In the middle of Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates seriously harassed the southeast coast. Why didn't they bomb the Japanese pirates with artillery?

Hongyi cannon was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, also known as the Red Cannon. The so-called "red barbarians" are also Dutch with red hair. Therefore, many people think that Hongyi cannon is imported from the Netherlands. In fact, at that time, the Ming Dynasty called all the front-mounted muskets imported from the West Hony Gun. Ming officials often covered these giant guns with red cloth, so they were mistaken for "red clothes". According to textual research, only a small amount of Hongyi cannon imported in Ming Dynasty was imported from the Dutch East India Company. Later, because of the problem of Taiwan Province Province, they were hostile to the Dutch, and most of them traded with the Portuguese in Macau. At that time, there was a huge demand in the Ming Dynasty, and the Portuguese also acted as middlemen to sell British ship-borne cannons to China.

The large-caliber vessels made by ourselves in the early Ming Dynasty are exactly the same as these Hongyi guns in principle, and they all use sliding chamber fire doors for ignition, but they are quite different in concrete production. In the early Ming dynasty, this kind of vessel was mostly made of copper, with a trumpet-shaped hole and a thin barrel. Because the caliber of the barrel is too short, its appearance is basically the same as that of the earliest existing Yuan Dynasty "Wankouzha". Compared with Hony Gun, this kind of weapon has less powder loading and poor sealing performance, so its range is short. Moreover, it is easy to overheat and the firing rate is slow. Although copper is not easy to explode, the cost is high (copper is the metal for casting money), and copper is too soft, which will lead to the enlargement of the gun bore every time, and the shooting accuracy and range will drop rapidly. As a weapon, its life is too short, and its only advantage is its light weight. In the face of a red Yi cannon weighing several thousand kilograms, the artifacts of the early Ming Dynasty were really "dwarfed".

Hony cannon does have its advantages in design. Its barrel is long and the wall is thick, and it gradually thickens from the muzzle to the tail, which conforms to the principle that the chamber pressure is from high to the end when gunpowder burns. There are cylindrical ears on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, which can adjust the firing angle and change the range according to the amount of gunpowder. It is equipped with sight and gate, and the trajectory is calculated according to parabola with high accuracy. Most Hony cannons are about 3 meters long, with a caliber of110-130mm, and weigh more than 2 tons.

The most prominent advantage of Hony Gun is its range. For heavy artillery, the range is an important link to measure its performance, even today. The maximum range of self-made ironware in Ming dynasty is no more than three miles, which is in danger of explosion; Generally, a three-kilo-pound Hong Yi cannon can easily hit seven or eight miles away, and historical records can hit ten miles as far as possible! Ten miles is equivalent to more than five kilometers in modern times, which is quite far away. This data has been questioned, but the performance of the same type of artillery in the west proves that this data is accurate (at that time, the concept of territorial sea existed in western European countries, and the territorial sea at that time was determined by the range of coastal guns. At the end of 16, the territorial sea was three nautical miles, about 5.5 kilometers). Long-range red artillery combined with flower bombs became the strongest weapon against the siege of the late Ming Dynasty. At that time, the tactics were as follows: luring the late Jin cavalry into the range of the Gongyi gun in Chengtou, and then shooting with a flower bomb, with remarkable results.

[Edit this paragraph] The technical characteristics of Hongyi cannon

Hony cannon is an English front-loaded heavy-duty musket from 16 to 19 century. As many as 100 species were copied by China people. Its technical features are as follows:

1) ammunition is heavy, ranging from a few kilograms to 10 kilograms. Projectile is a spherical solid projectile made of stone, iron, lead and other materials, which is extremely exquisite, diverse in shape and use, and can be destroyed by directly hitting the target. This kind of charge is commensurate with the bomb, ensuring its long range and greater lethality.

(2) The length of the barrel is 2-3 meters, and it is thin at the front and thick at the back. The caliber is mostly above 100 mm, and the ratio of double diameter (the ratio of the distance from the fire door to the muzzle to the inner diameter) is mostly between 20 and 40. Its casting is extremely complicated, adopting integral die casting method, scientific procedures and French requirements, and cooperating with new equipment, instruments and other auxiliary facilities. The proportion of each part is appropriate, the probability of chamber explosion is low, and the quality of casting gun is improved.

(3) Many heavy iron cannons are also made of copper and weigh 35-500 kilograms. For example, the development peak of China Hongyi cannon was in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Of the 905 guns manufactured at this time, 20 1 gun weighs more than 250kg, and the rest are light guns weighing less than 250kg.

(4) The application of Hony's ammunition is programmed and "gun watch". In addition, its tail is thick with tail beads, and there are cylindrical ears on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, which can be used as an axis to adjust the shooting angle and change the range according to the charge. The gun body is equipped with a sight and a door, and the trajectory is calculated by parabola with high accuracy. The Red Easy Gun is car-mounted and can run at will.

