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The heyday of ancient firearms in Chinese history was the Ming Dynasty, but in terms of quality, the Qing Dynasty was more advantageous. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

This is an influence dominated by the inertia of historical development.

But in some respects, it is because of some "jokes" of history, which eventually led to the possibility of developing the basis of another modern firearms process, which eventually disappeared into history.

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, due to the country's long-term peace, the rulers paid less attention to armament, and the development of firearms gradually came to a standstill, so that during the Opium War, the Qing army still used old firearms. During the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty began to manufacture firearms in large quantities and actively imported advanced weapons from the West.

By the time of the Westernization Movement, the manufacture and introduction of firearms had reached its peak. During this period, the Qing Dynasty established a large number of modern gun manufacturing plants, such as the Anqing Armory Institute, the Hubei Gun Factory, the Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, etc., and the equipment of the Qing Dynasty army was basically modernized.

From the above description, it can be seen that the firearms of the middle and late Qing Dynasty were either left far away by the West in terms of performance, or they were developed by introducing corresponding firearms to the West before and after the Westernization Movement.

So far, ancient Chinese firearms have gradually become a term in history.

But there is one point, that is, even in the Ming Dynasty, there was a partial gap in the quality of ancient Chinese firearms compared to the West, but this gap is not very obvious.

......

Later generations believed that gunpowder was one of China's four great inventions, and it is natural that China was also the first country in the world to use gunpowder in warfare. When Genghis Khan's Mongol army brought firearms to the West, it brought a huge shock and shock to European knights, changing the European concept of war. China, which was the first to use firearms, had the world's most advanced firearms technology for a long time, and until the early years of the Ming Dynasty, China's firearms were still in the leading position in the world.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China's firearms were no longer as invincible as in the past, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, China's firearms were no longer able to compete with the West; although the Ming Dynasty designed many more types of firearms than the Europeans, and the number of equipment in the army was also quite large; but there were few firearms designed so many that were easy to use, and even the soldiers in the army did not like to use them, and finally had to imitate the Western Furlong machine and Hongyi cannon.

The Furlong cannon used in the field is not used in large quantities due to the poor level of manufacturing technology in the Ming Dynasty, and the gun is also heavy and clumsy, and the shooting accuracy is very poor, and only the bulky Hongyi cannon can still be used; although the Hongyi cannon imitated by the Ming Dynasty is heavier than the Europeans, and the shooting accuracy is not high, but its ammunition load is large, and it is a large piece on the city wall, and it does not need to be carried often, so it is more suitable for defending the city. This was the main reason why the Ming Dynasty was longer at defending cities than in field battles; if the Ming Dynasty had a larger number of Furlong planes and a higher accuracy in firing firearms, it would not have lost to the Manchus in field battles.

Why did China, which had always led the world in firearms in the past, have such a big contrast in the Ming Dynasty? This is entirely due to the cultural system. During the Ming Dynasty, the Renaissance in the West and the emergence of modern science promoted the development of technology in all aspects, but at that time, China tied its culture to the imperial examination with the theme of Baguwen, resulting in educated people not practicing science, those who engaged in technology not being educated, and soldiers who used weapons also being uneducated; and these uneducated craftsmen could not create advanced firearms.

It turns out that everyone uses ancient methods to understand the world and develop production, technology and technology, Chinese are imaginative and serious, and it is normal to be ahead in many aspects, when modern science appears in the West, the level of development that China's cultural system can produce cannot be compared with it; until the end of the Ming Dynasty, China's iron manufacturing technology is not as good as the level of the Tang Dynasty, and the manufacturing technology of bronze used to cast cannons is basically no progress compared with the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. As far as firearms are concerned, the vast majority of firearms made in the Ming Dynasty were uneducated craftsmen, and even if some of them could read and write, they were people with no scientific knowledge at all, and to make good firearms, they first faced the following insurmountable problems:

1. I don't understand chemistry. We do not know the principle of the chemical reaction between the firing and explosion of gunpowder, and we cannot accurately identify the content of nitrate and sulfur in gunpowder, so we cannot know how much gunpowder is used and what range is obtained; because the active ingredients in gunpowder cannot be guaranteed, with the same amount of gunpowder, this batch of gunpowder cannot be loaded far, and the next batch of gunpowder may explode even though the quantity is the same.

