Chapter 497: Shield Carts

A chain of cannon fire erupted. From the ranks ahead and to the right, a burst of fragments suddenly exploded outward; several Armored Soldiers tumbled backward out of formation, and screams immediately followed.

A Daizi stationed behind the Armored Soldiers to keep order bellowed furiously, ordering the soldiers back into the ranks.

Holben was galloping along the rear of the Armored Soldier line, heading toward the south side of Wangzhuang. Seeing this, he reined in his horse and stopped, observing the Armored Soldier formation for a moment. Two places had just been hit; officers promptly drove soldiers from both flanks to fill the gaps again. The ranks stirred briefly, and after the screams died away, they fell silent once more. Against the vast Qing army formation, two iron shot had little effect.

During the night raid at Tongcheng Post, Holben had led his team in the assault on South Street. The Ming Army cannons on Cross Street had fired at rapid speed, scattering the assault formation in moments and dissolving the offensive in an instant — an experience that left a deep impression on Holben.

At a distance of two hundred paces, the striking power of these Ming small cannons was nothing like the ferocity they had shown in the streets and alleys. Today, the Ming Army's bronze cannons were firing at a markedly slower rate, with longer intervals between shots, and their targets were somewhat scattered. Holben did not know whether this Ming force was deliberately doing so.

The Ming line that had just fired was wreathed in gunpowder smoke. The Qing army's Bird Guns and Three-Eye Guns were still discharging, and white smoke from firing hung everywhere along the front. Ming firepower shifted back toward the Shield Carts.

On the main road, several more massive, heavy Shield Carts advanced. These carts all had four low wheels and sturdy wooden protective panels; behind the panels, earth-filled sacks had been piled as defense against cannon fire. Over a dozen Bondservants worked on the road, dragging shattered Shield Carts — along with the wooden debris and corpses — off to the sides. Once the road was cleared, the large Shield Carts continued forward along the main road.

Most of the Shield Carts moved off the road. Estate stewards and Armored Soldiers overseeing the battle brandished Waist Sabers, and groups of Bondservants pushed the carts as they fanned out across the fields. Without waiting to form a single line, each Shield Cart began advancing on its own. The ground in the fields was mostly still hard, so the carts moved forward at no slow pace; only where the terrain was uneven did the Bondservants need to lift one side's wheels.

The Shield Carts in the fields were dispersed, and the Ming cannons' hit rate was not high, yet carts were still struck from time to time. Exploding wooden shards mowed down swaths of Bondservants, their screams deafening. Shield Carts with shattered wheels tilted and slumped in the fields, unable to advance further.

The Armored Soldier formation advanced slowly, thirty paces behind the Shield Carts. Holben did not rush to the Plain Yellow Banner's battle line; instead, he cut through the Armored Soldier ranks and, with a few personal guards, rode between the Armored Soldiers and the Shield Carts, observing the Ming troop strength at Dongcunkou.

Yoto had originally possessed a Telescope, but because Yoto had contracted smallpox, no one dared use any of his belongings. Everything had been packed into chests and never taken out again. Holben could only rely on his own observation. At the village's east end, the Ming forces had seven cannons. Judging by the weapons arrayed behind the wall ramparts, there were at least over a hundred Heavy Armor Soldiers, along with a considerable number of Unarmored Soldiers. Holben estimated that at least two hundred elite guards, supported by another two hundred Armored Soldiers, would be needed to have any chance of breaking through the Dongcunkou defense line.

By now, the Shield Carts had closed to within eighty paces. Here, a low field ridge appeared. Rows of Shield Carts halted before the ridge; the Armored Soldiers overseeing the battle brandished their Waist Sabers, urging the Bondservants to lift the carts over, occasionally cutting down anyone who seemed to be slacking.

The Ming cannons resumed firing one after another. Black iron shot streaked past like lightning. The personal guards around Holben were extremely tense, shielding him on both sides.

