Chapter 170: Section 27: Facing Off

The cavalry slowly fanned out again. The Firefighting Battalion's mounted troops formed a single-file, long serpentine formation. Behind them, the infantrymen one by one pulled on their iron armor over their heads, donned their helmets, and tightened their grip on their long spears. The sleeves of the firelock soldiers' iron armor had already been removed, allowing slightly greater flexibility without too much adverse effect on loading their ammunition. They checked their gun barrels one last time, loosened the pouches holding powder and shot, and hung them on their chests.

The officers blew their whistles, and the firelock soldiers, full of spirit, strode to the front row of the formation. Behind them was the main battle line, composed of numerous small formations twenty men wide and six men deep, with gaps left between each small formation. Horses are highly sensitive and timid animals; the small gaps were left precisely so that if a horse could not stop in time, it would have a gap to pass through, rather than being driven to desperation and crashing headlong into the forest of long spears.

The soldiers of the Vanguard Battalion also donned their armor, but Zhang Feimao and his personal guards had their eyes fixed elsewhere. From the moment the Firefighting Battalion opened their bundles and began putting on armor, his eyes could no longer leave that sea of metal. His greedy gaze swept again and again over the iron armor of the Firefighting Battalion soldiers. Zhang Feimao's personal guards and retainers also watched the battle armor of the Firefighting Battalion's common soldiers with envy. From time to time, someone would aggrievedly touch the equipment on his own body, their eyes all red as if about to spew fire.

The various companies of the Vanguard Battalion slowly spread toward the two wings, while the companies of the Firefighting Battalion remained in the center. Over nine thousand auxiliary troops, carrying various baggage, withdrew to the rear of the Assistant Regional Commander's banner, seeking as much shelter as possible behind the battle line to gain the protection of the combat troops.

The four infantry companies finished forming up one after another, and their Squad Commander banners were raised straight up accordingly. Huang Shi nodded, and his personal guards immediately waved the ten-foot red banner of the Assistant Regional Commander.

After He Dingyuan issued the order, the cavalry on the front line turned their horses' heads one after another and returned at a slow walk, reforming their formation behind Huang Shi's Assistant Regional Commander banner. Beside the cavalry was the final infantry company — these four hundred soldiers were all long-spearmen, kept by Huang Shi as a reserve force behind the Assistant Regional Commander's banner.

After arranging the cavalry, He Dingyuan hurried to Huang Shi's side: "My lord, the cavalry has completed its screening formation. Your subordinate has come to report and return the order."

"Understood." By now Huang Shi had already seen the dust cloud rising in the distance. The rolling great army of the Later Jin continuously leaped into view from behind the barrier of dust. When they saw the Ming army arrayed in strict readiness, they seemed to show some surprise, slowing their pace three li away and beginning to slowly concentrate into a tight formation.

Fifty cavalrymen had already dispersed to scout, including twenty from the Vanguard Battalion. These several dozen cavalrymen roamed the three-li stretch of open ground between the two armies. Under the gaze of ten thousand men, they gathered and scattered, from time to time making gestures of chasing and attacking each other. Huang Shi also watched these brave Ming scouts. They would suddenly accelerate and charge forward, or rapidly break away to shake off enemy pursuit, drawing waves of cheers from the soldiers before Huang Shi.

This scene, so familiar, reminded Huang Shi of his own experience four years ago leading forward scouts in the Guangning Army — several hundred men cowering in a huddle, unable to reconnoiter enemy movements and powerless to drive off enemy riders. The Lüshun army had campaigned for many years, living a life of licking blood from the blade since the second year of the Tianqi reign. Their spirit and morale were in no way inferior to He Dingyuan's lads, and Huang Shi nodded repeatedly as he watched.

At that moment, a Lüshun cavalryman suddenly threw himself backward, dodging a cold arrow shot his way, and immediately another great burst of cheers erupted. Huang Shi was also slightly startled by this hair-raising scene, and afterward praised: "Regional Military Commissioner Zhang, your troops are trained quite well indeed."

"I am honored by my lord Huang's praise." Zhang Feimao was secretly delighted. He hurriedly added: "This one is my personal retainer, with considerable battle merit over the past three years. Today, hearing that my lord Huang, whose might shakes Liaonan, is here, he is naturally even more full of spirit."

"Good, good. But don't play too excessively." The main task of these reconnaissance riders was to scout ahead and bring back information, so the mutual attacks between the scouts of both sides were merely a dangerous game, also serving to boost one's own side's morale. In the end, they would not truly fight to the death.

"My lord Huang, rest assured. The lads know what's important."

