Ancient Military Historian Rates 9 More Battle Scenes | How Real Is It? | Insider
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00:00So he dies there, right?
00:08He survives somehow.
00:09He's fine.
00:10He just gets up.
00:11It's cool.
00:12But, like, he gets thrown by a rhino.
00:13Like, shouldn't he be dead?
00:14I don't think you shake that off.
00:16My name is Roel Knaanendijk.
00:17I'm a historian of ancient warfare at Lincoln College, University of Oxford.
00:21I specialize in classical Greek warfare.
00:22I'm back again to look at more battle scenes in movies and TV and judging how real they
00:26are.
00:33It's actually a really interesting clip.
00:34Like, it's got some really accurate features of how to approach a fortified position.
00:37Like, the attacking force is really quite spread out.
00:40They've all got their shields in front of them.
00:42They're trying to use screens to maintain in cover while they're advancing.
00:46So they're trying not to make themselves into too much of a target, which is really good.
00:52So the command loops.
00:53I mean, I've talked about this before.
00:55Movies and TV shows just love doing this over and over.
00:57They want their archers to be musket men.
01:00They want them to follow a fixed sequence and fire in volleys.
01:04But archers didn't historically do this.
01:06There's no evidence that archers would shoot in volleys.
01:08It's just something they made up for the movie because it looks good to have them all do
01:11it at the same time and do it at the word of command.
01:14Some of these bows, they might have a draw weight of 60 pounds or more.
01:19A longbow has a draw weight of 120 pounds.
01:21If you're waiting for the command, you have to just hold it there and wait for the guy
01:25to tell you to loose.
01:28Your arm's going to go numb.
01:29You're going to give that up.
01:30And after a volley or two, you're going to be exhausted.
01:36So the defenders here are using the most basic tactic, of course, that you can use, which
01:39is to try and shoot the people who are operating the engines.
01:41If you can get rid of those, then the engines themselves are just wood.
01:44The obvious response to that was to try and protect the ram itself with some kind of roof
01:48or screen, which is something that has happened since ancient times.
01:52I think it's supposed to be the kind of ram that you might use either to batter against
01:54the walls, like you can roll it back and forth and smash it into something, or to pry apart
01:59the stones of the wall.
02:07Throughout history, you try to use musical instruments or flags or fire to kind of signal
02:11to other people to make sure that they play their part in the battle.
02:15Having something really loud, like a trumpet, that you can hear over the noise of the battle
02:19and you can hear it at a long distance is a really basic way to do that.
02:22The one thing that I'm slightly questioning in this scene is that the signal seems to
02:25be just a simple single trumpet blast.
02:28So it's really simple.
02:29It's really straightforward.
02:31That could be mistaken for a lot of things.
02:32That could be a signal to attack for the main force.
02:34It could be a signal to retreat.
02:36And if this is the signal they use to summon the dragon, it implies they have absolutely
02:39no other signals.
02:40The Roman army units would have had much more complex signals.
02:43They had a whole set of them that they were able to use in battle to indicate different
02:47maneuvers.
02:48So, for instance, in the Roman armies, you'd see these trumpet players with each unit and
02:52they would be able to give orders specifically.
02:54If you read tactical manuals from the Hellenistic and Roman period, they think, these authors
02:59still think the most reliable way to convey an order is to just, you know, use your voice.
03:10Aegon and the other sort of leaders are actually getting directly involved in the fighting
03:13and they've become this kind of sort of symbol for their side, right, riding these dragons.
03:18And that is fundamentally really historical.
03:20There's a particular leadership style, which is leading by example, which is very common
03:24throughout history as a way for these kings to demonstrate their worth as leaders.
03:28You know, people follow them because they are willing to take the same risk as the troops.
03:31Alexander the Great, for instance, was really renowned for this, like, leading from the
03:34front, being the first into the enemy.
03:36But there's also the other consideration, which already, like, it forms the other opposite
03:41pole of that kind of problem of leadership.
03:43They often die.
03:44So it's something that a lot of leaders consider to be unwise because you end up, you know,
03:49losing a lot of generals or even, you know, monarchs or royal figures in battle.
