Chapter 327: Artillery Barrage

Next, several soldiers began to load the gunpowder. The gunners of the Dengzhou army used fixed charges, each weighing one jin, which were loaded according to the required range. Then, someone would use a ramrod to pack it tightly. There was a great deal of skill involved in this. If it was packed too tightly, the gunpowder would smolder and fail to ignite. It would have to be loosened with a powder shovel, but when loosening it, the gunpowder might suddenly burn rapidly.

These gunners were all trained by the Portuguese, so their movements were very standardized. A soldier loaded a wad and a large cannonball wrapped in red cloth into the barrel. Then, another bag of twelve small cannonballs was loaded. The company commander then used a gunner’s quadrant to measure and adjust the elevation of the cannon according to the range.

This set of techniques was high-tech in the late Ming Dynasty. The Dengzhou army was trained by the Portuguese, and ordinary Ming army gunners had no idea that there were so many essentials to firing a cannon.

Ma Linxi was carrying a cannonball. A twelve-pound cannonball was not heavy, but for someone who had only eaten some scraps of food for many days, it was still too heavy. He was straining to carry the cannonball when someone kicked him hard in the buttocks. He immediately fell flat on his face, and the cannonball rolled far away. A burst of laughter immediately erupted around him.

Ma Linxi quickly got up and, without even daring to raise his head, ran straight for the cannonball. This cannonball was very precious. According to the gunner, one cost several qian of silver.

After much difficulty, he brought the cannonball back. The rebel gunners did not allow the civilian laborers to roll the cannonballs on the ground, supposedly for fear of scratching the surface of the cannonball and mixing in sand and dirt, which were all taboo. Ma Linxi was already covered in a cold sweat and panting from exhaustion.

A small leader who was supervising the civilian laborers sneered and said lazily, “You’re all so fast when it comes to eating, but you have no strength when it comes to carrying things. You’re all useless!” With a “swish,” he drew his saber.

Ma Linxi was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. The several civilian laborers around him also knelt down and begged for mercy.

Fortunately, the leader was just trying to scare the civilian laborers. Seeing them trembling with fear, he laughed a few times. The civilian laborers, seeing this, quickly got up and continued to carry the cannonballs and gunpowder.

Ma Linxi had been doing this job for more than ten days. He used to be a carpenter who traveled around the countryside of Huang County with his tools, repairing farm tools, making furniture, and helping out with house construction. Although he had to endure the wind and rain and earn a few hard-earned coins, at least he could feed himself.

After the rebels came, the entire village was razed to the ground, and Ma Linxi had no choice but to “join” the refugees. Because he had this skill, he was assigned to the artillery team—the artillery team always had things to repair. In the eyes of others, this Ma Linxi had already gained a great advantage. The first was that he could eat on time. The refugees assigned to the infantry team had to rely on luck and their fists to get food. The rebels only gave each team of refugees a few baskets of black steamed buns made of unknown ingredients every day, which led to fights over food every day, and several people would die.

Although he worked harder than an ox and ate less than a dog in the artillery team—the rebels in the artillery team treated them like slaves and livestock, not only beating and bullying them from time to time, but also dragging them out and beheading them for the slightest mistake. A few days ago, on the way to drag the cannons to Huang County, because a cannon got stuck in the mud and the oxen couldn’t pull it out, in order to urge the civilian laborers to work hard, the company commander of the artillery team beheaded several people in a row, which scared Ma Linxi so much that he had nightmares every night.

Ma Linxi’s mind was now blank. Besides mechanically following orders, he was just trying to survive in any way he could. As long as he could live, he would do whatever he was told.

Seeing that the artillery positions were all set up, Ma Linxi and the other civilian laborers of the artillery team were finally able to catch their breath. They were all either lying or sitting, and the air was filled with their heavy panting, but no one dared to speak—speaking would also lead to death. This was one of the lessons they had learned in the past few days.

The company commander of the artillery team had no intention of toying with them anymore. He ordered the gunners to pierce the powder bags, heat the fuses and linstocks, and wait for the order to fire.

On the coast, the first wave of refugees had been driven by the rebels to form a line, albeit a messy one. Each team of refugees had fifty people, with three or four escorts. The escorts were all local bandits, ruffians, and desperadoes recruited by the rebels. Most of them had no armor and were all armed with swords and shields. They were positioned behind each team of refugees, specifically to drive them and supervise the battle.

The escorts and leaders of each team constantly encouraged the refugees:

“Break through the stockade, and the whole army will be rewarded with wine and meat…”

“Kill an enemy soldier, and you will be rewarded with one white steamed bun and one tael of silver for each head…”

“Anyone who dares to retreat will be executed on the spot!”

Ma Linxi knew that out of a hundred people who charged in the first wave, only three or four would survive. He had seen too much of this in the past few days. The rebels were just using the lives of the common people to consume the defenders’ ammunition and arrows, and to fill the trenches with corpses.

Fortunately, he had this skill and could still save his life.

Just as he was lost in thought, a cannon shot suddenly sounded in the air. Everyone was stunned. Ma Linxi looked up and saw a wisp of smoke rising from the sea, and a beautiful arc heading straight for the sandbar.

