Here are my stills
01
My name was Dai Zi (1649-1726), a native of the Qing Dynasty.
I was an obscure man, and few people knew my name.
Unexpectedly, after 300 years of death, because of the rise of the Internet, I actually became a celebrity.
Everyone said that I "invented the world's earliest machine gun", that I was "persecuted by Kangxi for inventing advanced firearms", and that "if I had not been persecuted, China would not have been hanged by the West in modern times".
I'm surprised that you're saying this, because I don't even know it.
02
Really, I was born in Renhe County, Zhejiang, from an early age, I loved to read, love to think, and love mechanical skills, and the townspeople called me a prodigy.
When I was twelve, I then recited a poem:
There is no way to cure hunger and cold.
My father was very upset when he found out, and he said that if he didn't do well, he would become a slur and become a portrayal of the fate of my life.
At the age of 25, in the thirteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1674), Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan in Fujian, responded to Wu Sangui and also erected a banner against the Qing Dynasty.
The rebels soon entered the territory of Zhejiang.
The Kangxi Emperor sent Jieshu, the Prince of Kang, to enter Zhejiang with a large army to quell the rebellion, and the Bole of my life appeared.
Jie Shu was a thirsty prince, and when he heard that I was quite talented, he invited him to be his staff member and help him fight the rebellion together.
Naturally, I readily agreed and began my career in politics.
Kangxi's cousin, Jieshu the Prince of Kang
03
Soon after arriving at Prince Kang's tent, I showed my face once.
At that time, Geng Jingzhong's general Liu Jinzhong was in Jiulong Mountain, the officers and soldiers could not attack for a long time, Prince Kang was worried, I said to him: "Please don't worry, and watch me go and surrender him." ”
Wang Ye was suspicious and gave me the rank of overseer of the military road, so I went up to Jiulong Mountain.
Just walked to Liu Jinzhong's tent, a terrifying scene appeared, Liu Jinzhong was holding a sword, drinking wine while holding a human head and nibbling!
Liu Jinzhong asked me: "Are you afraid or not?" ”
This has to change the average person or not to be scared to pee? But am I an average person?
I said, "Afraid of a bird!" I'm here to save you! It's you who should be afraid! Now the army is encircling Jiulong Mountain, you are running out of food, you are all eating human flesh, sooner or later you will be completely annihilated! Now hurry down the mountain and surrender, you can still save your life! ”
Liu Jinzhong was also impressed by my impatience and did not fear it, and felt that what I said was reasonable, and finally his heart was crossed and he led the troops to surrender.
After him, I persuaded many rebel generals to come and surrender, and made a great contribution to Prince Kang's sweeping away the rebels in Zhejiang.
In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1680), Prince Kang swept away Geng Jingzhong's rebels and won the victory against the Hui Dynasty.
As his great hero, I followed him to Beijing and met the Kangxi Emperor.
04
The Kangxi Emperor heard about my merits and talents, loved me very much, and specially gave me the official title of attendant of the Hanlin Academy and let me stay in his southern study.
One day, the Red Haired Nation (i.e., the Netherlands) paid tribute to a "cockroach shotgun".
The Red-Haired People also said that this gun can fire twenty-eight bullets in a row, which is much stronger than the single shotgun.
The emperor saw that this thing was quite magical, but he could not lose face in front of the red-haired people, so he said to them, this thing is not unusual, I also have it.
Then, secretly, let me imitate it.
Speaking of which, I'm still very proud, and it only took me a short time to imitate ten of them.
Because of the similarity of performance and red-haired people, they were all calmed down, but the emperor was very happy.
The record of Dai Zi imitating the intestine shotgun in the "Preliminary Compilation of the National Dynasty Sacrifice Class"
There are two more words to be said about this.
This intestine shotgun, the original is still preserved in the Palace Museum today.
Later weapons experts studied it, but it was nothing more than a primitive semi-automatic musket.
The stock contains magazines containing projectiles and gunpowder;
There are two triggers.
The basic principle is: every time you fire, pull the trigger on the left side, the projectile and gunpowder automatically enter the chamber, and then pull the trigger on the right side to fire out. Then pull the trigger on the right side, pull the left trigger, and fire another bullet. It can hold twenty-eight rounds at a time.
But to tell the truth, this gun is really not a machine gun that can be fired continuously, and even if it is really a "machine gun", it is also imitated by me according to the appearance of the red hair gun, and I really dare not be the "inventor"!
The Palace Museum has a collection of "intestine shotguns"
05
Through this incident, the emperor learned of my talent in firearms manufacturing, so he sent me to imitate Western firearms together with Qin Tianjian and the Belgian missionary Nan Huairen.
Nan Huairen this guy, the cowhide blowing loudly, said that their country has a kind of "sky cannon" that can fire explosive bombs.
