Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" records an artifact: it looks a bit like a pipa, contains gunpowder lead pills, there is an iron pipe in front, pull the trigger gunpowder lead pills and fall into the iron pipe to be fired, and then pull the second trigger and the lead pills are shot out. There are 28 rounds in total, which need to be reloaded after the game.
Today, if we look at its description, we can see that this is a firearm of the Qing Dynasty at that time, and surprisingly, this firearm was not only made by Chinese, but also its technology was ahead of foreign countries!
In fact, the Qing Dynasty boasted that it would soon win the world, but this statement is not accurate, the Qing Dynasty's women were really fishing and hunting peoples, not nomadic peoples, in their entry into the Central Plains, the war to unify China, it was the use of a large number of firearms, in order to be able to compete with the Ming Dynasty, rather than relying on cavalry alone, and at the same time, coupled with the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they were able to gradually gain a foothold in the Central Plains, and eventually unify the whole country.
After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, there were also firearm geniuses, and some people even believed that if Kangxi did not exile this person, China's weapons might lead the world! Who is he?
First, the young indulged in machinery, after joining the army to show personal talent
The man who has the potential to put China's weapons ahead of the world is named Dai Zi. And to talk about his experience, we have to start with his family.
The reason why Dai Zi may become the person who makes China's weapons ahead of the world is because he is obsessed with the production of weapons and is also very good at it. And this hobby is because his father, who is an official in the imperial court, is also proficient in all kinds of firearms manufacturing, which makes him very obsessed with firearms.
However, due to Dai Zi's prosperity, his talents were not reused. Fortunately, the Emperor Tian did not pay off, and finally let Dai Zi wait for the opportunity to show his skills.
In 1674, the San Francisco Rebellion broke out in full swing, and the increasingly serious situation made the subjects panic, but Dai Zi was very excited, because only war could show his talents. Therefore, Dai Zi at that time resolutely decided to join the army. Because Dai Zi also came from a family of eunuchs, he was able to accompany the army as an aide to Prince Kang.
It would be a big mistake to think that Dai Zi was just a "nerd" who knew how to make weapons, and he was good at firearms and had a deep understanding of war. Therefore, under Prince Kang's account, although Dai Zi was younger, the military talent he displayed impressed Prince Kang, and even after all the conquest, Dai Zi became Prince Kang's confidant and was respected in the army!
With the trust of Prince Kang, Dai Zi was able to continue his mechanical research in the army, and invented a firearm in the second year of joining the army, called the "Twenty-Eight Continuous Beads of Fire Hammer".
To the surprise of modern people, the firearm invented by Dai Zi turned out to be a semi-automatic continuous musket, capable of shooting 28 bullets continuously. Such a weapon was very amazing in that era, when the technology was relatively advanced even in Europe, and what needs to be known is that Dai Zi was still very young at that time! And Dai Zi's road did not stop there.
Second, the manufacture of firearms extinguishes the prestige of other countries, and the emperor is heavy
After the victory in the war, at the recommendation of Prince Kang, Dai Zi was summoned by the Kangxi Emperor, and after the conversation, because the Kangxi Emperor greatly admired his talents, he was granted an official position and made him a member of the emperor's think tank.
It can be said that this was the beginning of Dai Zi's acceptance of the emperor's weight. Moreover, later Kangxi was also surprised to find that Dai Zi's talent was not only in manufacturing, but also in his ability to comprehend and imitate.
At that time, due to the development of Dutch maritime trade, and China as a large country of Yangyang also became the object of its trade, the Dutch emissaries at that time gave Kangxi a kind of precision structure of the fire hammer to show off the strength of the Netherlands, but also a kind of investigation of China's strength, and Kangxi was very dissatisfied with the arrogant attitude of the Dutch emissaries, so he boasted about Haikou and secretly ordered Dai Zi to step up imitation. And it was from this beginning that Dai Zi showed his ability to imitate.
