ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a reassessment of the Kenneth Chase thesis. The maritime realms of southern China acted as a key locus of military innovation, a sort of crucible within which ideas from without and adaptations from within contended, leading to new structures, techniques, and technologies, which then spread throughout China. Vietnamese guns, Portuguese breech-loading artillery, Western-style muskets, large Western muzzle-loading cannons, and huge "red-barbarian" cannons, took root in southern China and then spread northward, as did techniques and tactics pertaining to their use. The guns fired and their sound thundered forth for ten li, and each arrow penetrated two men, and also struck the horses, and all immediately died. The Ming guns began firing, under the command of Liu Sheng, and several hundred Mongols were killed. Chase's overall argument – that the Chinese failed to "perfect" the gun because they faced nomads rather than standard infantry – needs to be modified.
