Chapter 901: Beijing, We're Back! (Please Subscribe)

Zhu Cilang, Emperor of the Great Ming and the foremost filial son under Heaven, was truly about to fight his way back to Beijing. He brought with him his father, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, his mother, Retired Empress Zhou, his good brother Zhu Cihuan, Prince of Chongqing, and a small number of accompanying Grand Secretaries and the staff of the Grand Marshal's Office.

Under the escort of two newly formed Xiaoling Guard flintlock infantry regiments, one newly formed Xiaoling Guard carbine cavalry regiment, and one guard battalion, the party advanced northward in grand array along the old course of the Grand Canal.

Clearing the way ahead of the imperial field headquarters column and guarding its rear were two infantry regiments no longer equipped with pikes, whose entire fighting infantry were armed with flintlocks.

The flintlock issued to the soldiers of these two regiments was called the Hongxing Year Seven Model. Without the bayonet fixed, its overall length was five chi three cun; the barrel was three chi seven and a half cun long; it weighed eight jin four liang; its caliber was five fen eight li; and its ball weighed six qian five fen (paper cartridges were issued with it). The socket bayonet issued with it reached two chi four cun in length, so with the bayonet fixed, the Hongxing Year Seven Model reached an overall length of seven chi three cun (the bayonet fitted over the barrel, so the two overlapped).

In Zhu Cilang's eyes, this flintlock smoothbore musket was no advanced weapon at all, and its power was nothing special. Its effective range in training (firing at a huge wooden target ten chi wide and six chi high) was only one hundred paces — the hit rate at one hundred paces was about twenty percent. This "hundred-pace hit rate" meant little in volley-fire line combat, because the battlefield environment interfered too much with the soldiers; cut the distance in half, and the hit rate would drop by half again, more or less.

Still, this hit rate was not without reference value in combat operations. For example, when sending marksmen to snipe from concealment, when flintlock infantry defended a bastion fort, or when firing from a half-kneeling position behind sandbag breastworks — a twenty-percent hit rate at a hundred paces could not be achieved, but cutting it in half was not much of a problem.

Since the forms of engagement were many and varied, and not limited to volley-fire line combat alone, the flintlock smoothbore musket was still of very great value in actual combat. That was why Zhu Cilang, as early as eleven years before, when he left Beijing and went south, had already been thinking of building a new army with the flintlock smoothbore musket as the infantry's standard weapon.

He had not expected that only in the eighth year of Hongxing, eleven years later, would Emperor Zhu possess two experimental flintlock regiments. This seemingly simple flintlock was, in fact, very difficult to manufacture in quantity while maintaining quality. The thing was now a handicraft item! A purely handmade article, and there was no way to break down the process of making a smoothbore musket into fine enough steps to use assembly-line production methods to raise efficiency.

For the most time-consuming component to make was the barrel. Apart from miscellaneous tasks such as packing and oiling, there were only two processes: rolling the iron-sheet tube, and drilling and reaming the bore. There was no need for any fancy assembly line — even the most ordinary blacksmith's workshop divided the work between two crews. But up to now, both processes remained "old master craftsmen's skills" that could not be standardized. It was not even possible to apply water-powered hammers or water-powered drilling machines to them; they could only be done by hand. The water-powered hammers of today could only be used to work thick plates of wrought iron, not for fine work. And water-powered drilling machines were too powerful and hard to control; they could only be used to bore cannon barrels, not musket barrels.

Therefore, flintlock production rose very slowly. To completely replace matchlocks would probably take ten years!

But for Zhu Cilang, who was personally leading the campaign against Beijing, having eight thousand to ten thousand flintlocks (with some troops also equipped as riflemen) was already enough.

Because this northern expedition was, from the start, a show staged to display the Great Ming's awe-inspiring military might!

The Xiaoling Guard carbine cavalry, even fewer in number than the flintlock infantry, were likewise one of the leading players in this show. This cavalry regiment had now been expanded to four battalions, with fighting strength reaching two thousand men, all equipped one man, one horse, one mule. The horses were folded-ear horses or Arabians; the mules were tall, strong draft mules. All the cavalry wore black simplified plate armor, and now they formed two columns, riding on the left and right flanks of the imperial field headquarters column.

And the third leading player in this "Beijing show" was at that moment traveling north by sea: a siege artillery battalion equipped with eight 48-pounder bronze smoothbore cannon, all treasures Zhu Cilang had ordered from Holland. At present, the Great Ming's arsenals could at most cast 24-pounder bronze smoothbores, and could not yet make 48-pounders or the larger 64-pounders, so eight 48-pounders had been imported for show.

