Chapter 1065: Who Will Fall into the Trap? (Please Subscribe)

On the east bank of the Liao River, beneath Liangfangkou Pass, early morning of the nineteenth day of the ninth month.

Gunfire crackled sporadically, never quite ceasing. Outside Liangfangkou Pass, on the broad surface of the Liao River, a fleet of more than two hundred large sand ships was using small boats to ferry cannon and supplies ashore. The three earthen bastions belonging to Liangfangkou Pass, laid out in a rough equilateral triangle, were now all under Ming army control. After Duoni had withdrawn his main force from Liangfangkou Pass, the garrison left in the three bastions had been a single niru of just over two hundred men — nowhere near enough to withstand the Ming army's Young Guard Division of seventeen or eighteen thousand. Fortunately, the niru commander left in charge had been quick-witted enough: seeing the Ming fleet surge aggressively into the mouth of the Liao River, he had his men ready their horses, and the moment the Ming troops landed, the whole unit abandoned the pass and fled.

All that talk of killing over a hundred Ming soldiers and so on was pure nonsense.

Although the landing and the capture of the three forts at Liangfangkou Pass had been accomplished without shedding a drop of blood, the landing operation as a whole was far from over. This was six infantry regiments, one supply regiment, six artillery batteries, and a divisional headquarters battalion — the various supplies and stores piled up into a small mountain. And the docks at Liangfangkou Pass had long since been burned to the ground by the Qing army. With no ready-made docks available, everything had to be ferried ashore by small boats, and the workload was staggering.

But the Young Guard Division was no ordinary army. This force was an elite unit made up of eight thousand youths from the Nine Frontiers, more than two thousand young officers from the Military Academy, and five or six thousand veterans handpicked from the various New Army divisions. From top to bottom they were all as fired up as if dosed with chicken's blood, and when the sailors on the Northern Ocean sand ships — most of them temporarily hired — saw how driven they were, they caught the fever too and worked like madmen, on water and on land, for two days and two nights straight. All twenty-six gun crews of the six artillery batteries were ashore, the supply wagons and horses carrying grain had begun to be ferried over, and the division commander Qin Mingtao and the Northern Ocean Fleet Admiral "Firelock Liu" Liu Chongwen had likewise not closed their eyes for two days and two nights, personally directing the landing of the troops.

Company after company of the Young Army had already begun to assemble and was marching north of Liangfangkou Pass to seize strongpoints and establish positions. Although the Qing niru had withdrawn without a fight, it had not gone far; it had broken up into small bands of cavalry roaming near Liangfangkou Pass, trying to delay the Ming army's movements. And because the landed Ming troops had brought no cavalry, they could not easily wipe these riders out. But the flintlock musketeers advancing by battalions were still a force these Qing horsemen could hardly stand against.

The organization of the infantry companies under the Young Guard Division already approached that of line infantry from the flintlock era. Of the four platoons in a company, three were flintlock platoons, and the remaining one was called the pike-grenadier platoon — a combination of pikemen and grenadiers. In theory they could carry out both roles at once: forming a pike wall to protect the flintlock men against cavalry, and hurling grenades in assaults on fortified positions. In practice, however, these especially tall and powerfully built youths from the Nine Frontiers could also handle flintlocks and bows with skill, and could even charge on horseback. They were all but all-purpose soldiers!

Five to six years of rigorous training had turned these youths of seventeen or eighteen into the sharpest blade of the Great Ming Empire!

Thus a single battalion of Young Army infantry could absolutely hold its own against an equal number of Manchu White Armor troops!

After two days and two nights of toil, the aging Qin Mingtao and Liu Chongwen were both beginning to flag. They sat on a pile of wooden crates filled with solid shot, listening to the artillery staff officer Sun Shining report on the landing of the gun batteries.

"Division Commander, all six artillery batteries are ashore. Sixteen 3-catty bronze cannon, four 12-catty cast-iron short guns, and six 24-catty cast-iron mortars — all intact, and all the gun carriages and ammunition wagons are likewise in perfect condition. They can be deployed at any time!"

Qin Mingtao nodded with satisfaction. The Young Guard Division had brought no cavalry; if it also lacked cannon, it would be unable to bring its strength to bear.

He yawned and was just about to find a place to catch a nap when, from somewhere in the distance, there suddenly came a burst of gunfire as dense as beans popping in a pan.

