prosperous age

"Fire as soon as the Japanese get within range; don't wait until they move their cannons to our feet."

"Send me an artillery unit from the north, south, and west gates. They should have brought all their cannons here. Just keep a close watch on the other directions."

Standing atop the east gate of Datianzhuang, Liu Ting stared at the surging crowds outside the city and loudly gave the order.

The siege of Datianzhuang had been going on for a day. On the first day, several thousand Japanese pirates launched an attack from the east and north gates of Datianzhuang at the same time. However, it was all a human wave tactic, and a large number of light soldiers were used as expendable resources on the battlefield. In the meantime, a group of arquebusiers and cannons attacked the Ming soldiers on the city wall.

Such probing attacks naturally wouldn't have much impact on the city's defenses.

Qi Jiguang allocated ample ammunition to various locations, with musketeers firing in rows, various breech-loading cannons constantly attacking the dense crowds, and medium-sized cannons striking the Japanese troops in distant formations, causing them heavy losses.

However, this kind of probing attack was actually just a test of the city's defenses.

Clearly, the Ming army's powerful artillery fire made the Japanese army realize how difficult this battle would be.

So, on the second day, the Japanese pirates moved out more than a hundred cannons they had gathered, intending to concentrate them in one place, namely the East Gate, which was currently the most tense area, and use the cannons to create a gap in the city's defenses.

However, the Ming army would not allow the Japanese to set up their cannons. From a distance of several hundred paces from Daejeon Castle, the Ming army's general cannons began to call out names.

The Hongyi Cannon, a weapon that only became famous forty years later in the Battle of Jinzhou, finally began its legendary journey in Datianzhuang.

The Hongyi Cannon was a long-barreled muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon manufactured in Europe in the 16th century. It was introduced to China in the late Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty through shipwreck salvage and colonial trade, and was renamed Hongyi Cannon in the early Qing Dynasty.

Its gun body is spindle-shaped, about 3 meters long, with a caliber of 110-130 mm, and is equipped with trunnions, front sights and rear sights, with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers.

However, the missiles brought to Japan by the Ming army were slightly shorter in size, with a maximum range of only 3 li (approximately 1.5 kilometers). Even so, they still greatly surprised the Japanese.

The cannons were fired too far. The Japanese's largest cannons, the three "super" cannons they called "National Collapse," had a range of less than 2 miles and were not very accurate.

The cannons that the barbarians sold to the Japanese were old-fashioned and outdated weapons that the barbarians had discarded, and their service life was not long.

Some cannons originally had sights and rear sights, but they deliberately ground them off and did not teach how to operate the cannons.

Therefore, they do not yet know how to calculate the trajectory and can only fire based on experience.

On the Ming army's side, they initially wanted to develop their own general cannons, but the Ministry of Works lacked experience and the results were not good.

After discovering cannons similar to those on the foreign ships, the craftsmen from the Ministry of Works entered the moat and learned the method of casting cannons from the Gaobujialao cannon foundry. They also learned how to aim cannons from the foreign craftsmen, and thus acquired basic cannon-handling skills.

After repeated testing, the artillerymen within the Ming army have now mastered a simple aiming method, so their cannon fire is quite accurate.

As the Japanese pirates were carrying cannons down to the city walls, the four general cannons kept pointing out the names of the cannons that the pirates were bringing up.

As for the dense Japanese army formations around them, they were ignored; they simply fired the large cannons at them.

This technological advantage, caused by the generational gap in weaponry, makes warfare very easy.

However, it wasn't so easy to stop the Japanese army from getting close by deploying hundreds of cannons at once.

Fortunately, even when they got close, the Ming army still had a large number of breech-loading cannons on the city walls. The large and medium-sized breech-loading cannons opened fire one after another, and the rate of fire was very fast.

By the time the Japanese army had actually set up their cannons and were ready to fire, only about thirty of the more than one hundred cannons they had brought up were still usable.

The other cannons were either hit and destroyed by Ming army shells, or the gunners were killed and had to be pulled back.

These days, for the Japanese who regard firearms as divine weapons, gunners are also considered a high-tech military branch. Those who don't know how to use them dare not even touch them, for fear of breaking them.

Moreover, the Japanese themselves knew that without skilled gunners, even if their cannons were brought to the city walls, they would only be sending their men to the Ming army as live targets.

Just over an hour later, Kobayakawa Takakage issued the order to retreat.

The battle was hopeless. The thirty-odd cannons that had been set up were repeatedly bombarded by the Ming army's artillery in less than half an hour. Either the cannons were hit and deformed, or the gunners were killed or wounded.

There were no incidents of gunpowder being hit and detonated. In those days, black powder had a great explosive power when ignited, but it also had a high ignition point and was not easy to ignite unless there was a special detonator.

