Take another fascinating trip through time to discover the precursors - from centuries or even millennia ago - of today's cutting-edge technological breakthroughs.

In this episode, travel to ancient China where, while the Western world languished in the Dark Ages, the foundations of modern warfare and weaponry were laid. Virtually unchanged in the thousands of years since their invention, many of the tactics developed then prove just as effective on the battlefield today.

You'll be amazed how familiar the ancient Chinese tools of war seem to a modern viewer. Today's missiles, machine guns, and smart weapons can be found in the ancient arsenal of China. Host Michael Guillen demonstrates how the ancient Chinese repeating crossbow was a clear ancestor to the machine gun and we'll see how, more than a thousand years earlier, the Chinese invented a weapon that rivaled the European cannon.

(1 hour)