Chapter 125: Wooden Shields, Cannons, Rockets

The sound of horns rang out, and the great formation of Qing troops outside the city parted. One cart-shield after another was pushed forward. Although Wang Dou had burned all the forts within his territory, leaving the Qing troops unable to find planks or timber to make cart-shields, they had their own methods.

Shunxiang Fort was surrounded by mountainous terrain, and deep within the mountain forests there were always trees. Although the distance was somewhat far, over the course of a day, the camp followers and auxiliary soldiers among the Qing troops had felled quite a few trees. They roughly processed those trees and bound them together, turning them into crude cart-shields or large shields. Although the style of these large shields was nothing special, they still served a defensive function.

These crude cart-shields and wooden shields, made from bundled rough timber, would probably be very difficult for firelocks to penetrate, apart from the great cannons.

Moreover, firelocks could not fire in an arc, so they were likely powerless against the Qing troops hiding behind the wooden shields.

These cart-shields and wooden shields advanced slowly. Among them, only about ten were meticulously crafted cart-shields, with wheels underneath that could be pushed. The shield-defense timber frames in front were also wrapped in several layers of thick cowhide, and a few were even covered with a layer of iron sheeting, with water splashed on top.

These refined cart-shields — not to mention firelocks, even small cannons at a certain distance would probably be unable to shatter or penetrate them. It was also because Abatai commanded the great army of the Bordered White Banner that he had the capability to produce such excellent cart-shields.

Apart from these refined cart-shields, the rest were the crude cart-shields and wooden shields of the Qing troops. A dozen or so thick timbers bound together became one shield. Most of the wooden shields did not even have wheels; they merely had many wooden handles on them, allowing some camp followers and auxiliary soldiers to slowly push these heavy large shields forward.

From where Wang Dou stood looking, there were probably nearly a hundred of these slowly advancing cart-shields and wooden shields, row after row, layer upon layer densely packed. Over seventy of them came from the direction of the south gate, while the remaining cart-shields and wooden shields were pushed toward the eastern city wall. Clearly, the Qing troops intended to attack Shunxiang Fort from two sides simultaneously.

Compared to the scale of the previous Qing assault on the fort, the number of cart-shields this time was clearly several times greater. It seemed the Qing troops' determination to take the fort was not small.

Seeing the dense, layered ranks of Qing cart-shields in the distance, the soldiers and civilians on the wall all involuntarily let out heavy, ragged breaths. Wang Dou's eyes were also filled with a grave expression. He had burned several forts, yet the Qing troops could still produce so many cart-shields. It seemed that after years of campaigning, they had their own wisdom and were a formidable enemy not to be underestimated.

How many Qing troops were hiding behind those cart-shields at this moment? Five niru, ten niru, or even one jalan?

As the cart-shields approached, Wang Dou could already see that they were all made of thick timber. Such cart-shields would probably be impenetrable to the firelocks of the Shunxiang army on the wall. Fortunately, there were a large number of cannons on the wall, and the movement of those large shields was very slow — he could use his cannons against them.

The Qing cart-shields pushed closer and closer. When they were about two hundred paces away, Wang Dou passed the order: "Cannons, prepare!"

Signal flags waved on the gate tower, and voices rose one after another along the wall: "Gunners, prepare!"

At this moment, on the southern wall of the old Shunxiang Fort, fourteen bronze and iron Frankish cannons were mounted, along with twenty small bronze cannons and small iron cannons, and fifteen crouching-tiger cannons. These Frankish cannons were all light artillery pieces, each weighing three to four hundred jin, mounted on tall gun carriages, firing projectiles weighing about two jin, with a range of around three hundred meters. Those small bronze and iron cannons fired projectiles weighing one jin or about eight taels, with a range of over one hundred meters. The remaining crouching-tiger cannons had a range of twenty to thirty paces, which was thirty to forty meters.

Beside each Frankish bronze cannon there were three gunners, and beside each small bronze cannon, small iron cannon, and crouching-tiger cannon there were two gunners. However, except for one gunner who was an original member of the artillery unit, the remaining one or two were gunners temporarily selected from the young and able-bodied auxiliary soldiers, and their combat capability was a cause for concern.

The Qing cart-shields pushed even closer.

"Fire!"

The fourteen Frankish bronze and iron cannons fired in sequence. The cannonballs roared out from the wall, slamming fiercely toward the Qing troops outside the city.

…

For the Qing troops attacking the south gate at this time, Abatai had committed a total of one jalan of fifteen hundred Qing soldiers, including five hundred combat soldiers. In addition, Ombuchuhur, the gūsa ejen of the Tumed Right Banner, had ordered a trusted subordinate general to lead five hundred Mongol soldiers in a coordinated assault, including one hundred fifty armored combat soldiers.

