Chapter 17 Section IX Light Artillery

The predecessors of light artillery were the Zhankou and Wankou guns in the Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and they had developed into various forms in the Qing Dynasty. The mouth of the muzzle is like the wine cup used by ancient people to drink, so people gave it such a name at that time.It consists of a cup-shaped muzzle, a chamber, a chamber and a tail.The Chinese History Museum has a muzzle gun made in the third year of Yuan Zhishun (AD 1332).The gun body is 353 mm long, 105 mm in diameter, and weighs about 7 kg.The muzzle is larger and can accommodate larger stone and iron spherical projectiles.The barrel is straight, the medicine chamber is slightly bulging, and there is a fire door. There is a square hole on both sides of the tail, which can cross a shaft, which is convenient for lifting and placing the body on the frame for firing.The body of the blunderbuss is engraved with the words "No. 300, Mashan, the Suibian Begging Kou Army on February 14th, the third year of Zhishun". Judging from the content and size of the inscription on the blunderbuss body, most of these types of blunderbusses were used for guarding passes at that time. use.

Because the mouth of this kind of firearm is shaped like a large bowl, firearm developers in the Ming Dynasty called it a bowl-mouth gun.It is similar in structure to the Zhangkou blunderbuss, and was already used in combat at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.Among the six real objects that have been collected, most of the gun bodies are engraved with inscriptions, and the earliest one was made by Baoyuan Bureau, a money-making institution in Ming Dynasty, in the fifth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1372 A.D.).Their length is 315-520 mm, diameter 100-119 mm, and weight 8.35-26.5 kg.Most of the bowl-mouth guns are equipped with naval warships and garrison troops at key passes and fortresses along the coast.

In addition to the above-mentioned six bowl-mouth guns, there is also a large-scale gun with a structure similar to the bowl-mouth gun. This is a pair of large guns unearthed in Yingzi Village, Magzhuang Township, Penglai County, Shandong Province on April 1, 1988. .The body of the cannon is engraved with the words "Laizhou Weilaizi No. 7 cannon barrel weighs 120 catties and was built by Baoyuan Bureau on February 8, Hongwu Year 8" (the other one except "No. 9" and "121 catties") Except for two differences, the rest of the lettering is the same).It has been determined that the gun body has a total length of 630 mm, a caliber of 230 mm, and a weight of 73.5 kg. It is the largest pair of bowl-mouth guns unearthed.The inscription on the cannon body shows that they are large bowl-mouth guns equipped by the Laizhou Guard.Laizhou Wei was built in the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1369). It is on the verge of Laizhou Bay and adjacent to Dengzhou Wei in the east. It was an important place for coastal defense against Japanese pirates in the early Ming Dynasty.In the eighth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1375 A.D.), Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the suggestion of Zhou Fang, commander of the capital of Shandong, and established eight general villages in Laizhouwei, with 48 small villages under his jurisdiction.These two large guns seem to have been cast by the Baoyuan Bureau when the Laizhou Wei Zongzhai was established at that time.This is one of the major measures of the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to build more warships and guns, and to build a strategic defense system of "land infantry, water warships" along the coast.

This type of large iron cannon has not been recorded in historical documents, and there are very few unearthed real objects. Except for the three real objects collected by the Shanxi Provincial Museum, no other places have been found so far.The three iron cannons have a total length of one meter and a diameter of 210 mm. There are handles on both sides, each 160 mm long.The body of the cannon is engraved with the words "Daming Hongwu Ten Years...Pingyangwei Casting" and other words.It shows that they are the products of Pingyang Guard in Shanxi Province, and they are a kind of larger iron artillery used to defend Guancheng.

This kind of artillery looks like a tiger crouching on the ground, so people give it this reputation.It was developed by Qi Jiguang's subordinates when he was suppressing Japanese pirates on the southeast coast during the Jiajing period.The gun body is two feet long and weighs 36 catties. There are five or six wide iron hoops at the front and back. There are iron claws and iron trippers at the mouth end, which can be fixed to the ground with iron nails to reduce the recoil generated when firing.This kind of artillery is mostly used to control dangerous places, and one shot can shoot hundreds of small projectiles, which is a sharp weapon for killing intensively attacking enemies.Because the gun body is light and easy to maneuver, it is suitable for combat use in mountains, forests and water networks.When Qi Jiguang was transferred to Jizhen for military training in the second year of Ming Longqing (AD 1568), he equipped the cavalry battalion with tiger squat guns and became a very good cavalry gun.Up to now, there is still a well-preserved real object, engraved with the words "Zhao Shiying, the twentieth squatting gun made by the craftsman Zhao Shiying on October 1st, the fourth year of Chongzhen, weighing 49 catties and six taels", with a diameter of 40 mm and a total length of 350 cm. mm, wall thickness 24 mm, the overall structure is similar to the pictures published in "Miscellaneous Records of Military Training·Military Weapons Explanation".

Most of this type of artillery was made in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and there are many products, mainly poisonous fire cannons, iron rod thunder cannons, thunderbolt cannons, fire beast cloth mine cannons, eight-sided whirlwind spray fog and thunder cannons, etc. kind.They were loaded with more propellant powder and an iron-cased explosive bomb.More toxicity or strong incendiary gunpowder are housed in this explosive bomb, and a gunpowder line is passed out from the shell casing and is connected with the propellant gunpowder in the medicine chamber.Before firing, the gun body with ammunition installed is placed on the gun mount earlier.When firing, the propellant powder in the powder chamber is ignited with an igniter, and as the propellant powder burns, the gunpowder wire passing through the bullet is ignited, and the shell is ejected out of the barrel.When the artillery shell hits the enemy's position, the gunpowder thread in the shell ignites the gunpowder and explodes the shell, which can not only poison and burn the enemy's soldiers and horses, but also kill the enemy's soldiers and horses with the fragments of the shell.

This is a small general cannon equipped with the Shenji Battalion in the early Ming Dynasty, but it has been relegated to auxiliary artillery by the end of the Ming Dynasty.There are many unearthed objects of this type of artillery, and several of them are still displayed in the Shanhaiguan City Tower.Their length is 600-900 mm, and their diameter is 55-85 mm. The inscriptions on the gun body indicate that most of them were made around the 14th year of Ming Chongzhen (AD 1641).At this time, the war between the Ming army and the Hou Jin army was going on fiercely. These artillery pieces were made for the urgent need of the war, and were mostly used by the Ming army outside the customs and guarding Beijing.The Qing army continued to use it until the Opium War.

In the Qing Dynasty, artillery weighing less than 400 catties was usually classified as light artillery. The main products were Dragon Pao, General Weiyuan Pao, Hui Pao, and Shenshu Pao.Dragon cannons were manufactured in the Kangxi period. There are three specifications, 4.5-7 feet in length, 80-370 catties in weight, and 5.2-16 taels in ammunition.General Weiyuan concocted it in the late Kangxi period. The cannon body is about three feet long, weighs 140-170 catties, and fires 15-19 double lead bullets. It is a kind of artillery equipped by the Qing army.The cannon is made of iron, five feet long, and has seven hoops, which can be mounted on a saddle and carried by a camel.The Shenshu cannon is similar to the Shenji cannon at that time in terms of structure and use.