Chapter 312: The Zheng and the Zhu, Sharing Jiangnan? (5,400-Vote Bonus Chapter)

"What makes you say that?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Chen Ding tapped a finger on the unfolded map of the Great Ming. "The situation in the north now is not that of the Northern Dynasties, still less of the Jin and the Mongols — it is the situation of the Five Dynasties and the Sixteen Kingdoms.

Look, Commander: the Dai Prince now holds the strong city of Datong and occupies the Lüliang mountain range, and is already unshakable. The main force of the roving bandits has slipped into the Guanzhong-Longxi region, while a detached force holds the Xiangyang and Nanyang area, still commanding favorable terrain and eyeing the Central Plains like a tiger. Wu Sangui has stationed his troops at Henan Prefecture, holding the heartland of the Nine Provinces and the city of the Eight Passes — he too is hard to dislodge. And the court still firmly holds the whole of Shandong province, plus the two prefectures of Guide and Runing in Henan, and even a bit of territory in Kaifeng Prefecture.

In other words, at present there are five parties contending in the north: the Tartars, the roving bandits, the Dai Prince, Wu Sangui, and the court. It will not be so easy for the Tartars to completely pacify the north! And while the north is unsettled, how can the Tartars free their hands to march on Jiangnan? If we can just gain a few years, with the ability of His Highness the Thousand Years, and with your support, Commander, how could the southern half of the realm not be secure? From then on, Jiangnan will be shared between the Zheng and the Zhu!"

"The Zheng and the Zhu?" Zheng Zhilong grinned. "Not the Wu and the Zhu?"

Chen Ding smiled. "If Wu Sangui could bring tens of thousands of Liao troops south, the Wu family might indeed outmatch the Zheng family. But as things stand, Commander, you command thirty thousand elite troops of land and water, several hundred warships great and small, and you control the trade of the Southern Ocean and the Eastern Ocean, with wealth rivaling a state. How can the Wu family compare? Without your support, Commander, the southeastern half of the realm cannot be held steady."

"Hahaha," Zheng Zhilong laughed heartily. "True enough. But Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, and Consort Wu did, after all, escort and follow His Highness all the way from Beijing. New clothes are not as good as old; new friends are not as good as old! I have also heard that the Crown Prince dotes solely on Consort Wu — even now that Consort Wu is with child, the Crown Prince still has only her attend him in bed."

All this Zheng Sen had written to tell Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Sen was a universally beloved young master of the richest family, and he was on excellent terms with the people around Zhu Cilang.

"But Consort Wu is still not the Crown Princess!" Chen Ding said with a smile.

Zheng Zhilong said, "Is that not because of the marriage negotiations with the Tartars?"

"But as long as her formal title is not settled, your daughter, Commander, has a chance," Chen Ding said. "As long as Consort Wu cannot bear the Imperial Grandson — and even if she does bear the Imperial Grandson, who can guarantee he will not die young?"

Zheng Zhilong glanced at Chen Ding, a juren by background, and merely smiled faintly.

As the two were speaking, hurried footsteps sounded outside the cabin, and then the voice of Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother Zheng Zhifeng (Zheng Hongkui) rang out: "Elder Brother, Damu has brought men to welcome us. Wu Sanfu has come along too, and he has brought more than a thousand matchlock soldiers."

"Wu Sanfu? And with more than a thousand matchlock soldiers?" Zheng Zhilong was taken aback, and turned his gaze toward Chen Ding.

Chen Ding said, "Perhaps the Wu family means to put on a show of strength for you, Commander? I have heard that the matchlock troops of the Kenan New Army are very formidable!"

"Hmph! Matchlock troops, is it? The matchlocks were given by me!" Zheng Zhilong gave a cold laugh. "Have Zahe Pu bring the Japanese troop and come with me to receive them! Also send someone to invite Mr. Tang and General Shi — let them have a look too, and see whether the Wu family's matchlock troops are better, or the Zheng family's Japanese troop!"

Zheng Zhifeng answered, "Right! I'll go muster the men at once!"

Zheng Zhilong had in fact misunderstood Wu Sanfu. Wu Sanfu had no thought of "the Wu and the Zhu sharing Jiangnan." After the Battle of Dagu, neither he nor Wu Xiang entertained such ideas any longer. However formidable their household retainers were, they had never killed nearly a thousand real Tartars in a single engagement — yet His Highness the Crown Prince had actually done it!

Moreover, the troops now accompanying Wu Sanfu were not the Wu family's matchlock soldiers, but a fully matchlock-equipped infantry brigade commanded by Vice Regional Commander of the Central Division Hao Yaoqi.

The core of this infantry brigade came from the roving bandits, and its backbone had all fought at the Battle of Dagu and defeated the Tartars!

