[{"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-495":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},1205784,1561,"Chapter 495: Power!","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-495",495,"\u003Cp>The roar of the artillery varied by caliber — large-caliber long guns went *bang* or *boom*, large-caliber short guns went *boom*, and small-caliber long guns went *crack*.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These Grand General falconet cannons had rather long barrels, but because they fired canister shot, they all produced a muffled booming sound when discharged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Canister shot had a large kill zone but short range; to increase both range and lethality, the Jingbian Army continually refined it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Initially the canister was wrapped in cloth, later sealed in a paper casing and bound externally with a wooden disc matching the bore diameter — the force of firing caused the casing to burst open, and the small projectiles were propelled outward by inertia, increasing both range and power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The power of canister shot was never to be underestimated: even a canister round from a Hongyi three-pounder could punch a hole five centimeters across in a cross-country cart, a wound larger than those caused by ordinary bullets in later ages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the canister from a falconet, though slightly weaker than that of a Hongyi cannon, was still extraordinarily lethal — let alone the improved canister of the Jingbian Army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As those Qing riders charged toward the Jingbian Army's several small formations, the falconet cannons in each small formation roared; amid the booming sounds, tens of thousands of projectiles scrambled out of the muzzles, and within the dense white smoke they turned into a metallic rain, lashing head-on at those Qing riders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the blink of an eye, countless sprays of blood shot forth; amid screams and chaos, whether lightly armored archers or death soldiers clad in heavy armor on armored horses, a great swath of them collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In front of each small formation, those hit among the Qing troops were mostly the death soldiers and the horse herds driven forward. In the Qing army's method of battle, the light cavalry generally did not charge the formations directly; they wielded bows and arrows, sweeping in from the left and right flanks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the two wings of the Jingbian Army's small formations were deliberately left open, so apart from those struck, the rolling light cavalry involuntarily surged only into the gaps between the formations. As they dodged aside, the unlucky ones were those death-soldier heavy cavalry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And when these death soldiers charged a formation, their power was not to be underestimated; if both man and horse wore heavy armor, they could sometimes even charge against city walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But against canister shot, it was a dead end — unless they were not made of flesh and blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, to increase the heavy cavalry's impact, they arrayed man and horse tightly together, which made them an excellent target for canister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the five falconet cannons in front of each Jingbian Army small formation had a canister coverage area sufficient to sweep away in one pass this wave of death-soldier heavy cavalry charging the formations head-on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before each formation, slain men and horses collapsed in heaps; countless bloodied, maddened horses leapt wildly in terror, creating enormous obstacles and chaos for the men and horses coming behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The charging momentum and formation of the Qing riders immediately slowed, but carried by inertia, some remnant men and horses ahead, along with the rolling heavy cavalry behind, still came rushing on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But by now the Grand General falconet cannons in each small formation had been reloaded with canister; *boom, boom, boom* — each cannon roared, mercilessly spewing great gouts of brilliant flame forward again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By this time, white smoke shrouded the front of each Jingbian Army formation, making it impossible to see the situation inside or outside the formations; both sides' vision was blocked. But projectiles needed no eyes — the canister shot flew, and especially amid the Jingbian Army's canister volleys, lead balls dense as raindrops swept down even more Qing troops ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the wildly flying projectiles, some death soldiers were blasted into minced flesh on the spot; more of those struck, both man and horse, were riddled with dense, bloody holes. From before the formations rose shrill, wretched howls; countless blood-drenched, frenzied horses tumbled and crashed in all directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The death-soldier charge before each formation had become a spent force; even if the heavy cavalry behind wanted to charge, there was no room for them to unleash their horses' speed. Their death soldiers, seething with killing intent and driving horse herds to charge the formations, instantly became empty talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a battle result was also due to the Jingbian Army artillerymen's rigorous training, and to their use of falconets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Hongyi cannons had been used to fire canister, the firepower would have been fierce, but under the frenzied charge of men and horses, they would only have had time to fire once, and could hardly have stopped the heavy cavalry coming up behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But with falconet cannons, especially operated by Jingbian Army gunners, the first three shots took not even twenty seconds. From the time the enemy riders entered two hundred meters until they reached the formations, the gunners could fire two to three rounds of canister — this was the falconet's advantage in close combat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ten-thousand-man foe!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the Qing riders ahead thrown into utter chaos, the First-Class squad commanders in each small formation seized the moment to give the order.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the cannons were firing canister, there were not many First-Class arquebusiers defending the front of each small formation — only fifteen arquebusiers. But behind them stood a large number of pikemen, each holding a heavy \"ten-thousand-man foe\" bomb, with a man beside them holding a fire-lighter, specially assigned to ignite them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing their officer's order, they immediately lit the fuses of the ten-thousand-man foes in their hands one by one, and with roaring shouts, gripping the wooden handles, they hurled them forward with all their might.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ten-thousand-man foe!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides the Qing troops attacking the front of the army formations, tide-like Qing riders also swept into the spaces between the formations; they were mostly light-armored, with some death soldiers and elite soldiers behind them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the rolling Qing riders surged in, the cry of \"ten-thousand-man foe\" rang out again and again between the army formations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Blast these wild-boar-spawned bastards!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Qing riders entered, the first thing was the pikemen on both flanks of the forward small formations desperately hurling ten-thousand-man foes. As the Qing riders spread inward, it seemed that from every army formation in all directions, Great Ming-style hand grenades were thrown like raindrops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, these army formations were mostly situated on undulating terrain or hillocks, so the pikemen had a relatively open field of vision; when they hurled the ten-thousand-man foes from the rear, they did not worry about throwing them onto the heads of the arquebusiers in front.