2. No knowledge of mechanics and kinematics. There is no concept of parabolic motion of objects at all, and the trajectory of the flight of artillery shells is not known, and it is impossible to form an accurate shooting theory; the occasional appearance of a few "sharpshooters" is also based on feeling, and there is no guarantee at all, and most of them are fired blindly.

3. There is no knowledge of metallurgical theory, no understanding of the role of carbon content and other chemical components in iron, and no reasonable smelting process. Therefore, even if some good iron is smelted in this backward traditional habit, the strength of iron in mass production cannot be guaranteed, and this time it is possible to use such a thick barrel, and it is possible that another gun with such a thick barrel will explode; therefore, for the sake of safety, many field artillery guns are made of copper, and due to the lack of copper mines, the copper that can be produced cannot meet the demand; because of the fear of exploding, the iron cannons made in the Ming Dynasty continue to increase in thickness, resulting in a large weight of the cannons, and it is impossible to manufacture light field guns like the Furlong machine, which greatly reduces the field combat capability of the Ming army。

4. There is no machining theory and equipment. Although the Ming Dynasty imitated the Hongyi cannon in the West, its inner hole was directly cast, and there was no processing technology and equipment for the inner hole, so the coordination between the cannonball and the cannon chamber was very poor, and the shooting accuracy could not be guaranteed, and the firing range was greatly reduced. At that time, the West used the processing technology of making clocks and watches to process the barrel of the cannon, and the uneducated Ming Dynasty craftsmen could not reach their accuracy and could not make cannons that caught up with the Western level; so in the late Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong's more than 20,000 people could not capture the city defended by 900 Dutchmen, because Zheng Chenggong's artillery could not compete with the Dutch cannons; in the end, they had to use the method of besieging the city to cut off their food, and the Dutch came out to negotiate to withdraw from Taiwan.

5. There is no standard shell production process, and there is no unified standard for the size, shape, weight and surface roughness of the shells, and there is no concept of the launch angle and exit speed of the shells, which has a considerable impact on the range and power of the cannon.

6. There is no effective theoretical training for artillery in the army, or in other words, there are no masters who can correctly guide and train artillery; they are all operated on the basis of personal experience or feeling, and it is impossible to form a powerful artillery fire.

Until now, many Chinese still regret that the Ming Dynasty did not reuse a certain firearms expert; even self-absorbed that China made machine guns in ancient times; these people do not know what industrial base and conditions are needed to manufacture machine guns, thinking that they can be made with someone's intelligence; without a considerable scientific and technological foundation, no matter how "saints" can make them. In a situation where the whole people generally have no scientific knowledge, how much role can one or two "experts" play? If we do not educate our children in science from an early age, it is inevitable that not only firearms but also other aspects that require technological content will become more and more backward.

......

The above views and theories, not to mention whether they are correct or biased, but one thing is obvious, that is, most of the firearms in the Ming Dynasty can hardly be called excellent products with corresponding foundations.

As for why most firearms are of poor quality?

That's because in the late Ming Dynasty, due to financial problems, the replacement of firearms slowed down or even stopped, and the firearms of Ming officers and soldiers became more and more difficult to use.

............................................................ Dividing line ..........................................

There are two main categories of firearms in the Ming Dynasty from their classification:

The first type is the firecracker and bird gun that are set by hand, which are small in shape and caliber, and are generally filled with lead bullets and iron bullets, and their range is only a few dozen to 200 steps.

The second type is the artillery that is mounted on the pedestal and fired with a large caliber and shape, most of the barrels are filled with stones, lead, iron and other materials, commonly known as "solid bullets", and a few are loaded with explosive balls, the firing range is generally hundreds of steps to two or three miles away, mainly used for defending the fortress and attacking the city, and also used for field warfare, water warfare and naval warfare.

