Chapter 516: The New Han Army

On the Caohebao battlefield, battle cries shook the heavens. Under the harsh pressure of the supervising troops, the Later Jin soldiers in chaotic formation surged forward against the gunfire. These Later Jin elites still displayed extremely fierce combat power. The Dengzhou soldiers fired independently along the entire line; the soldiers' loading speeds all varied. Amid the roaring guns and battle cries, the officers could no longer command volley fire. The soldiers fought purely on instinct, and fierce hand-to-hand combat broke out in many places.

Zhao Xuan was crouching on the ground loading his short musket when a spray of blood suddenly flew over, drenching his head and face. Zhao Xuan had not finished loading; he had just poured in the powder, and the paper-wrapped lead ball and paper casing were still in his hand. He hurriedly spat out the blood in his mouth. As he stood up, a flintlock soldier directly in front of him collapsed, and a Later Jin soldier clambered onto the breastwork with one hand, about to climb over.

A small gap had formed here, and Zhao Xuan was the closest. Zhao Xuan's mind went blank. A volley of gunfire erupted nearby, jolting Zhao Xuan's mind. He immediately stuffed the ball and paper casing together into the muzzle, his right hand trembling as he drew the ramrod.

That Later Jin soldier wore heavy iron armor and had just charged up the slope, so his strength was somewhat drained. He tried once but failed to climb over. He then let out a loud shout, heaved with all his might, and tumbled over the breastwork, landing only three paces from Zhao Xuan.

All around, the sounds of killing filled the air. Fierce melee combat broke out at many points along the battle line. Jianzhou bandit skirmishers appeared on the rear and both flanks. Everyone was fully focused on the enemy directly in front of them; no one noticed this small breach.

Zhao Xuan's ramrod trembled, unable to find the muzzle. The Later Jin soldier had already risen from the ground. A long wound on his face streamed blood, and his eyes gleamed with ferocity. His broadsword had fallen on the other side of the breastwork. He drew a scaling knife from his waist and prepared to pounce.

With a swish, the trembling ramrod slid into the barrel. Zhao Xuan rammed it down with force, and his right thumb swiftly cocked the hammer.

The Later Jin soldier locked onto his target, let out a furious roar, and lunged at Zhao Xuan, raising the scaling knife high. "Yah!" Zhao Xuan shouted loudly, raising his short musket at the short, stocky figure right in front of him and pulling the trigger with all his might.

With a thunderous "Bang!", white smoke filled his vision. After firing, Zhao Xuan, still in a panic, continued making "yah yah" sounds.

The soft lead, propelled by the gunpowder, was sharper than a scythe. The solid iron armor was torn open with a large hole. The Later Jin soldier lurched to his left, staggered two steps unsteadily, and crashed to the ground with a thud.

Zhao Xuan was still making "ah ah" sounds, panting heavily. At that moment, a Mandarian Duck Formation fireteam of musketeers arrived from the rear line. A volley knocked down several more Later Jin soldiers attempting to break through, sealing the gap.

The four-pounder cannon in the center roared like thunder, followed by a string of screams from the front. Then the crouching-tiger cannons on both flanks also bellowed. A panicked howling of terror rose from the front, moving eastward.

Battle cries still rang out in front of the formation, but most bore the Dengzhou-Laizhou accent. From Zhao Xuan's perspective, the battle line surged with people, several spots forming tight clusters where not only the sounds of clashing and killing came, but also sporadic gunfire.

Zhao Xuan's legs felt weak. He slowly walked toward the nearest cluster. The surrounding flintlock soldiers were also reinforcing. Above the crowd there, the occasional flash of a broadsword blade could be seen, along with curses in Mongolian and Jurchen.

The young soldiers' battle cries shook the heavens. Wave after wave of deafening shouts surged. By the time Zhao Xuan arrived, the crowd suddenly erupted in cheers.

"Wiped them out!" "Wiped them out!" "We won!"

Cheers thundered across the position. The surrounding soldiers jumped, raising their guns and shouting.

Zhao Xuan squeezed in to look. The ground was littered with corpses lying every which way. The red uniforms of the Dengzhou army and the black armor of the Jianzhou bandits lay intertwined, interspersed occasionally with some silver-white color.

"The Tatars have been beaten back." Zhao Xuan felt a wave of relief. He looked up toward the front. The ground before the position was covered densely with corpses and wounded Tatars. Some young soldiers climbed over the breastwork, picked up the broadswords and spears from the ground, and began hacking and stabbing wildly at the wounded and dead Later Jin soldiers on the ground.

On the official road ahead, several hundred fleeing figures were running for their lives.

"Hahaha." Zhao Xuan laughed three times, then tilted his head back to look at the sky and laughed heartily.

"Help with the wounded! Those outside, drag the Tatar corpses over and pile them on the breastwork! Keep digging trenches outside! You sturdy close-combat soldiers, strip the Jianzhou bandits' armor and put on an extra layer yourselves." Zhu Feng's voice rang out. Some of the young soldiers began frantically digging trenches again...

