Chapter 61: The Power of Technology

The battle between the Yongwei Camp and Yangguli's forces continued, growing ever more intense.

"Open fire!"

The Yongwei Camp's musketeers, keeping time with the drumbeats, continued calmly firing volley after volley at the charging Qing infantry.

On the hillside, Sun Yingyuan raised his telescope, watching the battle, and said, "Your Highness, the Tartar cavalry is encircling from both flanks. Should we send out our cavalry to intercept them now?"

Zhu Cilang shook his head and said, "No need. Pass my order — all tiger-crouch cannons and divine-machine arrows are to shift position and fire at the cavalry on both flanks. The shield bearers and spearmen will guard the flanks of the musketeers to withstand the Tartar cavalry's charge. The musketeers will hold their ground and keep firing at the Tartar infantry in the center!"

The bugler, hearing Zhu Cilang's command, hurriedly blew the horn, while Sun Yingyuan waved the command flag, directing the formation change.

Just as the Qing cavalry came charging in from both flanks, a tremendous "Boom! Boom!" suddenly erupted from the Ming army's two wings. The center of the Qing cavalry ranks instantly burst apart — riders toppled in droves, and screams immediately followed.

Yangguli was stunned. That was cannon fire — had the Ming artillery already cooled down? He looked closely and saw, on both Ming flanks, rows of small cannons belching thick smoke — precisely the tiger-crouch cannons.

Because of their low elevation angle, the tiger-crouch cannons couldn't fire effectively from the rear, which was why they hadn't been used earlier.

Yet the surprises didn't end there. From within the Yongwei Camp, rack after rack of divine-machine arrows shot up with plumes of thick smoke, and countless arrows rained down in a sky-blotting barrage upon the Qing cavalry masses on both flanks, immediately causing another scene of men and horses tumbling over each other.

The roar of cannons mingled with the whistling of arrows, and another great swath of the Qing cavalry ranks collapsed, the entire formation instantly thrown into chaos.

The power of Great Ming technology was something the Tartars could scarcely imagine — only by experiencing it could they truly understand.

In his past life, Zhu Cilang had watched a Korean drama in which three divine-machine arrow racks wiped out a hundred thousand Ming troops — he'd literally laughed until he cried.

A divine-machine arrow rack could launch over a hundred arrows at once; powerful as it was, it was hardly that miraculous.

A divine-machine arrow rack was essentially spent after a single use per battle — reloading it was far too time-consuming and laborious, nothing like the mindless nonsense of that Korean film.

Because the Qing cavalry were too numerous and extremely fast, and the tiger-crouch cannons and divine-machine arrows needed intervals between volleys, the Qing cavalry losses were limited, and they soon broke through.

When the Qing cavalry closed to within a hundred paces, Zhu Cilang immediately ordered Huang Degong to lead the Yongwei Camp's cavalry from both flanks out to intercept — cavalry against cavalry, and a great melee erupted.

On the central battlefield, dense ranks of Qing elite soldiers in heavy armor, brandishing their weapons, came screaming forward.

These were the Tartars' Bordered White Banner heavy infantry, over four thousand strong. The front several ranks of Tartars held shields in their left hands and great blades and short axes in their right — every one of them fierce and murderous, howling as they charged.

"Fire!"

Seeing the Qing soldiers charging with wild roars, Sun Yingyuan took over the infantry command flag and decisively ordered the volley. Instantly, the more than two thousand musketeers in the front five ranks, who had been waiting in grim readiness, pulled their triggers.

But the Qing infantry attacking the Yongwei Camp's center knew that their performance would decide the outcome of the entire battle, so every man fought with extraordinary tenacity, braving the Yongwei Camp's hail of gunfire as they desperately pressed forward.

Before long, the Qing infantry had closed to within sixty paces, and the front ranks of Qing soldiers began returning fire with bows and arrows.

As the two sides drew ever closer, at thirty paces the Qing troops could already see that a row of shield bearers holding tall shields had appeared at the front of the Ming formation.

Seeing that the Qing cavalry on both flanks had been tied down by the Yongwei Camp's cavalry, Zhu Cilang had no choice but to pull the shield bearers over.

Watching themselves draw nearer and nearer to the Ming army, the Qing infantrymen felt their spirits surge — now, at last, they could display their valor in close combat.

Every Qing soldier was filled with confidence: once the two sides engaged in melee, the Ming soldiers before them would be no match for the warriors of the Great Qing.

The Qing infantry still numbered over four thousand, and now each man gripped his weapon tightly, charging with even greater frenzy.

The battle raged on. The Yongwei Camp's cavalry on both flanks, even as they charged to intercept, fired their guns to cut down some of the Qing cavalry, while the Qing cavalry replied with arrows.