As the distance closed, the cannonballs struck with increasing accuracy. Under the threat of death, the Bondservants screamed wildly as they frantically pushed the carts. The lighter two-wheeled Shield Carts were the first to be hoisted onto the ridge. Just then, another cannon roared ahead.

Holben was close now. He saw an iron shot burst from the white smoke and fly out of the barrel, tracing a black arc before slamming into the ground in front of the ridge. With a muffled thud, slushy mud and dirt sprayed where the shot struck. The iron shot then bounced up from the hard ground and hurtled violently into the protective panel of a two-wheeled Shield Cart.

With a thunderous boom, the Shield Cart's body bounced upward. The iron shot tore through the protective panel like dry weeds and rotten wood, sending a rain of splinters spraying backward onto the Bondservants straining to push the cart. Amid screams, Bondservants rolled across the ground. The iron shot, after piercing the panel, ripped a Bondservant directly behind it in half at the waist; the upper half of his body, trailing intestines, flew several paces away, while his right arm was blasted off to who knows where.

The Bondservants behind two nearby Shield Carts scattered and fled in all directions, shrieking. Some, their minds shattered, ran straight toward the Ming army line. Armored Soldiers on horseback, overseeing the battle from behind, rode up and hacked wildly with their blades; in an instant, the ground was littered with dead and wounded.

Holben was a battle-hardened veteran who had witnessed every kind of brutality and was ordinarily unmoved by any of it. Yet the cannons of this Southern Troops force kept his mind in a state of intense, constant tension.

Another batch of Bondservants and commoners was driven forward. Under the coercion of the Armored Soldiers and estate stewards, the Bondservants pushed the Shield Carts over the field ridge. The cannons kept firing, iron shot dancing and skipping across the hard field. Damaged Shield Carts were simply abandoned where they lay. As the distance closed, the Anqing Battalion's cannons were drawn to the heavy Shield Carts on the main road. Those large carts were sturdier, but under the cannon barrage they still sustained damage one after another. The front two soon had their front wheels smashed, and more than half the Bondservants pushing them were lost.

The wrecked Shield Carts slumped crookedly along the battle line. Though the Shield Carts in the fields suffered enormous losses, the Qing army had an almost limitless supply of manpower. By using the large Shield Carts to draw away fire, these carts had finally closed to within forty or fifty paces. Ahead lay the obstacles formed by those broken-down carriage frames. Only a dozen or so of the first wave of Shield Carts remained. The commanding Jalan Commander gave the order to halt.

New commoners and Bondservants were driven forward. Carrying heavy grain sacks, they piled them behind the Shield Carts and immediately left. Like ants, the Bondservants kept hauling, an endless stream delivering grain sacks.

A discontinuous breastwork, formed by scattered Shield Carts, gradually took shape and extended outward along the carts to both flanks. Behind them, the Armored Soldiers of the Two Red Banners advanced. A drum sounded, and a dense rain of arrows poured down toward Wangzhuang.

Seeing that cover was now in place and the Southern Troops' cannon advantage had been greatly diminished, Holben rode south along the line to the northeast corner of Wangzhuang. Beyond this point lay the Plain Yellow Banner's line. Here, cavalry shuttled back and forth, most of them Plain Yellow Banner Mongol horsemen. Their Shield Carts were few in number. Ming cannons fired intermittently; over twenty bodies of men and horses lay strewn on the ground.

The north wind slowly brushed the white smoke from the exchange of fire at Dongcunkou southward, gradually blurring the line of sight. Holben squinted, observing. There seemed to be three cannons in this direction — their muzzle flashes were easy to distinguish. Obscured by the smoke, the number of Heavy Infantry was unclear.

