Ancient Chinese weapon: nest of bees

[hubag bohol]

The Nest of Bees is an early Chinese rocket battery. It was the Long-Range weapon of the Ming Warrior.

[hubag bohol]

The Nest of Bees consisted of hexagonal tubes filled with dozens of rocket-tipped arrows (32). The tubes broaden towards the top to aid the dispersal of the arrows. It may not be the most accurate black powder weapon ever used but the fact that it is capable of firing off more than a dozen of arrows at the same time in all directions in front makes it an effective weapon. Another drawback would be that, it is a 2 handed weapon which made it awkward to move around. The arrows were often tipped with poison or flammable materials such as pitch, bitumen or resin which increases the chances of kills. The kinds of fire arrow devices the Ming employed: heavy and light batteries (on land and on water), poison tipped, metal "armour busters", explosive, massive, and handheld. These deadly arrows can penetrate flesh to bone and they could travel quite far - up to 5 football fields away, and were built with consistent formulas that allowed fairly predictable flight patterns. The arrow batteries could also have been fitted with shoulder straps and worn like a backpack into battle. When worn like this, the nest of bees can actually protect the warrior from flying debris.

[hubag bohol]

The Nest of Bees was one of the more widely used rocket batteries of the Ming Dynasty. Thousands of these weapons could have been deployed simultaneously, raining death on the enemy's ranks.



http://deadliestwarrior.wikia.com/

[hubag bohol]

[hubag bohol]

Siege rockets were commonly used by the armies of Ming Dynasty. The most famous one was called "Nest of Bees". It could launch 32 rocket-propelled arrows at the same time.

[Lorenzo]

Very interesting.

[hubag bohol]

Hmm, the modern Chinese military has a reputation to maintain...

[Lorenzo]

I just hope that the Chinese military does not end up being deployed against the Philippine military.