Because China was ruled for 270 years by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a nation that only knew "skilled archers and horses", later generations of Chinese had a misunderstanding that China, which had invented gunpowder, had wasted the invention that should have become an advanced weapon on senseless entertainment. In fact, the two dynasties of the Mongol Yuan and Ming dynasties before the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the development and equipment of firearms, and I do not mean to deliberately belittle the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but I just want to explain the glory that China has had in terms of firearms.

There is no doubt that muskets first appeared in China. China's early muskets, in the 10th century in the Song Dynasty has appeared, after the development of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, to the end of the Ming Dynasty should have been a great success, how to Nai after the widespread use of firearms in China, the Arabs in the early 14th century, made a wooden tubular shooting firearm "Madafa". In Europe, in the middle of the 14th century, Italy made a metal tubular shooting weapon "musket", and later invented the arquebus. It should be noted that the European musket was developed independently, and in the 17th century, it had an impact on Chinese musket technology.

The "assault rifle" that appeared in the Song Dynasty was not very lethal, with a range of only 5-10m, which was mostly said to be used to scare people at that time. However, after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, attention was paid to the development of new types of firearms, and in the sixteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1279), craftsmen from all over the country were concentrated in Dadu (now Beijing) to develop new weapons, and the formula of gunpowder was readjusted, so that the efficiency of the same volume of gunpowder was increased by about three times. In the third year of the Yuan Dynasty (1332), the earliest bronze fire gun with inscription was cast, which was 1 foot 1 inch long and weighed 28 catties. At the same time, early handcuffs were also made, but they were small in power and low range, and basically had no use value, so it was more suitable for officers to use as playthings.

During the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, artillery was used in a large number of wars, according to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", the Yuan Dynasty to the twenty-seventh year (1367), Zhang Shicheng was besieged by the Ming army in Pingjiang City (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), the general Xu Da "led forty-eight guards to besiege the city, each guard placed five Xiangyang gun mounts, more than 50 seven gun mounts, more than 50 large and small general barrels, 48 camps are listed around the city, Zhang Shicheng wants to escape and cannot fly, the sound of milling guns is endless day and night." From this point of view, the battle scene at that time was so spectacular that the number of guns and artillery had reached a considerable number. The emergence of metal firearms has created a precedent for ancient weapons, and it has become an important weapon in later dynasties with many advantages such as long service life, high firing power and wide range of application, and has been widely used in the world.

In the Ming Dynasty, due to the high development of the feudal social economy, weapons also developed greatly. Its main cold weapons include long-handled knives, guns, short-handled long knives, waist knives and various miscellaneous weapons such as palladium, horse forks, wolf knives and so on. In addition to inheriting the traditional varieties of weapons, the development of firearms reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty, and the military books of the late Ming Dynasty, such as "Records of Soldiers", "Artifact Spectrum", "Wubei Zhi", "Western Law Divine Machine", "Fire Attack Zhi", "Preparation of Sea Charts", "Arsenal Diagrams", "Fire Dragon Artifact Formation", etc., are more detailed records of the Ming army's equipment firearms production methods, maps, and the establishment and tactics of firearms troops. In addition, several well-known firearms (including theoretical) experts such as Zhao Shizhen, Bi Maokang, Hu Zongxian, Mao Yuanyi, Sun Yuanhua, Jiao Miao, and Dai Zi, a genius weapon inventor in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, were born; military generals who attached great importance to the use of firearms, such as Qi Jiguang, Sun Chengzong, and Yuan Chonghuan, attached great importance to the use of firearms.

The development of firearms in the true sense of the Ming army began when fighting against the Japanese invaders. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the origin of the Japanese "iron cannon" and the development of firearms in Europe.

In the early 15th century, craftsmen in Western Europe redesigned the wooden grip of the original "musket" so that it could rest on the soldier's shoulder when firing, rather than on a stand or on the ground, and the definition of a rifle was formalized as a long-barreled firearm fired by a single soldier's shoulder. In the middle of the 15th century, a new type of musket, the arquebus, was created, which was ignited with an arquebus, and a trigger was added to the musket to control the ignition, so that the musket could fire faster and at a longer range. The caliber of this new type of trigger-fire arquebus is generally 15~20 mm, the pipe diameter ratio is generally 40 to 45, and the maximum firing range is generally 60~80 meters (killing distance), and it was introduced to Japan in 1543.

