Chapter 743: Pocket

Shang Kexi had long since received Kong Youde's letter requesting reinforcements.

It wasn't that he didn't want to save Liaoyang, nor that he couldn't save Liaoyang — he simply didn't feel like dealing with Kong Youde, so he never wrote back.

In fact, from the very day he received the plea for help, Shang Kexi had been readying warships and cannons at Haicheng, drawing troops and conscripts from his own niru, and ordering Jalai Zhangjing Lu Keyong to lead the gunboat fleet and station it at the Dongsheng Fort river mouth, prepared at any moment to deploy into the Taizi River.

For him, this matter required no deliberation.

Although his father and elder brother had died in battle against the Jin kingdom, and his wife and concubines had thrown themselves into a well at Lüshun while his household servants jumped into the sea to their deaths — to Shang Kexi, this actually stirred little hatred.

Each serves his own master.

It did not even compare to the hatred he felt toward Daiching over Huang Long dying fighting to the last at Lüshun.

Because Huang Long was his future, and the person in this world who had treated him best — far better than his own father and brother.

A debt of recognition and patronage he could never repay.

And the man he hated most was neither the Eight Banners nobility nor the rebel generals Kong and Geng, but Shen Shikui of Dongjiang Town, who stood in the way of his prospects.

Emperor Chongde, Huang Taiji, treated him very well.

He promoted him from Vice General to Regional Commander, granted him his hometown of Haicheng as a fief, bestowed upon him python robes and fox-fur coats, and even enfeoffed him as Prince of Wisdom and Obedience.

Shang Kexi was delighted, and willing to serve Emperor Chongde with the utmost canine-and-equine devotion.

If he could capture Dongjiang Town and kill Shen Shikui, he would not hesitate even to go through fire and boiling water for Emperor Chongde.

And precisely because of this, he had also come to hate Liu Chengzong.

Had Liu Chengzong not launched this campaign, Shang Kexi had a premonition that the chance to uproot Dongjiang Town and deal with Shen Shikui would have come very soon.

However, Shang Kexi had a clear understanding of his own strength — he lacked the ability to rescue Kong Youde.

Even if he disregarded Haicheng's defenses and threw his entire army and fleet at Liaoyang, at most he had only two over-strength jala, fewer than 4,500 men. If coordination with Kong's forces went poorly, Liaoyang would not be held and Haicheng would be lost as well.

So he could only save Liaoyang — he could not save Kong Youde.

Shang Kexi's plan was to use the siege of Liaoyang as the opportunity: his fleet of sand ships, their bows mounted with red-barbarian cannons, would blockade the Taizi River, destroy the bridges upon it, and bombard the enemy troops along the banks.

Meanwhile, small boats armed with three-eye guns, bird guns, and powerful bows would swarm in and shoot up the enemy forces on the shore.

He would pin Liu Chengzong's army near Liaoyang until Emperor Chongde led the Eight Banners army to the battlefield, where they would combine forces and annihilate it.

But what Shang Kexi had not anticipated was that the great fire in Liaoyang city would blaze so quickly.

He had received Kong Youde's plea for help only three days ago, dispatched the fleet to Dongsheng Fort two days ago, and was still loading grain and gunpowder onto the ships yesterday when cavalry sent to Anshan Post relayed word to Haicheng: from Liaoyang to Anshan, black smoke towered into the sky everywhere; the countryside was entirely ravaged by enemy troops; and in the direction of Liaoyang city itself, a great fire had erupted, turning night as bright as day.

When Shang Kexi at Haicheng received this news, he was dumbfounded.

He wondered, just what kind of military momentum does Liu Chengzong have — how could he set the city ablaze the very day he encircled it... an inside agent?

In any case, this was his opportunity to strike. A few days earlier or later made little difference. Even if Liu Chengzong captured the warships inside Liaoyang, they would still be no match for his Shang family naval force.

Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming's ships — he had seen them, fought them. They were mounted with only small Frankish cannons, with a single Great General cannon at the bow. They were nothing like the Lüshun fleet he had brought to Haicheng; in a naval battle, all they could do was take a beating.

The fleet had set sail the night before last, using both oars and sails, traveling 160 li day and night, and by the following afternoon was within 30 li of Liaoyang.

