Taiping China was the first state in modern history to field significant forces of (flat-chested) soldiering women under their own command. As such, Taiping China was also the first place that had to consider a woman's physique when it outfitted soldiers. In the later 19th century, once Fraternal Studies had started to pick up steam and Taiping China was starting to become an international buyer, representatives of the Phoenix Hosts gave rise to one of Andalusada's iconic weapons: the Chinese six-gun.
A brief history of the Chinese six-gun
In Andalusada as in IRL, the Taiping Revolt was never the most standardized of things; they fought with anything they could procure, by any means. (Standardization is still an issue, which is a big part of why the Taiping still love the sword.) And when the Revolt started in the 1840s [details?], the lack of standardization wasn't a serious issue, because guns were still muzzle-loaded, and if you were lucky enough to have a musket you'd also have a matching bullet mold to go with it.By the time the Taiping Revolt ended [when?], though, military science was being turned on its head by the widespread adoption of the metallic cartridge, which shot faster and hit harder than had ever been possible before. What had been good enough to end the empire and begin the Heavenly Kingdom was instantly obsolete - and after being blooded by cartridge guns, the Chinese knew that they had a lot of catching up to do. That catching-up was a big part of the motive behind the Fraternal Studies Movement of the 1870s-1890s.
It wouldn't be Taiping China, of course, without mishegaas, and in this case it was a noble and ridiculous goal: they wanted, very badly, to have something that was the best in the world. One of those "somethings" turned out to be handguns; to this day, big-bore revolvers are an integral part of many Taiping stereotypes (like this one, for instance.) But being enthusiastic early adopters brought to light something the world hadn't thought about before: the upper limits of power for a 19th-century handgun were far more than a 19th-century Chinese woman could comfortably, controllably fire. And even though the Phoenix Hosts (being entirely run by women) were autonomous forces in their own right, and could supply themselves however they want, patriarchy, budget woes and economies of scale left them predisposed to standardize with the men.
Relatively late in the Fraternal Studies era [when?], therefore, soldiering women from assorted Taiping armies approached a number of (mostly New World) gun manufacturers with a common goal in mind: develop a platform that could use .45 Colt-class bullets without being too much gun for a soldiering woman.
It was an impossible goal, of course, and being Taiping the soldiering women had no unified approach to it. Different companies produced different attempts at it, most of which survive only as prototypes or had a few tiny adjustments that eventually became stock, or stuff like that. But during that search, Taiping zaniness had one of its brilliant moments - and made the Chinese six-gun a thing.
What makes a Chinese six-gun
Andalusada (as observed elsewhere) uses the same physics as IRL, which means that guns have the same type of constraints. The same load of powder produces the same force behind the same weight of lead through the same length of barrel, and in the same weight of gun that's going to produce the same amount of recoil and cause the same amount of muzzle climb. The Taiping genius involved a simple question: "Wouldn't the barrel climb less if it was lower?"What entered into production was, in the end, something the world had never seen before, a marvel fully on par with what Seadling would produce late in the century: a revolver that fires from the bottom chamber, like a few guns IRL. (All of those are late-20th-century, and I'm not sure if it's because revolver design stagnated or because it wasn't possible until then. I don't care. Mechanical design is going to achieve this a century ahead of schedule, because Rule of Cool, that's why.)
It was brilliant. By necessity, this involved a full-length reinforcement over the barrel - which added weight, making the handgun heftier but also controllable. The grip was slotted for a pistol stock, reducing felt recoil and making it even more manageable with a long barrel.
This being a story about Taiping China, however, it can't be complete without disorganization. In this case, after a promising first order, one of China's many regional financial crises forced several of the purchasing armies to default, leaving the company with most of a production run sitting on the docks. The producer decided to cut its losses, dump the shipment on the market and never waste time with the design again.
In their defense, they never expected the Chinese six-gun to become instantly iconic - but it did. Nothing on the market looked like it, and it was the BFG of its day; and because of that low-firing barrel, it was more controllable than any of its competitors, even if they were lighter and cheaper. Add to that some notable users in the New World (quite possibly in *Texas, where everything is bigger), and the original Chinese six-gun was as big and lasting a hit as the Colt Peacemaker IRL, recognized on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
The Chinese six-gun as commercial success
At some point after this [when?], a final ingredient was worked into the blend: decoration. I'm not totally sure what the concept for this was, but I have a few thoughts:- It could very well have arisen out of pop culture, the way the Buntline Special did. Give some fictional character an icon amongst icons and devote enough attention to it, and people will come asking about whether it's for sale; tacticool transcends time and technology.
- On the other hand, it could very well have been real. A lot of Peacemakers were engraved by the factory itself, and the 19th-century gun industry was very conscious about craftsmanship - which remains true in Andalusada, given how vain the UCNA can be about firearms. All it would take would be one manufacturer to get a photogenic custom order, or simply a high-profile customer (a Taiping Princess, perhaps.)
- Or, on the third hand, Taiping China could have done it themselves. They're quirky enough, and it'd be the sort of adorably exotic Oriental thing that people could seize on. It's also an obvious idea; because of the reinforcing, a Chinese six-gun has more surface area to work with than a normal revolver of any size.
Conventionally, if not specifically, Chinese six-gun art was inspired by Chinese motifs, however so defined. (Also "traditionally," it was decorated with gold or silver inlay. Most Chinese would be very surprised to learn about the way things "are" done in the East.) Vases, scroll paintings, and all kinds of other cultural relics were scoured for inspiration - as a general rule, the only things that aren't looked at are the Chinese six-guns decorated in China.
It's not because there aren't any examples: Taiping China does pimp their six-guns, and has since they started manufacturing some of their own and realizing that it would up the resale value. It's just that their aesthetic is less flashy: there's a lot of ornate butt caps added to grips, Chinese wordplay in bird-seal script, and so forth. (Despite Japanese efforts to prevent gun imports to China, Taiping revolvers have become collectables for the rich adventuring sort; the usual deal is to offer factory-decorated new ones for old. Given the kind of use Taiping guns have seen, both sides agree that they're getting the better end of it.)
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