Night view of Kaifeng
A practical firearms application in the Defense of Tokyo
At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to effectively defuse the severe threat of the northern nomads (Liao, Jin, and Western Xia), the whole country paid special attention to the development of cutting-edge firearms that were revolutionary and subversive for cavalry and city attack and defense.
In the third year of Taizu Kaibao (970 AD), "Bingbu Ordered Shi Feng Jisheng to enter the Rocket Law"; in the third year of Xianping (1000 AD), Tang Fuxian created rockets, fireballs, and fire tribulus; Liu Yongxi of the Zhining Hua Army sacrificed his own artillery. (History of Song Bingzhi)
In the first year of Emperor Renzong's reign (1023 AD), the Northern Song court set up "gunpowder work" in the capital city of Beijing, which was the first time that the famous "gunpowder" that changed the world appeared in Chinese historical records.
When national defense needs collide, fuse, and fission with the peak of science and technology and developed economies. Therefore, in the "golden years" of the feudal society of a thousand years ago, when the four major inventions surged and commercial prosperity created unprecedented wealth, around the research and development of advanced firearms, the Northern Song Dynasty set off a climax in the invention and manufacture of the world's cutting-edge weapons (firearms), and China took the lead in entering the era of hot weapons in the world.
The Northern Song Dynasty developed and manufactured cutting-edge weapons derived from gunpowder and firearms, and behind it was its strong material production, scientific and technological level, and national system to provide strong support.
01 Strong material production guarantee. According to historians, the annual output of pig iron in the Northern Song Dynasty at that time had reached 125,000 tons, while the British iron production before the Industrial Revolution only reached 20,000 tons. A thousand years ago, the Northern Song Dynasty ranked first in the world's pig iron production, which undoubtedly provided a solid material guarantee for the production of thermal weapons such as artillery and rockets.
In order to produce enough gunpowder, the Northern Song Dynasty also used developed maritime shipping and trade to import large amounts of sulfur from Japan.
According to Shi Zai, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of song, the government purchased sulfur, the main raw material of gunpowder, which was in short supply in Japan through merchants, and as much as 500,000 catties at a time.
Ma Liu of Zhiming Prefecture (Ningbo) reported: "According to the quasi-imperial decree, merchants were recruited to raise 500,000 catties of sulfur in the Japanese national market, begging for every 100,000 catties as a guideline, and recruiting officials to take custody." The imperial court approved it. (Zizhi TongjianChang)
The sulfur escorted to Kaifeng in Tokyo accounted for 13 to 25 per cent of the different proportions of gunpowder at that time. Roughly averaging 18%, more than 2.7 million kilograms of gunpowder can be manufactured.
02 Developed scientific and technological support. The "four major inventions" represented by gunpowder, compass, printing, etc. emerged in this period, and a large number of world-leading scientific and technological inventions such as compasses, masts, watertight compartments, and super ocean-going ships were put into practical application.
The development of Science and Technology in China to the Song Dynasty has reached its peak. In many ways it has actually surpassed the level of Britain or Europe before the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century (Joseph Needham, A History of Science and Technology in China).
The invention of firearms has been born in an endless stream. There have been cutting-edge cutting-edge weapons such as "rockets, fireballs, incendiary bombs, tribulus fireballs, iron-billed fire harriers, and thunderbolt cannons".
Rockets of the Song Dynasty
03 The impetus of the national system. The Northern Song Dynasty concentrated the research and development, manufacture and experiment center of gunpowder weapons in the capital city of Beijing; the emperor took the lead in inquiring about the development and manufacture of firearms; and implemented heavy awards for the invention of civil firearms.
At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, it attached great importance to the development of weapons, successively abolished local weapons manufacturing institutions, and requisitioned weapons craftsmen from all over the country to concentrate on Fenjing, which was uniformly managed and manufactured by the central workshops.
Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, reappointed the official in charge of firearm research and development and manufacturing, and personally inspected the newly manufactured product every 10 days.
