Chapter 163: Attack and Defense (II)

Mountains of corpses and white bones covered the battlefield,

A lone city that faced ten thousand deaths refused to surrender!

I send word to passersby: do not hold your noses,

The living cannot match the fragrance of the dead!

"In the last years of the Ming, the literati had no sense of shame.

Those who held high office and enjoyed great renown took pride in covering their faces and begging to surrender; and the great commanders of the frontiers all turned their blades inward. Only the two Constables, Yan and Chen, showed righteousness in a single city.

Had the defense of Jingkou been like this, Jiangnan would not have been handed over so readily."

— In mourning for the three lords Yan Yingyuan, Chen Mingyu, and Feng Houdun

From the city wall this round of cannon fire was clearly visible. These eight cannons alone had likely killed or wounded several dozen Green Standard soldiers, destroyed several shielded carts, and swept away who knew how many scaling ladders.

Watching the Green Standard troops fall into chaos and hearing their screams, the Taiping Army soldiers on the wall were instantly roused to thundering cheers.

Even the Xinhui young men whose legs had been trembling moments before now found their courage and shouted their approval.

When the cannons fired, Ge Zheng was standing right beside a red-barbarian cannon. The sudden blast made his eardrums ache fiercely, and he thought he had gone deaf.

When he saw the shot burst among the Qing troops, he paid no mind to the ringing still in his ears, slapped his thigh hard, and shouted gleefully at the gunners: "You sons of bitches, well shot, well shot! Fire!

Keep firing for me! Blast these dog-spawned bastards straight to the western paradise!"

"Rewards, rewards, heavy rewards! When the battle's over, I'll give you all heavy rewards — real gold and silver, real gold and silver..."

Ge Zheng, overjoyed as he was, had forgotten that he had no silver to speak of — the money was all piled in the public treasury. But at a moment like this, who had time to worry about that?

In the distance, Zhou Shixiang nodded in approval, thinking to himself that these Han Banners men were indeed skilled gunners. The few shots they had fired had landed squarely in the crowd.

It seemed that in the future these men could not simply be killed off — they had to be put to use, otherwise it would be a waste. After all, the Taiping Army's foundation was too thin, and "technical" soldiers who could work cannons like these were exceedingly rare.

Song Xianggong, seeing his own troops fire cannons for the first time, was also deeply gratified. Stroking the few sparse whiskers on his chin, he said happily: "These cannons are firing well — they've shown our Taiping Army's might and raised our morale!"

Although the Green Standard troops had long expected that the Taiping Army on the wall would open fire and had mentally prepared themselves, when the shot actually came and they watched the comrades around them suddenly smashed to pulp, the sight could not help but make them tremble.

Bodies smashed beyond recognition, the wails of the gravely wounded not yet dead, wood splinters flying everywhere, severed arms and limbs — the charging Green Standard soldiers instantly fell into chaos.

"Charge! Forward!"

Amid the chaos, veteran Green Standard officers raised their blades and shouted. Soon, old soldiers surged past the stunned new recruits and charged madly toward the base of the wall.

Though the red-barbarian cannons had inflicted heavy casualties on the Green Standard, for the two thousand charging soldiers it was not much. Before long, the troops regrouped and continued their advance.

The Taiping Army's cannons on the wall all fired at once, holding nothing back. Xinhui was built on the plains along the river, and the ground before the east gate was completely flat and open.

The two thousand-plus Green Standard soldiers massed there for the assault on the wall — this certainly gave them strength in numbers, but under cannon fire it also meant devastating losses.

After round upon round of cannon fire, a bronze cannon on the wall suddenly misfired. The stunned Han Banners gunner looked in terror at the two blade-wielders raising their swords, explaining frantically, terrified that these men who knew nothing would cut him down.

If he had deliberately refused to fire, there would be nothing to say — but the cannon had truly misfired, and to lose his head over that would be a real injustice.

Some cannons had fired too many times; their barrels glowed red-hot, and powder could not even be loaded — forcing it in would mean an immediate barrel burst. They had no choice but to haul water to cool them.

Where water ran short, men unbuttoned their trousers and pissed. Only after the barrel cooled could they carefully clean it with an iron hook and fire again.

Nearly half the city's cannons were concentrated at the east gate. Such dense bombardment made the attacking Green Standard soldiers utterly miserable.

Especially after they charged within a li or so, the grapeshot suddenly raining down from the wall was worse than a demon — a single blast could reap a dozen or even twenty lives.

"Scatter! Scatter! Scatter now!"

When some Green Standard officers realized the wall was firing grapeshot, they frantically ordered their men to scatter — otherwise one blast would kill who knew how many.

"No retreat! No retreat!"

The Green Standard troops attacking this time were part of the Guangzhou Green Standard and the Green Standard under Guangzhou Prefecture. The Guangzhou Green Standard was not too bad — as provincial capital troops they had some courage, and many veterans among them.

But many of the Green Standard soldiers from the counties under Guangzhou Prefecture were newly recruited men who had never seen a city taken under cannon fire. Before long, these new recruits grew afraid and began instinctively running backward.

But after only a few steps, the veterans coming up behind knocked them to the ground, then dragged them forward.

Those who ran into veterans got off easy; those who ran into officers were simply cut down on the spot. At a time like this, officers had no regard for lives — every one of them had the blood of a hundred men on his hands, so how could they show mercy to deserters?

If they truly showed mercy, the banner troops behind were not blind — there would be no good end for them afterward!

Under the officers' suppression, the soldiers halted their retreat and, at their shouted orders, scattered in all directions. This caused many of the cannon shots from the wall to fall on empty ground.

Experienced officers judged the intervals between the wall's cannon fire, then led their men charging upward during the gaps while the gunners were busy reloading powder and shot.

After suffering several hundred casualties, the Green Standard finally reached the base of the wall, less than a li away. The distance was now too close for the cumbersome red-barbarian cannons to adjust their aim.

Seeing this, Zhou Shixiang gave the order: the red-barbarian cannons need not adjust, but should stand ready. The moment the Han Banners were spotted advancing, they were to open fire immediately, cutting off the link between the Han Banners and the Green Standard troops.

In later ages this tactic would be called artillery interdiction — preventing the enemy's vanguard and main force from linking up.

The red-barbarian cannons could not reach them, but the smaller cannons could. Amid the booming, dozens of small cannons rained shot down below the wall like a downpour.

Amid the shrieking cannon fire, iron balls flew at the Green Standard soldiers. A ball would smash into the ground, then instantly bounce up again, sweeping past like a comet's tail and smashing the Green Standard soldiers in its path into pulp.

The iron balls bounced and leaped across the battlefield, and every bounce claimed a life. One ball, its force not yet spent, bounced again and slammed heavily into the head of a soldier behind — the ball embedded itself in his skull, brains spilling across the ground.

Another ball, bouncing unpredictably, passed straight through a soldier's belly, instantly carrying away all flesh, blood, and bone, leaving a great empty round hole that spurted blood with a wet, sucking sound.

The Green Standard officers below the wall paid no mind to the heavy casualties, cursing as they directed their men to close in on the wall. A few shielded carts, taking advantage of the chaos, were about to charge the gate. Though those carts were close, hitting one squarely was very difficult.

Just as one shielded cart was being pushed into the gate tunnel by several double-armored soldiers, seven or eight Taiping soldiers on the gate tower strained to lift a huge boulder and hurled it down with all their might.

The cart could not dodge in time; when the boulder struck, it split apart instantly. A support beam flew out and skewered one soldier straight through the chest, pinning him as if nailed in place.

He struggled, but could not move at all.