Japan's arquebuses have gone through three stages: from the 11th year of the Yuan Dynasty (the 11th year of the Yuan Dynasty, 1274 AD) to the 17th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1281) during the Mongolian (Yuan) and Japanese Wars, the Japanese army saw the iron artillery used by the Mongolian (Yuan) army from the battle, and then learned that there was a new weapon in the world - firearms, which was the stage when the Japanese first knew firearms; and then in the second year of the Ming Dynasty of the Celestial Dynasty (1466), the Ryukyuan people (China) introduced the Ming bronze firearms (primitive handcuffs) when they arrived in the Wa Kingdom; In the twenty-second year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1543), the merchant ship of "Nanyi" (Portugal) was brought to Tanegashima south of Satsuma by a typhoon, and the Portuguese merchants carried European arquebuses, and in the twenty-third year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1544), the craftsman Baban Qingding imitated the earliest musket of the Wa Kingdom - Tanegashima gun, which is the "iron cannon transmission" that brought great changes to the history of the Wa Kingdom - the musket is written as "iron cannon" in the Wa language.

In the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1545), the national friends of Jiangzhou of the Japanese Kingdom forged and metallurgized, organized clever craftsmen, imitated the arquebus suitable for the use of the Japanese soldiers, and made the locking bolt, which better solved the problem of holding air at the end of the gun, improved the power of the arquebus, and was more advanced than the arquebus made by the Portuguese. This "iron cannon" had the same caliber as the European arquebus, but the firing range was increased to 100 meters, and the rate of fire was 5 rounds per minute. Soon Guoyou Forging and Metallurgy carried out mass production, selling hundreds of finished products, and some pirates and smugglers took the opportunity to buy them, holding them as robbery weapons, and China's coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang suffered many from it. At that time, Qi Jiguang was fighting against the Japanese, and Qi Jiguang spoke highly of the power of the arquebus, believing that it was the most effective weapon for killing the enemy, and made a deep study of the tactical use of firearms, and developed the establishment and tactics of the troops suitable for carrying forward the power of firearms, such as the car battalion and the three-talent array.

In the seventh year of Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty (1512), the Ming army pacified the battle of the South China Sea, captured three pirate ships, and obtained the "Franc machine" firearms. The weapons experts of the "Shenji Battalion" improved the captured firearms and created the Franc machine gun, also known as the "Shenji Cannon," and mass-produced them, thus making a big leap forward in China's firearms. However, the Franc machine gun is a large-caliber musket (cannon), which requires three people to operate one at the same time. Nine years later, in the first year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1521), the Ming army in the battle of Xicaowan in Xinhui, Guangdong, and obtained the European arquebus called "Western Arquebus" from the captured two Portuguese ships, but the arquebus used by the Portuguese at that time was probably still the product of the initial period, and did not attract enough attention from the top of the Ming army.

In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1548), the Ming army captured some Japanese and iron cannons who were good at making iron cannons in the battle to recover Shuangyu (now southeast of Yinxian County, Zhejiang), which was occupied by the Japanese and the Portuguese. Ma Xian, Li Huai and others learned the method of making arquebuses, and on the basis of them, they studied and improved them. In the 37th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1558), the first batch of arquebuses in China was created, which was "more exquisite than the Western Fan", and the handwriting was very large, and there were 10,000 at the beginning, which shows that the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the equipment of firearms in the army at that time. If it weren't for the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was really extremely corrupt politically, plus three "unlucky" emperors in a row, the Manchu Qing would have the reason to enter the Central Plains!

China has created a successful arquebus, called "bird gun", "Wu Bei Zhi" said: "the back hand does not abandon the handle, ignition is not moving, so ten shots have **, that is, the bird in the forest, can be shot down, because it is named", and because of the curved butt it is installed resembles a bird's beak and is called "bird's beak", some people call it a bird gun, become the "sharp weapon" in the battle of the Ming army at that time. The Ming army was equipped with a bird gun with a firing range of up to 120 meters, the barrel was made of wrought iron, there was a fire hole at the bottom and connected with the gunpowder pool (ignition powder), the pool was covered with a copper cover, which could shield from wind and rain, and the cane (through strip) was inserted on the wooden support under the barrel for filling ammunition, and the bottom of the barrel was sealed with bolts to facilitate the removal and scrubbing of the barrel.

At about the same time, the Rumi State (now Turkey) sent an envoy Duo Sima to China to pay tribute to the arquebus, Zhao Shizhen, a famous firearms expert in ancient China, grew up on the seashore, less experienced the troubles, knew the importance of strengthening national defense strength and improving weapons and equipment, and was determined to develop sophisticated firearms and equipment for the officers and soldiers, to defend the country and protect the people, in the 25th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1597), to the emperor presented the "Eight Evils of Soldiers" article Chen, suggesting the manufacture of the Lumi State tribute of the bird gun, and the Ministry of War discussed and handed over to the Beijing camp for trial production.

