Hwageo: The Forgotten Korean Weapons That Fired 5,000 Shots

Long before the invention of the modern machine gun, the Korean military developed remarkable mass-volley weapons designed to defend mountainous fortresses and borders against large enemy forces.

In this video, we explore the Wata, a family of multiple-shot volley weapons, including the five-shot Oano and the remarkable Haaga, a massive weapon system capable of firing up to 50 shots in rapid succession.

We also look at the bizarre Mouas, designed with a winged-tiger-shaped wooden chassis to intimidate enemy soldiers and horses, and discover how these weapons were deployed in a defensive square formation.

At its most impressive, this formation could unleash a staggering 5,000 shots in all directions, creating one of the closest things to a machine gun on an 18th-century battlefield.

Discover how these ingenious Korean weapons worked and why they were such a terrifying sight to opposing armies.