Chapter 199: Section 16: Close Combat

This time the Later Jin main force was also entirely infantry. After Huang Taiji's Plain White Banner and the two Yellow Banners redeployed to Liaonan defeated Lin Danhan in early April, they spent less than two months — April and May — reorganizing before marching south with large quantities of supplies. To maintain secrecy they avoided the official roads and moved entirely along forest trails. The men were still in fair condition, but the horses of these niru had all lost serious weight, and moreover these were troops drawn from each of the six banners; by early June the horse resources of four banners were nearly exhausted. To prevent mass horse deaths, most of the remaining horses were shipped back to central Liao for recovery, yet even so it pained Nurhaci deeply.

The Bordered Red and Bordered White Banners left to hold Liaonan had not had many warhorses to begin with, but because they had maintained them well, their cavalry had now become the main strength of this Later Jin army. These thousand-odd horsemen were deployed on both wings, ready to sally out and harass at any moment; to conserve horse strength, most of them had led their mounts on foot into position. And what the Later Jin army placed on the frontal defense line to blunt the Ming assault was forty niru — over thirty-six hundred infantry.

Although the speed of Huang Shi's Changsheng Army's return exceeded his expectations, it had still given the Later Jin army one shichen to deploy defenses. With the labor of over ten thousand unarmored auxiliaries, they completed every task except digging trenches; those chevaux-de-frise were also chained together with iron links. In the last battle at Nanguan, the Later Jin had used cheval-de-frise spears against the Ming army with very poor results, so this time the Later Jin soldiers all braced their cheval-de-frise spears atop the fieldworks.

Hearing Mang Gurtai and Daišan's words, Huang Taiji also laughed. When Huang Shi had first rushed back, he had been somewhat worried — worried that the Ming army would immediately launch an attack, because at that time the Later Jin army had just relied on manpower to haul large quantities of defensive works forward. Many armored soldiers had also taken part in the transport and were therefore very fatigued. When the Later Jin commanders saw the Ming army begin to rest, they were all very pleased, because this gave them ample time to rest and recover their strength.

Although the forests of the northeast are many and dense, while hiding in the woods the Later Jin army had been thoroughly harassed by mosquitoes and insects. Huang Taiji himself had not dared make any large movements, so he too had been bitten all over his face. Because his mind had been so preoccupied with the success or failure of this ambush, he had not felt the itching much before, but now that the tension was gone, Huang Taiji felt that every exposed part of his body itched unbearably. Mindful of his status, he was still reluctant to make overly complicated motions, but beside him Mang Gurtai had already begun scratching his ears and cheeks, rubbing his hands and stamping his feet.

The Ming army opposite had no drinking water and no provisions; the cavalry assigned to harassment could guarantee they would get no chance to gather firewood or pitch camp. Huang Taiji swept a glance from the corner of his eye at the sun beginning to sink westward, then fixed his attention on the front-line Later Jin troops ceaselessly shooting crossbow bolts into the Ming formation... He judged that the Ming army would next have two paths to take: first, bring up firelocks for volley fire — that was easy to handle, just set the shields back up and stall for time; second, the Ming army would try to attack several other points that were easier to break through — this he did not fear either, for he, Huang Taiji, had already studied the terrain here, and there were countermeasures for all of it.

A smug smile surfaced on Huang Taiji's face. He had exploited the Ming commanders' psychology of greed for merit to set an ambush, lured away the opponent's infantry and cannon, carefully studied the terrain and used a time gap of one shichen (the original plan had called for even more) to complete deployment, and finally relied on superior ranged firepower to form an impenetrable defense line. Huang Taiji smiled very smugly. He felt he had every reason to be smug — although somewhat delayed, the Liaonan problem was at last resolved, and moreover these Ming soldiers might perhaps be taken for his own use.

He, Huang Taiji, did not think much of a commander like Huang Shi who was greedy for merit and rash in advance, but the soldiers under Huang Shi's command were extremely effective fighters, and Huang Taiji very much hoped to find a way to absorb them. "I wonder what expression Huang Shi wears on the other side right now — surely he is consumed by regret. Regretting that he dared to be greedy for merit, regretting that he dared to advance rashly into unfamiliar territory." Huang Taiji thought it a great pity he could not see it.

Right now the expression on Huang Shi's face was indeed very complicated. When he saw the first volley of crossbow bolts fly, the muscles of his face twitched violently. Taking in the opponent's deployment was a matter of a mere blink, but within Huang Shi's heart, waves of emotion surged and churned with an indescribable flavor.

