Mongol Conquests and Gunpowder: How the World's Largest Land Empire Rewired the History of Firearms

Mongol Conquests and Gunpowder: How the World's Largest Land Empire Rewired the History of Firearms

Sometime in the 9th century CE, Chinese alchemists hunting for an elixir of immortality accidentally produced something far more consequential. The mixture of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal they called *huoyao*—fire medicine—would eventually be call