The types of muskets of the Ming Dynasty and the accounts about the origin of the invention
Bird's Mouth: In 1548 (the 27th year of Ming Jiajing), the Ming army captured some Japanese and shotguns who were good at making shotguns during the battle to retake Shuangyu (southeast of present-day Yinxian County, Zhejiang) occupied by the Wokou and The Portuguese. Ma Xian, Li Huai and others learned the method of making shotguns, and on the basis of them, studied and improved them, and in 1558 (the thirty-seventh year of Ming Jiajing), they built the first batch of 10,000 arquebusiers in China, which were "especially exquisite than Xifan", called "bird's beak guns". This reamer is made of wrought iron, weighs about 5 to 6 pounds, has a crosshair, illuminates the door, and is mounted on a wooden support. The mouth grows 2 inches of wooden support, and the back of the support is bent downwards by 7 inches. Qu, a belly-supporting stick (tongs), weighs 3 taels, and another fire rope, each 2 zhang long and weighs 3 taels. Each loading of granulated black gunpowder costs 3 dollars and the lead weighs 3 dollars. The fire door is covered and a dragon head type fire rope lighter is used. When firing, the fire rope is lit and placed in the dragon head, the right hand opens the fire door and holds the tail of the gun, and the index finger buckle machine is used to turn backwards, and the dragon head falls on the fire door, and the burning medicine is fired. The "Wu Bi Zhi" said: "The back hand does not abandon the handle, and the ignition does not move, so there are eight or nine out of ten shots, that is, the birds in the forest, can be shot down, because it is named", which became the "sharp weapon" in the battle at that time.
: In 1598 (the twenty-sixth year of the Ming Dynasty), Zhao Shizhen, a famous firearms expert in ancient China, created a longer range of arquebus machine guns than the bird's beak guns on the basis of the shotguns paid into the Lumi Kingdom (present-day Turkey), calling it "LuMi". The total weight of the rifle is 8 pounds, 5 to 7 feet long, the charge is 4 yuan, the lead bullet weighs 3 yuan, the plate machine of the rope machine is installed in the buttstock, and it falls on the fire door, and after the fire is ignited, it rises on its own. There is a steel blade at the tail of the stock, and when the enemy is approaching, it is reversed to use as a sword. This rifle has a long range, is powerful, and structurally superior to the bird's beak. Therefore, the "Wu Beizhi" says: "Bird milling: Wei Lu Mi Is the farthest and most poisonous." While creating the Lumi, Zhao Shizhen also absorbed the advantages of shotguns and Flang machines to create the "Electric Reinforcement". It is about 6 feet long and weighs 5 pounds, and is in the form of a post-loading reamer. There are 5 sub-hammers, each 6 inches long, weighing about 10 taels, with a round mouth in front and a flat square shoot in the rear, and there are eyes in the bamboo shoots, which are nailed with piggyles to prevent the front from hitting the back seat. Charge 2. 5 dollars, lead bullets weigh 2 dollars. The firing device of this reamer is the same as that of Lumi, but with a guard underneath. The sub-reamer is preloaded and takes turns to be loaded into the barrel to fire, which can speed up the shooting speed.
The above various Ming Dynasty shotguns, the caliber is at 0. ９～１． Between 3 cm, the range can reach about 300 meters. Compared with the various muskets before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it has the characteristics of long barrel, small caliber, light weight, and easy to use by infantry and cavalry. The bottom of the barrel of the bird's bill and the rumi gun is still closed with bolts to facilitate unscrewing and scrubbing the barrel. In the late Ming Dynasty, this type of arquebus machine gun was already the main equipment of the Ming Army. Each shotgun is equipped with 2 gunpowder cans, one loaded with propellant, - one loaded with gunpowder, carrying 300 rounds of lead bullets, due to the slow firing speed, in order to make up for this shortcoming, usually in the tactical use of three rows of wheel release, that is, a row of reams, a row of reams, a row of reams, the first row of firing, retreat to the third row of reams, the second row into the first row of positions to release the reams, so take turns to fire.