"Song Xing, Taizu will pacify the four sides, and order Wei Pi to take charge of it, and he will be responsible for his duties." Every time a weapon is made, it is said that every ten days are taught, and it is read by hand, and the ingenuity of the rule is exhausted. (Song Zenggong's "Political Policies and Weapons of the Dynasty")
The Song Dynasty implemented a policy of active rewards for the invention of civil firearms, which mobilized the enthusiasm for invention and creation and triggered a climax of weapon innovation.
One of them, the "Song Shi Bing Zhi" records that in the third year of Taizu Kaibao, Feng Jisheng, an officer of the military department, and others presented themselves to the emperor in Beijing and performed the rocket they invented on the spot, and the emperor rewarded him with "clothes and bundles".
Second, in September of the third year of Xianping (1000 AD), Tang Fu, the commander of the Shenwei Water Army, "presented rockets, fireballs, and fire tribulus terrestrisses to Song Zhenzong in Beijing, and the shipbuilder Xiang Xuan offered the old ship style of turning to the sea, and each gave him money." (Zizhi TongjianChang)
Third, in September of the fifth year of Xianping, the Yizhou regiment practiced shi pu "said that he could be a fireball rocket, summoned to the embassy hall to test it, and watched with the auxiliary ministers." (Zizhi TongjianChang)
Portrait of Zhao Kuangyin, The Grandfather of the Song Dynasty
Focusing on the research and development, production and manufacture of the world's top cutting-edge firearms, the Northern Song Dynasty established a huge military industrial system.
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, he set up an ordnance supervisor, an official institution in charge of the manufacture of military weapons throughout the country, employing more than 4,000 workers; the supervision was divided into ten major workshops, and gunpowder and firearms were independent workshops.
"Nowadays, the East and West are under the supervision of military weapons. For ten days, the so-called gunpowder, green kiln, fierce fire oil, golden fire, large and small wood, large and small furnace, leather work, hemp work, cave work are also, all have the method of moderation, each of which recites its text, but prohibits its transmission. (Song Minqiu," Tokyo Chronicle)
At that time, the Song capital Of Fenjing was the world's largest gunpowder weapons manufacturing center in the eleventh century, and in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were five types of ten types of gunpowder weapons mass-produced in Fenjing.
Ancient gunpowder and firearms workshops
A glimpse of the whole leopard. At that time, the scale of production of firearms and gunpowder in Fenjing was already quite amazing.
In the seventh year (1084) of Emperor Yuanfeng of the Song Dynasty, the imperial court deployed defenses in the northwest of Xizhou (Lintao), Hezhou (southwest of Linxia), that is, to transport a batch of weapons from Beijing, including "100,000 divine arm bow rockets, 20,000 gunpowder bows and arrows... 2,000 gunpowder, 2,000 shells" (Zizhi TongJianChang).
The amount of use on the battlefield is also far greater than ordinary people can imagine.
In the fourteenth year of Jiading, the Jin army attacked Jizhou, and the Song army "on the same day sunrise 7,000 crossbow powder arrows, 10,000 bow gunpowder arrows, 3,000 whole cannons, and 20,000 leather artillery." ("Xin Wei Weeping Thistle")
By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, gunpowder rockets and artillery became the conventional equipment of the troops, and the army was generally equipped.
Illustration of a Firearms of the Song Dynasty in the General Outline of the Martial Classics
There are many "world firsts" in the development and manufacture of firearms in the Song Dynasty and Beijing.
01The earliest word "gunpowder" in history appeared for the first time in Beijing.
According to the first year of Emperor Renzong of Song 's reign (1023 AD), the engineering corps set up in Fenjing, Guangbei Commandery (also known as Guangbei Siege Work), was responsible for the construction of the city defense: "the matter of the main city", and there were many workshops with meticulous division of labor, a total of twenty-one works, known as the Great Book、....... Fierce fire oil, nail hinge, gunpowder, gold fire, green kiln, cave. ("Song Hui wants to compile the draft")
"Gunpowder" is the first recorded gunpowder weapons arsenal in history. "The word 'gunpowder' is officially appearing here." (History of Gunpowder Firearms in Ancient China)
The word "gunpowder" was officially named Yansheng in Fenjing. Since then, small gunpowder has shined in the history of human warfare.