During this era, both the Ming Dynasty in the East and European countries in the West had very primitive technology for exploding bullets, and their power was very limited. Therefore, in actual use, they would rather use solid shot, shotgun shells, or chain shot than use those unsafe exploding bullets.

Seeing the good results, Liu Ting even ordered the gunners to load a few chain shot bullets and fire at the Japanese to test the effect.

The artillery shells of this era were mainly solid shot and grapeshot, which is easy to understand. However, the navy also used chain shot, which was not widely used in the army.

Chain shot was a special weapon widely used in the era of sailing warships. It consisted of two small-caliber solid projectiles connected by an iron chain, which destroyed the sails and masts of enemy ships by rotating at high speed.

Even in naval battles of the 18th and 19th centuries, naval fleets often used chain shot to destroy enemy sails, combined with single-column broadside bombardment tactics to block enemy ship maneuverability and create favorable conditions for subsequent attacks.

The Ming Dynasty's army did not originally have this, but when they sailed eastward, Qi Jiguang and Liu Ting learned about naval tactics on the ship and saw these cannonballs connected by chains.

What they were thinking about was the effect of the chain flying, and if it was used well, whether it could become a weapon that could sweep across the battlefield.

However, the navy was familiar with this weapon and believed that it wouldn't be very effective.

Despite the navy's words, Liu Ting still asked the navy for some cannonballs, intending to test their effectiveness on the battlefield.

Thus, on this battlefield, Ming Dynasty gunners also used chain shot, which was only used in naval battles.

After a few shots, Liu Ting shook his head and said, "Tell them to stop firing; chain shot won't work."

At this time, besides a pile of corpses left under the city wall, the able-bodied Japanese had already retreated. The only ones still able to move on the battlefield were those Japanese whose limbs had been broken and who could only crawl backward.

Liu Ting did not intend to have the musketeers call out names for these people; he would leave it to their own fate.

If they can climb back, they're lucky to be alive.

However, in Liu Ting's opinion, even if these people went back, they wouldn't be treated well; they would definitely be abandoned and left to fend for themselves.

On the battlefield, no one will pity the wounded, because their injuries are too severe to be treated.

Staying behind will only drain manpower and resources, especially medicine and food.

Moreover, the cries of the wounded can also affect morale.

The fact that the Japanese didn't take these people with them when they retreated is something that could have been expected.

Well, ancient warfare was just that brutal.

If we win, we might even wait until they die and have their ashes taken back with us.

If they lose, they will simply be buried underground. Perhaps a few hundred years later, real estate development will dig them up again, reminding people that a great battle once took place nearby.

"General, the count has been completed. Our army has suffered eleven dead and more than two hundred wounded."

Just as Liu Ting was gazing at the battlefield outside the city, his deputy came up and quietly reported the Ming army's casualties.

"Send them into the city for proper treatment." Liu Ting's expression remained unchanged. In this battle, the Japanese pirates suffered over a thousand casualties, perhaps exceeding two thousand and approaching three thousand. The casualty ratio between the two sides was roughly one to ten, a result that was still acceptable.

As for why there were losses even when the battle was going smoothly, it was undoubtedly because they were hit by the Japanese army's arquebuses and cannons, and perhaps some were just unlucky enough to be hit by those cannons.

That night, during the Japanese pirates' night raid, several Ming soldiers died from being hit on the head by cannonballs, and more than thirty were injured.

In such a major battle, these casualties are unavoidable.

After all, the Japanese pirates on the other side were not an army armed with cold weapons; they were equipped with firearms and longbows.

Fortunately, their longbowmen were scattered by the cannons at a distance; otherwise, if they had formed a line and launched volleys at the city wall, the Ming army would have suffered even greater losses.

"Immediately report this to the commander-in-chief. If the Japanese pirates continue to reinforce their troops, the few thousand people in our city may not be enough."

With the battle dragged on to this point, the Ming army had lost 300 men and was only able to defend one city. Naturally, Liu Ting needed to assess the strength of his remaining troops.

If this were during the Ming Dynasty, it could also arm the able-bodied men in the city.

But this is Japan, where the able-bodied men are gathered and guarded before going to war, and they are absolutely not allowed to roam freely in the city.

War is not easy to fight.

We only hope that Commander Qi can send another troop of soldiers to Datian City. We don't need many, two thousand men would be enough. It would be even better if they could bring an artillery unit.

Manpower is the biggest obstacle the Ming army is currently facing; they are severely lacking in manpower.

"Have the cooks slaughter pigs and sheep to reward the soldiers."

Having won another battle, it's only right to treat the soldiers to a good meal and reward them properly.

For the next period of time, the enticing aroma of meat filled the entire city of Daejeon.

As for the Japanese corpses outside the city, the Ming army sent a message to the Japanese, allowing them to send a hundred men to collect the bodies.

Actually, I'm not worried about the corpses rotting in this weather, but it's still unsettling to see them displayed outside the city.