Self-made fire rifle: A kind of flintlock gun that began to be built at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Invented by Bi Maokang, the right attendant of the Nanjing Household Department. Its structure and performance are not much different from the aforementioned bird reinforcement, mainly because of the improvement of the ignition device. The emergence of self-generated fire bolts has improved the fire rope ignition method that has been used in China for more than two hundred years into flint fire. This is a major innovation in the history of firearms in our country. Because of the use of fire rope ignition, there are many disadvantages, in the case of wind and rain weather, the gunpowder in the fire door is either blown away by the wind, or wet by the rain, so that it cannot be fired; sometimes it is not aimed well, and it is mistakenly released prematurely. Bi Maokang records a percussion flintlock gun, with the guillotine pressed down on the tap of the gusset due to springs. The effect of friction with flint ignites. In this way, not only the difficulties caused by wind and rain to shoot are overcome, but also the need to press the faucet by hand makes the aiming more accurate and can be fired at any time in various situations.
First, the origin of the bird's ream
Bird rifle is the late 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, China's Ming and Qing armies equipped with a fire rope to fire projectiles of individual guns, because it can shoot at the birds in the sky and named, but also because of the curved butt of the gun it installs resembles a bird's beak and is called bird's mouth, also known as a shotgun. Although their names are different, they are consistent in basic construction and launch method. Regarding their origin, since the late Ming Dynasty, there have been three theories in the military books and history books: one is that "the bird reaming was created by our country", the second is that "the bird reaming was introduced from Japan", and the third is "the theory that the bird reaming was directly introduced from the West". Although the three theories are all well-founded, they are not all valid.
(1) Bird reaming is created by our country
The representative figure of this theory is Wang Xi, who believes that the bird is not a "transmission of the banfang", but a "person inherent in China", and claims that his views come from the general Qi Jiguang. However, Qi Himself said in the "Miscellaneous Collection of Military Training Records and Bird Reinforcements" that "this instrument was originally absent in China, and it was passed down to the Wokou and began to be obtained." It can be seen that what Wang Ji said is not the truth. In the same book, Wang Xi himself quoted Tang Shunzhi, the right capital, as saying: "Tang Shunzhi's omission: There was a kind of divine machine musket at the beginning of the country, and the Flang machine, the Zimu cannon fast gun, and the bird chew gun were all out later." It can be seen that Wang Ji is inconclusive about the source of the bird ream.
There are still many theories that the bird reams were not made by the Ming Dynasty Ordnance Bureau and the War Bureau, such as the Ming Dynasty literary scholar Lang Ying said in the "Seven Revision Drafts and Things Class": "Bird Tsui Mu Reams, Jiajingjian Japanese prisoners zhejiang, Wu slaves were captured, got their weapons, and then made them pass on." He Rubin pointed out in the "Records of Soldiers: Ma Rong": "China originally did not have this instrument, but it was passed down from the Wuyi Dynasty. Mao Yuanyi, deputy general of the army, said in the "Wu Bi Zhi Bird Tsui Ream": "This instrument was originally absent in China, and it was passed down from Wuyi to obtain it." These several theories all believe that the bird reams were captured in the War of Resistance Against the Wo, and Qi Jiguang's denial of the self-control of the birds in his own writings should be unmistakable.
(2) Bird reaming is introduced from Japan
How is arquebusier made in Japan? According to the research of Japanese firearms historians, the Japanese first learned about firearms from firearms imported from China, and then under the influence of Chinese open flames and European arquebusiers, they made Japan's earliest arquebus gun - Tanejima Gun. There were three phases.
The first stage, as mentioned above, lasted from 1274 (yuan to eleventh year, Japanese bunaga eleventh year) to 1281 during the Japanese-Mongolian (Yuan) War. The Japanese army saw the iron artillery used by the Mongol (Yuan) army from the battle, and learned that there was already a new weapon in the world - firearms. This was the stage when Japan first became aware of firearms.
The second stage was the ming Dynasty fire hammer (known in Japanese as the primitive handcuff) to japan.