03:54You want to avoid that.
03:55Well, you want to make sure you keep them out of harm's way.
03:57I would give it a six.
03:58I have a personal grudge against the arrow commands.
04:01Like, at this point, I have to get them to stop it at some point.
04:04So they have to lose points for that.
04:05And also, where's my ditch?
04:07I need one.
04:08That's bad.
04:09But otherwise, like, there is a lot of stuff here that's actually really good.
04:15The Ork army manages to block the river, bring the water level down, and that allows them
04:26to approach the city.
04:27That's both based on historical examples and something that would realistically happen
04:31as a way to overcome a city's defenses.
04:33One of the great examples of that, it's a story, we're not really certain if it's historical,
04:37but Cyrus the Great took the city of Babylon that way by diverting the Euphrates through
04:42a couple of ditches that he had dug around the city, which allowed his army to essentially
04:46infiltrate the city through the dry riverbed.
04:50This is why they call him Cyrus the Great, because he knows the use of a good ditch.
04:54Obviously, what they're doing here, when they're shooting these catapult bolts hundreds of
04:58meters up into the sky to bring down this massive rockfall, I think that's more a narrative
05:03shortcut than a real tactic.
05:05It takes, obviously, a long time to kind of divert an entire river.
05:08So the only times that you'd be able to do that is if your enemy is already besieged
05:12and bottled up.
05:18What is going on with those walls?
05:19They're so basic.
05:20I mean, like, there's no cover for the archers, right?
05:23They just have a basic parapet.
05:25They don't have any battlements.
05:27They don't have any cover.
05:28They don't even have, like, a roof over it or anything.
05:31I mean, if you have, you know, thousands of years to engineer your defenses, you can put
05:35a roof on it.
05:36What you really want on a wall like this, partial barriers that go up to the full height
05:40of a person standing on the wall so that they can have cover or they can choose to be exposed
05:44in order to shoot arrows.
05:45When you realize, as well, that this wall doesn't have any kind of ditch or other earthwork
05:50in front of it, it's really relying on the river to keep the enemies at a distance.
05:54If they can approach, then even the defenders are going to be very vulnerable here.
06:03Horses actually can do some fighting.
06:05They can be trained to be an aggressive weapon or aggressive animal on the battlefield.
06:09In ancient times, this was very rare and very much worth remarking upon.
06:13We have, like, one story of a guy during the Ionian Revolt that Herodotus describes, a
06:17Persian general whose horse was also known to fight, so he would kick and bite.
06:21But in medieval times, I mean, when they bred these specific, like, these purpose-bred war
06:25horses, they apparently were taught to be very aggressive and they were taught to fight
06:29on behalf of their rider.
06:31So it becomes more normal over time to actually get these horses to be quite dangerous on
06:35their own, essentially.
06:43Catapults were sometimes used to try and launch either diseased animals or corpses of humans
06:48into a besieged city to try and both create panic but also spread disease.
06:54And so you could use that to kind of, you know, worsen the lot of the besieged.
07:01So this is a fictional weapon that they call the Ravager.
07:09I mean, it's very common for attackers to, instead of trying to get on top of the wall
07:13with ladders and towers, to just attack the fabric of the wall itself.
07:18So even in, like, ancient times, you have these beautiful Assyrian reliefs of siege
07:21scenes in which they're just going at the wall with shovels and pickaxes.
07:25Instead of picking into the wall, they decide to try and pull stones out with this kind
07:30of torsion force.
07:32I think that's weird.
07:33I don't think that's real.
07:35But at the same time, I mean, that's fundamentally something that does have a resemblance to
07:41siege hook, which is this kind of weapon that, essentially a bar with a reinforced metal
07:45tip that you use in order to pry apart the stones of a wall.
07:50I mean, a lot of these walls essentially are just stacks of stones, right?
07:53Early walls in particular don't even have mortar.
07:55They don't, they are not stuck together.
07:57So if you can loosen the stones or crack them or bring them out, then gradually you'll form
08:02a hole.
08:03And especially, you know, ancient walls, a lot of ancient walls are just mud brick.
