Imagine that you’re a member of the fearsome Mongol cavalry: Mounted on horseback, equipped with the era’s ultimate weapons technology — a bow and arrows — and the skills to wield them with deadly effect. You’re part of one of the most devastating military forces of its time, seizing and burning cities, toppling empires. Now you’re galloping over the plains of northern China toward the wealthy cities of the Ming dynasty.
But...in the distance looms a massive obstacle, something your ravening horde can neither burn nor topple. You smash against its gray bulk like waves against the shore, your weapons and skills counting for almost nothing as you are turned back by the implacable reality of stone and mortar. Unless you’re dead, you retreat. And as you retreat, you wonder: What just happened?
The Great Wall of China just happened.