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Explosions sounded one after another, and as the Qing troops entered, they finally seemed to merge into a continuous roar. Amid the leaping flames and smoke, toxin-laced caltrops and stone shards flew everywhere; the surging Qing riders were blasted off their horses, men and beasts thrown into chaos, a scene of howling pandemonium.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fire!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Accompanying the explosions was the thunderous roar of volley fire, again starting with the arquebusiers on both flanks of the forward army formations. As the Qing riders surged in, the five First-Class army formations to the rear, and in front of the Second-Class war-carts further back, the sound of volley fire rang out wave after wave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every cart-fort belched dense clouds of gunpowder smoke outward with abandon; the thick white smoke rapidly blanketed these cart-fort zones. It then spread, enveloping one square formation after another, until finally the entire Jingbian Army infantry camp seemed shrouded within a thick pall of smoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Jingbian Army's fire seemed to come from everywhere. Those Qing riders who charged into the opening first saw the war-carts on both sides, their exteriors bristling with dense long spears, so the warhorses dared not approach too close.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no matter — relying on the Great Qing warriors' mounted archery skills, they could press close to the war-carts and shoot sharp arrows inside, or hurl in some iron cudgels, javelins, throwing axes, and other lethal implements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unexpectedly, as soon as each man entered, dark objects came hurtling at them head-on, exploding right in front of or beside them. The passage between these two formations was only one hundred fifty paces wide, and with wave after wave of men and horses in the midst of a charge, how could they dodge?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One after another, the ten-thousand-man foes exploded, blasting their men and horses into bloody pulp amid wretched howls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although each man wore armor and might not die from a single blast, whether the wounds were severe or light, in such sweltering weather, nine out of ten would become infected. Even if they escaped the army formations by luck, they would ultimately suffer agony and die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ten-thousand-man foes, hurled incessantly like raindrops, quickly threw their cavalry formation into disarray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And to evade these explosive weapons, they unconsciously crowded toward the center. For the ten-thousand-man foes thrown from both sides roughly covered a range of thirty to forty paces on each flank; only the middle, about a hundred-odd paces, was ground the explosives could not reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But they forgot that the Jingbian Army's arquebuses could penetrate heavy armor at a hundred paces. These Jingbian Army cart-forts were each no more than one hundred fifty paces apart; although depending on the terrain some were closer and some farther, all lay within the firepower range of the Donglu arquebuses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sound of volley fire rang out; behind the shield-boards of the war-carts on both sides, muzzle flashes erupted one after another, and heavy lead balls ceaselessly pounded the men and horses passing along the flanks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lethality of flanking fire had already been well demonstrated by the Maxim gun in the First World War era. Firing head-on at charging infantry, three hundred rounds might kill only thirty or forty enemies; shifted to the flank, it could kill as many as two hundred seventy or eighty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Jingbian Army arquebusiers on the flanks of each formation hit their mark with nearly every shot; amid the muzzle flashes bursting from each arquebus, Qing troops ahead were constantly struck and toppled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cheap lead balls easily tore through their cotton armor, or iron-reinforced cotton armor, or the chain mail worn inside. They made their blood spurt, made them collapse in agony upon the ground, and then their scarlet blood trickled forth, moistening the dry, hard earth of Liaodong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This, of course, was not the end. As tide-like Qing riders surged in, the firepower from the two flanks of a single line of formations could not kill them all at once; it could only throw them into chaos. Still, large waves of Qing cavalry surged toward the second line of small formations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here the five cart-forts were laid out identically to the six formations of the first line, except that the falconet cannons in front of each formation were reduced to two.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the rolling Qing riders surged forward, after being battered by the forward cart-forts they were considerably more crowded and disordered, especially in the middle zone where men and horses were thickest. Again came the thunderous roar of the falconet cannons; amid the dense gunpowder smoke billowing from the muzzles between the formations, layer upon layer of canister shot flew, punching bloody tunnels straight through those packed, charging Qing riders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Qing army's tactic of having archers sweep around the flanks was a tactic ingrained in their very bones. Before they reached the second line of army formations, seeing open space on the left and right, they galloped that way; those left before the cannon muzzles were mostly the death soldiers and elite soldiers of the various Qing banners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though these death soldiers and elite soldiers were crack troops, facing cannon fire, facing canister shot, how could they possibly withstand it? After the cannons roared, great swaths of men and horses collapsed struggling in pools of blood, wretched howls rising one after another; their fine equipment, their martial skills, were so cheap before the lead balls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right after the cannon fire came the ceaselessly hurled ten-thousand-man foes, and the arquebus fire that made the Qing troops' hearts quail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And those Qing light cavalry who swept toward the flanks gained no advantage either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when they galloped from the flanks of these army formations to the front did they realize their mistake — a grave mistake. Once again they came under fire from two flanks — no, not two flanks, but four flanks!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They suddenly discovered that they were again caught between two cart-forts; from both sides, deadly Ming ten-thousand-man foes were constantly hurled at them, and deadly arquebus fire constantly struck them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And ahead of them, the Ming army had arrayed an enormously long line of war-carts, and behind the war-carts stood their arquebusiers, arrayed in dense, overlapping ranks, waiting in full battle readiness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was even more fatal was at the rear — the six small formations in the first row of the Jingbian Army, beneath their wagon formations, were facing exactly the backs of these Qing soldiers. What was going on?\u003C\u002Fp>",2196,"2026-06-03T14:05:53.320Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","23aad0fe21a3fa6e997a09285db05e17605dc6630f1e82b7775b85d82fdd795b","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-496","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-494",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]