14 November 2015

Da Zhui Feng Qiang (大追風槍)

UPDATED DECEMBER 19, 2023


Da Zhui Feng Qiang (大追風鎗, lit. 'Great wind chasing gun')
Late Ming Dynasty Gun
Drawing of a Da Zhui Feng Qiang, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

Da Zhui Feng Qiang, also known as Zhui Feng Qiang (追風鎗, lit. 'Wind chasing gun') and Zhui Feng Pao (追風砲, lit. 'Wind chasing cannon'), is a late Ming period handgonne that is likely modified back from a matchlock gun to simplify the reloading process. Zhui Feng Qiang has a four chi four cun long gun barrel equipped with front and rear iron sight, a stock similar to that of a matchlock gun, and comes with an iron tripod gun rest. It is typically loaded with a six maces five candareens (24 g) lead ball, as well as six maces (22 g) of gunpowder, making it far more powerful than a typical arquebus.  

Lacking a matchlock mechanism, Zhui Feng Qiang is ignited directly through its touch hole, and thus requires a second operator.

Rampart gun variant

Late Ming period Liaodong commander Peng Hao Gu (彭簪古) also devised a scaled-up Da Zhui Feng Qiang with twice the barrel length. More powerful than even a heavy musket, this variant of heavy Da Zhui Feng Qiang is meant to be mounted on battlement.

6 comments:

  1. did these saw mass production during the late ming period?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not quite, they did produce and field the weapon, but the most prevalent one was still the matchlock.

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  2. The Koreans before the Imjin War developed a similar handgonne mounted on the stock as well. It was used for a while, but once they learned how to make matchlock, it was quickly phased out.

    There is also a record of modified handgonne that was equipped with sight, matchlock mechanism, and trigger, copied from the captured matchlock during the Imjin War.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I remember right, the Korean stock-mounted handgonne was an early attempt to replicate Japanese arquebus before the war broke out (as part of the war preparation), but the effort was cut short due to political infighting.

      They only successfully reverse engineered matchlock gun after the war broke out.

      Delete
    2. The modified handgonne I mentioned was made during the war, but was apparently never mass-produced due to wartime shortage of material. Although, from the description, it seemed to have been pretty much a matchlock - wrought iron barrel copied from captured Tanegashima, with matchlock mechanism and trigger, made with help from Japanese defectors. I guess it was called the handgonne(총통) because of convention.

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    3. AFAIK all known Korean stock-mounted handgonnes were manufactured around several months - two years before the war broke out.

      Delete

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