Chapter 454: Watch Your Back (Second Update, Begging for Monthly Tickets)

Muchun, the niru commander of the Plain Blue Banner who was leading a niru in the rear to supervise the battle, was stunned by the scene before him.

How could this be?

How could the shield wall of the Eight Banners' heavenly soldiers be pierced by the long spears of the Nikans? Could these spearmen be the White-Pole troops under that old lady Qin of Sichuan?

This Muchun was an aging veteran who had fought in the bloody Battle of Hun River more than twenty years ago! The Qing called it "the bloodiest battle since the war in Liaodong began." Although the Eight Banners had won in the end, the peril of the fighting, the ferocity of the engagement, and the severity of the losses had left every Eight Banners soldier who survived that battle with memories he would never forget.

After the Battle of Hun River, Nurhaci had personally presided over a great memorial rite for the dead, to comfort the fallen Eight Banners soldiers.

Muchun's own niru had fought many rounds against the Ming army's most formidable troops, the Shizhu tusi soldiers — the White-Pole Army — and had suffered heavy losses! Muchun's own warhorse had been speared to death by a White-Pole Army lance. Had his comrades not risked their lives to save him, he would long since have been a handful of yellow earth.

So now, the moment he saw two of his niru broken through by the Ming spear formation, he immediately thought of the Battle of Hun River, and of the White-Pole troops...

"Niru commander, give the order!"

The shout of Erte, the niru commander who followed him, suddenly rang in Muchun's ears, and only then did he jolt awake from his shock.

"Erte, take your men and plug the gap!" Muchun roared. "Fire three signal cannons!"

He had given two orders. First, Erte was to lead the one niru held in reserve to fill the breach — the Ming "White-Pole troops" must absolutely not be allowed to complete their breakthrough!

Second, the signal cannons would order the other two niru to close in from both flanks and envelop the Ming army's two "White-Pole squares."

Muchun was a niru commander with five niru under him. He had just deployed four in a shield wall and kept one as a reserve.

His opponent, Tian Qingyi, had only two battalions, each with 240 spearmen — 480 spearmen in all — not enough to charge four Eight Banners niru at once. So he had chosen the two niru in the center as his breakthrough point, because they happened to be blocking the main road, which made the charge easier.

The two remaining Eight Banners shield walls on the left and right had no powerful charging spearmen to hit them, only a small number of saber-and-shield troops to pin them down. A small number of saber-and-shield troops could hardly drive back two Eight Banners niru, while the charging spearmen had beaten back the two niru in the center of the Eight Banners line.

So from a high vantage point, one could see that the Eight Banners formation had been beaten into a "U" shape — the wings jutting forward, the center caved in.

At this moment, if the Eight Banners could hold the caved-in center while pressing the wings forward, they could wrap up Tian Qingyi's two battalions like dumplings!

With the three signal cannons, the situation on the battlefield changed abruptly! The Qing center, on the verge of being completely broken through, fell into a stalemate with the addition of one niru — also because the Ming spearmen's charging momentum was spent. Spearmen who had lost their momentum could only fight by thrusting and heavy swatting, and neither of those moves could handle the Eight Banners soldiers, who excelled at close combat!

On the wings, the two Plain Blue Banner niru also fought with great valor. The moment they heard the signal cannons they launched their assault, slashing with sabers and ramming with shields, forcing the outnumbered Ming saber-and-shield troops back step by step!

Tian Qingyi saw things going badly and hurriedly sent in his reserve — the archers who had fallen back — in two waves. Cao Riling was sent up too. He put away his Kaiyuan bow, drew his waist saber, and charged in with thirty or forty archers, also wearing splint iron armor, to fight the Manchu soldiers with sabers and shields. Because he had only a saber and no shield, and his swordsmanship was mediocre, he was at a disadvantage the moment they clashed.

The man he faced was a brutal-faced old Tartar in his forties, a rattan shield in his left hand and a "Guandong great sweeper" in his right, hacking furiously at Cao Riling. Cao Riling could only grip his saber in both hands and parry left and right, protecting his head and face. But he could protect his head and face, not his whole body, and in a short while he had taken two cuts! One across the belly, slashed by the edge of the "Guandong great sweeper." One on the kidney, chopped by the blade!

