, can be said to have changed the way mankind has used war for thousands of years. From the initial physical melee combat gradually changed to long-range combat. The most important thing is that guns have replaced bows and arrows, and artillery has replaced stone throwers. The appearance of guns and artillery destroyed the steel armor of the knights, attacked the foundation of the feudal ruling class, and accelerated the modernization of the world. The first use of firearms in the world was in the Tang Dynasty in China. With the development of war technology, gunpowder and solid metal particles were added to tubular metals of different calibers to gradually form guns and artillery. China is naturally a leader in the development of firearms. The western expedition of the Mongolian army brought China's most advanced invention-firearms. Europeans who saw new weapons for the first time became vulnerable to firearms. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, my country's firearms were still the world leader. As the borders of the Ming Empire stabilized and the rulers settled on the status quo, the firearms gradually fell behind Europe. The development of firearms in Europe has gradually come to the forefront of the world.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, European colonists took their powerful ships and guns to conquer colonies all over the world. It was inevitable to have frictions and exchanges with the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Japanese pirates on the southeast coast made the Ming government attach importance to the development of firearms. Actively introduce advanced Western artillery imitation improvements. The most famous is the Franco machine gun. The Franco machine gun was invented in Europe. It was introduced to China from Portugal in the first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1522). It was named "Folangji" according to the country's name and became a mid-Ming Chinese artillery. In the third year of Jiajing (1524), Ming Ting succeeded in imitating the first batch of 32-door Franco machines, each weighing about 300 jins, the female guns were 2.85 feet long, and were equipped with 4 guns. After that, Ming Ting successively imitated various Flange machines of different sizes and models to equip the northern and coastal troops.
The Ming Dynasty bronze Franco machine gun is the short-barreled cannon. Francois was originally a collective term for Portuguese and Spanish in the Ming Dynasty. In the last years of Zhengde, Baisha inspector He Ru saw Western artillery on a Spanish ship that came to China, and its performance was better than that of Chinese artillery at that time. So he mobilized Chinese gunners on board to come ashore and imitated the first batch of Western artillery for China. The name is called Franco machine. In March of the 12th year of Zhengde (1517), Ming rebel king Zhu Chenhao began to privately manufacture the Franco machine bronze cannon made in the 24th year of Jiajing. This was the first imitation of Western guns in China. In the second year of Jiajing (1523), the Ming Dynasty copied it in Nanjing and was called the "General". After research and transformation, there are three types of large sample, medium sample and small sample, including copper casting and iron casting. The large Flange is 2.85 meters long and weighs 300 kg. The
Ming Dynasty Franco machine gun is a development type of the early European rear-mounted gun, but it is different from the modern rear-mounted gun. It has a front sight and a rear sight, which can be aimed from the sight hole, and has a gun mount that can be turned up and down, left and right. The abdomen was enlarged with a long mouth, and the outside of the gun body was wrapped with wood and iron hoops to prevent explosion. There were also 5 sub-guns, filled with ammunition in the sub-guns, and fired into the long mouth in the abdomen in turn. (Note: Zigun, also known as the heart-lifting gun, is equivalent to the gun chamber part. It is another barrel that is slightly thinner than the female gun barrel. It forms a double barrel with the female gun barrel.) The child and mother are separated, so the weight is lighter, the lightest one is only 150 kilograms, and the heaviest one can reach 1,000 kilograms. "History of Ming Dynasty" records the Franco machine gun: "It is made of copper, it is five or six feet long, and the larger one weighs more than a catty. The small one has a hundred and fifty catties, a huge abdomen and a long neck, and a hole in the abdomen. The medicine is placed in the abdomen, and it can reach more than a hundred meters." The advantage of this artillery is that it can pre-store ammunition without temporary loading, and it can speed up the launch. The disadvantage is that the barrel is shorter, and cannot have a longer range than the red artillery. (According to European data, the short cannon has a range of 340 to 2000 meters, with the highest hit rate at 600 to 700 meters.) Since China rarely encounters strong maritime opponents like Europe, the weight of imitation marine Franco shells is relatively light. The Qianjin Giant Cannon can be compared with the Hongyi Cannon in range, reaching two to three kilometers. (There are historical records that the red artillery cannon has a range of up to ten miles, that is, five kilometers. It is estimated that it is set on the high city, and it is difficult to reach it in field or naval battle.)
