Chapter 1372: Fleet and Cavalry

Chen Jisheng let out a wry laugh as he changed the subject. The Jinzhou garrison had supposedly been reorganized, but in reality it was hardly different from a surrender. Even how to refer to Xuzhou had become a problem, because Xuzhou still hadn't openly raised a rebel flag — they merely called themselves the Zhao Family Army.

These remnant officers and soldiers from Dongjiang Town and Jinzhou had already abandoned the Ming court, so naturally they hoped their new destination would be better. Yet calling themselves men of Xuzhou, calling themselves the Zhao Family Army, always felt like it fell a little short. Chen Jisheng's phrasing today had solved that problem for everyone.

"He's educated after all — better with words than rough men like us," Zhang Pan remarked with feeling. Even those who had barely studied knew they were Han people, knew they came after the Han and Tang. Especially these men in the Liao territories, who had fought the Mongols as enemies and battled the Jurchens to the death — their understanding of this was far stronger and clearer than in other places.

Chen Jisheng waved his hand helplessly and raised his eyes toward the land, but his brow furrowed. He muttered, "This General Chen still has some caution — he hasn't sailed straight in. The ships are all striking sail. No — those few foreign devil ships with the pinched hulls still have full sail. I can't make sense of it, can't make sense of it."

As the fleet drew steadily closer, the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry had already determined the landing point and began gathering toward it. This Jianzhou cavalry unit had a very good sense of measure — they knew they were not here to fight but to intimidate, so they maintained a standoff posture the entire time.

Watching the fleet on the sea, the Jianzhou Jurchens felt dread in their hearts, but they believed one thing: as long as they maintained this intimidating standoff, the enemy would have no chance to come ashore — unless they were willing to pay a grievous price in casualties. And if they really threw caution to the wind and did that, the badly mauled landing units would be no match at all for the main force in the city.

"What kind of strange ship is that? What greenhorn fool came from somewhere?" The company commander leading the cavalry couldn't help exclaiming.

Anyone with battlefield experience could judge the situation at a glance, yet the other side was still barreling forward so recklessly. Did they really think the iron cavalry of the Eight Banners men were just for show?

Beyond that, what the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry cared about were those few strange large ships. The other ships were also of uncommon size, but they weren't particularly novel — just variants of Ming vessels. But the appearance of these few ships was something they were seeing for the first time. This Xuzhou crowd had far too many things that were unexpected and unheard of.

"Since they want to come, we'll teach them a lesson. Otherwise, while everyone else is out earning merit and reaping rewards, we'll be the ones taking the blame. The Great Khan and the Beile won't spare us!" The company commander in charge gave the order, and the cavalry roared their assent.

Riders had already galloped back to the city at full speed to have Fuzhou City make preparations. This was not a crisis now — on the contrary, it was an opportunity, a fine chance to deal the enemy a heavy blow while they rashly overextended.

Each side had its own responses, its own preparations, but the movements could not be quick. The Jianzhou Jurchens could not see the subtleties, but men like Chen Jisheng could. The various Ming-style ships had stiff sails — raising them required a dozen or even scores of men hauling together — yet they were very nimble at changing direction. The foreign devils' pinched-hull ships, on the other hand, looked light and handy with their cloth sails, but they could not easily shift with the wind. One had to understand that Fuchuan and Guangchuan could even advance against a headwind; these foreign devil ocean ships probably could not.

Precisely because of this, those four pinched-hull ships looked very clumsy, as if they were trying to turn themselves broadside. The sailors on the ship Chen Jisheng and Zhang Pan were aboard must have been instructed beforehand — they spoke freely about everything, and as they talked, their faces were full of envy.

"Back then, these foreign devils didn't know any better and tried to raid Haizhou Harbor. They ended up being held fast by Master Jin's fort. We captured over two hundred of them and one ship that was still usable. These foreign devils really don't know any better."

"Taking a few foreign devil ocean ships — our Dragon Head could manage that. But capturing foreign devil ocean ships, and then being able to build copies from their design, and repair them according to that design — that kind of skill is number one on the seas. Tsk tsk. That said, our house, and those few houses to the south and east, we could build these pinched-hull ocean ships too. But even if we could build the ships, we wouldn't have these cannons. Whose house has cannons this good — light in weight, massive in firepower... You fellows following a Dragon Head like Zhao Jin, you've really got good fortune ahead of you..."

The man rambled on and on, paying no mind to what Chen Jisheng and Zhang Pan were actually thinking. Just as he was speaking, a great booming roar was heard.

Those with experience immediately recognized it as cannon fire. They soon realized it was those few pinched-hull large ships opening fire. At first they thought little of it — a single volley could fire at most a few shells. If the cavalry on shore reacted quickly, it would cause hardly any damage. The moment the first shell hit the ground, that cavalry unit on shore would likely scatter in a rush.

But the cannon fire did not stop at one report, nor at a few — it was a continuous roll of over twenty blasts. And then more than one ship began firing. At first some people kept count, but later they fell silent and speechless. In that short span of time, had over a hundred shots been fired?

The ship Chen Jisheng and the others were on was positioned relatively far forward. On one hand, they felt the roar at close range and smelled the acrid smoke of gunpowder; on the other, they could clearly see the results of the bombardment.

