Chapter 219: The Power of the Tide

Outside the compound, Regional Commander Li called out: "Open the gate and come out—don't carry any weapons."

The three offices' officials ordered their guards to comply; bar by bar the gates were removed, the main gate thrown wide open, and at once they could see fifty paces off, a cannon aimed straight at the gate, its pitch-black muzzle gaping and unnerving.

The officials hesitated greatly, not daring to step forward, and ordered the guards to go out first.

After a long wait, seeing that the rebel troops outside truly did not open fire, the officials filed out one by one in order of rank.

Hu Yingtai, held up on either side by the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner and the Provincial Administration Commissioner, was the last through the gate, struggling the whole way.

Once outside the gate, the officials could finally see clearly: the Governor-General's residence was indeed surrounded so tightly that not even water could leak through—every rebel soldier carried a matchlock musket, each fitted with a gleaming bayonet.

Lei Sanxiang had men come forward to search them and register their offices and names, then said: "Around Zhenhai Tower and Yongfeng Granary there are still quite a few soldiers holding out and refusing to surrender. Please, Governor Hu, go and persuade them."

The cloth wad was pulled from Hu Yingtai's mouth. He drew a deep breath and shouted: "Rebels! Traitors committing treason! You deserve death—"

Halfway through his words, the Surveillance Commissioner stuffed the cloth wad back in, then added: "This subordinate is willing to go."

Hu Yingtai glared fiercely at the Surveillance Commissioner, his eyes seeming to spit fire.

Lei Sanxiang nodded and said: "You come with me. The rest are to be escorted to the ships."

The Surveillance Commissioner was taken away by Lei Sanxiang's men, while the remaining officials were escorted south along Guide Straight Street.

Passing before the Provincial Administration Commissioner's yamen, they saw Ming soldiers' corpses strewn along the road, nearly half the street stained dark red. The stench of blood was overwhelming—the air thick with the smell of rust and the sweet reek of raw flesh, making it hard to breathe.

Several officials, hit by the stench, felt their stomachs convulse and vomited on the spot.

Hu Yingtai's face also turned deathly pale, his steps unsteady.

The closer they came to Guide Gate, the more street barricades they encountered, and they could also see rebel soldiers marching in formation at a jog.

At first the officials were terrified and actively gave way, but the rebel soldiers were indeed strictly disciplined—they never came forward to cause trouble—and gradually the officials relaxed. Along the road, large numbers of medics were treating and bandaging wounded New Army soldiers.

The New Army had seen relatively little combat and had few wounded, so some medics had nothing to do and instead treated civilians caught in the fighting.

Many civilians not only showed no fear of the rebel troops but crowded around them; some, after having their wounds treated, even brought eggs, sweet potatoes, and rice from home to express their thanks. Watching this scene, the officials were struck speechless.

Hu Yingtai raged inwardly: "Buying hearts, all tricks to buy hearts! Despicable!"

Passing through Guide Gate, the devastation of the southern outer city wall came into view, and every official felt a tremor in his heart.

The entire southern stretch of wall, all seven gate towers, had been reduced to rubble—never mind storming the city; even if you sent men to demolish them, seven gate towers couldn't be torn down this thoroughly in a single day.

Not only the gate towers—the crenellations were badly damaged too. Had the walls not been packed with rammed earth inside, the walls themselves would surely have been blasted down.

Compared to the inner city, the outer city had suffered far more damage, and the farther south one went, the worse it became. More and more residences had been collapsed by cannon fire, and the ground was pitted with craters from shell impacts.

Everywhere along the road one could see solid iron shot the size of two clenched fists.

Emerging from the rubble of Jinghai Gate, the Pearl River appeared before them.

The officials all stopped in their tracks at once, eyes wide, faces full of shock.

The soldiers escorting them urged: "Move faster—what are you dawdling for!"

Provincial Administration Commissioner Zheng said: "This, this… no wonder your army descended like divine troops from heaven. This subordinate is convinced—"

Hu Yingtai roared: "Bootlicker! Despicable coward! Weakling!"

