Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 69 Man Gui shows off her new clothes, Mao Wenlong becomes a sour lemon.
On the sixteenth day of the first month of the first year of Chongzhen's reign, in Dongjiang Town.

The biting winds of late spring, carrying ice shards, swept across the Yalu River. The vast river surface east of its estuary is now completely covered by ice, three feet thick, enough to carry carts and horses, and there is no sign of it melting.

Just eight miles west of Pi Island lies the Kingdom of Korea. Now, the Cheolsan Strait between the two places is connected by ice. Ragged Korean slaves are being mercilessly whipped by Jurchen wild boar skin slaves with horsewhips. In this weather, the blood that seeps out quickly freezes into ice shards.

The wheel hubs of the supply wagons slipped on the ice. The slaves wore straw sandals, their toes already frostbitten and blackened. Every step was excruciatingly painful, and if they slipped, they might never get up again. The cannon wagons advanced, leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

On Yantai Peak, located in the northern part of Pi Island, Mao Wenlong, the Left Commander-in-Chief and General of Dongjiang Town, and Yuan Keli, the Liaodong Military Commissioner, had not slept a wink all night. In terms of official rank, Mao Wenlong was a first-rank military officer, while Yuan Keli was only a second-rank civil official. Mao Wenlong's rank was even higher, but he dared not provoke his old superior.

When they were young, the two often quarreled and wrote letters to each other to impeach and expose each other's shortcomings. Now that they are both quite old and their hair has turned gray, they can't help but feel a sense of mutual appreciation.

Yuan Keli's original intention was to come to the island to check the accounts, but he deliberately chose to come on the Lantern Festival, hoping to play the emotional card and avoid a serious falling out. Little did he expect to be betrayed by a traitor and have his whereabouts exposed. Now, Amin, the second-highest-ranking prince of the Jurchens and the head of the Bordered Blue Banner, has come seeking revenge.

In the first year of the Tianqi reign, Nurhaci ordered Amin to lead 5,000 troops to launch a surprise attack on Mao Wenlong's forces, but he was instead ambushed by Mao Wenlong and Yuan Keli and suffered a crushing defeat.

After that, the two sides clashed many times on the Ming Dynasty border, but Amin did not gain any advantage. He then hated Yuan Keli and Mao Wenlong to the core, believing that if it were not for these two people, he would not have disappointed Ammaha and been looked down upon by his other brothers. The position of Great Khan should not have been given to that kid Huang Taiji. Even if he could not become the Khan, it would be better if the eldest and third brothers could!

Rumble!
On the mountainside of Yantai Peak, hundreds of breech-loading cannons roared, raining down a dense barrage of shells onto the western beach of the island. However, this seemingly powerful offensive failed to achieve its intended effect. Years of war against the Ming Dynasty had allowed the Jurchens to develop effective methods for countering Ming firearms.

Solid cannonballs with iron cores and lead casings struck the Jurchen shield wagons with a dull thud. These shield wagons were made of five-inch-thick hardwood planks at the bottom, covered with cowhide and iron sheets on the outside, and sometimes covered with a layer of damp cotton quilts looted from the people.

After being hit by artillery shells, some shield wagons were knocked back a few steps, some were knocked askew, and a few were shattered due to prolonged shelling. However, such results were still a drop in the ocean compared to the shield wagon array that stretched for miles.

Pi Island has no city and usually relies on its navy for protection. However, with the waters frozen and warships unable to move, it can only offer a difficult resistance with a few wooden palisades, earthen ramparts, and artillery emplacements. Since Korea was once an ally of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens generally wouldn't attack from the west of the island, otherwise they would be caught in a pincer movement between Korea and the Ming. Therefore, the western side of Pi Island is virtually undefended.

However, things are different now. Last year, the Jurchens launched a large-scale invasion of Korea, and most of Korea has fallen. Now the Jurchens can launch an attack on Pi Island directly from within Korea, and they can also use a large amount of Korean manpower and resources to help them attack Pi Island.

On the front lines of the battlefield, soldiers from both Dongjiang Town and the Jurchens attacked each other with bows and arrows, muskets, and tiger-squatting cannons. Compared to the Jurchen archers, the Dongjiang Town soldiers were significantly less skilled in archery. Most of the arrows and projectiles from the Pi Island garrison were blocked by shields, and even if they hit, they could not penetrate the three layers of armor of the white-armored Bayara.

As for the slaves pushing carts and the auxiliary troops being driven to charge, they were never counted in the Jurchens' battle losses. No matter how many died or were injured, the Jurchens did not care.

The Jurchens were skilled with powerful bows and heavy arrows, and extremely accurate at close to medium range. They could even shoot through holes in faceplates and gaps in armor to precisely snipe high-ranking Ming generals. However, they no longer needed such elaborate techniques. Most of the soldiers in Dongjiang Town wore only thin cotton or paper armor, or even no armor at all. As long as an arrow was aimed at the torso, no matter who it was, they would be shot down.

From the perspective of the soldiers in Dongjiang Town, there were hardly any Jurchen soldiers to be seen. All they could see was a shield wall made of shield carts, about the height of two or three people, stretching for several miles, and this shield wall was slowly advancing towards their position.

The Jurchens' usual tactic was to use shield wagons to block the Ming army's firearms and arrows, and then ambush them with heavy troops.

No one knows what lies behind this shield wall, no one knows when the shield wagons will suddenly move aside, and then a heavy cavalry force that has accelerated into a charge will rush out from behind, or a large number of cannons with burning fuses.

However, the defenders on Pi Island were not in the worst possible situation; they still held the advantage of the terrain.

If they were fighting on a plain, they would be completely deaf and blind to the Jurchens' tactics.

However, Pi Island still has a mountain peak several hundred feet high. Although the soldiers on the front line can only see in the dark, the commander standing on the mountain can have a clear view of the Jurchen situation. All the soldiers can do is trust their commander.

"If only we had Hongyi cannons," Yuan Keli sighed as he looked down the mountain.

"Red Barbarian Cannons, my foot! The imperial court only allocates a few hundred thousand taels of silver a year, but the hundreds of thousands of people in Dongjiang Town don't even get a single tael of silver. They're all starving to death!"
"Those Guan Ning Army soldiers get millions of taels of silver every year, living a life of luxury inside the pass, and they don't even see one or two Jurchens a year. Meanwhile, we Dongjiang Town are fighting the Jurchens day and night outside the pass, and we're treated like stepchildren?!" Mao Wenlong said with great dissatisfaction.

“The situation in the imperial court is not easy either. Besides, you are now a first-rank official with the imperial sword, which gives you the power to act expediently. The late emperor treated you quite well, didn’t he?” Yuan Keli said helplessly.

"Can these things be eaten? Can they feed the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town? The money and grain I submitted in my memorial last year still haven't been allocated! Do you know how I felt when I searched through the entire treasury of Dongjiang Town and couldn't find enough glutinous rice flour to make one glutinous rice ball for everyone?!"

Mao Wenlong's eyes were red, as if he didn't want to lose face in front of his old boss. He wiped away his tears and said half-jokingly, "I heard that the kid Man Gui was impeached, but instead of being punished by the emperor, he was rewarded with a flying fish robe and five hundred taels of gold."

That kid wears his flying fish robe every day now, bragging to everyone he meets about how much the emperor favors him; even I, living outside the Great Wall, have heard about it. Old Yuan, why don't you also submit a report against me?"

(End of this chapter)