He stared with his mouth agape for less than a second, then suddenly seemed to understand and threw himself to the ground, scrambling on all fours towards the back of a small hill.

Almost at the same time, a cannonball fell from the sky and landed on the ice next to the artillery team. A huge explosion erupted.

The shattered cannonball fragments and ice shards flew in all directions. The rebels and refugees who were nearby and had not had time to take cover screamed and fell to the ground, covered in blood.

Then, more cannon shots came from the ice and from the direction of the island’s forts. Under the clear blue sky, cannonballs with white smoke trails tore through the air, whistling as they continuously fell towards the sandbar.

Cannonballs continuously landed around the six Hongyi cannons. The sound of explosions was deafening, one after another. Thick smoke and flames still shrouded the entire artillery position.

The company commander, who had been so arrogant and had always been decisive in killing people like chickens, had been blown into a dozen pieces of flesh in the first artillery barrage. One of his arms landed on Ma Linxi’s head, almost scaring him to death.

Good heavens! The militia’s cannons are so powerful! Just as the thought crossed Ma Linxi’s mind, a hissing, sparking 68-pound spherical shrapnel shell landed directly on a handcart loaded with ammunition. A flash of light, and several carts full of gunpowder were detonated at the same time. The huge blast wave threw Ma Linxi directly off the ground.

For a moment, Ma Linxi thought he was dead. He couldn’t breathe at all, and his vision went black. It took him a while to recover. He felt the world spinning, and his ears were ringing. He couldn’t hear anything, only saw a black and red scene in front of him, with a scorching heat. When he collected himself, he saw that Qian Erleng, a civilian laborer who was with him, was lying under a blown-up cartwheel, motionless and covered in blood. Qian Erleng had once given him half a bowl of noodle soup, and the two of them were considered to have shared hardships. He quickly crawled over and pushed Qian Erleng. Qian Erleng rolled over and rolled down the sandbar, leaving a trail of blood and scattered internal organs—only the upper half of his body above the chest was left, as if he had been cut in half by a large guillotine.

Ma Linxi didn’t know if he had screamed. He couldn’t hear anything. He only saw the carts, cannons, and human corpses mixed with dirt being constantly thrown up, torn apart, and falling down. He let out a silent scream and desperately burrowed his head into the ground.

On the bridge of the Daishuang, Lu Yang was using his telescope to search in vain for the situation on the sandbar. Black smoke was billowing in the distance. The cannonballs fired from the warships on the sea and the bastion of the willow fence had completely covered the target area. He couldn’t see the effect of the bombardment at all from this distance.

However, given the level of fire coverage, the rebel artillery team, which was completely exposed on the ground, should no longer exist. He had observed at least three gunpowder explosions through his telescope.

A “cease fire” signal rocket was fired from Qimu Island.

“All ships, cease fire!” he ordered, and quickly walked to the radio. Sure enough, Chen Sigen was calling him.

“The artillery position has been eliminated. Transfer fire to area 2976 in five minutes. Use shrapnel!”

“Transfer fire to area 2976 in five minutes, fire shrapnel!” Lu Yang repeated his instructions. The gunnery officer and several non-commissioned officers bent over the worktable, working nervously with their slide rules and gauges.

To save calculation time and to adapt to the low level of the artillery command personnel, they used a numbered targeting firing mode. The area around Qimu Island was all numbered with a grid, and each grid had a specific firing table to ensure that they could concentrate fire on each section in the shortest possible time.

The 130mm cannons on the Type 901 gunboat were emitting wisps of white smoke. The gunners were cleaning the barrels at the fastest speed, quickly clearing the residue after continuous firing, and letting the barrels cool down as soon as possible.

The conical shrapnel shells and the cylindrical silk powder bags had been lifted to the deck by a pulley and were waiting to be loaded.

Chen Sigen put down his telescope. The sea breeze had blown away the smoke in the distance. Although the burning gun carriages were still emitting thick smoke, not a single complete cannon or a living person could be seen through the telescope. The power of the high-explosive shell coverage was indeed astonishing. Since the biggest threat had been eliminated, the rest were just a motley crew. He went down from the observation platform to the gun platform. The two naval 68-pounder carronades had been returned to a horizontal position, and the gunners were quickly cleaning the barrels. This type of cannon had a very short direct fire range, only fifty meters, but the shells it fired were extremely powerful and had a devastating effect on wooden ships. Chen Sigen had no warship targets, so this time he used it as a mortar.

When firing indirectly, the trajectory of the carronade was similar to that of a mortar, and the range was naturally much farther. The 68-pound high-explosive shells fired continuously just now had demonstrated extremely considerable power—the power of the high-density packed black powder far exceeded Chen Sigen’s most optimistic estimates.

A few more rounds of shrapnel, and he was not afraid that the enemy would not scatter.

“All cannons, load shrapnel!” he gave the order. All the cannons on the Willow Fence Fort, including the two 68-pounder carronades and the four 24-pounder smoothbore cannons, began to load this terrifying projectile.