Chapter 393: A Tough Nut to Crack, Not to Be Provoked (Part 2)

Men shouted and horses screamed — everywhere rose the panicked neighing of startled mounts.

Through the spyglasses and gunner’s sights they could see that most of those Chuang Army cavalry still stood motionless over there, so no matter how the old Chuang camps and horse troops hid behind the starving foot soldiers, no matter how thinly they spread their formations, shells kept howling over.

Wave after wave, vicious and precise, they smashed down on their heads, sending human legs and horse legs flying.

“Steady!” Seeing the waves of panic rippling through the horse troops beside him, Liu Fangliang bellowed.

That hateful Shunxiang Army — their cannons did not hit the starving soldiers, did not hit the foot soldiers, but picked out his own old camp and elite cavalry to strike. Every wave of shells that howled over inflicted no small casualties on his horse troops. He had to know, these elite riders were the very foundation of the Chuang camp’s household; losing even one at random would pain every Chuang Army general for a long while.

Yet Liu Fangliang dared not retreat, because the Chuang King had not yet sounded the gongs to withdraw.

Nor did Liu Fangliang dare take down his central army great banner. In ancient warfare, the central army great banner was the most vital thing. If the great banner fell, it meant the command structure had collapsed, and the blow to morale and fighting spirit was hard to put into words. These ten thousand-odd men might crumble on the spot.

But with that great banner standing there, it made the best target, and more and more Shunxiang Army cannons concentrated their fire this way.

The red-barbarian cannons held the advantage of long range; within one or two li everything lay inside their bombardment zone, and with spyglass guidance, no matter how deeply Liu Fangliang and the others hid, they could be picked out at once — so long as the great banner remained.

Another solid iron ball weighing over five jin, carrying a dozen smaller projectiles, came howling and smashing down. Amid the crack and snap of shattering bone, the troop of cavalry in front of Liu Fangliang was blasted into a spray of blood mist; severed limbs and broken arms shot upward, and that troop was nearly wiped out.

That solid iron ball bounced once and charged viciously toward Zhang Yi’s horse. With a boom, a great hole was torn open through the belly of Zhang Yi’s mount, and his body was hurled flying out, landing flat on his face like a dog eating dirt.

The Shunxiang Army’s cannons showed their true power: within their range, no place was safe. Whether common soldier or general, anyone could have his life snatched away by a cannonball in an instant. These horse troops had already spread out by unit, yet still men kept suffering — especially here in their old camp, which was the most dangerous place of all.

“This fight can’t go on, withdraw quickly…” The scene before him was a wreck of carnage. His personal guards helped Zhang Yi struggle to his feet, and when he saw everything before him, his face turned the color of earth. Ignoring all else, he shouted at Liu Fangliang. His teeth were clenched tight, cold sweat streamed down, and his left arm was already broken.

“Right, withdraw quickly…”

Tian Jianxiu and Gao Yigong fought desperately to control their horses, their faces likewise showing alarm. Just now they had nearly brushed past death, and they were still badly shaken. Fighting the Shunxiang Army made a feeling of helplessness rise from deep within them. Taking hits without being able to strike back — this fight truly could not be fought.

Liu Fangliang’s face was iron-blue. He stared intently toward the North Pass and forced a sentence through clenched teeth: “The Chuang King has not yet ordered the troops to withdraw.”

The cannon threat aside, he still had a worry in his heart. He knew the Shunxiang Army’s tactics: after the cannon bombardment, it was extremely likely that cavalry would come out from the city, and then his losses would be even greater.

Through the spyglass, Chen Yongfu saw the situation over at the Chuang camp and could not help roaring with laughter: “Good, hit them hard, shoot them hard, blast them to death.” “Our officers and men have taken too many losses.” Li Zicheng also saw with his own eyes the state of the vanguard troops assaulting the city. Battle reports kept coming in; hearing that his old-camp troops and elite cavalry had suffered heavy losses, Li Zicheng felt as though a knife were slicing his heart. This probe of Wang Dou’s fighting strength and tactics had cost him far too much — especially the old-camp troops, lost utterly without meaning.

