Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 304 Reinforcements are coming
On the eastern section of the city wall of Fengji Fort, an unknown artillery team was firing in an orderly manner at the enemy troops outside the moat.

After firing a shot, the sergeant who was also the gunner immediately grabbed the handle of the sub-gun that was tilted on the belly wall of the gun, took out the No. 2 sub-gun from the belly, and then handed it to the artilleryman A beside him.

Artilleryman A took the empty No. 2 cannon, cleaned the barrel, and then placed it on the open ground to cool. He then took the empty No. 1 cannon that was placed next to it and went to the loading area near the parapet.

At this time, Artilleryman B, who was in charge of loading the gunpowder, had already untied the fixed charge bag and was pouring the powder into the No. 3 sub-gun. However, Artilleryman C, who was responsible for assisting him in loading the gunpowder, was so nervous that his hands were shaking. His hands were shaking, and the muzzle he was holding was swaying with it.

"Hold it steady! Don't shake it!" Artilleryman B said to Artilleryman C impatiently, "The Tartars haven't even climbed up the wall yet, and you're shaking like that. If they did, you'd probably pee yourself."

"Just don't get the gunpowder wet." Artilleryman A joked.

"Hurry up! What are you chattering about?" The gunner saw his men's mouths moving, but he couldn't hear what they were saying.

Seeing the sergeant's displeasure, Artilleryman B raised his dark right hand and slapped Artilleryman C on the head. He immediately transferred the gunpowder stuck to his hand onto Artilleryman C's hat. "If even a little bit of this gunpowder gets spilled, I'll throw you, a brainless idiot, off the parapet."

"Okay." Even after being slapped, Artilleryman C didn't react at all.

Artilleryman C was one of the new recruits recruited in Jizhou by Wen Qiu, the Governor of Ji and Liaodong, last autumn and sent to Liaodong. Despite all the training he'd received over the past six months, and his ability to load explosives was quick and steady, that was only on the training ground. On the battlefield, hearing the constant roar of cannons, the roars, and the faint wails, his heart still couldn't stop pounding.

He was terrified, so terrified that he could hardly think, and could only mechanically hold the warm cannon wall with his hands. Although his body was still shaking, he managed to keep his hands steady.

Artilleryman B nodded with satisfaction, and took this opportunity to pinch the mouth of the powder bag with his left hand, then lifted it lightly with his right hand and poured the gunpowder into the barrel.

The cannon they were tending was only medium-sized, even for a Portuguese gun. It didn't use much gunpowder, so after pouring it in, they pounded it twice with a wooden pestle to compact it. Once compacted, they inserted a cannonball, pounded it twice more to embed it in the gunpowder, and the cannon was complete.

"Stupid guy! What are you thinking about? Let go!" Artilleryman B wanted to hand the No. 3 sub-cannon to Artilleryman A, but saw that Artilleryman C was still holding the gun barrel.

"Oh." Artilleryman C responded, nodded blankly, and quickly let go.

"You're so stupid." Artilleryman B handed the No. 3 cannonball upright to Artilleryman A, and took the empty No. 1 cannonball from him. "Here, hold it steady!" Artilleryman B shoved the still-hot No. 1 cannonball into Artilleryman C's hand and then took a new powder bag from the barrel.

This half-person-high barrel contains a hundred standard medicine bags, all for their artillery team.

"Here it comes!" Artilleryman A returned to his position, thrust the No. 3 sub-cannon directly into the belly of the gun, and placed the handle against the gun wall. This way, the firing port was exposed towards the sky.

The gunner curled his lips helplessly, and under the guidance of the fire soldier who also served as an observer, he slightly adjusted the muzzle of the gun and aimed it at the area with the largest number of enemy troops. After completing the adjustment, the gunner nodded to the fire soldier.

The fireman understood, pulled out a red-hot iron rod from the brazier, and inserted it steadily into the fire door.

Hiss! The gunpowder burned rapidly, generating a large amount of gas in the barrel of the secondary gun, propelling the projectile forward. As the projectile entered the main gun, the gas partially escaped from the gap between the secondary gun and the barrel, dispersing randomly. The remaining gas continued along the barrel, propelling the projectile forward, and overflowed the muzzle before the projectile.

Boom! The shell flew out of the gun, slanting upwards and tracing an elegant parabola across the sky. Then, the gunner took out the sub-cannon and prepared to hand it to Artilleryman A to begin the cycle of cleaning, loading, tamping, and firing. Suddenly, the artilleryman exclaimed, "Hit!"