Huang Shi raised his eyes to glance at the Plain White Banner opposite and let out a sigh that was impossible to fully articulate. In a voice so low only the few commanders around him could hear, he said: "The Jian slaves are defeated. Though I knew this day would come sooner or later, I never imagined it would be so soon!"

Behind the chevaux-de-frise locked into a single chain, Later Jin soldiers were frantically using windlasses to cock their crossbows. The Ming front rank had lost over ten men in the first volley, but the drumming from behind never ceased; the soldiers of the rear ranks seemed utterly indifferent to the instant casualties in the front rank, each rushing forward a few steps to fill the gaps, only to fall in turn under the opponent's second volley — then the next rank rushed up to fill in, and then the third volley came flying...

Firefighting Battalion Yi Company had a total of two hundred and fifty pikemen; in the blink of an eye over fifty had fallen, but they had also pressed right up to the chevaux-de-frise. The squad commanders of each pike unit roared in unison: "Hai — brothers, forward! Skewer the Jian slaves into meat skewers!"

Twenty cheval-de-frise spears braced on the fieldworks thrust forward together. Although friction made each thrust slow, half of the twenty Ming officers and soldiers in the front rank were still struck. The cheval-de-frise spears tore effortlessly through the iron armor on their bodies, carrying their clothing with them as they twisted into torsos and entrails. In their agony, these mortally wounded, dying soldiers instinctively dropped their weapons and clutched at the spear shafts impaling them.

The Ming soldiers in the rear rank unhesitatingly shoved them aside and thrust their own spears forward with full force in a wild stabbing frenzy. Instantly, from the other side of the chevaux-de-frise rose a great chorus of shrieks. Many of the Later Jin soldiers standing behind the chevaux-de-frise were still holding wooden clubs and ropes; they were the ones responsible for controlling the rattan shields and wooden planks. Before the battle, these soldiers had been warned that after the initial shock, the Ming army would immediately bring their firelock men forward, so they must at once use the rattan shields to cover the crossbowmen behind them. But now they were met by pikemen charging straight at them, and these Later Jin soldiers standing behind the chevaux-de-frise were the first to be stabbed into bloody sieves.

Before this wave of screams had even subsided, the Ming soldiers of the third rank also pressed up to the chevaux-de-frise. One by one, they raised their pikes above their heads with both hands and stabbed fiercely toward the other side. This time it was the handlers of the cheval-de-frise spears whose luck ran out. Many of them had not yet managed to pull their cheval-de-frise spears from the dying Ming soldiers when they were skewered to death by the Ming pikes thrusting wildly at them. A few had managed to pull their cheval-de-frise spears back, but the excessively long twelve-foot spears were not as nimble as the Ming pikes; before they could get their cheval-de-frise spears properly braced on the parapet again, they too were struck down one after another by the Ming army's second and third waves of thrusts.

Daišan and Mang Gurtai both stared dumbfounded at the savage fighting on the front line. That Ming infantry company deployed on the official road had simply charged straight in. Now hundreds of men from both armies were packed onto the narrow official road, engaging in a frenzied thrusting duel across a single layer of chevaux-de-frise.

The smile on Huang Taiji's face had also frozen stiff. The Ming soldiers who had surged up to the chevaux-de-frise on the official road were all straining forward with all their might, desperately thrusting their nine-foot pikes across. Many of them could not even see their opponents, their field of vision blocked by their own comrades pressing around them, but as long as they could find any gap, they would impatiently jab their pikes through it.

The locked chevaux-de-frise likewise blocked any counter-charge by the Later Jin short-weapon troops. For a time, countless pike shafts darted back and forth above the chevaux-de-frise, tracing dense silver arcs through the air, stabbing the Later Jin soldiers on the other side until they wailed for their fathers and mothers. These Later Jin soldiers were forced back step by step by the forest of spear points thrusting wildly at them from the other side. The battle line resounded with rising and falling screams, and the dull, wet thuds of pikes piercing flesh continued without end, all accompanied by the Ming army's long, drawn-out shouts, wave upon wave: "Hai~~~~ forward, brothers, skewer them into meat skewers."

