Chapter 276: The Tartars Wield Matchlocks

"Charcoal" was a Niru Janggin under the Obedient Prince Kong Youde, surnamed Cao. No one knew his original given name; because he was so dark-skinned, everyone called him Charcoal, or Cao Charcoal.

He was originally a man of Liao, who later fled with his family to Shandong as refugees, and at eighteen he enlisted under Kong Youde. From the very start he served as a matchlock soldier, taught hand-to-hand by Portuguese gunners whom the Ming court had invited from Macao in the use of the turtledove-foot matchlock. He was young then and learned quickly, fully mastering the Portuguese art of gunnery. He could hit a man-sized target from a hundred paces away — and never missed!

Yet all this skill was worth less in the eyes of the Ming Emperor than a xiucai degree. He could barely earn any military pay, and he constantly suffered abuse from the people of Shandong. (At the time, many refugees from Liaodong had fled to Shandong, and with no food or shelter, they naturally committed plenty of petty thefts.) When the troops were marching to the Liaodong front and passed through Wuqiao Town in Cangzhou, supplies ran short and the Shandong people shut their markets. One of his comrades could not hold back and stole a chicken from the household of Wang Xiangchun, an official retired at home. That stirred up trouble, and from stealing a chicken it escalated to killing, and in the end it simply turned into a mutiny! Charcoal went from being a Ming soldier to a rebel, and later crossed the sea to throw in his lot with the eastern barbarians, with whom his family had a blood feud.

What he never imagined was that everything he had failed to get from the Ming Son of Heaven — land, silver, a wife, servants, and office — he got from the Tartar Emperor, every last bit of it!

And the reason the Tartar Emperor was so generous was that he valued Charcoal's skill with firearms. Anyone who thinks the eastern barbarians conquered the land by bow and horse alone is gravely mistaken.

In fact, ever since the Mandate Khan Nurhaci, the eastern barbarians had placed great importance on firearms. Beginning in the sixth year of the Mandate, Nurhaci ordered the Han officials and Han craftsmen who had surrendered to them to cast cannon. By the eighth year of the Mandate, the Later Jin artillery corps was already complete and could take the field with the army!

By the fourth year of Tiancong (1630), the Later Jin had begun trial production of the Hongyi cannon, and had actually cast one. And after Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming led their Portuguese-trained matchlock troops and artillery, carrying large numbers of turtledove-foot matchlocks and Hongyi cannon, in surrendering to the Later Jin, the Later Jin's firearms forces became extremely powerful.

If one sets aside Foshan's private iron industry and imports from Macao, and compares only the firearms produced by the government-run handicraft industries of the Ming and Qing (Later Jin), the Qing (Later Jin) side clearly held an enormous advantage.

After all, under the harsh supervision of Nurhaci, Hong Taiji, Dorgon, and the rest, burst-barrel cannon and burst-barrel muskets were not at all common — trying to fool those men meant losing your head!

The reason Dolong and Geng Zhongming suffered at the Battle of Dagu was that they had not brought matchlocks with them (Geng Zhongming's unit did have matchlocks, but because of days of heavy rain beforehand, Geng Zhongming had left his matchlock troops at Yongping). Moreover, the matchlocks used by Zhu Cilang's improvised New Army were mostly made in Macao and Foshan, by no means the burst-barrel junk commonly used by the Ming army.

After the Battle of Dagu, the Qing Prince Regent Dorgon placed even greater emphasis on firearms!

As soon as he entered Beijing, he immediately ordered men to search out craftsmen who could make muskets and cast cannon, and had them assigned as slaves under the Two White Banners. At the same time, Dorgon issued an edict to the Kingdom of Joseon, ordering them to present matchlock muskets as tribute and dispatch matchlock troops to Beijing to assist in the war.

In addition, Dorgon ordered the Han troops of each banner to increase the number of matchlock soldiers as much as possible. It was because of this edict that Cao Charcoal soared to prominence, becoming a Niru Janggin, responsible for commanding and training 300 matchlock soldiers of the Han troops of the Plain Red Banner.

This gave Cao Charcoal, Janggin Cao, even more drive! He was now a noble Eight Banners official! Should he not, in the spirit of "whoever gives you office is your father," exert himself training troops for Prince Dorgon?

After more than five months of rigorous training, the 300 brothers of the Plain Red Banner Han troops under Cao Charcoal had all been drilled to perfection! One hundred of them wielded turtledove-foot matchlocks, one hundred wielded matchlock muskets, and one hundred used saber and shield to cover the musketeers. The two types of matchlock troops could not only load and fire their shot with skill, but could also coordinate smoothly with the saber-and-shield men in combined operations.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Keep advancing!"