The porter's airtightness was poor, and its accuracy and range were inferior to those of a muzzle-loader. Even with a sight, it was impossible to hit the target precisely. However, experienced artillerymen could estimate the approximate area where the bullet would hit. Therefore, while waiting to reload, the artillerymen would look out to determine the impact point so they could coordinate with the gunners to adjust the gun's position.

Their position had been firing blanks all the time, and suddenly they hit someone. It was hard for the artillery soldiers not to be excited.

"What?" But the gunner seemed indifferent. He glanced curiously at the firing hole, but apart from basic avoidance, he didn't see any major commotion, so he retracted his head again.

The artilleryman thought the gunner didn't believe him, so he quickly said, "I saw it with my own eyes! The cannonball smashed into the enemy line that had turned back! It knocked a man off the ground as soon as it entered!"

"Maybe it was someone else who fired it." The artilleryman saw it clearly, the gunner saw it thoroughly. As long as the enemy soldiers didn't climb the wall and didn't fight back, firing the cannon was just a mechanical and repetitive job.

"At that time, only our artillery shells penetrated the enemy lines." He had just finished speaking when two more shells flew in that direction, one of which hit someone again. The man was almost thrown sideways, most likely not surviving.

"Tsk," the gunner shrugged. "Does it matter? It's not our turn to cut off those fifty-liang heads anyway." Despite saying this, he still poked his head out to observe the enemy's situation. By then, most of the Jin soldiers had completely escaped the Portuguese cannon's range. Only about two hundred were surrounded and attacked by Li Bingcheng and his armored retainers.

After watching for about a minute, Artilleryman A came back and stuffed the loaded No. 1 cannon into the belly of the gun.

"Still fighting?" Huo Bing hesitated.

"Let's wait a little longer. If we light another fire, we might hit our own people." Just as the gunner finished speaking, the garrison officer's roar came over.

"Cease fire! Everyone, cease fire! Stop firing!" The garrison officer continued to shout while running.

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"Retreat!" Li Bingcheng was multitasking, constantly killing the enemy while keeping an eye on the enemy's vanguard. Seeing the heavy cavalry of the Jin soldiers returning despite the bombardment, he decisively ordered a retreat.

Li Bingcheng's attack was done in a flash, with only five minutes between stopping, charging, killing and retreating.

He was already very satisfied to be able to use the momentum of the artillery to charge and kill for a while under the city. As long as most of the Jin soldiers did not attack the city and collect the corpses on the ground, he would be able to harvest a lot of heads.

Compared to Jibukeda's fishhook-like turn, Li Bingcheng's retreat was far more orderly. Who would retreat first, who would follow, who would cover the rear—everything was perfectly planned. It was almost too smooth. Li Bingcheng led his troops to the outer formations of the fortress. Seeing the defenses deployed as neatly as they had been trained, with no major disturbances, he nodded in satisfaction. But Li Bingcheng couldn't smile. He knew that even after fighting for so long under the city walls, he wasn't triumphant, but rather being pushed back bit by bit by the Jin soldiers. The forts between Fengji and Fushun were likely completely captured. He had lost all his spies and could only retreat and wait for help.

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At the same time that Li Bingcheng led his troops into the city, Nurhaci, the Heavenly Mandate Khan of the Great Jin Dynasty, was looking out at the battlefield below the fortress from a watchtower three miles northwest of Fengji Fort.

Nurhaci led his right wing elite cavalry here to prepare for a joint attack and annihilation of the enemy only after receiving the news from Huang Taiji. However, when he arrived, the Ming and Jin armies had not yet collided with each other. Instead, they were in a state of chasing each other and fleeing, with cannons firing from the city walls. So he did not lead his troops over, but stood far away on this so-called high hill, overlooking the battlefield.

The position of this tower was very good. Not only could one see the entire battlefield, but also the flames on the city walls. When the lights on the city walls stopped flickering and only clusters of fire remained, Nurhaci knew that the Ming army had stopped firing.

"Report!" The man who came was Bayala Jiala Ezhen of the Plain White Banner, a hereditary guerrilla commander of the Great Jin Dynasty and one of the Sixteen Ministers of the Eight Banners, Dong'e Xiertai. If Huang Taiji hadn't personally led his elite troops into battle, he would be the one running around Fengji City right now.

"Come up." Nurhaci hooked his hand at Xiertai.

"Your servant pays homage to the Khan of Heavenly Mandate, the Great Prince." Xiertai quickly stepped onto the still smoking platform. Even though he was wearing full armor and had difficulty moving, he still kowtowed firmly to Nurhaci as a sign of his obedience.

Long before Nurhaci arrived, the beacon fires originally lit by the garrison had burned out, and the Jin army replaced them with the original ones. Nurhaci, a former deputy governor and general of the Ming Dynasty, was well aware of the meaning of these signals and knew that only the changing smoke signals could convey effective information.

