Chapter 102: Volume Three: Shunxiang Fort Garrison Commander, Chapter 102: Cannon Fire

Volume Three: Shunxiang Fort Garrison Commander, Chapter 102: Cannon Fire

The Qing infantry and cavalry stood in solemn formation, exuding an intimidating presence.

At this time their military discipline was still strict; all the soldiers merely stood in silence, and the entire army formation was without the slightest noise.

Outside the city, the uniforms, armor, and banners were uniformly pure white with red trim; seen from afar, it was a patchwork of red and white. Directly in front of the main Qing army, a great banner stood tall, and beneath it, the Qing commander was none other than the jiala ejen who had brutally killed Huang Guoxiang near Taiping Fort.

He had sensed from Huang Guoxiang that Shunxiang Fort was different, and feeling uneasy, he desired to destroy it as quickly as possible. He mustered all the troops under his command and came. After entering the territory of Shunxiang Fort, he indeed found it unusual: a tiny Battalion Commander's post had actually fortified the walls and cleared the countryside; within its entire domain, not a single small fort or village that could be resupplied or plundered could be found—every place was deserted.

This infuriated the entire jiala. They set fire to all those empty forts and villages, burning them to the ground, and finally arrived beneath Shunxiang Fort.

At a glance, the jiala ejen could not help but laugh in spite of himself. It turned out to be just such a small fort. A fort like this, in days past, was not even worth plundering by their Great Qing troops—cramped, remote, impoverished, without a shred of profit to speak of.

The jiala ejen could be considered quite knowledgeable about the defensive troop strengths of Great Ming forts. The administrative city of such a remote Battalion Commander's post was no more than two li in circumference; the defending soldiers within numbered at most three to four hundred, and more than half were unfit for battle. Even with the newly expanded fort built to the northwest, it would be at most five to six hundred troops, with an estimated fewer than three hundred soldiers capable of fighting.

With his own fifteen hundred troops, he estimated that sending a few hundred brave warriors in a single charge would be enough to take it in one stroke. These Ming people clearing the countryside and fortifying the walls was just as well; their population and supplies were all concentrated within this fort. When the fort was breached, all their wealth would belong to him, and the able-bodied men and women inside would all become his slaves.

Thinking of this, he burst into loud laughter, brandished his horsewhip, and said a few words in Manchu. The several niru commanders beside him also laughed along.

At this moment, within the Qing army beneath the city, five niru formed one large formation, each niru separately arrayed as a small formation, with combat soldiers in front and support soldiers behind. They numbered over fifteen hundred and fifty in total.

Among the five niru, each niru had two official banners and two personal banner guards. Beside each niru commander were also two kabash soldiers—the vanguard soldiers of the later Manchu Qing—each wearing helmets with flying plumes, carrying a flying-tiger back-banner, and clad in bright helmets and bright armor.

In addition, there were seventeen white baia soldiers, also commonly known as White Armor Soldiers, the guards of the later Manchu Qing. They were uniformly in bright armor, with tall red tassels on their helmets and a flame-bordered banner on each of their backs.

These seventeen White Armor Soldiers were led by a head officer whom the Manchus called a zhuangda, who wore bright armor with a red tassel and carried a slant-tipped banner of natural color on his back.

Among the Later Jin and Qing troops, out of three hundred soldiers in one niru, one in three was armored as a combat soldier, divided into foot armor and horse armor; the rest were support soldiers, divided into mounted attendants and unarmored foot attendants. When Huang Taiji was in power, he slightly adjusted the troop types in the army, abolishing the red baia soldiers and the black camp, classifying them all as ordinary armored combat soldiers.

In these five niru, besides the personal guards, kabash soldiers, and White Armor Soldiers of each niru, each niru also had forty horse-armor soldiers. The horse-armor soldiers wore bright helmets and dark armor, carried fifty arrows, one bow, and one saber each, and were led by two Manchu officers called fende bošokū.

There were also fifty foot-armor soldiers, led by two infantry bošokū. All bošokū wore helmets with black tassels and each bore a two-foot-square back-banner.

Whether horse armor or foot armor, every several men or ten men had one squad leader, a minor head whom the Manchus called a zhuanda.

In this jiala of Qing troops, there were over five hundred armored combat soldiers in total; the rest were all attendants and support soldiers, who wore no armor or merely wore cotton armor without iron plates inside. Apart from this, each niru also had anywhere from a dozen to several dozen blacksmiths and saddle-makers.

