Chapter 68: Firearms Unleashed

  Pang Gang was directing the soldiers to form an array outside the city, but in his heart, he felt a wave of sorrow. The vast Yangzhou had nearly 800,000 people, and each person could have spat out the Japanese pirates to death, but now things had turned around. The entire city's military and civilians were blocked at the city gate by only a few hundred Japanese pirates and did not dare to go out. From the former Minister of Rites and the Governor of Yangzhou to the soldiers, they all allowed the Japanese pirates to plunder women and kill civilians outside the city. What was the use of such an officialdom and such an army?

  No wonder that in the near future, a tragic event like the Ten Days of Yangzhou would occur. When Shi Kefa was defending Yangzhou, he could only muster a little over 10,000 soldiers to defend the city against the attack of 30,000 Qing troops. Although the defenders put up a strong resistance at first, their morale collapsed immediately after Shi Kefa's death, with some jumping off the walls and others fleeing, resulting in the deaths of over 400,000 civilians after the city fell, comparable to the Nanjing Massacre of later times. Thinking of this, Pang Gang felt a surge of anger rising to the sky.

  The leader of the pirates who came to attack the city was named ōno Toshi, a Japanese ronin. Since his lord lost in the struggle with other daimyos in Japan three years ago, he became an unwanted outcast. With his decent martial arts skills, he gathered dozens of similarly down-on-their-luck samurai in Japan and came to China's coastal areas to become bandits. His power gradually grew, at one point reaching over 500 people. Originally, they were active in the Fujian and Jiangsu-Zhejiang coastal areas, but their good times didn't last long. Recently, he offended Zheng Zhilong, the maritime hegemon of the southeastern coast, and was pursued and killed by him, suffering over 200 casualties. With his strength greatly reduced, ōno Toshi had no choice but to lead his remaining forces to flee to Jiangsu, far from Fujian. This pirate, who had already become addicted to plundering, actually set his sights on Yangzhou City.

  Of course, he wouldn't be naive enough to think that he could take down Yangzhou City with just a few hundred Japanese pirates, but it was still possible to plunder the city from outside. Having been in the Ming dynasty for several years, he deeply understood that the combat effectiveness of the Ming dynasty's official army had already deteriorated to an extreme degree. In past battles, his hundreds of men could easily defeat and kill thousands of Ming dynasty soldiers like driving ducks, and today's performance in Yangzhou City was not unexpected at all. The tightly closed city gates and the silent Ming military officers had already made it clear that without the protection of the city walls, those Ming dynasty soldiers would not dare to stand in front of them.

  Now ōno Toshihiko and his gang were sitting not far from the inner gate, embracing the women they had robbed, looking up and down at them, and laughing loudly at the garrison on the city wall who feared the enemy like a tiger.

  At this time, they were surprised to find that the city gate actually slowly opened, and a team of Ming army came out of the city gate.

  "What? Those cowards from Mingguo actually dared to come out of the city?"

  Seeing the Ming army's unusual movement, ōno Tadaaki was both surprised and delighted. He turned to one of his attendants, Nakamura, saying: "Nakamura, the Ming troops have come to offer their lives! Take a team of warriors and kill them all at once!"

  "Ah-ha!"

  The leader also showed excitement, drew out his samurai sword and led thirty Japanese pirates in a loud shout as they charged forward.

  It may seem strange to some people, but the Japanese pirates were too rampant. Dozens of people dared to charge at hundreds of enemy soldiers, but in the eyes of the Japanese pirates, this was normal. The Ming army's poor combat effectiveness was something they were deeply familiar with, and their common characteristic was that they would collapse as soon as they touched. Although the armor of the Ming army in front of them was brighter than what they had encountered before, and their weapons were more sophisticated, but in the eyes of these Japanese pirates who were used to fighting against the Ming army, it didn't represent anything.

  At this time, Pang Gang led the soldiers out of the city gate and immediately formed a formation. Sixty bird gunners were in front, long gunners and knife shieldmen were behind, and the heavy troops opened up on the flanks.

  Seeing the weirdly dressed Wokou pirates rushing in from afar, the Ming soldiers standing on the city wall looked pale and trembled with fear, as if they were facing the pirates themselves.

  In contrast, the soldiers in Peng's army had a hint of expectation on their faces. They looked forward to the grain and rewards from the capture of the pirates' lair. For these soldiers who had undergone cruel training and had been tempered in the campaign against bandits, the pirates in front of them were not only not a threat, but also their best source of wealth.

  Pang Gang divided the bird gunners into three teams, one team loaded, one team fired, and one team was on standby, which greatly improved the efficiency of shooting battles. At this time, sixty bird gunners stood in three rows, their Lu Mi guns had already been loaded with ammunition, and the fuse had also been ignited.

  Seeing the Wokou swarming in, Pang Gang, standing on the left side of the troops, sneered coldly. The Wokou are just the Wokou, they don't have any discipline at all. Such an army, even if the individuals are brave, can only be considered a mob.

  Pang Gang drew out his command knife and ordered the soldiers to raise their arquebuses. Twenty arquebusiers stood in a line, aiming at the Wokou pirates who were rushing forward. At this time, the Wokou pirates who were charging forward also saw the arquebusiers standing in a line in front of them. They didn't think much of it, as they had seen many Ming firearms before, which weren't very effective at killing people, but were good at scaring people and damaging themselves.

  When they rushed to about a hundred steps away, the dozens of Japanese pirates suddenly let out a loud shout in unison, and then brandished their weapons and charged forward with wild cries.

  "Ready!"

  Pang Gang raised the curved knife in his hand, pointing at the Wokou in front of him and giving orders. The bird gunners all pressed the gun stocks against their shoulders, taking aim at the front.

  When these Japanese pirates rushed into a distance of eighty yards, Pang Gang shouted loudly: "Fire!"

  "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  The front row of twenty bird guns fired in unison, spewing out a burst of bullets and smoke.

  In a burst of gunfire, dozens of Japanese pirates who were running the fastest were knocked to the ground at the same time, falling to the ground with loud cries.

  The power of the Ruiming Chong is extremely great, and it has a lethal range of 150 steps. At a distance of 100 steps, how can those Japanese pirates who don't even wear armor withstand it? Moreover, although lead bullets do not have the strong penetrating power of modern pointed bullets, when they enter the human body and encounter resistance, they will deform in an instant, producing a dum-dum effect, creating a large hole in the body, basically resulting in certain death.

  "First row back, second row forward!"

  "Fire!"

  "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  "Fire!"

  "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  Sixty bird gun soldiers fired one round each, and a white smoke spread in front of the phalanx, with miserable cries constantly coming from the front.

  Soon, some pungent white smoke dispersed, and what appeared before the crowd was the corpse that had been lying horizontally more than eighty steps away. They were sprawled out in front of the formation, and dozens of Japanese pirates who had just been excitedly launching a charge were all lying on the ground.

  This result stunned the Ming army soldiers who were watching from the city wall and the Japanese pirates led by ōyama Shigeharu who were waiting to see a good show. They all had their mouths wide open, seemingly unable to believe that the Ming army's firearms were so powerful, and before they could even charge forward, dozens of their companions were killed or wounded in an instant.

  However, although they were dazed, Pang Gang did not, he raised the curved knife in his hand and ordered: "The whole team advances in formation!"

  "Knock knock knock knock..."

  As the drums sounded, more than 200 soldiers, including 100 heavy infantrymen, marched forward in big strides to the Wokou pirates ahead.

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