Chapter 13 Section V muskets

Musket is the initial product of tubular firearms. It was created in the Southern Song Dynasty. Its iconic products include long bamboo stick musket, flying musket and burst musket.They are products of the transitional stage from primary incendiary firearms to tube-fired series firearms, laying the foundation for the development of firearms to advanced stages. When it comes to long bamboo muskets, people will think of its creator, Chen Gui, and the story of De'an's defense of the city.Chen Gui, character Yuanze, was born in Anqiu, Mizhou, Shandong (now Zhucheng, Shandong). In the first year of Jianyan (1127 A.D.), he served as the prefect of De'an (now Anlu, Hubei). He was a local official who advocated resistance to gold.From his appointment to the second year of Shaoxing (1132 A.D.), he made every effort to strengthen the city defense and prepare to fight against the gold.Unexpectedly, in June of the second year of Shaoxing, a Song army who was defeated by the Jin army turned into bandits and came to rob De'an.In order to carry out the siege, they prepared a large siege equipment, a skybridge, which was three feet five feet high, two feet wide, six feet long, and three layers above, and prepared to attack the city.The four sides of the overpass are covered with cowhide and thick felt to cover the arrows and stones. Soldiers can climb the bridge in three layers from the back to attack the city.Chen Gui used dried bamboo, firewood and more than 300 fire oxen to prepare for the fire attack, and at the same time used "cannon powder to make more than 20 long bamboo muskets" and set fire to the overpass.When this army attacked the city violently, Chen Gui took advantage of the opportunity of the overpass sinking on the filled ditch, commanded the soldiers to push firewood to burn under the overpass, and organized a long bamboo musketeer team composed of 60 people. , rushed out from the west gate of De'an City, ignited the gunpowder in the gun, spewed out flames, burned the overpass, and the overpass was quickly reduced to ashes.The rest of the defenders also used various methods to repel the attack of the rebel army and won the victory in the battle of defending the city of De'an.Therefore, Chen Gui became the military technician who created and first used tubular firearms.

The long bamboo musket created by the stereotypes needs three people to use one due to the large body of the gun, so it is difficult for a single soldier to use.After a lapse of a hundred years, the flying muskets used by soldiers of the Golden Army finally came out.A gunpowder cartridge is attached to the back of the head of the flying gun. The body of the barrel is made of 16 layers of fine yellow paper. It is more than two feet long and contains gunpowder and iron filings.When fighting, soldiers hold a gun and an iron can, which contains a fire source, which is used to ignite the gunpowder in the gun. The flame can be sprayed as far as one foot and burn the enemy soldiers.The Flying Musket is small and light, which is convenient for single soldiers to hold. Because it can spray flames as far as one foot, it has the name of Flying Musket.After the invention of the flying gun, the Jin army regarded it as a secret weapon to deal with the attack of the Mongolian army.In the first month of the sixth year of Shaoding in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1233), Cui Li, a general of the Jin army, was defeated in Nanjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) and surrendered to the Mongolian army.In December of the fifth year of Shaoding, Jin Aizong led a small number of officials and soldiers to flee to Guide (now south of Shangqiu County, Henan Province).The Mongolian army also came after them.The general of Jin Zhongxiao's army, Pucha Guannu, secretly prepared muskets and war tools, preparing to attack the Mongolian army.On May 5th of the sixth year of Shaoding, Pucha Guannu led 450 loyal and filial troops into a flying musketeer team to attack the Mongolian barracks at night.The Mongolian army woke up from a dream and was at a loss for a while. The 450 flying muskets of the Jin army burst into flames, and the barracks burst into flames. The Mongolian army fled one after another. More than 3,500 people fell into the river in panic and drowned.The Jin army burned the camp of the Mongolian army and won a night attack on the Mongolian army.

The flying musket created by the Jin Army is small and light, easy to carry by individual soldiers, and can fight independently. It can spray flames and burn enemy soldiers more than one foot away, and can stab the enemy with a sharp spear after the flames are sprayed. .This is the first time in the history of my country's weapons development that an individual musket is equipped with a group of soldiers to fight, and it is also the earliest dual-purpose musket for an individual soldier.Its creation and use marked the official birth of our country's individual musket. Although the flying musket can burn the enemy with flames, it cannot kill the enemy with projectiles.In the first year of Kaiqing in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1259), the anti-golden soldiers and civilians in Shouchun Prefecture (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province) made a musket that could directly kill the enemy with projectiles (see Figure 20).This gun uses giant bamboo as the barrel, and the barrel is filled with gunpowder and Zike (ke family) (one of the earliest bullets).When in use, the soldiers ignite the gunpowder, shoot out the nest, and kill the enemy. The sound is heard far and wide.Because this kind of gun shoots out the projectile by the sudden expansion of the gas after the gunpowder burns, it is called a burst gun.The firearm already has the three conditions of a tubular shooting firearm: one is the barrel, which can be used to fill gunpowder and projectiles; the second is gunpowder, which can be used to shoot projectiles;The creation of the burst gun has always been valued by researchers of firearms history in various countries, and it is praised as the originator of guns in later generations.