"Great Khan, your slave... your slave failed in supervising the battle. The routed soldiers have completely lost their nerve. Even the broadswords couldn't stop them. Some even fought desperately against the supervising White Armor Soldiers. Your slave had no choice..."

Huang Taiji waved his hand, cutting off Jirgalang's words. A rout is like a landslide; supervising troops are not all-powerful. This wave of nearly a thousand Later Jin soldiers had suffered horrific casualties from Ming firepower on the narrow road. It was only thanks to Jirgalang's effective supervision that they hadn't collapsed earlier and finally managed to charge into the Ming battle line. Huang Taiji had thought the Ming musketeers would be no match, but who knew those Ming soldiers would fight to the death without retreating? The musketeers and close-combat soldiers fought desperately against the armored soldiers who had broken in. The three cannons continuously fired canister into the crowded mass of Later Jin soldiers in front of the formation, each blast taking the lives of over ten Later Jin soldiers. After the Later Jin soldiers' losses reached three hundred, their morale finally collapsed, and they fled in a complete rout.

Huang Taiji's expression was very grim. He couldn't possibly behead all six or seven hundred routed armored soldiers, because the number was simply too large. For the Later Jin's current strength, six or seven hundred armored soldiers were an extremely precious force.

Huang Taiji raised his telescope. On that small position in the distance, banners waved amid a clamor. Many red figures ran out, moving about in front of the battle line—undoubtedly killing the wounded and taking heads.

"Prepare the second wave," Huang Taiji said flatly. He had seen that the armored soldiers had already broken into the Ming battle line. Ming musketeers were not strong in close combat, so their casualties must also be heavy. He had no way back now. The main army was already assembled here. If they couldn't break through this place quickly to shake the Ming center, then the Gaizhou direction would be thrown into chaos by the main Dengzhou force. Chen Xin might well turn Haizhou into a wasteland.

"Great Khan, those two thousand-plus Han troops have arrived. Why not let them take the front? Our armored soldiers are accustomed to raiding in the mountains. Let the armored soldiers cross the forests on both sides of the road—one part to assemble behind their formation, one part to harass from the edges of the woods on both flanks. The Han troops attack the front with a strong assault, and we can certainly take it in one sweep."

Huang Taiji turned his head to look at Jirgalang. "A good plan, but such maneuvers, especially assembling troops behind their formation, will take a long time. By then, if those several thousand Pi Island soldiers have already passed through Caohekou, then defeating the Dengzhou soldiers in front of us will be useless."

Jirgalang said in a low voice, "Great Khan, this road is truly too narrow. If we charge head-on as we just did, the armored soldiers on the road will be repeatedly slaughtered by enemy cannon fire. We have already been defeated once. If we are defeated twice more, the armored soldiers' morale will be completely lost. Even if we break this formation, we will lack the strength to drive on to Xiuyan and Huanggudao Fort, and we will be unable to achieve the Great Khan's intention of flanking the enemy at Gaizhou."

Unsure of the Dengzhou troop strength, Huang Taiji felt some hesitation. Jirgalang's words were a compromise: use Han soldiers to attack the front, and real Jurchen soldiers to attack the flanks and rear, surrounding and attacking the Dengzhou soldiers from all sides. This would increase the intensity of the attack and better preserve the precious real Jurchen armored soldiers. However, the time needed to maneuver the troops would be very long, potentially causing this encirclement to fail.

But this narrow terrain was indeed advantageous for defense. Even though the Later Jin soldiers outnumbered the enemy by more than ten times, they could not commit heavy troops at once. The number of troops in a single wave could not be too large either, because if the front collapsed, having more soldiers in the rear would be useless; they would just be packed together, providing targets for the enemy cannons.

Huang Taiji frowned in thought. This small unit of Dengzhou soldiers had occupied favorable terrain and created a huge problem for him. If the Dengzhou garrison controlled Caohekou, then Huang Taiji would be unable to link up with Yoto and would not have a reliable and convenient food supply route. His total troop strength on this route was as many as six thousand, including four thousand real Jurchen armored soldiers and reserves, two thousand Han soldiers, and another three thousand bondservants. Their current food supply still relied on what the armored soldiers carried themselves.

The road from central Liaodong to Samaji Fort was extremely difficult and could not support nine thousand men and horses. The consumption along the way was also very high. Therefore, once the Dengzhou garrison occupied Caohekou, it would instead become a huge threat to Huang Taiji, very likely a case of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used as bait.

At the same time, he also had to consider whether Yoto would truly put in the effort to break through Caohekou when the time came. This was also the reason he had placed Haoge at Lianshan Pass.

