Chapter 45: Battle for Haizhou

Lu Xiangsheng waved his hand and commanded, "Clear the battlefield, secure the four gates, and mop up the remaining Jiannu remnants. We are heading to Haizhou next. The First Brigade will hold Gaizhou first. The artillery camp must be deployed properly. Gaizhou is the most likely target for a Jiannu counterattack. Until I return, do not sally forth from the city to fight; rely on the artillery."

Since it had been a completely one-sided battle, clearing the battlefield revealed only five heavily wounded soldiers and three lightly wounded ones. The lightly wounded were in a condition similar to Zhang Zongling, while a total of 180 Jiannu soldiers had been killed. According to Zhang Yingke, these two niru consisted of precisely this number of armored troops.

The Second Brigade and the two cavalry battalions were already prepared. After giving his instructions to Zhang Zongling, Lu Xiangsheng departed immediately. Leading the cavalry battalions in advance, they passed Li Luoguo and arrived at the Yaozhou Post Station.

The garrison commander of the Yaozhou Post Station was Liu Xingxian, the sixth younger brother of Liu Xingzuo. He led his men to kneel outside the city to welcome the arrival of the Ming army. Lu Xiangsheng leaped down from his horse, helped him up, and said, "Your illustrious brothers hold the motherland in your hearts, and I deeply respect that. His Majesty has declared that anyone willing to return will be welcomed, so please set your mind at ease, Brother Liu. We are heading to Haizhou. Please assign two guides to us. You may stay here to gather the Liaoning refugees and direct them as far south as possible. There is a Guards naval camp in Gaizhou; those willing to return inside the Shanhai Pass may travel by ship, while those who do not wish to can wait in Gaizhou for the time being. From now on, all lands south of Gaizhou will be reclaimed and farmed as military colonies."

Liu Xingxian said with gratitude, "Please rest assured, Your Excellency. Xingxian will certainly lead the people to Gaizhou, and as for this Yaozhou Post Station, we shall put a torch to it."

Lu Xiangsheng replied, "Take everything of value from Yaozhou Post Station, both east and west, but there is no need to tear down the city walls. Once we capture Haizhou, we will only transport the supplies away. The Jiannu are not adept at defending cities and are nothing to be feared."

The Second Brigade arrived shortly thereafter. After resting for a day in Yaozhou, the troops finished their morning meal the following day and, led by the guides, Lu Xiangsheng led the cavalry past Tashanpu and arrived outside the walls of Haizhou City.

Haizhou was also within Liu Xingzuo's former defense zone, but the city was currently defended by five niru of Later Jin armored troops and three thousand Han infantry. Therefore, hoping for Haizhou to surrender its city gates was out of the question; it had to be taken by force.

It was just past noon when they reached Haizhou. Under Lu Xiangsheng's orders, the two cavalry battalions of the Imperial Guards, numbering over two thousand men, dismounted and formed their battle lines. Just as they finished arraying their formation, the enemy troops surged out.

The Later Jin forces were commanded by the Jalan Eseri Alagi, a trusted confidant of Aabatai who was valiant and skilled in battle, known widely as the First Brave of the Inlaid Red Banner. He had received no intelligence regarding the presence of Ming forces in the vicinity, and he found it deeply puzzling: where on earth had these Ming troops come from? However, seeing that the Imperial Guards numbered only around two thousand, he naturally chose not to hole up defensively. Instead, he mustered two thousand Han infantry and five hundred armored troops to sally forth and engage them in battle.

The Later Jin forces always opened hostilities with foot archers. The leading Han infantry began loosing arrows from beyond eighty paces. Naturally, this posed zero threat to the Imperial Guards. By the time the Han infantry reached within fifty paces of the Guards' formation, a fraction of the arrows managed to reach the Guards' ranks, but the arrows were already lacking in momentum. Striking the iron scale armor of the Guards, they left not a single trace before dropping uselessly to the ground.