Roughly half the shells missed, merely kicking up dust. The Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry unit was far enough away — they knew the strange reinforcements' firearms were deadly sharp, so they had kept as far back as possible.

Seeing the commotion of the cannons on the ships, the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalrymen all showed mocking sneers. They thought, what difference is there between this and the Ming army firing their firearms — blindly blasting away from beyond range, thinking the power is immense and the noise terrifying, yet causing not a bit of harm? What damn use was that?

Only, their smiles did not stay on their faces for long. Field cannons, limited by the weight-bearing capacity of their carriages, had sixteen-pounders and eighteen-pounders as their largest calibers. Heavier cannons did exist, but they were usually mounted in fortifications as garrison artillery. Naval guns were different — thanks to the buoyancy of water, they could carry far heavier guns. Sixteen-pounders and eighteen-pounders, which were difficult to transport on land, became quite simple to handle aboard ship, and there was even more leeway in caliber, powder charge, and barrel length. Naturally, their range and power also far surpassed land-based field cannons.

Twenty-catty lead balls came howling in with colossal momentum. The ships pitched and drifted with the current, so naturally there was no way to maintain any accuracy. Yet over a thousand horsemen were a target large enough — not hard to hit, not hard to catch in the blast.

One sixteen-pounder shell landed squarely in the midst of the formation. Several cavalrymen, men and horses both, were sent flying. The earth and stones kicked up scattered as deadly shrapnel. But even more unlucky were those directly in its path — two riders, men and horses both, were simply torn into two pieces, flesh and blood spraying everywhere.

Other shells grazed the edges of the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry formation. Where the shells passed, flesh and bone shattered, and parts of cavalrymen and horses simply vanished. Still other shells landed in front of the ranks and bounced up again — countless riders suddenly dropped low, because the lower halves of their horses were simply gone.

On the battlefields of this era, those who died instantly were far luckier than the wounded. Struck by shells, pierced by flying earth and stone, bodies torn with wounds, bleeding ceaselessly — they knew they were going to die, yet death would not come at once. They could only wail and scream there, hoping their comrades would grant them a swift end.

It was not just one ship firing shells from a single direction — several ships, arrayed in an arc, were laying down intersecting fire upon the massed cavalry on shore.

Though the heavy guns that could reach that far numbered only a little over twenty in total, the Jianzhou Jurchens had underestimated the shells' range and believed themselves safe. It was tantamount to standing still and waiting to be hit. The carnage this time was far greater than in a field battle — flesh and blood flew, dust billowed. Who among the rest would dare remain? They scattered in an instant.

Heavy losses, shock not yet settled, still not recovered from the roaring thunder and the gale of blood and gore — looking at the comrades beside them, so many were already gone. Worse still, their mounts were frantic and uncontrollable. No one dared stay on that battlefield, because no one knew the cannons' range, no one knew how much farther the shells from the sea could reach.

To be safe, they could only retreat, and retreat again, and keep retreating — pulling back all the way to a distance of five li, still maintaining a state of readiness to flee at any moment.

At such a distance, even if the cavalry charged at full speed, they could not affect the landing. The other ships of the fleet began closing in on the shore, either unloading directly at the docks or sending men ashore in sampans.

Because supplies and ships both had ample surplus, the fleet even included large ships specifically for transporting sampans. One small boat after another was tossed into the sea, then taken by dedicated crews to each of the large ships. Soldiers clambered down rope nets and then rowed toward the shore.

"Those two big ships over there — it's so inconvenient for them to dock and disembark. Why are they just sitting there not moving? Let the ones behind go first, wouldn't that be better?" Someone from the Liao territories asked, puzzled.

The government docks at Fuzhou Bay had long since fallen into disuse. But even if those docks had still been intact, they would not have matched the large ships the Zhao Family Army had scraped together — unloading cargo and disembarking men directly would have been difficult. Yet those two broad, flat-decked Fuchuan just sat piled up in front of the docks, looking very much in the way.

After those few strange pinched-hull ships withdrew from directly facing them, the surviving Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry thought another opportunity had come. They began rallying their formation to charge forward — the enemy absolutely must not be allowed to come ashore. Judging by the scale of this fleet, if the enemy landed, they truly would be unstoppable.

There was still some confidence now. The infantry coming ashore had not yet gained a firm footing; they were still a disorganized mob. And they had seen how the ships moved — it was simply far too slow. As long as they kept a close watch, there would be ample opportunity to withdraw before the next bombardment.

The Zhao Family Army soldiers were still steadily coming ashore, but this too took time. So far, only a little over twenty sampans had approached the shore, and fewer than four hundred men had assembled on the beach. Looking again at the cavalry charging fiercely from the distance, men like Chen Jisheng watched with their hearts in their throats.

But when the distance was still several hundred paces, the cannon fire sounded again. Having just lived through that hellish scene moments before, the moment the cannons roared, the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry were like startled birds — they immediately halted their forward momentum, turned, and fled. The terrified horses reacted even faster. A few riders, unable to control them in time, were thrown straight from the saddle. Their feet still caught in the stirrups, they were dragged away, their screams unending.