But with the cloth wad stuffed in his mouth, this string of roars came across to others as nothing but a series of incomprehensible strange noises.

The entire stretch of the Pearl River before the officials was nearly packed solid with great ships—the fleet stretched across more than ten li, its eastern and western ends beyond sight.

Beside the great ships, smaller boats continuously shuttled back and forth between ship and shore.

A single glance was enough to produce an overwhelming sense of pressure.

The Pearl River of the Ming lacked nearly four hundred years of silt deposition and riverbank reclamation compared to later eras, so the Guangzhou stretch was extremely wide—averaging over two hundred zhang across, nearly three times its width in later times.

In Guangzhou, the Pearl River also bore the alias "Pearl Sea," meaning the river's surface was as vast as the ocean, its far shore beyond sight.

Who would have thought that the "Pearl Sea" would one day be packed full of warships—had they not seen it with their own eyes, it would be hard to believe.

The group was escorted to the shore, where they boarded small boats to be ferried to the Tianyuan.

The closer they came to the Tianyuan, the more tense the officials' expressions grew.

On shore, the fleet's towering hulls had already been quite awe-inspiring.

Drawing up close, the Tianyuan's freeboard blotted out the sky, casting a vast shadow. The officials craned their necks upward, feeling that most of the sky was blocked out. Along the ship's side, the gunports were open, and twenty-six bronze cannon muzzles thrust out—enough to make one's scalp crawl.

From the Tianyuan's side, rope ladders were dropped, and the officials could only climb up trembling.

Fortunately, there was little wind or wave on the river, and the crossing between the two boats was steady enough—no official fell into the water.

When it came to Hu Yingtai's turn, the soldier had just untied his ropes when Hu Yingtai immediately leaped sideways into the Pearl River with a splash, struggled on the surface a few times, and began to sink.

"Your Excellency!"

The other officials shouted from the Tianyuan's rail.

"Save him, quick!"

"His Excellency has fallen in—someone get in the water and save him!"

On the Tianyuan, a crewman glanced down and cursed: "What a pain in the ass!"

Hu Yingtai's aide said urgently: "Hurry and save him—the weather's cold and the water's chill, and His Excellency is old; he can't take it."

The crewman picked at his ear and said unhurriedly: "No rush. He's still got strength to flounder. Let him swallow a couple mouthfuls of water first."

The officials and aides, being on the rebel ship, had no authority to give orders and could only fret helplessly.

After a moment, Hu Yingtai's struggling weakened. A crewman took a rope, leaped in a single bound, and dove into the water like a fish, raising barely a splash. A moment later, the crewman surfaced behind Hu Yingtai, looped the rope around him, and waved to the ship.

Crewmen on deck connected the rope to the boom, attached it to the winch, and hauled it taut.

The rope, cinched around Hu Yingtai's waist, hauled him up like a fish being netted.

The crewman in the water swam to the rope ladder and scrambled up in a few quick moves, wringing water from his clothes and cursing: "Anyone else who's tired of living, jump in together—save me from having my clothes dry, then get soaked all over again."

The officials around him could only force smiles.

The boom swung back, setting Hu Yingtai down on the deck. He coughed violently, water streaming continuously from his mouth and nose. Only after a long while did it gradually stop. He had lost half his life, lying limp and unable to move.

A crewman ran over: "The helmsman's orders—move the one who fell in to the stern cabin. Keep him alive—don't let him freeze to death."

"Aye!" the crewman acknowledged, then ordered the officials: "Strip off his wet clothes!"

After much turmoil, Hu Yingtai, wrapped in a cotton quilt in the officers' mess, finally recovered somewhat.

Before him, messengers kept bringing back reports of the fighting in Guangzhou.

"Helmsman, Yongfeng Granary and Zhengnan Gate have been taken. Battalion Commander Sun is leading men to attack Wenming Gate."

"Helmsman, Ming troops at Wenming Gate are resisting fiercely. Battalion Commander Sun has suffered over a hundred casualties."

Hu Yingtai laughed loudly: "Well done!"