Most Japanese firearms historians cite the following historical facts as examples of this importation.
The book "The Chronicle of shade and coolness" records that in the first year of Wenzheng (1466, the second year of Ming Chenghua), when a Ryukyuan (Chinese) came to Japan, they fired guns. The Japanese monk Bishan, in the Bishan Chronicle, said that during the Yingren Rebellion (1468-1477, 4th to 13th year of Ming Chenghua), flying cannons and muskets were used. In book 3 of the Hojo Five Dynasties, it is recorded that in the seventh year of Nagamasa (1494, the seventh year of Akihiro's reign), Chinese guns were introduced to Sakai City, and then to the Kanto region. The Jiayang Junjian says: "In the fifth year of Dayong (1525, the fourth year of Ming Jiajing), chinese guns reached the Takeda family.
The third stage was the period of the succession of the European arquebus gun after the astronomical first year (1532, the eleventh year of Ming Jiajing). Japanese firearms historians believe that Japan had frequent exchanges with Europe during this period, especially with Portugal. According to the Japanese document "Nanpu Anthology and Iron Cannon Chronicle", on August 25, the twelfth year of Japanese astronomy (1544), a large Portuguese ship came to Tanegashima. The Portuguese on board brought a musket that the islanders had never seen before. This gun is two or three feet long, straight in the middle, straight in the middle, plugged at the bottom, and there is a hole next to it, which is a way to fire, into the magic medicine, and then add a small ball of lead, and then the target is on the shore, and the shooter aims and shoots. During the test firing, "its hair, such as the light of the lightning, its sound, such as the thunder of thunder, the hearer can not hide his ears..." The Japanese saw its great power, so they asked the people on the ship to teach the manufacture and use of the gun, and bought 2 as imitation samples, and at the same time sent people to learn the method of pharmaceutical medicine from the Portuguese, which was the beginning of the introduction of the Portuguese arquebus gun to Japan.
In the thirteenth year of Japanese astronomy (1545, the twenty-fourth year of Ming Jiajing), The Kunisho Forge of Gangshu organized clever craftsmen to imitate arquebusiers suitable for the Japanese army, and made lock bolts, which were better solved. The problem of the tail of the gun was increased, and the power of the arquebusier was improved, which was more advanced than the arquebusier made by the Portuguese. Soon Guoyou Forging carried out mass production, sold hundreds of finished products, some pirates and smuggling merchants took the opportunity to buy, holding as robbery weapons, China's Fujian and Zhejiang coastal areas suffered more from it, in 1548, the Ming army in the raid on China's coastal Shuangyu Wukou, captured this arquebus gun. Because the Ming government and people at that time called these pirates and smuggling merchants Wukou, they called this arquebus gun a Wujiao. It can be seen that the bird's reaming came from Japan is credible.
(3) Bird reams are directly introduced from the West
In the late Ming Dynasty, many people held this view in the military book. For example, he Liangchen, a guerrilla general in the Jiajing period, said in the "Battle Record and Technique": "The bird hammer is from Waiyi (a nanyi), and now it is a Chinese long skill." The "Wubei Jijiao" says: "The use of bird chewing is to start the southern Yi Fan kingdom." Our soldiers won the ship, and in the boat they got, they imitated it and built it, and now my craftsmen and people have exquisite mechanisms, just like this. The "Chu Hai Tu Compilation Bird Tsui Ream" records: "The system of bird reams flowed into China from Xifan, and its origin was far away, but the creator did not do its best." In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing, Du Yushi Zhu Feng, sent the capital to command Lu Bo, broke shuangyu, obtained the Fan Chieftain's Good Hammer, ordered the righteous Shi Ma Xian to make the instrument, Li Huai Pharmaceutical, because of its transmission and creation, than The West Fan is still a fine cloud. These records do not say that the bird was obtained from the Wokou, but from "Waiyi", "Nanyi", "Xifan", "Fan Chieftain", and so on. Wokou was a term used during the Jiajing period for Japanese pirates and smugglers who invaded China's coast. Therefore, "Nanyi", "Xifan", and "Fan Chieftains" obviously referred to Europeans, but at that time, they mainly referred to the Portuguese who came to China. Because the Ming people at that time did not know much about the geographical location of Portugal, they had such a name. For