Chapter 623: Ama's Heart Aches

The dense roar of matchlock fire pulled Dorgon's attention away from the large Ming force advancing on Niujiazhuang and toward the battlefield directly ahead. He turned his head and saw that two infantry squares had already appeared on the left front of his own artillery position, firing at each other!

As the gunfire rang out, both infantry squares billowed white smoke. Dorgon hastily raised his telescope for a closer look and saw that quite a few soldiers in both squares had toppled over, clearly struck by bullets.

Suddenly, from the right wing of the Ming wagon fort came a rolling, thunder-like sound, and white smoke rose as well. The Ming cannon were firing! Black shot streaked into the Qing infantry square at a speed visible to the naked eye, and row after row of living men collapsed one after another!

A spasm of pain seized Dorgon's heart. Many of those killed were old Eight Banners men, and men of the Plain White Banner at that. In this battle at Guishan, Dorgon was of course confident of victory. But he also knew that if this fight turned into a victory that killed ten thousand of the enemy at the cost of three thousand of his own, then a few more such "certain victories" and the Great Qing would march triumphantly into extinction.

Invincible in every battle, and then somehow the state perishes anyway — just thinking about it makes one want to weep!

So Dorgon's fondest scheme was to fight a battle that would make Zhu Cilang's heart ache unbearably, after which they could happily negotiate peace.

If this battle could not make Zhu Cilang hurt to death, the fellow would keep fighting and fighting, and even if he lost battle after battle, he could still "lose away" the entire Great Qing.

But even knowing the situation was bad, Dorgon had no way to call a halt midway! He still had to grit his teeth and send reinforcements to Ajige Nikan, and at the same time he ordered his own left wing — the ten thousand-odd troops positioned at Xiaowangzhuang, mainly Bordered Blue Banner men — to sweep around against the Ming right wing.

"Confucius the Sage protects us, blades and bullets cannot harm us!"

No sooner had Dorgon finished issuing his orders than the front erupted again. That group of Ming soldiers charging out of the wagon fort to counterattack were shouting slogans and launching a pike charge!

It turned out that while the two sides' musketeers had been firing at each other, they had been pressing forward — the Qufu army's musketeers could also fire by rotation, and although it was somewhat chaotic, they could still aim and fire at the proper distance.

The Qing musketeers knew the same trick, called the Nine Advances and Ten Volleys. That is, the musketeers were divided into ten ranks; when the front rank finished firing, the next rank came up, and after all ten ranks had fired, they had advanced nine times.

Now both sides' volley fire had finished its rotation, and it was time for the pikemen and sword-and-shield men to go up and fight!

In the middle of the battlefield, war cries shook the heavens, while the cannon fire grew sparser. Although both sides' 3-pounder cannon were made of bronze and in theory needed no special cooling time — swabbing the bore with wet and dry mops, plus the time for repositioning and aiming, was basically enough to cool the barrel — after firing continuously for one double-hour, the gunners on both sides, afflicted with "burst-barrel phobia," had become extraordinarily cautious, and their rate of fire had dropped to about one shot every five minutes.

At the same time, the infantry formations of both sides had begun a bloody struggle!

The two sides were roughly equal in numbers. The Qing soldiers were stronger as individual fighters, but the shock power of the Ming pike formations was not to be underestimated. So after the collision began, the Ming held the upper hand for a time and drove the old Eight Banners soldiers back step by step. But after the pike charge spent itself, the fierce and battle-hardened bannermen quickly turned the situation around, swiftly throwing the already not-very-orderly Qufu army square into disorder, and the two armies fell into a melee.

And melee placed particular emphasis on individual valor, so the Qufu army was soon at a disadvantage. But it was not easy for the bannermen to swallow up these two thousand-odd men, because their protection was quite good: a small number wore long-bodied iron armor, and most had cloth-faced iron armor. Ordinary swords and blades could not easily wound them; one had to strike with blunt weapons. And blunt-weapon blows were not very efficient either, so the fighting between the two sides easily fell into a stalemate.

In addition, both sides still had some archers exchanging fire. All were shooting at close range, aiming at the unarmored parts of the opponent's body. The bannermen's archery skill was far superior to that of the Qufu army's archers! So most of those shot down by arrowheads were Qufu army warriors.