08:07So if you smash into them with force, they just pulverize.
08:10There's a lot of fantasy technology here.
08:12On the other hand, in terms of its basic idea of a siege scene through a dry riverbed, I
08:18think that's a really interesting option.
08:20I would give it a seven.
08:21Like, they are actually based on ancient Roman ship designs very clearly.
08:29I mean, they're a little bit short and stubby, so they may have to be like Libernians, which
08:34would make sense for the imperial period.
08:36They seem to have combined the Libernian, which is quite a light ship, with the kind
08:39of towers and siege engines that you get mounted onto earlier, much bigger warships, like Quincarems,
08:45like these big fives that they used to use during the Punic Wars.
08:48But it's a really cool idea.
08:49They really did their homework on what these ships are supposed to look like.
08:52It's just a really weird feature that they have their masts and sails still on.
08:56The decks are cleared for battle.
08:57They do not have their masts on them.
09:00Every ship in a naval battle in the ancient world moves on rowing power.
09:05There are no sailing warships.
09:06It doesn't happen.
09:07This is just like extra weight that destabilizes and slows down the ship.
09:10I claim this city for the glory of Rome.
09:13Historically, it doesn't make sense.
09:14Numidia had been subjected centuries earlier, but it's very interesting to see a city built
09:19on the sea.
09:20The defenses go right up to the water, and you actually see in this scene they have a
09:24double wall.
09:25They have an outer curtain, which is right on the surf, and then they have these passages
09:30leading to an inner curtain as well.
09:32There's a layered defense system going on, which is really historically quite common
09:36for bigger cities, and it's really effective, because of course it means if the enemy overcomes
09:40the first line, there's still a second line you can fight for, and you're pushing them
09:43into this narrow, confined space where they're going to be overlooked by your archers, overlooked
09:48by your warriors.
09:49You love to see it.
09:50And also, obviously, building your wall up to the shore, you can use the sea as an additional
09:56defense.
09:57It's the mother of all ditches.
10:02And then the catapults start throwing fireballs, and I'm like, Ridley, we talked about this.
10:12Catapults are always throwing fireballs in these movies.
10:14They historically didn't.
10:15They would never do that.
10:17Why would you do that?
10:18Why would you set your own ships on fire?
10:19This is a terrible idea.
10:20You'd throw basic rocks or shoot bolts at the defenders to keep their heads down.
10:24That's all they're good for, really.
10:26Okay, stop, oh no!
10:30Was that a trebuchet?
10:31Yeah, that's a trebuchet.
10:33I mean, again, maybe he had those left over from Kingdom of Heaven or something, or from
10:37one of his other movies, but this is a thousand years out of place.
10:41It's an invention of the medieval period.
10:44The Romans did not know counterweight trebuchets.
10:47Stop it.
10:49The Greeks invented torsion artillery, which is a very basic form of bolt shooter.
10:54They later developed stone shooters.
10:55The Romans elaborated on this.
10:57They developed these onagers, which are these armed catapults.
11:00They think no one would notice, or that it wouldn't necessarily draw any attention.
11:08So a lot of the equipment here is basically just a mishmash of different ancient Mediterranean
11:14arms and armor.
11:16And then, for some reason, the hero, Paul Mescal's character, he's just wearing a cloth
11:23little, weird little leather thing.
11:25They should have put him in one of the armors that at least have a historical reference
11:28to it.
11:29Some of that mail in the background is really great.
11:32Just put him in that, that's functional.
11:35And then, of course, as soon as the fighting starts, or even before the fight, the helmets
11:38come off so that you can see who's who, which is classic Hollywood stuff, but extremely
11:43unrealistic.
11:46This is about survival!
11:49Survive!
11:50Yeah, I don't think there's any evidence of someone riding a rhino in the ancient world.
12:00So he dies there, right?
12:03He survives somehow.
12:04He's fine.
12:05He just gets up.
12:06It's cool.
12:07But he gets thrown by a rhino?
12:08I don't think you shake that off.
12:10Wild animals were often a feature of gladiatorial combat.
