Chapter 1623: The Han Army Stands Unshaken

Because the distance was so short, the nearly flat-trajectory cannons needed no aiming at all. The shot barely missed, slamming viciously into the enemy ranks. The men in the front line were instantly pierced through by countless projectiles; some were even blasted backward, drifting through the air and disintegrating mid-flight. Beads of blood and severed limbs sprayed in every direction, scattering like rain.

The colossal power of the cannonade finally stalled the shogunate army's charge. At that moment, the musketeers began their second volley. Amid the dense crack of gunfire, many more fell. Those who remained could no longer endure the ghastly sight and retreated, howling. This wave of assault had finally been repelled.

"The enemy has some brutish courage, but their tactics are still lacking. How could they charge so recklessly before our army's formation?" Ma Tongji watched the scene and delivered a remark that was neither clearly praise nor condemnation. Then, seizing the moment, he led his battalion out of the main formation and moved toward the small hill still blazing with fire.

Their direction of movement happened to be the same as the shogunate troops charging out from Nagasaki city, so the two forces collided again on the road, and once more the air was filled with the roar of gunfire. In the darkness of night, although the current Nagasaki Magistrate, Soga Koyū, personally led the troops in battle, no matter how hard they tried, the Great Han army formation on Ma Tongji's side stood firm as a mountain. Their battle lines never fell into disorder, so the enemy was repelled without being able to inflict significant losses.

Ma Tongji led his First Battalion to his designated position and then reformed their ranks with their backs to the still-burning mountain forest. The burning forest gave them a clear enough field of vision, allowing them to cast aside their earlier reservations. The musketeers began to aim and fire independently, dealing fresh blows to the two already-routed shogunate forces.

The failure of the first charge dealt a heavy blow to Naitō Tadashige, who was overseeing the battle from the rear. He had not expected a charge of over a thousand men to be repelled so easily. The unflappable discipline and ferocious firepower displayed by the Great Han army made him watch with terror and trepidation. Although he had long known the Great Han army was formidable, he had never imagined they would be this formidable.

The routed soldiers, their courage shattered by the massive casualties, mostly scattered and fled in all directions. Only a small portion could be rounded up and brought back into the ranks. As for those who had fled and scattered, though he bitterly hated them, there was nothing he could do to them now.

The night offered him as many disadvantages as it did advantages. While it was true the Han army's firepower could not be fully unleashed, once his own troops routed, he had no hope of fully rallying the retreating stragglers either.

"My lord... my deepest apologies..." At that moment, amid a commotion, Soga Koyū, his face covered in grime and looking rather disheveled, came before him. "I had originally intended to test these Han pirates in a direct confrontation, but... we were repelled the moment we met them."

He had personally led the troops from Nagasaki city into battle against Ma Tongji's forces, but before the Great Han army's fierce gunfire and solid formation, even with his threat of death for any who retreated, his subordinate soldiers ultimately could not hold and fell back.

In the darkness of night, this retreat naturally threw the entire army into chaos. Nearly half of the men he had led out quickly scattered. He had barely managed to bring the remaining half over to Naitō Tadashige's position to regroup with the Elder.

"The Han pirates... are indeed formidable. You cannot be blamed for this; I have also suffered a great loss on my side." Naitō Tadashige answered through gritted teeth, his gaze filled with loathing as he stared at the distant firelight. "Soga, do you have the guts to try again? This time, simply take all the men here and charge together."

Understanding the implication behind Naitō Tadashige's words, Soga Koyū's expression instantly stiffened.

This meant a fight to the death, and he was to lead everyone in this desperate struggle.

Yet he had no objections. Almost everyone understood that if they could not defeat these Han soldiers even under such favorable circumstances, then there was not a shred of hope left to resist these Han troops.

"Your subordinate obeys!" He said nothing else and simply accepted the order.

"Good, then prepare quickly... Have some water first and rest a moment." Naitō Tadashige let out a long sigh.

