China's collective name for metal tube-shaped shooting firearms in Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Sometimes called "fire tube". With the improvement of gunpowder performance, the utensils used to fire stone bullets, lead bullets and iron bullets were gradually developed on the basis of various muskets used for a long time in the Southern Song Dynasty, and they were important equipment for the army in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. In the Yuan Dynasty, tubular firearms were developed. The bamboo tubes of muskets and cannons are made of metal. At first, it was made of copper, called "bronze ware", and later it was made of pig iron, called "iron ware". At this time, in addition to gunpowder, the metal tube firearm was also filled with spherical iron balls or stone balls, which created a precedent for metal tube firearms to be filled with projectiles. It is an important contribution of the working people in China to the development of weapons. During this period, the development of utensils, the large-scale production and equipment of the army, especially the establishment of the special firearms army, made the warring parties begin to change. The great role of firearms makes it one of the important factors that determine the outcome on the battlefield.

When did Yuan Dynasty porcelain begin? At present, there is still a lack of literature. The earliest existing porcelain with inscriptions in the Yuan Dynasty was exhibited in the Museum of Chinese History in Shunshun three years (A.D. 1332). The barrel is made of bronze, which can bear larger bore pressure and can be filled with more gunpowder and heavier projectiles, thus greatly improving the power of firearms. The vessel has a long service life and can be repeatedly filled and fired. Therefore, it became an important equipment of the army shortly after its invention.

After the appearance of porcelain in Yuan Dynasty, it developed rapidly and played an important role in Zhu Yuanzhang's war to establish the Ming Dynasty at the end of Yuan Dynasty. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of weapons were manufactured, frontier defense, coastal defense and city defense facilities were strengthened, and a magic machine camp dedicated to firearms was set up in Yongle, which promoted the transformation of the training and combat mode of the Ming army and created and developed the tactics of combining weapons with cold weapons. After Jiajing, the light spears and heavy spears equipped by the Ming army were gradually replaced by bird spears and artillery. The device was first created in Yuan Dynasty in China, and was made according to the firing principle of muskets in Southern Song Dynasty, especially muskets. Although there has been no evidence about the making time of this device for a long time, since the founding of New China, the number of artifacts unearthed and handed down from the Yuan Dynasty has increased day by day, which provides valuable material data for analyzing the making time and related issues. Data analysis shows that this device should be the earliest metal tubular shooting firearm in China.

The artifacts created and used in Yuan Dynasty made China's tube-fired firearms experience a leap from the original bamboo tube musket to the metal casting musket. Compared with muskets made in the Southern Song Dynasty, they have many similarities in structure, which reflects the inheritance of muskets to utensils. It can also be considered that the utensils of the Yuan Dynasty were the product of the development of muskets. Compared with muskets in Song Dynasty, the advantages of ware are obvious. Firearms are made of natural bamboo tubes and utensils are made of metal, which is unparalleled in service life, safety and range. Flash gun is the earliest tubular shooting firearm that spontaneously uses the firing principle, and meta-device is also an advanced metal tubular shooting firearm that spontaneously uses the firing principle. Compared with muskets, meta-devices have many improvements. First of all, the service life of the meta-device is long. The metal barrel wall has high melting point, good ablation resistance, strong compression resistance and is not easy to crack. It can adapt to the increase of chamber pressure due to the improvement of powder performance and the increase of charge, so a barrel can be used many times without replacement, and its service life is greatly prolonged.

Secondly, the manufacturing specifications of components are easy to unify. The elements are cast in batches according to certain specifications, and the dimensions of each part of the same batch are designed in advance. Except for the error caused by uneven manufacturing process, other errors are very small. In this way, the size of tile chamber can be strictly controlled to ensure that the charge reaches the standard, which can not only ensure the launching power, but also improve the safety performance, control range and design accuracy during launching.

Third, the meta-device structure is reasonable. From the appearance, it can be clearly divided into three parts: bore, bore and tail, and the cross section of each part is round. Although there is no accurate quantitative ratio among caliber, bore length, bore length and bore length, its external structure has reflected a general quantitative relationship suitable for launching.

For example, if the chamber is a lampshade, the inner diameter and outer diameter are larger than those of the hole, so the chamber has a larger volume and cross section. This structure can make the powder burn rapidly in the combustion chamber with larger cross-section, increase the transverse combustion surface, improve the instantaneity of combustion, and instantly produce a large amount of high-temperature gas with higher pressure, which is squeezed (compressed) into the chamber with smaller cross-section, so that the pressure rises again. The inner wall of the element is smooth, so it is easier to remove the residue left in the cylinder after firing, and it takes less time, thus improving the firing rate. Due to the superiority of the artifacts, after the successful creation, the equipment troops were used in combat, not only for the Yuan army, but also for the peasant uprising army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, especially the uprising army led by Zhu Yuanzhang, which made great contributions to its seizure of political power. The device was used in combat after it was created in the Yuan Dynasty, and it was gradually used frequently at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Because the artifacts showed great superiority in the war at the end of Yuan Dynasty, they developed greatly in the early Ming Dynasty, which can be divided into two stages.

The first stage began with the establishment of the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang and ended with the demise of Wen Jian. At the beginning of Jianming, Zhu Yuanzhang took various effective measures to develop weapons manufacturing, standardized and unified the primary weapons created in the Yuan Dynasty, and developed them into three types of Hongwu series weapons according to actual needs. Hongwu series guns can be divided into three categories according to their size, structural characteristics and operational purposes: one is hand guns equipped for individual soldiers, the other is medium-sized bowl guns equipped for warships and pass defense, and the third is large guns specially used for city defense fortresses.

The second stage is from Judy's claim to the emperor to Zheng De's introduction of the Buddha machine in the last years. After Judy proclaimed herself emperor, she paid special attention to the development of porcelain. He used the technology and raw materials provided by developed handicraft industry, mining and metallurgy industry to promote the development of vessel manufacturing industry. Firearms developers also focused on improving the structure, quality, variety, performance and power of the utensils according to the needs and possibilities at that time, so that the utensils developed rapidly and became the standard equipment of the Ming army. Several generations after Judy also made use of their achievements and continued to develop until they made a large gun weighing 1000 kg, thus forming the Yongle series of standard guns combining large, medium and small, and developing the guns in Hongwu period to the peak.

The improvement is that the shape of the front chamber is improved, and the shape of the front chamber is changed from a straight tube to a shape that gradually increases from the nozzle to the chamber, that is, the wall of the chamber is thickened, which makes the design more reasonable and scientific and reflects the scientific and technological level at that time. The second is to increase the fire door cover to make it safer and more reliable, which is conducive to combat. Thirdly, the feeding spoon is added, so that the dosage has a unified standard, and the danger caused by more or less drugs is avoided. Fourth, the Trojan horse was added to compact the powder, increase the explosive power and increase the range. In a word, the manufacture and use of pottery is more standardized, reasonable and scientific. Porcelain, which has flourished for more than 200 years, took a back seat in the Ming army after the advent of French machine guns and matchlock guns in Jiajing period (AD 1522 ~ 1566).