The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen quickly took the object from Li Lu's hand. The object was quite heavy, probably weighing two or three pounds.

Yang Zhen held the wooden handle and looked at it by the light of the tung oil lamp in Li Lu's shack. He was overjoyed. It was almost exactly the same as the wooden-handled hand grenade he knew in later generations.

The difference is that later wooden-handled grenades were lighter, while this one was heavier.

Later wooden-handled grenades had cylindrical iron shells for the explosive charge, while this one was spherical, somewhat resembling a smaller version of a thunderclap grenade with a short wooden handle.

Meanwhile, later wooden-handled grenades did not require an open flame; once the fuse was pulled, they would ignite spontaneously. However, this one had its fuse hidden inside the wooden handle with a hole in the middle, but the fuse was exposed and required an open flame to ignite.

By the light of the tung oil lamp, Yang Zhen examined it carefully again and again, becoming increasingly satisfied. He then said to Li Lu, "Not bad! Although it's still somewhat different from what I envisioned, it's basically there!"

At this point, Yang Zhen paused, looked specifically at Li Lu, and said to him, "In a little while, you go and find Wang Shoutang and Wang Duan yourself, and tell them that I am very satisfied with the iron grenade they made! Reward them ten taels of silver each! Tell them to keep up the good work! Try different shapes, round and cylindrical, and see which one has more explosives and greater power!"

"And you must specifically tell them that the more fragments the grenade's metal casing produces after exploding, the more powerful it is! If they manage to make a grenade like that, I'll reward them handsomely!"

Yang Zhen's personal guard captain, Yang Zhan'ao, was not present, and Yang Zhen did not say where the twenty taels of silver awarded to Wang Shoutang and his son would come from. Li Lu also knew that Yang Zhen never cared about money and had no money. After thinking it over, he could only accept his "bad luck".

Fortunately, he didn't spend a penny of his departure money when he left Ningyuan last time. This time, he also received a portion of the spoils from the night raid on the Tartar camp. Combined with his previous savings, he was finally able to come up with this amount of money.

However, Yang Zhen hadn't thought that far ahead. After arranging these matters, he took Yan San to inspect other camps. He then met with Pan Wenmao, Xu Changyong, and Zu Keyong, and finally finalized various plans, large and small, for luring the enemy ashore and ambushing the Tartars.

It wasn't until the moon was high in the sky and the night was as still as water that Yang Zhen returned to his shack. He lay down in the shack, which was covered with reeds, pulled over his tattered quilt, and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Before following Yang Zhen, Yan San had never been this tired. But although it was tiring, it was also thrilling and exciting, which is exactly what a real man should do!

Yan San, who had also been busy and exhausted all day, could barely keep his eyes open, but thinking about his experiences over the past few days, he felt a unique sense of satisfaction.

Although the newcomer hadn't prepared any bedding, he didn't pick and choose. Right next to Yang Zhen's shack, he found Yang Zhan'ao's tattered blanket, lay down on a pile of warm reeds, and fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

Time flew by; it seemed like only yesterday that he closed his eyes, and two hours had passed. Yan San was suddenly awakened from his deep sleep.

He struggled to get up, poked his head out of the shack, looked at the sky, and saw that the moon seemed to be past its zenith. He immediately woke up, quickly packed his things, and went to wake Yang Zhen.

With Yang Zhan'ao absent, he, the deputy captain of the personal guard appointed by Yang Zhen, will have to take on this responsibility.

Yang Zhen had been exhausted these past few days and was sleeping soundly, but because he had something on his mind, he woke up when Yan San called him.

The two packed their things and came out. Standing on the ground, they looked into the distance. In Yuan Jin's camp near the sea, lights were flashing, indicating that preparations were underway.

Li Lu's camp was also brightly lit, a rare sight, indicating that they had already begun operations.

Looking closer, in the ditch not far below, the left flank of Zhang Chen's musketeer team and the right flank of Zhang Guogan's musketeer team were already fully prepared for battle.

Having experienced the night raid on the Tartar camp last night, these people have all been tempered. From the adjutant leading the team to the "shed chiefs" and soldiers, they all know Yang Zhen's fighting style.

Especially after experiencing such a perilous situation last night, in which not a single one of them died, but only a few suffered minor injuries of varying degrees, their confidence in their "Lumi Guns" greatly increased. They knew that their "Lumi Guns" were reliable, and as a result, everyone became bolder.

