Chapter 326: Frontal Assault and Flank

Chen Guangfu was also a veteran of battle. After watching for a while, he also felt that it was tricky. This was much more troublesome than attacking Huang County. At that time, Huang County did not have many armed forces, and the morale from top to bottom was not high, so it was easily breached. Now, this group of militia had just won a victory at Baimatang. Both their combat effectiveness and morale were at their peak. He was afraid that he would not gain much advantage in this battle.

It was clear that they had to bite a hard bone.

But if they couldn’t bite this hard bone, they couldn’t attack Laizhou with peace of mind. Whether it was easy to deal with or not, Qimu Island had to be attacked.

After a brief discussion, Mao Chenglu and Chen Guangfu decided to launch an attack the next morning. Mao Chenglu would lead the main force to attack from the sandbar to attract the attention of the island’s militia, while Chen Guangfu would lead the elite troops to bypass the ice and raid Qimu Island.

“If you capture Qimu Island, you will be the first to receive credit,” Mao Chenglu said with a broad smile. “I heard that Qimu Island has a large population, food, and wealth. If we take it, we brothers can all make a big profit.”

Mao Chenglu was being cunning. He had already suffered a great loss from the Qimu Island militia in the battle of Baimatang. Although he was not in command at the time, he still knew from the mouths of the defeated troops who had fled back that the enemy’s firearms were extremely sharp. Not only did they have a long range, but they also fired quickly. After a few volleys, the soldiers could not hold on.

If one person said this, Mao Chenglu could think that he was making excuses, but when dozens of people said the same thing, the authenticity of the words was greatly increased.

So Mao Chenglu encouraged Chen Guangfu to lead the surprise troops to bypass, while he led the main force to attack from the front. No matter how sharp the enemy’s firearms were, they could not withstand his six Hongyi cannons. When a dozen-jin cannonball was fired, no matter how strong the fortress was, under the bombardment of his own cannons, and with the conscripted refugees charging to fill the trenches, the enemy would naturally be thrown into chaos. At that time, he would have an opportunity.

As for Chen Guangfu, it would be best if he could attack the island. If he couldn’t, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Chen Guangfu didn’t know his plan. He thought it was because he had led reinforcements, and Mao Chenglu wanted to do him a favor, so he readily agreed. He also said that after capturing Qimu Island, he would definitely divide the spoils equally and would not let his old brother Mao suffer a loss.

After the plan was settled, they each went back to organize their troops.

Among the nearly ten thousand men brought by Mao Chenglu, only one thousand five hundred could be called combat troops. The rebels in Huang County, plus the reinforcements brought by Chen Guangfu, had a total of five thousand men. Although the rebels had conscripted nearly ten thousand men in Huang County and claimed to have one hundred thousand men, the number of combat troops did not exceed three thousand. Mao Chenglu left half of the combat troops to guard the county seat and brought the other half and two thousand auxiliary troops to attack Qimu Island. The rest were mostly conscripted refugees.

Because the granaries in Dengzhou were extremely rich, these one thousand five hundred combat troops were fully armed and equipped. All of them had iron armor—although the quality varied, at least everyone had armor, which was a rare thing in the Ming army. Many of the auxiliary troops also had a cotton or leather armor. The most exaggerated thing was the firearms. In addition to the six Hongyi cannons, these one thousand five hundred combat troops were equipped with eight hundred various muskets and cannons. In terms of the popularization of firearms, they could be considered world-class at the time.

These miscellaneous firearms and ammunition were either loaded on handcarts or carried on the shoulders of the conscripted refugees. The six “giant cannons” were pulled by looted cattle and slowly headed towards the sandbar.

At the head of the column were the newly “recruited” refugees. They were called “soldiers,” but they were actually a mix of able-bodied men, old and weak, and even women. As for their weapons and equipment, most of them just carried a wooden stick, and some had nothing at all. The rebels only used the refugees as cannon fodder and laborers, so naturally they had no intention of arming them, let alone training them.

Only after a few battles, when most of them had died anonymously, would the battle-hardened survivors be absorbed into the army and become a member of this team—this was the most common growth model for various rebel armies in the late Ming Dynasty. Those who could eventually survive were bound to be the most powerful soldiers who had been through hundreds of battles.

To prevent the refugees from scattering, a team of mounted retainers constantly patrolled around the large group of refugees, driving them with whips to march in the designated direction.

Chen Guangfu’s team quietly separated from the main force. He only brought five hundred men. Except for his retainers, personal guards, and some scouts, the rest were all veteran soldiers who were extremely fierce and would risk their lives for money. Hearing that there was a stockade on Qimu Island with tens of thousands of refugees, their eyes lit up. As long as they could attack, they would not have to worry about not being able to rob dozens of taels of silver and a few beautiful women.

In Dengzhou and Huang County, a human market had already formed with the large number of women captured by the rebels. The rebels who went out to plunder would sell the captured women to their comrades in the human market, and the business was very brisk.

All of them had horses. These men all had experience riding on ice, and their horses’ hooves were wrapped with anti-slip cloth strips. And Chen Guangfu’s intention of equipping them all with horses was not to have them charge on horseback, but to quickly cross the ice. After landing on the island, they would immediately dismount and fight on foot—in fact, they were mounted infantry.

