Why didn t the ancient siege battle set fire to the city gates

There are two main reasons why the ancient siege warfare did not set fire to the city gate, the first is because the ancients made special protection for the city gate, and the second is because the city gate is well defended, and the cost of setting fire to the city gate is too great.

1. The city gate has special protection measures. The ancients were highly intelligent, and at the beginning of the construction of the city wall, they thought of various scenarios. When you think that the gates are the most vulnerable part, then you are very wrong.

First of all, many of the wood used to make ancient city gates were made of ancient giant trees, which were dense and heavy, and could meet the basic requirements of city gate defense. Secondly, after making the city gate, it is often painted with a layer of special pigment, similar to fireproof paint, which greatly improves the flame resistance of the city gate. Finally, in some important cities, the gates were wrapped in a layer of iron and held firmly with copper nails, especially below near the ground.

In addition, there was a gap in the upper part of the gate, and if the enemy did set the gate on fire, the defenders could also pour water out through the reserved gap, and the water flowed down the gate to extinguish the fire. Burning the gates is a good idea, because once you've breached the walls and taken them for yourself, you'll have to think about how to defend them, and that's when the gates are obvious.

Second, it is difficult to capture the city gates. In general, there will be an arrow tower directly above the city gate, which in addition to its aesthetic function, it also plays an important role in the defense of the city gate. The Arrow Tower is also generally the place where the generals command the battle, and the garrison is sufficient to attack the enemy soldiers who break through the city with bows and arrows.

Moreover, there is an urn city in the city gate, that is, the city gate is surrounded by a city wall, leaving only a small side gate, even if the enemy breaks through the city gate, it will face an all-round arrow attack without dead ends. It can be seen that the wisdom of the ancients is admirable. As a result, the city gate became the most difficult place to attack, and even if the city gate was set on fire, the price to pay would be huge.

Therefore, in ancient siege warfare, ladders and catapults were often used to destroy the city walls, or to enter the city by digging tunnels.

Harming others is not good for oneself. If the gates of the city are set on fire, no one inside the city will be able to get out, and no one outside the city will be able to enter.

First of all, the ancient city gate is not made of wood, so it is not meaningful to set fire, and you need to approach the city gate to the bottom of the city gate to release goods, at that time the defenders of the city are impossible to let you set fire with peace of mind, you can fire on it, and you can put water on it at the same time.

Because it didn't work. During the siege, if it is not a dead defense, there are defenders at the city gate who will rush out when the enemy army approaches. If you are stubbornly guarded, the back of the gate has been blocked, and you will not be able to enter the city if you tear the door down.

Because it was impossible to send dry straw burns to the city wall, it was difficult to approach without self-defense armor. In ancient times, the city gate was made of wood, but if you look closely, you can see that there is a thick layer of iron wrapped around the heavy wooden gate. This layer of iron sheet is nearly one centimeter thick and seven or eight centimeters thin.

It's like tank armor, and ordinary fire really can't help it.

This is because the structure of the city gate is relatively special, even if it is a fire with too hail, it is impossible to burn directly, but it may damage Yuanxian's own soldiers and reduce the morale of his troops.

This is because for the ancient city gate, his result is more frank and special to let Nachong, and the position buried in the soil is relatively deep, so it is difficult to attack Min Qing directly with fire.

In ancient warfare, if the city gate was attacked with fire, it could cause unavoidable consequences and was very dangerous.

The ancients must have known the simple truth that wood was afraid of fire, and there was a reason why the siege city was not burned with fire.

First, the gates were made of hard, sturdy wood. Because the city gate was very important in ancient times, the wood used to make the city gate was often made by going to the deep mountains to harvest those hundred-year-old giant trees, and they would also pick wood such as jujube wood and elm with relatively hard wood, and the luxury would also use iron birch as raw materials. This kind of wood is very fire-resistant, and the city gate is generally thick, so even if it is burned, it will take a long time to burn through.

With this time, the battle may be over.

Second, fire prevention measures are very tight. After the city gate is built, it must also go through the procedure of fire prevention treatment, and the city gate is wrapped with iron sheets and nailed with thick copper nails. Moreover, there is usually a moat in front of the city gate, and if you want to get close to the city gate, you must pass through a suspension bridge, and there are reserved holes in the city gate holes, which are used to extinguish fires.

Even if the gate is stuffed with firewood and grass after such treatment, it will not burn for a while. If an enemy is fireproofed, the door hole will be filled with water to extinguish the fire. During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, in order to better protect the city gates, the urn city began to rise.

Weng Chengcheng built a semi-circular or rectangular city outside the city gate to protect the city gate. Wengcheng's defense capability is very strong, even if the enemy army enters Weng City, it will be shot at 360 degrees on the city wall without dead angles, it is simply a turtle in an urn, don't even think about approaching the city gate.

Third, burning the gates is not necessarily useful. In ancient warfare, the general defender was the weaker side. In order to better defend the city, the defenders will fill the gates with sand and stones, so that even if they do burn through the gates, the back will be blocked with sand and gravel.

There is usually a gate tower above the city gate, so during the siege, the defender will occupy a high position and attack the bottom. The rain of arrows from above is a big threat to the besieging side below. Moreover, it is much more efficient to hit the door with a giant log than to burn it with fire, so the enemy will still choose to hit the door when attacking the city.

In history, there have been instances of city gates being burned with fire, but it was a failed case. In 1561 AD, the eunuch Cao Jixiang and Shi Heng, the prince of Zhongguo, rebelled in Beijing, intending to murder Ming Yingzong. Due to the accidental leakage of the rebellion, Cao Shi and the others had to rush into trouble at night, and when attacking Dong'anmen, Shi Heng set fire to the door with the intention of breaking in.

