The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 20 Bombardment
Qiao Yiqi, who was in charge of supervising the artillery, finally waited for the best opportunity to attack the bandits.

More than 2,000 Zhenyi warriors of the Bordered Blue Banner waited for the Baoyi Aha to disrupt the Ming army's formation, then lined up in a strict and orderly formation, and accelerated their charge towards the Ming army's line at the loud shouts of the Niulu Ezhen.

The Zhenyi soldiers were approaching like a wall, gradually approaching a position three hundred steps in front of Qiao Yiqi and were about to enter the range of the Franco-Machine Cannon.

Standing at Qiao Yiqi's position and looking down the mountain, he could see the entire situation of the position.

Two days ago, the auxiliary troops built artillery marks with stone pestles, marking the distances from 300 steps to 100 steps with stone pestles of different shapes.

Teams of Zhenyi warriors armed with shields and swords were walking past the stone pestle, chasing the lone Ming army spearmen in front. Some of them were Bayalas with small blue flags on their backs, riding their horses to guard the left and right sides, maintaining the order of the warriors' line.

Qiao Yiqi, born into a family of prominent officials in Jiangnan, was a successful military scholar in the 32nd year of the Wanli Emperor's reign. From a young age, he was a knight-errant, practicing swordsmanship and arguing about military matters. During the Wanli Emperor's campaign to aid Korea, he recruited local militiamen from his hometown, preparing to serve the country. However, he was falsely accused of treason by his enemies and imprisoned. Fortunately, he was rescued by Yuan Keli, and met with benefactors such as Xiong Tingbi and Zhang Ti, who transferred him to Xuanfu as a garrison commander.

In the original history, after the Liaodong Incident, Qiao Yiqi was recommended by Kechen to be the military supervisor of the East Route. When Liu Jing was defeated, he led the remaining troops to retreat to Dishui Cliff. The Koreans wanted to capture him and report his achievements to the Later Jin Dynasty. Qiao Yiqi committed suicide in anger and ended his legendary life on the battlefield of Sarhu.

This Mr. Qiao was not only skilled in archery and horse riding, but also proficient in calligraphy. He was from the same hometown as big names such as Dong Qichang and Yuan Keli, and was also related by marriage. In the late Ming Dynasty where party struggles were frequent, the power behind this man should not be underestimated.

The reason why Liu Zhaosun persuaded his adoptive father to arrange for Qiao Yiqi to guard the artillery position and let Master Qiao stay in a relatively safe position was, on the one hand, because he admired Qiao Yiqi's character, and on the other hand, he wanted to establish good relations with the civil officials in Jiangnan to leave a way for his future development.

"Master Qiao! The Portuguese cannon, the General Cannon, and the Weiyuan Cannon are all ready! They can be fired at any time!"

The thin artillery captain trotted up to the military supervisor, stamped his feet and shouted, saying that these Ming army artillerymen fired cannons frequently and their ears were not working well, so they usually spoke in such a loud voice.

Qiao Yiqi saw the disastrous defeat of Baoyi Aha in the charge just now, and couldn't help but sigh that a real man should be like this. Just when he was immersed in the classical fantasy of attacking the Huanglong and sweeping away the holes and plowing the courtyard, he was suddenly awakened by this captain and was frightened.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Kill all these ruthless Tartars who betrayed the emperor's grace! Don't save your ammunition. After we kill Amin, I will go to Hetuala and kill the chieftain with my own hands!"

The thin captain was shocked by the righteous spirit emanating from the military supervisor and said quickly:

"Sir! We still have some spearmen fighting the Tartars. If the cannonballs hit them, I'm afraid..."

After hearing this, Qiao Yiqi stepped forward, grabbed the collar of the general's mandarin duck jacket, and lifted him up:

"As a general, you must not be soft-hearted. If the Zhejiang army's formation is broken, we will surely die! Do you want the Tartars to break our army? Do you want me to report you and kill all your clans? If not, then fire now!"

The thin captain had never encountered such a ferocious civil servant. He was almost strangled to death. He gasped for breath, shook his head like a rattle, and turned around and trotted away.

"fire!"

