Although the opening of the bowl shovel is larger than the barrel diameter, it does not actually increase the power of the gun. In the early Ming Dynasty, a long barrel straight gun was made. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385), a straight copper gun was unearthed in Kuancheng County, Hebei Province, with a diameter of 108 mm, a total length of 52 cm and a weight of 26.5 kg. There is a big hoop in the pharmacy. In addition, the Shanxi Provincial Museum also has a collection of iron cannons made in Sanmen Hongwu Decade (1377), with a caliber of 2 10 mm and a total length of 100 cm, with double cannon ears on both sides for adjusting the firing angle of the artillery. The gun body is engraved with the inscription "Ding Si, the tenth year of Ming Hongwu, was made on an auspicious day" (see the color map [Ming Hongwu Iron Gun (1377)). This is the earliest known cast iron gun with cannon ears in China. This kind of large caliber straight barrel gun will obviously increase the power of the gun, which shows that the ancient artillery in China has developed to a new level as early as the second half of the14th century. In the early Ming Dynasty, artillery had become an important equipment of the army. There are more than ten kinds of guns made by the Bureau of Military Equipment and the Bureau of Ordnance (the word general is often used as the title of powerful artillery), such as mouth guns, bowl guns, magic machine guns, whirlwind copper guns and general guns. In the 12th year of Yongle (14 14), Ming Chengzu conquered Mobei for the second time and defeated the enemy with artillery. In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449), Yu Qian defended Beijing and repelled the attack of Wajun with guns and other firearms.
The artillery in the late Ming Dynasty started from the 1920s of 16, and the artillery in China still developed. The length of the Tiger Squat Gunner 1' 9 "(about 0.6m) made in Jiajing period weighed 36kg (about 21.5kg). It is equipped with an iron claw and an iron release. Before launching, it can be fixed on the ground with big nails, which looks like a tiger crouching. This kind of gun overcomes the shortcomings of large recoil and violent jumping when firing. According to Ming Hui Dian Gong Bu, the "Poisonous Fire Flying" made in the fourth year of Jiajing (1525) has a barrel made of wrought iron, containing more than ten taels of gunpowder, and a shell made of pig iron, containing "Five taels of arsenic poison". After ignition, it "will fly 200 steps (about 330 meters) and suddenly become violent. This is the earliest record of China ancient substitute artillery firing explosive bombs. During the Wanli period, a large number of long barrel guns were also manufactured. In the 20th year of Wanli (1592), the "Tian Zi 135 General" iron gun was made in Hangzhou, with the caliber of 1 13mm and the total length of 143cm, and the length-diameter ratio of the gun barrel was obviously increased. The gun body has nine hoops, a gun ear is cast and two iron rings are installed. During the Wanli period, this kind of iron cannon was used by the Ming army to aid Korea.
Kangxi paid more attention to artillery. According to the literature of Qing dynasty, there were about 900 bronze iron cannons from the 13th year to the 60th year of Kangxi. With the mass production of artillery, in the thirtieth year of Kangxi, the Qing government established the Firearms Camp, specializing in guns. In the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), the Qing government stipulated that every province in green camp should have 10 guns per thousand people, which became one of the main equipment of the Qing army. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the development of artillery was basically at a standstill. Until around the First Opium War, soldiers and civilians around the country built some heavy artillery to resist colonial aggression. At that time, the anti-British artillery was still preserved in Humen, Guangdong and Zhenjiang, Jiangsu (see the color map [Humen Shajiao Artillery was built in the 15th year of Qing Daoguang (1835)]. From 65438+1950s, the Qing government purchased a large number of western modern artillery, and established some modern military industries to manufacture modern artillery. China ancient artillery was gradually replaced by modern artillery.