[Edit this paragraph] The limitations of Hongyi Cannon

Hongyi cannon is well-cast and powerful. Compared with China's traditional firearms, it can be seen from the "modulus" followed in casting, the "gun platform" in casting, the equipment of auxiliary facilities, the diversification of shells, the distance of range (ranging from 2 to 4 kilometers) and the high intensity of explosive force that its power is really amazing. However, its limitations are not small. It is good at attacking cities and not good at fighting, let alone guarding cities. The loading emissivity is not high. Moreover, the gun body is relatively heavy and it cannot move quickly. Therefore, in the field, we can only bomb at fixed points before the war. When the other party's situation is reversed, it is often impossible to respond flexibly.

[Edit this paragraph] Hony artillery in Ningyuan War

The fortress gun in Ningyuan Castle is a 18 pound naval gun, which was salvaged from a British cruiser trapped in a storm near Macau. There are only two places in China (Gate 20 of Ningyuan and Gate 10). This gun will seriously deviate from its original shooting position every time it is fired. According to the normal operating procedure, you need to go through the steps of resetting, reloading and setting the direction angle and elevation angle again. The most trained British navy can only fire at a speed of 2 minutes.

It is impossible to improve the firing rate with a front gun, because after a fire, water should be poured into the gun bore to extinguish Mars, a dry cloth should be put in the gun bore to dry it, then gunpowder and combustion-supporting materials should be filled, shells should be inserted, and then ignition should be carried out. These movements are quite slow and tedious, not including the correction of gun position. This is a common problem of the front gun, and it will take two minutes to fire. Unfortunately, a running horse can run quite a long distance in one minute. Is it urgent to shoot the second shot? Therefore, the front gun is characterized by slow firing rate, but it is powerful, and there is no problem in bombing the city wall. Dealing with cavalry is a joke.

The outstanding performance of Hony Gun in actual combat attracted the attention of the Ming Dynasty, and a large number of imitations were made in addition to imports. However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the national strength was weak, so it was impossible to cast and import more expensive Hony Gun. However, Hony Gun gradually became the backbone of heavy firearms in Ming Dynasty, and eliminated the original heavy-duty large-caliber ware.

The large-caliber vessels made by ourselves in the early Ming Dynasty are exactly the same as these Hongyi guns in principle, and they all use sliding chamber fire doors for ignition, but they are quite different in concrete production. In the early Ming dynasty, this kind of vessel was mostly made of copper, with a trumpet-shaped hole and a thin barrel. Because the caliber of the barrel is too short, its appearance is basically the same as that of the earliest existing Yuan Dynasty "Wankouzha". Compared with Hony Gun, this kind of weapon has less powder loading and poor sealing performance, so its range is short. Moreover, it is easy to overheat and the firing rate is slow. Although copper is not easy to explode, the cost is high (copper is the metal for casting money), and copper is too soft, which will lead to the enlargement of the gun bore every time, and the shooting accuracy and range will drop rapidly. As a weapon, its life is too short, and its only advantage is its light weight. In the face of a red Yi cannon weighing several thousand kilograms, the artifacts of the early Ming Dynasty were really "dwarfed".

Hony cannon does have its advantages in design. Its barrel is long and the wall is thick, and it gradually thickens from the muzzle to the tail, which conforms to the principle that the chamber pressure is from high to the end when gunpowder burns. There are cylindrical ears on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, which can adjust the firing angle and change the range according to the amount of gunpowder. It is equipped with sight and gate, and the trajectory is calculated according to parabola with high accuracy. Most Hony cannons are about 3 meters long, with a caliber of110-130mm, and weigh more than 2 tons.

The most prominent advantage of Hony Gun is its range. For heavy artillery, the range is an important link to measure its performance, even today. The maximum range of self-made ironware in Ming dynasty is no more than three miles, which is in danger of explosion; Generally, a three-kilo-pound Hong Yi cannon can easily hit seven or eight miles away, and historical records can hit ten miles as far as possible! Ten miles is equivalent to more than five kilometers in modern times, which is quite far away. This data has been questioned, but the performance of the same type of artillery in the west proves that this data is accurate (at that time, the concept of territorial sea existed in western European countries, and the territorial sea at that time was determined by the range of coastal guns. At the end of 16, the territorial sea was three nautical miles, about 5.5 kilometers). Long-range red artillery combined with flower bombs became the strongest weapon against the siege of the late Ming Dynasty. At that time, the tactics were as follows: luring the late Jin cavalry into the range of the Gongyi gun in Chengtou, and then shooting with a flower bomb, with remarkable results.

1639- 1642, Jin Song war was launched in Ming and Qing dynasties, and both sides used Hony's artillery. The Ming army stepped up its gun-making in the pass, while the Qing army used Hongyi cannon to carry out large-scale field operations and tackle key problems. In the first battle of Songshan alone, the Qing army dispatched artillery shells 10000 rounds, 37 guns and explosives 10000 kilograms to the front line for standby. Before Jin Song War, the Qing army was often regarded as afraid of the road because of the limited quantity and poor quality of artillery. As soon as Jinsong fell, the Qing army attacked the city again, often blowing up the city wall by nearly 100 meters, which was unprecedented in the history of the Ming and Qing wars. The Ming army was very surprised by the great progress of the Qing artillery. For example, 1639, Fan Chenggong of Ming Taizu reported: "Thieves attacked Songshan Mountain on 25th and 26th, and found 60 1 more guns in the city, all weighing more than ten kilograms, and 37 guns were loaded on the south wall.