The drowsiness vanished from Qin Mingtao's face at once. He narrowed his eyes and cocked his ears, listening intently. The gunfire kept up, quite dense, but it was not volley fire; it sounded somewhat ragged.

After a good while, the gunfire still had not stopped, and only then did Qin Mingtao speak: "They must have run into a large enemy force. Still, we shouldn't have come off the worse."

Whether they had come off the worse could be told just by listening to the gunfire!

The Young Guard Army used the newest Hongxing Year Ten flintlock musket, whose report was especially crisp and clear, markedly different from the old matchlocks.

Qin Mingtao could hear that the reports of the Hongxing Year Ten flintlocks remained dense, completely drowning out the dull thud of the Spanish light matchlocks.

This showed that the Young Army had gained the upper hand in the musket duel. Given their marksmanship, the Qing side must have taken considerable losses!

At that moment the gunfire suddenly thinned out, leaving only the sound of Spanish matchlocks, and faintly came the shouts of men charging into combat.

There was no need to guess — the Young Army must have launched a bayonet and pike assault!

And in the age when flintlocks and matchlocks held sway, the side that had the upper hand in a firefight could not possibly lose a bayonet charge it had itself initiated.

That myth of a force holding on despite being worsted in a rifle and cannon duel, only to collapse utterly under an enemy bayonet assault, is pure nonsense meant to fool people — a side getting the worst of a rifle and cannon duel, if it lacks the strength to launch an assault of its own, will inevitably approach collapse under the hail of bullets and shells.

And the opposing commander, so long as he is not brain-dead, would never launch a bayonet charge too early. A charge is always launched when the enemy has already begun to waver and break. One side's formation has already disintegrated, while the other is high in morale and charges in tight order — of course it is a complete rout!

Considering that the Young Guard Army possessed an overwhelming firepower advantage, the fact that they had taken the initiative to charge — since the flintlocks had fallen silent while the matchlocks still fired sporadically, it showed the Young Army was the one charging — meant that this meeting engagement had already been decided.

Qin Mingtao laughed: "A victory! We should be able to take prisoners."

Sun Shining chimed in: "Once we have prisoners, we may well be able to find out where the eastern barbarians' main force has gone!"

Qin Mingtao smiled: "If we know where they are, that would be ideal. Then we can try to lure them into the trap!"

Liu Chongwen also laughed: "The armed sand ships sent out by the fleet have already reconnoitered the route. The river is navigable for a hundred and fifty li north of Liangfangkou Pass. As long as you advance along the Liao River, the fleet's armed sand ships can support you."

The armed sand ship was an improved version of the centipede boat, driven by oars, with a very shallow draft. The hull had been reinforced, with ribs added — it had always had a keel — and it could mount a 24-catty swivel bombard!

"Excellent!" Qin Mingtao had already risen to his feet. "Come, let's go to the divisional headquarters and interrogate the prisoners!"

Prisoners there certainly were — a crowd of weeping, wailing peasant soldiers. Of course they had to weep: they could no longer stay in their beloved Northeast, but had to go settle in America Bay in the New World. From now on there would be no more wholesome coarse grain to eat; they could only wait to eat meat and seafood until they got gout.

"Stop your crying, all of you! Any more crying and it's off with your heads!"

A young soldier of seventeen or eighteen, seeing Qin Mingtao, Liu Chongwen, Sun Shining, and the division chief of staff Li Shaowen — Li Ruolian's son — approaching together, bellowed at the top of his lungs.

At that, all the prisoners choked back their sobs, and not one of them dared cry out again.

Qin Mingtao seated himself grandly in a chair and asked in a kindly tone: "Who would like to speak up?"

Speak up about what?

The prisoners below did not understand.

"No one will talk?" Qin Mingtao smiled. "Tough bones, eh. Then we'll have to beat it out of you!"

At last someone caught on.

"Don't beat us, don't beat us! Ask whatever you wish, Great Commander, and we small folk will tell all we know!"

"Good, good," Qin Mingtao said. "Then no beating for now." He pointed at the man who had spoken first. "You stay. Take the rest away!"

They had to be separated before questioning — one by one, then compare their statements. If they matched, no beating; if they didn't, another beating!

Once he saw that the other prisoners had been led away, Qin Mingtao asked: "Speak. Do you know where Duoni's great army is?"

(End of Chapter)