In the Ming Dynasty, the manufacture of sea ships was quite developed, and these firearms were equipped on sea ships (in the late Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong led the sailors to recover Taiwan, and used these weapons to beat the Dutch colonists).

Explosive firearms in the Ming Dynasty were already quite developed, and there were two main categories:

One is landmines, which have a wide variety of types, including dozens of stone mines, ceramic mines, and pig iron mines; and the other is mines, which include underwater mines, underwater dragon king cannons, mixed river dragons, and other weapons. According to a large number of historical facts, China was the first country in the world to invent and use the "two mines".

As conventional firearms, the conventional firearms of the Ming Dynasty mainly include the following:

Three-eyed gun: 3 tubes of individual guns, made of 3 single guns around the handle of parallel hoops, finished font type, each with a protruding outer edge, sharing a tail, single gun caliber 15 mm, full length of mm, have a medicine room and a fire door, can be fired continuously. After shooting, it can be used as a hammer to hit the enemy.

The three-eyed gun is a short firearm in ancient China, made of iron or rough steel. It is shaped as a combination of three bamboo-shaped single guns, and each tube has a small hole on the outside. When using, add gunpowder to the gunpowder tube, and finally fill the steel ball or cast iron block, crushed iron sand, etc., add a fire cap at the small hole, and knock the fire cap towards the stone and other launch pads when using, detonate the loaded gunpowder to shoot the projectile, and the three guns can shoot in turn. There is a handle base at the tail of the three-eyed gun, and wooden poles of different lengths are installed to hold it to ensure the safety of the shooter.

The three-eyed gun was common in the Ming Dynasty, but it had a short range and was not as fast as a crossbow, and it was too slow to reload. For the above reasons, not much of a future has been forgotten.

Later generations believed that the use of the three-eyed gun was as follows: (immediately) the infantry's three-eyed gun only had one lead per gun, and it was fired flat within eighty steps; the three-eyed gun of the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty was fired in turn according to the team strip for the long battalion to fight and fight and move, and there was no retreat. When used alone, the three-eyed gun is fired in bursts; when combined with a shotgun, sometimes in order to make up for the shortcomings of the shotgun's weak firepower, it fires three rounds in unison, and sometimes in order to increase the killing effect at close range, two or three lead guns are used for each gun.

The three-eyed gun can choose whether to combine the three leads together, in a burst or in unison, according to the battlefield situation. (Although many people know that the three-eyed gun can fire three bullets in a row, they have not thought about the circumstances under which the three-eyed gun can fire three bullets in a row.) Fifteen of each team were three-eyed gunners and four were gunners. Artillery is taboo for the captives, but now they are accustomed to hearing and cleverly avoiding, every time they see it, but only the charge is charged, and the captives suddenly rush to the ground, so there must be fifteen people for three stacks, and then they are handed in the medicine, which can be released. and use more paper to explode, and mix it successively. This extends the law of the predecessors, and also the meaning of misunderstanding the enemy in many ways. (At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, some enemies knelt on the ground to listen to the sound when they were about to fight, and after the Ming army's guns sounded, they jumped into battle.) Therefore, before and after the Ming army opened fire, they would put three or five firecrackers nearby, which were true or false, so that the enemy was at a loss. ）

For the three-eyed gun in close combat, you can refer to the 'knife stick, big stick'. Sixth. The school knife stick is so much more convenient than the enemy horse, and the big stick is used. The teacher's method, a dozen and a poke, and the rest are also flowers. It only pierces the horse's belly, human throat, horse's eye, and human face. Listen to the Chinese army's red moves, and the swords and sticks are concentrated in the army to listen, and they also prepare two wooden sticks according to the front. Listen to the drums, ride a horse at a gallop, and poke at the short root, that is, poke the horse's eyes and the horse's belly. The second time the long stick was cut off, that is, the throat and face of the thief were also poked. First, dye the sharp charcoal black, or brush it white with ash, until the middle is reached. Be sure to poke in the heavy and pull out quickly, otherwise you must not poke the second time. Seventh. The school stick listened to the Chinese army set up a blue high move, and all the stickers gathered to listen. Each team has a short branch, one foot long, and one long branch, four feet long. Peaceful. The soldiers were in a column of six, listening to the beating of the drums, and they galloped forward, and they fought together. Hit it short first, such as hitting the same horse. and struck a long stick as if it were a horse's head. The reward and punishment are the same as those of the sword and the club.