At that time, Dai Zi copied 10 identical firearms in a very short period of time, and after the observation of Dutch mechanics, he found that the firearms made by Dai Zi were more sophisticated, and changed his previous arrogant attitude. Thanks to Dai Zi's efforts, the Kangxi Emperor Long Yan, who had achieved diplomatic victories, gradually became Kangxi's confidants.
After that, every time a foreign emissary brought machinery, he would order Dai Zi to imitate it, and the result was often similar to the story of the Netherlands before him.
From such an experience, it can be seen that Dai Zi's talent and skills in firearms are really amazing, but a genius like this has not been able to die well.
Third, they were slandered and convicted, but a generation of military geniuses was exiled for the rest of their lives
During the Kangxi Dynasty, many Western missionaries visited China, and foreign emissaries often came to China to show off their inventions, but they were often defeated by Dai Zi. However, the arrival of a Belgian missionary named Nam Huai Ren changed things.
In fact, it is not that Dai Zi's skills are inferior to people, for the machinery brought by Nan Huairen, Dai Zi only took eight days to imitate it exquisitely and improve it, while Nan Huairen spent a year and failed to imitate, which made Nan Huairen's face disappear, so he hated Dai Zi.
Because of his hatred for Dai Zi, Nan Huairen had a sense of revenge, and he actually colluded with Chen Tongyan, a traitor of the peasant army, to slander Dai Zi for "smuggling with the East" to Kangxi, and Kangxi at that time had the same weight for Nan Huairen, and said to Kangxi that betrayal was absolutely intolerable, so Dai Zi was convicted by Kangxi in this way, and how to justify it would not help. In the end, Dai Zi was sentenced by Kangxi to exile his family to Liaodong.
After being put in Liaodong, Dai Zi's life was very difficult. Loyal to Kangxi, he even thought that he would be able to sink into the snow one day, so no matter how difficult the environment was, he still persevered. However, I didn't expect that Dai Zi's waiting was a lifetime.
Due to foreign imports and the strong national strength of the Qing Dynasty at that time, Dai Zi would not make Kangxi feel sorry even if he was strong. After a long time, Kangxi forgot about this weapon genius who had won him so much diplomacy.
In the end, Dai Zi was unable to return to his hometown after all, and was depressed in Liaodong and died of illness at the age of 78.
A military genius like Dai Zi, if Kangxi could always reuse it, would have greatly promoted the development of military weapons in the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, Kangxi preferred to listen to Nan Huairen rather than trust Dai Zi, resulting in this day finally ending up in Liaodong, which was really a loss to the country!
brief summary
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty in China, and the reason why it was bullied by the great powers and almost destroyed the country was because the firearms of the Qing Dynasty were too backward compared to other countries, and if since the Kangxi period, excellent mechanics like Dai Zi were given preferential treatment and supported for their technology, then I believe that in the so-called late Qing Dynasty, let alone because of the backwardness of firearms, it may even be because of the leading firearm technology and let the so-called foreign powers continue to be subservient.
Dai Zi did not yearn for the high-ranking official Houlu, but was intoxicated with mechanical research, and achieved something, and the machinery he invented also brought victories to the Qing Dynasty, allowing the Kangxi Emperor to earn enough face.
Unfortunately, Dai Zi was born in the prosperous world. At that time, the Qing Dynasty did not realize the rapid development of foreign countries, still stuck in its own ways, and the domestic prejudice against strange tricks and ingenuity was quite deep, and Dai Zi's ambitions could not be fully realized, and finally ended up being blamed for the rumors of villains, and dying in the barren land of Liaodong was really the sorrow of the times.
A rare mechanical genius in Chinese history, just like this in the Liaodong for thirty years, wasted a body of talent, can not say that god did not give the Qing Dynasty a chance, it is really the Qing Dynasty failed to grasp ah, the reason why the late Qing Dynasty will decline, or it has laid the groundwork since then.
However, it is also because of the decline of the late Qing Dynasty that socialism today has been able to come, whether it is a disaster or a blessing and the inevitable development of the times, but pity those who have experienced the decline of the country and suffered in the changes of the times.
Reference: Notes on Reading Wei Caotang
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