The Later Jin troops on both flanks of the official road all cast sidelong glances toward the center, their eyes wavering between the fierce battle on the official road and the Ming army before their own eyes. But the Jia and Bing Companies of Firefighting Battalion facing them stood perfectly steady, taking their time. After the exchange of fire ended, the Jia and Yi infantry companies responsible for flank cover had remained entirely on the defensive. Though the savage howls and battle cries from the official road rang clearly in their ears, not one of them dared spare a single eye to watch the fighting. From the gaps in each soldier's helmet and mask shot a cold, emotionless gaze — a gaze that made the enemies facing them feel chill after chill run down their spines — especially the veterans of the Later Jin Plain Blue Banner facing Jia Company.

Ever since Huang Shi had begun the march back, Wu Mu's expression had been extremely grim. In Huang Shi's original disposition, the more combat-effective Boulder Battalion was to serve as the rear guard, but Wu Mu had taken it upon himself to place the Vanguard Battalion at the rear instead. Deploying no combat-effective rear guard unit was tantamount to having no rear guard at all. Although Huang Shi had not reproached him, Wu Mu had felt deeply uneasy the whole time, and upon seeing Huang Shi he had immediately kept far away. Just now, after Huang Shi had spoken those musing words, Wu Mu could not suppress his curiosity and ran over to ask: "Lord Huang, what do you mean by that?"

At the time, Huang Shi had casually replied: "Eunuch Wu, you see clearly — what the Jian slaves rely on is nothing more than a single burst of reckless valor. Now that their reckless valor has departed, what is there left to fear?"

This baffling statement left Wu Mu utterly perplexed. He scratched his head and pressed further: "Their reckless valor has departed? Lord Huang, what do you mean by this?"

At the time, Huang Shi did not answer him immediately. After watching Firefighting Battalion Yi Company march forward into the fire, paying a thirty percent casualty toll to forcibly seize the chevaux-de-frise line, Huang Shi swept a glance at the Plain White Banner fluttering in the wind opposite and shook his head with a complicated expression: "I had thought the Jian slaves would still dare to fight our troops in close combat!"

This time Huang Shi's march had employed an alert-advance mode. Search parties densely covered the area for several li on both sides of the official road. The secretly hidden Later Jin army could not move without being detected; the moment they entered within ten li of the Ming army in force, they would immediately be discovered by the search parties, so any hope of catching the Ming army off guard was absolutely impossible. But Huang Shi noted that the Later Jin army had around seventy niru in total. If they still possessed the arrogance they had shown at the Battle of Nanguan, they would certainly have come out in open array, intent on sweeping the Ming army aside in one blow.

Huang Shi continued, speaking to himself: "This general did not expect the Jian slaves to come in such numbers, but since they have come in such numbers, they should of course have set an ambush on the main front. Although a surprise attack was impossible, there would still have been a chance to strike first and rout my vanguard unit. Or to fiercely assault our army's center — that too would have been an acceptable course."

If seventy niru had appeared to the front, it would have been a repeat of the Battle of Nanguan, and the Ming army could only have met them in battle or fought while retreating. Seeing that the Later Jin army was unwilling to replay the Battle of Nanguan, Huang Shi understood that from top to bottom, the Later Jin army no longer had the confidence to smash the Changsheng Army in a frontal engagement. At this moment Huang Shi also thought back to the Vanguard Battalion issue just now — the Later Jin army had been unwilling to waste even the time to pursue the Vanguard Battalion; the moment they drove the Ming army from the field, they had hurriedly deployed defenses, unwilling to lose even a single sliver of time.

"In war, all is courage. And the commander is the army's master — if the commander is timid, the soldiers' morale collapses." When Huang Shi first saw the entire Later Jin army arrayed horizontally across his line of retreat, he had thought the opponent possessed the courage for a fight to the death. But when he saw the Later Jin army relying on chevaux-de-frise for defense and attempting to use crossbows to beat back the Ming army in order to drag the battle into a protracted engagement, he was completely reassured. The Later Jin army clearly hoped to use stalling to wear down the Ming army, which lacked water and provisions. Huang Taiji's opportunistic scheme was clever, but it also showed that he and all the Later Jin commanders had lost the confidence to defeat the Changsheng Army.

Huang Shi straightened his legs, his body rising from the saddle as he stood up on the stirrups. The riding crop in his hand pointed at the Plain White Banner opposite: "From this I know the Jian slaves are not to be feared! From this I know they can accomplish nothing! From this I know the Jian slaves have no more courage left to draw upon!" Greatly agitated, Huang Shi shouted: "Pass the order — continuous assault! Do not give the Jian slaves time to catch their breath!"