02The earliest gunpowder formula in history also appeared in Kaifeng, Tokyo for the first time.
It took 5 years and was edited by Zai Chancellor Zeng Gongliang and others, and is known as China's first comprehensive military masterpiece, the "General Outline of the Martial Classics", which was brilliantly published in the fourth year of the Qing calendar (1044 AD). For the first time, the formula and preparation method of gunpowder in the three components of nitrate, sulfur and charcoal are recorded in detail. Three representative gunpowder formulas are clearly documented, namely artillery, quinoa fireball, and poison smoke ball.
Such as artillery gunpowder law: Jinzhou sulfur yellow fourteen two, wo huang seven two, flame nitrate two and a half pounds, Ma Ru one or two, dry paint one or two, arsenic one or two ... On the right, Jinzhou sulfur yellow, nest yellow, and flame are the same as pounding,...... Before the end of the drug swirled and evenly, wrapped in paper fivefold, bound with hemp, not to mention the loose fat. With cannon release. (General Outline of the Martial Classics)
The public promulgation of the secret recipe for gunpowder is of epoch-making significance in the history of weapons development.
Restoration of the Song Dynasty "Fierce Fire Oil Tank"
03The earliest gunpowder weapon in the history of the world appeared for the first time in Beijing.
In the third year of the Song Dynasty (970 AD), feng jisheng, an officer of the military department, and others presented themselves to the emperor in Beijing and performed the rocket they invented on the spot, which historians believe is the earliest gunpowder weapon in history.
"The army ordered Shi Feng to enter the rocket method, ordered the test, and gave him a bundle of clothes." (History of Song Bingzhi)
04The world's first batch of standard gunpowder weapons (at that time, the representative of sophisticated weapons and the ancestor of modern firearms) were also mass-produced in Beijing. Includes: a four types of incendiary bombs.
One is the artillery fireball, which is a primitive incendiary bomb, "put on artillery", that is, thrown mechanically by a gun truck.
The second is a tribulus fireball: "With three branches and six iron blades, with gunpowder balls, with a hemp rope in the middle, one foot and two feet long, and with paper and miscellaneous medicines on the outside." He also cast eight iron tribulus, each with a reverse whisker. When placed, burn the iron cone to burn through and let the simmer come out. "It's an attack weapon that has both burns and stabs.
Tribulus fireball in the General Outline of the Martial Arts
The third is the iron-billed fire harrier: "The wooden body, the iron harrier, the bundle of straw grass is the tail, and the gunpowder is in the tail."
The fourth is the bamboo fire harrier: "The bamboo is a cage with a large mouth, a slightly slender shape, a heavy amount of paste paper, a yellow brush, and a pound of gunpowder,...... If thieves come to besiege the city, they will release them with artillery, and burnt thieves will accumulate and startle the troops. (General Outline of the Martial Classics)
b Rocket two. The first is gunpowder rockets: "All their arrows can be used for gunpowder, and the weight of the crossbow shall prevail." The second is the gunpowder whip: "Like birch skin feathers, after the gunpowder is burned five or two times, it is burned."
c Three kinds of smoke bombs. One is the smoke ball. "Three pounds of gunpowder are used inside the ball, and one pound of yellow artemisia outside the ball weighs about one pound, and the upper part is like the fireball method, and the order of fu is thick, and when it is used, it is burned through with a cone." The second is the poison smoke ball. There are toxic substances such as arsenic cream inside, and when it is fired, poisonous gas can kill and injure enemy soldiers.
d Combined shell one. That is, thunderbolt fireball: "Used for two or three sections of bamboo, one and a half inches in diameter, no can crackers do not penetrate the knots, use thin porcelain such as iron money thirty pieces, and gunpowder three or four pounds, wrap bamboo for balls, leave bamboo inches at both ends, and add Fu medicine to the ball." If a thief pierces the tunnel to attack the city, I will meet him with a hole, and use a fire cone to burn the ball, and the sound is like a thunderbolt. ”
eThe earliest flamethrower in ancient times (fierce fire oil tank). According to the "General Outline of the Martial Classics", the fierce fire oil cabinet "takes cooked copper as the maple, four legs are applied under it, four rolls are listed on the top, and a huge cylinder is applied horizontally on the egg cylinder, all of which are connected with the cabinet, and the oil comes out of the fire building, all of which become a flame, and the people in the middle are eroded, and the water cannot be extinguished." ”
Gunpowder combined with fierce fire oil can form flames more than 6 meters long, similar to modern flamethrowers.
