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Modao.
Fei Qian himself had never seen a real one. But he benefited from having a friend who was a die-hard Tang Dynasty fanatic. They often ate lunch together after work, and his friend would constantly indoctrinate him with this and that about the Tang Dynasty…
For instance, back then, people from the small island of Wa came to the Great Tang to study…
And Wa women would throw themselves at Tang men seeking "seed," returning home pregnant to be married off by their lords to improve the bloodline…
How incredibly advanced Tang architecture was, building massive structures with interlocking wood without using nails…
The Great Tang's heavy armored cavalry was undoubtedly the best; the Black Armor Cavalry of the Heavenly Strategy Mansion was like modern-day tanks…
Most of the time, Fei Qian just listened for entertainment. But sometimes he'd join in the discussion. The lunch spots were always crowded, and having a topic to chat about while waiting for food made things less dull.
That's how he ended up learning about the modao (mòdāo), a weapon lost after the Tang Dynasty.
Because the Tang Dynasty placed immense importance on weapons, even treating them as heirlooms, no one was buried with their arms. Therefore, surviving Tang weaponry is extremely rare.
He remembered that Tang Dynasty fan mysteriously sharing over a dozen pictures with him, all showing various types of swords. Their general proportions were similar: very long blades, basically half the total length of the sword. There were double-edged, single-edged, saber-type, straight-sword-type, and even trident-type blades with three points and two edges…
Just as Fei Qian was starting to find it interesting, that annoying friend added, "None of these are real modao; they're all replicas…"
At the time, Fei Qian really wanted to pour his lunch over the guy's face…
But thinking back now, he still needed to thank that Tang fan. Because his interest was piqued, Fei Qian later searched online, unlocking a few tidbits of knowledge. Although he never found the true appearance of the modao, he memorized a few lines: "Modao, a long blade, held by infantry… Seven chi in total length, blade three chi, handle four chi… Using waist strength to spin and slash, those who block are reduced to dust… Advancing like a wall…"
When the idea of forming a heavy infantry unit first arose in Fei Qian's mind at Northern Bend, the first thing he thought of was this mysterious "modao."
The earliest modao they forged resembled a three-pointed, double-edged blade (sānjiān liǎngrèndāo), excellent for chopping, delivering heavy, powerful blows. But even a warrior with some strength like Huang Cheng found it difficult to wield continuously for long periods, let alone achieving anything like "advancing like a wall."
Later, Fei Qian realized that when the ancients named something, it was often not arbitrary. So the character "mo" (陌) in modao naturally offered a clue…
The character "mo" is often used together with "qian" (阡), both having the "阜" (fù) radical, meaning mound or earth ridge. "Qian" (千) is a spatial concept, indicating the north-south direction. The character "千" is composed of "人" (person) and "一" (one), signifying "a person starting to walk." South is the direction of life, north the direction of death. "Bai" (百) is a temporal concept, referring to the division of the time between one sunrise and the next into one hundred marks (ke). Therefore, the term "qianmo" (阡陌, referring to field paths) carries some concepts of "time" and "space."
Thus, "qian" and "mo" represent two completely different directions!
If "qian" (阡, with "千" meaning person) stands upright on the earth, then the blade is "mo" (陌, with "百" meaning time/hundred), parallel to the earth!
Therefore, the second batch of modao was produced, designed to be rotated using waist strength.
And so, the modao formation was restored by Fei Qian right here in the Han Dynasty.
It might not be completely identical, but Fei Qian believed it couldn't be far off.
With the waist as the axis, the modao functioned like a straight-handled hula hoop. The person himself stood upright without turning his torso, while the modao rotated around the waist. Once a certain speed was reached, it no longer required great strength from the arms to chop. One only needed to maintain the speed, and the rapidly spinning blade could easily slice through the human body.
Moreover, this method allowed for a vastly extended combat duration compared to swinging a long blade relying solely on arm strength…
Thirty heavy-armored modao soldiers, after this period of intensive training, supplemented by three meals a day with extra portions and ample meat, had grown even more robust and powerful from their already carefully selected, sturdy builds. The blooming flowers of death unleashed by their blades were like thirty human-shaped meat grinders. Anything entering their killing radius—any part of the human body, whether clothing, armor, or weapons—was cleanly severed in two by the blade's edge!
If dying by other military means might leave the body somewhat recognizable, then before Huang Cheng's heavy-armored modao troops, even keeping a whole corpse became a luxury.
The wave of White Wave soldiers that charged forward was like a chunk of fat being fed into a blender. Amid the sounds of "Wu weng, wu weng," severed limbs and dismembered body parts flew everywhere. Half a head, a torso split in two tumbled into the dust. Blood spurted and splattered all over like water balloons being violently burst, with "puchi, puchi" sounds…
The blade edge, meeting that rough, sun-darkened skin, tore through it as easily as tearing paper, like ripping through air. The sliced flesh resembled butchered beef or mutton on a chopping block. Thick blood and bone fragments danced wildly in the air.
Many White Wave soldiers didn't even get a chance to scream before being drawn into the spinning blades. A human form instantly turned into several segments and pieces, some flung away, others collapsing to the ground.
The blades gleamed bright.
The cold light pierced to the bone.
It startled the very soul.
What is "reduced to dust"?
What lay before them was exactly that.
Chunks of human flesh were scattered east and west, some pieces even indistinguishable as to which person or which body part they belonged to. This brutal, hellish scene terrified the White Wave soldiers, leaving them like ducks with their necks pinched, mouths agape but unable to make a sound…
This inhuman method of attack dealt a blow to enemy morale that was unimaginably immense!
Hu Cai, standing on the city wall, was stunned, unsure what to say or how to react.
Perhaps a hundred, perhaps two or three hundred—no one knew exactly how many had died under this modao formation in that short span. They only knew that this entire wave that charged forward had all died; not a single one survived.
There were no wounded. Only the dead, scattered piece by piece, here and there.
The greatest effort these dead men could muster, the only mark they could leave, was a few white scratches, a few white dents on that heavy iron armor. Beyond that, nothing else…
Blood dripped down the masks of the armored modao soldiers. The puffs of white vapor exhaled between the ghost masks' fangs seemed utterly sinister and terrifying. In the eyes of the White Wave army, these thirty soldiers were like evil spirits crawled up from hell, greedily harvesting lives, lapping up blood, devouring human flesh!