Artillery joke

This question is actually incorrect. The first modern artillery in China was established by the Huai Army. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to the long-term closed door, firearms technology has not been developed. On the contrary, due to the long-term peace, artillery technology has also deteriorated. It is a joke that the Taiping Army once overwhelmed the Qing army in firepower after discovering a batch of cannons buried by Wu Sangui in Yuezhou.

After Zeng Guofan established the Xiang Army, he did not set up an independent artillery team, but set up two mountain artillery teams under each battalion. Mountain cannon is actually a small front-mounted smoothbore gun, which fires loose bullets with limited range and power. Its main purpose is to strengthen infantry firepower, which is very different from modern artillery. Therefore, in all previous siege wars, the Xiang army mainly relied on tunnel blasting, not artillery bombardment. This happened because Zeng Guofan was conservative and didn't believe in the power of western-style firearms at first. Secondly, the Xiang army began to develop inland, and it was difficult to buy western-style firearms.

After Li Hongzhang formed the Huai Army, he began to refer to the Xiang Army model. However, after arriving in Shanghai, due to frequent contact with western firearms, the Huai army soon realized that its efficiency was much higher than that of local guns, and soon equipped a large number of foreign guns. However, due to the need for professionals in the use of artillery, there were not many foreign guns equipped by the Huai army in the early days. Before 1863, in addition to the mountain artillery team under each battalion, only Chunzi battalion under Zhang Yuchun had an independent artillery team, which was the first independent artillery unit in the Huai Army. After 1863, the Huai army purchased dozens of western-style guns, and the scale of the guns was strengthened. Both the Ming Army in Liu Mingchuan and Pan Jun in Pan organized independent artillery battalions, but at this time, most of the Huai Army's equipment was field guns, and only the rudiments of modern artillery were prepared and used.

Due to the lack of heavy artillery, Li Hongzhang had to seconde the artillery team to help him fight many times. Li Hongzhang was deeply impressed by the outstanding performance of Chang's siege heavy artillery. When Chang was disbanded, he deliberately kept the artillery team and incorporated it into his own pro-army. This artillery team is not only equipped with a large number of heavy artillery, but also completely westernized in preparation and training. It is also the first artillery in the modern sense in the Qing Dynasty.