Nan Huairen
The emperor asked him to build it, and as a result, he didn't make it out for a year, so as soon as I went, I looked at the drawings and made them out for him in eight days.
In the twenty-ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1690), the emperor personally conquered Gardan with the "cupola cannon".
At the Battle of Ulan Butong, Kaldan set his camp on a high ground and shot at the Qing army with muskets from above.
The red-clad cannon brought by the emperor was not high enough to hit the shell.
At this time, the "cupola" played a key role.
One cannon went out, the shells "fell from the sky, the pieces shattered, and the sharpness was unstoppable", "the three cannons fell into its big camp", Kaldan fled in a hurry, and our army won a great victory.
The emperor was very happy and personally named the "Sky Cannon" as the "Great General Weiyuan Cannon".
The "Weiyuan General Cannon" in the Beijing Military Museum collection
I'm proud of that too.
But what I don't know is that at this moment, I have planted the seeds of a tragic encounter for myself in the second half of my life.
06
Because the performance of the imitation "Cupola Cannon" is more prominent than that of Nan Huairen, he is hated by this guy.
Complete one's misery.
Later, I offended another missionary, Xu Risheng, at work.
At that time, I was sent by the emperor to compile the "Vinaya Justice" with him, and I often quarreled with him over things at work, so he also hated me.
He and Nam Huai-jin were both foreigners, so they formed a small group against me.
Soon, this small group added another member -
Yes, I offended another person.
This man's surname was Zhao, and he was the imperial bodyguard in front of the emperor.
One day, he met me, and he was favored by the emperor and actually called me by my name, and I was very angry, so I taught him a lesson.
He went back and made a small report to the emperor, but the emperor said, "Mr. Dai is a person who asks questions from the university, and you should take him as a teacher." ”
So I asked him to kowtow to me according to the teacher's standards.
Just like that, this guy hated me too.
To say that people are unlucky, drinking cold water is stuffed teeth.
Here comes a more rogue.
Zhang Xianzhong had an adopted son named Chen Hongxun, who later submitted to the court and became an official in the court.
One day, he invited me to my house for a drink.
As he drank, he called out hundreds of domestic servants, each with a big stick, and then this guy said to me, "I have a request to sir, and if you don't agree, I'll let these people beat me to death." ”
I smiled and said, "What the hell are you doing, still fighting such a big battle?" ”
The guy said, "Please lend me three thousand taels of silver." ”
I said, "That's all there is to it?" Dead or alive. ”
So I wrote a note asking him to go to the house and get the silver.
This guy sent someone to my house, and my son saw my note and gave it to them with three thousand taels of silver.
Yet they did not leave the note behind.
The next day, they took the silver with a strip, and so on.
My sons, young and full of blood, took their swords and cut them off.
As a result, this guy bit back and said in front of the emperor that I was hurting people.
The record of Dai Zi being framed by Chen Hongxun and others in the Preliminary Compilation of the Imperial Sacrifice Class
I can't figure out what the purpose of this guy is doing this, maybe he was instructed by Nan Huairen to deliberately look for stubble.
Now that their purpose had been achieved, taking advantage of the opportunity for this guy to slander me and hurt people, Nan Huairen, Xu Risheng, and the bodyguard surnamed Zhao together framed me in front of the emperor, saying that I was arrogant and rude, that I was arrogant and arrogant, and even worse, that I was secretly connected to the East.
In a word, it is to put me to death.
The emperor wanted to protect me, but to protect me was to offend Nan Huairen's small group.
After thinking about it again, the emperor decided to give me a punishment of exile in Liaodong.
07
So in Liaodong, I spent a difficult old age.
He earns a living by selling calligraphy and paintings, picks up hazelnuts for food, and relies on a broken quilt to keep out the cold on winter nights.
Years later, the news finally came that the emperor had pardoned me.
However, at this time I was already old and sick, and soon after, I was...
ps:
Many years after my death, Ji Xiaolan spent the summer in Luanyang, Hebei Province.
At that time, my son Dai Heng happened to be in Luanyang, so he talked to him about the twenty-eight consecutive hairs I had imitated.
Ji Xiaolan was a military enthusiast, and he was very interested in this gun and wanted to see it.
However, my son told him: "When I was studying in The Household Department, the son of the fifth brother stole the money, and there was no way to investigate." It is true that it has been lost, or it cannot be cherished, and the cover is unknowable. ”
This made Ji Xiaolan feel very sorry, and wrote this matter into his "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang".
The story of the twenty-eight consecutive beads of fire is recorded in volume 19 of the Notes on reading wei caotang
How the story changed later, I don't know.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Preliminary Compilation of the National Dynasty Tribute Class, Notes on Reading Wei Caotang, Research on the History of Natural Sciences (Volume VII)