As the Later Jin army slowly pressed closer, the scouts, having already gathered considerable intelligence, returned one after another. Of the fifty riders, only three had been lost.

"Reporting to my lord Huang..."

The first was a scout from the Lüshun army. He half-knelt on the ground and finished recounting what he had seen. Huang Shi smiled at Zhang Feimao beside him: "Regional Military Commissioner Zhang, this is your man."

Zhang Feimao quickly bowed with clasped hands: "Everything is at my lord Huang's discretion."

"Good, reward him."

At this command, Hong Antong behind Huang Shi tossed over a piece of silver. The soldier hastily picked up this extra-heavy piece of broken silver from the ground at his feet, and while stuffing it into his bosom, repeatedly gave thanks: "Thank you, my lord Huang, thank you, my lord Huang."

The scouts of the Firefighting Battalion also came to report one after another. After hearing them out, Huang Shi waved his hand. Hong Antong threw over silver just the same. Since he had rewarded another's subordinates, his own men certainly could not receive less, though how exactly they would spend it was not Huang Shi's problem. In any case, merchants were not permitted to do business directly with soldiers on Zhangsheng Island; everything had to go through Yang Zhiyuan's hands.

These few Firefighting Battalion soldiers also harbored such doubts in their hearts. He Dingyuan glared at those bewildered and hesitant soldiers, signaling them to disappear from sight immediately, and they quickly returned to the cavalry behind the Assistant Regional Commander's banner.

Small peddlers had also followed Dengzhou merchants to Zhangsheng Island, but the Firefighting Battalion strictly enforced a "unified procurement and distribution" system. Even a bride's red bridal veil or a small wooden toy for a baby was uniformly purchased by logistics officers; soldiers were absolutely forbidden from direct contact with merchants. Huang Shi believed that by cutting off such contact, the Firefighting Battalion's equipment and the number of combat soldiers could not be casually pried out by outsiders. Yang Zhiyuan and Bao Jiusun had been repeatedly inoculated against this, and they had also drawn up detailed regulations for logistics officers. Whenever goods needed to be purchased, they would always randomly buy an extra ten or twenty percent. They would rather throw it into the sea than use precise numbers during transactions. If peddlers curiously asked unrelated questions, the answer was uniformly "no comment."

The next to come up was that personal retainer of Zhang Feimao — the very lad who had just dodged an arrow. His manner of dismounting from the saddle was quite graceful, his speech was very coherent, and its content was even more richly detailed. After listening to his fluent report of the banners and equipment he had seen, Huang Shi felt very satisfied. This soldier seemed to sense Huang Shi's satisfaction as well. He boldly looked up, his gaze full of eagerness.

Huang Shi looked down at him from his elevated position, and did not wave for Hong Antong to throw silver: "What reward do you want? Speak freely."

That soldier seemed to have long been mentally prepared for this question. He answered excitedly: "This subordinate dares not ask for extravagance. I only beseech my lord Huang to grant me a suit of battle armor." After speaking, he quickly added: "Just the kind that my lord Huang's common soldiers wear." Having finished, he stared hopefully at Huang Shi's expression, and added in a very pitiful tone: "That would be enough."

"You little monkey-cub." Zhang Feimao quickly cursed. But this curse was far too lacking in weight, wasn't it? It was practically disguised encouragement.

"Fine." Huang Shi burst out laughing. This little monkey-cub was indeed shrewd. That suit of iron armor was worth a full hundred taels of silver, yet this fellow called it "common soldiers' battle armor." If Huang Shi refused, it would seem as if he were incredibly stingy, unwilling to part with even worthless rags not worth two strings of cash: "This general grants it to you. When we return to Jinzhou, this general will give you a suit."

"Thank you, my lord Huang." The little monkey-cub even performed a somersault in the air. Overjoyed, he led his horse and ran back to stand properly behind Zhang Feimao, his companions all making envious clicking sounds.

At the same time, on the other side of the battlefield, they too were listening to the scouts' reports.

"There is no doubt. Opposite us is precisely the most elite unit of the Liaonan Ming army. The Firefighting Battalion of Zhangsheng Island and the Vanguard Battalion of Lüshun are both here. Today we shall catch them all in one net."

Manggūltai looked somewhat bewildered at that silver battle line before him. The Firefighting Battalion's equipment had awed not only their allies. The Later Jin side returned the same astonished gaze at this super-luxurious torrent of iron armor: "If I did not see the Firefighting Battalion's serpent banner, I would truly think we had encountered the Ming imperial guard."