Lu Xiangsheng remained completely still, and the Imperial Guards held their fire. Not until the Han infantry reached thirty paces from the front of the formation did Lu Xiangsheng wave his hand, and the signalmen blew the bamboo whistles held in their mouths. The shrill sound of the bamboo whistles pierced the stillness, and the Guards raised their muskets. Another blast of the bamboo whistles rang out, and the muskets discharged. Amidst the muffled reports of the gunfire, thick white smoke billowed across the front of the formation. The front rank of Guards soldiers began to step back while the second rank raised their muskets. The whistle blew again, and the muskets fired once more. This was repeated three times.

Because Zhu Youxiao had long since decreed that Guards cavalry and artillerymen must also practice the use of flintlock muskets, the Imperial Guards cavalry were essentially mounted infantry in practice. Their musket training was in no way inferior to that of the infantry.

After three rounds of volleys, the sound of the bamboo whistles ceased. As the white smoke dissipated, the opposing Han infantry could be seen lying in heaps across the field. The remaining Han infantry began to hesitate and dared not advance further, yet, compelled by the armored troops behind them, they still lacked the courage to openly turn and retreat in large strides.

At this moment, the arrows of the armored troops arrived. The arrows of the armored troops were unlike those of the Han infantry; they flew fast, true, and fierce. Several Guards soldiers were struck and fell to the ground, uttering only muffled grunts without a single cry of agony.

Lu Xiangsheng remained unfazed. When the Han infantry and armored troops closed to within forty paces, he waved his hand, the bamboo whistles sounded, and the musket volleys followed, sending another swath of armored troops and infantry crashing to the ground.

Alagi let out a roar, and a swarm of armored troops charged forward, first hurling broadswords, thrown swords, and javelins before drawing their weapons to initiate a full charge.

If they had continued archery, the threat to the Imperial Guards might have been somewhat greater, as plate armor was still in the experimental stage, making hits to the head, face, and joints more probable. But now, employing thrown weapons, as long as they guarded their faces and deflected the javelins, there was practically no problem at all; broadswords and throwing blades were utterly incapable of causing damage to the iron scale armor.

When the armored troops charged to within twenty paces, the bamboo whistles sounded once more, and another wave of armored troops fell amidst the thunder of muskets.

Lu Xiangsheng shouted, "Close combat!"

The Imperial Guards soldiers lowered their muskets and marched forward. Alagi laughed wildly to himself, thinking: while I had some misgivings about your muskets, if you want to resort to hand-to-hand combat, how could you ever match the warriors of Jurchen?

Wielding a heavy saber, he grinned savagely and charged forward, sprinting toward an Imperial Guards soldier who was advancing with his leveled weapon. Alagi looked at the tiny bayonet with utter contempt, thinking that a thing capable of being snapped in half with a single cut could possibly harm him—no way.

Just as the two were about to close, the Guards soldier paused and came to a halt. Alagi assumed the man was terrified, so he grinned even more ferociously and raised his saber, only to see the soldier point the muzzle of his musket directly at him and pull the trigger.

A flash of fire erupted, and a lead ball penetrated his left eye, drilling out from behind his ear. Alagi's right eye registered an expression of utter disbelief: wasn't this supposed to be hand-to-hand combat? Why on earth were they still using muskets?

Filled with endless resentment, Alagi collapsed onto the ground. The veteran Guards soldier who had killed him confirmed that he was thoroughly dead, then leveled his musket once more and charged forward, driving his bayonet straight into the neck of an armored troop. With a fierce backward jerk, a spurt of dark blood shot out, and the armored soldier clutched his throat and slowly slumped to the ground.

The Imperial Guards always reloaded their ammunition before engaging in close combat, firing a musket shot right before the melee began, which gave them a massive tactical advantage. Furthermore, the majority of the soldiers in the First Division had already attained the second-tier standard for bayonet proficiency, and the new recruits hailing from Liaoning harbored deep national and personal hatreds, making their fighting exceptionally ferocious.

Seeing their leader slain, the morale of the Later Jin armored troops plummeted instantly. Upon discovering in the melee that they held no advantage whatsoever against the Guards, their morale suffered a second collapse. Morale was something intangible and formless, yet its role in combat was of paramount importance. Between opposing forces, the collapse of one side inevitably meant the surge of the other; thus, the morale of the Imperial Guards surged like a rainbow, and they quickly battered the Later Jin armored troops into a state of utter wretchedness and rout.