Liu Zongmin ground his teeth: “Not daring to fight face-to-face, relying on powerful cannons to strike from far away — what kind of hero is that?” Niu Jinxing glanced at Li Yan and said, “Chuang King, our righteous army’s probing has already yielded results. That Wang Dou army indeed has keen sights and sharp cannons. If we fight them head-on, our righteous army’s losses will be too great. The art of war says: ‘I concentrate into one, the enemy divides into ten — thus I use ten to attack his one.’ This Wang Dou is formidable; our righteous army will not fight him. He defends the North Pass; we shall attack the remaining parts of Luoyang City. If Wang Dou’s troops come out of the pass to relieve them, our righteous army will surround them with starving soldiers. In the end his troops are few and cannot outlast us in attrition.” The generals around Li Zicheng all said, “Master Niu speaks reason. That is the way — avoid the strong and strike the weak, do not fight that Wang Dou…”

Li Yan fell silent. The fire-cannon and fire-arrow strategy he had proposed seemed to have produced no obvious effect.

Li Zicheng gazed toward the North Pass fortifications and said slowly, “Withdraw the troops. Have Mingyuan and the others come back.” Watching the Chuang soldiers scatter like the tide, a great cheer rose from the top of the North Pass wall. Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu ordered the officers and men at the goat-horse wall to go out beyond the wall, pursue, and sweep the battlefield. Seeing the government troops coming after them, those Chuang soldiers fled even faster, abandoning without a care the firearms and equipment they had left behind, along with the corpses and the badly wounded.

In the end those Chuang soldiers returned to Li Zicheng’s great formation, and the pursuing government troops also withdrew.

Horn calls rang out, and the vast mass of Chuang Army troops retreated, turning back to their own encampment. The battle on the tenth day of the first month thus came to an end.

After the battlefield was cleared, the tallied results showed over two thousand Chuang soldiers killed or wounded. According to Luoyang City’s standard — “five taels of silver for shooting dead one bandit, two taels of silver for wounding one bandit” — the reward silver here was not bad at all.

What delighted Wang Dou was the thirty grand-general Frankish cannons the routed Chuang soldiers had left in front of their position. Although some parts of these cannons were scattered about, they could be used as soon as they were mounted on carriages. Wang Dou decided to keep them in his army as his spoils of war and haul them back to the Eastern Circuit after the campaign.

If he took part in the Battle of Songshan, he would haul all these grand-general Frankish cannons along as well.

Frankish cannons and red-barbarian cannons each have their strengths and weaknesses. For dealing with roving bandits, Frankish cannons are actually more useful — after all, they fire rapidly and dissipate heat quickly, and the enemy has no long-range cannons to speak of.

In Wang Dou’s Eastern Circuit territory, he had fewer than thirty grand-general Frankish cannons in total. The various cities needed these cannons for defense, and the journey was long, so Wang Dou had only brought ten red-barbarian cannons with him.

He would make the fullest use of their range advantage.

With these thirty grand-general cannons that could reach roughly one li, Wang Dou was even more confident about fighting the roving bandits.

As for gunners, that was no problem. Over three hundred men from Zhao Jiang’s cannon battalion had come; the ten red-barbarian cannons had only used a hundred men. These gunners trained hard and were skilled at handling red-barbarian cannons; handling Frankish cannons was even less of a problem.

When news of the great victory at North Pass spread, the whole city of Luoyang rejoiced, and the sound of firecrackers, gongs, and drums never ceased throughout the city. The names of the Shunxiang Army and the Vanguard Battalion shook Luoyang with awe.

Inside the city, the Prince of Fu, Army Preparation Vice Commissioner Wang Yinchang, former Minister of War Lü Weiqi, and the others were overjoyed. They summoned Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu and feasted them day after day, and the reward silver for killing the enemy was also quickly delivered.

Nearly ten thousand taels of silver — Wang Dou generously gave half to Chen Yongfu.

Chen Yongfu also distributed it downward. Having obtained so much silver so easily, the Vanguard Battalion from top to bottom grew far more determined to kill the enemy.

The Prince of Fu and the others seized the chance to spread propaganda, and the desire of Luoyang’s soldiers and civilians to kill the enemy likewise swelled rapidly.

