Chapter 474: Crushing the Jianzhou Barbarians

On the Ming side, there was no hurry at all—they ambled along the road as if going to offer birthday congratulations.

The Jianzhou barbarians, however, could not afford to be slow—they were extremely anxious. After all, this time the Ming was attacking on both the eastern and western fronts, so the Ming could afford to take their time, but they could not.

After receiving the news, Hong Taiji led his men to Dongning Guard.

They waited, waiting for the Ming army to arrive, hoping to catch them off guard and deal the Ming troops a heavy blow right there.

But the reality was beyond their expectations—the Ming army was moving very slowly.

Hong Taiji stood before the table, sweeping his gaze over the brothers who had come with him, and said slowly: "The Ming is being this slow this time—what do you all make of it?"

"This is clearly a lure strategy!" Manggūltai said furiously: "On the eastern front they only sent fifteen thousand men—plainly to bait us, to keep us from daring to send men to the western front."

"We rushed over here this time, but they're not coming—they're just stalling for time, keeping us frozen in place while they unfold their plans on the western front."

After this statement, many people nodded in agreement.

In their hearts, the Ming did not have the guts to wage war against them, especially out in the open field.

Had the Ming not been beaten into fear yet? Even if the Ming hadn't been beaten into fear, they didn't think the Ming could win.

When defending cities, the Ming had cannons, which were quite formidable. But once they left the city, the cannons' usefulness diminished greatly.

Especially since cannons were very difficult to move in the field, and slow to load. Once cavalry charged in, the Ming troops would have little ability to fight back.

"So this is the Ming's trick—just to keep us from daring to move!"

"We can't wait any longer." Daišan also spoke: "If we keep waiting, the situation will spiral out of control. Now we must take the initiative and strike out to find them. Perhaps once they see us, they'll flee at the sight of our banners."

After these words, everyone nodded as well.

If it were a lure, then it was quite likely that once they sent out their forces, the enemy would run.

But no one really believed the Ming troops could get away—their side had cavalry, and if they truly gave chase, the Ming troops' speed wouldn't be fast enough.

If the Ming troops could retreat, they would very likely be pursued and slaughtered to the death. Hong Taiji was thinking exactly this right now.

Hong Taiji said directly: "Since that's the case—if they won't come, then we'll go."

With that, consensus was reached, and the great army was quickly mobilized, heading straight out of the city.

Both sides were drawing closer to each other, so this battle was naturally unavoidable.

When they reached a certain distance, the scouts of both sides began to encounter one another. The skirmishing war between scouts had always been extremely brutal.

As reports kept coming back, the expression on Sun Chuanting's face began to grow solemn.

Although Sun Chuanting didn't think he could lose, and hadn't taken the Jianzhou barbarians too seriously, when it truly came time to fight, he absolutely could not afford the slightest carelessness.

The consequences of underestimating the enemy—Sun Chuanting knew them all too well in his heart.

"Report!"

With that shout, the forward scout had already turned back.

The scout rode straight up to Sun Chuanting and said: "Report to the Grand Marshal, the Jianzhou barbarians' main army has been spotted thirty li ahead!"

Sun Chuanting nodded and said: "Scout again and report again."

"At your command!" The scout spurred his horse and rode off into the distance once more.

Sun Chuanting swept his gaze over those around him and said: "They're here. This battle must be fought beautifully—let the Jianzhou barbarians know our might! Lure them in, and destroy them out in the open field!"

Everyone nodded as well, their confidence brimming.

At dawn the next day, both sides continued to draw closer.

The scout skirmishing had already ceased, because both sides could now see each other's main armies.

Sun Chuanting sat on his horse, looking at the enemy and saying: "By the look of it, there are fully twenty thousand cavalry."

"No, it can't be that few." Liu Xian said from the side: "They must have men hidden in ambush, ready to hit us when the battle starts. After all, our numbers are smaller—at that moment, they'll want to catch us off guard."

"Dream on!" Lu Xiangsheng gave a cold snort.

Within the enemy formation across the field.

Hong Taiji sat on his horse, looking at the Ming troops opposite, and said with a cold smile: "So they didn't run. It seems these men really do have confidence—the army from the capital is indeed out of the ordinary."

These words sounded like praise, but in truth the tone was dripping with mockery.

Clearly, Hong Taiji felt that the men opposite were simply seeking death, arrogant and conceited—they had to be taught a lesson.

