GBP Chapter 451 The Battle of Qiuyu Mountain (3)
Chapter 451 The Battle of Qiuyu Mountain (3)
Sun Kewang asked, "Aren't we waiting for the rebel leader's men to arrive immediately?"
Zhang Xianzhong surveyed the situation ahead and replied, "There are at most four or five thousand people here. With tens of thousands of troops pushing forward, I don't believe we can't take this hill. Let's go first, lest he laugh at us for having to join forces with so few soldiers."
Sun Kewang gritted his teeth and volunteered: "Godfather, I am willing to take the lead."
"Alright, you lead three thousand men to charge the front, and I'll have Wenxiu and Nengqi each lead two thousand men to flank the flanks." Nengqi was another adopted son of Zhang Xianzhong, whose full name was Ai Nengqi. He, along with Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, and Li Dingguo, were known as the "Four Generals" during the Southern Ming Dynasty. He was known for leading from the front and for his bravery in battle.
The battle began, with the refugee army launching its first offensive. Sun Kewang led 3,000 men to attack the front, while Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi each led 2,000 men to flank from the side of Qiuyu Mountain. Because they were attacking uphill, no cavalry was used; the force consisted entirely of infantry, with only the commanders on horseback.
Xu Yifan watched through his monoculars as the refugee army launched its attack a few miles away, and couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Six or seven thousand men were deployed for the first probing attack, that's quite a large investment." It should be noted that the total strength of the Qionghai Army on this expedition was only five thousand men.
Regardless of their military discipline and combat skills, the speed at which the refugee army ran was exceptional, perhaps a skill honed from years of being chased by government troops. As a cloud of dust rose, obscuring the sky, thousands of people swarmed towards the Rain-Seeking Mountain.
Xu Yifan gave the order: "Order the artillery battalion of the Second Regiment to fire!" The messenger beside him immediately turned around and waved his small flag toward the mountainside to convey the order.
After the expansion of the Qionghai Navy, in addition to maintaining the configuration of one artillery company in each battalion, the organization of regimental artillery battalions was increased, and a powerful weapon was introduced—the 10-pound field gun. This was the first time that the field gun, which was derived from the M1857 12-pound Napoleon gun, was used in a field battle outside Qiongzhou. The last time this big gun was used was during the defense of Bofu, when it was placed on a makeshift bastion to deal with the Guangdong army led by He Rubin.
Compared to the 6-jin (approximately 3 catties) mountain guns of battalion artillery companies, with an effective range of 700 meters and a shell weight of 6 jin (approximately 3 catties), the 10-jin (approximately 5 catties) field gun nearly doubled all its key specifications: a range of 1400 meters and the ability to fire solid shot weighing around 10 jin (approximately 5 kg). In the era of gunpowder, it was undoubtedly the king of field battles. The cumbersome Hongyi cannons of the Ming Dynasty might have achieved a similar range, but their cannon barrels, weighing several thousand jin (approximately 30 kg), were extremely inconvenient to transport and could not be used in field battles; they were only suitable for defending cities.
The battalion commander of the Second Regiment's artillery battalion was Zuo Wuwei, the former company commander of the artillery company of the First Battalion of the Qiongzhou Battalion. After being captured in the Battle of Bofu, he joined the Qionghai Army, which was then a guard force. His love for artillery, coupled with the fact that the Qionghai Army valued artillery far more than any other army in the Ming Dynasty, allowed him to thrive in this position. He didn't need to flatter his superiors or embezzle soldiers' pay to support himself. As long as he used his expertise and figured out how to fire the cannons accurately, he could advance in rank, be promoted, and receive a very respectable salary.
Under the guidance of Portuguese instructors such as Wu Duowang, Zuo Wuwei learned basic physics knowledge. Compared with his previous experience-based operation, his understanding of artillery techniques has reached a new level, and he has become the foremost artilleryman in the Qionghai Navy.
After receiving the regimental commander's order, he instructed the artillery battalion: "Lower the muzzle, level it, and test fire a round from the middle 10 cannons."
Because the field guns are placed on the mountainside, with a height difference of about 200 meters from the flat ground, if the firing angle is still 5 degrees as before, the shells will fly over the enemy's heads. Only by leveling the guns and using the principle of the parabolic trajectory of the shells to hit the enemy can the range be extended by nearly one-third.
Sun Kewang led his men to charge from about two miles away, a distance of about 800 to 1000 meters. Based on past experience, this distance was extremely safe. Neither muskets nor arrows could touch a hair on their heads. Although the imperial cannons could fire that far, only large cities like Luoyang and Kaifeng were equipped with them. There was no need to worry about other places. Even if the enemy soldiers had small cannons like the breech-loading cannons, their range was not much better than that of muskets.
Hearing the booming cannon fire coming from the opposite mountain, Sun Kewang ignored it and brandished his steel saber, shouting, "All of you, charge! Scatter the soldiers at the foot of the mountain and you'll be rewarded with twenty taels of silver. Charge up the mountainside and capture the soldiers' cannons and you'll be rewarded with fifty taels of silver!"
When the bounty was announced, the refugees became excited, brandishing their weapons and charging forward with shouts. Because it was a direct assault on several thousand seemingly elite government troops, Sun Kewang dared not be careless and did not use those "cannon fodder" who did not even have weapons. These charging refugees at least had a decent weapon in their hands, ranging from knives and swords to spears and hammers, and even some rakes used by farmers to break up soil. Although they looked shabby, it was still better than holding a tree branch or even being empty-handed.
The whistling sound grew louder as it approached, eventually reaching the top of the crowd. Hearing this strange noise, the displaced people in the midst of the commotion looked up and saw dark, round spheres flying overhead before landing in the crowd behind them.
"Bang, bang, bang," the dull thud of metal striking the ground rang out as several 10-pound solid shot bullets landed at the rear of the charging crowd, slamming into the ground and bouncing back up, like a giant bowling ball passing through the dense crowd, knocking down everyone in its path. Flesh and blood bodies were as fragile as paper in front of this iron ball, and dozens of people could not stop its forward momentum.
According to Liang Xiaoming, the designer of the field artillery, based on experience from the Civil War, a single 12-pound solid shot from an M1857 Napoleon could penetrate the armor of 105 armed soldiers at a distance of approximately 500 meters. This round of field artillery fire, although at a distance closer to 1000 meters, benefited from the elevation difference, resulting in a similar lethality to that at 500 meters. One shell, after bouncing repeatedly upon landing, felled thirty to forty men, still possessing considerable power, and landed right in front of Zhang Xianzhong's horse, who was overseeing the battle from the rear, before finally stopping after felling one of his personal guards.
Zhang Xianzhong was a ruthless killer, having witnessed countless bloody scenes, but this was the first time he had ever experienced cannonballs hitting him directly. He wiped the blood splattered on his personal guard's face after being hit by a cannonball, muttering, "Damn it, how can these stupid cannons hit so far?" Having just narrowly escaped death, he couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive, pulling the reins back a few steps. He actually wanted to retreat hundreds of steps to avoid being unjustly killed by cannon fire, but with a major battle imminent, a commander-in-chief's retreat would undermine morale, so he had to abandon that plan.