Chapter 28 Chapter 28: Qing Dynasty Firearms Master Dai Zi

In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Western powers knocked on the door of China with strong ships and guns.In the face of advanced Western guns and artillery, the "Eight Banners Warriors" of the Qing Dynasty who swept the world in the past were vulnerable.From the beginning of the Opium War, it was a series of defeats.The horrific fighting process and the traitorous treaty that forfeited power and humiliated the country all made the people of the country deeply hate them.Jeffers, a British traveler who once served as an officer of the Anglo-French Allied Forces, once said in his memoirs: "That war (the Second Opium War) was not a war of equality, it was a war between the modern army and the ancient army, especially the equipment. In fact, it is an inequality of hundreds of years."

So Mr. Lu Xun said: After we invented gunpowder, we used it to set off firecrackers, and Westerners used it to make weapons. In the early Qing Dynasty, nearly 200 years after the outbreak of the Opium War, an outstanding weapon manufacturing expert also appeared in China.His exquisite inventions and outstanding achievements were far ahead of the world level at that time.His weapon inventions were even precursors to modern weapons.And his tragic fate is also lamentable.His brilliant invention, without equipping a mighty army, became the plaything of the nobility.As an inventor, there is perhaps nothing more unfortunate than this in the world.

This outstanding scientist was Dai Zi, a firearms manufacturer in the early Qing Dynasty. Dai Zi, courtesy name Wenkai, was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in the sixth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1649).He was born in a military family, and his father had been a "supervisor of the army" in the Ming Dynasty. He has been fascinated by marching and fighting since he was a child.Dai Zi has been ambitious since he was a child, and has been obsessed with various military bibliographies. The one he has studied the most is the book "The Spectrum of Divine Weapons" by Zhao Shizhen, a master of firearms in the Ming Dynasty.When Dai Zi was 17 years old, the local mountains in Hangzhou were infested with wolves. Dai Zi developed a shotgun and handed it over to the government to eliminate the wolves in one fell swoop. Seven years later, the San Francisco Rebellion broke out. When Prince Kang Jieshu passed through Zhejiang, he heard of Dai Zi's virtuous name and strongly invited him to be his staff.Under Prince Kang's tent, Dai Zi was reused, and Prince Kang "introduced him as a guest of honor".Dai Zi lived up to the entrustment, and not only made many suggestions, but also changed the firearms in Prince Kang's army, and invented the powerful "Sky Cannon".Prince Kang quelled the battle of Geng Jingzhong in Fujian. When the troops forced Fuzhou, the Qing army bombarded the city with Dai Zi's "sky cannon".In addition, Dai Zi was ordered to enter the enemy camp single-handedly in the face of danger, and persuaded Geng Jingzhong to surrender.After the end of the San Francisco Rebellion, Dai Zi was recommended by Prince Kang and was awarded the "Hanlin Academy Minister" and officially entered the court as an official.

Soon after Dai Zi entered the court, the famous Yaksa War broke out.At that time, Tsarist Russia invaded the Heilongjiang River Basin and ran across the Northeast with advanced firearms and equipment.Emperor Kangxi wanted to attack, but he suffered from backward firearms. Nan Huairen, a Belgian missionary trusted by Kangxi, boasted that he could build a "general gun", but his experiments failed many times.Dai Zi took the initiative to accept the order and successfully produced it in only 8 days.This new type of artillery is far more powerful than the European artillery of the same period.In the Battle of Yaksa, the Qing army formally attacked the city with artillery, forcing Tsarist Russia to surrender, and won the war with minimal casualties.This kind of artillery invented by Dai Zi was named "Shenwei Invincible General Cannon" by Kangxi.In the ensuing battle against Galdan, the Qing army also used this kind of artillery to defeat Galdan's camel formation, ensuring the victory of the battle.

In addition to the invention of artillery, another major invention of Dai Zi is the improved gun.At that time, muskets were still in the single-shot stage. By studying the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and Western muskets, Dai Zi improved the pattern of the "Five Thunder God Machine" invented by Zhao Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty, and created the "Lian Zhu Shen Gun" that can fire 28 bullets in a row. .After the lianju gun was made, Kangxi demonstrated it on the spot when receiving the Dutch envoys, which surprised the Dutch envoys and gave it as a gift. As a scholar, Dai Zi's achievements are not only in firearms, but also in mechanical manufacturing.