After just one exchange of fire, the cavalry of both sides on the flanks had already collided. The Yongwei Camp's thousand cavalrymen drew out their lances and plunged into a chaotic melee with the Qing cavalry.

The moment the two sides made contact, the Yongwei Camp's tiger-crouch cannons ceased firing to cool down.

Yangguli's force had originally possessed nearly three thousand cavalry, of which almost half had been given to Tannai to serve as the army's rear guard.

Cavalry was the most suitable force for an army's rear guard — even if they encountered a large Ming force, if they couldn't win they could harass, slowing the Ming pursuit while still being able to retreat quickly.

However, Tannai, relying on his military achievements, was overconfident and actually dared to give battle to a Yongwei Camp twice his size — which ultimately led to the complete annihilation of his force.

Yangguli had nearly two thousand cavalry at Liangxiang, but after the three hundred Han Chinese cavalry killed at the start, and the losses suffered from the tiger-crouch cannons and divine-machine arrows during the flanking charge, only around a thousand Qing cavalry remained to engage the Yongwei Camp's horsemen.

On the center path, the charging Qing infantry continued to fall in row after row, yet the distance grew ever shorter — the Yongwei Camp's musketeers could now clearly see the Qing soldiers' ferocious faces.

Just as the Qing infantry broke through to within twenty paces of the Yongwei Camp's formation, from the front ranks of the camp, every man pulled out a tinderbox, and then suddenly dozens of long cylindrical objects were hurled out — trailing sparks and light smoke, tumbling through the air straight toward them.

"What are these Ming soldiers throwing firecrackers for?" Many Qing soldiers, seeing the large firecrackers with burning fuses hurled from the Yongwei Camp's ranks, were curious, some even finding it ridiculous.

But the next moment, many Qing soldiers' faces turned deathly pale, as a thunderous series of explosions erupted, accompanied by a violent blast wave. Many men in the front several ranks were blown flying on the spot, amid a ghastly scattering of severed limbs and broken bodies — a scene of utter carnage.

The explosions also sent countless iron shards and gravel flying with tremendous force, spraying wildly in every direction, striking against Qing soldiers' iron armor, helmets, and shields with sharp, piercing sounds.

These were the Yongwei Camp's hand grenades, known in the Ming army as "Ten-Thousand-Man Foe." However, the Ten-Thousand-Man Foe was too large — bigger than a human head, weighing dozens of catties — and was mostly used in city defense.

The hand grenades used by the Yongwei Camp were an improved version crafted by an artisan of the Armory Bureau, modeled on the Song dynasty's "Heaven-Shaking Thunder." The Heaven-Shaking Thunder counted as the earliest hand grenade — about the size of a modern hand grenade, with a thick body and narrow mouth filled with gunpowder, the shell wrapped in raw iron, with a fuse attached on top.

When used, the length of the fuse was determined by the distance to the target. Upon detonation, it blasted the raw iron shell into fragments capable of piercing iron armor.

The hand grenades issued to the Yongwei Camp used a perfected gunpowder formula, making them more powerful than the Heaven-Shaking Thunders of the Northern Song period.

However, because the technology was inferior to later eras, and more gunpowder had to be packed in to increase the power, the grenades were rather bulky — each Yongwei Camp soldier could carry only one, hung at his waist.

They waited until the Qing cavalry charged into the twenty-pace range before hurling the grenades, delivering a devastating blow at close quarters.

In later ages, a certain Battalion Commander Zhang Dabiao's superior, Regiment Commander Li, once said: even a woman could throw a grenade thirty meters into a ring fortification.

So the Yongwei Camp soldiers set thirty meters as the passing line, forty meters as excellent, and fifty meters as boss-level.

Sure enough, after the first rank hurled over a hundred grenades, the Qing troops were instantly blasted into chaos — men and horses tumbling everywhere. Some Qing soldiers were killed outright by the explosive blasts, while others were pierced through the body by iron shards carried in the grenades and died unnatural deaths.

Quite a few Qing soldiers, positioned further back, were not caught in the explosions.

After the first rank of Yongwei Camp soldiers threw their grenades, the second rank threw theirs in succession, followed by the third rank.

Zhu Cilang worried that throwing them all at once would cause wasted damage and squandered ammunition, so he had the Yongwei Camp soldiers practice throwing in staggered ranks during training, using stones.

Amid the explosions of several rounds of grenades, the Qing troops were blasted with exceptional savagery. Many soldiers were momentarily stunned by the blasts, their hearts filled mostly with terror.

Please save this book and vote your recommendation tickets!