Editing Flamethrower (section)

=== China ===
{{Main|Meng Huo You}}
[[File:Chinese Flamethrower.JPG|thumb|A [[History of China|Chinese]] flamethrower from the ''[[Wujing Zongyao]]'' manuscript of 1044 AD, [[Song dynasty]]]]

The ''[[Pen Huo Qi]]'' ("fire spraying device") was a Chinese piston flamethrower that used a substance similar to petrol or [[naphtha]], invented around 919&nbsp;AD during the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period]]. The earliest reference to Greek fire in China was made in 917, written by [[Wu Renchen]] in his ''[[Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms]]''.<ref name="needham volume 5 80">Needham, Volume 5, 80.</ref> In 919, the siphon projector-pump was used to spread the '[[Meng Huo You|fierce fire oil]]' that could not be doused with water, as recorded by Lin Yu (林禹) in his ''Wu-Yue Beishi'' (吳越備史), hence the first credible Chinese reference to the flamethrower employing the chemical solution of Greek fire.<ref name="needham volume 5 81">Needham, Volume 5, 81.</ref> Lin Yu mentioned also that the 'fierce fire oil' derived ultimately from China's contact in the 'southern seas', with [[Arabia]] (大食國 ''Dashiguo'').<ref name="needham volume 5 82">Needham, Volume 5, 82.</ref> In the [[Battle of Langshan Jiang]] (Wolf Mountain River) in 919, the naval fleet of the [[Qian Yuanguan|Wenmu King]] of [[Wuyue]] defeated the fleet of the [[Wu (Ten Kingdoms)|Kingdom of Wu]] because he had used 'fire oil' to burn his fleet; this signified the first Chinese use of [[gunpowder]] in warfare, since a slow-burning match fuse was required to ignite the flames.<ref>Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 81–83.</ref> The Chinese applied the use of double-[[piston]] [[bellows]] to pump petrol out of a single cylinder (with an upstroke and a downstroke), lit at the end by a slow-burning gunpowder match to fire a continuous stream of flame (as referred to in the ''[[Wujing Zongyao]]'' manuscript of 1044).<ref name="needham volume 5 82" /> In the suppression of the [[Southern Tang]] state by 976 AD, early Song naval forces confronted them on the Yangtze River in 975. Southern Tang forces attempted to use flamethrowers against the Song navy, but were accidentally consumed by their own fire when violent winds swept in their direction.<ref name="needham volume 5 89">Needham, Volume 5, 89.</ref> Documented also in later Chinese publications, illustrations and descriptions of mobile flamethrowers on four-wheel push carts appear in the ''Wujing Zongyao'', written in 1044 (its illustration redrawn in 1601 as well).<ref>[[:File:Battle of kedah.jpg]]</ref> Advances in military technology aided the [[Song dynasty]] in its defense against hostile neighbours to the north, including the [[Mongols]].