12:13They would let wild animals into the arena and have the gladiators enact hunts, essentially.
12:18Just try to hunt them and kill them.
12:20The exoticism is part of the spectacle, so if you could get weirder animals, animals
12:24that have been less often seen in Rome, that would be even better.
12:27There is evidence of rhinos making an appearance in the Flavian Amphitheater, but we don't
12:32really know if they were ever made to fight humans.
12:34I mean, most of the time they would probably be put on display or made to fight other animals.
12:40The Coliseum.
12:41Ready to race!
12:44Gladiatorial naval combat, called naumachia, is a real thing.
12:47Most likely this would have happened in separate venues that were purpose-built to allow them
12:51to move the water in and out quickly and where they'd have more space to kind of do this
12:56reenactment.
12:57I think it's really interesting they actually put that on the screen.
13:06There's absolutely no evidence that the Romans would ever bring sharks into play in
13:10these naval gladiatorial fights.
13:12This is not something that you can easily just sort of transport into the Flavian Amphitheater.
13:16That's just not going to happen.
13:24So the thumbs up, thumbs down thing, it's a big cliche for movies.
13:29We don't actually know the gestures that were used.
13:31So this is something that's become an icon of movies about ancient Rome, but it has very
13:37little to do with the actual evidence.
13:38I would probably give it a five.
13:40There are some things that you really love to see this on the screen, like the naumachia,
13:45the naval assault of a city, like great stuff, but the way that he did it ends up being really
13:50kind of sloppy and messy and with mistakes that didn't need to be made.
13:55They attack before they can establish their war camp and supply their soldiers.
14:01So I have many opinions, all of them bad.
14:04So they're supposed to have run from their camp into battle by running a mile across
14:09this plain.
14:10Now, many people question this for obvious reasons, and many people have questioned it
14:14for centuries.
14:15We don't really believe that people could run that far in full armor in the summer heat.
14:21And I think that's what they're kind of trying to convey, that the Persians were taken by
14:24surprise because the Athenians were advancing much faster and going straight into that fight.
14:33What they're trying to convey is this idea that the Athenians won the Battle of Marathon
14:37through shock tactics.
14:39If the Athenians didn't attack them while they were disembarking, they encamped across
14:43from them in this plain and sat looking at each other for 10 days.
14:57This is such a bizarre way of depicting Greek equipment.
15:01I mean, we know very well what kind of equipment they would have carried because they kept
15:06on depicting it on all of their art, and especially after this victory, they were very
15:09proud of depicting themselves the way they looked and depicting the Persians the way
15:13they had been defeated.
15:14They have little boss shields, which are wrong.
15:17The swords are accurate.
15:18That sword that Themistocles is carrying looks like a very good Greek cephos.
15:22But then they have double-headed axes.
15:24They have all sorts of random weapons that have absolutely no place in classical Greece.
15:30Greeks are heavy spearmen, double grip shields, long spears, heavy armor.
15:34The Persians seem to be carrying the kopesh, which is an Egyptian sword.
15:38The Egyptians were a big part of the Persian navy, so you might have had some Egyptian
15:42marines on board who may have carried these kinds of weapons.
15:46But if we assume that this is a force of Persians, which the movie wants you to believe, then
15:50why are they carrying Egyptian weapons and not Persian ones?
15:59The ancient battle account actually does say that they pursued the Persians to their ships
16:03and they seized some of the ships.
16:04So they have these really broad gangplanks, which, I mean, would have been really nice
16:10if they had those.
16:11I think that would have been make things a lot easier.
16:13But as far as we know, embarking and disembarking from these ships is actually quite difficult
16:16because they're just sort of either beached or lying just offshore.
16:20While this clip is working with sort of a kernel of what we're told about the Battle
16:25of Marathon, basically everything you're seeing here is complete fantasy.
16:28So I would give it a two.
16:29One thing I'll give them, the kind of sheer scale of the violence happening in this battle
16:33is something that the Greeks themselves were already kind of wanting to convey.
16:36Like they want us to know that this is a this is a huge thing.
16:46Him slapping the lances with his sword, right?