Not only that, Abatai also had that jalan janggin, Yanzha, lead his several dozen armored combat soldiers, all accompanying the attack.

On the eastern side of the old Shunxiang Fort, he also had a jalan janggin lead three niru of nearly a thousand Qing soldiers, together with five hundred outer-subject Mongol soldiers from the Tumed Left Banner, pressing a large number of Great Ming commoners forward to attack from that section of the city wall. The remaining Qing and Mongol troops served as a reserve force, ready to support the battle as the situation demanded.

It was the same old pattern: in the Qing assault, auxiliary soldiers and camp followers pushed the large shields and cart-shields forward. Behind and on both sides of the cart-shields were lightly armored, skilled archers, providing cover for the death soldiers behind them — men wearing two layers of heavy armor, holding shields and great swords — to scale the wall and fight.

Behind the death soldiers were large numbers of Qing auxiliary soldiers and camp followers, carrying earth or pushing small carts loaded with soil and the like, used to fill in trenches and ditches. At the very rear were the elite Heavy Armor Soldiers of each niru, holding the line and waiting for the opportunity to scale the wall and fight.

No matter which side of the Shunxiang Fort wall they attacked, compared to the Manchu soldiers, the Mongol soldiers were more afraid of death. They absolutely refused to lead the charge no matter what, merely hiding in the middle of the assaulting army.

When the cannonballs roared out from the wall, everyone — both on and off the wall — watched the flight trajectories of those cannonballs.

With several booming crashes, a few iron balls struck the cart-shields, smashing them apart and sending them disintegrating. A chorus of miserable screams came from behind the cart-shields. These wooden shields came row after row, and their advancing speed was slow, making them excellent targets for the cannons on the wall. Even though many of the gunners on the wall were novices, after the first round of cannon fire, five cannonballs had each struck a Qing cart-shield.

Although firelocks could hardly penetrate these tall wooden shields made of bundled thick timber, cannonballs weighing several jin could shatter and pierce them. When a cannonball, carrying a shrieking sound, struck these wooden shields, the timbers bound together with cowhide or ropes instantly flew apart in all directions. If that cannonball, after penetrating the wooden shield, struck a Qing soldier's body, it would instantly create a massive bloody hole inside him.

The splinters kicked up also possessed great lethality. Some Qing soldiers screamed and rolled on the ground, their bodies and faces impaled with sharp wooden splinters. The thick timbers, sent flying and bouncing wildly, also caused a certain amount of injury to the Qing soldiers behind and beside them.

Some cannonballs, though they did not hit any target, bounced and rolled violently on the ground. As long as one rolled into or smashed against someone, the least outcome was a broken leg or shattered bone.

Only those ten meticulously crafted cart-shields were unharmed. They had thick cowhide and even iron sheeting. Although one cannonball struck one of those cart-shields, it only smashed a few timbers within its shield defense or caved in a section; those cart-shields still pushed slowly forward.

"Reload!"

This result greatly dissatisfied the artillery unit officer on the wall, and he bellowed the order again.

Immediately, the gunners of each Frankish cannon busily reloaded. They used iron rods to insert into the iron handles of the sub-chambers, removed the spent sub-chambers, and loaded new sub-chambers.

At this time, each Frankish cannon at Shunxiang Fort still had three gunners: one extractor and loader, one aimer, and one firer.

Having learned from the previous loader's experience and lesson, in order to prevent gas leakage and the recurrence of tragedy, among these three gunners, the old veteran gunner always served as the extractor and loader. Only the two newly arrived young auxiliary soldiers served as aimer and firer. Some of the new aimers had no concept of mathematics whatsoever and did not know how to adjust range and aim; the old gunner also had to serve as the aimer. Only the firer's role required little technical skill.

As a result, the reloading speed of the Frankish cannons on the wall was inevitably much slower than before.

With great difficulty, the fourteen Frankish cannons on the wall were loaded with sub-chambers again and adjusted and aimed.

The artillery unit officer waved the command flag in his hand once more and shouted the order: "Fire!"

With a series of thunderous booms, smoke rose from the wall. The fourteen Frankish bronze and iron cannons fired in sequence again. The results this time were not bad: six cannonballs struck their targets. Four shattered several of the advancing Qing wooden shields, killing and wounding some of the Qing soldiers hiding behind them. Another two cannonballs struck those meticulously crafted Qing cart-shields, caving in the shield defense of one cart-shield and wounding some Qing soldiers behind it. The shield defense on another cart-shield was also blasted open with a large gap, losing its protective effect.

But the results of those fourteen Frankish cannons on the wall were only that. The remaining rows upon rows, layers upon layers of Qing wooden shields still rolled inexorably toward the base of the wall.

Seeing that their side's protection was effective, Abatai and the others outside the city revealed smiles on their faces, while the Ming troops on the wall wore grave expressions.

