Chapter 399: Confucius Protects, Blades and Spears Cannot Harm — Part Four

A scene appeared on the battlefield that Dodo, the Qing "Gold-Touching Prince," had never expected: although he had committed nine thousand Green Standard troops and two thousand Eight Banners soldiers to hold the line, he was still locked in a bitter fight.

The Green Standard troops fighting in formation before the circular fortress were now barely holding on, while those who had climbed onto the round fort's wall and seemed on the verge of success had actually been forced back step by step by the erupting Ming militia.

"The Sage Confucius protects us — blades and spears cannot harm us!"

The Ming army's shouts suddenly became extremely shrill! It turned out that the Ming troops fighting the Qing Green Standard on the flank of the round fort had already gained an overwhelming advantage and were launching a general assault, and Liu Liangzuo's Green Standard troops simply could not hold them off!

"A pack of trash!" Dodo's face was livid as he cursed through clenched teeth.

"My Prince, this slave begs to fight!"

"My Prince, let this slave go!"

Immediately two company commanders stepped forward, volunteering to lead their men into battle.

"Zhuoluo, take your men up," Dodo raised his riding crop and pointed at the Bing-hao fortress. "Take this fortress for me no matter what! I want to see just what is inside those sacks!"

The company commander named Zhuoluo hesitated. "My Prince, Helohoi's side is hard-pressed—"

Dodo glared at him: "Since Helohoi is a banner commander, you need not worry on his behalf! Go take the fort. If you cannot take it, I will strip you of your company command!"

"Zha!" Zhuoluo no longer dared waste words. He acknowledged and rose to go.

At the same time, Helohoi already knew that the Green Standard troops under Liu Liangzuo's command had been routed. But he did not panic. Instead he ordered the Eight Banners troops of his four companies to split into two groups: one group mounted their horses; the other kept shooting arrows from a distance, maintaining a certain gap from the Ming troops, seemingly intending to use long-range arrow fire to shoot down the Ming soldiers under Confucius's protection.

Shi Dewei was also keeping close watch on those Eight Banners troops acting as battle supervisors. They numbered only about a thousand, but their fighting power exceeded that of five thousand Green Standard troops!

"Form ranks! Quickly form a great formation — matchlocks in front, pikes in the center, bows behind, sword-and-shield men guarding the flanks!"

Seeing that the Green Standard troops were nearly routed, Shi Dewei did not dare continue the pursuit. He immediately ordered his troops to form ranks, and the more than three thousand men quickly clustered into a great rectangular formation. While they were forming up, Helohoi's Eight Banners troops did not seize the chance to charge. Half of them continued shooting on foot from a distance, while the other half mounted their horses but did not close in to attack, merely watching from afar.

And once the Ming matchlock men were in position, Helohoi even ordered his archers to fall back again, withdrawing to sixty or seventy paces away and using light arrows to lob shots from long range.

At the same time, twenty or thirty riders were sent out to gather up the scattered Green Standard troops. These Green Standard troops were not single-use; they could still be reused.

Helohoi now had two objectives. The first was to keep a tight watch on the three thousand Ming death-soldiers and prevent them from joining the fight at the Bing-hao fortress.

The second was to wait for the Hongyi cannons!

When Liu Liangzuo's unit had become locked in bitter fighting, he had sent men to Dodo to request the Hongyi cannons — in this age, the Manchus' skill at coordinating infantry, cavalry, and artillery not only surpassed the Ming armies of their own time, but was even stronger than that of their own descendants in history.

In their hands, the cumbersome Hongyi cannon was not only a weapon for assaulting cities but could also be used in field battles, and with very good effect.

Because the Ming army, whose cavalry could not match the enemy's, could only adopt the method of fighting in formation when facing the Eight Banners. And infantry in formation were the best target for the Hongyi cannon — one sweep and a great swath fell!

At the same time, the Qing army, with its superior cavalry and control of the battlefield, could calmly transport and deploy the Hongyi cannons across the field, thereby making up for the cannon's excessive bulk.

On the Ming side, although they also had many Hongyi cannons, they could not use them the way the Qing army did — how mobile the Eight Banners were! They would never allow you to slowly haul up and set up a cannon; before your cannon was even emplaced, they would have already moved. Or they might simply make one charge and capture the cannon outright!