The twelve Weiyuan cannons were like ferocious beasts, emitting low roars and spewing out tongues of fire and white smoke. The 3 jin cannonballs rotated at high speed, passed over the slightly messy phalanx of spearmen in front, and slammed heavily into the line of the Blue Banner soldiers.

The barrel of this artillery piece is like a huge vase. In order to reduce weight, the barrel has no iron hoop. When in the field, it is mounted on a wooden gun carriage and can move with the army. The gun carriage is equipped with an anchor hook and is fixed to the ground when firing to ensure that the huge recoil will not injure the gunner.

Each Weiyuan cannon is equipped with three gunners. There is a piston on the firing port to prevent it from being splashed by rain. When loaded with large cannonballs, it can be effectively aimed within 200 steps and can also cause casualties. When loaded with small lead bullets, a total of 100 bullets can be loaded, and the small lead bullets can reach 400 steps, with a bullet dispersion area of about 40 steps.

This firearm, which was improved by Qi Jiguang during the Jiajing period, was considered a veritable antique by the end of the Wanli period. Apart from its slightly longer range, it had no other advantages.

At this time, the Ming army artillery battalions were generally equipped with falconets, which had faster firing speeds, higher accuracy, and better heat dissipation.

This time, Liu Jing led the southern troops to come to the rescue from a thousand miles away. Carrying firearms was inconvenient, so when they arrived in Shenyang, Yang Hao issued the Eastern Route Army only antiques like the Weiyuan Cannon. The Francois also issued some, but the number was far less than that of Du Song, Ma Lin and others.

Qiao Yiqi looked in the direction of the Weiyuan cannon with a complicated expression. He had seen all kinds of Portuguese cannons in the south and was very disdainful of these old cannons in front of him.

In this round of firing, two cannons misfired, but fortunately no barrels exploded. The remaining ten shells were all fired, of which only three fell into the Later Jin army, and the remaining seven flew away to an unknown place.

Two shells hit the rear row of the Later Jin army directly, plowing a long blood groove in the dense crowd. After piercing the bodies of five or six Zhenyi armored soldiers, they finally landed next to a white-armored soldier who was supervising the battle. The lucky white-armored soldier was so scared that his face turned pale.

The remaining shell hit a spearman, breaking his calf, and continued to roll into the Later Jin army. A Later Jin sword and shield soldier raised his cowhide shield to try to block it, but the shell pierced the shield, smashed his head into pieces, and flew away at an angle.

The originally tight front seemed to be suddenly cut off. After a brief period of chaos, a dozen or so Zhenyi came up from behind, filled the gaps left by the dead, and continued to charge forward.

Qiao Yiqi looked at the results of the artillery bombardment at the foot of the mountain, and his previous displeasure disappeared, revealing a proud look. He had not expected that the Weiyuan cannon could be so sharp against dense battle formations.

"Keep bombarding, don't stop!"

The thin captain hesitated for a moment, and when he was sure that it was the military supervisor calling him, he quickly ran to Qiao Yiqi with a big smile on his face.

"Sir! What did you just say?!"

Qiao Yiqi felt like her eardrums were about to be deafened. She suppressed her anger and said to him:

"This master told you to keep firing!"

There was a strange sound of the Blue Banner charging in the distance, and the surroundings were a bit noisy.

"What did the master say?"

"I say, keep firing!" Qiao Yiqi's neck turned red. He caught a glimpse of the spearmen still retreating out of the corner of his eye, and he felt very anxious.

The artillery battalion commander finally heard clearly this time. He bowed to Qiao Yiqi and shook his head.

"Master! The barrel needs to cool down and the barrel is being cleaned. Please wait a moment."

Qiao Yiqi was anxious and angry, and said angrily:

"What about the other guns? Use the Francois machine."

The captain hesitated for a moment before realizing that the military supervisor knew very little about artillery, otherwise he would not dare to stand so close to it for fear of being killed by the exploding barrel.

"Master, the falconets that Shenyang gave us have a range of only 400 steps. We don't have enough ammunition. We have to wait until the Jiannu get closer before we fire. If we fire randomly, we'll be gone!"

"Keep firing! Otherwise I'll chop you down right now! Get out!"

Qiao Yiqi drew out the imperial sword, and the general was so frightened that he ran away.