Although the Ming Dynasty had a three-eyed gun for a long time, from the corresponding historical records, the three-eyed gun was not valued before the late Ming Dynasty, that is, before the rise of the Later Jin:

In the twenty-third year of Wanli, the "three-eyed gun" was distributed to Liaodong.

"Mingshenzong Records" recorded: Wanli 23rd March Gengzi: "The Ministry of Industry covered the Jiliao Governor Sun Kuang, Fu according to Li Hualong, Song Xingzu invited, the old storage armor, bow and arrow, scattering bag and the old storage of the Beijing Treasury three-eyed gun fast gun, the combined amount of giving, in order to help the army Xing, he border towns can not be used as an example. ”

However, even so, the Liao army did not use the "three-eyed gun" in the years after the twentieth year of Wanli, including when Li Rusong conquered Korea, the use of firearms in the Liao army was very rare.

"Mingshenzong Records" records: May Gengyin in the forty-sixth year of Wanli: "Jinyi Wei Zhen Zhou Renqing Chen Poyu is using firearms: in the past, from the governor Li Rusong to recruit the Japanese, seeing the Liao soldiers returning to the battlefield with bows and arrows, short knives, not proficient in the use of firearms. Please send an edict to the governor of Zhejiang, and allow him to go there to select 3,000 firearms soldiers from each battalion, each with a beak gun, a three-eyed gun, etc., and borrow the unpaid money and grain from Fuzhou and County to settle down in armor and other expenses. "Liaodong began to use the "three-eyed gun" on a large scale When the rise of the Jurchens at the end of Wanli - "Mingshenzong Records" Wanli 46 June Guihai: "The two ministries of soldiers and workers: to store armor and copper and iron Buddha Lang machine, general, tiger squat cannon, three-eyed gun, bird gun, rocket and other items, the commissioner selected the test, and went to Liaozuo. ”

It was not until the Apocalypse Dynasty that the scale of manufacture and use of the "three-eyed gun" began to expand.

"The Sermon of Ming Xizong" records: Wushen in August of the fourth year of the Apocalypse: "Sun Chengzong, the assistant minister of the Governor: 20 pairs of Franco, 80 cannons, and 500 three-eyed iron guns. ”

"Ming Xi Sect Records" Ding Wei in March of the sixth year of the Apocalypse: "Holy Message: ...... Before the army, Jane had to use artifacts and other pieces of money and food: three No. 1 Fa Xi, No. 2 nine, two hundred nine-sided cannons, two hundred tiger squatting cannons, one hundred Buddha Ji Jiji, one hundred No. 2 Buddha Lang machines, one hundred Tieyong bead cannons, one hundred iron Lianzhu cannons, one thousand iron three-eyed guns, and 20,000 catties of gunpowder for each thing. "Ming Xi Sect Records" in February of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Huang Liji, a scholar of Yisi University, etc.: "...... There are 20 No. 2 Franc machines, 500 three-eyed iron guns, and 500 helmets with cannons and other things. ”

In the Chongzhen Dynasty, the scale of manufacture and use of "three-eyed guns" became larger and larger.

"Chongzhen Long Edition" records: Chongzhen in February of the second year: "Datong Governor Zhang Zongheng said: When the Taoist minister Song Tongyin made a red Yi cannon, and the foreign ministers successively supervised the construction of fine three-eyed grabbing more than 1,000 rods. "Chongzhen Long Edition" Chongzhen in October of the second year: "Zhang Zongheng, the governor of Datong, said that the minister invited 5,000 bird guns, and the minister made 5,000 three-eyed guns. "In the end, the three-eyed gun replaced the single-barreled guns such as the fast gun and the magic machine gun and became the main battle firearms. (To be continued.) )

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