After the Song-Jin War, most of the artillery outside the customs of the Ming army fell into the hands of the Qing army. Only the Wu Sangui Department stationed in Ningyuan has more than 10 red guns, while the Qing army stationed in Jinzhou has nearly 100 red guns. The Qing people once threatened: "How can you fight hard for three or four days with a hundred cannons?" Tang Ruowang, a famous western missionary and arms expert who served the Ming Dynasty in fashion, exclaimed: "He (referring to the Qing army) has already surpassed me in Ma Zhuang, and recently his firearms are also comparable to mine? I know I have my own skills. " "At present, firearms in western countries are expensive, but enemies are not only available, but also widely used now. This passage reflects Tang Ruowang's shock, but it also illustrates an irreversible harsh fact.

In 1642, Huang taiji ordered all the leaders of the Eight Banners in the Han Dynasty to lead their gunmen to Jinzhou to cast the guns of General Shenwei, and in 1643, he sent people to Jinzhou to supervise the production of Hony's guns. In this way, officials were sent to make guns in batches, indicating that Jinzhou at that time had become the manufacturing base of firearms in the Qing Dynasty. Today, Huang Yinong believes that the quality of 35 "Shenwei General" guns made of copper core at that time has reached the highest level in the world. This gun is made of copper, thin in front and thick in back, 2.83 meters long, with four protrusions, weighing 1950 kg, 2.5 kg of medicine and 5 kg of iron. It is installed on a four-wheeled gun rack, which has the advantages of long barrel and large amount of ammunition, and is a sharp weapon to attack and destroy cities. After the Qing army was defeated in 1644, although the peasant army could still compete with the Qing army, which was good at riding and shooting, and was good at field and artillery warfare, it could not stop the Qing army from using the advanced Hongyi artillery group as its main equipment. During the reign of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty, the production momentum of firearms increased greatly for the need of suppressing the peasant army and eliminating the rebel regime in Nanming. The Qing court set up a gun factory and a fire factory in Beijing, which were under the unified management of the war situation, leading to the second climax of firearms production in the Qing dynasty.

It can't be said that Hony's cannon had a profound influence on China's firearms. After more than 200 years, the Qing dynasty carried out a large number of imitations, which were very popular. It can be said that the style of Hony Gun has become the standard of military artillery, thus suppressing the development and equipment of other advanced firearms. Generally speaking, the Qing Dynasty didn't make any technical innovation to Hony Gun, but blindly increased its weight in order to increase its range. The manufacturing technology of artillery was far behind that of the West.

During the First Opium War, the cannon of Humen fortress weighed 8000 kilograms, but its range was not as good as that of British naval guns. After the Second Opium War, Jiangyin fortress was equipped with 10,000 kilograms of iron cannon "General Wei Yao". These guns look mighty, but in fact, their range is not as good as that imported from Ming Dynasty. In addition, the loss of flower bombs caused a lot of losses against the British. /kloc-The mid-9th century is a period of great changes in western weapons, and artillery technology has been greatly improved: the industrial revolution enabled the weapons manufacturing industry to complete steel guns with power machine tools, and the rifling guns and afterloading guns began to equip the army; The new development of artillery shooting theory and tactics in Napoleon's practice: At the same time, due to the progress of chemistry, picric acid explosives, smokeless gunpowder and mercuric chloride began to be used in the military, and the power of artillery shells increased exponentially. On the other hand, the guns in Qing dynasty still used clay casting guns, which resulted in a large number of sand holes in the gun body, frequent explosions and very rough treatment of the inner cavity. The quasi-centering door no longer exists, and the bullet is lost. Lack of scientific knowledge of gun operation technology is not as good as the Ming Dynasty! Two hundred years ago, the advanced weapon of the Ming Dynasty-Hongyi cannon, was out of sight and aged, unable to resist the invasion of western powers.

Red cannons were originally western firearms, and most of the red cannons used in the Ming Dynasty were imported. Although there are imitations, the quality is far from the original. Since the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty couldn't make a good red cannon themselves, how could they help the latter Jin to make a better one? The late Jin dynasty lagged behind the Ming dynasty in economy, science, culture and technology, and it was even more impossible to build better cannons by itself. Therefore, the artillery made in the late Jin Dynasty must rely on external forces. At that time, the only country around Kim capable of manufacturing more than the red cannon was Russia. Looking back at the Kangxi period, the emperor personally recruited 10,000 Qing troops against 600 Russian troops. After winning, he not only released all the Russian prisoners and returned the weapons, but also made great concessions in the treaty signed later, giving a large area of land to the Russian army, which was really unlike what Zhang Jun did. Taken together, it seems that we can draw a conclusion that the land in the northern part of the late Jin Dynasty was supported by the Russians with firearms, but when the rule of the Qing Dynasty in the Central Plains was stabilized, the Russians were driven out of Beiman and only a piece of land was given to the west of the river, which is a bit like a replica of the Qin State Zhang Yi who cheated the king of Chu with 600 miles of land during the Warring States Period.