"I fear even the Ming imperial guard does not have such equipment." Hong Taiji also clicked his tongue in admiration at the dazzling iron armor on these heavy infantrymen. Under the sunlight, cold light shimmered and flowed across the Ming army's battle formation opposite, like a silver serpent gently twisting its body: "Iron armor is nothing to fear. I hear they also have bronze cannons. But even with iron armor and bronze cannons, there is nothing to fear."

"I hear you have met that Huang Shi. What is he like?"

"Bookish." Hong Taiji gave a very brief assessment.

"That's fine then. This batch of iron armor is ours." Manggūltai clapped his hands and laughed, his delight overflowing in his expression: "This time we've come to Lüshun, it seems we're going to make a great fortune."

Hong Taiji smiled and said to the bondservant beside him: "Pass down the order: whoever takes Huang Shi's head, one and a half steps of rank. Whoever captures Huang Shi alive and brings him before this Beile, four steps of rank."

From bondservant to being enfeoffed as a Beile required only twenty-four steps of rank. Manggūltai was stunned at these words: "Didn't you say he's a bookworm?"

"A bookworm has a bookworm's uses too."

The Later Jin army opposite began deploying their formation two li away. Huang Shi also quickly made his summary: "Opposite us, the Jianzhou slaves have roughly four thousand five hundred combat soldiers, equal to our own strength. The Jianzhou slaves' advantage lies in their cavalry exceeding half their number, while our army's mounted combat soldiers number only two hundred. Behind the Jianzhou slaves' formation are six to seven thousand auxiliary troops. In this battle, our army has fourteen thousand against the Jianzhou slaves' twelve thousand. Our army has the advantage in numbers."

He turned to Wu Mu and said: "Eunuch Wu, for your clear discernment: our army need only hold out until dark to be safe."

In this era, the night was so dark one could not see one's hand in front of one's face, and large numbers of men on both sides suffered from night blindness. Marching at night, one could light torches, but once night battle was joined, whoever lit torches first was simply courting death. Naturally, neither side was willing to give the opponent an advantage, so a large-scale night battle became a true melee, where the chance of being killed by one's own side was no lower than dying at the enemy's hands. In the darkness of this era, a warrior's life or death had nothing to do with technical combat skill, only with the warrior's luck; the outcome of a large-scale night battle had nothing to do with command, training, or morale, only with the luck of the commanders on both sides.

"Therefore, our army's objective is to hold out until dusk."

It was now the first month of the year. In the cold nights of Liaodong, night battle became even more perilous. A small wound, losing very little blood, could cause a stout, strong man to die. Huang Shi estimated that by evening, both the Later Jin and the Ming army would have no choice but to withdraw their troops and return to camp.

Wu Mu smiled, full of trust, and nodded repeatedly: "Everything is entrusted to General Huang. I shall absolutely not say another word."

Huang Shi's gaze passed over Wu Mu's shoulder and shot toward the two Embroidered Uniform Guard members: "On the battlefield, anything can happen. You two brothers must be sure to protect Eunuch Wu."

Chen Ruike and Zhang Gaosheng clasped their fists in unison on horseback: "General Huang, rest assured. With us here, we will certainly keep Eunuch Wu safe."

Wu Mu turned his horse and rode behind the Assistant Regional Commander's banner, putting some distance between himself and Huang Shi to show that he had completely delegated authority. He even unhurriedly sent over a remark: "General Huang need not be concerned about me. Command at ease."

After the Army Supervisor and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had moved away, Huang Shi cleared his throat, about to speak with Zhang Feimao. This fellow had finally withdrawn his eyes from the Firefighting Battalion's iron armor, and now beads of sweat were rolling down from his forehead, his two eyes nervously darting up and down.

But before Huang Shi could speak, He Dingyuan opened his mouth. This time he had finally learned to wait until the Army Supervisor was far away before voicing his opinion: "What my lord said — your subordinate cannot agree. The enemy and our forces are evenly matched. Our army's objective should be to rout the Jianzhou slaves as the priority. Why speak of 'holding out until dusk'?"

Victory was of course best, but holding until dusk meant no defeat. Yet Huang Shi did not wish to dampen his subordinate's fighting spirit: "To the Army Supervisor, we must not speak too full. Hmph, the Jianzhou slaves clearly also suffered losses at Lüshun, and moreover must cover their baggage and provisions, so they could not bring the full force of all three banners. Many horses were also left in the rear to pull carts. Hmph, hmph, but for their main force to wait here for us to take the bait without first mopping up the remnants — they truly have daring and courage."