Very quickly, those Qing wooden shields and cart-shields pushed to within a distance of just over one hundred paces from the city wall. At this point, it was the turn of the twenty small bronze cannons and small iron cannons on the wall to show their prowess.

To increase the range and accuracy of the small cannons, at this time these small cannons were also set on tall gun carriages just like the Frankish cannons, and the same was true for the crouching-tiger cannons. The reason crouching-tiger cannons had to be fixed to the ground with cannon-hoop foot-posts during battle was that the cannon body was too light, only a few dozen jin, and it easily jumped and rolled from the recoil when fired. If a heavy gun carriage was added, this problem would not exist. Of course, in field battles, if a crouching-tiger cannon was fitted with a gun carriage, it would certainly not be as convenient and easy to pull and move as when placed on horseback.

The twenty small cannons on the wall had long been loaded with one-jin projectiles and the corresponding gunpowder, and the touchholes were also primed with fuses.

"Fire!"

Again, a series of booming crashes. With the shrieking of cannonballs, Qing wooden shields and cart-shields outside the city were struck from time to time. These small cannons were useless against the meticulously crafted Qing cart-shields, but they were very effective against the crude wooden shields the Qing troops pushed forward. When hit by these cannonballs, the wooden shields made of bundled thick timbers likewise shattered into pieces, and the Qing soldiers behind them were killed or wounded one after another.

In just one round of bombardment, eight Qing wooden shields were shattered, exposing the battered and disheveled Qing soldiers behind them.

At the same time, the large rockets — flying spears, flying blades, flying swords — on the wall also fired toward the outside of the city. These large rockets were about six chi long, either shaped like a sword, like a blade, or with a three-edged rocket head. The entire body weighed over two jin. Each rocket tube contained thirty arrows. Once ignited, they could travel two hundred paces, but were most lethal within one hundred paces.

After the first round of bombardment from those small cannons, shouted orders rose one after another on the wall: "Flying spears and flying swords, prepare!"

The units of Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie defending the southern wall had each distributed a portion of the large rockets to every post. At this moment, on both sides of the wall, the firelock soldiers each held over a dozen large rocket tubes, steadied and aimed on supporting stands. Under the shouted orders of their respective post officers and unit officers, they fired the rockets toward the outside of the city in volleys.

The launch of the large rockets sounded like thunder. Each time a large rocket tube exploded and launched, a cloud of smoke billowed up. The several dozen rockets inside the tube, trailing fiery smoke trails, shrieked sharply as they shot toward the Qing troops outside the city.

Those rockets flew high and far, their force like a sudden rainstorm and fierce wind. In just the first wave of rocket fire, the southern wall launched twenty tubes, over six hundred arrows. From the front to the rear of the Qing formation, a chorus of miserable screams immediately erupted.

The Qing troops outside the city were numerous. Those arrow showers came down covering the sky and earth. During flight, no one knew the direction of those arrows. When they fell from high altitude, although the Qing soldiers with shields hurriedly raised their shields to cover themselves, those unarmored and shieldless Qing auxiliary soldiers and camp followers pushing shields or carrying earth and pushing carts suffered terribly. Arrows were everywhere; they had nowhere to dodge and could only watch helplessly as the arrows falling from the sky pierced through their bodies. Some unlucky ones were struck by seven or eight arrows on their bodies.

Some lightly armored archers suffered the same fate. Most of these archers did not carry shields. Although they wore cotton armor lined with iron plates, many were still impaled and killed or wounded by the arrows falling from the sky. Even if the arrows that struck some did not hit vital areas, most were still injured and fell to the ground.

Among those death soldiers or Heavy Armor Soldiers raising their shields, under the sky-filling arrow rain, if their shield coverage was not adequate, even though these men wore several layers of heavy armor, some were still struck by several arrows and lost their combat effectiveness.

By a preliminary estimate, this single round of rockets from the wall of Shunxiang Fort had caused nearly a hundred casualties among the Qing troops below the city.

Over a dozen crude large wooden shields, having lost the auxiliary soldiers pushing them, toppled feebly to the ground.

Seeing the might of their rockets, a wave of cheers erupted on the wall of Shunxiang Fort. On the gate tower, Wang Dou exchanged smiles with Lin Daofu and the others beside him, deeply satisfied with the power of their side's rockets.

With the horns and war drums, the Qing troops outside the city straightened their formations, and those wooden shields and shield-carts once again slowly advanced as before.

Up to now, Wang Dou estimated that of the seventy-odd Qing wooden shields and shield-carts heading toward the south of the city, twenty had already been destroyed; it was only a pity that the dozen or so crude large wooden Qing shields that had toppled over just now were once again raised upright and pushed forward.