The Japanese didn't say much this time; they simply sent men with large carts to slowly gather the corpses from the outside in.

The Ming army, after watching them collect the bodies and roughly tallying the casualties, estimated that well over two thousand men had been killed.

Another victory report was quickly delivered to the rear by a messenger on horseback. At this time, Qi Jiguang had just received the previous urgent report from Datianzhuang, which was the news of the Japanese pirates' movements. The report on the night raid had not yet arrived.

After all, the weather was bad, so messengers didn't go out alone, but in small teams of five. This was partly to prevent them from being ambushed by Japanese pirates, and partly so that they could take turns on guard duty in the wilderness.

Although this is China, it is ultimately not the Ming Dynasty.

"My lord, this is a message from Ota Village. The Japanese pirates may have chosen Ota Village as their target to break through our defenses."

In Niaogen City, Qi Jiguang, carrying the battle report he had just received, sought an audience with Wang Xijue, the military commander.

After reading the urgent report from Datianzhuang, Wang Xijue asked with a smile, "In that case, what does Commander Qi intend to do? Send reinforcements?"

Qi Jiguang's rank was naturally higher than Wang Xijue's. Wang Xijue was only a second-rank official, while Qi Jiguang was a first-rank military officer. Qi Jiguang held a position in the Five Armies Commandery based on his military achievements.

However, as the highest-ranking commander of the war zone appointed by the imperial court, Qi Jiguang, who had a higher rank, became Wang Xijue's subordinate.

When Wang Xijue met Qi Jiguang, he also used the title that officers used for Qi Jiguang, calling him "General Qi".

Well, this made Qi Jiguang feel a little flattered, and he guessed that it might be related to the capital. Anyway, he just had to be respectful and dared not show any arrogance in front of Wang Xijue.

Qi Jiguang got up and walked to one side of the main room, where a simple map of Japan was hanging.

Despite its simplicity, it was actually a very detailed map for that era, showing the garrison layout of various Ming army units, including the defensive lines set up by Qi Jiguang.

There are only two such pictures, one in his general's hall and the other right here.

Seeing Qi Jiguang go over, Wang Xijue also got up and followed, standing next to Qi Jiguang.

"My lord, I deliberately left the location of Ota Manor there. Originally, we only needed to occupy Tsuda to make the entire defense line more complete."

However, this makes it harder for us to predict the points of attack by the Japanese pirates. Although Ota Village is also a good place to station troops, defending the surrounding Tsuda Village and the last three areas in the south could also be effective.

However, this means we need to strengthen our defense in three areas.

Qi Jiguang began to explain his original plan: occupying Datianzhuang was intended to draw the Japanese pirates' attacks there, so that the Ming army could focus its defenses on one city. This was also the reason why he kept reinforcing Datianzhuang with troops.

Not only did Liu Ting have his original 3,000 men, but he also later added a battalion of 2,000 men to support him, mobilized five artillery units with more than 100 cannons of various sizes, and stockpiled a lot of ammunition and food.

"Since the Japanese pirates seem to have this place as their target as well, I plan to continue to reinforce Daejeon and fight this decisive battle with the Japanese pirates in Daejeon."

If we can thwart the Japanese pirates' westward advance here, we can fulfill the imperial court's strategy and negotiate with the Japanese.

"Using the existing borders to define the territory ceded to our Ming Dynasty by Japan will also facilitate future defense."

Qi Jiguang had already prepared his explanation on the way there. Since the Japanese were also acting according to his plan, he decided to go with the flow.

How many more troops do you plan to send?

Wang Xijue asked the question.

"First, we'll send a battalion of two thousand men, and then two artillery units with more than thirty cannons. One of them is a new-style tiger-squatting artillery unit. I think Liu Ting should be able to get through the winter there without any problems."

After spring arrives, two more battalions will be transferred there, allowing the officers and soldiers originally stationed in Datian to rest.

Qi Jiguang said in a low voice.

"If that's the case, there won't be many reserves left."

Wang Xijue replied.

"Yes, but it's alright. In addition to the reserved infantry and cavalry battalions, the South China Sea Navy also has a marine battalion of 3,000 men. These 10,000 troops are the final reserve force. Those battalions can also be transferred to Datianzhuang as needed."

Qi Jiguang spoke.

He left behind an infantry battalion and a cavalry battalion, which he personally trained, totaling more than 6,000 men, as well as a marine battalion trained by Yu Dayou. This force of 10,000 men had all fought in actual combat and had experience in the grasslands and Burma.

With this army at his command, even if the Japanese broke through the Ming army's defenses, he was confident that he could defeat them with his powerful firepower.

"I will also submit a memorial to the court later, requesting that the court send another 10,000 reinforcements."

Wang Xijue thought for a moment and finally spoke. (End of Chapter)