There’s some people who have criticised or expressed doubt over the effectiveness of The Great Wall of China. So I’m going to address these in the most basic terms possible.
- Even if The Great Wall couldn’t stop you from crossing, it could stop your horses from crossing.
- Even if The Great Wall couldn’t stop you from entering, it could stop you from leaving.
I’ll elaborate these now.
Some people stated that there are some sections of The Great Wall that isn’t very tall. Or that there was the end section of The Great Wall where you could just swim around it.
Of course you could do that. But then what about your warhorses? Would you like to spend the effort training your horse to climb walls, or swim in the sea?
Onto the second point.
The Great Wall came with an ancient alarm system – smoke beacons. Smoke signals could be used to send warnings from many miles away. Therefore, when sections of The Great Wall went under attack, nearby armies would know, and know where the enemy was.
Also, The Great Wall could be (and had at many times been) breached or partially destroyed by the enemy, but it also acted in combination with the terrain as a geographical choke point.
Most of the time, a conquering army attacked for the purpose of obtaining spoils of war. Well, suppose you had to raid deeper into the territory, but eventually you’ll have to return the same way they came. Once you reached The Great Wall, you found that the escape route had been cut off by enemy reinforcements.
So if your army had broken through The Great Wall, you had to leave a portion of the army to secure your escape route. That’s meant you’ll have to divide your force even more. And no, you couldn’t just…leave the other way. That meant you’d have to take another section of The Great Wall.