Chapter 453: Hooge, You Want to Launch a Sneak Attack

Chongluduke, charging forward with reckless abandon, also carried a shield on his back. In this era, the true Manchu warriors of the Eight Banners were all-around fighters, skilled in mounted combat, foot combat, archery, and close-quarters fighting alike. Their carried weapons were therefore rather varied — bows, arrows, shields, firelocks, willow-leaf sabers, and so on could all be brought along, so long as one could afford them and carry them.

Hearing someone shout "javelins," Chongluduke hastily threw aside his bow and arrows to grab his shield, but he was still a beat too slow. Before he could raise the shield, a javelin came plunging down. A series of thudding sounds erupted around him, making his hairs stand on end. Some men had already been skewered through, letting out hoarse, desperate screams, but Chongluduke was fortunate enough to escape without a scratch. He hurriedly raised his rattan shield above his head, and immediately another round of whooshing wind sounds followed. The second wave of javelin attacks had begun!

Another round of dull thumping sounds rang out — presumably javelins striking rattan shields — interspersed with the occasional gruesome sound of sharp blades piercing human flesh and accompanying screams.

Chongluduke was comparatively lucky, still not skewered into a kebab. But beside him, a man of the Gūwalgiya clan had his arm pierced through by a javelin and was kneeling on the ground howling in agony — he had actually raised his rattan shield, yet still failed to fully block the javelin's formidable penetrating power!

However, though javelins were sharp, they were inconvenient to carry and exhausting to throw. So their numbers would not be too great. The enemy had already thrown two volleys, which should be about all they had. From here on, so long as the turtledove-foot muskets did not take the field, Chongluduke had nothing to fear.

Just as Chongluduke thought this, he heard the resonant twang of bowstrings, and then his left arm suddenly sank under a dull thump. He did not need to look to know it was a Ming army long arrow, and that it certainly could not pierce his rattan shield.

Discovering that the enemy had begun shooting arrows, Chongluduke breathed a sigh of relief. His men not only had shields, but were also clad in two or three layers of armor. Bows and arrows had limited killing power against them.

"Stow shields, take up bows and arrows!" Chongluduke immediately ordered his men to stow their shields, take up their bows, and exchange fire with the Ming troops opposite.

In later generations, the Great Qing dynasty loved to boast of having won the realm by bow and horse. This claim was of course somewhat exaggerated — the Eight Banners troops were both well and amply equipped, far beyond just bows and horses. Still, their advantage in those two areas was indeed considerable!

But their greatest advantage lay not in shooting arrows more accurately or riding better, but in their all-around capability. Chongluduke had over two hundred warriors under his command, every one of them able to ride, skilled in close combat, and capable with the bow!

The Overcoming-Hardship New Army infantry battalion facing him numbered five hundred men, but of these only one hundred and twenty were archers, and only eighty of those could truly shoot. Moreover, these eighty men's archery skills still fell short of the two hundred-odd men opposite, in both accuracy and rate of fire.

In other words, the archery firepower possessed by a five-hundred-man Overcoming-Hardship New Army infantry battalion amounted to roughly only one-third that of a Manchu Eight Banners niru of a little over two hundred men. If another niru came up, making the two sides equal in numbers, then the Eight Banners troops would enjoy a sixfold advantage in archery firepower!

Fortunately, the Overcoming-Hardship New Army's frontline units were fully equipped with armor. Whether cloth-faced armor or splint armor, so long as the quality passed muster, their arrow-deflecting effect was quite good. Even the plum-needle arrows specially designed to pierce armor could only break through via the gaps between armor plates.

Moreover, the Overcoming-Hardship New Army also had over a hundred saber-and-shield men who could be placed in the front rank to block arrows.

Thus, although this Overcoming-Hardship New Army infantry battalion was inferior to its opponent in archery firepower, it could still hold its ground.

Just as the two sides' vanguard units began exchanging arrow fire, their follow-up forces also came up. On the Overcoming-Hardship New Army's side, another infantry battalion arrived, while on the Qing side came four more niru — the jalan that Ajige had sent forward as the vanguard had five niru; Chongluduke led one, and now the remaining four had all come up. At this point, the Manchu troops held a slight numerical advantage!

In such circumstances, competing in archery meant certain defeat. After all, relying on cloth-faced armor and splint armor could not provide one hundred percent immunity from arrowhead casualties, and facing an enemy with a sixfold advantage in arrow firepower could not be endured for long.

