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Trebuchets began in the Far East, in China. But what they were there, were hand-pulled machines, worked by quite large teams of men.
"Prepare to loose, loose!"
In many ways, quite limited in what they could do. The big advance came when Arab engineers got hold of these devices, and put a big counterweight on so that instead of teams of men pulling it, the beam was pulled down by a great counterweight. They are far more potent and far more effective. These machines were picked up by western engineers and by the middle of the 13th century, it's very clear that French, English engineers were capable of building really quite large machines.
Some of the best military engineers were employed by Edward I, a master of military tactics. He was one of the most vicious and single-minded rulers of his time. Soon after ascending the throne in 1274, Edward decided to squash Welsh independence and bring Wales under his personal rule.
"He was a bully frankly, and I think many people would think of him as a really nasty piece of work. He was utterly determined, nothing is gonna get in his way."
Edward's strategy was to ring the mountain stronghold of the Welsh prince with a chain of powerful castles. Richard Holmes is an historian of military tactics.
"He built 8 new big castles which were really state of the art. They were immensely strong, well thought-out. And most of them could be supplied by water, so they were very difficult for the Welsh to besiege. And Edward believed that you control the countryside by castles like this. They are like nails, holding the landscape down, and their garrisons could issue out, attack enemies in the area. And until the castle was taken, nobody could really dominate that landscape.
They were extraordinarily expensive to build, and were a very severe drain on the Royal Exchequer. In the short-term though, they worked."
Edward and other English lords designed their Welsh strongholds with the Trebuchet in mind. For example, Caerphilly Castle was surrounded by man-made lakes, which kept the besieging army and their siege weapons at a distance.
"Castles what modern tacticians would call force-multiplies, they enabled a relatively small garrison to operate at absolute maximum of effectiveness. And a castle like this is carefully organized to maximize defensive firepower. There were loopholes in the walls and the towers for archers to shoot through. And here the walls are cunningly organized. So the second set of walls is higher than the first, and therefore an attacker facing this face of the castle, not only gets the defensive fire of the first wall, but he's got archers shooting at him from the higher walls behind it. It's a real nightmare.
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counterweight: n. 平衡物
bully: n. 欺凌弱小者
state of the art: n. 技术发展水平
exchequer: n. 国库，财政部
loophole: n. 枪眼
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