Chapter 787: Dodo's Ferocity

In the ninth year of the Qing Shunzhi reign, on the morning of July 18, there was fog.

Boom—boom—boom.

The morning fog blanketing the Yang River battlefield had not yet lifted when dense cannon fire erupted around Stone River Village, defended by elite troops of the Bordered White Banner.

Stone River Village sat squarely in the center of the battlefield, making it a vital strongpoint. Ajige's son Fulehe had led ten niru into Stone River Village under cover of last night's darkness, spending half the night setting up defenses and working until the early hours of this morning.

The commotion they made inside Stone River Village could not, of course, escape Dodo's notice. But Dodo did not send troops to fight Fulehe's men in the dark — night fighting depended on elite soldiers! Dodo's troops were not as elite as Ajige's. They could hold their own fighting in formation, but at night there was no way to form ranks, and muskets and cannon were of little use; everything came down to individual valor, and Dodo's men were no good at that.

Still, Dodo had no intention of letting the "Western Qing Army" inside Stone River Village off the hook. His plan was to seize the initiative with a dawn assault!

A dawn assault meant striking before the enemy finished forming their lines!

Because Ajige's army was a motley force — the soldiers carried too much gear, and many even brought booi bondservants along — their deployment was inevitably chaotic. Their dispositions were disorderly too: some units had to climb hills, others had to enter the village, so they could not move quickly.

Dodo's army was far "cleaner," and its formations were simple. Infantry battalions, cavalry battalions, and the artillery train simply marched out of camp and fell into line in order. Eighteen infantry battalions, two cavalry battalions, one artillery battalion, plus Dodo's own small headquarters unit — they moved out before dawn, waded across the river, and were in position in under half a shichen.

And at that moment, Geng Zhongming's and Kong Tingxun's men were still dawdling as they faced the Great Qing's Valiant Prince Dodo! It was not only Geng Zhongming and Kong Tingxun who were afraid — the men below them were just as afraid. Fear made their legs go weak, and weak legs made them march slowly.

So when Dodo's artillery opened fire on Stone River Village, the Plain Blue Banner troops who were supposed to be forming up on either side of the village were still on the road.

"Erke Chuhur! Erke Chuhur! Erke Chuhur!"

Before the cannon fire had even stopped, wave after wave of Manchu battle cries rang out!

"Erke Chuhur" meant "valiant," and in the Manchu army it was synonymous with Dodo. The common language of the Qing Eastern Army was Chinese, but everyone could say "Erke Chuhur." Dodo required his infantry to shout "Erke Chuhur" when charging, to bolster their courage.

"The Valiant Prince is coming!"

A Bordered White Banner niru officer sprinted up to Fulehe, his voice trembling as he made his report!

He had never dreamed that Dodo, with so few cavalry and so few men, would attack on his own initiative — and with such extraordinary ferocity.

"What are you panicking about?" Fulehe snapped, cold sweat beading on his forehead even as he forced himself to stay composed. "They're only Han Chinese. Would our Eight Banners warriors fear them?"

"But — but their cannon are too powerful! They've already collapsed a dozen or so houses on the east side of the village. Our men can't form ranks at all!"

Though every Manchu warrior was highly skilled in arms, this was, after all, a battle involving over a hundred thousand men. How could they fight without forming ranks?

This was now an age ruled by guns and cannon. Without proper formations — with pikes, muskets, and cannon supporting one another — troops would just be a chaotic mob, certain to be shot down by volley fire!

Moreover, Fulehe had two thousand old Manchus under his command, plus a hundred or so Han artillerymen, plus several hundred booi. The little village of Stone River simply could not hold them all spread out; they had to use the village itself as an anchor for their defensive line. If they were surrounded inside the village, they could only wait to be pounded to pieces by cannon — the red-barbarian light cannon were highly mobile. If thirty guns were hauled up outside Stone River Village and opened up at close range, the men inside would have their spirits broken even if the shells did not kill them.

Fulehe knew he could not stay huddled out of sight. He had no choice but to take a few personal guards and steel himself to walk toward the direction where the cannon fire and shouting were thickest. The moment he got there, he saw that the situation was badly wrong.

