In China's history, as long as there is the change of dynasties and the expansion of territory, it is almost impossible to avoid the occurrence of war. From the primitive weapons of the primitive era and the later era of cold weapons, later, the birth of the four major inventions has slowly made China have the emergence of hot weapons such as artillery.
After the opening of the Silk Road, China began foreign exchanges, whether in the economy or in the military, China has also made certain progress. For example, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, a weapon was introduced from the West to China, called the red-clad cannon.
We all know that the last years of the Ming Dynasty were a chaotic world, with fierce enemies on the outside and uprisings on the inside, and in such an environment, the Ming government had to take some measures to protect the country. At this time, the Ming government sent a minister who had studied Western military science and technology to take people to Portugal and purchased a batch of red-clad cannons for the Ming Dynasty.
The emergence of the red-clad cannon played an important role in the battlefield of the Ming Dynasty, although it only had 22 units, but its power should not be underestimated, much more powerful than other military weapons of the Ming Dynasty. The main reason is that the maximum range of the red-clad cannon can reach ten miles, which translates to five thousand meters! Such power is unimaginable, and because of this, under the presence of red-clad cannons, many battles between the Ming Dynasty and Later Jin were successful, beating Houjin to the ground, which also made the ministers of the Ming Dynasty happy.
However, there were only twenty-two red-clad cannons, which were far from being able to support the war of a single country in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Ming government sent special personnel to study the structure of the red-clad cannons, and during this period, the Ming Dynasty alone produced more than a thousand red-clad cannons. In the Qing Dynasty, the red-clad cannons still did not lag behind, and even made better improvements, and during this period, China's military development reached a higher level. However, since the Opium War, China has plummeted, its military technology is far inferior to that of Western countries, and the red-clad cannons are no longer enough to compete with the military weapons of Western countries.
And the historical records that the range of the red-clad cannon can reach a maximum distance of ten miles, is this true or false? If it is said that it is the highest range, it should also be a situation in an ideal state, but in the actual war, taking into account the uncertain factors such as the battlefield and the weather, this will have a greater impact on the range of the red-clad cannon, so that it is far from reaching the range of ten miles.
Moreover, the red-clad cannon is a traditional weapon after all, and the construction plan of the weapon was also extremely important at that time, and it was generally not passed on, otherwise China could also know the construction process of the red-clad cannon.
Most of the descendants are only a guess at the range of the red-clad cannon, many people have different ideas, not to mention the record is not complete, after a rough judgment, more scholars believe that the range of the red-clad cannon is about two hundred meters to three kilometers.
At that time, the West was able to invent military weapons such as red cannons, which was already very advanced. Although it seems imperfect today, and there are even many uncertain problems, it is enough to prove people's wisdom.
In the later period, with the development of history, if the red-clad cannon does not make some improvements, it cannot keep up with the pace of history, and the result can only be eliminated. However, at that time, our country was not aware of these problems, and the power of the red-clad cannons was almost no improvement, and the range was still maintained at a record of about ten miles in Western countries.