User blog:Kazanshin/Ming Dynasty Officer vs Maratha Soldier

A Ming Dynasty Officer, high ranking soldier of the great Chinese empire, master of martial arts and gunpowder weapons that built the basis of most modern firearms!

A Maratha soldier, Hindu warrior of India who turned the tables and struck back against the Mughal Empire using a combination of black powder and cold steel weapons!

' WHO. IS. DEADLIEST!? '

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Ming Officer=The Ming Dynasty was founded in 1368, when the Chinese overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, when China was ruled by the Mongols﻿. This revolt, led by the peasant Zhu Yuanzhang, was in response to currency inflation, rampant poverty, famine, and a series of earthquakes that devastated China and weakened the Yuan's stability. The Ming focused on building up a powerful standing army that could drive off enemy invasions. Beginning in the 14th Century, Ming Warriors expanded China's territories to include Yunnan, Mongolia, Tibet, and much of Xinjiang and Vietnam. They also incorporated gunpowder weapons into their military forces, speeding up a development that had been prevalent since the Song Dynasty. The success of the Ming Dynasty was a result of its many military institutions. The early Ming's military was split up into numerous "Wei" or commands throughout the Ming frontier. Each wei was to be self-sufficient in agriculture, with troops stationed there farming as well as training. While the Ming was a culture and technological golden age for China, the Ming did begin the policy of Chinese isolationism; which still influences China somewhat to this day.
 * -|Dao=Tai-Chi-Wushu-Kung-Fu-BroadSwords-Tai-Chi-Dao.jpg_640x640.jpg"Dao" is a generic word for any single-edged blade, though it most commonly refers to a wide, slightly curved sword with a single cutting edge. The handle is wood wrapped in cloth to absorb sweat, with a circular or semicircular metal guard. The dao have existed for centuries of Chinese history, although single-handed versions evolved during the Ming Dynasty. During World War II, shortages of firearms forced some Chinese soldiers to fight with the dao. This wasn't so unusual as Japanese Imperialist troops also used Katanas during the war. It is still practiced in modern wushu, where it is known as the "General of All Weapons". The dao can also be used as a thrusting weapon as well as a hacking weapon.
 * -|Guan Dao=GuanDao.jpg guandao is a type of Chinese pole weapon that is used in some forms of Chinese martial arts. In Chinese, it is properly called a yanyuedao (偃月刀; lit. "reclining moon blade"), the name under which it always appears in texts from the Song to Qing dynasties such as the Wujing Zongyao and Huangchao Liqi Tushi. It is comparable to the Japanese naginata and the European fauchard or glaive and consists of a heavy blade with a spike at the back and sometimes also a notch at the spike's upper base that can catch an opponent's weapon. In addition there are often irregular serrations that lead the back edge of the blade to the spike. The blade is mounted atop a 1.5 m to 1.8 m (5–6 foot) long wooden or metal pole with a pointed metal counter weight used to balance the heavy blade and for striking on the opposite end.
 * -|San Yan Chong=Three_barreled_pole_gun.jpeg san yan chong (simplified Chinese: 三眼铳; traditional Chinese: 三眼銃; literally: "three-eyes gun") was a three barrel hand cannon used in the Ming dynasty. The distinctive San Yan Chong 三眼銃, or three eyed gun was one of the most common Ming hand cannons. Three eyed guns were usually made from cast iron or crude steel, each of the three eyed gun's metal tubes would have a small hole that allows the user to pour in gunpowder. Functionally they were no different from many contemporary European hand cannons- a solid metallic head with an aperture behind it for different tail fittings to be attached~ ranging from the butt of a staff, a spearhead, to a specialized short curved stock with a raised sight that enabled the gunner to fire it while kneeling- these would be called "Divine Machines."
 * -|Kaiyuan=Kaiyuan.jpg millennia, Chinese archery (simplified Chinese: 中华射艺; traditional Chinese: 中華射藝; pinyin: zhōnghuá shè yì, the art of Chinese archery) has played a pivotal role in Chinese society. Shorter bow designs became popular during the Ming dynasty. The “Kaiyuan” bow, with a distinctive hook-like siyah (which can be used to hook up arrows), probably appeared around the 15th century. The origin was probably central Asia. There are archery manuals describing picking up arrows from horseback with the bow’s hooked siyah. There are two versions of this bow, the regular version and the horse bow version.

