The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

On the morning of the tenth day of the third month, the sun finally rose above the reeds, and golden rays of light pierced through the tall reeds and shone into the trench of the musketeer team.

Yang Zhen, Yang Zhan'ao, Yan San, and the officers and soldiers on the left and right flanks of the musketeer team, each holding their own weapons, leaned against the trench walls to catch up on sleep.

Meanwhile, the left and right flanks of the grenadier squad, who had been busy throughout the latter half of the night, were finally ready for battle, waiting for Xu Changyong's Mongolian cavalry to lure the enemy.

Li Lu led the left wing of the grenadier squad and dug a deep trench along the edge of the woods on the plateau in front of the open area.

The point where this "one-line trench" connects is a slope, sometimes gentle and sometimes steep, on the edge of this plateau.

In this "one-line trench", the existing twenty-five grenadiers on the left flank of the grenadier team are divided into sections, and each of them has various kinds of gunpowder shells in front of them.

Among them were traditional thunder grenades made by filling earthenware jars with gunpowder, simple "hand grenades" made by filling conch shells with gunpowder, and "rolling grenades" made by filling empty wine jars of various sizes with gunpowder and gravel. Only in front of the chief officer Li Lu were a few iron hand grenades that he had shown to Yang Zhen.

This time, he wanted to personally witness the power of this metal grenade in actual combat.

Li Lu looked at the light and shadow in front of the woods, getting closer and closer to his trench, knowing that the sun was rising higher and higher, almost reaching the treetops.

However, the reed marshes behind them remained quiet, and the expected follow-up team had not yet arrived, which made Li Lu, who was at the forefront, a little anxious.

Just as he was looking back repeatedly, peering through the gaps in the trees to see what was behind him, a sound like thunder suddenly came from the west, several miles away.

Li Lu was initially stunned, then immediately cried out in his heart, "Oh no! The Tartars have started bombarding Songshan; they're preparing to attack the city!"

Sure enough, after the first cannon shot, another earth-shattering roar followed. The Tartars unleashed their heavy artillery and began their attack on Songshan City!

The cannon fire that Li Lu heard was the loud sound of the "Red Barbarian Cannons" in the camp of the Three Shun Kings. When the "Red Barbarian Cannons" were fired, their sound could be heard for ten miles, and their power was extraordinary.

The loud noise from the Tatar artillery battalion's "Red Barbarian Cannons" attacking the city outside Songshan City also woke up Yang Zhen and all the other members of the musketeer team who were sleeping.

When Yang Zhen heard the sound of cannon fire, he was startled at first. But when he quickly climbed out of the trench and looked west, he was relieved to find that no Tartar troops had arrived.

Yesterday's judgment was correct. The Tartars have now begun bombarding Songshan City with heavy artillery, but Xu Changyong and the others have still not appeared. Yang Zhen can't help but feel a little anxious.

He looked back at the rising sun in the east, imagining the situation of Zhang Degui, Xu Changyong, Zu Keyong, and others, and wondering why they hadn't arrived yet.

Just then, he suddenly saw a commotion in the reeds not far behind him.

The commotion in the reeds immediately caught the attention of Yang Zhan'ao, Yan San, Zhang Chen, and others. Yang Zhan'ao immediately drew his powerful bow, while Zhang Chen quickly raised his musket.

But just then, they heard someone calling from the reeds: "My lord! Commander! It's me, Dunn! We've arrived!"

Before seeing them, we heard their voices. It turned out that the musket team that was scouting ahead of Zhang Degui's artillery team had arrived!

Among the three forces led by Zhang Degui, Xu Changyong, and Zu Keyong, the artillery unit, which was originally the slowest to advance, has now become the easiest unit to land.

Within the artillery unit, the "gun-carrying team," consisting of two men per 9-headed bird gun that could be quickly deployed, was the most mobile unit.

Therefore, Zhang Degui had Deng En lead the riflemen ahead to serve as the vanguard.

Hearing Dunn's shout, Yang Zhen finally felt completely relieved. He knew that the plan had finally taken a significant step forward!

