Chapter 1440: Not the Same Era

The personal guards behind Chen Sheng also heard this news. Though they made no sound, every one of them showed a look of disdain. The Tatars really were arrogant beyond belief, actually daring to compete in artillery against the Zhao Family Army — they truly had no idea how they were going to die.

"Enemy artillery in position, beginning bombardment. Volley fire not permitted. For guns within range, only one-third may fire at a time." Chen Sheng pondered a moment, then issued his military order.

The order was immediately relayed to the artillery position. There were also soldiers there responsible for flag signals, and they had already begun communicating with the signalmen in the appropriate directions.

Flag signaling had originally been a method used by maritime forces, but Zhao Jin had introduced it onto the battlefield. This kind of signal communication was far more convenient and faster than sending personal guards on fast horses. However, this method also had its drawbacks. Once battle began, even without the smoke from firearms, men running and horses trampling would raise dust, shrouding the battlefield and blocking visibility. This method of transmitting information, which relied on visual observation, would then become useless.

On this battlefield, however, there was one advantage: the snow. Whether it was accumulated snow or snow trampled hard, no dust would be raised. This allowed the observation towers' watch and relay of messages to play their greatest role.

The artillery of the Jianzhou Jurchens and the artillery of the Zhao Family Army, though sharing the same name, were not at all the same weapon. The Jianzhou Jurchens' cannons were merely a single thick, heavy metal barrel, while the Zhao Family Army's cannons had carriages and mounts. For light guns of six pounds or less, it might not matter much, but for heavy guns of nine pounds and above, the Jianzhou Jurchens had to expend several or even a dozen more oxen and horses than the Zhao Family Army just to drag them into motion.

In the warfare of this era, on the battlefields of this era, artillery was the most powerful weapon. Whether this mighty and lethal weapon could match the army's speed of maneuver determined whether the artillery's power could be brought to its fullest, and whether military strength could be maximized.

The Zhao Family Army had already achieved the ability for the main army to move and the artillery to move, even for the cavalry to move and the artillery to move, rather than each waiting for the other, missing the best opportunities and delaying the army's advance.

That was exactly the case on the battlefield before them. The Zhao Family Army's artillery was already in position, deployed on the battlefield alongside the Provisional First Division and the Fengpei Regiment, while the Jianzhou Jurchens' artillery was only just now leaving camp.

In truth, getting the artillery out of camp was already an innovation. In the established practice between the Jianzhou Jurchens and the Ming army, artillery was more often a weapon of siege offense and defense, not a field weapon for pitched battle.

The Jianzhou Jurchens, from top to bottom, also knew that artillery was highly vulnerable to attack when leaving camp and setting up, so they had to arrange cavalry protection.

"The Tatars don't necessarily intend to use their cannons. It's very possible they're using this artillery to lure our cavalry over to block and intercept, so their main cavalry force can then sally forth and counterattack, devour our cavalry, and then open with a chaotic melee. For them, the best scenario would be to drive our cavalry into charging our own main formation."

Chen Sheng explained calmly. The personal guards beside him listened very attentively. The personal guards of a brigade commander or regiment commander had a different significance from the personal troops and household retainers of Ming military officers. They were outstanding non-commissioned officers selected from within the Zhao Family Army. Accompanying their commander, they served a protective function on one hand, and on the other, they followed to learn, enriching their battlefield experience and acquiring more command knowledge.

Everyone listened very carefully. In such a situation, the personal guards had no standing to ask questions, and on the battlefield, there was neither the time nor the leisure for explanations.

Just as Chen Sheng had said, as the Jianzhou Jurchens' heavy cannons moved out, their cavalry formations also began to move. At that moment, the very ground trembled faintly.

The instant the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry appeared on the battlefield, the movements of the soldiers in the Zhao Family Army's observation towers faltered and paused. It was only when the officers below cursed loudly, even picking up clumps of snow and hurling them upward, that the lookout soldiers above were jolted awake.

The vast numbers of cavalry formations surged slowly forth like a mudslide, blanketing the battlefield. In truth, the Jianzhou cavalry that appeared in the lookout soldiers' field of vision was not ten thousand riders, but fewer than eight thousand. Yet cavalrymen plus the height of their horses and the area they occupied far exceeded that of infantry formations.

Looking out from the observation tower, such a formation seemed truly unstoppable; anything that barred their path would be ground to dust.

The pikemen and arquebusiers of the various regiments, however, fared somewhat better. Due to their angle of view, they could only see a wall rising in the far distance, and did not quite feel its height or oppressive force.

One soldier of Huainan origin did mutter, "When I was little and there was a great flood, I saw a wall suddenly appear at the edge of the sky..." Before he could finish, he was cursed into silence by the NCO in his row.

The light cavalry on the battlefield still chased and hunted one another, drawing bows and nocking arrows at distances of a dozen paces. It had to be said, in this kind of fighting, the Zhao Family Army's arquebuses were not as handy as bows. However, the elite cavalry the Jianzhou Jurchens fielded were all of steppe origin, and the same was true of Zhao Jin's side — there was no disparity in numbers, and the two sides were roughly evenly matched.

As the main body of the Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry settled into position, the battlefield began to grow quiet. Yet this silence was suffocating, like the calm before a storm.

A high platform was also erected at the Zhao Family Army's artillery position. Although the messages from the observation tower were fast enough, nothing was as accurate as seeing with one's own eyes. As the acting battalion commander of the artillery position continuously issued orders, one cannon after another was swiftly prepared.