With the great army before him, the jiala ejen naturally did not take a tiny Shunxiang Fort seriously. He laughed heartily for a while, shouted a few orders, and immediately a niru ejen dashed out, accompanied by several White Armor Soldiers as guards, and along with him, the Han Chinese interpreter who served beside the jiala ejen.

They galloped to a distance of over a hundred paces from the walls of Shunxiang Fort and halted far off.

The niru ejen bellowed a few words at the interpreter beside him, and the interpreter acknowledged and came forward trembling with fear.

He ran a few more steps and shouted toward the top of the wall: "Ming soldiers on the tower, listen! Surrender quickly, or when the Great Qing troops storm the fort, jade and stone will burn together. You must consider carefully, lest you regret it when it is too late!"

"Great Qing troops?"

On the gate tower, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Wen Fangliang, and the others were all puzzled. Han Zhong said in surprise: "Haven't the Tatars always called themselves the Great Jin? When did they become the Great Qing?"

The officers also discussed this, all finding it strange. Only Wang Dou remained silent. The matter of the Later Jin changing its dynastic name was naturally suppressed by the Great Ming, and the people of Shunxiang Fort could not possibly know of it.

Han Zhong glared at that niru ejen over a hundred paces away, who, under the layered protection of the White Armor Soldiers' heavy shields, sat upright on his horse, brazenly surveying the activity on the wall. Han Zhong fumed at the sight. At such a distance, neither bows nor fire lances could reach. He said: "The Tatars are too arrogant. How about firing a cannon shot?"

Wang Dou said: "I fear it won't hit accurately. Let us observe their movements first!"

The interpreter shouted for a long time, but there was not the slightest reaction from the top of the wall. Helplessly, he returned to the niru ejen's side to report.

The niru ejen shouted loudly. He barked a few orders, and immediately a White Armor Soldier emerged from beside him and galloped swiftly back to the army formation.

Very soon, waves of clamor and weeping cries came from that direction. Wang Dou and the others looked and saw a group of Qing soldiers escorting a number of Great Ming commoners out from the army formation. As they drew closer, they could see that the group of Great Ming commoners included men and women, old and young, all merely weeping in terror. No one knew where the Qing soldiers had captured them from.

That group of Qing soldiers looked immensely pleased with themselves; as they wantonly whipped those commoners, they occasionally shrieked provocatively toward the top of the wall.

Seeing this scene, all the Shunxiang Fort soldiers on the wall were extremely furious, each and every one cursing unceasingly.

Seeing the reaction from the wall, the niru ejen was even more smug, and even the main Qing force over by the army formation erupted in waves of laughter. Suddenly, the niru ejen shouted an order, and those Qing soldiers struck all at once, slashing with blades and stabbing with spears. Instantly, those Great Ming commoners all died outside the city.

The top of Shunxiang Fort's wall fell silent as the grave. The interpreter again came forward under orders and shouted: "You have all seen! If you do not surrender, these commoners will be your fate!"

The men on the gate tower were furious. Wang Dou said coldly to Han Chao: "Go and bring up that captured Tatar!"

Han Chao left to carry out the order. Very quickly, that Qing soldier zhuanda was escorted up by several fierce military discipline soldiers of Shunxiang Fort. After torture, his entire body was covered in wounds, and his spirit was extremely listless. Yet he remained unyielding, struggling with all his might the whole way, roaring and shouting from time to time.

He was escorted onto the gate tower and immediately began roaring loudly in Manchu toward the Qing soldiers below the city.

Seeing him appear, the Qing troops outside the city fell completely silent. Every one of them was dumbstruck; even that niru ejen gaped, speechless. They had never imagined that one of their own had been captured by the Ming army. Although it was only one man, in the midst of this host, it was a severe blow to their morale and fighting spirit.

Even the great Qing formation in the distance stirred restlessly upon hearing the commotion.

Wang Dou said to Han Chao: "Give me your hand cannon!"

He loaded the powder and shot, then used a fire match to light the matchcord on the hand cannon, and said flatly: "Tell the Tatars, if they assault the city, this will be their fate!"

With that, he aimed the hand cannon at the zhuanda's head and pulled the trigger. With a boom, the zhuanda's head was blasted away, brains and blood splattering wildly. His corpse pitched forward and crashed heavily down below the city. A thick stench of blood, mingling with the sweltering weather, spread through the gate tower, nauseating to all.

The Qing troops below the city cried out in shock simultaneously. They beat their chests and howled curses, all of them furious, while the Shunxiang Fort soldiers on the wall erupted in cheers.