Daišan, at Hong Taiji's side, furrowed his brow and said directly: "Better to be careful—lest they have some ambush prepared."

"I've already sent men out." Manggūltai said from the side: "The scouts circled around to their rear—there are no reinforcements behind them at all. That is to say, they only have these fifteen thousand men. The left and right flanks have also been spread out, and no ambush has been found."

Hearing this, Daišan finally felt at ease and nodded lightly.

As long as there were no reinforcements, the fifteen thousand men before them were truly just a dish sitting on the table.

Hong Taiji said: "They're deploying their formation—it looks like they intend to take the offensive."

Following Hong Taiji's words, the Ming troops indeed spread out their formation, and a square formation took shape before Hong Taiji's and the others' eyes.

Three rows of soldiers stretched out horizontally, visible at a single glance, with cavalry on the left and right flanks.

Within the formation there were also many horse-drawn carts, which looked quite strange. They seemed to be war chariots.

A wagon formation—this thing wasn't unfamiliar, but its power was just so-so, and this wasn't how it was supposed to be used either.

A wagon formation was usually drawn up as a circular formation, with the wagons placed on the outside to block cavalry. Under normal circumstances it was a defensive formation—only after being surrounded and attacked would they counterattack.

But the situation before them was not like that—they had stiffly spread out in a straight parallel line. Such a deployment was, for cavalry, simply a natural target: charge up, loose arrows, then have the cavalry smash the formation in one smooth motion.

Hong Taiji was full of confidence. He glanced at Manggūltai beside him and said directly: "Take the men and charge their formation. One single charge will take their battle line."

"Rest assured, Great Khan." Manggūltai said with a loud laugh, and immediately deployed ten thousand men to charge the formation.

Against an enemy formation and troops like that, ten thousand men were more than enough.

Over on the Ming side, Sun Chuanting sat on his horse, watching the enemy's troop movements with an air of calm composure.

He glanced at Liu Xian beside him and said: "Are the rocket carts ready over there?"

In this battle, the rocket carts were the key—and Sun Chuanting's source of confidence.

"They've been ready for a long time—we're just waiting for them to come." Liu Xian said with a smile.

At this very moment, behind them, the rocket carts had already been unloaded, arranged in a semicircle behind the infantry, ready to fire at any moment.

Sun Chuanting nodded with satisfaction and said, "That's good."

Manggūltai's men were already formed up, their warhorses constantly stamping the ground.

At the command, men and horses began to advance slowly.

A cavalry charge has a process of accelerating from slow to fast; at full speed, they would crash directly into the enemy formation. In such circumstances, they were confident they could break through the enemy lines.

On the Ming side, the officers and soldiers were still calmly adjusting their formation. As the Jianzhou barbarian cavalry charged, these men stood their ground without moving.

If you come to me, then I needn't go to you.

On the battlefield, warhorses screamed and the cries of battle shook the heavens. Manggūltai led the charge at the very front.

The thunderous pounding of hooves struck the ground, faster and faster, until the entire earth trembled.

Everyone was anticipating the moment of impact.

Liu Xian looked at Sun Chuanting and asked directly, "Can we fire now?"

"Wait, let them come a little closer." Sun Chuanting said, "These men charging at us this time — I never intended to let them go back alive. If Hong Taiji keeps sending more men forward, so much the better — we'll keep them all here."

Liu Xian instantly understood what Sun Chuanting was thinking, and understood what he intended to do.

Clearly, these Jianzhou barbarian soldiers in front had to be hit hard — best not to let the front infantry square fire their guns at all, but use the rockets to wipe them out directly.

After one volley of rockets, these Jianzhou scum would be blown to pieces.

Liu Xian nodded and waited quietly.

Watching the enemy cavalry charge faster and faster, Sun Chuanting clapped his hands and said, "Pass the order to the rocket troops — fire immediately!"

The signalmen began waving their command flags, while others spurred their horses and shouted at the top of their lungs.

These were two different methods of passing orders, but they conveyed the same command — the purpose being to ensure no one failed to hear it.

Behind the Ming army's lines, countless men began to bustle about.

These men touched their torches to the fuses, and as the fuses burned, excitement filled every one of their eyes.

Some of them even started jumping — this was the first time rockets had ever been used on a Ming battlefield.

As the fuses burned down to nothing, all nine rocket tubes on each cart were packed full of rockets.

With the first rocket shooting out with a whoosh, the eight rockets behind it all let out whooshing sounds as well.

