Chapter 153: Section 10: Mop-Up

After reaching Yulinpu, the Ming army immediately began deploying for an assault. Although it was a crude fort of timber and earth, the Ming army's three-pounder field guns were clearly still powerless against the walls. Of course, the wooden fort gate posed no problem at all — a single three-pounder shot blasted a huge hole in it, and after several more shots the main gate collapsed like waste paper.

Once the arquebusiers had formed their ranks, the Ming soldiers advanced under the cover of enormous rattan shields toward the inner fort gate — this was a corner side gate, which the cannons dared not approach and so could not reach. The Later Jin soldiers on the watchtowers shot arrows with desperate fury, but to no effect whatsoever. Against these few isolated targets, though the arquebuses were dreadfully inaccurate, they made up for it in sheer numbers. One hundred thirty arquebuses fired in rotating volleys, and every Later Jin soldier who was struck fell with a shriek.

After more than a dozen shots had missed, a three-pounder finally struck the left watchtower dead-on. With a thunderous crack, the tower lurched askew by several dozen degrees, and most of the Later Jin soldiers atop it went tumbling down. One clung desperately to a wooden railing, hanging on, but was soon shot down by the arquebuses.

By the time the right watchtower had also been blasted into collapse, the trench before the fort gate had been partly filled in and the barricades hauled aside. The Ming army laid the prepared planks and bamboo rafts across the trench, bracing them from below with wooden stakes. At a single order from the frontline officer, several dozen shock troops hugged a great log and began ramming the inner gate.

Watching the battle progress smoothly, Huang Shi sighed with satisfaction. "This is truly effortless." This fort was only meant to guard against mountain bandits and brigands; before an army of two thousand, it had virtually no ability to defend itself.

The Later Jin troops inside the fort knew this was a moment of life and death. Heads kept popping up over the wooden walls on either side of the gate, and blue stones and logs came crashing down viciously upon the Ming soldiers ramming the gate.

Though shielded by rattan shields, Ming soldiers were still battered and bloodied from time to time, but such casualties meant almost nothing to a force of nearly two thousand. Every man who fell was immediately replaced by a fresh soldier. The fort gate emitted ever more horrifying sounds of splintering, bending further inward with each successive ram.

With the threat of the watchtowers removed, the Ming arquebusiers had now set their pieces along the edge of the trench, and volley after volley sent splinters of wood and chips of stone flying wildly from the fort walls.

Soon the figures of women mingled among those on the wooden walls. As brave as the Later Jin men, they leaned out and hurled stones downward. The Ming arquebusiers, utterly devoid of any tender regard for fair maidens, shot them down too in sprays of blood.

A moment later, thick smoke suddenly billowed up from inside the fort. Huang Shi shrugged and said to Wu Mu with a cold laugh, "The Jianzhou slaves are in despair. They're burning their supplies. But since I didn't want them anyway, they're saving me the trouble."

The scouts sent out in a constant stream consistently reported no sign of enemy reinforcements. At last the fort gate collapsed with a thunderous crash. The Later Jin soldiers inside surged forward to block the breach. The Ming ramming party let out a shout and scattered in all directions, the shielding troops hurling their great shields desperately at the enemy before scrambling over one another to leap into the trench.

Two hundred Ming soldiers, their long pikes leveled, had already formed a battle array, a dense forest of spear points aimed at the enemy in the gateway. But the enemy did not charge out. With resolute expressions, they rushed forward with blades and spears to plug the gate, and then some hurled javelins at the Ming formation, while a few feathered arrows came flying over as well.

Once the Ming soldiers at the front had leaped down into the trench, the three-pounder, silent since the watchtowers collapsed, roared once more. A great burst of crimson light plowed a path through the enemy massed before the gate, the ball bouncing and tumbling on into the interior of the fort.

Then came the crash of a volley of arquebus fire. The remaining Later Jin soldiers struggled desperately as they hurled themselves at the Ming forest of pikes, and one by one they were skewered to death before the formation.

After the cannon had fired once more, the defenders blocking the gate had been largely wiped out by the arquebuses. Just as the Ming pike formation was advancing cautiously, a man suddenly struggled to his feet from among the corpses at the gate.

This Later Jin warrior braced himself with a spear in his left hand, while his right hand held a long saber leveled in a half-circle through the air, as if he were about to say something. The frontline officer glanced back at Huang Shi, then with a cold laugh spat out his whistle and stepped back two paces. The arquebusiers took the chance to adjust their aim at leisure.

The Later Jin warrior coughed up a mouthful of blood. Only then did Huang Shi see clearly that this fierce man's belly had been torn wide open by an arquebus shot. "His guts are spilling out and he can still stand — a true warrior indeed!"

"I... I am a Baturu of the Plain Red Banner..." The Later Jin warrior spoke in broken, halting Chinese, his legs and the left hand braced on the spear shaft trembling more and more violently. "...Who dares fight me? You Han curs, Han curs — do you dare fight?!"

"Idiot!" Huang Shi could not help but curse aloud. He had thought he might hear some stirring words of heroism, but after waiting so long, this was all he got. Huang Shi raised a hand to stop He Baodao, who was itching to take up the challenge. "I brought this many men precisely to gang up and beat you down. Who the hell wants to duel you?" He bellowed, "Arquebusiers — finish him!"

Over a hundred Later Jin corpses were laid out in a row for inspection — men and women, old and young alike. In the end, those Later Jin soldiers who had charged out like wild boars had slaughtered their own wives first. Huang Shi slowly paced from one end to the other. "Why are there over thirty armored soldiers?"

He Baodao, behind him, immediately answered, "It seems the Jianzhou Bordered Red Banner did not muster at once. The Jianzhou forces at Gaizhou still do not know the size of our army or the resolve of our attack."

"Indeed, I think so too." Huang Shi did not know whether this was an opportunity or a setback. If the Bordered Red Banner could not complete its muster quickly, then Huang Shi could sweep more Later Jin outposts and annihilate more of the enemy. With such overwhelming superiority, the Ming army's exchange ratio would be quite favorable. But on the other hand, if Gaizhou could not assemble a force comparable to the Ming army, the enemy might not dare come out and give battle, and the plan to deal the enemy a crushing blow would come to nothing.

"Load the wounded onto the carts, and bring our fallen soldiers too. We will take them back to Changsheng Island for burial on the return journey." In this battle, the Ming army had twelve killed and a total of over thirty wounded, light and serious combined.

The several relay stations and storehouses encountered before evening had all been set ablaze by the Later Jin troops, and their garrisons had long since slipped away. The afternoon's fighting had made the Later Jin troops understand that this Ming force was not here for an armed parade, and so they had very sensibly avoided the Ming army's sharp edge.

"Make camp and rest."

After giving the order, Huang Shi summoned He Baodao and Li Yunrui, who had accompanied him. "It seems the Jianzhou slaves have begun to muster. By tonight, the Jianzhou messengers will be nearing Haizhou. Tomorrow we cross the Qinghe as planned and sweep the relay stations and storehouses between Boluowo and Gaizhou. We shall see how the Jianzhou slaves react."