We have always believed that at least in the Ming Dynasty, China surpassed the West in firearms, but in fact, this is just a misunderstanding, the Ming Dynasty from the early period was far behind the West in firearms.
In the entire early Ming Dynasty, there was actually only the simplest fire bolt, and in 1411, the bronze cannon in Europe could already fire 800 pounds of shells to a distance of 2000 meters. The Dullegriet cannon is a huge siege cannon of more than 9,000 pounds, which can fire 700 pounds of heavy artillery shells.
In the 16th century, European cannons were no longer very rare, and in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Ming Dynasty could only manufacture large fire hammers up to 700 kilograms, that is, small cannons. The so-called great general cannon, the second general cannon is more than 400 pounds of small cannons, no rate of fire in the field, no power in siege, only guard use.
By the 16th century, Hongyi cannons and arquebusiers had been widespread in Europe, and the Ming Dynasty, until the 17th century, could not provide enough Hongyi cannons and arquebusiers for firearms troops, and most of the firearms army continued to rely on the Three-Eyed Gun and the Great General Cannon, with only a few Hongyi cannons and arquebusiers.
The Qing Dynasty also lagged behind the West in the development of firearms. When the Dreiser post-loading needle gun appeared in Europe, the Qing Dynasty had just developed a large arquebus gun such as a lifting gun. Detonator caps appeared in 1816, fire caps in 1818, post-loading rifles in 1835, conical rifle bullets in 1849, and metal fixed-loading bullets became the basic bullet pattern in 1851.
The Qing Dynasty was further widened in weapons, although later the Qing Dynasty's Western campaign could also mass-produce Western rifles, machine guns, and artillery. However, after all, it was only a simple imitation, and this imitation has been continuing, and during the Beiyang period and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was a simple imitation of Western light weapons and the assembly of imported artillery components.
After the founding of New China, the main weapons were basically imitations of the same style of Soviet weapons, from the 56 series rifles, 54 pistols, 59 tanks, J-5, J-6, J-7 fighters all the way to the H-6 bombers and so on. At the same time, it also lagged behind the level of the most advanced weapons in the West at that time.
From the 15th century to the present more than 600 years, only after entering 2010, China has fully caught up with the world's most advanced level in various major weapons of sea, land and air, and has already had a trend of anti-superiority. The successful seven test launches of hypersonic weapons have given China a comprehensive lead over other countries in this future weapon. As a result, we are living in a great era and witnessing a wonderful moment in history.