example, the "Book of The Disease of the Heavenly Counties" says: "The Flang Machine Kingdom is in southern Java, and there is no ancient examination." Some people also think that it is in the southwest of Malacca, so they call it "Nanyi" and "Xiyi" to indicate that these people are from the southwest ocean. According to the "Compilation of The Sea Chart , Bird Tsui Tsui " , there were two introductions of European arquebusiers : the first was the arquebusier obtained by the Ming army in the first year of Jiajing from 2 Captured Portuguese ships in the Battle of Xinhui Xicao Bay in Guangdong Province , so it is said to have come from Xifan, which came from afar. However, the arquebusiers used by the Portuguese at that time were mostly products of the early period, so the book said that "many of the makers failed to do their best", and afterwards it was not taken seriously by the military authorities of the Ming Dynasty. The second was the arquebus gun captured by the Ming army when it broke through Shuangyu Island in the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing (1548), which had greatly improved its performance and captured craftsmen who were good at making guns. The military authorities of the Ming Dynasty sent craftsmen to learn from the "Fan Chieftains", and after learning, they "made up because of their transmission", and improved and improved, and their products were particularly exquisite than those of Fan (system). ”
It can be seen that the Ming army captured the arquebusiers used by the Japanese and Portuguese at the same time in the Battle of Shuangyu Island. However, the arquebusiers used by the Portuguese at that time were inferior to the modified Japanese Tanegashima rifles, so He Liangchen said in the "Jinji Ji But I don't dare to fire five or seven pounds in a row, for fear of internal heat and fire, and I am worried about its breaking (that is, the explosion of the chest), but I might as well do it." Because the Wu were superior to the Yi, the Ming military authorities mainly imitated the Japanese arquebus gun, so there was a bird ream from the Uighurs. This is why the introduction of arquebusiers in Europe is not taken seriously. ——The above is excerpted from the History of Firearms in China
From the above reprinted information, it can be roughly seen that the bird gun used in the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to the Japanese iron cannon, that is, the arquebus gun, and it is directly influenced by the Japanese iron cannon. After the Japanese obtained arquebusier manufacturing technology from the Portuguese, they quickly improved the more excellent Japanese iron cannon, and in the Battle of Shuangyu, the Ming Dynasty captured both Portuguese and Japanese arquebusiers and a group of Japanese craftsmen to develop their own bird guns, and the hand was very large, and it was 10,000 at the beginning.
The self-generated bird rifle at the end of the Ming Dynasty was already a flintlock gun, indicating that the ming dynasty's firearms technology developed rapidly in the past few decades, but unfortunately the country was dying and there was no batch equipment. After the founding of the Qing Dynasty, although military equipment experts still had considerable improvements and experiments on firearms, because the rulers one-sidedly believed that bows and horses were used in firearms, and the country was stable, China's firearms development was halted, and finally it was abandoned by Europe. Similarly, the once-prosperous Japanese iron cannon technology also declined sharply after the "Yuanhe Yanwu", and after the Taiping Dynasty of Edo for more than two hundred years, when the American black ship arrived, it could only be called "ship gun profit" in vain.
At the end of the 16th century, the level of firearms technology in the Ming Dynasty may be stronger than that of Japan, but the equipment level of the Ming Army is worse than that of the Japanese army, one reason is the problem of the system. However, due to the isolation of the country, Japan later became similar to China, and both sides lost a good opportunity for a leap in firearms technology.
The prosperity brought about by Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period and the early years of the Ming Dynasty was an opportunity for both sides to further develop greatly. Although western colonizers began to expand at sea, the East could still compete with the West by absorbing the advanced technology and civilization achievements of the West. However, with the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of locking the country and the corruption of the last years of the Wanli calendar after Zhang Juzheng's death, both countries fell behind.