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The history of the firearm begins in 10th-century China, when tubes containing gunpowder projectiles were mounted on spears to make portable fire lances. [1] Over the following centuries, the design evolved into various types, including portable firearms such as flintlocks and blunderbusses , and fixed cannons, and by the 15th century the ...
[14] [15] In 1414 the Ming army clashed with an Oirat force near the Tula River and frightened them so much with their guns that the Oirats fled without their spare horses, only to be ambushed by concealed Chinese guns. According to a Chinese observer the Oirats avoided battle several days later, "fearing that the guns had arrived again." [16]
The Wankou Chong, translated literally as bowl-muzzle gun (Chinese: 碗口銃) was a type of Huochong gun used in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. [4] [5] The cannons normally contained black powder, a wooden block or frame to contain the powder, and a large cannonball or a group of smaller cannonballs. The cannon was most commonly used ...
The earliest gunpowder recipe and primitive weaponry date to China's Song dynasty and the oldest extant guns appear in the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. However, historian Tonio Andrade notes that there is a surprising scarcity of reliable evidence of firearms in Iran or Central Asia prior to the late 14th century.
Wang, Zhenping (2013), Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia: A History of Diplomacy and War, University of Hawaii Press; Whiting, Marvin C. (2002), Imperial Chinese Military History, Writers Club Press; Wilkinson, Endymion (2012), Chinese History: A New Manual, Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute
A fire lance as depicted in the Huolongjing, late 14th century (c. 1360-1375).. The fire lance (simplified Chinese: 火枪; traditional Chinese: 火槍; pinyin: huǒqiāng; lit. 'fire spear') was a gunpowder weapon used by lighting it on fire, and is the ancestor of modern firearms. [1]
The recorded military history of China extends from about 2200 BC to the present day. Chinese pioneered the use of crossbows, advanced metallurgical standardization for arms and armor, early gunpowder weapons, and other advanced weapons, but also adopted nomadic cavalry [1] and Western military technology. [2]
The history of cannon spans several hundred years from the 12th century to modern times. The cannon first appeared in China sometime during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was most likely developed in parallel or as an evolution of an earlier gunpowder weapon called the fire lance.