User:Koreanidentity10000/sandbox
| Military of the Northern Yuan Dynasty | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1368 |
| Disbanded | 1635 |
| Service branches | Imperial/Royal Guard Army Navy Provincial Army and Militias |
| Leadership | |
| Commander-in-Chief | Khagan |
Gunpowder
In the 1400s, post Mongol Empire, manufacturing of black powder was improved, by mixing the ingredients in water, then drying the result and cutting it into small bits. This improved black powder immensely, in fact made the muskets and cannons of the 1500s to the mid 1800s possible.
Thus while muskets and cannon were possible, the Chinese Iron making technology was all you needed to make both, but the weakness was the poor quality of black powder made such weapons impossible to be used reliably before the 1400s. Another problem was the tactics of the Mongols. The Mongols loved the faint withdraw and then the double enlopement. That mobility forbade the use of cannon, which were quite hard to move quickly thus the Mongol tactics were not compatible with the use of cannon.
As to muskets, these are hard to reload on the move, you have to stop and load the firearm. You just can not do this on horseback. Thus as late as the Napoleonic War, tribes on the Steppes still used bows and arrows for those can be loaded on horseback. Such reloading was a key to the Mongol tactics, thus muskets were just not compatible with the tactics of the Mongols.
Please note by the time of the Ming Dynasty the Mongols were using muskets, but with their heavy cavalry only, i.e. archery was still being used, but muskets were used in a boot to boot cavalry charge. Not in any withdraw or harressing of the enemy forces, that was reserved for archers. Such muskets could thus were used as a substitute for mobile artillery.
Just a comment that the tactics of the Mongols reflected they weapons, introducing cannon and muskets would require a massive revamping of their tactics. You would see tactics more like what the Russians adopted under Catherine the Great. Infantry with muskets and cannons, Cossacks with pistols and sabers to be used as heavy cavalry, and traditional Steppe horsemen to be used as scouts, harassing the enemy and chasing any defeated enemy. It worked well, such Steppe horsemen even participated in the defeat of Napoleon, destroying part of his retreating army. So the tactics were still effective as late as the 1800s, but with repeating rifles the advantages of the bow disappeared. Notice muzzle loading muskets did not replace the tactics of the Mongols, but repeating firearms did.
Just a comment that tactics often reflect the weapons avalible, the lack of cannon and muskets and decent black powder permitted the success of the Mongols tactics. Cannon, muskets and decent black powder would have produce tactics used by Catherine the Great's troops.
The same with the Mongols, their tactics reflected their superior speed do to their horses and bows, in an area where horses and bows were no longer superior weapons, the Mongols lost or in the case of China changed tactics. The change in Tactics in China took the death of Genghis Khan and selection of his grandson Kubli Khan to be adopted, I e. Three generations. The Mongols then adopted traditional Chinese infantry tactics for use in Southern China in addition to they traditional horse mounted troops.