16:49Not only is that not historical, like that was made up by that guy right there for this
16:54scene.
16:55Like he just thought that would be a cool thing to do.
16:56So he did it and that they kept it in the movie.
16:59And it's like, you know, it works so well that you almost want this to be a real thing.
17:04And people sometimes ask me, like, is that a real thing?
17:06Is that something that ancient like ancient or medieval commanders would do?
17:09It's like, no, Bernard Hill did that.
17:11And now it's in this like incredible depiction of something that looks like pre-modern warfare.
17:18But that's just that's just cinema.
17:19That's just in this movie.
17:20So Calvary charges usually would have been a lot slower than you see in movies where
17:31in movies they spend a lot of time galloping.
17:33They're kind of going in full at full speed into the enemy.
17:36And they do that for a long time because it gives a sense of speed and drama and it gets
17:40that nice hoofbeat sound.
17:41If they have to be tight, they have to be close together.
17:44And so in order to maintain that, you've got to make sure that you don't go too fast too
17:47soon because the horses will have different paces.
17:50So what they would actually do is they would approach slowly.
17:53Maybe they would break into a trot at some point.
17:55When they got near the enemy, they will break into a canter.
17:58But if they even gallop at all, that would only be like the last couple dozen meters.
18:08Some people argue that the effect of a Calvary charge is purely psychological, so you'd never
18:12actually crash into a prepared enemy.
18:15You would always kind of be riding through an enemy that's already broken and running
18:19away.
18:20So you're kind of just slapping them in the back while they've already been driven off.
18:23But the other theory is actually that horses can be trained to crash into a solid object.
18:27This idea that you see in the scene of them throwing bodies, there's a testimony by I
18:33think Winston Churchill actually from Undermann where he describes this happening, that the
18:37infantry was literally just bodied by these horses and that that's what would happen when
18:41the Calvary slams into them.
18:48I think the movie is trying to signal this idea that we know it's going to be very difficult.
18:52We know not everyone believes that Calvary can charge into a prepared position and carry
18:56it.
18:57So we're kind of trying to anticipate that by saying, look, these orcs were already wavering.
19:01And so when they start wavering and opening up gaps and lifting their weapons, that's
19:05when Calvary has the opportunity to overrun them.
19:14Elephants are basically just a sort of souped up fantasy version of the war elephant.
19:18In ancient times, when they were first introduced, they were very effective because any army
19:22that hadn't seen these animals before was going to be absolutely terrified.
19:26So what you often see infantry do when elephants charge them is just make space, just make
19:31canals, make pathways through the formation, just get out of the way.
19:35And the elephants will prefer not to be fighting you and rather just be running on.
19:39That's what the Romans eventually figured out they should do against Carthaginian elephants,
19:42for instance.
19:43In this case, I think they're too close together, so it's going to be really difficult to create
19:46those channels.
19:48The other option is essentially to overwhelm them with missiles.
19:51Using light infantry, using archers and other kind of skirmishers to try and build a screen
19:57against elephants is usually very effective.
20:06He's throwing his lance at the rider who's controlling the elephant, which is, I mean,
20:11I guess it's a way to try and disable them.
20:14But the problem that you're facing really isn't the fact that there's a driver controlling
20:17the elephant.
20:18The problem is that you've got an elephant coming at you.
20:20And so really what you want to do is get that animal to either move past you harmlessly
20:24or turn away.
20:26In terms of cinema, in terms of emotion, this is the best scene.
20:31This is the best kind of ancient warfare scene that you could possibly imagine.
20:34Return of the King is always going to be awesome out of 10.
20:36If you wanted me to put a number on this, it's very difficult to say because it's fantasy,
20:39but I'd probably give it an eight.
20:51This scene is portraying the siege of Karak.
20:53The Muslim army, they would often try to isolate crusader knights, trying to get around them
20:58and then sort of encircle them, attack them from all sides.
21:00That seems to be fairly accurate.
21:02But at the same time, I mean, they would do that in conjunction with horse archers and
21:06other missile troops that they would use to try and soften that formation up first.
21:10There should absolutely be arrows flying everywhere.