This time, everyone knew it was an ambush against the Tartars, and there were trenches and communication trenches for hiding and retreat, so they were not worried about life or death.

The only thing that annoyed everyone was that the trenches where they hid, the communication trenches for retreat, the horse traps specifically designed to trap the Tartar warhorses, and even the pits where the grenadiers buried "ten thousand enemies" and Dragon King cannons all had to be dug by the soldiers on the left and right flanks of the musket team.

Because of this, we had to set off in the middle of the night, without even getting a full night's sleep.

If it weren't for the fact that making noise or even speaking loudly was forbidden in the camp at night, Zhang Guogan, nicknamed "Chatterbox Zhang," would have said these words, which he had muttered to himself countless times, in public.

Seeing that the musketeers were all ready, Yang Zhen ordered Yan San to carry the vanguard battalion's flag and go to the grenadier camp to give the order to assemble.

Before long, Yan San, carrying a flag, led the way, while Li Lu and Pan happy each led a team, heading towards the camp on the left flank of the musketeer team.

Yang Zhen stood on the top of the trench and whispered to Zhang Chen, "Let's go!"

Zhang Chen immediately leaped out of the trench and raised the flag of the musketeer team. The soldiers on the left and right flanks of the musketeer team seemed to grow out of the ground, and in an instant they all jumped out of the trench and quickly formed two teams on the left and right flanks.

They followed Zhang Chen and Zhang Guogan, who in turn followed Yang Zhen. No one spoke; they simply made their way silently toward Yuan Jin's camp.

Behind them followed Li Lu and his grenadier squads on the left and right flanks, who were also moving silently.

Upon arriving near Yuan Jin's camp, Yuan Jin came to meet them.

When Yang Zhen met Yuan Jin again, the two of them tacitly agreed not to mention the matter of Zhang Degui's efforts to mediate and reconcile, as if it had never happened at all.

Yuan Jin knew that the naval battalion did not need to go into battle, which relieved him of a major worry. He became more proactive in dealing with Yang Zhen's troops taking the initiative to attack, running around and personally helping with command and communication.

It only took about fifteen minutes for everyone to successfully board the ship.

Yang Zhen's musketeer and grenadier squads originally numbered only about a hundred men. Last night, the left and right flanks of the musketeer squads operated as a unit, and apart from a few wounded, not a single musketeer was lost.

But the grenadier squad was different. Of the sixty men who went into battle, only forty-eight returned alive, and several of them had injuries of varying degrees.

Therefore, the group that followed Yang Zhen into battle this time, including Yan San, the deputy captain of Yang Zhen's newly recruited personal guard, consisted of only eighty-nine people in total, making their movements very convenient.

If it weren't for the large amount of ammunition they needed to carry, such as "Ten Thousand Enemy", "Dragon King Cannon", and "Hand Grenades", these people wouldn't need ten centipede boats at all; five or six would have been enough.

Moreover, the departure of this small number of people and ships did not even disturb the sleeping troops of Xu Changyong and Zu Keyong, except for Yuan Jin and Zhang Degui who ran around and waited to see them off.

Yang Zhen and Zhang Chen, leading a shed of musketeers, rode at the forefront on a centipede-shaped boat personally steered by Yan San.

By this time, the tide had risen to a high level, bypassing the southern end of the sandbar. The waterway between the sandbar and the reed marshes, which was originally only about two zhang wide, was now a vast expanse of water.

If Yan San hadn't left to guide him, Yang Zhen probably wouldn't have been able to find the waterway and road he used to take to the west to scout, relying solely on his own memory.

Fortunately, Yan San had been sailing at sea for many years and had a natural keen sense of the terrain along the Liaoxi coastline. With him at the helm, he quickly led the entire small fleet, riding the rising tide, and accurately and swiftly rushed into the reed marshland they had explored during the day.

The narrow streams in the reed marshes, barely navigable by boat during the daytime low tide, have now become wide waterways, allowing one to travel westward and venture even further.

The sea breeze and the surging tide, combined with the rowers' hard work, enabled Yang Zhen's fleet of ten small boats to travel at a rapid pace through the reeds.

There was no sound on the river in the reed marshes except for the sound of the wind and the water.

Under the moonlight, the vast reed marshes appeared incredibly deep and tranquil, possessing both a captivating beauty and an awe-inspiring presence.