The staff officer attending him turned pale with shock and urged urgently: "Your Excellency, be careful what you say, be careful!"

As he spoke, he gestured with his eyes toward the interior—standing behind the sand table was none other than the rebel leader, Lin Qian.

They were right now under the rebel leader's very nose; one wrong word and their lives would likely be forfeit.

Hu Yingtai was seeking death, and so paid it no mind.

Lin Qian paid Hu Yingtai no attention at all, and ordered his subordinates: "Transfer two twelve-pounder cannons for support."

After a while, another messenger entered: "Helmsman, Regional Commander Lei's attack on Dabei Gate is being held up."

Every gate of Guangzhou's inner city had a barbican built before it, restricting cannon firing arcs. Three-pounder guns were ill-suited for siege work, and the ricochet tactic was also difficult to employ.

Lin Qian said: "Tell Lei Sanxiang he can first attack Zhenhai Tower. Once it's taken, set up an artillery position from the high ground of Yuexiu Mountain."

As dusk approached, judging from reports from all fronts, the troops were advancing very slowly through the inner city.

After all, this was the New Army's first battle. The earlier unstoppable advance had been due to naval gun support plus the surprise attack, catching the Ming army off guard. Now that the Ming troops had recovered their wits, they were relying on residences, city gates, and terrain to mount resistance and fight street battles, causing no small trouble for the New Army.

Among the Ming troops, some surrendered at lightning speed, while others were so loyal to the emperor it was like an ideological brand burned into their minds—even with the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner urging surrender, they still put up stubborn resistance. Among the New Army, some fought brilliantly and swept all before them, while others were stupid beyond belief, wildly ordering line infantry to block their own cannons' fields of fire.

For an entire afternoon, messengers came and went without pause, all kinds of reports streaming in ceaselessly. Just listening for an hour was enough to make one's head spin, and most of the news was bad.

Lin Qian's expression did not change; he kept giving orders calmly.

Though Hu Yingtai occasionally sneered, he gradually began to feel fear.

After nightfall, the various front lines gradually ceased fighting, and battle reports grew fewer.

Lin Qian ordered: "At dawn tomorrow, the Tianyuan, Fuzhou, and Funing—those three ships—are to proceed to the lower Pearl River."

"Yes." The messenger acknowledged and relayed the order to the three ships' masters.

Hu Yingtai's heart leapt with joy, and he thought to himself: "The rebels are withdrawing? Yes—in today's fighting, the rebels met resistance everywhere and suffered heavy casualties. Heaven truly protects our Great Ming!"

Another messenger entered: "Helmsman, we've caught a household in the city violating curfew. They claim to be Hu Yingtai's family, trying to slip out of the city amid the chaos." "Huh." Lin Qian looked up, toward Hu Yingtai in the corner.

Hu Yingtai had been ignored by Lin Qian all afternoon. Now seeing Lin Qian's gaze shoot toward him, he felt a chill in his heart, but stiffened his neck and said: "Does the rebel brat want to see this old man beg for mercy? If you have the guts, kill my whole family, and let the world know your wolfish ambitions."

"Trading your family's lives for a reputation?" Lin Qian laughed. "Escort Governor Hu's family back to their residence and look after them well. Tonight, read that 'letter of surrender' Hu Yingtai wrote to the Ming troops still putting up stubborn resistance."

Hu Yingtai was greatly alarmed and roared: "You rebel brat, how dare you!"

Lin Qian said coldly: "You've had enough time to recover, I'd say. Take him to the cargo hold."

The next morning at dawn, the three gunboats set sail, heading for the vicinity of Humen Fort.

The Tianyuan fired to lure the enemy from outside the fort's firing range, while the Fuzhou and Funing came ashore, unloading cannons and gunners, establishing an artillery position on land to bombard the fort.

The bombardment began before first light and continued all the way until noon.

Humen Fort was blasted to pieces, all its cannons destroyed. The garrison was either blown to death or scattered in flight.

Lin Qian sent men to occupy the fort, and returned to Guangzhou city proper at noon.

