Chapter 134: White Armor

Facing wave after wave of dense attacks from long and short weapons, the Later Jin armored soldiers fell back step by step, nearing the brink of collapse. Several volleys of firearms had killed or wounded over three hundred of them, and casualties mounted rapidly once the close-quarters fighting began. Perhaps because the Later Jin had won too many victories over Ming troops, the concept of retreat had never occurred to them; it was only the inertia of this psychological superiority that kept them going until now. Chen Xin, for his part, had successfully exploited their contempt. He first used superior firearms to catch the Later Jin off guard, and immediately after the fire strike sent in his killer squads for close combat, denying the wavering Later Jin troops any chance to withdraw on their own initiative.

The commanders of the Later Jin left and right wings, all battle-hardened veterans, saw that the front might collapse and almost simultaneously committed their reserves. The hundred Mongol banner cavalry left on the outer flanks of both wings charged out to pin down the flanks of the killer squads and seek an opening to circle behind them. The Jianzhou bandits' dismounted reserve companies had also been dispatched to every sector to stabilize the situation. The reserves for the left wing and the center were all Mongol banner armored soldiers, but on the right wing were over eighty Manchu Bayara.

The silver-gleaming Bayara all dismounted. These elite warriors, survivors of many years of campaigning, were the Later Jin's supreme fighting force — no more than a dozen or so per niru. Eighty-odd of them were enough to defeat several hundred or even a thousand ordinary Ming soldiers. Their objective was not merely to stop the collapse; they also wanted to smash through the Ming battle line and strike directly at the enemy's central force, which had already moved up to the original breastwork position. Led by a jalan ejen and several corporals, they headed straight for the battle line. The spot they chose was near the breach Chen Ying and his men had opened.

By now the Later Jin soldiers' front line had slowly reached the frozen zone fifty paces away. The Later Jin troops, struggling to fend off the attacks, had no attention to spare for their footing. In their panic, countless men slipped and fell on the ice. The blood-eyed Wendeng Battalion, wielding every kind of weapon, stabbed and slashed wildly at the enemies sprawled across the ground. The flowing blood nearly formed small streams upon the ice.

Taketan scrambled on all fours across the frozen stretch. Turning his head, he saw in alarm a bowman wearing only a cotton-armor jacket stumble and just get back to his feet, only to be pierced repeatedly by several long spears. Blood sprayed from his entire body, his life snatched away in an instant. He crumpled softly to his knees, and before he was even halfway down, a tang-ba fork struck him in the neck, hanging him on its tines. A small length of the tang-ba's central spike protruded from the back of his neck, dripping a string of blood beads.

Taketan could endure no more. With a great shout, he turned and fled wildly with a group of bowmen. They had run barely twenty-odd paces when a mass of dazzling silver came straight at them. His ears filled with the sound of blades biting into flesh and the screams of the bowmen. Several bowmen fleeing at the front were severed at the neck.

The jalan ejen's furious roar rang out: "Those who retreat, die!"

A shiver ran through Taketan. He remembered once more the Later Jin's harsh military code. His deep-seated terror of the Bayara and the military code gained the upper hand. A crowd of armored soldiers and bowmen were forced to turn around and charge back at the Ming troops. Taketan saw a long spear discarded by some other armored soldier on the ground and hurried to pick it up. Since he was being forced to fight to the death, at least this was better than a saber. Before he could grab it, the man beside him snatched it away first. The footsteps of the Bayara behind them grew closer and closer. Taketan dared not delay any longer. He had no choice but to take a shield from nearby, draw his saber, and follow the charge.

The Bayara behind them accelerated at the same time, following right on their heels while hacking down those who ran at the very rear. The cold-glimmering spear points made Taketan's legs go weak. The spirits of the several armored soldiers at the very front had already collapsed. This group of men caught between life and death screamed at the top of their lungs, venting the despair and terror in their hearts, and like moths darting into flame, they crashed against the dense, razor-sharp blades opposite them.

Pitiful, piercing wails filled the air without end. Every single one of that group of armored soldiers was stabbed, without exception. Taketan was now only two steps from the Ming troops' striking range. His heart full of despair, he watched those armored soldiers and awaited the coming of his fate.

Before the Ming soldiers could even withdraw their blades, a rank of Bayara charged past Taketan with a whoosh. Holding long shields, they hurtled forward, slamming into those dying Later Jin soldiers and driving them straight into the killer squads. These powerful, ferocious Bayara used that cannon fodder to block the killer squads' line of sight, and in that moment, like tanks, they smashed a breach into the Wendeng Battalion's line. Many soldiers in the first two ranks were bowled over by them. A dozen or so shield-bearers burst into the killer squad formation. The killer squads' long spears and banner lances became utterly useless. These dozen-odd White Armor soldiers immediately swung the short-handled axes and single-handed great blades in their hands, beginning to expertly hack down the Ming soldiers around them. Their fine, deadly weapons raised showers of blood. The Bayara behind them charged in at the same time, attacking with heavy weapons like long spears and wolf-tooth clubs, throwing this section of the formation into utter chaos. Struck by this blow, and with enemy cavalry appearing on its outer flank, the Ming left wing's offensive momentum slowed to a crawl...

