Chapter 37 Section 3 Gunpowder and Gunpowder Weapons

In the movie, Monkey King entered the alchemy room of the Taishang Laojun and ate all the "Nine-turn Golden Pills" in five gourds. Everyone is very familiar with the story that he was caught and put into the Bagua furnace for smelting.Although this fairy tale was fabricated by writers, it has historical facts as its material.At the latest in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, some people were looking for the elixir of life. Qin Shihuang sent Xu Fu to lead boys and girls to the sea to seek the elixir of life. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty even invited alchemists to carry out alchemy activities.Since then, alchemy has prevailed in the upper class.After the founding of Taoism, some Taoist priests specialized in alchemy, trying to refine "Nine Turns Returning Alchemy" (that is, "Nine Turns Golden Elixir"), hoping that people who eat it can be reborn, live forever, and become immortals.Of course, the alchemist’s goal is impossible to achieve, but in the process of mixing various minerals, metals and plants as medicine, they discovered the change of matter, and then realized that the change of matter is a universal law of nature .At the same time, they refined many chemical drugs and accumulated a lot of chemical knowledge.The knowledge about gunpowder was first accumulated by alchemists.

Gunpowder, as the name suggests, is "powder that catches fire".At the latest in the middle of the Tang Dynasty (9th century A.D.), alchemists realized that if sulfur, nitrate, and charcoal were mixed and heated, deflagration would occur, causing fires, burning hands and burning houses.Therefore, the medicine composed of sulfur, nitrate, and charcoal as the main ingredients is called gunpowder.When gunpowder was introduced into medicine, it became medicine and was used as a medicine for treating sores and ringworm, killing insects, and warding off dampness and plague.When gunpowder was introduced into the military, it became a firearm, which caused major changes in military science and technology.

Around the beginning of the 10th century, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder began to be used in warfare.During the Tianyou period of Emperor Aizong of Tang Dynasty (904-907 A.D.), some people used rockets and artillery in wars.The rocket is to bind the gunpowder near the arrow, and then shoot it out with a bow;During the Five Dynasties, in addition to rockets and artillery, fireballs and fire thorns were also made.The early gunpowder weapons had poor explosive performance and were mainly used for arson. The Song Dynasty was an important period for the development of gunpowder weapons, and its achievements were mainly reflected in the following two aspects:

One is the enhanced explosive performance.In the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" (written in 1044) edited by Zeng Gongliang in the Northern Song Dynasty, there are three gunpowder formulas recorded, among which the proportions of nitrate, sulfur and charcoal are 60%: 30%: 10%; 61.54%: 30.77 %: 69%;, close to. "Wu Jing Zong Yao" also records a "thunderbolt fireball", which sounds like a thunderbolt after being ignited, which is the beginning of the manufacture of explosive gunpowder weapons.With the improvement of nitrate and sulfur refining precision and processing technology, the explosive performance of gunpowder is also continuously enhanced.According to the "History of Jin", when Yuan soldiers attacked Jin Nanjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) in 1232 AD, the Jin soldiers used a weapon called "Shocking Thunder". : 16%; Germany 75%: 10%: 15%. More than half an acre, human and cowhide are all broken without trace, and armor and iron are all penetrated", which shows the strong power of the explosion.

One is the emergence of tubular firearms.This is a major event in military history and weapon history, showing that people have understood the performance of gunpowder at a higher level, and can control and manipulate strong gunpowder more effectively.The first tubular firearm to appear was the musket, invented in 1232 AD.It is made of giant bamboo and is used to shoot fire.In 1259 A.D., a firearm was invented again, which was also made of giant bamboo, and a Zike was installed inside. After being lit, "the Zike gave out, like the sound of a cannon, and it was heard from a distance of more than 150 steps" ("Song History" Volume 197, One step is five feet).This is the original form of artillery for later generations.By the end of the Song Dynasty or the Yuan Dynasty, tube-shaped firearms were made of copper or iron. The large ones were called firecrackers, and the small ones that could be held in the hand were called handguns. They already had the prototype of modern guns.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, gunpowder and gunpowder weapons were successively introduced to Iran, Arabia and Europe through Chinese and foreign transportation by sea and Mongolian soldiers on land, and became powerful weapons for breaking feudal castles during the Renaissance.

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