If, by chance, the Dengzhou garrison caught them by the tail, cavalry on this mountain road would be extremely prone to congestion, and food resupply would be inconvenient. Huang Taiji's entire force would be stuck, unable to advance or retreat. At this moment, he couldn't help but regret coming into these mountains to set an ambush. However, his original intention had only been to strike the Dongjiang soldiers; he hadn't expected these several hundred Dengzhou troops to suddenly appear. And how many Dengzhou soldiers were actually behind them? Huang Taiji still didn't know. If there were five or six thousand, in this terrain unfavorable for deploying troops, the Later Jin's numerical advantage would be completely useless.

Jirgalang said in a deep voice, "Great Khan, your slave has a suspicion. Could this unit of Dengzhou soldiers dare to hold fast here because there is a large reinforcing army behind them? The year before last, the Dengzhou troops in southern Liaodong already numbered over ten thousand. It is heard that they have been conscripting continuously. Now, southern Liaodong is impenetrable. All we hear are rumors—saying there are twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand troops in southern Liaodong—but no one can say for sure how many troops there really are. Your slave observes the bearing of this Dengzhou unit; they show no sign of lacking confidence. Could it be that they intend to tie down our Great Jin troops while waiting for their main army to arrive?"

Huang Taiji narrowed his eyes and stared at Jirgalang. "Are you saying that behind those Pi Island soldiers over by the Caohe River, there might also be Dengzhou garrison troops?"

"Your slave is only guessing. Seeing how those Pi Island soldiers act with such fearlessness, they must have something to rely on behind them. This Dengzhou unit before us shows no fear in the face of our great army, which is likely not a good sign. It is not advisable to excessively deplete our Jurchen armored soldiers at this time."

"There is some sense in that." Huang Taiji immediately decided, "Have your Bordered Blue Banner's Meiren-i Janggin take three hundred armored soldiers to the Caohe River. First, rout that unit of Pi Island soldiers, then scout the Caohe River valley."

"As commanded." Jirgalang breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. He knew Huang Taiji was also somewhat uncertain, clearly shaken in his resolve by the Dengzhou soldiers before them. Attacking this position was not a good task, and Jirgalang did not want his own armored soldiers to be committed too heavily.

Huang Taiji glanced back. On the road from the direction of Caohe Fort, the long column of Han soldiers was hurrying over. His eyes flickered with changing thoughts for a moment before he finally nodded and said: "Have the armored soldiers in formation clear the road. Deploy the Han soldiers to attack the front and tie down their musketeers. Gu Santai will lead the armored soldiers around through the mountain forests and assemble on the road to the west. At the signal of three conch blasts, they will attack the Dengzhou soldiers together. Oboi!"

"Your slave is here." The lean and capable Oboi answered from behind.

"You will go with Gu Santai."...

"Lord Zhao, your subordinate still wishes to request that you go to Tongyuan Fort to seek reinforcements."

Zhao Xuan looked at the already wounded Zhu Feng, shook his head, and continued loading. "Don't waste your efforts. I just killed a Jianzhou bandit myself. I can help."

The mail armor on Zhu Feng's shoulder had a tear, and some blood seeped out, soaking his uniform. He leaned in anxiously and said in a low voice, "My lord, although we have killed over three hundred armored soldiers, we have also suffered over seventy casualties. We still don't know... how long we can hold. Your subordinate wishes to ask you, my lord, to go to Tongyuan Fort to seek reinforcements again."

An impulse to escape this dangerous place flashed through Zhao Xuan's mind, but then he looked at the battle line. Many armored soldiers' corpses had been dragged over and placed at the breastwork, and the soldiers were piling earth on top of them. It looked even sturdier than at the start. The ranks of musketeers were sparser than before. Some soldiers now held two muskets, the extra one loaded and leaned against the breastwork beside them. Some Later Jin soldiers' spears had also been collected and were similarly propped against the breastwork for use in close combat.

The excitement on the position had subsided considerably compared to the beginning. Under the impact of the wounded soldiers' piercing screams and the bloody scenes, the young soldiers' morale began to drop. The battlefield was far from the hot-blooded and romantic image they had imagined.

"I will stay. They need me." Zhao Xuan finished loading his short musket, went over to pick up a flintlock with a broken bayonet from the ground, then stood up and said to Zhu Feng, "You need not try to persuade me further. There is no Battalion Training Officer who retreats first."

Seeing Zhao Xuan's resolute attitude, Zhu Feng nodded silently. At that moment, a burst of horns and drums sounded from the opposing Later Jin army. The armored soldiers who had been arrayed in front began entering the forested areas one after another, while columns of square formations entered the valley road from the rear.

Zhu Feng raised his telescope. Through the lens, he could see dense spear formations and musket ranks on the flanks, almost identical to the Dengzhou square formation structure. It seemed they even had skirmisher detachments, though the soldiers' clothing was a motley mix of colors, appearing somewhat disorderly. He looked for a moment, then said softly, "This must be that new Ujen Cooha unit the Jianzhou bandits have been training."