"Why are you here?" Nurhaci motioned Xiertai to stand up and speak.

"Report to Tianming Khan, Grand Prince," Xiertai said. "The scouts reported that reinforcements are coming from the direction of Hupi."

Nurhaci was still looking in the direction of Fengji, looking at a group of cavalry moving towards the main camp and said, "Call Dege, Yuetuo and Shuotuo to me." There is no special first-person pronoun "I" in the Jurchen language, so even after he established the title of Khan, Nurhaci's self-proclaimed name did not change at all.

"I obey your command." Xiertai was about to leave but was stopped by Nurhaci.

"Stop, I didn't ask you to go." Nurhaci turned around. He wanted to ask his servant to go, but after seeing Daishan, he immediately changed his mind. "You go."

Daishan was obviously stunned for a moment before he said, "Yes, Great Khan."

The already tense atmosphere made this little incident even more weighty. After Daishan left, Xiertai cautiously asked, "Does the Khan have any other instructions for this servant?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Nurhaci's displeasure was clearly written on his face. "Just saying something so nonsense is considered reporting military intelligence?"

Xiertai was terrified and was about to kneel down again. "I am stupid."

Nurhaci waved his hands impatiently. "How many Ming reinforcements have arrived? Are they infantry or cavalry? Under whose banner are they flying? Which banner is closest to the left wing?"

"Oh!" Xiertai knelt down again. "We don't know exactly how many reinforcements there are, we only know they're everywhere." "Everywhere" was the original words of the Jin army's cavalry scouts. Seeing the enemy cavalry were so numerous, they didn't dare to get close enough to investigate, so they just observed from a distance and retreated.

But even so, there were casualties. A lone soldier reported that three of them were traveling together and encountered 200 Ming soldiers. Two of them were killed and the soldiers were still far away.

Xiertai's mind had become more active by then. He knew that this answer would certainly not satisfy Nurhaci, so he speculated, "There should be several thousand cavalrymen, seemingly out in force. The flags have the word 'red' embroidered on them, and the ones closest to them are our Zhengbai Banner."

"Zhu Na is the deputy general Zhu Wanliang who has come with his troops in person." Nurhaci took off his helmet and scratched his scalp around the rat's tail, which slightly relieved the itchiness caused by not taking a bath for several days.

"Have Zhu Wanliang's spies discovered you?" Nurhaci asked again.

"Reporting to the Khan," Xiertai replied immediately, "Before the Fourth Prince led his troops into battle, he specifically ordered me to send additional cavalry scouts to repel the enemy spies. Therefore, we haven't seen any enemy cavalry approaching to observe."

"Well. Stand up." Nurhaci nodded slightly and stopped asking questions.

Degelei was in the Plain Yellow Banner formation led by Nurhaci himself, so he came over quickly after receiving the order. Yuetuo and Shuotuo were in the Bordered Red Banner formation, so after a while, they came to Nurhaci's side under the leadership of Daishan.

For a moment, seven important officials of the Jin Dynasty were standing on this small platform.

"No need to salute." Nurhaci looked calm and composed, as if he had not heard the report of the enemy's approaching troops.

"Thank you, Great Khan." After expressing his gratitude verbally, Degelei led Yuetuo and Shuotuo to stand aside with their heads bowed, waiting for Nurhaci's instructions.

"Reinforcements from Hupiyi have arrived." Nurhaci didn't try to feint at the idea of ​​a fight, but instead gave the order: "Dergelei. I want you to lead all the Bayara of the Plain Yellow Banner and an equal number of short-armored light cavalry, along with all the cavalry of the Bordered Red Banner, to the left flank to drive out Zhu Wanliang's forces. You decide how to proceed. I have only one request: do not act rashly. Yuetuo and Shuotuo will lead the troops of the Bordered Red Banner." At this point, Nurhaci turned to Yuetuo and Shuotuo. "You two must obey Dergelei. If you return victorious, I will hand over the Bordered Red Banner to you for joint management."

Daishan, who was standing by, was shocked when he heard this.

"Grand Prince, do you have any different opinions?" Nurhaci turned his head slightly and glanced at Daishan out of the corner of his eyes.

Daishan was frightened away by this almost icy look. "No, the Khan is wise." His back immediately felt wet. He suddenly remembered that when Nurhaci ordered the imprisonment of his elder brother Chu Ying, he seemed to have had the same look.

"Go ahead." Nurhaci withdrew his gaze and said to Xiertai, "The Fourth Prince should be back soon. Send him to see me."

(End of this chapter)