[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-391":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205680,1561,"Chapter 391: A Tough Nut to Crack, Not to Be Provoked (Part 1)","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-391",391,"\u003Cp>Those Chuang army starving soldiers scrambled and crawled back in retreat, and very soon the north bank of the Jinshui River was completely cleared,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>not a single standing figure in sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These starving soldiers had no military training; they fought purely on a surge of hot blood — when the blood was up they were fierce as wolves and tigers, but once the blood\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>receded they scattered in a single breath. They could not compare with the Shunxiang Army, nor even with ordinary government troops. However,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Xun knew the Chuang army still had moves in reserve — it could not be just this one wave of attack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure enough, after those starving soldiers' figures dispersed, the north bank of the Jinshui River revealed dense, tightly packed rows of shields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Xun's face darkened. He lowered the hand holding his telescope and shouted, \"Matchlock soldiers, lower your face masks.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Lower face masks.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The officers bellowed the order, and amid a metallic rustling sound, one by one the Shunxiang Army matchlockmen\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>lowered the iron face masks attached to their eight-petaled iron-tipped helmets. Instantly the scene behind the rampart wall transformed, revealing\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a great host of ox-headed and horse-faced demons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those masks, every one of them, were like evil ghosts. If seen at night, they would surely give one a fright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Take cover.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only the soldiers under Gao Xun's command, but also the troops of that vanguard battalion, all crouched well behind the crenellations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They lacked the Shunxiang Army's superior equipment — many did not even have iron helmets, let alone\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>iron face masks to protect their faces — and could only try their best to shrink their bodies behind the earthen wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone could see clearly now: on the north bank of the Jinshui River, behind those Chuang army shield-bearers, densely\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>packed were soldiers holding fire-arrow tubes. It seemed they too were about to attack using fire arrows. It appeared\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the fire arrows they held outnumbered those of the government troops behind the rampart wall by several times. Perhaps every department and\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>county in Henan Prefecture had had their fire-arrow stockpiles emptied by them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heaven and earth seemed to fall silent for a moment. Then, like rolling thunderclaps across the sky, the north bank of the Jinshui River erupted with\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>billow after billow of dense smoke, as if a sky-covering rain of arrows surged from behind those Chuang army shield-bearers,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>sweeping forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The arrows flew straight, or arced diagonally, or plunged down from the sky, instantly blanketing the entire area of the rampart\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At once, on the earthen wall and on the ground inside the horse-blocking wall, fire arrows were thickly embedded like the quills of a hedgehog.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The arrows were gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wave after wave of howling arrows also shot into the city wall of the North Gate Pass, or flew into the city itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The brick-and-stone battlements and the timber-structured city towers resounded with thud after thud, skewered by arrow\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>after arrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The defenders on the city wall either pressed tightly behind the crenellations or raised their shields, sheltering from these wave upon wave\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>of arrow storms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou also ducked behind a crenellation, watching as puff after puff of light smoke burst from the embrasure beside him, and several dozen fire arrows shot in\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>in rapid succession.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Judging by the number of arrows, this single volley of fire arrows from the Chuang army likely amounted to over ten thousand\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>shafts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately they were defending a city, with the walls for cover. If they were in the open field, with arrows this dense,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>many would have been turned into hedgehogs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as the thunderous roar of the fire arrows subsided, the drumbeats on the Chuang army's side thundered out again — dong dong dong. Then a great shout\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>rose from that side, and beside the Chuang army's fire-arrow troops, wave after dark wave of starving soldiers carrying earth-filled sacks surged forward\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an instant, several stretches of the Jinshui River were again submerged by those starving soldiers wrapped in red headscarves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fire arrows, loose!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the thunderous roar, the government troops on this side also loosed their fire arrows. Under the howling rain of arrows, the Chuang army soldiers\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>charging onto the south bank collapsed in swathes once again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those remaining, their faces flushed crimson, bellowed wildly and charged forward with reckless abandon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Very quickly, wave after dark wave of the human tide surged to within a few dozen paces of the rampart wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Matchlockmen, prepare!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Prepare!