Song Army Fire Lance (Huo Mao)

Timeline

1. 1251Western Huai and Yangtze defense line · Western HuaiAfter Möngke Khan's accession, Song-Mongol fighting intensified; the Southern Song deployed fire lances and thunderclap-type weapons at fortresses such as Shouchun and Luzhou, defenders using fire tubes to spray iron shot and porcelain shards against attackers scaling the walls—an important close-range infantry counter-assault weapon of the time.
2. c. 1259Lin'an Prefecture · Southern SongMilitary texts such as the Wujing Zongyao and Shoucheng Lu systematically describe the fire lance's construction and use: a tube two to three chi long, ignited by a fuse; though short-ranged, it combined noise and lethality, becoming one of the standardized product types of the Southern Song Armaments Supervisor.