Chapter 1794: Bombarding Hong Taiji, Part Four

It was still late spring. Although there had been a few moderate rains, the water level in the upper reaches of the Old Hamulin River had not risen, and in some places sandbars were still visible above the surface. Over a hundred warhorses galloped across the shallows on the southern bank, kicking up a spray of shattered jade and scattered pearls. Zhu Youjian, the foremost martial artist under heaven, was prominently among these riders, though this time he had not put on his blindingly dazzling gold helmet and gold armor. Instead, he wore plate armor that was lighter in weight but no weaker in defense.

This suit of plate armor had been brought back from Macau by Sun Yuanhua. It was not a complete set, consisting only of five parts: helmet, neck guard, shoulder plates, breastplate, and skirt armor. It was supplemented by the Ming dynasty's own ring-arm guards to protect the arms. Over the plate armor, he also wore a red surcoat for concealment.

Sun Yuanhua had brought back not just one suit of plate armor, but over a hundred, all forged by fine smiths in Macau and Foshan. After they were brought back, craftsmen from the Bureau of Armaments had modified them according to the wearers' builds. Zhu Youjian and his young personal guards each had one, and all wore red surcoats over their plate armor. Moreover, everyone rode specially selected fine horses, galloping along the riverbank like a drifting red cloud, extremely conspicuous.

On the northern bank of the Old Hamulin River, over a hundred Jianzhou iron cavalry in blue cotton armor kept pace with Zhu Youjian in the same direction, galloping back and forth. Their purpose was clearly to block Zhu Youjian and his cavalry from crossing the river!

The main Ming army's northward advance made no small commotion, and of course it could not be hidden from the Later Jin army, which had deployed heavy forces on the northern bank of the Old Hamulin River.

So when Zhu Youjian led over a hundred personal guard cavalry to the southern bank of the Hamulin River, large numbers of Later Jin Plain Blue Banner cavalry had already appeared on the northern bank.

Zhu Youjian still wanted to ford the river and exchange blows with the Later Jin Plain Blue Banner cavalry, but the enemy gave him no chance at all, specially dispatching one niru of cavalry to block him on the opposite bank. Although the Old Hamulin River was not deep and could certainly be forded, warhorses could not pick up speed while crossing water, and could not charge head-on against the Later Jin Plain Blue Banner cavalry on the bank.

Thus Zhu Youjian, the foremost martial artist under heaven, rode back and forth along the river several times, but could find no opportunity to cross and give battle.

Just then, more Later Jin cavalry arrived at the northern bank of the Old Hamulin River, wearing cotton armor in the four colors of yellow, white, red, and blue. Their numbers had already exceeded ten thousand. Seen from afar, they stretched endlessly, and their momentum was truly considerable!

However, they showed no sign of crossing the river to fight, merely deploying slowly along the northern bank of the Old Hamulin River.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian stopped galloping along the river and instead rode up onto a high slope on the southern bank, reining in his horse and gazing north. His hundred-odd personal guards also gathered around him, all standing their horses on the high ground, watching the Later Jin host advancing in succession along the northern bank of the Old Hamulin River, every face filled with boundless emotion.

Because the Ming army massed at Fuyu Guard consisted mainly of infantry, its advance was relatively slow and it was still on the road. On the southern bank of the Old Hamulin River, apart from the hundred-odd riders personally led by Zhu Youjian, there were only two or three thousand cavalry, dispersed along the river in company-sized units.

A mere two or three thousand Han cavalry, thrusting deep into the northern foothills of the Yan Mountains, had made over ten thousand Later Jin cavalry halt north of the Old Hamulin River, not daring to cross even half a step.

Since the passing of the Chengzu Emperor, when had such might ever been seen?

Zhu Youjian felt a surge of hot blood churning and surging ceaselessly in his chest!

He knew, of course, that the Eight Banners troops across the river were not so timid. The reason they dared not cross was that they had been frightened by the black guns — when the black gun cracks, father and mother raised you in vain!

But prestige propped up by black guns was prestige nonetheless! And Zhu Youjian had not only black guns in hand, but also thirty-six black cannons blacker than the black guns!

His running back and forth along the southern bank of the Old Hamulin River just now was not only to look for a place to cross, but also to survey the terrain and see where it would be suitable to fire the black cannons.

His thirty-six black cannons were all 3-pounder battalion guns, with an effective range of only about two hundred paces; beyond that they could not hit anything. So he had to choose a place where the river was narrow in order to deploy them.