Black banners fluttered.

Jalai Zhangjing Lu Keyong, in full armor, stood at the bow, a telescope raised to one eye as he scanned the shore. His other hand was clasped behind his back, his thumb lightly tapping each knuckle in succession.

On the riverbank path, the silhouettes of Marshal's Army cavalry with bannerettes strapped to their backs flickered in and out of view, scattering in all directions.

Lu Keyong said, "Pass the order: deploy small boats to probe the river channel for mines. Full sails and oars — the enemy has posted scout riders on the bank; they already know we're here."

That the Marshal's Army had positioned cavalry defenses along the riverbank was not particularly surprising.

In truth, throughout this voyage, Lu Keyong, as the commanding general, had pondered a great deal.

He was an old subordinate of Huang Long, had fired cannons beneath the walls of Zunhua in the jisi year, and knew Yang Yanchang and Wang Ziyong — those two men of the hour who had recruited the Luo Sect's canal gangs and the Smelling Incense White Lotus into eight battalions.

Unlike the new generation of officers like Shang Kexi, who had risen through luck in their youth, his combat experience was extremely rich.

Lu Keyong knew that if Liu Chengzong understood warfare, he would certainly set up defenses on the Taizi River to guard against their Haicheng naval force.

Therefore, the swift fall of Liaoyang was, on the contrary, a good thing for their fleet. The shorter the Marshal's Army's siege preparations, the more hastily arranged their river defenses would be.

What he feared most were iron chains blocking the river and naval mines — those things could truly trap his fleet.

However, the former required a long preparation time, which the Marshal's Army might not have had; and the latter required a certain amount of naval warfare experience, and as far as he knew, the Marshal's Army that had fought its way out of Shaanxi should all be landlubbers.

As for ordinary submerged stakes, Lu Keyong was not afraid.

To guard against river mines, his fleet had specially prepared two ramming ships with iron plates hung from their hulls, precisely for clearing obstacles.

These two ships had been seized by Shang Kexi before he surrendered to the Jin, when he raided the Dongjiang islands and coerced their populations, and had been used during the Battle of Pi Island to attack the Later Jin shipbuilding base established at Yichuan in Korea.

Ordinary submerged stakes would be crushed the moment the ships rammed into them.

Just as Lu Keyong gave the order to deploy the small boats and guard against river traps, a vast cloud of dust rose not far from the shore.

Raising his telescope for a look, Lu Keyong realized he had been overthinking.

In the lens, herds of horses galloped; riders of superb skill spurred their mounts and raised their bows, spreading across the plain. Warhorses dragging artillery pieces and carts, obscured by the dust, rumbled forward.

From the look of it, they clearly intended to fight him right there on the riverbank.

Lu Keyong was relieved.

He thought to himself: Fine. The Eight Banners nobility contemptuously call you southern barbarians — I always felt uncomfortable hearing that. Turns out you really are barbarians.

Using cavalry to fight warships is hardly what one would call wise.

The Eight Banners had done the same thing in their early years, when they lacked a naval force and cannons: 12,000 men entered Korea, intending to build fortifications along the outer coast of Pi Island to impose a siege. They ended up being bombarded by ship cannons and sent running everywhere — on the worst day, over 700 were killed. In the end, they had no choice but to withdraw, declaring the siege a failure.

Lu Keyong had originally thought the Marshal's Army would set some traps in the river to buy time to withdraw from the shore. But seeing this swarm of cavalry charging toward them, it seemed they had made no preparations in the river at all.

To him, the wisest choice for the Marshal's Army at this moment would be to contract their defensive line, ceding three to five li of the riverbank so the shipboard cannons could not reach them.

That was also Lu Keyong's most comfortable state: no need to slaughter each other on the battlefield with the Marshal's Army, while still fulfilling his assigned mission of blockading the river.

It just seemed that the Marshal's Army deliberately intended to fight him on the bank, braving the naval cannons.

Well, he wasn't afraid of that either.

If they want a contest, bring it on!

As the fleet sailed several more li eastward, Lu Keyong could already make out the outline of Liaoyang city through his telescope.

He finally understood why the Marshal's Army wanted to fight him on the riverbank — a third of Liaoyang was engulfed in a sea of fire, especially the eastern city near the riverbank, which had been the best place for the city-defense cannons to bombard vessels on the waterway.