Time was growing later and later. The curtain of night had already turned everything around them into indistinct black shadows. The fire on the hilltop was also slowly dying down as the combustible material diminished, growing increasingly dim.

Although the enemy's first wave of attack had been repelled, Ma Tongji did not dare to slack off in the slightest. He continued to observe the movements around him in all directions while ordering his subordinates to maintain their formation and not let their guard down.

Under the cover of night, to prevent his own formation from falling into disorder, he departed from his usual style and forbade his subordinates from pursuing, keeping them in place. Meanwhile, although everything on the surface was now silent, his years of combat experience told him this was merely the calm before the storm. The enemy would likely not stop here and would launch another charge.

Sure enough, as the early morning hours arrived, within Ma Tongji's field of vision, shadowy figures began to stir everywhere. Fearing the power of the cannon fire, they chose to charge the formation on Ma Tongji's side, wanting to devour these men at all costs, even if mutual destruction was the only outcome.

As the distance closed, loud shouts rose once more from the shogunate army. The number of dark figures seemed even greater than before.

Ma Tongji immediately ordered his men to stand guard, and he himself moved from the center of the formation to the front.

"Fire!" Just as the shogunate army's new charge was about to reach the front of Ma Tongji's formation, the other formation had also finished reloading their cannons and began bombarding the shogunate troops charging toward them.

"Open fire!" The formation on Ma Tongji's side followed suit and opened fire shortly after. For a moment, bullets and cannonballs once again flew wildly before the battle lines, reaping countless more lives.

This time, however, the shogunate army did not retreat. As if heedless of their own lives, they charged toward the formation with frenzied howls.

"Regimental Commander, the enemy is coming with ferocious momentum. We should still respond with caution!" Seeing the enemy's imposing manner, a staff officer cautiously said beside Ma Tongji.

"They're just shouting, is there any need to be afraid?" Ma Tongji gave a cold laugh, then drew his blade from its scabbard. Brandishing his saber, he shouted to the officers and soldiers on his side, "Listen up, all of you! The enemy is merely a cornered beast making a desperate struggle. If they want to come and throw their lives away, we couldn't ask for more! Kill!"

"Kill!" The officers and soldiers within earshot shouted almost simultaneously, and the soldiers at the edges of the ranks immediately followed suit. For a moment, battle cries shook the heavens. This served both to bolster their own courage and to bring endless pressure upon the enemy.

Amid the intermittent cannon fire, Soga Koyū led his soldiers, braving the danger, in a forced charge toward the Great Han army's formation. In the darkness of night, maintaining formation and discipline was impossible, but he had no intention of doing so now anyway. The only thought consuming his mind was to use himself and these men to die for Japan and take as many Great Han soldiers' lives with them as possible.

Men kept falling around him, but he and the others paid them no heed, howling continuously as they charged toward the firelight. The darkness prevented them from seeing the gruesome state of those beside them clearly, which instead gave them an extra measure of courage.

Accompanied by shrill howls, they finally crashed into the Great Han army's formation. Although the men in the very front were immediately skewered by the pikemen, those behind charged forward over the corpses of their predecessors, swinging their weapons at the Great Han soldiers. Under this relentless, wave-after-wave assault, and after paying a horrific toll in casualties, some finally broke through the front line of pikemen and killed a few Great Han soldiers.

The chaos brought by their charge inevitably caused some wavering in the Great Han army's formation. The front lines began to shrink back slightly, and the fallen soldiers created more gaps in the line. The shogunate army, after all, had the advantage in numbers, and in such a dark night, they could always seize a bit of the initiative.

Ma Tongji had been observing the situation at the front all along. Because the firelight was growing dimmer, he could not see very clearly, but he had already noticed the wavering beginning at the front. He was not flustered; he merely curled his lip slightly, then strode forward directly with his guards.

