The Crossbow by Mike Loades

Author:Mike Loades
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781472824622
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

A Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) crossbowman in action. Crossbowmen like this are often depicted in rotating ranks of three – spanning, advancing and shooting. The lath is inexpensively made from bound bamboo strips and it is spanned by hand, using the carrying lanyard as a stirrup. Simplicity of both manufacture and operation made it ideally suited for use by massed troops. Although use of the crossbow had begun to decline for the main army at this period, it was still used in great numbers by local auxiliaries. The Ming period saw a divergence of crossbow forms. The bamboo-strip construction method adapted easily to a wide variety of sizes and strengths and working replica great-crossbows of the period have been made using as many as 20 strips of bamboo for the lath. The Miao, a mountain people from Southern China, were also famous for their great-crossbows; in their case fitted with massive wooden laths. Spanned by hand, these took three people to draw the string back, each bracing a foot on the lath. By contrast the standard five-strip bamboo lath, hand-spanned by one man, was relatively weak, its advantage being that it could be deployed in large numbers and shot in volleys. (David Joseph Wright)

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