Chapter 20 Section 12 Franco Cannon

Franc cannon, referred to as Franco for short, was originally a kind of artillery with a female tube and a female tube manufactured in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and other countries in the 15th century.The so-called mother tube is the commonly-called gun barrel, and the sub-tube is the sub-gun that has been loaded with ammunition in advance.This kind of gun is fired with matchlock, and some are used as naval guns.In the twelfth year of Ming Zhengde (AD 1517), Gu Yingxiang, Minister of the Ministry of Justice, saw this kind of naval gun on a Portuguese ship anchored outside Guangzhou (see Figure 22).In the first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1522 A.D.), the Ming army captured this naval gun in the Battle of Xicaowan in Xinhui, Guangdong.Because it was the first cannon introduced into my country with matchstick ignition, it had more advantages than the large-scale firecrackers used by the Ming army. 1523) imitated 32 and sent them to the border troops.During the 1980s and 1990s in Jiajing, Wang Hong [hong Hong], the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, wrote to the imperial court twice, requesting a large number of manufactures to improve the defense facilities in the north.The imperial court approved Wang Hung's proposal, and the Military Weapons Bureau and the Bingzhan Bureau began to manufacture.During the manufacturing process, due to the ingenuity of firearms developers and craftsmen, they can draw inferences from one instance and make Flang machines of various styles, large, medium and small, making them an organic part of ancient Chinese firearms.There are many products of it, which are not only found in various documents, but also confirmed by many physical objects.

In Qi Jiguang's "Real Records of Military Training·Frang Jitu", it is recorded that the length of the female blunderbuss is five feet, four feet, three and a half feet, three feet, two and a half feet, and two feet. Comes with nine subguns.The first three are large, the second are medium, and the last are small.The large Frang machine is used to equip warships and border passes, the medium Frang machine is carried on the vehicle, and can carry out mobile operations with the army, and the small Flang machine can be used as an individual gun.Corresponding products of the above six types of Frang machines can be found in the unearthed objects.

In the classic "Minghuidian·Firearms", which records the rules and regulations of the Ming Dynasty, many types of Frangji are included.Among them are large-scale Frang machine, medium-sized Flang machine, small Flang machine, immediately (that is, for cavalry) Flang machine, Flang machine meteor cannon, Lianzhu Flang machine and so on.Except for the Lianzhu Folang machine, corresponding unearthed objects can be found in various other Folang machines.These objects, except for a few, are all products of the Bingzhan Bureau during the Jiajing period (1522-1566 A.D.), and are generally numbered.Judging from the serial numbers of some unearthed Frang machines, their actual production volume is much more than that recorded in the "Ming Hui Dian".For example, the "Ming Hui Dian" records that the number of Mafalang machines produced is 1100, and the serial number of the unearthed "Sheng" brand Mafalang machine has reached No. 7861, which is more than 6860.Therefore, the unearthed objects can supplement the omissions recorded in the literature.

There are mainly the reformed Invincible General Cannon, and the Baichu Flang Machine and Wansheng Flang Machine manufactured by Weng Wanda. The Invincible General Cannon is a Franco-type vehicle-mounted heavy artillery remanufactured from the old heavy general cannon, with three gamete cannons for each.When in use, first put wooden blocks under the gun body to adjust the pitch angle of the gun body, and then insert the sub-cannon into the loading chamber of the invincible general gun, aim at the target, and launch.After shooting one shot, another sub-cannon can be replaced, which can be installed and fired successively.Each sub-cannon is equipped with 500 small lead pellets, which have a wide impact surface and great killing power.The invincible general gun weighs 1,050 kilograms, and it needs to be transported by a large gun truck when marching.The Invincible General Cannon was the first attempt in the Ming Dynasty to transplant the matchlock ignition device and the Francophone into the old-style artillery in ancient my country. It opened up a new way for the transformation of the old-style artillery.

Baichu Fulangji is a kind of individual gun created by Weng Wanda in the 25th year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (AD 1546). The mother gun is three or four feet long and has 10 female guns.The female blunderbuss and the child blunderbuss are fastened with a mortise so that the child blunderbuss will not slip off when the body of the blunderbuss is lifted upside down or shot down.At the same time, a six-inch long Ge-shaped fork can also be placed on the muzzle of the female gun, which has the function of stabbing.The Wansheng Frang machine and the Baichu Flang machine are used in roughly the same way.

In addition to the two Frang machine guns designed and manufactured by Weng Wanda, there are also the mother and child guns, electric guns, and three-length guns introduced above, which also belong to the Frang machine guns.It can be seen that the firearms developers in the late Ming Dynasty made remarkable achievements in adopting the world's advanced technology in a timely manner. The main products are odd guns and sub-mother guns. Made in the twenty-fourth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1685), the mother cannon is five feet five inches long, weighs 30 jin, and has four gametes.The gunpowder is loaded with some gunpowder and a two-and-a-half lead bullet.When firing, put the mother gun on the tripod, install the sub-gun from the rear, adjust the shooting angle with the slightly curved tail handle downward, and start firing.In the Palace Museum in Beijing, there is a rare cannon handed down from ancient times, and its basic situation is consistent with the records in the literature.

The mother and son were processed in the early Qing Dynasty, and there are two types of thick and thin.The thicker one is five feet three inches long, weighs 95 jins, thin at the front and thick at the back, and the tail cover is like a covered bamboo hat; there are five hoops all over the body, a cannon lug on each side, and a pin at the bottom of the barrel to facilitate the cannon The body is inserted into the carriage seat to fire; there is an open loading chamber at the rear of the barrel for loading sub-cannons;Those with slender barrels are called wooden-handle mother cannons. They are five feet and eight inches long and weigh 85 kilograms. There is a wooden handle at the end of the gun.The gun body is inserted on the flat four-wheel vehicle with iron pins, which can be pushed and pulled.In the Palace Museum in Beijing, there is a handed down wooden cannon, the basic situation of which is consistent with the records in the literature.

Although the Folang machine was the first artillery that was introduced into my country with matchstick ignition, it played a certain role in promoting the renewal of artillery from Jiajing to Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. The amount of charge cannot be too much, so the improvement of power is limited.When the more powerful red cannon was introduced to our country, it took a back seat.