Taketan had his life spared at the very last moment. He was knocked to the ground by a Bayara charging past. Relying on his last shred of clarity, he rolled aside and dodged the dozens of feet that came after. When he lifted his head from the ground again, his body and face were smeared with sticky, clotted blood.

Those Bayara had broken through this short section of the battle line. The ground was littered with the corpses of Ming soldiers and Bayara. The follow-up Bayara were now beginning to assault the adjacent Ming troops. Amidst the crowd, Taketan caught sight of Yilantai's back.

Yilantai cleaved down a saber-and-stick soldier with one stroke. His vision cleared, and his eyes were filled with a dazzling expanse of red. He quickly scanned the scene. Fifty paces away, over ten musket formations were arrayed. They were advancing together with the Ming army's central banner. At the central position there were also nearly a hundred personal guards. On each wing was a mixed small square formation and a separate musket square formation. On the inner side of each wing were several dozen cavalry.

Yilantai knew those cavalry were going to deal with the Mongol banner cavalry on the two wings, while he himself had a more urgent matter to handle. Twenty paces in front of him was a small square formation. What he had run headlong into were the personal guards of the First Battalion headquarters and a reserve company from one of the ju.

The jalan ejen led a group of Bayara charging in through the breach, circling behind the battle line, preparing to attack the front-line killer squads from the rear. Lu Chuanzong had long since noticed the direction of the Bayara. He had his personal guards and the reserve company arrayed in tight formation at the rear, waiting. As soon as this group of Bayara burst out of the breach, the first and second squads fired a volley simultaneously.

Even their fine white armor could not withstand a musket volley at twenty paces. Seven or eight Bayara fell immediately. Another Bayara beside Yilantai was hit in the neck, his blood spraying all over Yilantai's face. Even a Bayara as fierce as Yilantai was genuinely terrified by this Ming unit's firearms. A veteran of a hundred battles, he knew fear was useless. Hearing the jalan ejen shout "Shoot arrows!", he calmly halted his steps.

Yilantai took out his foot bow, nocked a heavy arrow, and was the first to loose it. Over twenty Bayara soldiers expertly and rapidly shot several volleys of heavy arrows. The musket squads' cotton armor could not withstand them at all. The Ming army's two rear musket squads fell in quick succession, managing only a scattered dozen-odd shots before hurriedly ducking behind the rear rank to reload, exposing four killer squads. These squads came charging at a jog. The Bayara were forced to drop their bows and once again face close-quarters combat.

The Bayara had also suffered grievously in these two exchanges of fire. Over ten men at the front were killed or wounded. The jalan ejen's heart ached. These Bayara were the treasures of every niru and the guarantee of his own status. Moreover, there were men drawn from other jalan and other banners. With losses so heavy, how could he account for them when he returned?

The Ming army's battalion banner opposite them waved. The four musket square formations behind quickened their pace to close in. The jalan ejen looked around. Apart from that small breach behind them, his small band of Bayara was nearly surrounded by Ming troops. He regretted charging in. He should have quit while he was ahead and used these Bayara to cover an orderly retreat from the front. Only after charging in did he realize there was no possibility of smashing the Ming central force. Now retreat was impossible too. The four killer squads had already charged up to them and were engaging the Bayara. The Ming soldiers on both sides of the breach, far from fleeing, had actually begun counterattacking against the White Armor soldiers holding the line.

Although the reserves had been committed, the Later Jin soldiers on the other sectors of the front line had not reversed their decline in the slightest. The Jianzhou bandits' entire front collapsed. Groups of armored soldiers covered the wilderness outside the city. Throwing away their armor and helmets as they went, they fled for their lives toward the rear. Even the Jianzhou bandits' supervising squads could not hold them back and fled along with them. They ran back to where the horses were tethered, randomly seized a mount, and galloped away in panic. The Later Jin central command finally accepted the result of defeat. A single, meaningless sound of gongs rang out, signaling all soldiers at the front to retreat.

As soon as the pressure on the front eased, the Ming troops on both sides of the left-wing breach converged, surrounding the Bayara in their midst.

On both flanks of the battlefield, the thunder of hooves roared. On each side, a hundred Mongol left and right banner cavalry, leading nearly two hundred tribal warriors, shuttled back and forth along the flanks. Scattered armored soldiers kept dismounting to shoot on foot, while the tribal warriors still operated in small groups, harassing with their cavalry bows.