By evening of that same day, remnant enemies throughout Guangzhou city had been essentially wiped out.

Lin Qian ordered the whale ships back to Nan'ao Island to transport supplies and soldiers, and placed Guangzhou city under martial law.

At the same time, he sent fast horsemen to spread the news throughout Guangdong that Guangzhou had fallen, and that the Governor-General of the Two Guangs and the officials of the Three Offices had surrendered.

This news, like a deep-water bomb, exploded into an uproar across Guangdong.

It was like two armies facing off, and the enemy sent a fierce general who cut down our commander in one stroke—then what was the point of fighting on?

The next morning, villages and towns nearby all sent envoys to surrender.

After a dozen or so days, the nearby counties of Dongguan, Shunde, Sanshui, Zengcheng, and Conghua all sent people to surrender.

By early February, a vast swath of the Pearl River plain had fallen into Lin Qian's hands.

Whale ships shuttled back and forth between Zhangzhou and Guangzhou without cease, ferrying thirty thousand camp soldiers from Fujian to take over the defense of Guangzhou and other cities along the river.

At the same time, promises to the captives were honored: surrendered soldiers from Guangzhou and elsewhere who wished to remain in the army were kept for assessment and training, while those who wanted to go home were given travel money and released. From early February onward, Guangzhou completed the clearing of streets and corpses, gradually lifted martial law, screened and took over officials, restored basic administration, provided relief to disaster victims, and resumed normal commercial activity, while severely punishing those hoarding goods to profiteer.

Among Guangzhou's senior officials, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner and the Provincial Administration Commissioner were both highly cooperative, allowing Guangzhou's economic order to recover very quickly.

In this battle, the New Army deployed 6,500 men total, with over 600 killed or wounded. The Ming army suffered approximately 1,500 or more killed or wounded.

For a great city like Guangzhou, this was almost tantamount to taking it without bloodshed.

From start to finish, the siege took no more than three days, and its impact on the populace and the economy was extremely slight.

On the fifth day of the second month, the Nan'ao Times published a news article—"A Record of the Three-Day Battle of Guangzhou."

The article detailed the course of the three-day battle of Guangzhou, emphasizing the righteous army's descent like divine soldiers, their unstoppable advance, the Ming army's uprising before the battle lines, the Three Offices officials' surrender, and the medical soldiers' aid to the common people.

The full text was written in a documentary style, telling the story of this sudden great battle from a unique perspective of ordinary people.

Those interviewed included commoners and merchants of the outer city, soldiers of Gui'de Gate, civilian conscripts who had been cajoled and tricked onto the city walls, and low-ranking officials—even foreign merchants and envoys.

The interview content was not edited or censored, with no praise-singing of achievements. Whatever the interviewees said, the newspaper recorded as-is.

For instance, when asked why the soldiers at Gui'de Gate surrendered, the soldiers answered bluntly: "To stay alive." The soldiers didn't even know who was attacking the city. This admittedly weakened the propaganda impact, but it made readers find it all the more authentic and credible.

Moreover, the medical soldiers treating civilians, the New Army soldiers not entering private homes, not harassing the populace—these were all true facts, and even a plain, straightforward account was moving enough. Some residents of the inner city had only just learned that someone was attacking the city when the fighting was already over.

At the same time, the newspaper also published the full text of the "letter of surrender" that Hu Yingtai had written.

To ensure authenticity, the woodblock carver even reproduced Hu Yingtai's handwriting stroke for stroke when carving the characters.

And so his stalling tactic became a genuine surrender. When officials across Guangdong saw the newspaper, their will to resist was further eroded.

On the tenth day of the second month, the Nan'ao Times published an opinion piece, "The Power of the Tide."

The article adapted Xunzi's saying that "water can carry a boat, and can also capsize it," comparing the common people to the tide.

It pointed out that the victory at the Battle of Guangzhou was the inevitable result of oppression under the Ming court's corruption and darkness—the will of the people, an unstoppable tide of history. The article concluded: "Strong ships and sharp cannons may destroy city walls, but cannot move the human heart. Raging waves are born from ripples; ships capsize in an instant. Without the people's hearts as foundation, what is a strong city but a stack of eggs?"