Artillery equipped by the Qi family army. In order to facilitate shooting, the cannon is placed in a fixed posture, much like a tiger squatting, hence the name. Tiger squat guns are not powerful, similar to today's mortars, which are mainly curved fire artillery. The most commonly used firearm in Qi Jiguang’s army. This portable artillery has a thin barrel and a short range (500 meters). It is suitable for mountain operations and is mobile and flexible. Due to its front loading, it can be launched at a large elevation and equipped with a large number of grassroots troops. Mortars have similar uses. It is suitable for combat areas that hinder the mobility of the artillery, such as mountains, forests and paddy fields. Tiger Squat Cannon Created inDuring the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates were rampant in the mountainous areas of southeastern China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. In the struggle against Japanese pirates, due to the vertical and horizontal ditches in the paddy fields and the complex terrain, weaponists created tiger squat guns based on actual needs. This gun is 2 feet long, with 7 iron hoops added to the whole body. The gun head is set up by two iron claws, and there are iron stubs. The total weight is 36 kg. It looks like a tiger and it is very powerful. Before launching, you must The gun body is fixed on the ground with big iron nails. Each shot can be loaded with 100 small lead or pebbles weighing 5 cents. A large lead or boulder with a weight of 30 taels is used to press the top, and the big and small bullets fly together when fired. Going out, the sound of thunder, lethality and radiation range are very large, especially suitable for field battles, bombarding the intensive combat formations of Japanese pirates, effectively suppressing their crazy offensive. Therefore, in the future war against Japan, Qi Jiguang’s army Here, every 500 people are equipped with 3 tiger squat guns.
A type of artillery (formerly known as the Little Folang machine) manufactured in Europe from 1500 to 1520, was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, and was improved and called the Hongyi Cannon, also known as the Red Cannon. The imitation began in the second year of Apocalypse.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty referred to all front-mounted smoothbore cannons imported from the West as Hongyi Cannons. Officials of the Ming Dynasty often covered these cannons with red cloth, so they were mistaken as "red clothes". According to research, only a small amount of Hongyi cannons imported by the Ming Dynasty were imported from the Dutch East India Company. Later, because of the Taiwan issue and the Dutch, most of them were traded with the Portuguese in Macau. The Ming Dynasty had a huge demand at that time. The Portuguese also acted as intermediaries to sell British shipborne cannons to China. The
red cannon does have advantages in design. The barrel is long, the wall is thick, and the muzzle is gradually thickened from the muzzle to the tail, which conforms to the principle of increasing the chamber pressure when the gunpowder burns. There are cylindrical lugs on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body. The artillery can adjust the firing angle with this axis and change the range according to the amount of gunpowder; it is equipped with a front sight and a rear sight, and the trajectory is calculated according to the parabola with high accuracy. Most Hongyi cannons are about 3 meters long, have a caliber of 110-130 mm, and weigh more than 2 tons.
In the 6th year of the Apocalypse (1626), the Hongyi Cannon exerted great power in the Battle of Ningyuan. According to historical records, under the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, the siege of Houjin, the Eight Banners officers and soldiers flew around and piled up like a mountain, which was the first defeat since Nurhachi became an army. In 1627, in the Battle of Ningjin, the Hongyi artillery once again exerted great power, and the Ming army won.
In the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), Hou Jin used the captive craftsman Liu Han in Shenyang to successfully imitate the Western artillery and named it "God Bless Cheer General". They also created the "Lost Wax Method" to turn cast iron into For cast steel, different parts of the artillery were processed by complicated annealing and quenching procedures, which made the artillery casting process ahead of the Ming Dynasty. Because the Yi word violated the taboo of the Manchurians, the Hongyi Cannon was renamed "Red Cannon". Huang Taiji set up a new battalion "heavy army" (ujenchooha, Wuzhen Chaoha) in the Eight Banners Army. Later, Tong Yangxing served as the general officer, Cao Zhenyan as the instructor, and began to use artillery tactics.
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), the Qing army had sixty self-made red cannons, which played a great role in the Battle of Songjin, even breaking the two cities of Tashan and Xingshan guarded by the Ming army. In December of the first year of Shunzhi (1645), Li Zicheng’s Dashun Army marched against Tongguan during the entry war. The Qing army did not fight due to the fact that the main force and artillery had not yet arrived. In the first month of the following year, they used red cannons. Li Zicheng's Dashun Army was hit hard, and Li Zicheng fled to Tongshan County, Hubei, and was killed. On April 24 in the second year of Shunzhi (1645), the Qing army mobilized red cannons to bombard the city of Yangzhou. Shi Kefa was in desperation, but the Nanming regime turned a deaf ear. On the 25th, the city of Yangzhou was broken, and Shi Kefa became heroic. In the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1669), the Qing government appointed the German Nan Huairen to design a variety of cannons. There are three types of cannons: the light cannon "General Shenwei", the medium cannon "General Shengong", and the heavy cannon "General Wucheng Yonggu" "type. It was the heavy firepower that the Ming army relied on in the late Ming Dynasty, but it was also used on a large scale by the Hou Jin. It was a life-saving straw for the two dynasties. In 1840, during the First Opium War, the artillery of Humen Fortress weighed 8,000 catties, but the range was not as good as that of British naval guns. After the Second Opium War, Jiangyin Fortress was even equipped with a million catties of iron cannon "General Yaowei." These guns seem to be mighty, and their range is still not as good as that of the British Armstrong guns. In addition, they have suffered a lot when confronted with the British army due to the depletion of weapons for years.
