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| Drawing of a Kuai Qiang, from 'Lian Bing Shi Ji (《練兵實紀》)'. |
Qi Ji Guang's Improvements
Ming general Qi Ji Guang (戚继光) was unimpressed by the poor performance of Kuai Qiang (and handgonne in general). However, he lacked the resource to replace handgonne with arquebus entirely, so he proposed several improvements to Kuai Qiang as stopgap measures. Specifically, he standardised the bore size of Kuai Qiang, and replaced the short and unwieldy cast iron barrel of the Kuai Qiang with a two chi long, wrought iron barrel that is much lighter. Despite the improvements, he still considered Kuai Qiang to be inferior to arquebus.
Would it be correct to think this weapon is still around by the Imjin war? But outnumbered by the San Yang Chong and arquebus? Also what's you opinion on the use of these handguns by cavalry?
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance.
Yes, this weapon is still around during the Imjin War (probably more common than Three-eyed gun and arquebus too, but I am not too sure about that), it was used until the end of Ming.
ReplyDeleteMost cavalry just dismount and shoot (a.l.a dragoons), IMHO. Otherwise Zhao Shi Zhen would not need to specifically design horseback-compatible version of arquebus and handgonne.
How were these fired? By fuse or kindling sticks?
ReplyDeleteFuse.
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