Chu-ko-nu

The chu-ko-nu, or repeating crossbow, is a Chinese weapon that used a gravity-fed magazine holding a stack of bolts above the stock, allowing an operator to fire and reload rapidly by working a lever that recocked the bow and dropped the next bolt into place, without the slower single-shot reload of a conventional crossbow. Traditionally associated with the Three Kingdoms-era strategist Zhuge Liang, though earlier prototypes existed before his time, the weapon traded range and penetrating power for a high rate of fire, making it useful for close-range volleys and for repelling assaults on fortifications. Chinese forces continued using repeating crossbows for centuries afterward, into the Qing dynasty, valued for the volleys of bolts a small unit of operators could put out from prepared defensive ground even after gunpowder weapons had made it largely obsolete on the open battlefield.