Zhao Shizhen was afraid that the Beijing camp would "make and release the two is not as good as the law", so he came to the door to ask Duo Sima, explained in detail the manufacturing and use methods, and funded himself (Zhao Shizhen was a scholar from the seventh rank at the time) to convene craftsmen for trial production, and finally in the twenty-sixth year of Wanli to create an arquebus with a longer range than the beak gun, called the "Lumi gun". This kind of gun has a longer barrel (4 feet 5 inches), weighs slightly more than the bird gun (6-8 catties), has a long range (150 meters), is powerful, and is structurally superior to the bird's beak gun. Therefore, "Wu Bei Zhi" said: "Bird milling: Wei Lu Mi gun is the farthest and most poisonous." At the same time, the latest firearms at that time, the "electric switcher" and the "thunderbolt", the former had the advantages of both Western guns and Franc machines, and the latter had the advantages of bird guns and three-eyed guns. In June of the 30th year of Wanli, the firearm developed by Zhao Shizhen passed the test of officials from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs and other departments. The review report suggested that the emperor should send Zhao Shizhen's "style of chariot gun with the Beijing camp and make it according to law, and order the officials to teach and give instructions to all sides, so as to investigate the use of border prevention and capture."

Compared with the arquebuses equipped in European countries in the 15th and 16th centuries, the structure is basically the same as that of the Ming army, and the technical parameters are roughly the same, but the Ming army's bird guns are lighter than these guns. Spain's heavy arquebus, the Mushkert gun, has a caliber of less than 23 mm, weighs 8-10 kilograms, a projectile weighs 50 grams, and a firing range of 250 meters, which can ensure that it can shoot through any armor.

At the beginning of the 15th century, there was a bronze cannon with a cannon body and a medicine chamber on the European battlefield, and soon there was a wheeled artillery, using granular gunpowder, France first cast an iron cannon in the middle of the 15th century, and soon spread this technology throughout Europe; around the 16th century AD, the Nuremberg area of Germany produced a kind of straight-line rifled arquebus - "Mauser gun", because the English transliteration of the word "rifling" is "repeated", so the rifled gun is also called "rifled gun", this rifled rifled rifle shooting accuracy greatly exceeds that of smoothbore guns.

From the 17th century onwards, European gun manufacturing technology developed rapidly, and the French invented the flintlock pistol with wind and rain resistance, and its appearance marked the end of the purely mechanical ignition era technology. The basic structure of a flintlock pistol is similar to that of a flintlock, that is, it uses the flint on the hammer to strike to produce sparks and ignite gunpowder. Arquebuses were gradually abandoned due to their high rate of fire, light weight, and long range, while the Swedes made an epoch by putting projectiles and propellants in the same paper tube, which was torn (bitten) when loaded In 1776, the British changed the straight rifling into a spiral, and when firing, the gunpowder gas expands the lead pellet and embeds the rifling to rotate, and the fired warhead rotates at high speed after being unloaded, which increases the stability of the bullet, improves the shooting accuracy, increases the firing range, and reaches as much as 200 meters!!

Since these advanced European firearms were superior to those of China, Ming did not hesitate to spend money to import firearms technology from the cannon foundry built by Portuguese artillery expert Peter Bogaro in Macao, and imitated them in large quantities, and used them in actual combat, so as to achieve huge benefits in actual combat, and then equip the army in batches. "Chinese Military History: Weapons Volume" records that the artillery of the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty was cast with fine iron, which was close to the level of the West in terms of technology, and ranked first in the world in terms of quantity, with the maximum firing range of field artillery reaching 10 li, and the naval gun also reaching more than 4 li

The main artillery of the Ming army, "Hongyi Artillery", claimed to have a "net weight of 3,000 catties, a firing range of ten miles, and each shot can kill thousands of enemies", and the range of the cannons of the Wa Kingdom and Houjin was only one mile (500 meters) at that time. It is said that before he died, he was angry with the artillery of the Ming army, saying: "Since I was twenty-five years old, I have been invincible and invincible. I didn't expect to die under the artillery of the Ming army. Before his death, Nurhachi ordered his descendants to learn the firearms of the Ming army, and when it came to attacking Yangzhou, the Qing army also used the cannon of the traitor Wu Sangui to collapse the city wall before capturing the city. Muskets were already the main equipment of the infantry of the Ming army. Each musketeer was equipped with 2 powder canisters, one for propellant and one for primer, and carried 300 rounds of lead bullet. It is worth noting that at that time, granular gunpowder had been used for propellant instead of the previous powdered gunpowder, and its composition ratio was 1 tael of nitrate (75.75%), 1 yuan and 4 cents of sulfur (10.6%), and 1 yuan and 8 cents of liutan (13.65%), which had basically reached the optimal ratio of black powder (75% nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal). Due to the slow launch speed, in order to make up for this shortcoming, the three-row rotation method is usually used in tactics, that is, one row of guns, one row of guns, one row of guns, after the first row of firearms is completed, retreat to the third row of guns, and the second row enters the first row of guns to release guns, so that they are launched in turn. During the same period, although the firearms technology in Europe was highly developed, cold weapons still accounted for a large proportion of the battle, mainly including spears, halberds, longbows, short swords, etc.