Maratha warrior=The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian power that dominated much of the Indian subcontinent in the 17th and 18th century. The empire formally existed from 1674 with the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji and ended in 1818 with the defeat of Peshwa Bajirao II. The Marathas are credited to a large extent for ending Mughal rule in India. The Maratha were a Marathi warrior group from the western Deccan Plateau (present-day Maharashtra) who rose to prominence by establishing a Hindavi Swarajya (meaning "self-rule of Hindu/Indian people"). The Maratha became prominent in the 17th century under the leadership of Shivaji, who revolted against the Adil Shahi dynasty and the Mughal Empire, and carved out a kingdom with Raigad as his capital. Known for their mobility, the Maratha were able to consolidate their territory during the Mughal–Maratha Wars and later controlled a large part of the Indian subcontinent.
 * -|Steel lamellar=Chainmail_with_lamellar.jpglar armour is a type of body armour, made from small rectangular plates (scales or lamellae) of iron, leather (rawhide), or bronze laced into horizontal rows. Lamellar armor was used over a wide range of time periods in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and throughout central and eastern Asia, especially China, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet. Lamellar armour consists of small platelets known as "lamellae" or "lames", which are punched and laced together, typically in horizontal rows. Metal lamellar may be lacquered to resist corrosion or for decoration. Unlike scale armour, which it resembles, lamellar armour is not attached to a cloth or leather backing (although it is typically worn over a padded undergarment). While regular foot soldiers of the Ming Dynasty would wear little armor, usually restricted to leather lamellar, a high ranking officer would have worn more expensive metal armor.
 * -|Talwar=Talwar_2.jpg talwar (pronounced [t̪əlʋaːr]), also spelled talwaar and tulwar, is a type of curved sword or sabre from the Indian Subcontinent, and is found in the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The talwar originated alongside other curved swords such as the Persian shamshir, the Turkish kilij and the Afghan pulwar, all such swords being originally derived from earlier curved swords developed in Turkic Central Asia. The talwar typically does not have as radical a curve as the shamshir and only a very small minority have the expanded, stepped, yelman typical of the kilij.


 * -|Sang=Sang.jpg sang is a spear entirely made of iron, similar to the barchhah pike, but was shorter and lighter, although some examples as long as 7 feet do exist. The weapon possesses long, slender, three or four-sided heads, steel shafts, and had a grip covered with velvet. It was one of the most common weapons on the battlefield used by Mughals and Marathas, even after the introduction of gunpowder weapons like the musket or some types of rifles. It was used both on foot and on horseback.
 * -|Toradar=Toradar_musket.jpg toradar is an Indian matchlock dating from the 16th-century. It was a preferred firearm in India well until the mid 19th-century because of its simple and cheap design. When the Portuguese reached India in 1498, they brought with them firearms, among them the matchlock musket. Expert armorers are plentiful in India, and native craftsmen began to copy the weapons and adapting them for their own needs. Most of these craftsmen started to apply a style of decoration that normally would be applied to their traditional weapon. Soon a distinctive local style evolved in this matchlocks, and the toradar was invented in the Indian subcontinent. Toradar matchlock remained to be the preferred firearms mechanism well until about 1830.
 * -|Kaman=Kaman.jpg standard Mughal kaman (bow) was about 4 feet (1.2 metres) long and generally shaped in a double curve with a grip covered in velvet. Made of horn, wood, bamboo, ivory, and sometimes of steel, two of these steel bows. Several strings of thick catgut lined the Mughal bow on its concave side (convex when strung) to give it elasticity and force. The belly was made of finely polished buffalo or wild goats' horn in jet black. Glued to this was a thin slip of hard, tough wood. The ends were fashioned to represent snakes' heads with the horn left plain, while the wooden back was decorated with rich intermingled arabesques of gilded birds, flowers or fruit. Bow strings were sometimes made of strong threads of white silk laid together to form a cylinder about 1.25 centimetres (0.49 in) in diameter. Whipping of the same material was then bound firmly round for a length of three or four inches at the centre, and to this middle piece large loops of scarlet or other coloured material attached by a complicated knot. These gaudy loops then formed a striking contrast to the white silk.
 * -|Plated chainmail=Maratha_armor.jpgha armor at that time was a type of plated chainmail, with the plates covering the lower chest and upper stomach as well as the arms. The chainmail was riveted and the entire armor war made of steel. The plated area was made to be somewhat bulletproof, but the effectiveness is debatable. The armor of high ranking officers and generals was very ornated with feathers and horse tail hair used as decoration. Even when most European armies had discarded armor in favor of massed musket fire, the Maratha and the Mughal often still wore armor in battles, as they still saw melee combat not only as honorable but as important and effective.

So, who wins this battle of two of Asia's greatest Empire builders? I'm personally thinking the Ming will get a much deserved victory despite his inferior firearm.

The battle will be a duel in a Burmese town. Let the games begin!