Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao (造化循環砲)

Two Ming troopers shooting Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao (造化循環砲, lit. 'Fortuitous cyclic cannon'. The 'cyclic' in its name refers to fire by rotation tactic employed by its gunners) is a type of heavy handgonne (or rather, a set of four handgonnes) and one of the late Ming attempts to improve native handgonne design in order to keep up with the firepower, accuracy and rate of fire of matchlock musket.

The weapon set consists of a spiked "shooting stick" with a small iron ring at the middle, four heavy handgonnes, as well as assorted ammunition and matches. These handgonnes, built like oversized Jia Ba Chong (夾把銃), are heavy and extremely powerful (in fact, they are almost twice as powerful as Jingal guns!). Each weighs twenty catties, comes with a two chi two cun long, iron sight-equipped barrel mounted on a two chi nine cun wooden stock, and is usually loaded from a cloth catridge containing two taels of gunpowder, one heavy lead shot weighing four taels, and thirty smaller lead shots weighing six maces each.

A full set of Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao requires five operators (although in theory it can be increased or reduced depending on the number of handgonnes used). One operator will serve as shooting stick holder, while the other four are tasked with aiming and reloading the handgonnes. Each handgonner will take turn to aim his weapon through the iron ring, but will leave the task of firing the weapon to the shooting stick holder.

As such, a team of Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao operators can achieve comparable rate of fire to that of a team of musketeers firing by rotation, good accuracy (as handgonners can focus on aimining the gun, plus the iron ring also serves to minimise muzzle rise), as well as significant increase in firepower. On top of that, the heavy handgonne is simpler and cheaper to make than a musket, making Zao Hua Xun Huan Pao far more economical as well.