Holben still needed to go to the west end of Wangzhuang to inspect the offensive and defensive situation there, and finally return via the north side. By circling Wangzhuang this way, he could grasp the overall battle situation and then report back to Du Lei and Dudu, so they could select the Ming army's weak point. He spurred his horse and galloped west. As he left the eastern sector, he turned his head for a glance: on the Ming army's Chest Rampart at Dongcunkou, flames flickered, and many small puffs of white smoke spurted out.

……

Crackling chaos erupted atop the Chest Rampart as the Firearm Team's fire lances discharged in a continuous din.

Wu Dacai leaned his body back, tilting his head far to one side, keeping well away from the Fire Gate. His finger pulled the trigger hook; the burning end of the Fire Rope dropped into the priming pan. A puff of white smoke rose from the Fire Gate, the Lumi musket kicked back against him, and smoke billowed ahead.

Wu Dacai let out a breath. He had completed his first musket shot. Although the ammunition had been loaded by a Firearm Soldier, the Fire Rope lit by a guard, and the gun placed on the Chest Rampart for him, in the end, it was Wu Dacai who had pulled the trigger hook. The scene ahead was utter chaos; whether he had actually hit anything, he had no idea.

Around him, Light Arrows thudded down. One arrow shaft stuck into the Chest Rampart right in front of him with a thump. Wu Dacai's head shrank back slightly, then stopped. He handed the Lumi musket back to the Firearm Soldier, who immediately passed him a Self-Igniting Arquebus in return.

Wu Dacai took the gun and aimed as the soldier had instructed. Amid the wrecked Shield Carts ahead, countless figures dashed to and fro. The Qing army's level of organization far exceeded that of the Roving Bandits, allowing them to leverage their manpower advantage to the utmost. For the first time, Wu Dacai began to worry that the Qing army might truly break through Wangzhuang.

What he did not know was that the Qing army, after years of honing their response to Red Barbarian cannons, had already developed a set of assault tactics. They were thoroughly adept at earthworks; at the Beating the Bell River, they had used entrenching earthworks to literally trap Zu Dashou to death.

Wu Dacai was not clear on this. The Anqing Battalion's intelligence on Liaodong was limited, mostly secondhand accounts. No one had ever mentioned siege tactics of this kind.

The Wangzhuang before him could not compare to a walled city. The Qing army lacked the time to dig trenches and lay siege, but they could achieve their goal through similar methods: using various materials to reduce the lethality of the cannons, leveraging their own manpower advantage while diminishing the Anqing Battalion's firepower advantage.

Now they had closed to within fifty paces. The Qing Armored Soldiers massed behind the Shield Carts, and the continuous volleys of dense arrows sharply increased casualties among the unarmored civilian laborers.

Among the ordinary Light Arrows, a small number of fire-tipped arrows were mixed in. Most of Wangzhuang's structures were thatched huts. Since the Armored Soldiers had been quartered in them earlier, they had not been burned down, and most still had their straw roofs. Flames were already flickering from several thatched roofs in the village. Shouts rang out continuously from the rear as Logistics Soldiers and civilian laborers braved the arrows to beat out the fires. The surrounding smoke grew thicker and thicker.

Among the surrounding Heavy Infantry, those wearing Chain Mail rose one after another, adjusting their Face Armor neatly into place. From behind the Chest Rampart, they returned fire at the Qing forces with bows. Others still sat on the ground, resting and regrouping. Since wearing armor consumed considerable physical strength, these Heavy Infantry would likely only rise when the Qing forces charged right up to them.

The Qing army's second wave of roughly forty Shield Carts was approaching from the rear. Shielded by the carts ahead, this second wave came under no fire and took up positions behind the front line one after another. Groups of Bondservants, driven out under the threat of Qing blades and spears, began clearing away the carriage-frame obstacles on the ground to open a path for the new Shield Carts.

A roar from a nearby cannon felled several figures ahead. Those around them scattered in panic, but before they could retreat back behind the Shield Carts, they were cut down. The survivors were then driven out again to continue the clearing work.