The Wendeng Battalion's flank detachments in their square formations fired volleys from time to time, white smoke bursting forth, preventing large groups of cavalry from approaching. Blood spurted from the cavalrymen and horses that were hit. Several struck horses rolled on the ground, screaming and thrashing wildly with all four hooves, the ground beneath them awash in blood.

The heavy one-and-a-half-mace ball of the banjiu musket could easily tear through the muscle of man or horse. Those hit by it had virtually no hope of survival. But muskets held no advantage against these small, roving groups of cavalry. The two wings were inevitably affected, their speed slowing as they dealt with these horsemen. The Wendeng Battalion's battle line became convex in the center, with the wings trailing behind.

Chen Xin was so excited his face was flushed red. He had, in fact, already won the battle. The Jianzhou armored soldiers at the front had collapsed. Only that group of White Armor soldiers on the left wing was still locked in a deadly struggle with several killer banner companies.

But they were also holding back the entire Ming left wing, preventing it from advancing. If the center and right-wing killer squads continued their pursuit, neither of their flanks would be adequately protected. Chen Xin watched the Jianzhou cavalry on both wings, with their superb riding skills, and knew the Jianzhou bandits were clever too. Their cavalry did not charge directly at the flanking infantry formations. Instead, they harassed constantly with small groups, while the main body of cavalry waited for an opportunity, pinning down the Wendeng Battalion's movements on both wings.

Chen Xin looked again at the Jianzhou central force, still in its original position. There was still a body of cavalry there, roughly over a hundred men. If his killer squads pursued the routed armored soldiers, once they moved beyond the protection of the two wings, they would be extremely vulnerable to flank attacks from these several groups of cavalry. One careless move could cause heavy losses. The mobility of cavalry meant they could choose the most advantageous moment to engage. Infantry was forever the passive party in this regard.

The field of corpses left before him basically satisfied Chen Xin. Several hundred heads were already enough to earn him the capital for opportunism. Of course, it would be best to add those several dozen White Armor soldiers and that jalan banner.

"Front line, halt the advance. Encircle and annihilate those Bayara."

A single sound of a gong rang out. The killer squad soldiers not engaged in combat immediately ceased their pursuit. All remained in place and began to reorder their formations. Those with bows took them in hand to guard against enemy harassment.

The Jianzhou troops facing the First Battalion headquarters had already scattered. Several killer squads were drawn from the front line to surround and attack those Bayara. The central guard unit also arrived here to join in the final annihilation.

After the Ming army committed its reserves, the Bayara were trapped around the breach. The Ming soldiers around them gathered thicker and thicker. For the first time, Yilantai felt despair. Everywhere he looked was a dense mass of blades. All around him were his Bayara comrades. Even by the banks of the Hun River, he had never felt such despair. These Ming soldiers fought without retreating, layer upon dense layer, slashing and killing without end. When one fell, another took his place from behind, as if utterly unafraid of death.

Before he could think carefully, two Ming soldiers lunged forward with arrow-like steps. A banner lance and a long spear struck at him simultaneously. Yilantai, with sharp eyes and quick hands, swung his great blade repeatedly, parrying while retreating, until his back slammed into other Bayara. In his haste, he turned his head. All the Bayara had been compressed into a tight knot. There was no further ground to retreat to.

He stopped his steps, letting out a hoarse, exhausted howl. The great blade in his hand danced with lightning speed, continuously parrying the thrusts of several long spears and tang-ba forks. After doing this many times in succession, his strength was beginning to fail.

Soon, a banner lance stabbed him in the thigh. In that moment of pause, a tang-ba fork struck swiftly at his face. With no time to dodge, he dropped his great blade and fiercely grabbed the horizontal crossbar at the front of the tang-ba, heedless of the sharp-edged prongs piercing his palms. Relying on brute strength, he stopped the central spike from entering his body. Before he could even catch his breath, a long spear plunged viciously into his lower abdomen. Yilantai's hands loosened, and the tang-ba fork also stabbed into his chest. This most ferocious of Bayara, who had just killed many men, was stabbed again and again by the enraged Ming soldiers around him, their weapons thrusting at him until his body was riddled with dense holes.

Amidst round after round of stabbing, the Bayara in the center grew fewer and fewer. They clustered around the jalan ejen. No one surrendered. The other routed Later Jin troops, taking advantage of the distraction they provided, had already fled far away under the cover of their cavalry. All that could be seen were countless bobbing horse rumps and the backs of bondservants chasing madly after them.

The three remaining groups of Later Jin cavalry also withdrew some distance, watching the slaughter here from afar. The Wendeng Battalion's formation was strict and orderly. They, too, were actually already terror-stricken and dared not come to the rescue at all. They watched until that jalan banner fell, then wheeled their horses and galloped away wildly, soon vanishing from sight.