Everyone stared at the reeds. After a short while, Dunn emerged from them. He pushed aside the reeds blocking his way, leaped out, and ran to Yang Zhen, kneeling on one knee to report:

"My lord! The pontoon bridge is ready, and the trestle bridge is under construction! Guerrilla General Zhang has ordered me to lead the musket squad ahead, followed by the Tiger Crouching Artillery Squad and the Portuguese Carrier Squad! Guerrilla General Xu and General Zu's cavalry are also behind. There's water in the reed marshes deep inside, making it difficult to traverse, so we may have to wait a while longer!"

Having already waited so long, Yang Zhen didn't mind waiting a little longer. He nodded to Dunn and instructed him to lead the musket team to set up a sniper position on the edge of the reed marshes.

However, Dunn was right. He had just led the musket team to find a favorable location and set up sniper positions for the musket team when Yang Shen arrived with the right flank of his artillery unit, the Tiger Crouching Artillery Unit, which he had previously participated in.

Yang Zhen had already designated an area for them to establish positions, and immediately had Yang Zhan'ao lead them to the edge of the reeds on the right flank to set up artillery positions.

The gun emplacement was hidden in the dense reeds at the edge of the reed marsh, while the muzzle was pointed at the flat salt flats beyond the reed marsh.

Yang Shen was extremely pleased with this arrangement. It allowed him to conceal himself using the dense reeds and also to cover the artillery positions, forcing the Tartars to get close enough to fire a decisive blow.

Yang Shen still vividly remembers the scene from the night before last. The sight of a single cannon shot taking down a whole group of enemies always makes his blood boil whenever he thinks about it.

Now, facing the Tartars' dense charges, his mindset has completely changed; he no longer feels fear.

On the contrary, he now somewhat yearns for the kind of relentless, seemingly endless cavalry offensives that the Tartars excel at.

As long as we have enough artillery and ammunition, the more Tartars the better, and the denser the better, because no matter how many Tartars there are, they will only be sending us to our deaths!

Even the artillerymen under Yang Shen's command were subtly changing their mindset towards the Tartars. During that night raid to intercept the Tartar pursuers, they were assigned to be the last to retreat. At that time, everyone was filled with fear, and many of them were trembling as they stood and loaded ammunition.

However, after witnessing firsthand the massacre of Tartars and their brethren falling to the ground under the bombardment of their own Tiger Crouching Cannons, their fear of the Tartars quickly vanished.

So what if they are real Tartars? What nonsense about the Jurchens being invincible if they number less than ten thousand? Who the hell are they trying to fool?! A bullet hitting them would kill even a god!

After just one successful night raid, the morale of Yang Zhen's old troops was boosted, and their trust in firearms was quickly established.

Not long after Yang Shen and his men arrived, the sounds of "men cheering and horses neighing" drifted from the reeds in the distance. Yang Zhen listened carefully and vaguely heard Xu Changyong's loud voice:

"Alright! Finally, we're all free! The ground here is dry! You bastards, hurry up! If you dawdle any longer, the tide will come in again! Do you even want to go back?!"

Xu Changyong's voice came first, but through the fallen reeds, Yang Zhen first saw Zhang Degui's artillery troops.

Four people carried the breech-loading cannon, which weighed about 200 pounds and had a gun mount, like carrying a sedan chair. Each of the four people also carried a cannon cartridge on their back.

The breech-loading cannon was a type of breech-loading mother-and-child cannon. Each breech-loading mother cannon was equipped with four or six smaller cannons specifically for pre-loading ammunition, making it a relatively advanced type of medium-sized artillery for its time.

However, this type of cannon was somewhat of a liability for the Ming Dynasty's government troops at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Due to the financial difficulties of the Ming Dynasty at the end of the year, the casting of the cannon barrels and the production of gunpowder for the Portuguese were mostly crude and shoddy. In addition, the inherent defects of this Portuguese cannon—the main cannon was larger and the cannons were smaller—made it only suitable for use on naval warships and for city defense.

In field battles, government troops had neither the time nor the courage to use it, which prevented it from fully realizing its comparative advantages over other artillery.

Yang Zhen chose this artillery because of its high rate of fire.

As for the smaller size of the breech-loading cannon, which resulted in a larger caliber cannon but smaller projectiles, Yang Zhen was completely unconcerned.

Because he had no intention of using the special iron bullets of the breech-loading cannon to kill the enemy at the moment, but rather to use ordinary musket lead bullets, or simply use the pebbles that were everywhere on the coast as shot.