Chapter 210: Firepower Preparation

Shenmi Island, the largest island of later-era Korea, covers fifty-three square kilometers. After Mao Wenlong occupied Pi Island, he renamed it Yuncong Island. The island has several peaks exceeding two hundred meters in altitude, the tallest surpassing four hundred meters. Now in summer, the mountain vegetation is lush and dense, stirred by the sea breeze into wave after wave of green swells.

The northern coast of the island is mostly rock. In the northwest lies a stretch of flat ground, not large in area. Mao Wenlong once stationed troops to farm here. After the Later Jin army landed on the island, the few military households on the island fled into the southern mountain forests.

Several hundred Korean craftsmen are felling trees at the mountain's edge, surrounded by numerous tents. The Later Jin tents are extremely crude, most able to house only one or two men. When on campaign, each soldier prepares and carries his own, and the styles and materials vary, so their encampment looks more like a refugee camp.

Mandarhan stood on a hillock, watching with deep worry as a batch of fishing boats came ashore. Some boats had a small sail, others were propelled entirely by oars. A group of armored soldiers came off the boats cursing and swearing. Some collapsed prone on the ground the moment they disembarked and could not move, needing their comrades to help them up before they could walk. The Later Jin soldiers mostly come from forest hunting and fishing peoples; most get seasick the moment they board a ship, and their combat strength is greatly diminished upon landing. They might also be intercepted by the Dongjiang naval forces while crossing the sea, so Mandarhan was extremely worried about this.

Kakduli flew into a great rage yesterday. Mandarhan and Dong Nami both had to volunteer for the first echelon to atone for their failure in handling affairs in Korea.

Mandarhan turned toward the direction of Pi Island. The sea there was very quiet, a flock of seabirds soaring above the water. If the Dongjiang naval forces did not appear before tomorrow, half of Kakduli's plan would succeed. In Mandarhan's view, as long as three hundred armored soldiers landed, the Han people on Pi Island would have no choice but to surrender.

Dong Nami beside him also wore a face full of worry. They were both minor officers, entrusted with heavy responsibility this time and having performed poorly, equally fearful of being purged after returning to Shenyang, so they had no choice but to come together to Shenmi Island. Besides them, Shi Tingzhu and a Jalun Ejen of the Plain Red Banner were also on the island, with that Jalun Ejen temporarily in command. This time, Huang Taiji's personnel arrangements were also quite peculiar: the army had no overall commander. Leng E'li and Kakduli each commanded one wing. Now Leng E'li was encamped at Xuanchuanpu, planning to follow the coast of the Tieshan Peninsula to reach the north side of Pi Island and then begin the sea crossing. This route clearly showed some reluctance to fight; if the situation turned unfavorable, they could quickly get ashore. He planned to dispatch troops directly from Xuanchuanpu tomorrow. Kakduli, on his own authority, had occupied Shenmi Island. There was considerable open strife and veiled struggle between the two, each watching to see whose troops would move first tomorrow, both hoping to make the other draw the attention of the Pi Island naval forces first.

At that moment, at the disembarkation point to the north, the banner of Kakduli, the Gushan Ejen of the Plain White Banner, was raised. Dong Nami tugged at Mandarhan. The two went down the hill together, preparing to go and receive this rough commander.

They had just gotten halfway when they heard cries of alarm coming from the other side of the hill. Then, below the hill, many armored soldiers ran toward the various high points. The two looked at each other and quickly sprinted back to the hilltop. The dozen or so armored soldiers there were pointing toward the northwest and shouting. Mandarhan looked in the direction of their fingers and his mouth fell slightly open.

In the distance was a dense mass of sails. Over a hundred ships were sailing with the wind toward Shenmi Island. They had used the Tieshan Peninsula as cover, preventing the Later Jin army from spotting their silhouettes in time.

"It's the Dongjiang naval forces. They're heading north. We've been trapped on the island by them," Dong Nami said despairingly. On land, he feared no Ming army, but now, surrounded by the vast ocean, the psychological state of all the Later Jin soldiers was as unstable as his own.

