Chapter 858: Acknowledge Another Imperial Father! (Please Subscribe)

The Ming army is here!

They came in vast, surging force along the northern bank of the Yellow River — more than a hundred thousand strong! Before the main infantry columns with their artillery, baggage train, and laborers arrived, the cavalry had already reached the area first: some three to four thousand "black-gun mule soldiers," operating in company- or platoon-sized units, deployed around the Qing army's two great camps on the north and south banks of the Yellow River, seizing every road large and small, occupying the surrounding villages, and cutting off all communication between the two camps and the outside world. Along with the "black-gun mule soldiers" came more than a thousand "foreign-horse cavalry," who also rode mules on the march while leading tall, mighty foreign horses with folded ears. Every man carried a carbine slung across his back, all the bayonet points thrust upward, gleaming with a ghastly cold light in the winter sun.

The thousand-odd "foreign-horse cavalry" split into two detachments and paraded about in the open ground four or five li beyond the south-bank and north-bank camps respectively — openly intimidating the Qing troops inside the two camps: the Great Ming's iron cavalry is invincible under heaven! If you have the nerve to test our edge, then come on! Come, and you are dead men!

Chen Tai and Tuhai both went up to the "upper terrace" of the south-bank camp to observe the enemy's formation, raising their telescopes and watching these swaggering Ming cavalrymen with grim faces — these horsemen not only had fine mounts, but every man wore a suit of black plate armor. Just looking at them was intimidating!

Both men understood warfare. Chen Tai was a seasoned "old soldier" who had been through many battles, and although Tuhai had seen little of the battlefield, he had read widely in military treatises and, after joining Chen Tai, had not been ashamed to learn from his subordinates, acquiring a full command of military skills. So both of them knew that although the Ming cavalry before them was not numerous, if it deployed for open-field battle, it would be enough to smash the twenty thousand troops under their command.

"Damn it all," Chen Tai lowered his telescope and cursed. "We can't even match them in cavalry now — how is this war supposed to go on!"

Tuhai still had his telescope raised, watching the Ming infantry cross the ice of the Yellow River and then deploy in perfect order on the southern bank, pitching camp and seizing high ground and key points.

The high ground in question was the Yellow River levee. The terrain around Kaifeng was extremely flat, so the levee, built up higher and higher over the past thousand years and more, had become an artificial height. Both of the Qing army's great camps on the north and south banks of the Yellow River were built against the levee, so each camp had two levels, upper and lower. The upper level was built atop the levee and served two purposes. The first was to prevent the Ming army from seizing the entire levee — after all, was not the whole purpose of the Qing army's establishment of the south-bank camp to cover their digging into the Yellow River levee so as to flood the prefectures of Henan? If the Ming army occupied the entire levee, where would they dig?

The other function of the "camp's upper level" was to cover the retreat of the south-bank camp's garrison. Though the south-bank camp was strong, once the Yellow River's waters came rushing down, it probably could not hold. Therefore, after breaching the levee, the Qing troops would also have to withdraw — otherwise what they dug would not be a levee but a grave to bury themselves.

For the Qing troops in the south-bank camp to withdraw to the north-bank camp, they had to cross by the pontoon bridge, and the two ends of the pontoon bridge connected to the second levels of the south and north camps.

It was precisely because of these two uses that, in Tuhai's view, the second levels of the north and south camps were the key to this battle of the Yellow River's north and south camps.

And the Ming army seemed to have noticed this too. A unit of musketeers had formed up in an extremely dense formation on the levee four or five li east of the south-bank camp's second level. Behind them, many soldiers and laborers were carrying large sacks and piling up breastworks...

Tuhai lowered his telescope, but his eyes remained fixed on that unit of musketeers drawn up in dense formation — this musket unit looked strange at a glance. A force of at least two thousand men, uniformly armed with muskets, and their formation was so dense they stood shoulder to shoulder...

"Linzhou, what do you see?" Chen Tai had by now noticed Tuhai's odd behavior.

"Commander," Tuhai pointed at the Ming musket unit, "do you see those southern-barbarian musketeers? Their formation seems very dense!"

"I see them..." Chen Tai said. "A bit dense, yes. Pity the top of the levee is too narrow for cavalry to be of much use — otherwise one charge would finish them."

