Chapter 396: The Bloody Offensive and Defensive Battle of Luoyang City (Middle)

"The bandits' cannon fire is ferocious. Go quickly to the North Pass and request reinforcements — have General Wang bring those thirty Grand General cannons over."

On the gate tower of Luoyang's west gate, Military Defense Vice Commissioner Wang Yinchang barked this order to one of his personal guards.

Indeed, at this moment the mighty pass of Luoyang was almost entirely shrouded under enemy cannon fire, and the western face of Luoyang was no exception.

Looking down from the gate tower, the massed swarming bandit besiegers seemed to stretch to the very edge of the sky. At least from where Wang Yinchang stood, the entire frontage west of Luoyang city, all the way to the line-of-sight corner of the north wall and the corner of the south wall, was everywhere filled with running, shouting men and horses of the Chuang army.

Above the wall and below it, gunpowder smoke hung thick; cannonballs and arrows flew. Amid the colossal din, rockets were exchanged, and cannon traded fire with cannon.

The number of siege cannons the Chuang bandits possessed exceeded anything the soldiers and civilians of Luoyang had imagined. Even more unthinkable to Wang Yinchang was that the Chuang bandits had brought several hundred cannons with them.

Admittedly, there were not many Grand General cannons firing five-jin shot with a range of one li — only a dozen or so in total against Luoyang city, and merely five directed at the west gate, a consequence of Wang Dou capturing thirty Grand General Frankish cannons a few days earlier.

However, Frankish cannons firing one-jin shot or three-jin shot, with an effective range of about two hundred paces, numbered as many as three or four hundred. Over a hundred of them were arrayed against the western section of Luoyang's wall.

One must understand that the entire main city of Luoyang possessed only a hundred-odd cannons of all types, and the cannons deployed on the west wall numbered just over thirty. Thus the firepower of the government troops was actually outmatched by that of the roving bandits.

Heaven knows the roving bandits had grown clever again. Before positioning their cannons, they first paid a price in many starving soldiers, piling up numerous earthen platforms within the range of their own cannon fire. In front of these platforms were earthen mounds serving as protective walls, with gaps left in the middle to place the cannons, each like a crenel.

In this way the roving bandits' cannons had cover. The earthen platforms rose several chi above the ground, and with Luoyang's walls being so high, they could elevate their firing angle without any worry of hitting their own assaulting troops ahead, thus providing extremely smooth cover for the starving soldiers filling the moat.

More importantly, Frankish cannons were famously fast-firing, able to loose many rounds in a short time. Their hundred-plus cannons bombarded incessantly. Each wave was a hundred-plus solid iron balls of varying sizes howling in — it could be described as swift bursts like thunder.

Even though Luoyang's walls were solid, roughly four zhang high and entirely faced with large blue bricks, the continuous pounding of these solid iron balls sent brick and stone flying wildly, making one worry whether these walls of Luoyang would eventually be battered down.

Under the fierce cannon fire, the crenels were nearly impossible to stand at. Many officers, soldiers, and militia on the west wall were wounded by flying stone shards kicked up when dense cannon fire struck the parapet. Though the artillerymen on the wall strove to return fire, the effect was far from good.

The cannoneers in the Chuang army were all former Ming artillerymen who had gone over to the enemy from various places. Their quality was roughly the same; no one's training was markedly more proficient than another's. Even though the prefectural city's cannoneers were somewhat better trained, facing the bandits' superior firepower, their counter-fire was extremely arduous.

Moreover, the Chuang army cannoneers only needed to aim at the wall and bombard it — a large target, easy to hit.

Conversely, the government cannoneers on the wall had to aim at the cannons on those earthen platforms and bombard them. Even though those cannons were placed two hundred paces away, hitting the earthen platforms at this distance, let alone the cannons inside them, severely tested their skill.

Reality also proved that, given the training of Luoyang's cannoneers, hitting the earthen platforms was very difficult. Although occasionally a cannonball did strike a platform and silence the cannon there, the proportion was too small to alter the overall situation.