One of Dai Zi's achievements is related to the recovery of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty.At that time, the Qing Dynasty was building warships, preparing to cross the sea to pacify the Zheng regime in Taiwan. The blueprints for the shipbuilding were drawn by the Ministry of Industry. After reading the drawings, Dai Zi found the mistakes, and pointed out that the proportion of the hull was unreasonable, and the warships tended to tilt and capsize after launching. .Kangxi did not accept his suggestion this time. As Dai Zi expected, the first time the Qing Dynasty crossed the sea to attack Taiwan, there was an accident of a warship capsized by the wind, resulting in a big defeat.

When Shi Lang recovered Taiwan, Dai Zi designed a new type of warship: the paddle steamer.This kind of warship is powered by pedals and has an extremely fast speed. It can be said to be the earliest fast assault boat.When Shi Lang attacked Penghu, it was this kind of warship that broke through the Taiwanese navy in one fell swoop and made Taiwan voluntarily surrender.It is worth mentioning that this kind of paddle steamer was also retained later, and it was still the main warship of the navy in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.When Lin Zexu banned smoking in Guangdong, he blocked the mouth of the Pearl River in Guangdong with famous ships and banned opium.Although compared with the British ships at that time, this kind of warship was backward, but in the era when Dai Zi lived, it was the most advanced light fast warship.

Another contribution of Dai Zi lies in river governance.In the early Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River frequently flooded. Dai Zi wrote "Ten Strategies for River Control" after field investigation.Later, when Jackie Chan, the famous river governor of the Qing Dynasty, governed the Yellow River, he used Dai Zi's work as a blueprint.At the same time, he is also an outstanding writer, calligrapher and painter. His calligraphy has the characteristics of the four masters of Su, Huang, Mi and Cai in the Song Dynasty, and he was quite famous at that time.In the Chinese cultural circle in the early Qing Dynasty, he was a well-rounded figure.

In terms of character, Dai Zi is even a good official. When he was 12 years old, he wrote the poem "If you have the ability to help the country, you have no plan to relieve hunger and cold", which shows that he is concerned about the country and the people.After becoming an official, Dai Zi was a clean and honest official with quite a political reputation. At that time, he was a celebrity with both ability and political integrity. But this celebrity with both ability and political integrity ended in tragedy. In the 40th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1701 A.D.), Dai Zi was stripped of his official position by Emperor Kangxi on the charge of "communication with the East", and sent to Liaodong.Such charges are naturally "unfounded". The reason why Dai Zi was convicted is that he offended Nan Huairen, a missionary trusted by Kangxi. She was ashamed, so she tried her best to slander Dai Zi in front of Kangxi.The more important reason is that Dai Zi submitted "On Five Strategies for Military Affairs" to Emperor Kangxi. In this memorial, Dai Zi boldly predicted that bows and arrows will withdraw from the stage of war, and firearms will inevitably replace them.For the nobles of the Qing Dynasty who took "riding and archery as their foundation", this memorial can be said to have exploded.Therefore, there are always people who attack Dai Zi, and the end of being exiled is inevitable.Dai Zi served his sentence in Liaodong until he was 78 years old before he received an "amnesty". He died of illness on the way home. When Zhao Lian, the son of Prince Li, recorded the incident, he also angrily said "we all cherish it".

What is even more regrettable is that Dai Zi's invention, the Lianzhu firecracker and the soldier's shotgun that Dai Zi carefully researched, were only used as hunting tools in the "Mulan Paddock" by successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and were never used in actual combat.As for the "General Weiyuan Cannon", which made great contributions to Yaksa and Ulan Butong, it was discarded because later generations did not know how to make it.Even on the eve of the Opium War, Lin Zexu, who was devoted to fighting against British aggression, made a joke about not knowing what the "General Weiyuan Cannon" was.General Weiyuan’s cannon came to light again, and it was on the way Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang that he discovered the cultural relics of General Weiyuan’s cannon from Gansu. Naturally, he was deeply moved again.