The city wall stood on high ground and had brick rampart protection; cannons on the wall had better defensive capability than ship cannons and also offered more stable firing. Concentrating a large number of cannons there could deter the fleet from passing the river section beside the wall.

Unfortunately, the great fire had heated the wall so intensely that no one could stand on it.

This undoubtedly made the mission of blockading the riverbank easier.

Lu Keyong immediately gave the order: the fleet would sail all the way along the Taizi River, first use the bow cannons to destroy any pontoon bridges or even regular bridges that might exist on the river, then turn back to bombard the enemy forces along the bank.

But before the fleet could even approach Liaoyang, several cannon reports rang out from the shore.

At the northwest corner of Liaoyang's city wall, the two-story corner tower was named the Pacify-the-Hu Tower.

Liu Chengzong stood on the second floor of the Pacify-the-Hu Tower, peering toward the riverbank through a telescope.

Standing high, he could see clearly: the Shang clan's naval force came from the west, ships large and crowded with men; Zuo Guangxian's cavalry unit was on the southern bank of the Taizi River, churning up trails of dust as they moved swiftly under the cover of the river dike.

The cannon reports came from several Lion Cannons that had been hauled up onto the river dike.

The Lion Cannons were light enough to keep pace with the cavalry; they charged up to the dike, deployed into formation, and opened fire on the ships on the river. The Haizhou naval force returned fire with bows and muskets, and the two sides traded volleys amid billowing clouds of gunpowder smoke.

All Liu Chengzong could see was that after two volleys from the several Lion Cannons, they were suppressed by musket fire from the river and unable to reload, forcing them to withdraw from the dike.

There was no helping it — the ships were advancing in a manner akin to firing by rotation. After the first ship fired, the second ship sailed up right behind it, and the soldiers at its gunwales fired again. With several hundred muskets firing in continuous succession, even the most elite artillerymen would be pinned down and unable to move.

But this was also the tactical scheme of the frontline commander, Zuo Guangxian.

The first volley had come from five Lion Cannons; after being suppressed and withdrawing from the dike, they sped eastward along with the cavalry.

Not far away, the Mobile Battalion's remaining fifteen Lion Cannons were arrayed in a single line. Seizing the opportunity while the sailors aboard the ships had to reload after firing, they poured a hail of shot onto the lead warship of the fleet amid a thunderous roar.

In a single volley, nearly eight hundred three-mace grapeshot pellets swept across the deck like a violent storm, tearing bloody mist from sailors who had no time to take cover, riddling the two-masted sail with countless holes, snapping the forestay cable, and sending half the sail crashing down from the mast with a roar.

Having landed a solid blow, Zuo Guangxian was about to have his artillery repeat the trick.

But to his surprise, the fleet waved its signal flags, and the soldiers aboard scrambled into the cabins or hid behind the starboard bulwarks — they simply refused to engage any further.

Lu Keyong, commanding the naval force, had already entered the stern cabin the moment the first cannon sounded from the shore.

He was in no hurry to engage the enemy on the bank; he had not even fired the great bow cannons. In his view, this kind of engagement was not where a naval force could best display its strength. He wanted to accomplish his mission first — destroying the bridges on the river.

As long as he could trap the Marshal's Army near Liaoyang, he would be in an invincible position. Warhorses could not charge into the river, after all.

With his fleet cruising the river, Liu Chengzong would not even be able to sleep soundly at night, to say nothing of the daytime.

Once Emperor Chongde's Eight Banners main force arrived, his sailors could then seize the chance to land and strike the Marshal's Army in the rear.

That would be the moment for the naval force to display its true might.

After all, the Dongjiang naval force had never been skilled at sea battles to begin with.

This was not a matter of technology. Generals like Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, who hunted pirates along the southeastern coast during the Jiajing and Longqing eras, had already spurred the evolution of Ming warships into gunboats — that was seventy or eighty years ago by now.

Ships carrying heavy cannons, even vessels with Spanish-style hulls and Chinese-style sails, single- or double-decked, with six or eight heavy cannons on the lower deck — such double-planked ships were not uncommon along the coast.

