8. Fire Lance
Spears have been used as weapons longer than slings, because when you get down to it a spear is just something sharp at the end of something long. Having been in use since pretty much the start of human history and only becoming redundant in the last century or so, and there are good reasons for this. Spears make a lot of sense because if you can jab a hole in something before it gets to you, then you stand a good chance of winning. Then of course fire arms started to appear, and they work on exactly the same principle only they meant you get to put a hole in someone from much further away. This weapon is one of the forerunners to that. Basically what happened was someone in China sometime in the tenth century (or possibly earlier) said "you know what this spear needs? More gun." Possibly not in those exact words, but that was likely the general meaning. So the first fire lances were bamboo tubes attached to a spear. The range was only a few feet but to compensate for this they could fire a poison dart. This is a habit that comes up repeatedly with Chinese weapons. It's not effective enough? Simple, add poison. Of course in some cases it would be a matter of the weapon already being effective, and then adding poison to make it more so. Not that that is a fault in any way, it's a laudable tactic. So whilst the fire lance, as a short range, single shot projectile, wasn't a game changer in warfare, it did give an edge to those wielding it in melee combat. Before long though some people were looking at it and said "you know what this gun needs? Less spear." Thus the fire lance became an independent weapon in its own right and became more effective as a result, to the point where defenders in a siege have a rack of them, fire a shot, drop it and grab another off the rack.