Therefore, using 12-pound Hongyi cannons against the Eight Banners in field battle was of little use for the Ming army; they could only use light 3-pound battalion guns.

Shi Dewei, who had never fought the Qing army, did not know how well they used their Hongyi cannons. Seeing the Eight Banners troops only shooting arrows from a distance and not inflicting much damage on his side, he was still pondering whether to take advantage of the Sage Confucius still protecting everyone and go have a try against the Eight Banners.

"Clang, clang, clang—"

Just as Shi Dewei was deliberating, a burst of metallic striking sounds suddenly rang out beside his ears. The sound came from behind him. Was this the gong sounding retreat?

Shi Dewei quickly turned his head and looked toward a solid gun platform on the west side of Qufu's main city. He saw a red flag already pointing to the position between the gun platform and the east gate of the Bing-hao fort (also its only gate) — this was Shi Kefa, standing on high ground, who had seen the Eight Banners troops hauling Hongyi cannons toward Shi Dewei's unit, and so he had hastily ordered his adopted son to move his troops and take cover beside the gun platform. If that was not enough, they were to hide behind the flank of the gun platform and use it to withstand the Hongyi cannon bombardment.

"They want to run? Still quite orderly." Helohoi watched the great square formation three or four hundred paces away begin to slowly disperse — not scattering in a panic, but disbanding in extremely good order.

Unlike the model regiment of the new army, which combined matchlock men and pikemen in a single infantry battalion, Shi Kefa's headquarters battalion organized matchlocks into separate battalion-level pure units, so they had no melee capability and were therefore the first to withdraw.

The remaining two thousand-plus men formed eight square formations by battalion and withdrew slowly. As they retreated, they kept howling: "The Sage Confucius protects us... blades and spears cannot harm us!"

No matter how you looked at it, it was a bit uncanny!

"Banner commander, what do we do?" a company commander beside Helohoi asked.

They had taken a loss in today's battle! Although the Eight Banners cavalry had suffered little, the Green Standard troops had been badly beaten, losing thirteen or fourteen hundred men, and even Liu Liangzuo's whereabouts were unknown. No one knew whether he was dead or captured. If captured, would he go and become a "thrice-serving minister" again? — Actually, the fellow was lucky: he had been knocked unconscious on the battlefield, yet no one had come to finish him off, and by evening he had crawled back to the Qing camp on his own.

Just as Helohoi was pondering whether to let the Eight Banners troops make a charge, one of Dodo's white-armored personal guards galloped over with an order: "Banner commander, the Prince orders you to gather up the Green Standard troops and drive them forward to assault the fortress!"

Assault the fortress?

Helohoi was stunned. How was it still not taken? Only then did he notice that from the direction of the Bing-hao round fort there still came wave after wave of battle cries, wailing, gongs and drums, and the roar of cannon fire!

Why was there still cannon fire? Who was firing?

Helohoi immediately knew something was wrong!

The round fort's only gate opened at its rear, directly facing the gun platform of Qufu's main city. So it was simply impossible for the Qing army's Hongyi cannons to have been brought inside — then whoever was firing now had to be the Ming army!

The Ming army had actually placed cannons inside this strange fortress. That was far too treacherous!

The treacherous one was Liu Zhaoji, a Liaodong army veteran and a Regional Commander whom Shi Kefa relied upon. He had brought five assault cannons into the Bing-hao fortress, but he had not used them to defend the walls. Instead he had placed the assault cannons atop the Bing-hao fort's gate tower, with their muzzles pointed inward. This was a plan to land one more treacherous blow on the enemy even after the fortress fell!

And Liu Liangzuo's brother Liu Liangchen happened to run right into the muzzles of Liu Zhaoji's cannons! Because Dodo had sent genuine Eight Banners warriors forward, he, as a counterfeit Eight Banners man, could only lead his troops up to fight.

Perhaps because the genuine Eight Banners battle supervisors were effective, this wave of assault with Liu Liangchen personally leading actually surged all the way to the foot of the gate tower. Just as Liu Liangchen was about to press on and fight his way up the gate tower, the five assault cannons lying in ambush on the tower roared simultaneously.

Countless iron balls and iron lumps sprayed from the muzzles, whirling wildly in all directions and forming a curtain of death that in an instant mowed down a great swath of the Eight Banners Han troops and Green Standard troops charging at the front!

(End of Chapter)