Apparently, Qianlong considered the guns merely newfangled gadgets.
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何炜15326011
China was not unfamiliar to modern gunpowder weapons. In Ming Dynasty, Chinese people had adapted muskets and cannons from the Spanish, who they called as Folangji. But the army of Houjin still beaten the Ming army which was equipped with copies of western cannons. I think that is why the rulers of Qing Dynasty looked down on the western weapons.