Wang Yinchang was responsible for defending the west gate. He and a group of officials and officers had long since dared not remain inside the gate tower, for that was a primary target of the bandits' cannon bombardment. Peering through a lookout hole in the parapet, Wang Yinchang watched wave after wave of the bandit horde surge forward and grew extremely anxious. The Luoyang Garrison Commander beside him was likewise helpless.

The moat west of Luoyang was very wide, five zhang deep and three zhang across. Yet no matter how wide or deep, under the efforts of the densely packed Chuang soldiers filling it, many sections were gradually being leveled.

The Chuang bandits' advantage was their utter disregard for human life. They forced starving soldiers to carry earth, or doors, or long timbers, forcibly erecting wooden bridge after wooden bridge across the moat, or filling in section after section of the ditch.

Those starving soldiers lacked even basic equipment. Many barehanded, they carried earth sacks on their backs, braved the cannons and rockets from the wall, and charged forward howling. Purely by expending human lives, they filled the moat section by section.

Within several dozen paces below the wall, the ground was already chaotically strewn with corpses and wounded. Blood congealed into reddish-brown in the cold wind, yet wave after wave of starving soldiers still charged forward desperately, making Wang Yinchang shake his head speechlessly.

Because of the covering cannon fire, the defenders on the wall could not counter-attack very effectively, so the Chuang soldiers' moat-filling achievements grew larger by the moment.

The greatest threat was the roving bandits' cannon fire. In his burning anxiety, Wang Yinchang thought of Wang Dou's artillerymen. In the North Pass engagement days earlier, the Shunxiang army's cannon-on-cannon combat record had been outstanding. They had also captured thirty Grand General Frankish cannons.

Therefore Wang Yinchang ordered his personal guard to go to the North Pass and request reinforcements, hoping that the arrival of the Shunxiang army's cannoneers could change the situation.

He looked out from the wall. Below, dust and smoke rolled, heads surged, and shouts shook the heavens. Everywhere his eyes fell were roving bandit soldiers with red cloth wrapped around their heads, wearing all manner of clothing.

One wave of them came up, then was replaced by another. Gazing further into the distance, two hundred paces away were the Chuang bandits' earthen cannon platforms, arrayed in a ring outside the western wall. From time to time gunpowder smoke rose there; amid the boom of cannons, ball after ball came hurtling toward the wall.

Several of these earthen platforms were quite large; the cannons mounted inside them were all Grand General Frankish cannons, firing five-jin shot with terrifying might.

Behind those earthen platforms were Chuang bandit foot soldiers bearing shields and broadswords, guarding the cannons and also serving as the main force for the coming wall assault. Their densely packed banners stretched pole after pole, spreading all the way to the rear in countless formations.

Behind each great formation of foot soldiers, roughly two li from the city, outside the south gate of the West Pass, on the flat plains flanking the pass city, seemed to be the Chuang bandits' cavalry. From time to time they could be seen in small bands, whooping as they swept past on the outer perimeter.

Wang Yinchang could see very clearly: atop the original south gate tower of the West Pass now fluttered a tall grand banner, and it seemed the Chuang army's main command tent was set up inside the West Pass, directing the wave after wave of attacks on the west gate. No wonder that of Luoyang's four gates, the pressure he faced was the greatest.

The Chuang soldiers on this western sector alone probably numbered in the tens of thousands.

"Roving bandits!"

Wang Yinchang cast a hateful glance toward the West Pass. While anxiously hoping the Shunxiang army's artillerymen would come quickly with their cannons, he paced back and forth along the wall, loudly encouraging the officers and men to hold the city.

Suddenly the Luoyang Garrison Commander beside him bellowed, "Military Commissioner, look out!"

With a tiger-like pounce, he threw himself on top of Wang Yinchang.

With a boom, a five-jin solid iron ball slammed heavily into the parapet behind them, smashing a large gap in the brick wall and sending stone shards flying. Several personal guards nearby clutched their heads and faces, rolling on the ground and screaming in agony.

"Military Commissioner, are you all right?"

The Luoyang Garrison Commander sprang up at once, pulled Wang Yinchang to his feet, and asked loudly.

"I am unharmed, unharmed..."