Mandarhan spotted a large ship among the silhouettes, the likes of which he had never seen before. Its towering mast was more than twice the height of an ordinary troop ship. His heart jolted violently. He turned and fled toward the north, saying to Dong Nami as he ran, "Quick, get to the Gushan Ejen, my lord. Some boats just came ashore; there's still time to get back."

The Later Jin camp was like a hornet's nest that had been stirred. Countless armored soldiers rushed out of their tents, forming up into companies in terror amidst the shouts of the Niru Ejen and Bosoku.

。。。。。

Lu Zhi stood high-spirited at the bow of the largest warship of the Dengzhou Fleet. This was a No. 2 Fujian junk, the only one of its kind on this trip to Pi Island. All around, a thousand sails raced past. Over two hundred vessels from the combined Dongjiang and Dengzhou naval forces had sortied in full strength, reaching the position directly north of Shenmi Island.

On the sea ahead of Lu Zhi, two or three Jianzhou bandit boats were fleeing from Xuansha Island, pursued by several bird boats. He could already see some panicked figures on Xuansha Island. This small islet lay between Shenmi Island and the coast, its area extremely tiny. The few Jianzhou bandits on it had nowhere to hide and were fleeing up the hill.

Lu Zhi laughed heartily. "The Jianzhou bandits are nothing special. Once our naval grand army arrives, the Jianzhou bandits have reached a dead end."

"My lord is brilliant. Had the Army Supervisor not deliberately allowed them leeway to tighten the net later, how would the Jianzhou bandits have walked into this death trap of their own accord?" The speaker was that Advisor Mobile Corps Commander Zhang Dao. He was Sun Yuanhua's trusted aide, but he dared not offend Lu Zhi. He had been carefully flattering him recently, and now, seeing the Jianzhou bandits trapped, he hoped to claim some military merit.

In truth, the Dongjiang forces had discovered the Jianzhou bandits' camp at Xuanchuan the day before yesterday. Lu Zhi had suppressed the naval forces, forbidding them to sortie. The Dongjiang officers, unaware that Wendeng Camp had troops nearby, all feared the Jianzhou bandits would land under cover of darkness. The clamor demanding an early strike was fierce. Lu Zhi used his official authority to delay for two days, finally waiting for the perfect moment to strike while they were mid-crossing.

He pointed contentedly at Shenmi Island and, in a shrill voice, shouted to Zhang Dao, "A dead end it is, but not yet completely dead. Shenmi Island has over a thousand Jianzhou bandit heads. Bomb them to death for me."

。。。。。

"Boom." Plumes of white smoke rose from the sea. Seven red-barbarian cannons spat flame from the bows of various ships. Iron balls screamed out of their barrels, smashing into Shenmi Island and sending up bursts of stone chips. The Jianzhou bandits on the shore fled in panic toward more distant places.

The large Fujian junk where Zhang Dao stood, however, remained still. He was using a sighting board, aiming at the densest concentration of people and estimating the distance.

The sighting board he used had also been introduced from Europe. Its shape was a square board, with twelve gradations carved on two sides. At the corner opposite the angle formed by these two sides hung a plumb bob. Zhang Dao had twice traveled to Macao to recruit Portuguese mercenaries and was on good terms with the Jesuits, so he was very familiar with the sighting board.

Zhang Dao stood erect at the bow, placing the sighting board before his eyes. He sighted along the top edge of the board, aligning it with the distant Jianzhou bandits. The square board then tilted at an angle. The plumb bob formed an angle with the side closest to Zhang Dao, marking off a small triangle on that side. This small triangle was the key to the sighting board's distance measurement. Zhang Dao's own height and the distant target formed a large triangle. The small triangle formed by the sighting board was a similar triangle to this large one. Zhang Dao quickly measured the side length of the opposite angle, deduced the ratio based on his own height, and then used the side length of the board closest to him to calculate the distance to the target proportionally.