Cao Charcoal bellowed at the top of his lungs, urging his 300 soldiers into a somewhat loose three-rank line as they slowly pressed forward against the Shun troops ahead, who were firing wildly and at random.

To the right of the three-rank line he commanded was another three-rank line of the Plain Red Banner. The two lines had formed identical ranks: saber-and-shield men in front, the heavy turtledove-foot matchlocks in the center, and the matchlock muskets at the rear. The saber-and-shield men were all booi bondservants of the Plain Red Banner Han troops; only those bearing matchlock muskets and turtledove-foot matchlocks were regular soldiers.

Because the Eight Banners' matchlock troops had no fixed paper cartridge ammunition, and used matchlock guns whose powder was easily ignited, their formation was not too dense. Two three-rank lines of three hundred men each spread out over a large area, looking from a distance somewhat disordered.

But their morale was extremely high. Bearing the Shun army's fire, they advanced without so much as a frown!

The Shun troops facing them were not elite veterans of the old camp, but Ming soldiers who had defected and surrendered during Li Zicheng's march on Beijing earlier that year. After Li Zicheng retreated to Taiyuan, he had reorganized them, replacing unreliable officers and mixing in a small number of old-camp soldiers as a backbone. He had also begun paying them monthly wages, and their grain supply had become fairly ample.

Even so, their morale was still no match for the Han troops of the Plain Red Banner.

Because the Eight Banners Han troops were also Eight Banners! They received every treatment the Eight Banners were due! Banner land, banner slaves, Beijing household registration, and property in the inner city of Beijing — not one thing missing!

And all these benefits were hereditary! The Great Qing had a share for them. The fierceness of the early Qing Eight Banners soldiers was also guaranteed by the system!

As the Eight Banners Han matchlock troops pressed closer step by step, the defenders of Pingxing Pass, whose morale had not been high to begin with, began to waver — at first they had not known that the ones coming were Tartars, and had thought it was Ming troops from Datong coming to make trouble!

Because Kong Youde had played a little trick, deliberately advancing under Ming banners. Moreover, Ming uniforms were mostly red, fairly close to the color of the Plain Red Banner. So the defending officer at Pingxing Pass had been fooled, and had blundered out to attack.

Only after sallying forth did they realize something was wrong!

The ones coming were Tartars!

These Shun troops, converted from Ming soldiers, all more or less had a fear of Tartars. Knowing their opponents were Tartars, their legs went weak! So their matchlock troops began firing wildly — though in truth they had few usable matchlocks, most being three-eyed guns only effective within twenty paces. If they could really fire at close range, they might have had some power, but at a distance they could not hit anything at all!

But as the enemy pressed closer step by step, these Shun soldiers could already see the matchlock muskets and turtledove-foot matchlocks carried on the shoulders of the Tartar soldiers in the rear ranks.

The Tartars' matchlocks are fearsome. What are we to do!

"Halt!"

Cao Charcoal roared. He was walking in front of the saber-and-shield ranks, with a standard-bearer beside him holding a red military banner. At his shout, the soldier holding the banner immediately waved the pole in his hand, and the soldiers following behind all stopped. Cao Charcoal then moved with his standard-bearer and guards to the left side of the line.

At the same time, without needing further orders from Cao Charcoal, the leading Daldan Janggin directed the saber-and-shield men to kneel on one knee, clearing a field of fire for the soldiers behind them holding turtledove-foot matchlocks. The second rank of turtledove-foot matchlock men leveled their loaded guns, resting them on their stands, and aimed at the enemy, who had already begun to fall into disorder.

"Fire!"

Cao Charcoal, who had just taken his position, roared again. The standard-bearer beside him simultaneously lowered the red banner flat, and then came a roar of matchlock fire. Thirty or forty paces away, the Shun officers and soldiers collapsed in a swath.

Before they could reform their ranks, the matchlock troops of the middle and rear ranks under Cao Charcoal completed their rotation. The matchlock musketeers moved up to the second rank. They had no stands, and held their guns level directly with their hands, aiming forward.

"Fire!" Cao Charcoal gave the order again, and another roar of matchlock fire followed, smoke billowing everywhere!

The Shun troops, having taken two volleys in succession, had fallen into chaos. Seeing that the moment was ripe, Cao Charcoal shouted the order: "Saber-and-shield men, rise! Musketeers, fix bayonets!"

(End of Chapter)