21:12And most of these Frankish knights would probably be dead before they even make it to combat.
21:23It's also especially weird to see that the Frankish knights decide to split up.
21:27I mean, that's absolute madness.
21:28I mean, that's guaranteeing your own defeat.
21:30They should have stuck together as close as they could.
21:32They should have made a strong column and driven it straight into the Muslim force.
21:36That's the only chance they have of getting out alive.
21:39The cavalry tactics of medieval heavy cavalry, like medieval European cavalry, are very much
21:45based on the idea that they are a heavy shock force.
21:48They're meant to trample the enemy.
21:49I feel like that the, you know, Ridley Scott clearly put a lot of effort into training
21:52his horsemen to allow him to do this kind of maneuvering.
21:55And he wanted to show it on screen.
21:57It looks great.
21:58But tactically, it's nonsense, like they would never have fought like this.
22:02It has absolutely no chance of achieving anything.
22:10The advantage of a lance is that it can be couched when you're charging, when you're
22:14using it on horseback.
22:15So you can actually put that lance somewhere under your arm where it's stable, where it's
22:20braced by the rest of your body and by the horse, so that you can then maintain a direct
22:25line into combat and put the full weight of your horse and your person and your weapon
22:30behind that point.
22:31I think he should have been overhand.
22:33Like that gives you the range.
22:34I would give it a four.
22:35This scene is a nonsense, but the movie tells the story, right?
22:44Normally, in battles like these, when Roman infantry is fighting, you'd want to see them
22:48use their throwing spears, which they had to kind of disrupt enemy formations.
22:53And so in theory, you should want to see these two lines exchanging these volleys of javelins
22:58before they actually get into hand-to-hand combat.
23:01But we're told that, specifically at Philippi, they didn't do this.
23:04It was really quite a battle of butchers, essentially.
23:06They went straight into close combat and just hacked at each other with swords until there
23:10was no one left standing.
23:16You see them marching into battle in these orderly blocks, in these orderly units.
23:20That is very much how a Roman legion would advance.
23:22The problem with this scene is that, like, on the surface, that looks great and I'm happy
23:26with it, but then it's suddenly devolved into this Hollywood mob brawl.
23:31That is not a realistic battlefield.
23:32Those units would try to maintain their formation as long as possible.
23:35And if you lose your formation, you run away, you instantly break, you get the hell out
23:39of there because you want to restore order before you fight.
23:49And the other thing that they do that really annoys me, these guys who are squeezing their
23:53way to the back and then the next rank comes forward.
23:56And they're literally holding onto the straps on each other's equipment to try and make
24:00sure that that formation maintains that same order and that the guys are all sort of slotting
24:04in where they're supposed to be.
24:06This is a really unhistorical way to depict what a Roman army would actually do, which
24:10is not rank rotation, but line rotation.
24:13What these Roman armies were equipped to do was to take the entire unit, including its
24:18front rank and all the other ranks, out of the line and replace it with another unit
24:22that was coming up from behind.
24:24So they would have a line rotation system, usually in three lines, that would take turns
24:28bearing the brunt of the fighting.
24:30But within those lines, within those units, the front rank had to remain the front rank.
24:34It was absolutely instrumental to the functioning of an ancient infantry formation.
24:38I hold a grudge against them for using that stupid whistle.
24:41It bothers me.
24:42So I'm going to have to mark them down for it.
24:44But the equipment in this show is really the best that you've seen Romans like this.
24:48This is really quite authentic for the late Republic.
24:51The male armor, the simple helmets, the big shields that they're carrying.
24:55So I guess I'd give it a five.
25:03It's a common tactic is to try and find one position that they're not paying attention
25:07to or that hasn't been reinforced to the same degree, sneaking in there with a small force.
25:12Alexander the Great did it a few times.
25:14He would just offer rewards for the first person to make it up a particularly difficult
25:18slope or something like that in order to overcome the defenses of a particularly strong position.
25:31I have no idea how you would be able to shoot a bolt with a crossbow
25:36that would dig so deep into a stone wall that you could hang a man from it.
25:41That seems wild.