This was one of the secret military-state techniques Xu Guangqi spoke of. It still required considerable mathematical knowledge, and at the time, only a few people knew how to use it. Both the *Bing Lu* and the *Xifa Shenji* recorded the method of use.

At this time, Europe also lacked a mature theory of ballistics. The Italian mathematician Tartaglia wrote a book called *The New Science* in 1537, from which the sighting board and gunner's quadrant originated. It proposed some rudimentary ballistic principles, but they were far from mature. European gunners at this time basically used this book as their guide. Galileo conducted deeper research; in the early years of the seventeenth century, he devoted himself to studying the application of mathematics to military engineering. His results were not compiled into a book until the eleventh year of Chongzhen, titled *Discourses on Two New Sciences*, which proposed using trigonometric functions to calculate range. But his theory did not spread widely. Until the end of the seventeenth century, European gunners still used Tartaglia's theory.

The gunner Gongsha Dixilao on board was just such a European gunner, one of the best in Macao. Now he expertly directed the soldiers operating the cannon, adjusting the elevation angle according to the distance Zhang Dao had estimated and measuring it with the gunner's quadrant. Gongsha Dixilao was quite familiar with this particular cannon on the ship and no longer needed to use the gunner's ruler to determine the powder charge and shot.

Artillery of this era could not be standardized. Each cannon had to be tested after manufacture and came with a set of tools made specifically for it when it left the factory, to help the gunner use it correctly. The gun crews for red-barbarian cannons were generally not swapped. Later, when Dorgon attacked Taiyuan, the order sent to Beijing specified a particular cannon and a particular gunner by name, for this very reason.

The cannon at the bow was quickly loaded. Zhang Dao personally ignited it. An iron ball flew out with a roar. With good luck, it landed squarely among a group of Jianzhou bandits fleeing in chaos. Lu Zhi saw blood splatter through his telescope and greatly praised Zhang Dao.

Zhang Dao repeatedly demurred, claiming it was all thanks to the great good fortune of Army Supervisor Lu and Provincial Governor Sun. He secretly felt pleased with himself. Lu Zhi was the highest-ranking official here and a close servant of the Emperor. If he performed well, he might use this fine opportunity to find favor in the Emperor's heart.

"The Jianzhou bandits' morale is already broken. General Chen's Wendeng Camp should be arriving soon. With them here, this battle of Pi Island will surely become a great victory for Liaodong." As soon as Zhang Dao heard "Wendeng Camp," his expression darkened. In his moment of distraction, the twelve-pound red-barbarian cannon at the bow fired again, its sound shaking the entire island.

。。。。。

With a bang, accompanied by panicked screams, a nine-catty iron ball howled in, crashing with devastating force into a crowd of a Plain Blue Banner Niru. It effortlessly plowed a bloody alley of flesh. The remaining men of that Niru scattered in all directions, fleeing in every direction.

Mandarhan dodged a helmet sent flying by a cannonball. Panting heavily, he led the thirty-odd men of his Niru in a desperate sprint, retreating in panic behind a small hill. In this era, no one knew to lie flat on the ground when cannons sounded, but they did know it was safer behind a hill. Reaching there, he could finally stop and catch his breath. He turned to look at the armored soldiers beside him. Many had dropped their weapons and helmets in flight, their eyes fixed on him in panic. All around, groups of armored soldiers were fleeing. The wounded on the ground were left unattended.

Mandarhan hurriedly steadied himself. He was a battle-hardened veteran, yet even he was in such a sorry state facing the bombardment of red-barbarian cannons. The state of the ordinary armored soldiers was even more imaginable. If they were on land, this situation would never arise. They had horses and armor, and the confidence to rout several times their number of Ming troops. But the current environment made the Later Jin soldiers psychologically very fragile. This made it all the more necessary for him to remain calm, to steady these armored soldiers.