emerged in the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century AD. In the common people’s impression, it was an era when cold weapons such as knives, guns, swords, and halberds were used (most contemporary film and television works and novels)Dramas are described in this way when they involve war scenes in the Ming Dynasty). However, the truth is that the Ming Dynasty was a period of great development of firearms. For example, during the founding period of Ming Taizu, the army was equipped with a large number of firearms, and made great contributions in the war of sweeping down the heroes and the remnants of the Northern Expedition. In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, it was stipulated that there should be 10 gunslingers, 20 swordsmen, 30 archers, and 40 gunmen for the "100 households in the army". Among them, gunmen equipped with firearms accounted for 10% of the establishment. In the reign of Ming Chengzu, the world's earliest new arms specially equipped with firearms-Shenji Camp was established. This is about a century earlier than the European Musketeers created by Spain in the early 16th century. As soon as the Shenji Battalion was formed, it fought life and death battles with the Tatar and Omarava cavalry nomads in the Mongolian steppe. With the advantage of firepower, they once again made great achievements. The rulers of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to firearms and continuously promoted various firearms in the army. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of soldiers who used firearms in the military establishment increased from 10% in the early Ming Dynasty to about one-third. In the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, some infantry battalions in the Ming army had soldiers with firearms accounting for 50% of the establishment. This type of infantry battalion is stationed along the Jibei Great Wall, and its leader is Qi Jiguang, a famous general in Chinese history.
To a large extent, the Ming Dynasty played itself to death. The Qing government has always emphasized that the Qing Dynasty was a country on horseback, so later generations really thought that. Under the rule of Emperor Qianlong and his predecessors, artillery developed to a certain extent. During the Kangxi period, the scale, quality, and craftsmanship of firearms reached the peak of the development of ancient Chinese firearms, and some firearms were also at the advanced level in the world. In order to quell the San Francisco rebellion, Kangxi ordered the Belgian missionary Nan Huairen to make artillery that was adapted to the characteristics of the southern terrain and was convenient for mobile use on the battlefield. Nan Huairen "casts new artillery according to the Western style" and submits the book "Shenwei Illustrated", which introduces western artillery theory and methods. During the fourteenth year of Kangxi (1675) to the end of Kangxi for more than forty years, the central government alone supervised the construction or restructuring of nearly a thousand artillery pieces of various types, such as General Shenwei Invincible, Jinlong Cannon, General Victory, and General Weiyuan. There are not only a large number, but also a lot of types. In the twenty-first year of Qianlong (1756), the "Order of the Imperial Order of the Ministry of Industry to Make Firearms" contains 85 types of artillery. In the same year, the "Imperial Ceremony Pattern" Shotguns, red cannons, and sub-cannons have become standard weapons. Other works include "Lianyue Firearms Array" written by Xue Xi, "Firearms Zhen Jue" by Shen Shanzheng, "Firearms Brief Introduction" written by Wang Daquan and Wang Tao, and "Chinese and Western Fire Law" written by Xue Fengzuo. The Illustrated Art of Artillery by Chen Yang and "Summary of Artillery" by Dong Zuxiu, etc. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the rulers paid less attention to military equipment due to the long-term peace of the country, and the development of firearms gradually came to a halt, so that during the Opium War, the Qing army still used old firearms. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Qing Dynasty again began to manufacture firearms in large quantities and actively introduced advanced weapons from the West. By the time of the Westernization Movement, the manufacture and introduction of firearms reached their peak. During this period, the Qing Dynasty established a large number of modern gun manufacturing plants, such as the Anqing Nei Ordnance Factory, Hubei Gun Factory, Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, etc. The equipment of the Qing Dynasty army was basically modernized, but it was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The Ming Dynasty, also at the end, was able to rub the Japanese on the ground. The Ming Dynasty won all victory over the Netherlands or Britain and Portugal. Daming mighty!
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