Until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the military institutions of the Ming Dynasty also spared no effort to develop a wide variety of complex forms of tubular firearms (muskets, artillery). For example, in the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign (1635), in the "Illustrated Description of Weapons" written by Bi Maokang, the right attendant of the household department in Nanjing, it is recorded that the "self-generated firebolt" is a kind of flintlock pistol, which is the earliest flintlock pistol recorded in China; In 1637, the Portuguese presented a rifled gun to Ming Jin, and the firearms experts of the Shenji Battalion praised the gun for its long range, high precision, and convenient loading, and asked for a large number of imitations and equipment of the three major battalions of the Beijing Army; when the traitor Wu Sangui was the general of the Daming Mountain Customs, he had made a large-caliber iron-core copper cannon, which was a combination of iron and copper toughness, and improved the performance of the cannon, which can be said to be a great innovation at that time, and this cannon has a door that is still displayed in the Liaoning Provincial Museum in Shenyang. It shows that the firearms technology of the Ming Dynasty has developed rapidly in the past few decades, but it is a pity that the country is dying and there is no batch equipment. In addition, the manufacture of jet firearms (ancient rockets) is also quite sophisticated, with dozens of styles and varieties; explosive firearms are also quite developed, and there are two major categories: one is landmines, which have a wide variety of varieties, including stone mines, ceramic mines, pig iron mines, and dozens of other types; and the other is sea 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". There are these types of mines in the game.

In the mid-17th century, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the development of firearms in China did not lag behind that of the Western world, and the proportion of firearms and equipment in the armed forces was basically at the advanced level in the world. Except for the early stage of the Qing army's vigorous development of the same firearms as the Ming army in order to compete for power with the Ming army, the Qing army was simply useless at other times. After the founding of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, military equipment experts still had considerable improvements and experiments on firearms, for example, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had developed three main forms of flintlock pistols, namely the rotary type, the spring type and the impact type, but these flintlock pistols were not made to equip the army, but were used as bird guns used in court hunting. During the Qianlong period, a bony flintlock pistol was also made, which was almost no different from the standard rifles equipped in Europe at the same time, but the role of this gun was still a hunting toy - the world's most advanced weapons actually came in this way, which shows that the tartar still cannot be compared with the advanced human beings.

What's even more infuriating is that Dai Zi, a super-genius weapon inventor in the Kangxi period, invented the "Lianzhu Gun", which can fire 28 shots of lead bullets continuously at a time, which is extremely powerful, which can be described as wonderful at that time, crowning China and the West, more than 200 years earlier than the machine gun invented in Europe. He also created the Pangut Gun and the Weiyuan General Cannon, which he invented is similar to the modern howitzer, with long range, fierce firepower and great power. However, the Tatar chieftain (forgive me for using this insulting word) foolishly put Dai Zichong out of the military with the idiotic idea that "mounted archery is the root of Manchuria", and the development of firearms in China came to a halt and was finally left behind by Europe. Kangxi still had a bit of a conscience, and engraved the name of "Dai Zi" on the barrel of "General Weiyuan" to show respect.

In 1757, the Manchu Qing Dynasty deceived themselves by issuing a proclamation proclamating the carrying of firearms by foreigners in China, which almost made it clear that the Tartars were afraid of firearms. This fear continued until 1842, when the British Expeditionary Force Commander Pu Dingcha stunned the Chinese officers in front of the artillery, and the 4,000 Expeditionary Force defeated the 20,000 regular Manchu troops. In 1860, when the British and French troops swept the Old Summer Palace, they found that the cannons presented by the British mission to the Tartar chieftain Qianlong were still in good condition and ready to be fired, but they seemed to be just ornaments in the ornate "summer palace". In 1900, the Eight Banners of the Tatars, who did not forget that "horse shooting is the root of Manchuria," were beaten to pieces in front of the new "serial muskets" (machine guns) of the Eight-Nation Alliance, while the Chinese, who had been stifled by the Tatars, had their spirit of exploration and national superiority, but they were frantically believing in "divine power to protect the body, and the sword and gun are invulnerable."

Looking at the history of the development of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, all the weapons and establishments of the modern army can be found there in rudiments or corresponding things: mines, mines, rocket artillery, barbed wire, machine guns, armored divisions, and so on. As for why such a well-trained Ming army was defeated at the hands of the Houjin, who had just broken away from the ranks of the barbarians, I need not say more, for many people have written monographs on the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the extreme corruption of officialdom at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing dynasty exuded two words from its beginning to its demise -- ignorance! This kind of ignorance is different from ordinary ignorance caused by ignorance, just as the Chinese always pay attention to "face."