Wei Qing led his army through a fatiguing expeditionary march across the Gobi desert only to find Yizhixie Chanyu's main force waiting to encircle them on the other side. Using armored heavy wagons known as "Military Sturdy Wagon" (Chinese: 武剛車; pinyin: wŭ gāng chē) in ring formations as temporary defensive fortifications, Wei Qing neutralised the Xiongnu's initial cavalry charges, forcing a stalemate and buying time for his troops to recover strength, before using the cover of a sandstorm to launch a counteroffensive which overran the nomads.

The Guangwu Emperor introduced an ox-pulled war wagon several stories high with an observation tower, which was deployed at the Great Wall against the Xiongnu.

A medieval European war wagon was developed in the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces led by the Czech general Jan Žižka rebelling in Bohemia. It was a heavy wagon given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners, archers and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using spears, pikes and flails. Groups of them could form defensive works, but they also were used as hard points for formations or as firepower in pincer movements. This early use of gunpowder and innovative tactics helped a largely peasant infantry stave off attacks by the Holy Roman Empire's larger forces of mounted knights.

Its successful history came to an end, at least for large scale engagements, with the development of field-piece artillery: a battle wagon wall "fortress" of approximately 300 wagons was broken at the Battle of Wenzenbach on September 12, 1504 by the culverines and muskets of the landsknecht regiment of Georg von Frundsberg.