Han Chao stepped forward and spoke clearly in Manchu. The Qing soldiers below the city grew even more enraged. They shouted for a while, then under the lead of that niru ejen, galloped far back into the main formation. Only that Han Chinese interpreter stared at the top of Shunxiang Fort's wall in shock for a moment before turning his horse and following back.

The jiala ejen, who had seen the incident on the wall from afar, was already astonished. When those Qing soldiers returned, he flew into an even greater rage. As the news spread, all the Qing soldiers outside the city howled furiously, gnashing their teeth in hatred. Those Ming troops had dared to execute their captive on the spot—this was truly detestable.

They were determined to storm this damned fort and slaughter every last man and beast within, leaving not even a chicken or a dog alive!

A bitter battle was unavoidable!

…

The sound of horns rang out, and a stir ran through the great Qing army outside the city. After about half a shichen, several shielded carts were pushed out from each niru's ranks. They had actually not set up camp or stockade, nor even waited to eat their midday meal, before impatiently coming to assault the city—likely enraged by Wang Dou's actions just now.

Wang Dou looked from afar and saw the shielded carts slowly approaching. He counted roughly over twenty of them. Each shielded cart had several banners erected upon it, making it impossible to see how many men were inside or behind the carts. Moreover, he could see that not far behind the shielded carts, Qing soldiers were pushing nearly a hundred single-wheeled carts loaded with earth and the like, evidently intended for filling in the trenches and moats.

Wang Dou made a rough calculation, estimating that the Qing had deployed over two hundred combat soldiers and more than three hundred support soldiers. Although he could not see the Qing troops' movements behind the shielded carts, he knew that the Later Jin and Qing armies always used shielded carts as the front line to absorb the Ming army's cannon fire from the wall and to block arrows and bullets. Following behind were the death soldiers, wielding shields, greatswords, long spears, and other weapons, wearing two layers of heavy armor—mail armor inside and cotton armor inlaid with iron plates outside.

Some officers even wore three layers of heavy armor: the innermost layer of mail, then iron armor, and the outermost layer of iron-inlaid cotton armor. With these three layers of heavy armor, they could effectively defend against arrows and firearms at a certain distance.

These death soldiers were mostly horse-armor soldiers among the Qing troops, with extremely rich battlefield experience. Behind the death soldiers followed lightly armored, skilled archers, whose role was to support the death soldiers in scaling the walls and to cover the support soldiers filling in the trenches.

At the very rear were the elite soldiers, the White Armor Soldiers, who held the line. They too wore double-layered heavy armor, waiting for the opportunity to scale the walls and provide support. In a field battle, these soldiers would also be followed by some elite cavalry ready to act as circumstances dictated.

Wang Dou watched as the shielded carts the Qing soldiers pushed came closer and closer. When they reached two hundred paces, their appearance became clearly discernible. The front of those shielded carts consisted of tall, thick wooden planks covered with thick layers of leather and cotton quilts, which could effectively resist bullets, cannon fire, and arrows. Beneath them were rollers, allowing them to turn nimbly. Once the moats were filled, they could be pushed all the way to the base of the wall.

In the Eight Banners army, these shielded carts had always been their standard equipment. Since the rise of the Later Jin army, they had been invincible in siege warfare.

In the discussions among the officers of Shunxiang Fort, given the fort's circumstances, there was no way to deal with the Tatar soldiers' shielded carts other than with cannons. However, cannon fire was inaccurate, and there was no telling how many shielded carts they could hit.

Those shielded troops slowly advanced. The Shunxiang soldiers on the wall merely held their breath and focused, awaiting Wang Dou's command.

Seeing that those Qing soldiers had already approached within two hundred paces, entering the range of the several folangji cannons on the walls of Shunxiang Fort, Wang Dou said flatly: "Fire!"

On the parapet below the gate tower, four Folangji bronze cannons were mounted, each set on a four-wheeled iron carriage, with a range of a hundred zhang, commanded by the officer of a city-defense artillery squad.

Seeing the signal flags on the gate tower, he immediately waved the command flag in his hand and shouted the order: "Fire!"

Beside each Folangji bronze cannon stood three artillerymen. They had already learned how to fire cannons from the old, weak artillerymen originally at Shunxiang Fort. By now, every Folangji bronze cannon had long been loaded with ammunition. Upon hearing the order, one artilleryman beside each cannon immediately took a red-hot long iron hook from a fiercely burning iron rack nearby and touched it to the touchhole.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!" Several reports rang out as the four Folangji bronze cannons fired in succession.