After the Battle of Dagu, the senior officers of the Kenan New Army had reached a consensus on how to use matchlocks — they must be concentrated, and they must combine long and short range, that is, skirmishers and line infantry used together. In a matchlock brigade of over fifteen hundred men, one battalion should be equipped with heavy wall-guns for long-range fire in battle, while the other three battalions should be equipped with matchlock muskets that could take socket bayonets, for volley fire within thirty paces and for hand-to-hand combat.

In other words, the bayonet-fitted matchlock replaced the pike and the saber-and-shield.

This method of employing matchlocks would absolutely have been mainstream in the eighteenth century. But at the end of 1644, it was probably quite radical and unconventional.

Still, with the record of the Battle of Dagu there for all to see, the senior officers of the Kenan New Army, who did not quite know how to employ matchlocks, saw nothing wrong with it.

And in the subsequent Battle of Zhenjiang and the Nanjing pacification campaign, the four all-matchlock brigades had simply swept all before them like dry weeds and rotten wood!

In the Nanjing pacification campaign, the four matchlock brigades had not only annihilated a rebel army of tens of thousands, but had themselves suffered almost no casualties!

In several of those engagements, the matchlock troops of the Kenan New Army did not even need to "volley at thirty meters" — they simply charged with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets.

The infantry of the Nanjing Capital Camps simply did not dare form ranks and fight the matchlock troops — for no one could guarantee that these matchlock men would not open fire at three or five paces!

In the view of the Kenan New Army's generals at this time, an all-matchlock infantry brigade might not be able to withstand the charge of Tartar cavalry — unless it had prepared positions and fieldworks — but against an equal number of infantry, even dismounted Tartar infantry wearing several layers of heavy armor, it was fully confident of victory!

The heavy wall-guns of the all-matchlock infantry brigade were far superior to the Tartars' eight-li bows, because in a pitched battle between two armies, the Tartars' bow volleys reached only about thirty paces.

The sort of expert who could use a bow against armored men beyond fifty paces would at least have to be a Red-Armored Soldier or a White-Armored Soldier, and there were not many of those in the entire Eight Banners. It was simply impossible to trade the lives of Red-Armored and White-Armored Soldiers for matchlock men.

But the armor-piercing range of the heavy wall-gun was at least a hundred paces or more! Within fifty paces, never mind several layers of armor — even a shielded cart could not withstand it!

As for the matchlock musket, as long as the quality was up to standard, and it was loaded according to regulations (not much of a problem when using prepared cartridges) and fired in volleys, it was enough to inflict casualties on armored enemies at thirty paces.

Furthermore, the all-matchlock configuration could greatly increase infantry firepower density — because every man was a matchlock soldier, every man had the ability to project fire. If one switched to a configuration of archers plus pikemen and saber-and-shield men, firepower density would be reduced by at least two-thirds!

And among the true Tartars of the Eight Banners, every man could use and was equipped with a bow. Therefore, with equal numbers, and with both sides using bows as their long-range fire, the firepower density of the Eight Banners was at least three times that of the Ming army. If one factored in the gap in skill and physical strength, with equal numbers the Eight Banners' firepower was ten times stronger than the Ming army's.

So one only had to do a simple arithmetic problem to understand why the Ming army lost more than it won. Because they rarely had the chance to form a tenfold superiority on any local battlefield; a twofold numerical superiority was already quite good. That is to say, in terms of firepower output, the Ming army was always at a great disadvantage.

At the same time, most Ming troops were somewhat afraid of hand-to-hand combat and preferred to use firepower, especially the firearms that performed extremely poorly in actual combat, to strike at the enemy.

Compared with this kind of Ming army that liked long-range fire but lacked sufficient firepower, the Kenan New Army's "all-matchlock brigades" were simply invincible.

However, Zhu Cilang, the "inventor" of this tactic, did know of the "Spanish tercio," the "Maurician formation," and the "Gustavian formation."

These three combined pike-and-shot tactics, tested in actual combat on the battlefields of Europe, were the mainstream of the present age, and were probably also the most suitable tactics for matchlock firearms.

But Zhu Cilang knew only the names, and did not know how to employ them, which was why he had chosen the simplest expedient of matchlock plus bayonet.

Now that he had reached Jiangnan and the situation was beginning to stabilize, it was naturally time to introduce the mature Western tactics tested in years of actual combat.

So as early as several months before, Tang Ruowang and Li Zubai had been sent to Macao to hire foreign officers, and they had even engaged an old veteran mercenary captain said to have spent more than twenty years on European battlefields — a German by the name of Reinstein.

Wu Sanfu had brought Hao Yaoqi's matchlock brigade to Zhenjiang not only to show it to Zheng Zhilong, but also to show it to this German mercenary and to the Portuguese envoy Afonso Lopes who had arrived with him.

Because those two were the real experts!

(End of Chapter)