What allowed Lin Qian to win popular support in such a short time, aside from actually sharing the profits, was the role played by the newspapers above all else.

Thus, after Guangzhou fell, while the curfew and martial law were still in effect, the Nan'ao Times established a branch office in Guangzhou at the first opportunity, and on the second day, the printing blocks for the newspaper were shipped in by eagle ships.

On the third day, before the city gates of Guangzhou had even been reopened, the newspapers were already being sold on the streets and in the alleys.

The era when Guangzhou's newspapers lagged behind Fujian's in timeliness was gone forever.

By the tenth day of the second month, the printing capacity of the Guangzhou branch had been further expanded, and papers were being widely distributed to the surrounding county towns.

In Guangdong, the newspaper always marched ahead of the new army.

By mid-second month, when Lei Sanxiang's new army had finished its reorganization and began advancing east toward Huizhou Prefecture and Chaozhou Prefecture—

The news of the Battle of Guangzhou had long since spread throughout both prefectures. Along the new army's march, the common people lined the roads to welcome them, pressing sweet cakes, sweet potatoes, eggs, and other gifts upon them without cease.

With the Ming camp soldiers' "sweeping through like a comb" as a shining precedent, Lin Qian had assumed that at best the people would not fear the new army—he never imagined they would go in for the whole "welcoming the king's army with food and drink" business.

So much so that the military orders emphasized only: do not oppress the common people, do not plunder supplies, do not insult women.

But when the people insisted on giving gifts, what to do about that—nobody knew.

When the Huizhou Prefect heard that the new army was attacking, knowing he could not resist, he put up only token resistance before surrendering the entire prefecture.

Chaozhou Prefecture followed close behind, also joining "under the Helmsman's rule," and sent fast horsemen to the new army's camp, requesting that the new army quickly eliminate the Governor-General's standard troops stationed below Fenshui Pass.

Upon learning of the Guangzhou victory and the new army's movements, the Battalion Commander of those standard troops immediately surrendered as well.

After all, with the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi gone, what were they supposed to be fighting for?

At the same time, inside the Governor-General's residence in Guangzhou, Lin Qian was listening to his subordinates report on the spoils of this campaign.

First came silver and coin. Guangzhou was the hub where Lingnan's tax revenues converged—Guangdong's levies and the Maritime Trade Supervisorate's customs duties all pooled here.

After inventory, the treasury held seven hundred thousand taels of silver and over one hundred thousand strings of copper cash—enough to cover this campaign's military expenditures with plenty left over.

Next came grain, salt, cloth, and the like.

In Guangzhou's official granaries such as Yongfeng Granary, stored grain amounted to six hundred thousand dan—enough to feed the entire city's military and civilian population for months.

If transported by whale ships, this grain would require over one hundred and ten voyages—a truly staggering stockpile.

These provisions had originally been laid in against a siege, but the city fell so quickly that it all went to Lin Qian.

Besides grain, there were five thousand dan of salt and over ten thousand bolts of cloth of various kinds.

As for weapons and gunpowder: the Guangzhou armory held over five hundred firelocks, more than a thousand suits of cloth-faced armor, three to four thousand blades, spears, bows, and arrows, and over three thousand jin of gunpowder.

Compared to the economic goods, the weaponry was pitifully meager.

But all in all, even a single city like Guangzhou already represented enormous war potential.

Supplying a new-model army on the strength of Fujian province alone, pushing westward from Fenshui Pass—that would have been harder than climbing to heaven, and would absolutely have dragged them into a quagmire of war. Even if they had taken it, Guangdong would have been left a ruin of rubble, its value greatly diminished.

Nothing like the present splendid situation, where Guangdong's administration had collapsed and every region surrendered at the sight of their approach.

At root, Lin Qian won through command of the sea—the fleet's ability to project force over long distances.

Gunboats provided fire support; whale ships provided formidable transport capacity, securing the army's logistics.

In essence, it was sea-power thinking crushing land-power thinking.