25:44I'm very impressed with that crossbow.
25:45I want that technology.
25:46I'm surprised they haven't used a ladder to climb the wall
25:49instead of doing this sort of really elaborate thing.
25:58By far the most common way for cities to fall was through treachery.
26:01So you'd almost always either have someone sneak in and open the gates
26:05or you'd have someone on the inside open the gates for you.
26:08When you read ancient treatises like Aeneas Tacticus,
26:11the vast, vast bulk of that work is devoted to
26:14how do you keep people from giving away the password,
26:17sewing through the crossbar of the gate,
26:19how do you keep people from sending signals to people outside,
26:22you know, the besieging force.
26:24So that kind of factor is much more important in the defense of an ancient city
26:27than the technicalities of what kind of weapons you might use to defend it,
26:31at least in the minds of ancient authors.
26:33Give it a six.
26:34He's infiltrating the wall in a really bizarre way.
26:37That doesn't make sense.
26:38But then fundamentally the idea of opening up a gate from the inside
26:42so that friendly forces can approach the city and enter,
26:45that's obviously very realistic.
26:55This scene depicts the siege of Xianyang.
26:57You also see this arms race between attackers and defenders
27:01in terms of siege equipment that they are trying to use.
27:04The Mongols tried to bring up their original trebuchets,
27:06which are essentially man-powered,
27:09which have a limited range,
27:10to try and bring down the walls.
27:12Song defenders realized that this would make the defense a short story,
27:16so they dug a moat that was wide enough
27:19that it was impossible to push those trebuchets close enough to the wall
27:22to actually do any damage.
27:24As always, the ditch is not there,
27:25so you can't actually see that in the show.
27:34Why are they on fire?
27:36Why?
27:37Marco Polo tells us that he participated in this siege
27:41and that he actually explained the use of counterweight catapults
27:43or counterweight trebuchets to the Mongols,
27:46but he seems to be inflating his own role in that.
27:48It was these Iraqi Muslim engineers
27:51that showed them how to build a counterweight catapult,
27:54or a counterweight trebuchet,
27:56which works on the power of gravity with a very large counterweight
28:00in order to swing the beam around a fulcrum
28:03and throw an object a far greater distance
28:07than older forms of siege artillery.
28:11But they're arguing here that you need to put on more weight
28:15to increase the range.
28:15That's exactly right.
28:16I mean, that is how they work fundamentally.
28:18You just need to have engineered a structure
28:21that can take the power of that sudden swing
28:25without losing control of the beam and the missile.
28:33Why would you do that?
28:34The Mongols had a real problem
28:36when they were engaging fortified positions,
28:38which is that they specialize in mounted warfare.
28:40They could defeat anyone in the open.
28:41They had the arms to do that,
28:43but they struggled with siege assaults
28:46where you need a lot of infantry to overcome fortifications.
28:48But in this particular fight scene,
28:50you're actually seeing Song soldiers outside of the walls.
28:53They're caught in the open.
28:54So this is where the Mongol advantage would come into effect.
28:57They should absolutely remain on horseback
28:59and fight them on horseback
29:00because at that point,
29:01scattered infantry is absolutely unable to defend itself.
29:06These are some of the earliest gunpowder weapons in existence.
29:18At this point, they don't really exist yet in Europe,
29:21but they really are just this.
29:22They're essentially a tube on a stick.
29:24So they look quite bulky and it's difficult to hold them
29:26and you kind of need a second person to show up
29:28and actually ignite the fuse.
29:30I would give this a three.
29:31The battle of the siege of Sanyang
29:32is a really important moment in history.
29:34So it's nice that there is some depiction of that.
29:36My favorite battle scene that I watched today
29:38is the battle of Pelennor Fields from Lord of the Rings.
29:40Not even necessarily because it's that accurate.
29:42It's just the scene that really gets a rise out of me.
29:44I'm watching it now and I still get goosebumps.
29:46I just love it.
29:47There are some times
29:48when you don't necessarily need a scene to be accurate,
29:50but it also does hit a lot of notes.
29:52It gets a lot of things right.
29:53So I really think that's a golden combination.
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