But what he didn't expect was that instead of extinguishing the fire, the defenders of Dong'anmen added firewood to the fire, causing the fire to grow bigger and bigger, successfully blocking the entry of the rebels.

To sum up, the reason why the ancients did not use fire to burn the gate when attacking the city was because the protection of the city gate was very tight, in addition to wrapping iron sheets and nailing copper nails, there would also be a water tank for irrigation, and there was a moat outside the city wall, so it was not the best way to burn the gate with fire. <>

The purpose of the siege is to occupy this place, if the gate is burned during the siege, even if the city is occupied in the future, the gate will have to be repaired, wasting money; And during the siege of the city, there will be soldiers on the city wall with bows and arrows to guard, and the enemy will not be given the opportunity to set fire to the city at all.

In ancient times, the city gates were very thick, the wood could not be burned through, and there was a moat outside the gate, and there was no way to attack it by fire.

Because most of these gates were covered with iron sheets, they could not normally be burned with fire.

The first reason is that the ancient city gates were fireproof and difficult to burn. Friends watching costume TV series, they should find a problem, when ancient soldiers were attacking the city, they either carried ladders, or carried pillars to hit the door, etc., and these methods were typical and proper to give people heads. I believe everyone will think in their hearts that the ancient city gates were all wooden, why not burn them?

Simple, convenient and good, aren't the ancients more stupid and didn't think of it?

No, the real reason is that the ancients considered this issue early on, and the city gate is very important to a city. The ancients often found some wood that was relatively hard, such as elm, iron birch, etc., to make the raw materials of the city gate, which was very strong and fireproof. The key is that the ancients, in order to prevent accidents, would add some small objects such as copper nails to the city gate, so that the fire prevention effect is better.

The second reason is that the ancient city gates have some small holes specially set up, which can be watered when they are prevented from being burned. The ancients not only strictly chose the materials for the city gates, but also thought about what if the enemy really burned them with fire. Although it will not burn for a while, it will have an impact on the number of gates over time.

In response to this situation, the ancients thought of adding small holes in the wall of the city gate, so that even if the enemy set fire, there would be no pressure.

You can directly take the method of watering to let the temperature of the city wall cool down, and the fire will naturally gradually decrease, and it will not threaten the city gate.

The third reason is that there is a moat in front of the city gate, and it is difficult to cross the moat and burn the city gate. There must also be a moat in front of the gate, which is not used for landscaping, but for removing the drawbridge leading to the gate when the enemy comes。Then the enemy will not be able to pass through the moat in a short time, so as to keep the city gate and add an extra layer of protection to the city gate.

To sum up, according to the above analysis, we can now know why the ancients had many city gates, it was in vain, and naturally they would not have done it.

Because it doesn't work, if it is burned with fire, the soldiers defending the city will naturally extinguish the fire with water, and the people defending the city will be surrounded by a layer of iron outside.

In ancient times, the city gates were made of wood, but they were covered with a layer of iron, which was to prevent the soldiers from burning them.

Because there was a layer of iron on the outside of the city gate to prevent it from being burned with fire, there were some gaps in the city gate, and even if it was burned, the defenders of the city would be doused with water.

The city is protected by the city walls, but the people in the city will never be unable to get out of the city, so there is a city gate, and the city gate is the passage in and out of the city. Of course, it is also the weakest place in the city wall, which can be imagined by the besieging side and can also be thought of by the defending side.

Therefore, the city walls are also the focus of the city's defense.

As shown in the figure, there are generally arrow towers and watchtowers built above the city gates, and the soldiers guarding the city gates can shoot arrows downward on the arrow towers, which means that the soldiers who can be used for defense above the city gates are several times or even more than the soldiers on the ordinary city walls, so anyone who intends to approach the city gate will face several times the blow of attacking the ordinary city walls.

This undoubtedly made it more difficult to attack the city gates.

And against the city gates, there was actually a complete defense system in ancient times. Generally, if the larger city is relatively well defended, there is generally an urn city outside the city gate.

The urn city is actually surrounded by a city wall outside the city gate, like a small city. It's designed to protect the gates, which means you can't attack them directly. Even if you open the gate of the urn city, you will enter the urn city, the urn city is not a large place, the enemies who can enter are limited, and the large siege equipment is also difficult, and the enemies who enter will face the attack from the height on all sides of the urn city wall, and this is probably what it means to catch turtles in the urn.

With such a tight guard, it was quite difficult to get close to the city gates. In this case, it is actually easier to blow up the city gate than to blow up the city wall directly. After all, although the city wall is thicker than the city gate, its defense is not too special, and unlike the city gate, which is the focus of defense, the city wall often has defense loopholes and blanks.

Therefore, in general siege warfare, unless there is an inner should open the city gate from the inside, most of the time, it is to climb the city head to carry out desperate efforts, and even sometimes, the city wall has collapsed, and the city gate has not been opened when rushing into the city. In fact, there are not many people who directly break through the city gates, because the city gates are the strongest guarded places in the city defense in many cases.

Because in ancient times, repairing a city gate would consume a lot of manpower and material resources, so the city gate would not be blown up at all.

Because the gates were specially reinforced, there was no way to blow them up with bombs.

Because the defenders of the city were also the strongest at the gates, they also knew that the gates were the weakest places.

Because the wood has been tempered for a long time, the surface has been plated with fireproof materials, and it is difficult to burn. So they didn't have to storm the gates with fire.

In ancient times, the gates were specially fortified, and it was difficult to blow them open even with cannonballs.

Because the city gate is generally not burned with fire, the city gate has not only undergone fire prevention treatment, but most of them are also covered with a layer of iron sheet.