"The Tatar artillery will definitely fire before their cavalry launches an attack. Otherwise, with their gunnery skills, they'll surely cause friendly fire."

Among all the brigades, regiments, and branches of the Zhao Family Army, none took greater pride than the artillerymen. The Zhao Family Army's artillerymen believed themselves peerless under heaven, and this "peerless under heaven" was not only in comparison with the Ming army and the Jurchens, but even included those European nations. The foreigners working within the Zhao Family Army system all admitted that the artillery here was somewhat superior even to the most advanced in Europe.

Compared to the Zhao Family Army's artillery, the Jianzhou side's heavy cannons were all captured from the Ming army. Strictly speaking, they were not too inferior, having been built with Spanish and Portuguese technology. However, the cannons those missionaries and merchants taught the Ming to build or sold to them were all castrated versions, missing key technologies and exceptionally cumbersome.

Because they lacked reliable materials, lacked the refined copper and iron of the Zhao Family Army, and lacked the Zhao Family Army's meticulous cannon-casting techniques, the reliability of their artillery was very poor. To ensure the strength of the barrel, they often had to thicken and reinforce it, resulting in cannons of the same caliber that were fifty percent to even twice as heavy as those of the Zhao Family Army.

The excessive weight already hampered movement, and they also lacked the means to move artillery on the battlefield. Without gun carriages and mounts, when firing, they first had to construct a gun platform, using wooden crates, earth, ropes, and iron spikes to fix the cannon in place.

Once fixed in this manner, there was naturally no question of adjusting elevation or direction. In the heat of battle, adjusting the firing direction and range of the cannon required a great deal of time and effort.

Beyond all this, the heavy cannons in the Jianzhou Jurchens' hands also suffered from a lack of interchangeability between shot and gun, and uneven gunpowder quality, which made it impossible to standardize the charge. On the battlefield, this meant accuracy was out of the question.

Yet even such firearms were regarded by the Ming army as weapons of national strategic importance, divine tools that could devastate scores of li with a single shot and cause countless casualties. In the eyes of the Jianzhou Jurchens, they were also creations beyond human power. With them, siege battles that once required filling moats with countless lives now only needed firing from afar to bombard the target.

Thus, when rumors described the Zhao Family Army's artillery as capable of destroying heaven and earth, the Jianzhou Jurchen commanders did not believe it. In their view, the power could at most be that of the artillery they themselves had seen, which was already the extreme limit they could imagine.

The Jianzhou Jurchens' artillery was now in position, and the cavalry shielding them began to disperse. The Han artillerymen, willingly or not, began constructing gun platforms. In this weather, the ground was frozen iron-hard; taking earth on the spot was impossible, so even the soil had been prepared in advance and brought in large carts.

"Nine-pounder in position, five hundred paces out, first round of fire, four guns open fire!"

The artillery battalion commander began issuing orders. The Zhao Family Army's artillerymen began their preparations with swift movements. Someone muttered beside a gun captain, "I see the Tatars have twenty or thirty guns over there, and we're only firing with four. What if they fire back at us?"

"Have you lost your mind? Once we open fire, what else do you think the Tatars will be busy with?" A scolding shout came from that side, then the man turned his head and bellowed again, "After preparations are complete, volley fire!"

The battlefield was indeed very quiet, yet no matter how quiet nearly ten thousand cavalry and tens of thousands of men could be, it was still a din of noise. So when the four nine-pounder guns opened fire, not many people took notice.

Even though the Zhao Family Army's artillery technology far outstripped that of the Jianzhou Jurchens' artillery, it was still a firearm of this era. It could not be overly precise, and could not achieve hitting a target the moment it was sighted.

Still, there was a rough degree of accuracy. The cannonballs came screaming through the air. The soldiers of the Jianzhou Jurchen artillery unit were far more alert than the cavalry and infantry; as artillerymen themselves, they knew what that screaming sound signified.

The moment the Zhao Family Army's cannons thundered, the Jianzhou Jurchen artillerymen had already grown tense. The instant they heard that screaming sound, they immediately scattered in a panic. The cavalry escorting them had not even reacted to what was happening.

All four cannonballs missed their mark, and even the ricochets caused no damage to the artillery unit. The Jianzhou Jurchens did know that cannon and gunpowder were very dangerous and prone to bursting the barrel, and most of the cavalry's horses were highly unaccustomed to the roar of cannon fire. So everyone had scattered as far as possible, leaving this area fairly empty, and the ricochets did not injure anyone else either.

Because the artillery unit consisted entirely of surrendered Ming officers and soldiers, the Jianzhou cavalry escorting them actually also had the duty of guarding and escorting prisoners. They had not yet reacted to what was going on when they saw these men scatter in panic. The earth and stones kicked up by the landing cannonballs gave them a fright as well.

Once they realized no one was hurt, the company commander leading the escort was instantly enraged. What kind of cowardice was this, he thought, that they couldn't even stand the sound of cannon fire on a battlefield?

"Have dogs eaten your courage? Do you not know the severity of the Great Jin's military law? Get the hell back here and open fire, now! And don't you lot just stand there gawking — ride over and round them up! If anyone runs again, damn it, cut them down on the spot!"

Under this furious bellowing, and with cavalrymen drawing blades to threaten them, the soldiers of the Jianzhou Jurchen artillery unit regrouped.