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Shiqi, the First Company Commander of Gao Xun's First Battalion, also bellowed the order. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, at the\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiukouzi stockade in Xingtang County, he had pledged his service to Gao Xun. Now he had become a company commander in the new Shunxiang Army. The man who once snatched\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the rice gruel from his own wife and daughter to drink now owned one hundred mu of land in the Eastern Circuit and a large residence. His wife\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and children all lived good lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With such a stark contrast in life — the heaven of the Eastern Circuit versus the hellish existence outside — Yang Shiqi, like the other\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>officers, was a fervent supporter of the Wang Dou faction. There seemed to be a phenomenon: the later\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>one joined the Wang Dou faction, the more zealous and loyal one became, striving by every possible means to demonstrate one's\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>loyalty before Wang Dou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like the wives of other officers, Yang Shiqi's wife also followed daily behind the titled lady,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou's principal wife, Xie Xiuniang, who was known throughout the Eastern Circuit as the \"Compassionate Mother.\" This great host of officers' wives\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>daily provided relief to disaster victims and comforted orphans and widows, and their renown was exceedingly high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Shiqi’s squad was a matchlock unit, guarding a section of the earthen wall’s crenellations. At his shouted order,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the matchlock soldiers under his command all steadied their guns more carefully atop the embrasures, concentrating intently on aiming at the charging\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>bandits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Sheng flexed his index finger slightly, stiffened numb by the cold. The weather was truly freezing. Although he wore warm\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>woolen gloves, each finger inside the gloves was still frozen cold and rigid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, when Wang Dou attacked Zhuozhou, Chen Sheng, who had been captured by Qing troops, was rescued. During his days in captivity,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he had suffered every misery. Coupled with the deaths of his father and younger brother, Chen Sheng bore a blood-deep\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>hatred for the Tatars. At the time Wang Dou assaulted Yuetuo’s camp, Chen Sheng had even volunteered to join the ditch-filling daredevil squads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shortly after following the Shunxiang Army into Bao’anzhou, Chen Sheng brought his family — one wife, one concubine, two sons,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and one daughter — over from Anqing. For the time being, he ran some small trade. After the Eastern Route’s grand land reclamation, he and his family were settled\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>in a garrison farmstead in Huailai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the Shunxiang Army recruited new soldiers, because he was proficient with firearms, decent at hand-to-hand combat, and had the experience of filling\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>ditches at Zhuozhou, he smoothly became a member of the Shunxiang Army. Chen Xu, who enlisted at the same time, entered the\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Logistics Division. Although Chen Xu’s daughter, Chen Suniang, had married Wu Zhengchun, a Company Commander of the New Army, Chen Xu still had to start\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>from the rank of a common soldier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Wang Dou’s regulations, these new army soldiers could retire after five years. Upon retirement, they would receive Eastern Route military household\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>registration, be allotted fifty mu of cultivated land, along with draft oxen and farming tools. The armor and weapons they used in daily combat would also be passed down\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>within their families to own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike some new army soldiers, Chen Sheng did not plan to retire then. He intended to serve professionally, striving\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to become a leading officer in the Shunxiang Army, so that he could kill every last Tatar and avenge his family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, after five years of military service, he could become a military household and be allocated land. Fifty mu of land would allow his\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>family to live in peace and security, with no worries about the future. Not to mention the rewards for killing enemies\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>during daily combat, which made his family’s life even more comfortable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What greatly interested Chen Sheng was that the State-Founding General intended to implement a new system in the Eastern Route, namely\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>using land to reward military merit. The silver rewards for killing enemies could be converted into corresponding land credits. Every\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>five years, these would be allocated, granting the corresponding land as reward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although these lands could only be beyond the frontier — the fields within the Eastern Route’s territory could not be granted as rewards — it still\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>aroused widespread interest among the officers and soldiers of the Shunxiang Army. Some veterans who had fought for many years had acquired so much\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>gold and silver that they had long lost interest in them, but land was a different matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The land of each military household in the Eastern Route could not be bought or sold; it had to be passed down through the generations. Transferring or trading it\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>was a major crime. Moreover, if anyone had a sudden urgent need for money, they could apply for official loan assistance. The money houses\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>established within the Shunxiang Army were very willing to help, so military households had no