Chapter 10 Section 2 Incendiary Firearms

Incendiary firearms were the first firearms invented and were a sign of gunpowder being used in military affairs.They include early fireballs, gunpowder arrows, and later spray guns, fire attack vehicles, and fire beasts. There are eight types recorded in "Wu Jing Zongyao": fire ball, thorn fire ball, thunderbolt fire ball (see Figure 16), smoke ball, poison smoke ball, fire ball, iron mouth fire harrier, bamboo fire harrier and so on.For the first six types, the prepared gunpowder is generally mixed with iron flakes and other killing or poisonous substances, and then solidified into a spherical hard shell with multiple layers of paper paste.When using it, first use a red-hot burning cone to burn the spherical shell thoroughly, then throw the small ones by hand, and throw the large ones with a stone throwing cone machine.When the fireball is thrown to the enemy, the burning spherical shell ignites the gunpowder in the ball to achieve the purpose of combat.The body of the iron-billed fire harrier is made of a thin plate, with an iron beak on the head, grass stalks tied to the tail, and gunpowder in the tail.The bamboo fire harrier is made of bamboo slices into a lantern-shaped shell, with several layers of paper pasted on the outside of the shell, one catty of gunpowder inside, and three to five catties of grass tied to the tail.When using it, first ignite the gunpowder in the tail grass or the harrier, and then throw it to the enemy with a trebuchet for burning.

Fireball firearms are often used in warfare after they are manufactured.In the first month of the first year of Jingkang in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1126), the Eastern Route Army of the Jin Dynasty crossed the Yellow River and besieged Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.Shangshu Youcheng Li Gang was ordered to deploy the war, and personally boarded Xianfengmen to command the Song army to fight.He ordered that in the army, whoever can hit the golden soldiers with bed crossbows and cannons (that is, fireballs) will be rewarded generously.He also ordered the Song army to take advantage of the darkness of night to send out thunderbolt cannons (that is, thunderbolt fireballs) to attack the siege Jin army.So the cannon fired, and the sound was like a thunderbolt. The Jin army was thrown into chaos by the cannon fire, screaming incessantly.The Jin army could not attack the city, so they asked the Song court for a large amount of gold and silver treasures and cut off some land, then retreated north.

At the beginning of November of that year, the Jin army made a comeback and attacked Kaifeng for the second time by dividing the east and west armies, focusing on the east of the city.The siege equipment used, in addition to fire ladders, cloud ladders, goose cart holes, rams, hook rods and various trebuchets, also used fireballs, gunpowder arrows and other firearms imitated by the Song Army.The Song army also used siege poles to knock down the Jin army's ladders, and burned the Jin army's siege holes with torches.When the Jin army dug a tunnel to attack the city, the Song army dug a shaft at the tunnel, and threw hay, wax, poison, fireballs, etc. into the tunnel, causing combustion, producing smoke, and fuming the Jin army in the tunnel.The Jin army was burnt to death and suffered heavy casualties.Afterwards, the Jin army "built watchtowers with a height of a hundred feet, went down to the city, and flew artillery and burnt towers outside the city."When attacking Xuanhuamen, the Jin army "cannon like rain, especially arrows".Under the onslaught of the Jin army, the court of the Northern Song Dynasty became obsessed and superstitiously believed that a man named Guo Jing could defeat the enemy with Liujia soldiers and ordered him to fight in Kaicheng.

In the anti-golden battle in the Southern Song Dynasty, the soldiers and civilians not only used the burning effect of the paper shell fireball to burn the Jin army's troops and war equipment, but also developed the paper shell fireball into a primary explosive firearm and directly used it to bomb the Jin army and horses.According to Zhao Wannian, the guard of Xiangyang General Zhao Chun at that time, in "Xiangyang Shouchenglu", in February of the third year of Ningzong Kaixi in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1207), Zhao Chun led the Song army to defend Xiangyang with thunderbolt cannons.When the Jin army came to attack, the Song army repeatedly injured the enemy with thunderbolt cannon explosions.