As the fighting continued, the situation grew increasingly unfavorable for the Qufu trained troops, and in the end Shi Kefa had no choice but to sound the gong and recall them, letting them withdraw to the wagon fort to rest and regroup. When this wagon-fort force had sallied out, it numbered over three thousand; when it finally withdrew, fewer than twenty-three hundred remained. Some eight hundred men had lost their lives in less than one double-hour of combat.

But their sacrifice was not without value — they had won time for the wagon fort to reform its lines!

While the two armies were locked in fierce combat, Shi Kefa had drawn some large shields and wagon troops from the other three directions to fill in his own front, and had men use human and animal corpses to repair the wagon wall battered by Qing cannon fire.

Moreover, the Qing army had not come through this exchange of musket fire and close combat unscathed.

They had lost nearly four hundred men, including more than two hundred regular soldiers of the Plain White Banner!

Dorgon had no time at all to grieve over his losses at the front, for the attack and defense of Niujiazhuang on the right wing had already begun amid waves of cannon fire.

Firing now were the Ming 3-pounder cannon and the Qing one-catty cannon.

Because there were not enough 3-pounder battalion guns, both the Ming and Qing had cast large numbers of one-catty Great General cannon. But the one-catty cannon lacked power, and because they were cast iron, they were also prone to bursting.

So the one-catty cannon's main role on the battlefield was to provide fire support for troops holding a position. Now the Qing troops at Niujiazhuang had the support of six one-catty cannon. Du Lei had placed these cannon at the northern entrance of Niujiazhuang to seal off the road into the village.

But the attacking Ming troops had eight 3-pounder cannon, clearly superior in firepower — and this was not merely eight versus six. The 3-pounders not only had a larger caliber but also a much higher rate of fire. Thus the Ming possessed at least several times the artillery firepower advantage.

With the support of these eight cannon, the infantry under Huang Degong quickly fought their way into Niujiazhuang.

But the defense put up by Du Lei's Plain Red Banner troops and Shang Kexi's Plain Green Banner troops was extremely resolute, and the two sides fought a bloody battle inside and outside Niujiazhuang!

After completing their deployment, more than nine thousand Ming troops launched assaults from three directions. They were all "Maurice battalions," equipped with large numbers of matchlocks. Though these were only matchlock muskets and Japanese guns, their sheer quantity was overwhelming, and they also had artillery support. So from the very start they suppressed Du Lei and Shang Kexi's four thousand-odd men.

But the Qing side had the houses and barricades of Niujiazhuang to rely on. Though their firepower was much weaker, they could still barely hold on without collapsing.

The drumbeats, cannon fire, musket shots, and war cries on the Niujiazhuang battlefield came rolling into Dorgon's ears like waves, one after another, and hearing them cut Dorgon's heart like a knife!

Fierce combat meant that casualties among the elite Eight Banners troops were unavoidable!

Once upon a time, four or five thousand bannermen could beat several times their number of Ming troops into helplessness. But now, Dorgon had to use three times the number of Nine Banners troops to inflict heavy damage on Ming troops who had once been utterly worthless.

"Ama, isn't it about enough?"

Shang Kexi, standing with Dorgon, was just as pained — the Plain Green Banner troops at Niujiazhuang were all his men!

Who knew how many would be dead by the time this battle was over.

Dorgon gritted his back teeth and said, "Wait... wait another half double-hour!"

He was waiting for the Ming troops to exhaust themselves, and also waiting for them to fight their way into Niujiazhuang. Only then would the two sides be fully locked in melee, with the Ming troops unable either to retreat or to form up.

It was just that the four thousand-odd Nine Banners heroes holding Niujiazhuang would suffer grievous losses!

Du Lei and Shang Kexi did not know Dorgon's plan. They did not even know that Dorgon had hidden more than twenty thousand men in the great woods less than five li from Niujiazhuang and to the rear — they knew there were ambushers, but they did not know there were so many.

So both men were already at their wits' end, and had even mentally prepared themselves for death in battle!

The six Great General cannon they had placed at the northern entrance of Niujiazhuang (on the main road) had already fallen silent. One had burst its barrel, one had been knocked out by a Ming 3-pounder, and the other four could not be used because their barrels were too hot.

The Ming troops seized this opportunity and pushed all six 3-pounders right up to the main gate of Niujiazhuang, loaded them with canister shot, and fired straight inside, mowing down the Qing troops blocking the entrance in swathes.

(End of Chapter)