Firefighting Battalion Yi Company had by now stabbed the Later Jin soldiers opposite back a full two meters. Many corpses from both armies lay draped over the chevaux-de-frise, and some wooden planks and rattan shields had been pried up by the front-rank Firefighting Battalion soldiers and laid over the iron spikes and brambles. After Huang Shi ordered the assault to continue, the company commander shouted "Over!", and those soldiers pressed down on the corpses and splintered wood to vault across. As they vaulted the obstacles, the Later Jin soldiers fired another dozen or so crossbow bolts, instantly pinning several more Ming soldiers directly onto the chevaux-de-frise.

At the same time, some brave Later Jin soldiers also hurled javelins, ring-grip throwing knives, and broad-bladed flying swords, knocking down several more Ming soldiers. Yet during this interval, over twenty Ming soldiers had already gained a firm footing, and they leveled their pikes and began thrusting forward.

Song Army Supervisor and the other firelock men followed close behind the pikemen, but as the waist-drum beat grew more and more urgent, they also realized that their firelocks would likely not be needed. Sure enough, the company commander soon bellowed: "Firelock men, switch to pikes."

Hearing this order, Song Army Supervisor immediately bent down, pried open the hands of a dead comrade, picked up his pike, and silently lowered the mask on his helmet — if firelock men were not needed for close combat, there was no need to lower the mask.

"Over."

"Over."

"Over."

Rank after rank of Ming soldiers vaulted the obstacles in orderly response to the command. The Ming soldiers at the front were already locked in fierce combat with the enemy. The Later Jin crossbowmen had all abandoned their posts as well; some drew their waist-swords to resist, while others were pushed back by the chaotic flow of the crowd. Several dozen two-man windlass crossbows were knocked to the ground by the struggling mass of fighters, and no one spared them another glance.

"Such strong soldiers... so strong, so strong..." Daišan, his eyes staring fixedly, murmured a few times. Watching the battle line being pushed forward by the Ming army, he asked: "Fortunately we prepared more than one layer of defense. That must be Huang Shi's retainers, his personal guard company, right?"

"I don't think so... I fear not." Mang Gurtai answered offhandedly. He was staring intently at the battle unfolding ahead, while unconsciously gnawing at the nail of his right thumb, producing a grating, squeaking sound.

The four niru of Later Jin troops engaging Song Army Supervisor's comrades had already begun to collapse. One of the niru commanders had already died in the chaos of battle, and his men threw down their weapons and fled down both sides of the official road, further devastating the morale of the other three niru, who were steadily losing ground. Firefighting Battalion Yi Company was like a sharp ship's prow; all enemy forces facing them were split in two like waves. Firefighting Battalion Ding Company, following close behind them, began spreading toward both flanks to cover Yi Company's sides.

After these four niru scattered, another line of chevaux-de-frise appeared before the Ming army, followed immediately by three successive waves of twenty crossbow bolts...

"Hai~~~~~ brothers, forward! Skewer them into meat skewers!"

That dull sound of spears stabbing into human flesh once again began to thud and squelch.

"First rank, down!" the commander of Firefighting Battalion Yi Company bellowed. Twenty soldiers reflexively threw themselves down onto the chevaux-de-frise. Although their iron armor could resist the brambles, one careless move would drive the iron spikes into them.

"Over."

As the soldiers behind pressed on their comrades ahead to vault the obstacles, many of the hands bracing against the chevaux-de-frise were instantly pierced deep by brambles, blood streaming at once. One soldier who braced with his arm had his armor slip, and he was impaled alive on the iron spikes of the chevaux-de-frise.

"Over."

The waist-drum behind was beating urgently. The moment Song Army Supervisor heard the command, he pressed on his brother's shoulder and vaulted over. The iron-armored soldier before him fell; without a second thought he charged forward to fill the gap...

"Kill." Song Army Supervisor executed a fierce thrust, and his pike shot like lightning past the edge of the enemy's shield before him, piercing accurately from forehead through the back of the skull. As a veteran who had been on four battlefields, as a stabbing specialist who had trained in spear techniques for over a thousand days, Song Army Supervisor now felt no fear even facing Later Jin Heavy Armor Soldiers... "Kill!" A Later Jin crossbowman attempting to shoot was stabbed through the chest, leaving a transparent hole.

"Just this one company has already broken through behind the second defense line." Daišan now felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare from which he simply could not wake. Beside Daišan, Mang Gurtai had unconsciously gnawed the nail of his right thumb completely bald; he had just switched hands and begun gnawing even harder at the nail of his left thumb.