Zhanmadao

The zhanmadao, literally horse-chopping saber, is a long, heavy, two-handed Chinese sword documented in Song-dynasty military records of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, developed specifically for infantry to use against enemy cavalry. Wielded with both hands to deliver powerful downward or sweeping cuts, it was intended to sever the legs of an attacking horse or cut through the lighter armor covering a mounted rider's limbs, giving foot soldiers a practical countermeasure against heavy cavalry charges without requiring polearm-length reach. Song military texts describe formations of specially selected infantry equipped with the zhanmadao being deployed at the front of a battle line specifically to blunt cavalry assaults, a tactical role that later Chinese sword forms, including some interpretations of the Ming-era dadao, are considered to have drawn on and continued.