Wang Yinchang climbed to his feet. That had truly been a close call.

Garrison Commander Yang helped Wang Yinchang up, then ordered the able-bodied militiamen assisting on the wall to carry those personal guards down to the city for medical treatment. Each unit had its own medical officers, and all physicians within Luoyang city had also been conscripted. Among them, the medical officers sent by the Shunxiang army were the most welcomed — after all, they were professionally trained military surgeons.

Wang Yinchang gasped for breath, still in shock, watching the Luoyang Garrison Commander bustle about. A thought turned in his mind: "Garrison Commander Yang has served in Luoyang for many years, diligent and devoted, and just now essentially saved my life. I should promote him when this is over."

Suddenly a defending soldier shouted, "Look! What is that?"

Wang Yinchang hurriedly looked. From behind the Chuang army's earthen platforms, several dozen movable wooden bridges emerged, each two to three zhang long and over one zhang wide, with wheels underneath so they could be pushed forward. As the several dozen bridges were pushed closer, the defenders on the wall were all momentarily stunned.

Wang Yinchang's face turned grim. Gnashing his teeth, he spat out: "Flying bridges... I never imagined the bandits would use flying bridges against us."

These flying bridges, also called moat bridges, were specifically made for siege moat-crossing, the earliest pontoon-bridge troops used by ancient armies. Compared to the crude method of filling in a moat, they were extremely fast. After all, the moats of many cities were both wide and deep; filling them to create a passage required stupendous effort, and the defenders on the wall were no pushovers.

With moat bridges, it became much more convenient — just one span would do.

The defenders on the wall had never imagined the roving bandits could manufacture flying bridges, and they were all dumbfounded.

In truth, it was not hard to understand. The Chuang army had captured all the cities and towns of Henan Prefecture except Luoyang city, seizing numerous military artisans and craftsmen. Coupled with the vast numbers of famine refugees in their army, manufacturing several dozen moat bridges was not such a difficult task.

A dark mass of humanity surged forward. Each moat bridge was pushed by several dozen starving soldiers, and all around the bridges were Chuang army foot soldiers holding shields as guards.

Wang Yinchang observed that the front ends of those flying bridges also had two small wheels, clearly meant to secure the bridge once it was laid, making the span more stable. Each bridge also had mechanisms such as pivot pins and windlasses. If several bridges were used together, the combined span could reach several zhang or even over ten zhang wide, making it even easier for the attackers to cross.

There were talented men among the bandits too; these flying bridges were clearly built strictly according to the records in the *Wujing Zongyao*. For the first time, Wang Yinchang felt that the roving bandits of today were no longer what they once were. Thinking further that almost all of Henan Prefecture had fallen, Wang Yinchang suddenly grew worried for the future of the Great Ming.

But what he needed to worry about right now was himself. What made Wang Yinchang's heart quail was that behind the moat bridges came countless more bandits carrying scaling ladders. The ladders were long and thick, each requiring several dozen bandits to lift. A casual count suggested there were probably several hundred of them.

Beside and behind these scaling ladders were countless more Chuang bandit foot soldiers, bearing blades and carrying shields, waiting only for the ladders to reach the wall before they would begin their assault.

Wang Yinchang's face was ashen. Garrison Commander Yang stammered, "Military Commissioner, what do we do?"

Wang Yinchang suddenly shrieked at the top of his lungs: "Open fire! Blast them to death!"

Just then, the drumbeats within the Chuang army thundered, as if ten thousand men were roaring. Pushing their siege equipment, they charged forward with desperate shouts. Looking down from the sky, countless streams of red-scarved figures surged toward the wall like a tide, like dark clouds blotting out the sun.

On the south gate tower of the West Pass stood a massive banner bearing the character "Chuang." Beneath that great banner stood Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, and the other Chuang camp commanders, with the civil advisors Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, Li Yan, and the rest standing behind them.

Watching the overwhelming might of thousands upon thousands of troops below the walls, Li Zicheng could not suppress a surge of heroic pride rising in his heart.

Niu Jinxing said, "Congratulations, Chuang Wang. This battle can surely be won in a single assault."