"Form up and advance! And musketeers, put down your muskets, draw your swords, and follow me!" As he walked, he brandished the saber at his waist, waving it forward.

"Yes!" The officers and soldiers around him responded in unison, then grabbed their weapons and charged toward the front ranks. Even the musketeers drew the swords from their waists and followed their commander in the charge forward.

Because muskets are slow to reload and the firing rhythm has gaps, the Great Han army had always equipped its musketeers with melee weapons, and ordinarily the musketeers had to drill alongside the other soldiers.

Under Ma Tongji's leadership, this large mass of men pressed forward. Their dazzling red military uniforms were strikingly conspicuous even in the darkness of night.

In the dark of night, the greatest fear was injuring one's own men by mistake, so Ma Tongji simply chose to abandon the muskets and engage the enemy directly in hand-to-hand combat. Ma Tongji had led these soldiers in battle for several years, and he had absolutely no doubt about their combat quality and courage. They had previously experienced countless chaotic battles like this in the southwest, and had long since accumulated considerable experience in dealing with them. Although these shogunate soldiers were somewhat more frenzied than the remnant Ming forces and mountain barbarians there, it was not as if they did not know how to respond.

Very quickly, this large group surged out from within and collided once more with the shogunate soldiers in the front lines.

Compared to the loudly shouting shogunate soldiers, they were far more silent. Every man had a grim face, holding his weapon as if utterly unmoved. The sounds of slaughter and the clashing of blades suddenly drowned out all other noise, becoming the master of the world.

However, although the two sides were now engaged in battle, the Great Han army managed to maintain a rough battle line without disorder in the darkness. In the night, they formed groups of two or three, then fought the shogunate soldiers with skilled combat techniques, using coordinated formations of blades and spears.

The Great Han army had chosen bright red as the color for their uniforms precisely with the consideration of making it easier for officers and soldiers to recognize comrades and maintain formation. In the current dim environment, this arrangement indeed produced the intended effect. The Great Han soldiers, using the red markers, interweaved and fought, and because they were all very calm, incidents of friendly fire were extremely rare.

The shogunate soldiers, however, were not so fortunate. They all wore grayish-black clothing, which blended into the background at night and could not be seen clearly at all. This was not a major issue when charging together, but it became a huge weakness during close-quarters combat. In the darkness, the shogunate soldiers jostled against each other, sometimes even wounding their own men when swinging their blades, needlessly adding to their own casualties.

Ma Tongji commanded with calm assurance amidst the slaughter, always leading his directly subordinate soldiers to charge at the most dangerous sectors under the greatest pressure. Because the Regimental Commander was charging at the very front, wherever he went, the men there were greatly boosted in morale and, together with the reinforcing troops, counterattacked and fought back, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. He also personally joined the melee, even killing two enemy soldiers with his saber.

After a prolonged period of slaughter, the shogunate soldiers' momentum had greatly waned. Their shouts grew quieter and quieter, and no new reinforcements charged forward from behind. Ma Tongji sensed that this wave of enemy troops had reached the end of their strength.

"The enemy has no fight left in them! Everyone, summon your spirits and kill!" Ma Tongji shouted.

Then, he raised his saber and slashed heavily to his diagonal right. The sharp blade instantly left a long, deep gash across the neck and abdomen of a nearby shogunate soldier. A spray of blood burst forth almost at the same moment, followed by a scream. The man, his neck lolling crookedly, collapsed to the ground.

The spurting blood splattered onto him, leaving quite a few stains on his face. The pungent, metallic smell of blood rushed into his nostrils—a scent that would make anyone unaccustomed to it retch. He immediately withdrew his blade. Just as he was pulling back, two shogunate soldiers beside him swung their tachi and naginata, slashing toward him.

Ma Tongji could not halt his momentum in time. It looked as if these two blades were already sweeping before his face; the fierce wind rushing at him seemed to brush against his skin first.

