Chapter 53: Cannon Fire Against Cavalry

It seemed that although this Ming army before him looked intimidating in formation and discipline, the general commanding it was an idiot.

With that thought, Tantal no longer hesitated and directly ordered that he personally lead all the cavalry in an attack to quickly smash through the Ming army's defensive line, with the infantry following up behind to mop up.

Tantal had over a thousand cavalry, mostly Eight Banner Manchus and Eight Banner Mongols; the rest were infantry, plus a portion of Han Chinese booi bondservants.

Having lost one niru under the Xizhi Gate and another niru of cavalry earlier while pursuing the Night Scouts, he now had only two niru—six hundred cavalrymen remaining.

Tantal personally led six hundred Manchu-Mongol cavalry, with white-armor soldiers and other cavalrymen wearing double or triple layers of armor as the spearhead, and began charging the Yongwei Camp.

The distance between the two armies was roughly two hundred paces. Warhorses needed a process of acceleration, and he also couldn't leave the infantry behind too far, so at the start, Tantal's six hundred cavalry advanced at a trotting pace.

Based on past combat experience, Eight Banner cavalry would begin a canter when entering within one hundred fifty paces, and only start a full gallop once within one hundred paces.

"Cannons ready!"

The artillerymen placed before the formation received the order and immediately began checking the tiger-crouch cannons and preparing to load, using large iron spikes to fix the barrels to the ground to prevent the recoil from toppling them over.

The tiger-crouch cannon was like a large low-angle grenade launcher, weighing thirty-six jin. It was light and easy to move—a domestically produced Ming firearm that the Qi family army had frequently used back in the day when fighting the Japanese.

The pitch-black mass of Qing cavalry surged forward like a tide, already within one hundred eighty paces of the Yongwei Camp.

"Fire!"

At the Yongwei Camp artillery commander's order, a row of over fifty tiger-crouch cannons erupted in a deafening volley.

The tiger-crouch cannons were loaded with over a hundred small lead shot or pebbles weighing five qian each, topped with a large lead ball or stone projectile weighing thirty liang. Their killing power and area of effect were immense, making them especially suited for field combat.

Over fifty tiger-crouch cannons fired simultaneously. In an instant, shot flew before the formation thick as rain, blanketing the Qing cavalry. Their cavalry being in dense combat formation made them an especially fine target.

Zhu Cilang held a telescope and clearly saw the front row of Eight Banner cavalry charging ahead while howling and brandishing their sabers get riddled like sieves by a sheet of lead shot, sending up a mist of blood.

The tiger-crouch cannon had a range of five hundred meters, and their distance was now only a little over two hundred meters. Triple-layered heavy armor was utterly useless against the tiger-crouch cannon.

In particular, the standard-bearer charging at the very front carrying the banner was struck clean through the waist by a thirty-liang lead ball and blasted into a mess of shredded flesh on the ground.

After one volley, a swath of Qing cavalry in the middle of the mountain path lay dead, with entrails, severed limbs, and broken arms and legs beyond count.

Those Bordered Yellow Banner heavy cavalrymen had just begun to accelerate into a full gallop for their charge when they were blocked by the corpses ahead. Men and horses kept tripping and falling, clogging the front into a tangle, and their frenzied assault lost much of its momentum, cooling by half in an instant.

Even so, the Eight Banner cavalry displayed extraordinary fighting ability, using superb horsemanship to dodge the obstacles ahead and continuing to charge toward the Yongwei Camp's square formation.

These Eight Banner cavalrymen had raided through the passes for years and were accustomed to being shelled. They were already unimpressed by this sort of tiger-crouch cannon, and they knew its weakness well.

Though this grapeshot had wide killing power, it took time to reload. Solid shot loaded quickly, but its power was weak and its lethality limited.

Sure enough, after the first round of grapeshot, the Yongwei Camp's artillerymen switched to solid shot for two more rounds, then hurriedly carried their ammunition and withdrew from both flanks to the rear, handing the front line over to the musketeers.

