Chapter 32 5. The mysterious "giant gun" of the Volunteer Army

It is more than 2.5 meters long and weighs 30 kilograms.Although the Japanese army has an absolute advantage in heavy weapons on the battlefield in the northeast, this "giant gun" obtained from the Volunteer Army near Jinzhou really opened the eyes of the Japanese soldiers.You must know that the 38-type rifle used by the Japanese army, because it emphasized the hand-to-hand combat function, was considered to be particularly large among the standard rifles of all countries in the world at that time, and it only weighed seven and a half catties.Where did the Volunteer Army buy this mysterious weapon from?

The well-documented Japanese did not write about the origin of this thing, and whether it was finally verified, they probably felt that this thing was too weird, and there was really nowhere to start. In fact, many people would have recognized this thing 50 years ago. It was a semi-standard firearm commonly used in the Qing army at that time - the lifting gun.The lifting gun is an original invention of China, and it is a weapon that has not been installed by other countries in the world.It held up like a blown-up single-shot rifle—and it was, in fact, a blown-up old-fashioned rifle.At least two people, or as many as five, can operate this weird weapon. According to records, "the spear is seven feet and five inches long...the wooden sheath is five feet long, and it is more than a foot away from the tip of the sheath. Put on the belt, one person puts the gun on the shoulder, tightens the belt with both hands, and the other person holds the gun butt, looks at the hook and shoots, and can shoot more than three hundred steps. Can hold five rounds."Large guns are mostly used on tripods or bipods.In fact, there has never been a standard for the manufacture of carrying guns. The length ranges from 1.8 meters to 5 meters, and the caliber ranges from 25 mm to behemoths that fire two-pound bullets.The gun found by the Japanese army in Jinzhou can only be regarded as a medium model.From the perspective of caliber, raising a gun should not be called a gun, but a cannon.Lifting a gun is called Jingall or Gingall in English.Its etymology comes from Hindustani Jangal according to Ian Heath.Originally, it generally referred to large-caliber matchlock guns. After the 19th century, it became a term referring specifically to Chinese guns.Carrying guns were widely used in the Qing army at all levels in the 19th century. It was used in the Opium War, especially in the Tongzhi and Guangxu years to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It is an "advanced weapon" that bid farewell to the sword and spear.

The Qing army used the gun as a heavy weapon for a combat team.This idea is similar to the idea of ​​​​equipping a platoon or squad with a mortar or a recoilless gun today.However, the shape of the gun is different, the range and scale are not uniform, and the recoil and the loud noise of shooting are very harmful to soldiers.This is an unusually cumbersome weapon. The British Besford once mentioned that he had seen a gun "the longest one I have ever seen, about 9 feet 8 inches long, and weighed about 40 pounds to 60 pounds. Combat When shooting, it needs to be operated by three people, two people raise the gun, and the third person aims and shoots."Because of these shortcomings, in actual combat, apart from being able to strengthen the lack of training of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army, the record of carrying guns is lacklustre.With the emergence of various new weapons, the gun was completely eliminated during Yuan Shikai's small station training and disappeared from the equipment of the Qing army.

So, why did this weapon appear in the Volunteer Army again?Two reasons: First, with the retreat of the Northeast Army, it was extremely difficult for the resistance forces in the Northeast, such as the Volunteer Army, to replenish their equipment, so they had no choice but to use various weapons that had been eliminated to fight the Japanese army.The huge difference in equipment made the advantage of the number of volunteers negligible. Second, although carrying guns has withdrawn from the standard equipment of the Chinese army, it has not disappeared.Because of its large single-shot lethal power, a large number of hunters in Northeast China and North China use lifting guns as hunting tools, commonly known as "big lifting poles".When these hunters joined the Volunteer Army, as their commonly used weapon, carrying guns were also brought into the army.

Although the carrying gun is a very backward weapon, the carrying gun and its partners discovered by the Japanese army really have a record to be proud of. On January 9, 1932, the captain of the 27th Cavalry Regiment of the Japanese Army, Koga Dentaro Zhongzuo, died under the gun of this weapon. Koga Dentaro tried to seize a watchtower guarded by the local United Association in the Jinxi Command Post, but was shot by nine members of the United Association (actually local farmers) who were guarding the watchtower with two guns, and died soon after. Isn't it bulky and inflexible to carry a gun?Isn't it inaccurate?How can such a record be achieved?

This is a matter of luck.Although it is very difficult to lift the gun, don't forget that it also has a name in English - "WALLGUN" (gun on the wall).According to the resisters guarding the watchtower, there is no problem of bulkiness when the gun is mounted on the wall to shoot. However, after many years of use, the gun has gradually produced a special modification-the shotgun.This kind of gun is extremely lethal at close range. In 1858, on the streets of Guangzhou, someone fired a gun at a group of 14 British patrol soldiers, killing one on the spot and wounding eight, two of whom had to undergo amputation.The "big lifters" used by Orion all use shotguns (iron sand), so the two shots fired by Koga, even if they are not aimed accurately, are enough to kill.Among the two shots, the bullet from one shot pierced Koga's shoulder and exited from his back, and the other shot hit his waist, causing many wounds and bleeding profusely.Lieutenant Lieutenant Tachibana, a first-class military doctor, was by Guhe's side, but he couldn't help him with such injuries, and Guhe died that afternoon.

It is speculated that the Japanese army seized this gun when they retaliated against the Volunteer Army that wiped out the Koga Regiment. Even in the Anti-Japanese War, the guns that should enter the museum can still play a role under certain conditions.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army in North China lacked weapons, and there were also cases of using guns.The Yanling Squad, which was active in Baiyangdian Lake, once wiped out Japanese motorboats with guns. In any case, this is also equipment that has been eliminated long ago.Even Qing Dynasty weapons such as guns were used. It should be said that weapons and equipment were the bottleneck of the Northeast Volunteer Army's anti-Japanese operations, which greatly limited their combat capabilities.However, there are some volunteer army leaders trying to solve this problem.For example, the first commander of the Liaodong Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army, a green forest hero Zhang Haitian (reported as "Old Beifeng") who used to be active in the Haicheng area, once dismantled the abandoned Russian warship guns stranded in Liaodong Bay during the Russo-Japanese War and refitted them into former warships. The use of bored guns turned out to be a heavy weapon for the Volunteer Army.He also invited workers and technicians who escaped from the Shenyang Arsenal to set up a repair shop in the headquarters.They picked up empty shell casings, then used crushed lead to produce lead warheads, pressed ignition caps to make refurbished bullets, and filled glass bottles with sulfur to make simple hand grenades.

Even some Volunteer Army units can design and produce their own pistols... In those years and months, in order to beat out the Japanese invading army, the resistance fighters in the Northeast really thought of any tricks.