Divine Engine Division

Ming musketeers. The Chinese military organized their musketeers in three lines, the one in front fired while the two in the back reloaded and hand them to the first line.

Divine Engine Division (Chinese:神機營 Wade-Giles: Shen-chi ying) was one of the three elite military divisions of the Ming Dynasty stationed around the capital Beijing. Established in the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1360–1434), its main purpose was the research and training in the use of firearms. The divine engine division provided half of General Qi Jiguang's army with firearms and one cannon to every twelve soldiers, considerably high amongst other contemporary armies. The other two divisions were the Five Barracks (Wu-chun ying) Division, which drilled infantry in tactical manoeuvres and the Three Thousand (San-ch'ien ying) Division, where hired Mongol instructors taught reconnaissance, mounted combat and signalling. Under the Yongle Emperor, Annam was invaded, allowing the Divine Engine Division to employ native Chinese and a large number of Annamese instructors to provide training. Firearms equipped included guns, the fire pistol, the fire lance, fire arrows, cannons, the arquebus and later, matchlock guns.

Qing Dynasty

During Qing Dynasty, Divine Engine Division was in charge of military protection of the Forbidden City, and it was equipped with western modern weapons.

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