What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Fire is a type of shooting tubular firearm. Simple firearms that burn and explode were used in military warfare around the late Tang Dynasty. From the middle of the South to the Yuan Dynasty, firearms were repeatedly put into war, and the fire system shaped like small artillery was also shipped out. So far, the world's earliest recognized copper datong, excavated from the Inner Mongolia Lingol League ZhenglanQi Yuan Shangdu site was born in the second year of Yuan Dade (1298) Zhu Yuanzhangbu used in the Duyang Lake water battle.
The so-called "bowl mouth mirror", as the name suggests, is a kind of fire system with a cannon mouth like a bowl mouth. It has a short barrel, a slow rate of fire, a short range, and because there is no sight, the hit rate cannot be compared with later firearms. However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Bowl Mouth Unity was a sharp weapon for the water army to defeat the enemy. After Chen Youyi's death, Zhu Yuanzhang swept away the crowd with lightning speed, and in 1368, he officially became emperor, built Yuan Hongwu, and founded the Ming Dynasty. Chinese The Military Museum of the People's Revolution treasures a large bronze bowl cast in the fifth year of Hongwu (1372), with a caliber of three inches and seven minutes, a length of one foot and one inch, and a weight of sixty-three pounds. The inscription "Water Army Left Guard. Jinzi No. 42 "It can be seen that this object was once used in water warfare. According to the data given by the Ming Huidian (Minghui Code), before Hongzhi (1488-1505), the Ming Government Ordnance Bureau had to produce 3,000 such large bowls of ordnance every three years.
The Bureau of Ordnance was established in the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380) to produce hot and cold weapons. In the same year, the imperial court made new regulations on the issue of army equipment. The "Records of Ming Taizu" says: "Where there are a hundred households in the army, ten guns, twenty swords, thirty bows and arrows, and forty guns." It can be seen that the weapons equipped by soldiers at that time were still mainly cold weapons, but the fire hammer had ended the stage of the scattered use of temporary equipment in the army, and officially became the standard of the Ming Dynasty army. This is the first epoch-making major measure in the history of firearms in the Ming Dynasty.
In the imperial era, the rise and fall of a country's technology, military and culture was largely subject to the cognition of the supreme ruler. Since the day he laid the foundation of Jiangshan, Zhu Yuanzhang has put firearms manufacturing on the agenda to the Ministry of Works and the Inner Government, down to the local administrative departments and garrisons in various places, all of which have the service and living regulations and policies of the craftsmen of the weapons manufacturing units under their jurisdiction, which have been deliberately improved to attract professional talents. In order to ensure the gunpowder they needed, the imperial court set up a gunpowder manufacturing bureau controlled by internal officials and military bureaus, and gunpowder workshops were also opened at the local level. Firearms are engraved with information such as the name, number, casting time and mechanism, and the names of the producers and producers, and if there is a problem in the future, they can be held accountable according to the inscription, and if they play an important role in battle, the manufacturer will also be rewarded for their merits.
It is reasonable to say that Zhu Yuanzhang was hungry in his early years and his education level was not high, so why did he have such foresight and foresight in the construction of military handicrafts?
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the three forces of Chen Youyu, Zhu Nengyuanzhang, and Zhang Shicheng were the most powerful. Although the banner of the rising army was to resist the tyrannical yuan, the battle for supremacy between the southern heroes was more intense. Xu Mianzhi's Baoyue Lu (保越錄) records a great battle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng: in 1359, Zhu Yuanzhang's troops led Hu Dahai to attack the city of Shaoxing, which belonged to Zhang Shicheng's forces. On February 8, Hu Haihai's troops approached shaoxing city, and the defender Lü Zhen saw that Hu Bu had not yet stabilized his position, and immediately ordered the defenders to attack his forward troops with fire bolts and artillery. Hu Haibu attacked the city with artillery fire, killing and wounding countless people. Until March 20, a unit of the defenders attacked from the city, and HuBu was about to meet the battle, but he was suddenly shot by the other side's fire, causing chaos and retreating. Subsequently, hubu soldiers repeatedly attacked and were repelled by the defenders with fire, especially in the area around Chunbo Bridge. It is reported that the Hubu who invaded the area were completely annihilated by the defenders. Hu Dahai finally realized the importance of firearms. When he launched a general offensive on May 14, he returned the favor with the other way, ordered his soldiers to take the lead with stone throwers and other weapons, and then concentrated firearms such as fire bolts, rockets, and stone cannons to fire into the city. The defenders suffered heavy casualties under the indiscriminate bombardment of Hubu. Hu Dahai seized the opportunity to launch a fierce attack and captured the city of Shaoxing in one fell swoop. Since then, concentrating superior firearms to attack the enemy has become a common tactic of Zhu Yuanzhang. In several battles, he repeatedly relied on fire bolts and artillery to win the game, and when he achieved success, he naturally continued to carry forward this fine tradition.
In addition, there is another objective reason why firearms can be issued in the Ming Dynasty - the lack of horses. Taking the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1390) as an example, the Ming history records that there were 1204923 officers and soldiers in the country at that time, but only 45,080 horses could fight. When the Ming army clashed with the Mongol cavalry of the Northern Yuan, it was inevitable that there would be an embarrassment of infantry against cavalry. Firearms were the only effective weapon to face the onslaught of cavalry at the time.