chaoshi.)

 

"One pundit blames the defeat of the (Liu) Song army near Huatai in

449 on their failure to bring carts as Liu Yu had done"

(Graff p.136 n.15). 

 

Zhu's crossbow-artillery on a wagon could simply be Art (O), but the

accompanying archery and the protective shields suggest WWg. The 416

army is the only guide to numbers I have: 4 elements would cover

Zhu's force, while the 100 wagons of Liu's diversionary force would

be another 4 elements. However, with only seven men per wagon and no

specific reference to weapons, it is possible that these wagons were

less effective and certainly not able to produce a great volume of

missiles; so they might perhaps be classed as WWg (I). This downgrade

works only under DBMM, where they have been re-defined to represent

vehicles "Improvised from transport wagons, such as those of

migrating Sea Peoples". Wagons used as fortifications could perhaps

also be TF, but this is perhaps not appropriate in this particular

case since you couldn't then represent Liu's crossing of the river.

DBMM's Portable Obstacles could be used, but don't offer any cover

against missiles as a wagon-fort should.