The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

This sandbar was not far from the mouth of the Xiaoling River. With the strong winds from the sea and the rising tide at night propelling the ships, the group of more than 700 people, traveling on 61 boats of various sizes, arrived at the river mouth in about 15 minutes.

The rising tide flooded the river mouth, submerging many small sandbars, leaving only reeds exposed in some places, making the river appear much wider.

At the same time, Yuan Jin's fleet of more than a dozen large ships were also able to take advantage of the rising tide and venture a certain distance into the river mouth.

However, to avoid the large ship having tall masts and sails, and to prevent alerting the enemy and being spotted by the watchtowers in the Tartar camp, Yang Zhen and Yuan Jin decided to land in small boats in batches not far from the river mouth.

Yang Zhen led his musketeer squad on the left and right flanks, and they landed on the same river fork where they had docked the night before.

The ground was covered in water, but the water was shallow, only ankle-deep, and the ground beneath it was relatively firm.

Afterwards, Zhang Degui and his ten "gun-carrying team" and thirty men on the right wing of the artillery team, who had come ashore, carried their respective guns and cannons in twos and threes, and carried heavy ammunition on their backs. Under Yang Shen's command, they first formed a loose line, and then, with their feet sinking deep into the reeds, they followed behind Yang Zhen's musketeer team and marched into the depths of the reed beach.

Behind them, centipede-shaped boats moored beside the reed beds in the river tributaries, unloading batches of soldiers in the places where their predecessors had stood.

Between the reeds and the river branches, the water and the bank have become one, with no trace left by predecessors. Newcomers have nowhere to step and could easily fall into the water if they are not careful.

Fortunately, after Yang Zhen's advance artillery team carried the tiger-squatting cannons off the ship in groups of three and followed, the grenadier team led by Li Lu and Pan Xi also disembarked safely. They lined up briefly in the icy water that submerged their ankles and then quickly followed the path left by the team ahead, heading west.

Li Lu and Pan happy, leaders of the grenadier squad, each led a team westward side by side. Each soldier was covered with homemade bombs of varying sizes, filled with gunpowder, making them look more like a suicide squad.

Following the grenadier squad was Zukeyong's hundred dismounted "heavy cavalry"—each wearing an iron helmet, clad in heavy armor, carrying a bow and arrow, and with a long sword at their waist. They were all quiet, and apart from the sound of water splashing as they jumped off the boat, there was no other sound.

Once ashore, they didn't say a word, immediately formed a line, and then followed Zukeyong westward at high speed, clearly demonstrating their well-trained nature.

In stark contrast to Zukeyong's troops, Xu Changyong's three hundred Mongol soldiers were in disarray from the moment they disembarked—cursing and swearing because their legs were wet, pushing and shoving in the crowd because of the overcrowding, and struggling and calling for help because they had accidentally fallen into the river tributaries.

Although everyone kept their voices down and the noise wasn't loud, it still made Xu Changyong quite anxious.

As soon as Xu Changyong disembarked, he stood in the shallow water on the shore and ordered his men to assemble and line up in a low voice. He also instructed the squad leaders and platoon leaders he had assigned to control their men.

In this way, after gathering everyone and getting the team in order, it took more than fifteen minutes in the chaos, which made Xu Changyong so anxious that he stomped his feet.

Yuan Jin was so anxious that he ordered his men not to jump ashore to avoid causing even greater chaos.

Of course, Yang Zhen couldn't care less about the chaos behind him.

This was his first time organizing such a march and night raid, and he had no experience. Although he had arranged the marching sequence in advance, it was all just theory. To implement it well in practice, he needed extremely strong organizational and coordination skills, as well as extremely high military quality.

However, neither Yang Zhen nor his men possessed these two crucial qualities.

Fortunately, the unique terrain and the current special environment have allowed this large and disorganized team to remain intact.

In the end, with the successful landing of Yuan Jin's 200 naval battalions of "dared warriors" and their regrouping for westward advance, no unit managed to lose its way or fall behind in the chaos of the night.

The experienced Yuan Jin also left enough manpower to place the large number of centipede boats used to transport personnel and supplies in the reed marshes.