Qiao Yiqi was in a bad mood. If he could return to the capital alive, he would definitely impeach Yang Hao and execute his entire family.

He looked up and saw the black mass of the Blue Banner Zhenyi continuing to charge into the spearmen's line, unstoppable. The Zhejiang army's formation was in danger of collapse.

Guerrilla General Deng Qilong, dressed in the court dress of a fourth-rank military officer, was anxiously running between the camps, shouting at his subordinates to form a formation to resist the enemy. A few white arrow feathers could be vaguely seen sticking out of his chain mail.

"A brave general should be like this!"

Looking down at the ground, the Korean gunners who were hiding at the foot of the mountain and firing calmly, saw that the situation was not good, and they all climbed out of the trench screaming like frightened birds, preparing to escape. After being chopped down several times by Liu Jing's servants who were supervising the battle behind them, they returned to the trench.

In front of the trench, Liu Zhaosun stood on his horse, looking up at the results of the artillery fire in the distance, feeling quite satisfied.

After the first round of artillery fire, fifty of the soldiers of the Bordered Blue Banner were killed or wounded, and their morale dropped a lot.

Just when Liu Zhaosun was feeling proud, he suddenly heard a dull explosion behind him.

The artillery camp behind him was in chaos. The barrel of an Invincible General cannon exploded, and the two gunners were riddled with bullet holes and killed on the spot.

Several gunners at the nearby gun position were hit by flying wood chips from the gun carriage. They covered their faces, wailed in pain, and rolled on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the Ming army lost more than a dozen gunners. The remaining gunners stood far away and dared not fire again even though Lord Qiao whipped them with a whip.

Liu Zhaosun had long known that the Ming army's firearms were of poor quality, but he didn't expect to be so unlucky to encounter them.

The Invincible General Cannon was a breech-loading falconet-type cannon, loaded with black powder. Because the quality and effectiveness of black powder at the time were inconsistent, resulting in low explosive power, unskilled gunners often increased the dosage to increase the range. This, combined with casting flaws in the barrel, often led to explosions.

As a time traveler, although I was prepared for the explosion, I still felt a little uncomfortable when it actually happened to me.

These were skilled gunners recruited from the south, some of whom had even learned firing techniques at the Bugalao Cannon Foundry in Macau. They were the top talents of this era, and every death was a welcome relief.

More than a dozen gunners were killed or injured in the explosion, which was a huge loss. Moreover, the explosion of the gun barrel on our side had an obvious impact on the morale of the army.

A terrifying thought suddenly flashed through Liu Zhaosun's mind: time travel may not necessarily change history.

If the Ming army's military system cannot be completely reformed, it will be impossible to improve the combat effectiveness of this classical army in a short period of time.

Thunderous cheers came from the Blue Banner formation. The Zhenyi people who had just been suppressed by artillery fire were waving their weapons and cheering, shouting words like "Heaven's Mandate" in the barbarian language.

The panicked spearmen were disturbed by the exploding rifles behind them, and their formation began to become chaotic.

To be fair, the strength of these Zhejiang soldiers was far from that of the Qi family army at its peak. Their military discipline was even more incomparable to that of the Qi family army. It was only their high morale that kept them fighting until now.

After suffering a series of blows, the barely maintained front finally collapsed.

The Zhenyi of the Bordered Blue Banner are all veterans of many battles, and they are keen to seize fleeting opportunities on the battlefield.

Seeing that the Ming army's spearmen's line showed signs of loosening, the Jiannu army immediately attacked like wolves, continuously expanding the breakthrough point.

In the middle of the front line, the casualties of the spearmen increased sharply, and the corpses of the Ming army piled up like a hill. Behind them, the Zhenyi soldiers continued to advance towards the center of the position along the opened gap.

Zhenyi, who broke into the center, did not rush forward, but instead moved sideways to flank the two wings.

Their combat intention was very clear, which was to surround the Ming army in front of them and completely annihilate it.

The troops of both sides were mixed together, the artillery of the Ming army was silenced, and the musketeers did not dare to continue firing. Only Liu Jing's servants and some Korean soldiers were still shooting with bows and arrows to provide support to the Zhejiang soldiers.

(End of this chapter)