Although dragoons were invented in Europe, mounted infantry had always existed in China. It was not uncommon in the wars of the late Ming Dynasty to use horses for mobility and dismount to fight on foot.

Because they had to walk on the ice and had heard that the other side had many firearms, these men all changed into lighter cotton armor, which was more effective against firearms. Their boots were all wrapped with straw ropes. In addition to their personal swords and shields, each person also carried a javelin. This javelin was not only used for throwing before an assault, but also for self-rescue in case they fell into an ice hole. The Dongjiang army had been on the Liaodong islands for a long time and had relatively rich experience in ice combat.

In addition to their weapons, each person also carried a few small pottery jars filled with burning oil and a slow-burning tinder. As soon as they broke into the island, they would immediately set fires everywhere.

In his opinion, although there were many people on the island, as long as his five hundred elite soldiers landed on the island, the militia would be in chaos. At that time, the entire Qimu Island would be within his grasp.

The column stopped at the entrance of the sandbar. The company and platoon commanders under Mao Chenglu were busy for a while, organizing the chaotic column and barely maintaining order.

Mao Chenglu rode on his horse, surrounded by his retainers, and slowly came to the front of the motley crowd. He shouted loudly, “Everyone, fight your way into the stockade, and you can take whatever wealth and food you want! There will be enough steamed buns for everyone!” A commotion immediately broke out in the crowd. Mao Chenglu sneered and said loudly, “There are thousands of women in the stockade. You can have as many as you want, as long as you can get them! In chaotic times, human life is as cheap as paper. We all live from day to day, not knowing if there will be a tomorrow. If you are a man, don’t die without even touching a woman’s breasts!”

In the originally somewhat gloomy crowd, a few cheers were actually heard. Someone shouted, “If a man dies, his penis will point to the sky. If he doesn’t die, he will live for ten thousand years! Even if I die, I want to die with a full stomach and after having my fill of women!” The surrounding crowd immediately burst into a frenzy of shouts. These poor people, who had been good citizens less than ten or fifteen days ago, had their primitive instincts exposed by these few words. Their eyes turned red, and their morale suddenly soared.

Mao Chenglu knew that his few words had had a great effect. He immediately ordered the entire army to advance towards the sandbar.

The sun gradually rose, and the four fields were filled with a cold white light. On a winter morning in the first lunar month, the wind was bone-chilling. The huge crowd of rebels, like a flood, rolled towards the sandbar of Qimu Island. The white breath exhaled by the tens of thousands of people walking was a magnificent sight.

Chen Sigen stood on a watchtower on the bastion of the willow fence, observing the advancing rebels with his telescope.

The dense crowd made his scalp tingle. What made him sigh even more was that, just as Zhu Mingxia had said, the ones in front were all poor civilians with tattered clothes and sallow faces.

They were all in rags, and many were walking barefoot in the snow. Their skin was blue from the cold. They knew they were going to their deaths, just for a few empty promises.

Thinking of what Zhu Mingxia had said to him, he knew that Captain Zhu didn’t care how many poor civilians he killed, and he was even worried that he would be soft-hearted.

Even if I wanted to be soft-hearted, I couldn’t, Chen Sigen thought to himself. With this formation, it was afraid that there would be a river of blood in front of this willow fence.

The defense of the willow fence had been urgently reinforced. The original willow fence had had its tops cut off and sharpened. The cut branches, the thicker and straighter ones, were tied horizontally between the willow trees. The smaller ones were made into cheval de frise and placed at the distance of a grenade throw. Just climbing over this fence would cost a heavy price.

The artillery on the bastion was configured with a focus on the two wings according to Chen Sigen’s instructions—it could both concentrate fire on the enemy from the front and fire onto the ice. After all, the sea on both sides of the sandbar was now frozen, and the enemy could very well go down to the ice and bypass the obstacles of the willow fence to attack the bastion directly. Therefore, a steep slope about one person high had been dug on the coastline near the bastion—natural coastlines mostly had this kind of erosion slope. The detachment had only trimmed it, and water had been poured on the steep slope to freeze it.

He noticed that six Hongyi cannons had already been set up in position about eight hundred meters from the willow fence. From the appearance of the cannons, they should be demi-culverins that fired twelve-pound cannonballs. This kind of cannon had an effective range of nearly two li and was a very powerful weapon.

Chen Sigen had learned from the intelligence materials that the rebels were very skilled in using firearms and had repeatedly used heavy artillery in mobile operations, repeatedly inflicting heavy losses on the government forces. In the entire Dengzhou rebellion, the rebels’ use of artillery was the most outstanding.

Here, the gunners under Mao Chenglu were busy. These six Hongyi cannons were all taken from Dengzhou city, and these gunners were also trained by the Portuguese. A company commander supervised from the side, constantly giving orders. The soldiers performed their duties, setting up the artillery positions and loading the cannons with great proficiency.

A gunner raised a wooden ruler, closed one eye, and looked at the willow fence—they were using a relatively simple and primitive parallax rangefinding method. Even so, it was rare in the Ming army at that time.