"What about timber?" Lin Qian asked.

His subordinate rifled through thick ledgers and documents, finally finding a register, and opened it: "The Whampoa shipyard has over a thousand large logs and over ten thousand units of planking, mostly fir, camphor, and ironwood."

In this era, one could not directly gauge the quantity of timber from the unit of measure alone—the dimensions of the pieces had to be factored in as well.

Looking roughly at the figures, Guangzhou's timber could keep the Xiamen shipyard going for about half a year; after that, new sources would have to be found. As a maritime power, the craving for timber was like a vampire's craving for blood—carved into the very bone.

Lin Qian ordered the whale ships anchored at Guangzhou to first transport a portion of the timber back to Xiamen.

Additionally, Lin Qian was short of silver.

When the cannon roars, gold flows by the ten thousand taels. Now that hostilities had begun, money would be spent like running water from here on.

Lin Qian now held nearly half of Guangdong, and the new army's size would need further expansion. At the same time, the Battle of Jeju Island and the Battle of Guangzhou had exposed many problems in the new army that would also cost silver to rectify.

Beyond that, saltpeter was a strategic material, charcoal and coal production were insufficient, and the output of the Foshan ironworks and the Macao cannon foundry urgently needed improvement. In a word, this broken ship called the Great Ming had been docked too long; now that it was setting sail anew, a hundred things awaited restoration.

The needs would have to be addressed item by item. Lin Qian decided to tackle the military problems first: "Send for Bai Qing."

For the Battle of Guangzhou, Lin Qian had mobilized all of his naval strength; the whale ships had not gone to Hoi An to trade, and Bai Qing had come to Guangzhou along with them. An hour later, Bai Qing walked into the main hall of the Governor-General's residence.

Lin Qian had someone bring out a map, covering South China, the Indochinese Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, India, and Ceylon. A red line extended from Nan'ao Island to Hoi An harbor, passed through the Strait of Malacca, then turned north, all the way to Bengal.

Lin Qian pointed at the center of the map: "Bengal. This region produces saltpeter in abundance—exactly what the army urgently needs right now. I plan to send two yachts on the run."

In nature, there are almost no ready-made saltpeter mines. The substance generally forms on the walls of latrines, livestock pens, and old houses; it is obtained by scraping saltpeter-earth, with a very low yield.

Previously, Fujian and Macao had still been able to obtain saltpeter through trade within the Ming; now that war had broken out, that supply channel was cut off.

Lin Qian's firearms and cannons were extremely dependent on saltpeter. The stockpiles accumulated over the years could last a while longer, but the supply chain still needed to be established well in advance.

Lin Qian continued: "This region is currently under the rule of the Mughal Empire, whose power is very great. At the same time, the English, Dutch, Portuguese, and others also have footholds here—the situation is complex and tangled.

My knowledge of this place is also very limited, so I need to send a capable person.

If we set sail now, we can wait in Malacca for the summer monsoon to carry us north—no time wasted."

Bai Qing said: "I'll go."

Lin Qian laughed: "How could such a small matter consume one of my great generals? Find a trustworthy shipmaster to go—someone bold yet resourceful, and sharp-witted." Bai Qing thought for a moment, then said: "Then send Zhong Aqi. Among all the shipmasters, he has served the Helmsman the longest, and I know him well. He acts decisively and won't come out on the losing end of any situation."

"Good. Which two ships to pick, how many men to take, what cargo to carry—all up to you."

"Yes." Bai Qing clasped his hands in acknowledgment.

At that moment, Geng Wu reported from outside the hall: "Helmsman, the gunsmiths from the cannon foundry have arrived at the ferry landing."

This was the next problem to be solved: developing the carronade and the flintlock musket.

To tackle this issue, Lin Qian had specifically ordered the Standard Workshop, the Macao gunsmiths, and the new army officers each to send representatives to participate.

But these people alone were not enough—on the technology tree, the most important metallurgy skill had yet to be unlocked.

Lin Qian rose and said: "Prepare a boat—to Foshan!"

Yahei

Pink Round

Pen