Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Manual

The Ming Dynasty firearms had two types. Firstly, handguns and arquebuses; they had small sizes and were usually equipped with iron or lead bullets with a 10 to 200 step range. If converted into meters, the maximum range would be around 200 to 300 meters.

Out of the handguns, the more famous ones included the Three-Eyed Gun, Guaizi Gun, Lianzi Gun, Thunder Gun, and Wulei Shenji.
The second type would be the guns fixed onto frames, the large-sized cannons. These cannons would use large rocks, iron, lead, or simply solid bullets as ammunition. A small number of them would be equipped with explosive spherical bullets. These cannons had a range of a few hundred miles to two to three thousand miles. It was mainly used for defence and sieging cities and was used in land, water, and sea battles.

The more famous types of Ming Dynasty cannons were the short barreled mortar, the western style cannon, and the Hongyi Cannon.

Apart from handguns and cannons, there was one more type of firearms—missiles. Missiles included the Cluster Missiles, the Flying Crow, and the Fire Dragon Comes Out of the Water.

Ouyang Shou acquired this manual from his Secret Intelligence Service after they had assassinated the leader of Tianjing City: Hong Xiuquan. He gave it to Research Institute Nr.7 to study the technology. (It is suggested that the Black Snake Guards sent the manual to RI7 Chapter 528)

## Descriptions

**Guaizi Gun**

It was an arquebus with a curved handle that could be fired in bursts. It had length of 37.5 centimeters and had a reload style similar to a western gun. It could fire three shots consecutively with a range of 150 meters. The Ming Dynasty termed it as a gun that would win against the western styled guns in ten thousand battles.

**Large-sized cannons**

These cannons would use large rocks, iron, lead, or simply solid bullets as ammunition. A small number of them would be equipped with explosive spherical bullets. These cannons had a range of a few hundred miles to two to three thousand miles. It was mainly used for defence and sieging cities and was used in land, water, and sea battles.

**Short barreled cannon**

Had an exceedingly thick cannon bore because of the tragedy of the Chinese’s metallurgy. Moreover, it could only could shoot a snooker ball sized stone out one hundred meters. The distance could not be adjusted, and it did not even have a wheel.

**Hongyi Cannon**

Was called the General Cannon. It was built with western technology at the end of the Ming Dynasty. It had trunnions and aiming distance. It had an adjustable range, and the cannon would last for a long time. The large ones weighed 1.6 tonnes and could shoot up to 1.9 kilometers.

**Missiles**

Included the Cluster Missiles, the Flying Crow, and the Fire Dragon Comes Out of the Water.

The Flying Crow had a crow-shaped body filled with explosives. The gunpowder had a connecting gunpowder line to the gunpowder box, which was in charge of sending the missile into the air.

When shot, the gunpowder string would ignite and make the middle section fly, causing the missile to fly toward the enemy. Then, the gunpowder inside the crow would explode. It was an excellent weapon for sieging and destroying enemy formations, as it would help to destroy troops and burn their horses.

**The Three Eyed Gun**

Was the primary handgun of the Ming Dynasty, but its real killing range failed to even reach ten meters. Only in a four meter range did it possess a higher killing ability. Moreover, it was not accurate, and it could only serve as a stick to hit the opponent if you missed.

As for other firearms like handguns and rockets, he was not interested in them at the moment.