Ancient artillery
Gunpowder and firearms battlefield applications show great might.
During the "Battle of Fenjing" during the Jing Kang period (1126-1127), the gunpowder weapons "made in Fenjing" were displayed in a concentrated and comprehensive manner.
The first is firearms in anti-tunnel warfare. The Jin army that besieged Fenjing had used the method of digging tunnels in a vain attempt to sneak attack, and the Song army "chased down the tunnels straight down through the wells to wait for them, accumulating salaries and grass in the wells, and facing them; Or if there is a cannon in it, the enemy will focus on itself." ( Song Ren's "Avoiding the Night Talk")
The second is the combined application of rockets, tribulus artillery, and artillery. In the face of the fierce attack of the Jin soldiers, some officials suggested:
"Yu Dongbi wanted to choose an envoy to shoot a hundred people,...... All the rockets were fired, and twenty of the five hundred men were fired, and ten thousand rockets were counted. Its rockets are absolutely indispensable, followed by artillery, tribulus cannons, and golden juice cannons, which should be fired in unison, followed by artillery. (Song Ren, "Three Dynasties Northern League")
The third is the secret "big killer" - the blockbuster of the thunderbolt cannon. By the late Northern Song Dynasty, incendiary firearms began to transform into explosive firearms. Typical examples are the "XueLi Cannon" made of gunpowder, porcelain pieces and bamboo.
When such a bomb explodes in an enemy crowd, the fragments of the ceramic projectile can often cause sharp lethality.
In the first year of Jing Kang (1126), when the Jin people besieged Beijing and the famous Song Dynasty general Li Gang was assigned to defend the city, he ordered the troops to "fire thunderbolt cannons at night to strike the thief army, and all exclaimed" (Song "The Complete Works of Li Gang").
The history books record that the huge sound of the Thunderbolt Cannon, the tip of the Song Army, not only caused great mental panic to the Jin Army, but also made the Jin Army invincible and retreated without a fight.
The Song general Li Gang used the "secret weapon" of the thunderbolt cannon to crush the fierce and warlike Jin soldiers in one fell swoop, temporarily defusing the siege of Tokyo in the empire.
Battle of Songjin
Fourth, for the first time in naval warfare, firearms exerted great power to turn the tide of the war. In the Battle of Jiaozhou Bay in the 31st year of Shaoxing (1161), 120 warships and 3,000 men formed the Southern Song Fleet, against more than 700 warships and the Jinguo Fleet composed of 70,000 people.
Against the backdrop of an extremely disparity in power, the Song general Li Bao boldly used cutting-edge gunpowder firearms to turn the tide of war in the war game.
"Bao Urgently ordered the rocket to shoot around, and the arrow was hit, and the smoke swirled and burned hundreds of ships... More than 3,000 people of the Han army were captured, and six people, including Yan Zhengjianu, were beheaded, and Ni Qing was equal to the dynasty, and tens of thousands of them were obtained from their unified army seals, documents, armor, and grain. (History of the Song Dynasty, vol. 129)
In the end, the seemingly weak Song military rockets, fierce oil fire cabinets and fireballs won a surprising victory, burying the mighty and invincible Jinguo fleet in the sea of fire. This is also the first time in the history of the world that firearms have been used in naval warfare, and a brilliant chapter of "Made in Fenjing" sophisticated weapons has been written.
Reference Books: History of Gunpowder Firearms in Ancient China, History of the Song Dynasty, Details of History, General Outline of the Martial Arts
Battle of Song-Jin Tokyo
The "Battle of Tokyo" in The Upper River Garden of the Qingming Dynasty in Kaifeng