Moreover, the main reason he had brought thirty-six cannons to the field was to black-blast Hong Taiji. Hong Taiji surely did not know the power of these Western black cannons that could be maneuvered and deployed on the battlefield, and would very likely come within cannon range to direct the battle. Then thirty-six 3-pounders would "blacken" in unison, and with luck he would be blackened to death.

If Hong Taiji died, the slave rebels would be nearly finished. Dorgon and his two brothers were still young, and could not be allowed to seize great power. The one most likely to seize the slave rebels' khanate would be the narrow-minded Daishan. He and his two sons regarded each other as mortal enemies — could he possibly govern the state well?

It seemed that pacifying Liao within five years was still highly promising!

"Your Majesty, our main force is coming up too!" Hei Wentao, who had been commanding troops below Wu Sangui and now served as captain of Zhu Youjian's personal guard, shouted at that moment.

Zhu Youjian turned to look and saw column after column of infantry and cavalry already advancing majestically along the official road leading to Fuyu Guard City.

Particularly eye-catching were the full two thousand gold-armored cavalry marching at the front of the column!

Gold-armored cavalry! A full two thousand of them, all in uniform long gold armor, with gleaming long guns slung over their shoulders, advancing slowly — the sight alone was enough to make one feel suffocated.

In earlier days, this kind of gold-armored cavalry had been the hallmark of Zhu Youjian's presence at the front lines!

How awe-inspiring gold armor was, how eye-catching!

But with the spread of "black gun tactics," Zhu Youjian no longer wore gold armor — in the age of black guns and black cannons, one had to keep a low profile when the emperor personally led a campaign. So he had changed the equipment for himself and his personal guards, switching to plate armor with red surcoats.

And long iron armor with a red surcoat had also become the standard equipment for the front cavalry in formation battles. In this way, whenever the front cavalry appeared, it was a vast expanse of red cloud, and no one could tell which part of it was Zhu Youjian.

In addition, Zhu Youjian's front cavalry all had a suit of blue or gray cloth-faced iron armor — lightened cloth armor with not many iron plates beneath the cloth, worn specifically when carrying out reconnaissance missions.

However, the matter of Zhu Youjian's personal guards changing equipment was highly confidential. To say nothing of the enemy, even within the Ming army few people knew of it.

So everyone still took those two thousand gold-armored cavalry to be the Emperor's personal troops!

At the sight of them, the Later Jin army across the Old Hamulin River stirred with unease.

Two thousand iron cavalry in this day and age was an extraordinary existence!

Moreover, a careful look through a telescope made it easy to see that the gold armor of these ironclad troops was all exquisitely made, looking like works of art — something only the Emperor's personal troops could afford!

In addition, this group of gold-armored cavalry was also carrying twelve triangular dragon banners symbolizing the Great Ming Emperor!

"Haha, they really do look the part!" Zhu Youjian said with a laugh to those around him. "The armor of the Han Generals looks quite good on Zhu Chunchen's military households... Truly, clothes make the man and the saddle makes the horse!"

These two thousand gold-armored cavalry were in fact the military households of Xing and Hui Prefectures under Zhu Chunchen's command.

Though called military households, they were actually the castoffs of Beijing's ennobled families and hereditary military officers — either sons of concubines, or illegitimate sons, or household generals and retainers. Because their masters' main lines were short of funds, they had been assigned to Xing and Hui Prefectures as military landlords.

Because the land they received was relatively large (Zhu Youjian was generous with other people's property, giving land quite liberally — one Chiliarch received three hundred thousand mu, and the actual enclosed land was even more), most of them did not farm it themselves but recruited tenants from Northern Zhili. These military households were then concentrated and trained by Zhu Chunchen and Li Zunzu (who became Garrison Commander of Hui Prefecture).

Zhu Youjian issued them two thousand suits of the Han Generals' gold armor, having them wear it onto the battlefield to put on a show and fish for the enemy — Zhu Youjian had long planned to black-cannon Hong Taiji, so he had created two thousand gold-armored warriors to draw attention.

"Your Majesty, the slave rebels of the Plain Yellow Banner are coming up, coming straight at our gold-armored troops!" Hei Wentao roared again, unable to suppress his excitement!

The Plain Yellow Banner was personally commanded by Hong Taiji. Their appearance on the battlefield meant that Hong Taiji had been lured out!

Zhu Youjian said smugly, "Good that he's come... now that he's come, he's going to die! Go tell Sun the Cannoneer and Gongsha to bring the cannon battery up quickly and deploy right behind the gold-armored cavalry."

(End of Chapter)