"Clang!" The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out abruptly, and then sparks flew from the point where the blades met. The two slashing weapons were forcibly parried by the spears of the flanking guards beside Ma Tongji. Before the enemy could thrust again, Ma Tongji raised his blade once more and swept it viciously toward the opponents.

Accompanied by a blood-curdling scream, a severed arm, still tightly gripping a tachi, drifted down to the ground. The bloodstains on Ma Tongji's body increased by quite a bit more.

The shogunate soldiers nearby were also splattered with blood. The thick, cloying smell of blood jolted them awake from their frenzy. A few men halted their steps and weapons, standing dumbly in place, staring at the Great Han soldiers charging toward them. In the blurry darkness, these red-clad soldiers, their bodies also drenched in blood, set against the firelight behind them, looked exactly like demons that had walked out of hell.

Courage forcibly drummed up, once exhausted, almost immediately transforms into bottomless terror.

"Wah!" Abruptly, some could no longer bear the pressure. They either threw down their weapons or simply fled wildly backward with blades still in hand, even faster than they had charged forward moments before.

And under the resolute resistance of Ma Tongji and his men, the shogunate soldiers who had charged into the Great Han army's formation suffered massive casualties, and the battle line became solid once more. Due to the extremely harsh exploitation by their lords and the influence of religious beliefs, aside from a minority of samurai, most of the conscripted ashigaru and peasant soldiers had not eaten meat since childhood. Being very small and thin, they could not compare in physical strength to the well-supplied Great Han officers and soldiers.

The only thing they could rely on was the chaos brought by the night. Once they had fought with all their might in the darkness and still failed to break the Great Han army facing them, their courage was completely lost. The deaths of their comrades could not stir their hatred, only bring them fear.

At first, only a scattered few fled, but their numbers quickly grew. Many simply scattered and fled in all directions, thinking only of using the night to escape this bloody battlefield, not even wanting to withdraw and return to their own units to regroup.

"Don't run! Don't run!" The commander, Soga Koyū, bellowed several times, trying to rally these routed soldiers.

Because he had led the charge from the front just moments before, his body was covered in bloodstains and dust, his original appearance no longer discernible — only his eyes still gleamed brightly in the darkness.

When he had led his troops charging into the military formation, he had thought that the sacrifice of himself and his subordinates had finally brought a return, but he had not expected that the Great Han army, after being struck, would still be so tenacious in the dark of night, blocking his subordinates' assaults time and again.

He wanted to keep fighting to the death, but no matter how he blocked, threatened, or even drew his sword to cut down deserters, more and more men at the front kept fleeing, and he could see that the battle line was about to collapse.

"Why has the Elder Middle still not brought reinforcements!" His eyes bloodshot with fury, he raised his head to the sky and bellowed.

According to the original plan, because the front was limited, they had to attack in waves. So he would first lead the main force in a charge; as long as they achieved results, the Elder Middle Naitō Tadashige would bring the remaining men charging up along the same path to reinforce him and, incidentally, expand the gains. Yet he had been fighting desperately for so long, and no reinforcements had come up from behind — this infuriated him.

More and more men were retreating and fleeing. The army in red was pressing toward him at a slow pace. His eyes blood-red from slaughter, he no longer cared about these deserters. He took up his blade, wanting to charge forward and perish together with these detestable Han brigands.

But the men beside him held him back. "Magistrate! The Han brigands are too strong now — we must not throw eggs against a rock. Withdraw first! We can fight them to the death another day!"

"What other day will there ever be to fight to the death!"

How could Soga Koyū heed their words? He struggled desperately, trying to charge over, but the men beside him no longer tried to persuade him — they seized him and retreated.

And so, the Great Han army once again repelled the shogunate army's assault. This night would become a nightmare for many.

Well, we've reached the write-and-post-as-I-go stage. I'll gather five thousand characters per chapter to publish. If it's not up before midnight, then there's no update today. Thank you all for your support.