For the first time, Zhao Chun led more than a thousand defenders to attack in the middle of the night and hit the Jin army with thunderbolt cannons. The Jin army panicked and collapsed in panic. The second time was when the Jin army was besieging the city, Zhao Chun ordered the defenders on the city to beat drums and shout, and throw thunderbolt cannons at the besieging Jin army. . The third time was when Zhao Chun took advantage of the rainy night and commanded 3,000 Song troops. He took more than 20 warships full of thunderbolt guns and gunpowder arrows, and sneaked to the camp on the shore of the Jin army. Suddenly, thunderbolt guns and gunpowder arrows were thrown at the Jin army camp. The Jin soldiers and horses panicked and trampled on each other.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the types of fireballs increased. If they were classified according to their combat purposes, there were poisonous fireballs such as divine fire mixed balls, fire bombs, and fire demons; Burning and obstructing fireballs; smoke screens and obstructing fireballs such as Wanhuofeishen Cannon, Winddust Cannon, Skyfall Cannon, etc. These fireballs are used in conjunction with guns in war and play an auxiliary role. Gunpowder arrows are another primary firearm created in the early Northern Song Dynasty. Its products include bows, crossbows, gunpowder arrows and gunpowder whip arrows.The gunpowder arrow of a crossbow is attached to the back of an ordinary arrowhead with a spherical gunpowder bag surrounding the arrow shaft. The foreskin is made of inflammable materials and contains gunpowder.Usually used is a kind of birch bark feather arrow with five taels of gunpowder inside.When using it, the shooter first lights the gunpowder bag, and then shoots the arrow at the enemy's food and grass accumulation. After the foreskin ignites the gunpowder in the shell, the food and grass accumulation is burned.In August of the 31st year of Shaoxing Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1161), Wan Yanliang, commander of the Jin Army, ordered Su Baoheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, and Wanyan Zheng's family, deputy envoy of East Zhejiang Road, to lead the navy to Lin'an (now the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty) by sea. Hangzhou, Zhejiang), when the ship sailed to Songlin Island in Jiaozhou Bay, it anchored in the wind.Li Bao, the deputy general manager of the Mabu Army on Zhexi Road, a famous anti-gold general in the Southern Song Dynasty, was ordered to lead a navy of 3,000 people and take 120 warships to anchor near Shijiu Island in Jiaozhou Bay before the navy of the Jin Army. division.When Li Bao learned that the Jin Army navy had arrived at Pine Forest Island, he commanded the navy to sail to Pine Forest Island with a downwind, and fired gunpowder arrows and fireballs at the Jin Army warships.After the arrow hit the ship, the smoke and flames swirled; when the fireball hit, the flames took off.Most of the Golden Army warships were reduced to ashes.In the end, Li Bao ordered the strong men to jump on the surviving Golden Army warship.The main general of the Jin Army, Wan Yan, and the Zheng family also lost their lives.

Gunpowder whip arrows are named for the fact that gunpowder is attached to the front of the arrow shaft in the shape of a bamboo whip. They are gunpowder arrows fired from an elastic device made of bamboo shafts, and are mostly used for shooting heights and attacking cities. In the late Ming Dynasty, nail canopy rockets and bow-fired pomegranate arrows were created.The nail canopy rocket has a flamethrower and a barbed iron spike on the rear of the arrowhead.When the arrow hits the sail, the beard will open like a thorn, so that the arrow will be firmly nailed to the sail.At the same time, the flamethrower began to spray flames, incinerating the enemy ship.The bow-fired pomegranate arrow has a barb attached to the gunpowder arrow, and its casting and burning effects are similar to those of the nail canopy rocket.

The spray gun is a tubular firearm that sprays flames to burn the enemy's food, camps and warships.It was first created in the early Southern Song Dynasty, and the number of products increased in the late Ming Dynasty, mainly including flying nozzles, sky nozzles, poisonous dragon fire nozzles, etc. The flying spray tube (see Figure 17) is one foot and five inches long and is made of a bamboo tube with a diameter of two inches.When loading the powder, first load a layer of slow-burning gunpowder with more charcoal and less nitrate, then load a layer of spray gunpowder, and then load a gunpowder cake made of flammable and poisonous substances such as saltpeter, sulfur, realgar, and camphor.There are fire channels on both sides of the medicine cake, and the gunpowder cake is compacted.Then fill five medicine cakes in the same way successively.If the amount of charge is appropriate, the gunpowder cake can be sprayed on the enemy ship tens of feet away, burning the enemy ship.

The Mantian spray gun is made of two sections of Moso bamboo, which contains gunpowder and toxic and irritating substances such as arsenic, gall alum, dolangrass, aconitum, garlic, etc., and is wrapped with adhesive tape outside.After the spray barrel is made, it is installed on the head of the spear and waits for use.This kind of spray gun is mostly used for defending the city.After the battle of defending the city began, when the enemy came to attack the city, the soldiers defending the city would light gunpowder, spray flames, burn and poison the enemy, which was a sharp weapon for defending the city at that time.

The Dulong Shenhuo spray gun is made of a three-foot-long moso bamboo, which is filled with poisonous gunpowder, and then tied to the head of a tall pole, which is specially used during siege.After the siege battle began, the soldiers held it to the crenel of the city wall, took advantage of the wind to ignite it, burned and poisoned the defenders, and then took the opportunity to attack the city. The firearms of fire beasts are generally made of light wood with a beast-shaped frame, with animal-shaped heads and tails, painted with various colors, usually three feet high, five feet two inches long, four legs with wheels, and sealed with paper inside and outside. solid.The two ears of the animal firearms are placed with smoke bottles, the mouth is equipped with a spray tube, and a fire blunderbuss is fastened on each of the left and right chests, and then they are connected in series with fire wires.When fighting, the soldiers pushed it to the enemy's position to ignite it, so smoke rose from its ears, flames spewed out from its mouth, and projectiles from its two chests shot out firecrackers.

The fire attack vehicle uses the vehicle as the vehicle, and the vehicle is loaded with gunpowder and firearms.Commonly used are the fire tornado speeding vehicle that sprays poison and incendiary objects, the Chongluzang wheeled vehicle that launches 40 rockets, and the Wanquan vehicle equipped with various incendiary firearms on the vehicle. Some of the above-mentioned incendiary firearms originated in the Song Dynasty, while others originated in the Ming Dynasty.Generally speaking, fire beasts and train firearms have novel structures, good maneuverability, many incendiary firearms, and high efficiency, which is a symbol of the further development of incendiary firearms.