And the entire row of thirty rocket carts now all emitted whooshing sounds.

If Zhu Youxiao were here, he would surely sigh in admiration. This really did have a bit of a Katyusha feel to it.

After the rockets flew out, they traced a perfect parabolic arc and slammed directly into the Jianzhou barbarian formation.

Because the rockets varied in size and range, the parabolas were also of different sizes, and they quickly covered a very large area of men and horses.

After the first batch of rockets was fired, the rocket troops hurriedly reloaded the prepared rockets one by one into the launcher carts, preparing for a second volley.

In fact, they could only fire three volleys — otherwise, the tubes wouldn't be able to take it.

Beside them, men carried buckets of water and continuously poured it over the tubes.

As the cold water splashed down, the tubes gave off sizzling sounds, and steam rose up instantly.

Meanwhile, the parabolic rocket projectiles had already crashed into the formation, and explosions rang out in an instant.

The thunderous roar shook the entire earth — dirt and stone flew everywhere, smoke billowed upward, and the whole battlefield was filled with nothing but this sound.

Explosions erupted on all sides, flames leaping into the sky.

Black powder had very little power — when cannons were used before, they never had this kind of destructive force.

Seeing this scene, Sun Chuanting was so excited he nearly jumped for joy.

Sun Chuanting had also used cannons and heavy artillery, and had explosive shells as well, but the effect was nothing like this. What's more, the Ming dynasty didn't even have red-coat cannons yet — the only true cannon was the one on the walls of Shenyang — but compared to these, its power was far inferior to the rockets.

You should know, the largest rocket projectile had a charge of up to fifty-two jin. Even with black powder, when that much black powder detonated on the spot, the power was absolutely tremendous.

The explosion blasted a huge crater into the ground, dirt and stone flew everywhere in an instant, and warhorses were blown straight into the air. Shockwaves even radiated out around the crater.

Thirty rocket carts, nine rockets per cart — two hundred and seventy rockets in total — covering a vast stretch of the battlefield.

After the first volley, before the Jianzhou barbarians could even react, the second volley came right on its heels.

The rocket crews on the carts were all meticulously trained — the top priority of their drills was loading speed.

So they were extremely fast, and immediately got off a second volley.

A slight turn of the cart was enough to adjust the aim, and the whooshing sounds rang out once more above the battlefield.

Thunderous explosions sounded, and in an instant the battlefield was shrouded in gunpowder smoke.

Jianzhou barbarian cavalrymen and horses tumbled over each other, screams filling the air in a cacophony.

Hong Taiji in the rear was stunned by the scene before him.

What is this thing?

Hong Taiji had seen Ming cannons before — his father the Khan had been killed by one of those cannons, and he had witnessed that too. But he never imagined this thing could have such tremendous power. Hadn't the Ming army not brought any cannons?

Hong Taiji knew the Ming cannons very well — the bigger and more cumbersome they were, the greater their power.

The scouts had already reported that the Ming had brought no cannons at all. What on earth was going on?

Hong Taiji stared dumbfounded at the scene before him, unable to react for a long time.

The rocket carts' third volley came again, covering the entire battlefield directly.

The battlefield was in complete chaos, and the Ming army's formation began to move.

These men held flintlock muskets, already loaded with bullets long before. They marched forward in neat order, steps in unison, lined up in a perfectly straight rank — then pulled their triggers.

They didn't even look ahead, didn't aim. After all, there was no real point in aiming these muzzle-loading guns anyway.

Bang bang bang — the sounds rang out across the entire battlefield once more, their bullets flying straight into the smoke-shrouded field.

Under the hail of bullets, screams rang out yet again.

In that moment, the entire battlefield seemed to have become a hell of slaughter.

The three-rank formation: after the first rank fires, it steps back, the second rank advances to continue firing, then the third rank takes over.

This ensured the firearms maintained sufficient firepower, while those who had fallen back began reloading their ammunition.

The cycle repeated over and over, gunfire echoing across the entire battlefield.

When the gunsmoke was blown away by the wind, the full picture of the battlefield stunned everyone.

The entire battlefield was covered in massive craters, warhorses lying scattered and toppled, some blown to pieces.

The field was strewn with the corpses of the Jianzhou barbarians; a few who had their legs blown off still lay on the ground wailing for help, and virtually no one was left standing.

Wherever any living person was spotted, Ming soldiers immediately directed their bullets toward them.