Just now, upon hearing that the Later Jin army had four to five thousand combat soldiers, over half of them cavalry, Zhang Feimao had been sweating nonstop. After Huang Shi and He Dingyuan began their exchange, his sweat poured out like thick paste. Listening to these two madmen, their meaning was clearly to launch a counterattack against the Later Jin great army. He opened his mouth wide and asked: "Th-this, the Jianzhou slaves opposite us, I'm afraid they have...?"

Huang Shi closed his eyes. The intelligence usually sent by Li Yunrui flowed past his mind's eye like running water. A second or two later, he opened his eyes and laughed: "I'm afraid more than that. The elites of all three banners are here. There should be over eight hundred."

Zhang Feimao stammered: "My... my lord Huang, for your clear discernment, your subordinate... your subordinate has only thirty retainers and seven personal guards."

Huang Shi laughed aloud: "This general has not a single one." He said proudly to Zhang Feimao: "But this general has a whole battalion of two thousand warriors. This general's battles at Jinzhou and Gaizhou were all engagements of three to four hundred men. The Jianzhou slaves must think this general has only a few hundred retainers."

Although for an Assistant Regional Commander to have three to four hundred retainers was already inconceivable, everyone in the Dongjiang army who saw the battle reports — including Zhang Feimao — assumed Huang Shi was exceptionally skilled at amassing wealth (in truth, they were not wrong), and they also estimated that Huang Shi withheld military pay to an extreme degree (this too was actually not wrong; Huang Shi even withheld his own share), hence the particularly large scale of his retainers and personal guards, four or five times that of an ordinary Assistant Regional Commander.

He Dingyuan at the side also laughed: "My lord commands nothing more than ordinary soldiers. At the time, they had not undergone meticulous selection either."

Zhang Feimao's eyeballs bulged out. Tongue-tied, he gestured wildly twice toward the four companies at the front of the Firefighting Battalion, then pointed at the company behind Huang Shi's Assistant Regional Commander banner: "These soldiers are all at the level of those elites from my lord Huang's two battles at Jin and Gai?"

"Even if it's not, it's not far off." The Later Jin army's formation was already set, and time was pressing, so Huang Shi did not intend to waste more words. He pointed at the two thousand enemy infantry deployed in the center and laughed lightly: "Another double-wing envelopment against a central breakthrough. How boring."

The Later Jin army had already assumed the Ox-Horn formation, and the Ming army, still primarily infantry, inevitably adopted the Full-Moon formation. The Ironclad soldiers of the Firefighting Battalion occupied the center line, while the officers and men of the Vanguard Battalion extended the wings as far as possible, curving slightly backward to form an arc. The Ming army's objective was a central breakthrough: to split the Later Jin army apart, attack each segment in turn, and disrupt the enemy's command center directly behind the center of their formation. The wings could collapse, as long as they held out until the central breakthrough was achieved — that would be success.

Although the three banners had been dispersed in their deployment, the banner directly behind the center of the opposing formation was the Plain Blue Banner. Huang Shi understood that this meant the enemy commander was not the Fourth Beile Hong Taiji, but the Third Beile Manggūltai. He asked the two officers beside him: "Which wing do you say the Jianzhou slaves will attack?"

"The left wing!" He Dingyuan and Zhang Feimao answered in unison.

"Correct."

The Ming army's left wing rested against the sea. If the Later Jin army chose to break through from the right wing, the Ming army could use its reserve force to counterattack in a pincer, making it easier to plug the gap. Moreover, they might seize the momentum to split the enemy force and drive them into the sea.

The banner on the Ming left wing — which was the Later Jin right wing — was Plain White, while the Ming right wing faced a Plain Red command banner. After all, a considerable number of Plain Red Banner niru were still left in other parts of Liaonan. This expedition against Lüshun included all twenty-one niru of the Plain Blue Banner, all eighteen niru of the Plain White Banner, and sixteen niru of the Plain Red Banner. Apart from the main force here, another contingent was slowly escorting the baggage looted from Lüshun, which included the Han troops with the least combat effectiveness.

Just as Huang Shi had anticipated: since the Later Jin army had not swept the periphery of Lüshun, they had to guard against attacks from the remnants of the Lüshun garrison. If they lost most of their baggage, these ten thousand-plus Later Jin troops would go hungry.

The Later Jin army began to advance. Huang Shi said in a calm tone: "Commissioner Zhang, I entrust our army's left wing to you."

"My lord Huang, rest assured, your subordinate will not fail this mission." The flesh across Zhang Feimao's face twitched as he forcefully waved a hand. The Vanguard Battalion soldiers under his command moved toward the left wing.

"Commissioner Zhang."

"Your subordinate is here."

"You hold the rank of acting Mobile Corps Commander in charge of the Vanguard Battalion. When this battle is over, this general expects that the word 'acting' can be removed."