However, regarding the thirty grand-general cannons Wang Dou had captured, Army Preparation Vice Commissioner Wang Yinchang, Prefect of Henan Prefecture Kang Menggui, and the others all harbored different thoughts. Thirty grand-general cannons! Luoyang City itself had only eight grand-general cannons.

If they could obtain these thirty grand-general cannons, the defensive strength of Luoyang City or Kaifeng Prefecture would be greatly reinforced from now on.

Wang Dou was of course unwilling to give these cannons away. His attitude was very firm, and Wang Yinchang and the others could do nothing about it. Fortunately, Wang Dou was still staying in Luoyang, so these cannons would still serve as part of the city’s defensive strength. The question of the cannons’ ownership could be looked at slowly later on.

After the great victory at North Pass, Luoyang’s soldiers and civilians celebrated for two days. After the tenth day of the first month, the Chuang camp seemed to fall silent for two days. Only on the eleventh and twelfth days did several dozen roving riders come beneath the walls of West Pass and South Pass to exchange shots with the men on the walls, returning to their stockade at nightfall.

Wang Dou knew that in Henan Prefecture only Luoyang had not yet fallen. Li Zicheng had nowhere to forage; to feed his nearly two hundred thousand “great army,” he was determined to take Luoyang City. There would certainly be follow-up moves, so Wang Dou ordered the night scouts to keep close watch.

Judging from the intelligence coming back from all sides, Li Zicheng was building siege equipment on a large scale in every camp. He would surely attack again soon, and when he did, it would be on a massive scale.

Thirteenth day of the first month, fourteenth year of the Chongzhen reign.

The sky was overcast, but above Luoyang City the air shook with battle cries. Looking down from the Luoyang city walls, on all sides stretched an unbroken sea of army camp banners. Wave after wave of roving bandits, a dark, crushing mass, surged toward the city, as if a tide trying to burst through an embankment.

After halting for several days, Li Zicheng began a large-scale assault on the city, and from the start it was on an unprecedented scale.

Aside from several tens of thousands of men encircling North Pass, he concentrated his forces and launched his main attack on Luoyang’s East Pass, South Pass, and West Pass. Each wave of Chuang soldiers assaulting those three passes numbered several thousand men. The bandit army’s advantage in numbers was fully displayed.

At mid-morning, around nine o’clock, Wang Dou received word: “What? Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai abandoned East Pass and South Pass and withdrew inside Luoyang City?”

Wang Dou flew into a rage: “Useless fools.”

Besides defending Luoyang’s East Gate and South Gate, Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai were also supposed to defend Luoyang’s East Pass and West Pass. By Wang Dou’s reckoning, no matter what, the two of them should have been able to hold East Pass and South Pass for a few days. He never imagined that the roving bandits had attacked for only a short while and they already could not hold on.

Wang Dou had received no request for reinforcements from them, yet they had retreated on their own — how could this not make Wang Dou explode with fury?

Chen Yongfu was also surging with rage: “Those two rats, Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai — what are they doing?”

The retreat of Liu Jianyi and Luo Tai was very disadvantageous for North Pass, because the Chuang soldiers could now attack the inner perimeter of the North Pass goat-horse wall from the north side of East Pass, exposing a huge gap in the flank defense of the goat-horse wall garrison. Truly, there is nothing to fear from godlike enemies, only from pig-like allies.

Wang Dou suddenly grew calm: “It seems Liu and Luo have already made up their minds to go over to the bandits. They have not surrendered yet only because they want to defend for a few more days to gain capital in the bandits’ eyes and win important posts. But within five days they will certainly surrender. Commander Chen, we must be on our guard.”

Chen Yongfu said, “General Wang, should we quickly dispatch troops to retake East Pass and South Pass?”

Wang Dou shook his head: “Relieving them now is meaningless. Besides, we must not disperse our forces.”

The two conferred briefly and ordered all the defending troops outside the goat-horse wall to withdraw back into the pass fortifications.

Very soon another piece of news arrived: because East Pass and South Pass had been abandoned, the defending troops at West Pass had likewise abandoned their pass fortifications and swiftly retreated back inside the West Gate. The Chuang Army quickly occupied East Pass, South Pass, and West Pass, and their offensive temporarily halted.

At the beginning of the noon hour, Army Preparation Vice Commissioner Wang Yinchang urgently summoned Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu to discuss military affairs.