Source: CNKI-Institute of History, Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences Original draft
In ancient times, the technical content of weapons was generally not high, and cold weapons were basically relied on to fight wars.
It was not until the advent of the "musket" that the duel on the battlefield changed qualitatively. Later, in order to better deal with large areas of the enemy, the ancients upgraded and invented machine guns.
In fact, the earliest machine gun in the world appeared during the Qing Dynasty on the mainland, and it was even capable of firing 28 rounds in a row.
However, it is strange that this advanced weapon was not widely used on the battlefield at that time.
The inventor of this machine gun was a weapon genius named Dai Zi in the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, the birth of genius also comes from whispering since childhood.
Dai Zi's family belongs to a family of weapons, and the family's research on weapons can be traced back to the late Ming Dynasty.
Although he was a Han Chinese, his family obeyed the Qing Dynasty after the Qing soldiers entered the customs.
When he was very young, his father often took him to work in the arsenal. This experience allowed Dai Zi to develop a strong interest in weapons from an early age.
In addition, his father wanted to teach him weapons from time to time. made Dai Zi make contributions to the imperial court in terms of weapons very early.
In the thirteenth year of Kangxi, Geng Jingzhong raised troops from Fujian to invade Zhejiang to cooperate with Wu Sangui's rebellion.
The Qing Dynasty's army was defeated in a duel with Wu Sangui's army, and it never had the upper hand. Seeing that the imperial court was fighting so hard, Dai Zi decided to invent an advanced weapon that could help the country get out of the war as soon as possible.
After many days of intensive research, Dai Zi finally developed a weapon called the Lianzhu Fire Gun. Although guns were also included in weapons at that time, they had not completely replaced the status of cold weapons such as knives and bows and arrows, because guns were very troublesome to use.
They fire very slowly, and each bullet must be loaded with charcoal, sulphur powder, saltpeter, ignition powder, and then it is necessary to tamp the gunpowder, put lead bullets, and pound lead bullets.
These steps take a long time, and in a battlefield where time is of the essence, it is really difficult to use.
The Lianzhu gun invented by Dai Zi has a magazine and a powder magazine on the butt, and the back of the gun chamber can be filled with gunpowder through the trigger wheel.
This wave of operation can directly simplify the cumbersome steps of traditional gun use to three steps: loading, triggering, and firing, and can fire 28 rounds in a row.
Many modern historians believe that the Lianzhu firearm invented by Dai Zi at that time can be said to be a world-class weapon at that time, and even said that it belonged to the predecessor of the machine gun. Its lethality was superior to that of other countries' weapons at the time.
With such a good weapon, the Qing army quickly won the initiative in the war.
After learning the power of the firecracker, the generals wrote to their troops to apply for this weapon. And with the blessing of this weapon, it became easier to suppress Wu Sangui's rebels, and soon, the Qing army finally won the final victory.
The invention of the Lianzhu Fire Gun made Dai Zi's talent finally discovered by Kangxi, and he immediately announced Dai Zi and asked him to work in the Hanlin Academy. And Dai Zi's work in the Hanlin Academy was to help Kangxi imitate the new weapons brought by the envoys of various countries.
This kind of work is very easy for Dai Zi to do, and every time Kangxi asks him to imitate a new weapon, he can complete the imitation in only three or five days. Not only that, but he was able to make innovative corrections to the weapon on the basis of the original.
Dai Zi's imitation weapon can make Kangxi tough in front of the outside messenger every time, which makes Kangxi value him very much.
However, the companion is like a tiger, and Dai Zi's outstanding talent and inability to behave in the world soon caused him trouble.
There was a Belgian envoy named Nanhuanren who came to the Qing Dynasty and wanted to make an arms deal with the Qing Dynasty.
He boasted to Kangxi that his country's artillery was very powerful, saying that only Belgium could invent such an advanced cannon.
Not only that, but he also had a small calculation of a businessman in his heart, thinking of making a big profit through this transaction.
In fact, at that time, Belgian artillery was famous in the world, and everyone had heard of this weapon.
All countries are vying to buy it, and in line with the good weapons that others have, Kangxi also wants to buy a batch back.
At this time, Dai Zi learned the news, and he hurriedly ran to Kangxi and said that he could try to imitate this cannon, so that Kangxi would not be in a hurry to make this transaction. And in view of Dai Zi's imitation technology before, Kangxi also agreed.
Dai Zi really lived up to Kangxi's trust in him, and it only took him a week to imitate the Belgian cannon that was at the world's first-class level at that time. and invited Kangxi to come to observe his research results.
Kangxi was overjoyed when he heard this, and he led everyone to the firing battlefield of the cupola to watch, and the power of the cupola successfully won the praise of everyone present.
Kangxi, who was in a good mood, gave this cannon a domineering name on the spot, called "General Weiyuan". At the same time, in order to affirm Dai Zi's merits, he also ordered Dai Zi's name to be engraved on the cannon.
Facts have proved that the cupola did make a lot of contributions to the Qing Dynasty.
In the future, Kangxi used the cupola cannon in the war to quell the rebellion against Geerdan, and it played a very important role in the war.
However, Dai Zi's series of behaviors made Nanhuanren hate itchy.
Because Dai Zi is not good at people and sophisticated people on weekdays, he is often outspoken in the court, which makes his popularity in the court at that time not very good. So, Nanhuanren united with those ministers who had been offended by Dai Zi to frame Dai Zi.
But with the growing rumors about Dai Zi, Kangxi slowly began to doubt Dai Zi.
Seeing that the situation was favorable to them, the ministers continued to add fuel to the fire. With the cooperation of Nanhuanren, they framed Dai Zi for fornicating with the East.
The crime of treason by the weapons expert is indeed quite serious, and in the end, Kangxi made up his mind and sent Dai Zi to Shengjing.
Kangxi's approach to him caused Dai Zi's heart to be greatly traumatized, coupled with the harsh environment in Shengjing, Dai Zi was often hungry and cold, and soon after, Dai Zi became seriously ill and finally couldn't afford to get sick.
This generation of weapon geniuses finally ended up with such an ending, which can't help but make people sigh.
Later, some people kept fantasizing that if such a weapon genius had not been killed by Kangxi, how could there be the late Qing government that was bullied by the foreign powers and was humiliated but unable to fight back?
But history has no ifs, and what has happened can never be changed.
Resources:
Briefly describe the Qing Dynasty Liuren Dai Zi - Wang Yan
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