"Beat the drums! Prepare to charge!"

Tian Qingyi, commanding at the front, also knew that competing in archery would not work, so he ordered the drums beaten to form a charging formation.

Two drummers stood right beside Tian Qingyi. Hearing their regimental commander's order, they beat the leather drums. These Overcoming-Hardship New Army soldiers had long since been conditioned by the "997" training! Hearing the drums, their bodies reacted without any need for conscious thought.

The two battalions under Tian Qingyi had originally been deployed in a "loose formation." The loose formation was a defensive formation, with the pikemen's ranks relatively spread out, allowing the archers to "hide" within the pikemen's formation and shoot.

But now that a charge was to be launched, the loose, dispersed formation could no longer be used.

After a burst of dense drumming rang out, the Ming army's formation change began. First, the archers "hidden" within the pikemen's ranks withdrew, reforming behind the formation into three horizontal lines, continuing to lob feathered arrows in arcing fire.

Next, the saber-and-shield men protecting the pikemen spread out to both flanks of the pikemen and formed up together with them — two platoons on one side, one platoon on the other.

As the saber-and-shield men moved, the pikemen's formation began to "tighten," with the soldiers of the first and second ranks leveling their pikes.

Once the formation reorganization was complete, the defensive loose formation had transformed into a charging dense formation, the entire process accomplished very quickly. At that moment, the second round of war drums sounded again... This was the signal to launch the charge!

Seeing that the Ming troops were about to charge their formation, the Qing troops also stopped shooting arrows. Every man stowed his bow, raised his shield, and drew his saber, forming dense shield formations by niru.

Unlike the Ming troops opposite, they did not carry pikes. In their view, pikes were mainly for dealing with cavalry. They had some use in infantry clashes, but once the charge was completed and close combat began, they were not as useful as saber and shield.

Thus the heavenly soldiers of the Eight Banners did not fear Ming pikes... However, the pikemen they encountered today were somewhat crazed!

"The Great Ancestor, Exalted Emperor, lives again!"

When the Ming pike formation charged to within roughly ten paces of the Qing front line, the leading officers suddenly shouted in unison.

Then came the soldiers' answering cry: "Ever victorious!"

After the shout, every man lowered his head and charged at full speed!

That's right — they charged with heads down, advancing without retreat, not stopping until they had broken through the Qing formation opposite!

Chongluduke raised his rattan shield with his left hand, protecting his vitals, while his right hand gripped a willow-leaf saber. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the advancing "forest of pikes" ahead. After watching for a while, his brow furrowed ever more tightly.

For as the enemy drew closer, he could now see clearly.

The charging Ming pike formation was actually still maintaining a relatively orderly formation!

And moreover... they possessed an air of irrepressible, all-conquering momentum!

"Block them, quickly!" Chongluduke hurriedly lowered his head and shouted, at the same time sinking his body, raising his shield to protect his head and face, and holding his willow-leaf saber horizontally before him.

He was standing in the very first rank!

Squelching sounds and dull thuds rang out continuously — the former being the sound of pikes piercing human bodies, the latter the sound of pikes striking rattan shields.

Chongluduke's luck had not yet run out. His body remained unharmed, only his left arm going numb. A pike had slammed hard into his rattan shield! His rattan shield was truly sturdy, having withstood the thrust of a ten-foot pike.

But the momentum behind the pike was not so easy to withstand. The tremendous force drove Chongluduke stumbling backward, until someone behind him — he knew not who — slammed into him hard, and only then did he barely manage to hold his ground.

He had held, but the shield formation formed by his niru had already been shattered into disarray by the enemy's "forest of pikes." Who knew how many sturdy Manchu men had been pierced through the body by pikes!

Right beside Chongluduke was a short, stocky, powerfully built man whose abdomen had been pierced through by a gleaming pike blade. Not yet dead, he howled in agony, his hands still desperately gripping the foot-long spearhead.

Some pikes struck nothing at all, and the Ming soldiers wielding them did not stop, still shouting as they charged on — this was skill drilled into them by the 997 training! One word summed it up: charge!

Infantry charging a formation with leveled pikes was an all-or-nothing gamble. If they failed to break the enemy formation, the trouble would be immense. If it came to close-quarters melee, pikemen were no match for anyone — a ten-foot pike was no weapon for close combat!

So there was nothing to discuss: they had to press forward with reckless abandon, charging heedless of all else!

And under their assault, the shield formations of two Eight Banners niru had actually both been broken through!

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