The houses at the east end of Stone River Village had collapsed in a swath. Many of the Bordered White Banner warriors defending there had been buried outright in the rubble; others were wounded, lying on the ground groaning; still others had fled in panic, leaving their weapons behind, and now stood empty-handed.

Worse, the enemy had placed their artillery positions on both flanks of Stone River Village, so that even as their infantry advanced, the guns could keep firing — and the shells still fell like rain!

And the shells that landed inside Stone River Village often bounced and ricocheted, sweeping in different directions, until no one dared remain standing.

"Where are our guns?" Fulehe asked, crouching.

"My prince, they've all been buried!" A grimy, dust-covered artillery squad leader with a cloth wrapped around his bleeding head reported to Fulehe through tears. "This slave pushed two guns into the big house at the village entrance. We'd only fired a few rounds when the house was brought down on us. Half the brothers are dead, and every man left is wounded."

This da-dan janggin of the Han Bannermen artillery knew how to work a gun but was no expert. He did not know how to lay out a gun position, nor did he know what kind of building was sturdy enough to withstand three-pounder shot. As a result, he had shoved both of his cannon into a large, long-dilapidated house. The moment they opened fire, they drew counter-battery fire. Dodo's thirty cannon were massed and under unified command; all thirty guns' fire was drawn to that one spot, and after a few salvos the house collapsed!

"Dig them out!" Fulehe roared.

The da-dan janggin could see his master was nearly exploding with rage, but he dared not say the guns could not be dug out. He could only brace himself and round up his men to start digging.

But they would not have long to dig, because an "Eastern Army" infantry battalion, reinforced with two musket niru, was already upon them!

Leading the way were three musket niru — nine hundred gunners drawn up in nine ranks, using the "eight-advance, nine-linked" tactic: firing as they advanced, each volley a hundred muskets at once. The fire was not overwhelming in weight, but it was continuous and unbroken.

Behind the nine hundred musketeers came, in order, three pike niru, one sword-and-shield niru, one archer niru, and one guards niru. They did not form any kind of square, either — they simply charged forward rank after rank!

Fulehe's ten niru were also equipped with muskets — about thirty per niru, half of them fowling pieces made by Bordered White Banner artisans, half "Japanese-made" matchlocks — and some men had been specially trained in musketry. But these "Western Army" gunners were not organized into large niru-level formations; they were scattered among the individual niru, so they were very hard to concentrate when needed.

Thus Fulehe could not quickly mass three hundred gunners to trade fire with the enemy. Under the rolling bombardment of the enemy's nine hundred muskets, the Western Army's position at the east end of Stone River Village fell into chaos. The Western Army soldiers who had barely managed to form ranks were shot down row after row, and the field was everywhere strewn with corpses and filled with screams.

By the time the unbroken crackle of volley fire abruptly ceased and the Chinese battle cries rose, Fulehe already knew they could hardly hold.

His two thousand-odd Manchu troops simply could not form up, and they were already out of control. They could only fight on their own, each unit directed by its own niru janggin or da-dan janggin.

A tremendous roar of battle soon rose inside and outside Stone River Village, and a ferocious collision erupted between the two Qing armies. The Western Army officers and men, already battered to pieces by round after round of musket and cannon fire, could not withstand the pikes thrusting at them rank by rank. Their already scattered formations collapsed in an instant. Some fled toward Cao Family Village to the rear, but most fell back into Stone River Village, hoping to fight the attacking Eastern Army at close quarters.

And so the brutal slaughter continued inside that little village.

Outside the village, meanwhile, fighting on an even larger scale had already begun!

Under Ajige's stern orders, the dawdling armies of Geng Zhongming and Kong Tingxun had finally advanced to the north and south sides of Stone River Village, where they clashed fiercely with the eight infantry battalions Dodo had sent out.

The opening phase was a firefight!

Thousands of muskets on both sides opened up fiercely, volley after volley! Then the cannon moved into position and began pounding the enemy infantry formations.

The morning fog had just lifted from the battlefield when gunpowder smoke spread across it once more!

(End of Chapter)