Rocket weaponry of the Ming Dynasty

UPDATED DECEMBER 9, 2024

Overview

While first rocket was believed to be invented around twelfth century and had been fielded in battle almost as soon as it became viable, it was not until Ming period that rocket was employed en mass as a practical battlefield weapon. Ming weapon engineers constantly sought to create more deadly rocketry, and developed many platforms to better utilise this devastating weapon, whether stationary, handheld or mobile.

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Unique weapon of the Ming Dynasty — Yi Wo Feng (一窩蜂)

MINOR UPDATE JANUARY 4, 2024

Yi Wo Feng (一窩蜂, lit. 'Nest of bees')

Drawing of a Yi Wo Feng, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

The famous Nest of Bees was a thirty-two shot multiple rocket launcher. Although often lauded as the "first handheld multiple rocket launcher", the Nest of Bees was in fact a wagon-mounted weapon. Unlike most other Chinese multiple rocket launchers that used smaller rockets, Nest of Bees carried thirty-two full sized Shen Ji Jian (神機箭) rockets, and had a maximum range of three hundred paces.

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Unique weapon of the Ming Dynasty — Shen Huo Fei Ya (神火飛鴉)

Shen Huo Fei Ya (神火飛鴉, lit. 'Divine fire flying crow' or 'Flying crow with magic fire') was a unique, bird-shaped rocket made of papered bamboo or reed basketry. It was a long range incendiary weapon designed to attack stationary or slow-moving targets such as enemy encampments, fortresses and warships.

There were actually two variants of this rocket, detailed below.

Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa (《火龍神器陣法》) variant

A badly drawn Shen Huo Fei Ya, from 'Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa (《火龍神器陣法》).'

Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa variant of Shen Huo Fei Ya was filled with a mixture of potent poisonous blinding smoke, poison smoke-incendiary gunpowder, incendiary gunpowder, caltrops, as well as numerous Fei Yan (飛燕) micro-rockets. It was propelled by a single rocket mounted below the crow's tail, and thus was infinitely more aerodynamically stable than the Wu Bei Zhi variant (see below).

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