Development of iron cannon

Since ancient times, there have been many styles of iron cannons. Since the Yuan Dynasty, artillery has been used more in wars, mainly for attacking and defending city blockades, as well as field and water wars.

China invented artillery in 1280. At this time, the people of China made the first batch of copper and iron cannons (this symbol means verification). In the 8th century, the invention of gunpowder made a qualitative leap in the development of trebuchet. /kloc-after gunpowder was used in the military in the 0 th century, the trebuchet changed from throwing stones to throwing fireballs. Fireballs are also called gunpowder bombs. Therefore, the earliest artillery appeared.

The iron cannon manufactured in the tenth year of Hongwu (1377) has a caliber of 2 10 mm and a total length of 100 cm. There are double ears on both sides, which can adjust the firing angle of the gun. The gun body is engraved with the words "Ding Si was built in the tenth year of Ming Hongwu". This is the earliest known cast iron gun with cannon ears in China. This kind of large caliber straight barrel gun will obviously increase the power of artillery, which shows that ancient Chinese artillery has developed to a new level as early as the second half of the14th century.

At the end of Ming Dynasty, the artillery of China was still developing from the 1920s of 16. The tiger crouching gun made in Jiajing period is1'9 "(about 0.6m) long and weighs 36kg (about 21.5kg). It is equipped with an iron claw and an iron trip device. Before launching, it can be fixed on the ground with big nails and looks like a tiger crouching. The gun overcomes the shortcomings of large recoil and violent jumping when launching.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, in order to resist the attack of the Jin army, Hongyi cannon was copied. In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, Yuan Chonghuan defended Ningyuan (now Xingcheng, Liaoning Province) with Hongyi cannon, repelling the army of the late Jin Dynasty and killing hundreds of people. The late Jin commander Nurhachi was seriously injured in the artillery battle and died soon.

In the early years of Chongzhen, the Ming army's imitation of Hongyi artillery had entered the stage of mass production. However, the operation method of using instruments to improve the aiming accuracy of artillery in the West has always been a blind spot for many China gunners at that time. By the end of Yongzheng (1723- 1735), the Qing government even found that the garrison had never conducted artillery drills, so that the officers and men were at a loss about the sight distance and the level of the stars. Even in Daoguang period, the method of measuring elevation with spear gauge to adjust the range was still "unaccustomed to China soldiers".

In the third year of Chongzhen, Sun used and other religious officials or generals to equip a large number of western firearms, and hired Portuguese military advisers from Macao. The use of spear gauge, spear ruler, torque and other instruments, as well as the mastery of loading and unloading skills, are all training contents that Sun attaches great importance to, which was also the most lacking thing in the Ming army in the past.

Kong Youde, to which Sun belongs, was able to cause "breaking a hundred miles and killing more than 100,000 people" in Shandong after Wuqiao Revolution, which was related to the good artillery operation training received by the rebels.

From the change of Wuqiao, we can find that the form of war on the battlefield in China is undergoing revolutionary changes. When the launching technology of Hony Gun is becoming more and more mature, the attack power and lethality of this new weapon play an important role in urban offensive and defensive warfare, while the traditional wall structure of China no longer has sufficient defense capability. Kong Youde's submission not only enabled the latter to acquire a large number of sophisticated western firearms, but also obtained a complete set of casting and pharmaceutical technology as well as aiming knowledge and instruments. It is no wonder that Huang Taiji will go out of the suburbs to greet Kong Youde grandly, expressing his attention to the return of this army.

After the Wuqiao mutiny, the Ming army lost its superiority in artillery technology. Later, due to the emptiness of the national treasury, its military equipment could not be enriched. In the middle and late period of Chongzhen, many firearms were mostly made by local officials and commanders. For example, Lu Xiangsheng, the military governors of Fu Xuan, Datong and Shanxi, donated many Hony guns, and Wu Sangui, the military governor of Liaodong, donated money to cast the "General Dingliao". These facts reflect the decline of imperial power in the Ming Dynasty.

In order to quell the war, the Qing Dynasty produced a large number of artillery, mainly including three types: ① red artillery (Hony artillery) and ② sub-artillery and sub-artillery similar to French spears. (3) large-caliber short-barreled guns, now more common is the cannon in front of Tiananmen Square. The other is that during the Qing Dynasty, before and after the First Opium War, in order to resist colonial aggression, soldiers and civilians around the country built some heavy artillery. There are still fragments of anti-British artillery at that time in Humen, Guangdong Province and Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province.

In the early Qing Dynasty, with the help of the Jesuit Ferdinand ferdinand verbiest, the gun-making technology made great progress. However, with the end of the San Francisco Rebellion and the collapse of the Zheng regime in Taiwan Province Province, the Qing court began to pay less attention to guns. We can find that from the last years of Kangxi to Jiaqing, no special artillery books have been published for more than 50 years/kloc-0. This situation was not changed until the outbreak of the Opium War. The theory of casting gun, Ding's performance gun theory, Gong Zhenlin's iron mold (casting gun) theory and the new type of backbone gun car have appeared successively.

Among them, the book "Illustration of Artillery Performance" is devoted to the precision technology of artillery. The author Ding, a native of Fujian, studied abroad and privately learned some operating principles of artillery. After returning home, he joined the army and put forward a quadrant, which was proved to be very accurate after performance and measurement, so he was promoted. The reason why Ding was taken seriously was obviously related to the defeat of the Qing court by the British in the first Opium War.

Ding once talked about the chisel ruler in Addendum, but this article has a serious misunderstanding about the main function of the chisel ruler. He thought that the score on the chisel ruler was used to calculate the weight of shells, but he didn't know that the chisel ruler was mainly used to estimate the amount of gunpowder to be filled. It can be seen that the correct use of chisel ruler was lost at that time.

The principle and technology of artillery operation mentioned by Ding did not actually exceed the level of Ming and Qing Dynasties, but from the fact that Ding was awarded six military titles, it can be seen that the Qing court's understanding of artillery knowledge decreased obviously after Kangxi Dynasty.

After Ding, Li also wrote The True Tactics of Firearms in Xianfeng nine years, trying to introduce geometry and ballistics principles. Li Houlai was promoted because of this book, but unfortunately, his talents were not brought into full play.

The inability of the Qing court to cope with the military challenges of the great powers has aroused the deep concern of many people of insight. The publication of The True Skill of Firearms by Li, The Theory of Objects by Hua (1833- 1902) and An Introduction to Firearms by Wang Tao are concrete reflections. After Wang Tao's Introduction to Firearms, the translation and introduction of artillery began to increase, and various schools began to publish, trying to narrow the gap between China and the West in artillery aiming technology.

From 65438+1950s, the Qing government purchased a large number of western modern artillery, and established some modern military industries to manufacture modern artillery. China ancient artillery was gradually replaced by modern artillery.