Li Zicheng burst into loud laughter. Luoyang City was his.

Cannons on the western section of the wall fired continuously. One shell struck a trench bridge, sending the Chuang army soldiers beside it fleeing in panic. Another shell hit a group carrying a scaling ladder, blasting the Chuang troops there into a spray of blood and flesh, inflicting horrific casualties.

The Chuang army artillery below the walls also opened up with fierce fire to cover the assaulting troops.

Their cannon fire was so intense that the government troops at the battlements dared not raise their heads.

Watching the dozens of mobile wooden bridges still relentlessly approaching the city, Wang Yinchang sighed: "Cease artillery fire. Prepare for close-quarters combat."

He then ordered his personal guards: "Request reinforcements from Company Commander Wu and the others of the Shunxiang Army. Have them ascend the wall to fight at once."

Swiftly, Wu Zhengchun inside the city led his Shunxiang Army unit onto the western section of the Luoyang city wall to join the defense of the West Gate.

Wu Zhengchun and Shen Shiqi had been sent into Luoyang by Wang Dou to support the defense of each gate—to be used only at critical moments, ordinarily resting within the city. They had not expected the West Gate to call for help the moment the Chuang army attacked.

Seeing Wu Zhengchun leading nearly a thousand iron-clad troops streaming steadily onto the wall, Wang Yinchang breathed a sigh of relief.

In hand-to-hand combat, he knew the condition of his own officers and men. At this West Gate were Luoyang's original garrison troops, plus some militiamen and community soldiers. They were adequate at ranged fighting, but if the bandits scaled the wall for close combat, disaster was likely. He could only pin his hopes on the Shunxiang Army.

As Wu Zhengchun approached to offer a salute, Wang Yinchang hurriedly and cordially stopped him, saying: "The bandits' momentum is rampant; Luoyang hangs by a thread. The safety of soldiers and civilians rests entirely on Company Commander Wu."

Wu Zhengchun's dark, lean face was filled with resolve: "General Dingguo has ordered me to assist in defending the city with all my strength. Have no fear, Military Commissioner. Since I have received the General's command, I shall exert myself to the utmost and share the fate of Luoyang, whether it stands or falls."

With a wave of his hand, his soldiers immediately entered combat readiness. Arquebusiers defended each battlement and the projecting horse-face towers, while pikemen stood behind the arquebusiers.

The Chuang army artillery continued its relentless bombardment, solid iron balls slamming against the brick-faced walls. Wu Zhengchun dared not approach the battlements either, peering outward only through the observation holes in the parapet wall.

Outside, the dense mass of men and trench bridges was already nearing the moat. Wu Zhengchun glanced back at his officers and men. Though some looked nervous, they were not the least bit disordered. The Shunxiang Army was well-trained, even the new troops.

But Wu Zhengchun knew that after completing their training, his unit had only taken part in bandit-suppression campaigns, and had seen no bitter fighting even at the Battle of Ruzhou. Now, with the roving bandits launching a full-scale assault on the city, this was a test for his unit. If they weathered this trial, they would become qualified veterans.

The Chuang army's final artillery salvo ceased, because those trench bridges had already begun spanning the moat. Any further bombardment would risk hitting their own men.

One after another, the trench bridges outside the city were laid, yet the city wall remained silent. The defending officers and men were all tensely awaiting Wang Yinchang's command.

At last, the dozens of trench bridges were in place. To the urgent beat of drums from the Chuang army formation, countless Chuang soldiers carrying scaling ladders charged across the bridges.

Here they met an obstacle, for on the inner side of the moat stood a "sheep-and-horse wall" roughly ten feet high. This wall was thirty paces from the main city wall. To set their ladders against the city wall, they first had to climb over the sheep-and-horse wall.

However, the Chuang army had scouted Luoyang's defenses and come prepared. Numerous hunger soldiers placed small ladders and door planks against the sheep-and-horse wall. After crossing it, they then hauled the scaling ladders over. Looking down from the walltop, all one could see below was a dense, dark mass of roving bandits clambering over the sheep-and-horse wall.