The sound was like thunder, and the large rocket-launchers on the wall still fired tube after tube outward; each tube of rockets fired sent dozens of sharp, whistling arrows toward the outside of the city. It was only a pity that Shunxiang Fort did not have many rockets either, and could no longer fire volleys and scatter shots as before. Still, with every tube of rockets fired, Qing troops outside the city were from time to time shot dead or wounded.

Those Qing troops had at last tasted the power of Great Ming arrows, and moreover, due to the strength of technology, the power of the Great Ming rockets was far greater than the scattered shooting of their own archers.

At this moment, the twenty small bronze cannons on the wall were loaded again with new shot and powder.

"Fire!"

Accompanied by the roar of the cannons, shell after shell howled toward the outside of the city; this time, ten of the Qing wooden shields were blasted apart, and more than ten Qing troops behind them were killed or wounded.

……

Abatai's dragon-brocade banner woven with gold had already moved to a spot over three hundred and fifty meters from the south gate of Shunxiang Fort to observe the battle; this was a dangerous distance, but Abatai paid it no mind, only watching the battle situation over by the city with a calm expression. Beside him, several drummers beat the war drums with earth-shaking force.

A high platform had been built here, from which one could clearly see the movements ahead.

Seeing the battle situation ahead, Shanba, the Gūsa-i Ejen of the Tumed Left Banner, furrowed his brow, while Omubu Chuhur, the Gūsa-i Ejen of the Tumed Banner Wing, was pale-faced and muttered, "The Ming army's cannons and rockets are too deadly; I fear our troops will suffer no small casualties!"

Abatai said, "The Ming troops here are indeed fierce and different from the rest, but our Great Qing warriors have also pressed close to the city wall, and their cannons and rockets have lost their power!"

As he spoke, he suddenly saw several riders racing over from the Qing troops attacking the eastern wall of Shunxiang Fort, raising a cloud of dust over the dry yellow earth. The riders galloped up close to Abatai; one of them was the personal general of the Jalān-i Janggin commanding the assault on the eastern wall, and he urgently reported to Abatai: "Prince Raoyu, attacking the eastern wall is extremely difficult; your slaves beg the Prince to abandon the assault from that side of the wall!"

According to his account, on the eastern side of this Ming city wall, there were pitted and uneven earthen holes everywhere, which grew deeper the closer they got to the wall, and there were also many small walls among them; the shield-carts simply could not be pushed forward. Although they had forced those Ming commoners to carry earth and fill the holes, the Ming troops on the wall had, regrettably, transferred many cannons and rocket-launchers from other sections of the wall. Under the bombardment of their cannons, those large wooden shield-carts that halted and could not advance before the earthen holes became excellent targets, allowing the Ming troops on the wall to take their time aiming and smash them one by one, and the warriors behind the wooden shields suffered no small casualties.

The Ming troops on the wall paid no heed whatsoever to the lives or deaths of those Ming commoners below the wall, simply continuing to fire cannons and rockets. Under the fire of the cannons and rockets from the wall, the Ming people carrying earth below were also thrown into great chaos; they would rather be killed by the Qing troops behind them than face the Ming army's cannons and rockets on the wall again.

Moreover, with those earthen holes, the covering archers behind the Qing troops became mere decorations, posing no threat at all to the Ming troops on the wall. Even if they advanced to within a few dozen paces of the city, the Ming still had their sharp firearms. The Jalān-i Janggin leading the assault estimated that filling those earthen holes and trenches on the eastern wall would take three days, and by the worst calculation, it could even take as long as five days. They would also have to endure heavy casualties among their men.

Therefore, the Jalān-i Janggin begged Abatai to abandon the assault from the eastern wall.

Hearing the Qing soldier speak thus, Shanba, the Gūsa-i Ejen of the Tumed Left Banner, loudly said, "Prince Raoyu, Lord Feimo speaks reason. I have also gone to look at that eastern wall; it is indeed extremely difficult to assault. Why torment and lose the warriors of our army? Fortunately, our troops have already pressed close to this south gate wall; would it not be better to abandon the assault from the east!"

Among the Qing troops attacking the eastern wall were five hundred Mongol soldiers of the Tumed Left Banner. Hearing the personal general of Jalān-i Janggin Feimo say this, Shanba, the Gūsa-i Ejen of the Tumed Left Banner, also grew afraid; he was unwilling to lose the warriors of his own banner for nothing.

Abatai also fell into thought. He truly could not afford to drag this out outside the city. Fortunately, his main army had already pressed close to the southern wall; it would be better to press on in one surge and capture this Ming army fort from the south gate.

He bellowed loudly: "Pass the order! Have Feimo withdraw his troops from the eastern side of the wall and join the assault on the south. Let our Great Qing soldiers, with the force of fierce tigers, take this Ming fort today!"