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Drawing of a Wu Pai Qiang, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'. |
Wu Pai Qiang (五排鎗, lit. 'Five arrayed handgonne') is a simple five-barreled handgonne of the Ming Dynasty. Each barrel of Wu Pai Qiang weigh one catty four maces, and is usually loaded with four to five lead balls (for a total of twenty to twenty-five lead balls in all barrels). Its wooden pole is four
chi long.
Although not recorded in Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》), similar handgonne with even more barrels also exists.
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Bronze ten-barrelled gun. Beijing, c. 1400–1450 (the wood shaft is a modern reproduction). Royal Artillery Museum, London. (Source: The British Museum) |
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