"I thank my lord Huang. How could your subordinate dare not give his utmost?"

Two wooden poles were erected before the formation. An officer from the Firefighting Battalion's artillery corps was measuring the distance. He had once been a well-known feng shui master and fortune-telling grandmaster, with the elegant sobriquet "Iron-Tongued Divine Calculator." Later, he was convicted and sent to the army for defrauding and violating women. Now he was already a Squad Commander.

"My lord, six hundred meters. The Jianzhou slaves have entered the maximum range of our six-pounder cannons."

Huang Shi kept gazing at the great Plain White Banner on the left wing. The hidden worry in his heart never dissipated — Can I truly defeat these heroes of history? Can the men under my command, so many of them recruits of only a few months, truly stand in formation against the battle-hardened Heavy Armor elite of the Jianzhou slaves?

"My lord, please give the order." The messenger's fervent gaze burned upon Huang Shi's face — These officers and soldiers all trust me, because I have never failed. Eunuch Wu, Brother He, and the officers and men of the Vanguard Battalion also trust me. In their hearts they are certain that as long as they follow me, Huang Shi, they will never fail. I cannot let them down either.

"Use ricochet fire."

The messenger shouted with all his strength: "At your command, my lord." He turned and sprinted desperately toward the artillery corps.

The twenty-third day of the first month, fifth year of the Tianqi reign. Ming and Later Jin forces totaling nearly thirty thousand were about to engage in battle outside Nanguan. The Ming side consisted of 4,400 elite combat soldiers from the Firefighting Battalion and Vanguard Battalion, plus over 9,000 support troops, for a total of 14,000 men. The Later Jin side had 4,500 warriors from the Plain Blue, Plain White, and Plain Red Banners, plus unarmored troops, also numbering some 12,000. The soldiers of both armies entered the battlefield with a conviction of certain victory. The Later Jin army, from top to bottom, in particular, brought tremendous fervor and courage to this battle.

For ten years, the Jianzhou Jurchens had swept all before them. Hundreds of thousands of Ming troops had been annihilated one after another, and a Jurchen bandit group of just over five thousand had grown into the Later Jin, possessing tens of thousands of armored soldiers. From Sarhū to Guangning, they had never been defeated in battles involving over ten thousand men. This awe-inspiring reputation made the Ming army's most powerful field force — the Guanning Army — too afraid to set even a single step west of the Liao River.

After the third year of Tianqi, although the Later Jin army had been thwarted in field battles of ten-thousand-man scale by the Dongjiang Army at Lüshun, Zhendian, and Lianshan, they avenged those defeats in the fourth year of Tianqi, dealing devastating blows to the Korean Dongjiang Army and the Kuandian Dongjiang Army in succession. In the first month of the fifth year, they had also stormed Lüshun and defeated Zhang Pan, avenging the losses at Xiaoheishan, Lüshun, and Jinzhou.

Now, the last elite force of the Dongjiang Army — the combined army of Lüshun and Changsheng — was right before their eyes. This Ming army had also, in the planning of the Later Jin leadership, already fallen into a hopeless trap.

Not a single man in the Later Jin army doubted that the moment to settle the Liaonan problem had arrived. Today would be the end of it. This was what they called settling it once and for all!

"Depress the muzzles..." Deng Ken shouted at the top of his lungs. The gunners beside the two six-pounder cannons rapidly turned the cranks, driving the screws on the gun carriages. Wooden screws were fitted beneath and on both sides of the cannons, allowing the gunners to easily adjust the horizontal and vertical aim of the muzzles with the cranks.

The dark muzzles slowly lowered. Standing on either side of the gun barrels were a group of grave robbers and fortune-telling swindlers — they were now the most precious artillery talents of the Firefighting Battalion.

These scum of humanity each wore an imposing scarlet cloak and, with an air of great importance, held one hand behind their lower back while the other arm stretched straight forward, thumb raised high, as they alternately closed their left and right eyes, estimating the distance using the parallax method.

"Six hundred meters."

"Five hundred fifty meters."

"Five hundred meters."

"Four hundred fifty meters. Prepare."

"Four hundred meters..."

One gunner, hearing this, was about to ignite the fuse when Deng Ken suddenly shouted urgently: "Stop!"

Snatching the torch, Deng Ken thrust it toward the touchhole with all his might, simultaneously letting out a great roar: "This is my honor!"

The fifth year of Tianqi, the twenty-third day of the first month, at the hour of Wu, third quarter. The Semu officer Deng Ken fired the first cannon shot of the Battle of Nanguan.