Just as Yuan Jin had settled his retreat and begun leading his troops westward, Yang Zhen, leading the first echelon of musketeers, had already reached the edge of the reed marshes.

Before him lay the same desolate grassland, the moonlight like water, the earth serene, with only the whistling wind blowing past his ears, stirring the reeds, the wild grass, and the distant black pine forest, causing them to sway and undulate incessantly.

After Yang Zhen ordered a final check of his muskets and ammunition, he immediately made his decision and said, "Zhang Chen will lead the left wing in front, Zhang Guogan will lead the right wing and follow me! Artillery and grenadiers, follow! Move out!"

As soon as Yang Zhen finished speaking, Zhang Chen, like a leopard that had been poised to pounce, crouched low and leaped out. The twenty musketeers on the left flank of the musketeer team following behind him quickly followed suit.

When the scouts returned last time, Zhang Chen had already informed all his men of the terrain and precautions for the night raid.

Everyone, including the right wing of the musketeers, the artillery, and the grenadiers, knew that this operation was no small matter. They had fought many battles with Yang Zhen in the past, but none of them had ever been as complicated as this one.

In the past, when fighting, they just followed their superiors and charged forward. They didn't need to use their brains or play any tricks. But this time it's different. A moment of carelessness could cause the entire operation to fail before it even started, or even fail before it could be implemented.

Fortunately, Yang Zhen's current subordinates are all veterans who have survived countless battles, especially Zhang Chen, who leads the charge, which makes Yang Zhen feel very at ease.

After Zhang Chen led his team out, Yang Zhen, leading Yang Zhan'ao, also moved with lightning speed and quickly darted out.

Zhang Guogan, who is usually a chatterbox and annoying, was unusually calm at this moment. He led his right wing without saying a word and ran towards the black forest ahead.

This time, however, it was completely different from the last time.

Now that they knew the Tartars had no sentries lying in wait in the Black Pine Forest, and that the first night patrol had already passed and the second night patrol wouldn't arrive for another hour or so, Yang Zhen and his men acted much more boldly than before, running without stopping. After only a few leaps, they reached the edge of the Black Pine Forest.

In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the black pine forest, as if it had never appeared on the wasteland.

The Tartar camp was still the same camp, with tall wooden fences standing tall. The scattered lights inside shone through the gaps in the fences and came into Yang Zhen's view.

"Sir! I've checked, there's no change! It's the same as when we came last night! Shall we go now, or wait a little longer?"

Upon arriving at the place he had visited before, Yang Zhen ordered Zhang Chen to go to a high vantage point to observe whether there were any significant changes in the layout of the Tartar camp and whether the number of garrison tents had increased.

He was also worried that his plans might not keep up with changes, and feared that something else unexpected might happen in the Tartar camp in just one day.

Fortunately, within a short period of one day, the Tartars outside Songshan City had not yet discovered that this force had appeared at the mouth of the Xiaoling River, and therefore did not increase the number of Tartar troops stationed in the rear camp on the north bank of the Xiaoling River.

"Let's wait a bit longer! Once we launch an attack, we can only succeed, we can't afford to fail! We're still short-handed; we should at least wait until Zukeyong's troops arrive before we launch our attack!"

While Yang Zhen was talking to Zhang Chen, Zhang Guogan had already arrived with his men.

Following closely behind, Zhang Degui also led his team to the location and, according to Yang Zhen's prior arrangements, quickly deployed the ten tiger-squatting cannons at the edge of the Black Pine Forest, towards the direction of the Tartar camp.

Without saying a word, they first filled the pre-prepared quantitative powder packs and shotgun packs into the container.

Although the Tiger Crouching Cannon has a short barrel and short range, it is tough and has a large caliber. When loaded with shotgun shells, it is very effective at bombarding dense crowds at close range.

The tall log fence of the Tartar camp was only thirty or forty paces away from the edge of the black pine forest. By the time the Tartars caught up, the distance was even closer.

At such a distance, let alone unarmored flesh and blood, even the elite Tatars, the Bayara, clad in iron armor, could be utterly routed.