Wu Dacai was a seasoned veteran of battle. Regardless of who those figures were, as long as they were on the opposing side, they were the enemy. He immediately aimed at a cluster of people and pulled the trigger hook — but the hook did not budge.

The Firearm Soldier's voice called out, "Sir, that's a Self-Igniting Arquebus — you need to use force!"

Wu Dacai yanked hard. With a sharp clink, the chert struck the iron plate covering the priming pan. Only then did Wu Dacai remember he had forgotten to open the pan cover. He quickly pulled back the Striking Hammer again, flipped the iron plate open to expose the pan full of Priming Powder, and once more pulled the trigger hook hard.

The Striking Hammer flew toward the steel plate and struck with a loud clang. A few sparks fell into the priming pan, but the Priming Powder, splashing everywhere from the violent impact, failed to ignite.

The Firearm Soldier below half-stood, lifted a powder flask, and replenished the priming powder in the pan. Wu Dacai waited anxiously, his heart filled with utter distaste for this Self-Igniting Arquebus. For a soldier, the most critical aspect of equipment was reliability. Fire lances themselves were prone to barrel bursts, something the troops were already reluctant to use, and firing them came with all sorts of problems — it was all too easy to get oneself killed.

Suddenly, a sharp clang rang out against his helmet. The helmet was knocked askew, and a jolt of pain shot through his neck. An arrow shaft then tumbled down past his eyes.

The Firearm Soldier immediately dropped the fire lance and slid back to the ground with a whoosh. Caught off guard, Wu Dacai scrambled to use even the hand bracing his crutch, barely managing to keep hold of the gun. Fury surged within him. He glared fiercely down at the Firearm Soldier, then finally clamped the crutch under his armpit. With effort, he heaved the gun onto the Chest Rampart himself, ducked his head to aim roughly, and pulled the trigger toward the crowd opposite.

White smoke billowed. The Self-Igniting Arquebus had finally fired, but the figures forty paces away seemed not one fewer. Nearby, a cannon roared again, and several more among the busy crowd toppled.

In his heart, Wu Dacai placed absolute trust in the cannons. This fire lance, by sheer luck, had not burst its barrel. He had struggled just to get it to fire, yet it had no accuracy whatsoever, and he had no idea how lethal it was even if it hit. It truly could not compare to the cannons' effectiveness.

Wu Dacai tossed the gun back to the Firearm Soldier on the ground, then turned his head to watch the cannon crew. Just then, the Cannoneer pulled out the Cleaning Rod, faint wisps of white steam rising from it. After sustained firing, the bronze cannon's temperature was too high; they needed to reduce the rate of fire. The rapid fire they had used in the streets and alleys during the Thirty-Li Post Ambush could only be sustained for a very short time.

Earlier in the day's battle, Company Commander Ceng Yiyun had already ordered the cannon crews to reduce their rate of fire. But the enemy had advanced using Shield Carts from the start. The Qing forces held an absolute numerical advantage, while the Anqing Battalion's only edge lay in its cannons. They had to weaken the enemy as much as possible before close combat began. If those Shield Carts surged forward, close combat would erupt quickly, and the Anqing Battalion's advantage would be lost.

So they had no choice but to keep using the cannons to strike. Because of the extended duration, the barrels had no chance to rest. The Cannoneer dipped the Cleaning Rod into a nearby bucket to cool it, then thrust it back into the barrel to swab. When he pulled it out, white smoke still rose from it. The Artillery Chief touched his fingers to the cannon body; he still gave no order to load, indicating the barrel's temperature remained very high. If they rashly loaded the propellant powder, it might ignite directly and cause casualties.

With the artillery firepower passively reduced, the Qing forces opposite began to stir. The Firearm Team's shooting had negligible effect. The Qing troops quickly cleared several passages. The second wave of Shield Carts passed through those gaps, threaded through the intervals between the front-row Shield Carts, and began closing in on the Chest Rampart.