Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechnical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity

[Liang Jieming]

Another heads-up. Filming hasn't begun just yet but another episode of "Ancient Discoveries" on Chinese Warfare is due 2008 on the History Channel, where they fire a reconstructed full scale Xuanfeng Pao, explode a reconstructed Ming-era seamine as well as feature reconstructed landmines. They haven't decided yet on whether to recreate an actual replica of MaJun's rotational pao or to just render it in CGI yet but this episode shouldn't be missed.

[shibole]

Awesome work!

Personally I want to see someone reconstruct a "Huolung Chushui." Now THAT would be interesting.

[Liang Jieming]

I asked. They built Ming era handheld rocket launchers for this round of filming but won't be building the Huolongchushui because they already featured that in CGI in the earlier programme.

[shibole]

but won't be building the Huolongchushui because they already featured that in CGI in the earlier programme

Lame! The thing about the Huolongchushui is that it seems a little far-fetched to me. I'm not convinced that something like that would be able to skim over the water unless maybe it was touching the water or something. It seems like they'd have had to invent the airplane, or a guidance/stability system as advanced as modern rockets to have a wingless rocket that could skim in any manner.

Originally I thought a "li" was more like a mile because it keeps getting mistranslated as such. Now I find that it's actually more like 1/3rd of a mile. (Another one for the mistranslation thread!) Still, being able to fly 3 li, an entire mile, in a direct shot rather than an arc also seems a bit far-fetched to me for something that size (1.5m) considering the lack of modern propellants and the submunitions it would be carrying.

Any thoughts on this? I admit that I'm not a Rocket Scientist.

[Liang Jieming]

Review of the previous episode by Wong Koi Hin.

The Huolongchushui is featured in this episode.

http://citizenhistorian.com/2007/11/28/ancient-discoveries-chinese-warfare/

[shibole]

Thanks. Guess I'm going to have to buy the DVD.

[Liang Jieming]

It's confirmed. Another episode of the Ancient Discoveries Series on Chinese Warfare will feature yet another sketch from my book. It's airing in the US starting this week.

"Ancient Discoveries - Ancient Chinese Super Ships" lol.

The synopsis:

"The master shipbuilders of the Far East created the most deadly warships of ancient times in their quest for supremacy of the seas. Uncover the extraordinary ingenuity of the ancient engineers whose innovations would take shipbuilding to new heights and create some of the largest and most fearsome navies of the ancient world."

Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity - An Illustrated History

[Liang Jieming]

Hi, just letting u guys know that my book is now hosted on www.grandhistorian.com/chinesesiegewarfare

The previous site has been discontinued indefinitely.

Jieming

[PhilipLean]

It would be big plus to show the cover on the Amazon UK site. At the moment that space is blank.

At the moment the Amazon sites say - "Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available". Did it sell out ?