But at Dongjiang Garrison, there was no use for that kind of gunboat. Gunboats drew too much water and could not maneuver easily in inland rivers or along the coast. Yet here, victory or defeat would ultimately still be decided by land battle.

So at Dongjiang Garrison, warships were merely a kind of transport equipment used for landing operations.

What was the point of trading cannon fire with the shore right now?

What Lu Keyong did not know, however, was that his decision to have the sailors shrink into the cabins and sail at full speed to break away from the artillery position was exactly what Zuo Guangxian had intended by bombarding the fleet from the shore.

Because the river bend up ahead was blocked by sunken ships!

In truth, from the moment Zuo Guangxian received Liu Chengzong's order to beat up the naval force, he had been unable to suppress the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

The Taizi River was shallow to begin with; even its deepest point was less than three zhang. The river bend where the Marshal's Army had planted submerged stakes was only two zhang deep. From the moment Quan Jie's fleet collided with those stakes head-on, the stretch of river running from west to east toward Liaoyang had become a natural sack-shaped ambush.

And the sand ship was an excellent type of transport vessel, famously broad, large, flat, and shallow in hull form.

The name did not come from transporting sand and gravel, but from the fact that it did not fear sandy seabeds.

Its masts were tall and its sails large; its flat bottom did not fear sandbanks. If it touched bottom on a sandy riverbed, so long as it had not fully settled, it could use its tall masts and great sails to catch the wind, and the leeboards on both sides to adjust direction, and thus drag itself forward over the sand.

If it truly settled and sank onto the shoal, a tug from another ship would usually pull it free.

It could sail with the wind against it; even when wind and tide ran opposite, its flat bottom was little affected by the tide and would not capsize. It could sail with the wind, against the wind, and even against both wind and current.

Even if it could move no further and ran aground by the bank, its broad, flat bottom would simply settle on the shoal rather than capsize.

It was like a flat wooden plank floating on the water — extremely stable.

But it could not handle seas with overly high winds and waves. The sand ship's most famous battle was when the Great Yuan Empire assembled over nine hundred warships from the Yangtze River basin to attack Japan in the east, and on the retreat ran into a typhoon — every last one of them capsized.

Those nine-hundred-odd warships were all sand ships.

Quan Jie's flagship was a large sand ship. Even after springing a leak, it did not capsize, but sat steady and secure in the middle of the river.

By now, three large sand ships were already sitting in the river there, essentially sealing off the navigable section of the channel.

Before the Haizhou naval force arrived, Gao Yingdeng had already sailed two more ships over and scuttled them, and planned to bring a few more. Once that was done, they would drive several dozen paces of stakes into the shoals on both banks, and then they could build a bridge — a stable one at that.

Zuo Guangxian had deployed two waves of Lion Cannons precisely to use grapeshot to force the sailors on deck into the cabins, delaying as much as possible the moment they discovered the sand ships sitting on the riverbed.

This battle made Zuo Guangxian's entire heart seethe with excitement.

They had struck it rich — the Marshal's Army had struck it rich.

Even setting aside the ships, just the sight of those Dutch-style heavy cannons aboard numbered seven or eight. Add to that all the cannons, gold, and silver in Liaoyang — the Marshal's Army had never fought a campaign with such enormous spoils!

Most importantly, he himself had struck it rich. This riverbank battle might not even have fallen to him originally, but Gao Yingdeng's main camp had to keep Liaoyang suppressed, Li Hongsi's Guard Battalion had been looting for a day and a night, and Zhang Xianzhong had taken Tang Tong's reinforcement battalion to Dongjing.

In the First Brigade, he was the only one who could move.

And the battle honors would belong to him alone!

The fleet sailed doggedly eastward, while over a thousand cavalrymen of the Mobile Battalion raced along the bank, towing the Lion Cannons.

"Move! Move! Move!"

Officers in red armor and bowl-shaped helmets urged them on all along the way. Orderly riders with command flags strapped to their backs galloped without pause, racing to reach the ambush position where the First Brigade's twelve thousand-catty heavy cannons lay hidden before the fleet entered the kill zone.

"General Zuo's order! Once the fleet passes, the cannon battery is to fire a concentrated salvo at the enemy ships at the rear — you must sink them in the river! Do not let the fleet turn back!"

Good evening!

(End of chapter)