Gunpowder was first invented by our people. Why did it finally become a weapon for other countries to attack us?

Since the invention of gunpowder, China has always attached great importance to its military use in ancient times.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder had been used in the military. In the Song Dynasty, wars continued, which accelerated the development of gunpowder weapons. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty established gunpowder workshops, and successively produced gunpowder arrows, artillery and other weapons with burning performance, as well as thunderbolt, thunderbolt and other explosive weapons. In Southern Song Dynasty 1259, a musket with giant bamboo as barrel and gunpowder inside was manufactured. The Jin and Mongolian regimes that confronted the Song Dynasty attached equal importance to the use of gunpowder weapons. In the Yuan Dynasty, the bronze casting fire system appeared again, which was called (General Copper).

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, the military situation was very grim, and Zhu Yuanzhang constantly took various effective measures to develop weapons manufacturing. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the development of porcelain reached its peak and it was still in a leading position in the world at that time. However, the Ming dynasty strictly controlled the manufacture and use of firearms, and local governments were not allowed to manufacture them without authorization, and personal research and development were strictly prohibited, which limited the innovation of firearms. As a result, there was no great innovation and breakthrough in the spear shape during Yongle period, until the appearance of the Buddha Lang machine and the matchlock gun during Jiajing period. Therefore, when the Buddha Lang machine was introduced in the early years of Jiajing, the Ming court discovered the backwardness of the artifacts, immediately imitated and transformed them, and at the same time innovated the traditional artifacts. Therefore, until the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the gap between its firearms and the West was actually very small.

After the defeat in the battle between Ningyuan and Ningjin, Manchu, who invaded in the late Ming Dynasty, was also determined to learn the firearms manufacturing technology of the Han people. After entering the customs, both sides made a large number of firearms to fight against Nanming. From the last years of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty to the middle period of Kangxi, the national unification war basically ended, the situation in various places tended to be stable, and the manufacture of firearms gradually decreased. From Yongzheng period (1723- 1735), the firearms manufacturing industry began to decline. Until the Opium War (1840), the level of firearms manufacturing technology in China had fallen behind that in Europe for more than 200 years, which led to the complete passivity in the war.