Chen Tai did not seem to pay it much mind. Although Tuhai sensed something was off, he could not put it into words, and so he did not dwell on it.

Chen Tai then said to Tuhai, "Linzhou, don't worry... Our great camp is impregnable, and we have laid out large numbers of Folangji cannon and Hongyi cannon, plus two thousand firelocks. What do the southern barbarians have to attack with? If they really try to pile up mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they will be playing right into the Imperial Uncle's hands."

"The Commander speaks truly." Tuhai was of course worried, but he could not disregard his superior's opinion. He would watch and see — perhaps after observing a little longer he would understand the trick of it.

"Admiral, our Number One redoubt on the Yellow River levee is finished!"

Yan Yingyuan, with a small central command staff, had just crossed the Yellow River over the ice when his military advisor Xu Ermo brought him this good news.

"No fighting occurred?" Yan Yingyuan asked.

"None," Xu Ermo said. "Our flintlock regiment didn't even get a chance to show what it could do."

What Tuhai had seen was a flintlock regiment — like the "great ocean-horse regiment," one of the trump cards in Yan Yingyuan's hand!

This kind of flintlock unit, specialized in volley-fire line tactics, could form even denser formations, loaded and fired faster, and was less affected by bad weather, so it held an overwhelming advantage over matchlock units.

And on the Yellow River levee, cavalry had no place to be used, so pikemen were likewise of little use — this all-musket flintlock regiment was perfectly suited to show its power. If the Qing army sent musketeers out to fight them, they would certainly die an ugly death.

"It's just as well they don't send their musketeers out!" Yan Yingyuan said. "This is our hidden card... keep it in reserve for Dodo."

"Admiral," Xu Ermo said, "there's still Number Two redoubt!"

Yan Yingyuan laughed. "No problem. If they can stand by and watch us build Number One redoubt, they won't interfere with Number Two... Once Number One and Number Two are both complete, the next step is the siege levee. The only question now is whether we have enough manpower."

"Manpower is no problem," Xu Ermo said. "Vice Admiral Feng has given his personal guarantee — within half a month he'll bring another hundred thousand men! By then the weather should be warming up, just right for digging earth and building the levee... At most a month of work, and by early in the third month we can breach the Yellow River levee and flood the eastern barbarians' south-bank camp!"

So this was the method Yan Yingyuan, Xu Ermo, and the others planned to use against the Qing army's south-bank camp! You want to dig through the levee, do you?

Very well — our Great Ming will dig too, and we'll dig before you do. Before breaching the Yellow River levee, first build a ring levee around the south-bank camp, creating a flood-retention basin. Then channel the Yellow River's water in — and don't do it during high water, for that could easily burst the siege levee. Channel it in gradually during the third and fourth months, reinforcing the siege levee as the water rises. In the end, the Qing army's south-bank camp will be left soaking in water!

This south-bank camp was a bastion built of sandbags and earth, able to mount cannon but unable to withstand being soaked. Even if it could withstand the soaking, Dodo's plan to breach the Yellow River levee and flood the prefectures of Henan would be utterly ruined.

Of course, the scale of earthworks required for this approach was enormous. At least two hundred thousand men would be needed to dig earth and pile the levee, and that meant massive expenditure! Not only would all those men have to be fed, but laborers would have to be hired and paid.

That was why Feng San, the local power broker of Henan, had been transferred from Runing into Yan Yingyuan's army, specifically to take charge of spending money and recruiting men.

In addition, Zhu Cilang had transferred from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue a group of technical officials who had taken part in the great Yellow River–Huai River–Grand Canal works, to direct the construction of the siege levee.

Xu Ermo laughed. "The eastern barbarians' Imperial Uncle probably has no idea how many levees we built and how much earth we dug in the great Yellow–Huai–Canal works... We literally dug out a channel for the Yellow River to reach the sea! If he wants to compete with us in river works, he is simply inviting humiliation. Once our siege levee begins to take shape, I expect this Imperial Uncle will come to the Yellow River to throw his life away!"

Yan Yingyuan said with a cold laugh, "If he comes, he'll meet with utter defeat! The foreign-horse cavalry regiment and the flintlock regiment were both prepared for him! I refuse to believe his little new-model firearm army can compare with ours!"