Because these eight cannon were too heavy, they could not travel north overland, and could only be shipped by water to Tianjin, then hauled by canal to Tongzhou.

But taking Beijing did not require 48-pounders — because Emperor Zhu himself had opened a sandbag golden finger, heavy cannon firing solid shot were of little use in siege warfare. Fortifications built up from sandbags could withstand even the cannon of later ages, so what use could solid shot from bronze smoothbore cannon be? At most, they could shoot at gate towers and smash a few targets inside the city.

The greatest threat to the impregnable fortress of Beijing was, of course, none other than the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, Zhu Cilang himself, riding an Arabian horse side by side with the Chongzhen Retired Emperor!

"Your subjects respectfully welcome His Majesty the Emperor and His Majesty the Retired Emperor. May Our Emperor live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years."

Outside the bastion fort of the Tianjin garrison, on the stone-paved official road, a group of generals in black breastplates and plate armor with great red cloaks, together with a large body of civil officials of Hebei Province gathered at Tianjin, stood in ranks with military on the left and civil on the right, and together performed the bow with clasped hands toward Zhu Cilang and the Chongzhen Retired Emperor as they rode up, shouting "Ten thousand years!"

"Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

When the officials had finished shouting "Ten thousand years," on the open fields on both sides of the official road, countless Ming soldiers drawn up in neat ranks, fully armored and bearing weapons, also roared in unison, shouting "Ten thousand years!"

Farther from the official road, there were also many common folk holding baskets and kettles — men and women, more than a hundred thousand in all — all craning their necks, seemingly eager to catch a glimpse of the Great Ming Son of Heaven and the Retired Emperor!

They were all the elders and countryfolk of Hejian Prefecture who, under the urging of the Great Ming's heavenly troops, had spontaneously come outside the Tianjin garrison city to welcome the imperial carriage. They were good subjects of the Great Ming who yearned for the royal army month after month and year after year — and who did not recognize the royal army when it came!

Seeing what the royal army looked like now, everyone was astonished, envious, and regretful!

The beggar royal army had only been gone eleven years — how had it turned into rich men on its return? Was there a mountain of gold and silver in Jiangnan? If they had known Jiangnan was so good, they should have followed the Crown Prince back then and become the royal army too! Staying in Northern Zhili all those years — who knew how much suffering they had endured; just thinking of it made them want to weep!

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor was weeping now too. So many royal troops! Not on paper, but real ones, standing right before his eyes, and with fine armor and weapons, well-fed soldiers and spirited horses — clearly an elite force at a glance. Such a royal army, in Chongzhen's time in power, had only been seen in dreams. Now it had appeared alive before him — only a pity that the king to whom this royal army swore loyalty had changed!

"Shi Kefa, Yan Yingyuan, come forward!"

Pan Shuchen, the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses who had accompanied Emperor Zhu north, now shouted out.

Shi Kefa, Governor-General of Pingjin, and Yan Yingyuan, Regional Commander of Pingjin, immediately stepped forward together and came before the horses of Emperor Zhu and the Chongzhen Retired Emperor.

The two hundred thousand Ming troops now assembled at Tianjin were jointly commanded by these two men!

"Where has the Prince of Dai's great army reached now?" Zhu Cilang asked from horseback.

According to the Grand Marshal's Office's plan, the army besieging Beijing was divided into an eastern and a western route. The western army would march through the grasslands south of the Gobi, gathering the troops of the two Tumed banners of Guihua City and the Eight Banners of the Chahar along the way, then enter the passes through Juyong Pass and join the eastern army, which had set out from Tianjin, outside the city of Beijing. They would surround the Shunzhi Emperor completely within the city of Beijing!

"Your Majesty," Shi Kefa replied, "the great force led by His Highness the Prince of Dai and the Khan of Karakorum has now reached Zhangjiakou Fort. His Highness the Prince of Dai is holding a great assembly of the Mongol tribes outside Zhangjiakou, and is only waiting for Your Majesty to send an imperial envoy to comfort and reward them before he can enter the passes in force."

"Old Five!" Zhu Cilang turned his head and called.

"Your subject brother is here." Zhu Cihuan, Prince of Chongqing, hastily answered.

Zhu Cilang said, "Fifth Brother, go to Zhangjiakou on Our behalf."

(End of chapter)