He broke out in a cold sweat from sheer terror!

Right — he was scared into a sweat... but he wasn't dead, and he wasn't hurt. His belly wasn't cut open, and both kidneys were still there!

There was, of course, a reason he could take a blade and come away neither dead nor wounded. It wasn't that he had trained in the Golden Bell Shield, but that the splint iron armor he had bought for nine taels and nine mace of silver, expensive as it was, was worth every bit of it! The Tartar's "Guandong great sweeper" couldn't cut through it!

The old Tartar hacking at him was also drenched in sweat. His name was Bayan, known as "Lord Ba," of the old Yehe Nara clan, now holding the rank of niru commander. He was a man of complete martial skill — expert with bow and horse, expert with saber and spear, able to use a firelock, and skilled in Mongol wrestling, with the honorary title of Baturu. In more than twenty years of soldiering, the Nikans he had cut down or wounded numbered no less than eighty if not a hundred, but a Nikan who would not die no matter how he hacked was a first. The blade struck sparks; it was probably notched by now! And this Nikan was still hopping about as if nothing had happened!

What was with the armor on his body? How could it be so tough? Even ordinary household retainers in the Ming army didn't have armor that good. Could this Nikan be some great general? But his swordsmanship was so sloppy — he didn't look like a great general.

The Baturu Lord Ba was not the only Tartar feeling frustrated today. Of the Tartars doing the hacking right now, eight out of ten were hacking until they were gasping for breath, and still hadn't cut their opponents down.

Because every Ming soldier they faced today wore armor that blades could not cut through — which was, in fact, simply the normal standard of armor for the seventeenth century! By this time iron plate was no longer very expensive, and Foshan in Guangdong and Anhai in Fujian both had good ironworking industries — Foshan ironware in particular was sold throughout East and Southeast Asia. As long as the silver was spent where it mattered, the armor produced was naturally uncuttable.

Now not only was the armor of the Hard-Work New Army uncuttable, their waist sabers were also exceptionally sturdy. They didn't look heavy, but when a "Guandong great sweeper" struck them with full force, it only chipped a small notch — they would never snap. The "great sweepers" in the Eight Banners soldiers' hands, on the other hand, might well chip an even bigger notch!

These Ming troops could truly be said to be clad in strong armor and bearing sharp weapons!

Of course, just as the Tartars now found it very hard to cut down the Ming soldiers, the Ming side likewise couldn't cut down the Tartars. Because the armor worn by the true Manchus of the Eight Banners was also very sturdy! At the least it was thick cotton armor lined with iron plates, and some men also wore mail underneath.

A thrust from a long spear could certainly pierce it — a long spear plus the momentum of a running man was enough to pierce strong armor. A lead ball from a turtledove-foot musket would also punch straight through — a one-tael-five-mace ball was no joke! With a matchlock musket, though, you had to close the distance before firing.

But to cut with a waist saber or shoot with an arrowhead... you would have to happen to hit a spot not protected by armor.

In fact, both sides had "brought the wrong weapons"! Against opponents clad in strong armor, swords and sabers had limited killing power; you needed blunt weapons or wolf-tooth clubs to bludgeon, or spiked axes to chop and hammer. Yet neither side had brought such armor-breaking weapons.

The Eight Banners soldiers were used to fighting Ming and Shun troops who had no good armor, so naturally they would not carry heavy armor-breaking weapons into battle. Only some of them carried throwing axes, and while those did bring down a few Ming soldiers when thrown, the numbers were not great.

The Hard-Work New Army, for its part, "put its faith in firearms." With great killers like the "flying cannon" and the turtledove-foot musket, they naturally paid little attention to hammers and axes.

So on the surface, although the Qing army held the advantage, pressing the Ming troops as they hacked, and even showing a tendency to surround them, the casualties were actually slightly higher on the Qing side, which had taken a spear charge.

Because the two thousand-odd men now hacking at each other were all wearing good armor, and none had good armor-breaking weapons — the equivalent of two groups of blade-proof fellows hacking at each other. There were some who hacked unluckily and happened to hit a gap in the armor, or the face or wrist, and got cut down.

But most people hacked and hacked until their arms ached, and still hadn't put their opponent down. There was just a clanging and clattering — very lively to the ear...