Because the tiger-crouch cannons were fixed to the ground by iron spikes and took time to dismantle, they could only be left in place for now.

"Ready—prepare to fire!"

At the command, three ranks of musketeers raised their firearms and aimed at the Qing cavalry thundering toward them.

The remaining Qing cavalry had already charged within one hundred paces and were gradually accelerating. The sheer might of that cavalry charge made Huang Degong, Sun Yingyuan, and the others behind the formation grow worried—could these three ranks of musketeers really hold against a cavalry charge?

The Jianzhou barbarians' Bordered Yellow Banner heavy cavalry had not only every man armored, but even their warhorses were draped in iron-reinforced cotton armor. Though they had wiped out one niru of Qing cavalry before, this time two niru—six hundred cavalrymen—were charging together.

The Yongwei Camp's front formation consisted entirely of musketeers equipped with flintlock muskets, numbering 2,400 men in three ranks of 800 each. Because flintlocks didn't require lighting a match like matchlocks did, the soldiers stood in tight formation.

Zhu Cilang had adopted the linear formation commonly used by European armies of later generations. Though it looked thin, it guaranteed the power of synchronized volley fire.

He firmly believed that using this battle-tested formation would surely let his musketeers shine brilliantly in field combat as well.

Tantal knew the Ming army's front formation was made of musketeers and grinned so wide his teeth showed. These fire sticks had already proven useless back in the Battle of Sarhu—hadn't even the Great Ming's most elite Shenji Camp been scattered by the Great Jin's iron cavalry?

In the blink of an eye, Tantal led the cavalry even closer. The violent thunder of hooves pounded against men's hearts, and the Eight Banner cavalry's fearsome might was on full display.

Zhu Cilang's face was as calm as still water. Though some of the three ranks of musketeers in the front formation had gone white-knuckled gripping their weapons, with a trace of panic in their eyes, not a single man so much as stirred. The Yongwei Camp's Seven Kill Decree had been drilled deep into every heart—no one dared to touch it lightly.

Seeing this, Zhu Cilang immediately ordered the drums beaten to rally the formation. Huang Degong heard the drumbeats, drew his sword, and bellowed: "Kill!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The Yongwei Camp's soldiers shouted in unison, a wave of sound rolling forward like a tidal surge that even threw a hint of disorder into the charging Eight Banner cavalry's formation.

After the three great shouts, the entire Yongwei Camp square fell into utter silence. Every soldier stood at strict readiness, not making a sound.

After those shouts to bolster morale, the musketeers in the front formation found their courage greatly increased, and the tense atmosphere eased considerably.

"Ready—fire!"

Just as Tantal led his six hundred-plus Manchu-Mongol cavalry into their acceleration at eighty paces, the crackling sound of gunfire rang out from the opposing side—"pop pop pop pop."

"Idiots!" Tantal cursed inwardly. The Ming army was just the same as always—too impatient, opening fire before reaching proper shooting range. They'd probably turn and run after firing. If they didn't, what awaited them would be the trampling iron hooves of the Great Qing's brave warriors.

Back in the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming army's Shenji Camp had done exactly this—firing wildly before the cavalry entered range, managing only two volleys before being overrun by the Old Khan's Great Jin iron cavalry.

But no sooner had the thought flashed through his mind than he felt a heavy blow to his right chest. A searing pain shot through him, and he couldn't help but cry out in agony.

He instinctively looked down and saw that a fist-sized hole had been punched through the armor on his right chest. If not for the specially made cotton armor he wore, which offered tremendous protection against firearms, he would likely have been shot clean through by now.

At the same time, the cavalrymen charging beside him cried out in pain as they were struck, producing a cacophony of men screaming and horses neighing.

"How can the Ming army's muskets shoot so far?" Tantal was clearly stunned. In his experience, Ming muskets needed to be within fifty paces to punch through triple-layered heavy armor.