He took advantage of a lull in the cannon fire to poke his head out and look. A group of small Ming fishing boats was approaching the shore, firing fire arrows at the boats the Later Jin soldiers had left behind. A few bold ones came closer and directly towed the boats away. Mandarhan could not help but curse Kakduli inwardly. When the Ming naval forces first appeared, this Gushan Ejen had hesitated, seemingly unable to judge how long it would take the Ming forces to arrive. As a result, he wasted the time to escape. Now that the boats were burned, they were trapped on the island.

Dong Nami, who had only a few Goshiha, said angrily from behind, "These Nikan barbarians don't have the guts to come ashore. They only dare to fire cannons from far away. They are all cowards, as expected."

Mandarhan carefully examined the coastline and said, "How can cannons compare to our bows and arrows? Everyone's just frightened. Look how many people they've actually killed, just thirty or forty at most. I've cut down more than twenty barbarians myself just at Liaoyang. Kakduli is also utterly useless, letting the troops scatter everywhere."

Dong Nami also poked his head out to look. Just then, he saw two ships fire their cannons. Two iron balls smashed into an open space. One shattered a rock; the other bounced a few times, kicking up a few clouds of dust before stopping, still dozens of paces from the nearest armored soldier. Though the sound and fury were terrifying, they really hadn't hit many people. Some bodies lay near the shore, but not many in number.

He said to Mandarhan, "It's true they haven't killed many. But once this cannon hits, no amount of armor is any use, and you can't even find the corpse. Anyone would be afraid. The boats are burned, and we only have a few days' rations on the island. How do we fight from here?"

Mandarhan snorted and turned his head to look at the Plain White Banner's Gushan banner further away. Pi Island was now out of the question; they could only think about how to escape back to the mainland. "These small boats certainly can't stay at sea at night. There are only a few large ships. The Dongjiang soldiers don't have the guts to come ashore. We still have rafts and boats we've built on the island. Getting back won't be too difficult. Let's go grab some more Koreans first and make them row. We needn't worry."

As the two were talking, the sound of conch horns came from the direction of the Gushan banner, followed by a burst of gong strikes. It was the signal to assemble the armored soldiers into formation. Some Bayara, having shed their armor, ran swiftly to relay orders everywhere.

When a Bayara of the Plain White Banner rushed over, the two quickly stood up. The Bayara stopped and shouted loudly toward the direction behind them, "Get to the Gushan Ejen, my lord, quickly! A group of Ming troops took advantage of the shelling here to land over there. We're going to go cut them all down."

The Later Jin soldiers, seething with pent-up rage, let out a collective strange howl. Streams of Later Jin soldiers began converging again under the Gushan banner. That spot was over two li from the coast, so they needn't worry too much about the Ming cannons. They had never been so humiliated before, so they wanted to kill more than ever.

After waiting a quarter of an hour, Kakduli finally mustered over eight hundred men. Armored soldiers and Bayara totaled over five hundred; the rest were supernumeraries from various banners. He left some officers to continue gathering the troops and personally led over seven hundred armored soldiers to head directly toward the Ming landing point. They formed their battle array as they advanced. Although the Later Jin army's organization closely resembled a primitive tribe, it was not merely a matter of individual martial valor and pugnacity. Their formations were also well-drilled. Nurhaci had sold himself to Li Chengliang and had indeed learned quite a few things. In Nurhaci's era, the Jianzhou bandits' training was already very strict; the old chieftain frequently conducted inspections of the various banner armies.

These veterans were now engaging in the mode of combat they were most familiar with. They quickly formed battle arrays by Niru. Kakduli at this moment also displayed the ability of an old general, swiftly assigning commanders for the left and right wings and establishing his own temporary command system.

They arrived atop a hill to the northwest, nearly two li from the sea. In the bay before them floated over thirty Ming warships, among them several large warships. Some smaller warships were very close to the shore, and more foot-boats shuttled back and forth on the sea, ferrying batch after batch of Ming troops ashore. Several hundred Ming soldiers were already on the beach. They had formed a simple but strict, elongated rectangular formation. What drew particular attention was the middle section of the ranks, bristling with a dense forest of long pikes.