The development of early firearms in ancient China

The Development of Early Firearms in Ancient China 1: The Use of Gunpowder Our country invented gunpowder in the middle of the ninth century AD. After several centuries of development, by the Song Dynasty, our country had begun to use gunpowder in warfare. By the Northern Song Dynasty, our country had a variety of Firearms have entered the military stage, and the book "Martial Arts Summary" also records the world's first batch of military firearms made in my country.

There were many types of firearms manufactured at that time, but they were all very different. They were mainly fireball firearms and rocket firearms.

There are eight types of fireball firearms: fireball, fireball, tribulus fireball, thunderbolt fireball, smoke ball, poison smoke ball, iron-mouthed fire harrier, and bamboo fire harrier; rocket-type firearms include ordinary rockets and gunpowder whip arrows.

In volumes 11 and 12, three gunpowder recipes are published: fireball, poison smoke ball, and tribulus fireball.

For example, the fireball gunpowder recipe: 14 liang of sulfur, 7 timed liang of wohuang, 40 liang of flame eliminator (nitrate), 14 liang of rosin, arsenic, fixed powder, yellow pill, dry lacquer, bamboo root, maru, yellow wax, tung oil, thick oil

, clear oil, etc.

Although fireball firearms come in many shapes, their performance and functions are not much different.

The method of making them is to first wrap gunpowder and iron fragments and other anti-injury or poisonous drugs in multiple layers of paper and seal them. Some have small holes for placing ignition fuses.

During combat, fireball firearms were placed in the pockets on the gun mounts (i.e., various military trebuchets at that time), and then the fuses were lit. The trebuchet would eject them to the enemy's position for blasting, thereby incinerating the enemy's troops and horses.

The purpose of the poison smoke ball is to spray poisonous gas after blasting, causing enemy soldiers and horses to be poisoned, bleed from the mouth and nose, and lose combat effectiveness; the tribulus fireball is to scatter iron caltrops on the enemy positions and pathways after blasting, obstructing enemy soldiers and horses.

Actions; some fireballs may emit a large amount of smoke after explosion to obscure the enemy; or emit a large amount of flame after explosion to smear the enemy, etc.

Rocket firearms mainly attach gunpowder packets to the arrowheads, causing them to burn while being fired from a crossbow to the enemy's position, incinerating enemy soldiers and horses. Gunpowder whip arrows place gunpowder into a bamboo tube, ignite it and then hang it.

On a high pole, the elastic force of the arrow is used to throw it to the enemy's position, causing the target to burn.

2: The emergence of tubular firearms In the second year of Shaoxing in the Song Dynasty (1132 AD), Jin soldiers marched straight in and besieged De'an.

Chen Gui, a military strategist of the Southern Song Dynasty, invented the world's first tubular firearm "musket" while defending the city.

According to "Cheng Shou Lu. Tang Xuan De'an Shou Yu Lu Xia" records: "More than 20 long bamboo pole muskets were made with gunpowder."

The "fire gun" invented by Chen Gui was made of long bamboo poles. Each gun was carried by two people. Gunpowder was loaded into the long bamboo poles in advance. The fire line was ignited in time of battle. The gunpowder was ignited and then spurted out flames to burn the enemy.

Firearms are the earliest tubular firearms in my country and the world. The earliest tubular firearms in Europe did not appear until the 14th century.

The emergence of tubular firearms marks an epoch-making progress in the history of world firearms development.

After the appearance of the conventional "musket", "copycats" sprang up, the most representative of which was the "Flying Musket" of the Jin Dynasty. "History of the Jin Dynasty" records: "The gun is made of sixteen layers of imperial yellow paper as a tube, two feet long.

Xu, in fact, they used willow charcoal, iron slag, porcelain, sulfur, and arsenic to tie the end of the gun with a rope. Each sergeant hung a small iron can to hide the fire and burned it in front of the battle. The flames came out more than ten feet in front of the gun, but the gun was gone.

Damage. Gai Bianjing was attacked and used again. "However, the "Flying Fire Gun", like the "Fire Gun", still has no projectiles and still relies on the flames ejected when the gunpowder burns. Three: Projectiles.

Appearance With the development of tubular firearms, in the first year of Kaiqing of the Song Dynasty (1259 AD), the soldiers and civilians of Shouchun Prefecture invented the "turret gun". "History of the Song Dynasty" records: "In the first year of Kaiqing... another musket was made, with a giant bamboo as the barrel.

, The gun inside is like a fire, the flame is extinguished, and then the gun is emitted, like the sound of a cannon, which can be heard a hundred and fifty steps away. "This is the "Sudden Fire Spear."

The world's first pellet-filled tubular firearm.

It can be seen that my country's firearms were undoubtedly leading the world in the early days and had a great influence on the development of firearms in later generations.