need to sell off their land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the Chinese people’s desire for land is limitless; everyone wants to own more fields. Therefore,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou opportunely introduced that system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The land rewarded for military merit could be said to be limitless. Within the Eastern Route, a single military household could only own fifty\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>mu of land, and an officer one hundred mu. But beyond the frontier, if one possessed military merit, the rewarded land could\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>eventually reach several thousand mu, even tens of thousands of mu — just thinking about it made one’s heart stir. Although all this land was subject to tax\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end it would reach several thousand mu, even tens of thousands of mu — just thinking about it made one's heart stir, though all this land would have to be taxed by the mu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Sheng was of course stirred. He, too, often thought that if one day his great vengeance was achieved, and he then\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>owned a vast estate and a huge pasture beyond the frontier, life would be truly wonderful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Sheng was now just an ordinary matchlock soldier; such beautiful prospects could only be imagined for now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Chen Sheng was confident he could reach this goal. He himself had the academic background of a Licentiate candidate, giving him an advantage\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>over many new recruits. He also had a foundation in martial arts — he knew hand-to-hand combat and how to shoot a gun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After entering the Shunxiang Army, he trained assiduously and was now considered a sharpshooter in his unit. As long as he earned\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>military merit, he would certainly be promoted quickly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the crenellation beside Chen Sheng stood his good friend Ju Yiwu. Ju Yiwu was a delicate-looking young\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>man. Because he was often expressionless and stern in demeanor, he had earned the nickname “Cold-Faced Ju” within the squad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ju Yiwu went all day without uttering a word and rarely spoke to others about his own affairs. Only Chen Sheng knew\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>that his family, too, had been slaughtered by the Tatars. He harbored a bone-deep hatred for the Tatars, and all he thought about day and night was\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>revenge. That was why this Liaodong craftsman, though skilled at making firearms, had not entered the military workshop but instead joined\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He said his family had likewise been slaughtered to the last by the Tatars, so he bore a bone-deep hatred for the Tatars and thought of nothing else all day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like Chen Sheng, Ju Yiwu was also a sharpshooter. Two equally taciturn men, they were\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>rare and intimate bosom friends.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, both were using breech-loading Lumi muskets. Within the Shunxiang Army, each Company Commander was allocated\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>over a hundred Lumi muskets, distributed to some of the unit’s sharpshooters for use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding breech-loading guns, that is, self-igniting muskets, the Shunxiang Army had long summarized the rules for their use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The misfire rate was high, so they could not be used in formation field battles. However, they could be widely used in defending cities and walls, because\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>there was ample time to pull the trigger again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The misfire rate was high, so they could not be used in formation field battles, but they could be widely used in city and wall defense, because—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>there was ample time to pull the trigger again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they were to fight in open-field formation, Chen Sheng and the others would also be holding firelocks, so he would effectively have two guns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those starving soldiers of the Chuang army still charged forward with frenzied roars, and one could see their twisted, savage faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifty paces!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fire!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The deafening roar of matchlocks erupted, and a great swath of the charging, starving Chuang soldiers collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Sheng had aimed at a man in the Chuang army crowd who looked like a picket officer urging them on, wearing a white felt\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>hat and a breastplate over his body, brandishing a waist saber and shouting wildly. Chen Sheng pulled the trigger, and his flintlock Lu\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>mi gun spat out a fierce flash of fire; a long arrow of blood shot out from the Chuang army picket officer's chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although this picket officer wore a breastplate — that is, a chest guard — it was the kind of cotton\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>armor without embedded iron plates. Even the double-layered heavy armor of the Qing soldiers could not stop the Shunxiang army's firelocks, let alone this simple cotton\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The picket officer staggered backward and fell, clutching his wound as he tumbled to the ground; he did not die immediately,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but cried out loudly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After firing, Chen Sheng immediately retreated, yielding his position to the matchlock soldiers behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On this front section of the rampart wall, two hundred Shunxiang army matchlock soldiers were defending, arranged in four ranks, forming\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a continuous stream of firepower.\u003C\u002Fp>",2385,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","d215fcbce6fec511141001c4003addefeee3e21ac266f08621015f08eecd663c","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-392","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-390",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]