Regarding whether to allow soldiers to leave Jinghai Gate to avoid bombardment before the Liang army’s long-range artillery attack but before any landing action, a court debate was convened at dawn on the sixteenth in Chongwen Hall, gathering civil and military officials of fifth rank and above, which resulted in considerable controversy.
In many people’s eyes, the Liang army’s declaration of war, followed by yesterday’s display of bombarding target ships on the river surface outside Jinghai Gate, revealed complete contempt and provocation.
In the eyes of those with backbone, this was utterly unbearable.
The thin-framed youth wished he could personally ascend Jinghai Gate to lead the great Chu’s soldiers in battle. How could he tolerate having great Chu’s soldiers hide aside during the bombardment, inviting mockery from the Liang army?
If during the Liang army’s bombardment, the Palace Guard soldiers dared not defend atop Jinghai Gate, what dignity would great Chu have left? How could they inspire the entire city’s military and civilian morale to live and die together with Jinling City?
Of course, many people still believed that the main characteristic of the Liang army’s newly manufactured smoothbore cannons was their long range, but judging from yesterday’s scene of projectiles penetrating ship hulls, their power seemed somewhat weaker than whirlwind catapults at close range.
The Palace Guard had been preparing for three to four months. Besides reinforcing the gate tower’s interior with wooden frames, wooden shelters had been constructed with double-layered logs on the city walls on both sides. Many believed this could effectively reduce casualties among defending soldiers when subjected to bombardment. Even if they had to endure some casualties, it was the duty that Palace Guard soldiers should fulfill after years of generous treatment.
At this critical moment of great Chu’s survival, the young emperor’s martial courage gained the support of quite a few court officials in Chongwen Hall. Several young censors and Hanlin scholars even kowtowed repeatedly, requesting to ascend Jinghai Gate and defend the city together with the Palace Guard soldiers.
Yang En, Gu Zhilong and others firmly opposed this, emphasizing that during normal combat, when enemy forces attacked cities with whirlwind catapults, defending armies should adopt more flexible and mobile tactics as much as possible to minimize their own casualties.
Only when enemy forces attacked with whirlwind catapults while simultaneously assaulting the city walls did defenders have no choice but to hold firm atop the walls despite the danger of stone projectiles raining down.
If the Liang army today merely used warships anchored on the river surface to conduct bombardment, with their soldiers not even landing or directly assaulting the walls, great Chu’s soldiers naturally should first take shelter in safer places to avoid directly facing the Liang army’s bombardment. They could not let soldiers loyal and devoted to great Chu sacrifice themselves needlessly under bombardment.
At this time, Shen Yang was already unbearably aged, sitting in the seat granted beside the imperial desk, saying not a word, as if the last bit of energy in his decrepit body was about to be drained.
“Let the soldiers temporarily withdraw to the sides. Once we confirm the Liang army’s bombardment power is nothing extraordinary, it won’t be too late to mount the walls for defense. Great Chu’s state and royal house ultimately still depend on these soldiers—all ministers should show compassion for them.” Qing Yang made the final decision to settle the controversy, then had Shen Yang, Yang En, Gu Zhilong, Du Chongtao, Zhou Bingwu, Zhang Ping and others escort the young emperor to Jingjing Gate for battlefield supervision along with almost all fifth-rank and above civil and military officials in the court.
After the civil and military officials filed out in crowds surrounding the young emperor, the vast Chongwen Hall became empty and desolate. Qing Yang sat behind the imperial desk, momentarily feeling lost and disappointed, not knowing what exactly she was hoping for.
Lei Cheng shuffled in with his hunched body and said, “His Majesty has absolutely no intention of harming the Emperor or executing great Chu’s full court of civil and military officials. Please set your mind at ease, Empress Dowager. Today’s Jingjing Gate will not be a target for Daliang’s gunships. His Majesty has even strictly ordered the navy to avoid ricochet situations. Of course, no matter how generous and righteous His Majesty is, with the realm divided into fragments until now and great Chu having been established for over thirty years, too many people will not easily relinquish the power and interests they already hold. A battle between Liang and Chu is ultimately unavoidable—now we can only hope this cannon battle at Jinghai Gate will allow many ministers to let go of their obsessions…”
“I hope it’s as you say,” Qing Yang said dejectedly. “Zheng Yu, Zheng Hui, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, Zhang Han, and Zhang Xiang and his sons all firmly oppose relocating the capital. They’re simply all waiting for the day when Jinling can no longer hold, when it falls first to the Liang army, so they can freely and without burden run to Han Qian to sell themselves for a good price while continuing to maintain their wealth and nobility. I am but a weak woman—wanting to reverse heaven’s will is beyond my power. Now seeing Gu Zhilong’s attitude also changing, he too has been bought by you all, hasn’t he?”
“That hasn’t happened yet, but Gu Zhilong does have his own private thoughts and calculations—that’s not false,” Lei Cheng said.
“Go rest now…” Qing Yang waved her hand, signaling Lei Cheng to withdraw.
“Oh yes, His Majesty went to great effort to finish adapting an old lyric and had this old servant present it to the Empress Dowager…” Lei Cheng took out a folded silk document from his sleeve, presented it on the imperial desk, then shuffled away.
Qing Yang hesitated for quite a while before opening the silk document, her eyes scanning from top to bottom:
“The great river flows east, its waves washing away, the romantic figures of ages past. West of the old ramparts, people say, lies the Red Cliff of Zhou Yu of the Three Kingdoms. Chaotic rocks pierce the sky, startling waves beat the shore, rolling up a thousand piles of snow. Rivers and mountains like a painting, how many heroes there were in that time. Thinking back to Gongjin’s days, when young Xiao Qiao was newly wed, he was majestic and brilliant. With feather fan and silk headband, amid talking and laughing, masts and oars turned to ash and smoke. Wandering in spirit through the ancient land, passion should mock me for graying so early. Life is but a dream, one cup still poured to the river and moon…”
Qing Yang sat there in a daze for a time, her slender jade-like fingers involuntarily tracing over and over the dozen characters: “Thinking back to Gongjin’s days, when young Xiao Qiao was newly wed, he was majestic and brilliant…”
……
……
Worried that cannon shots might miss their mark and strike Jingjing Gate three to four hundred paces behind the city walls, the gunships lined up in formation on the river surface outside Jinghai Gate did not aim at the gate tower atop the city gate. Instead, they all lowered their cannon muzzles, aiming at the barbican outside Jinghai Gate and the city walls on both sides for bombardment.
To ensure impact points fell within the range of Jinghai Gate, over a dozen gunships all conducted test firing from near to far. They even dropped anchor directly at the river’s center, mooring in fixed positions to avoid deviations as much as possible.
When solid shot bombarded cargo ships, it could very easily penetrate directly through the hull. Therefore, its destructive power to the ship’s overall structure appeared inferior to whirlwind catapults hurling stone projectiles weighing one hundred or even two to three hundred jin at close range. But the actual situation was that after firing, the accumulated impact force of a twelve-jin solid shot was truly more than ten times that of a hundred-jin stone projectile.
This point was thoroughly demonstrated when bombarding city walls covered with brick facing—pure hard impact.
Comparatively speaking, for defending against bombardment, rammed earth walls were far more practical than brick-faced walls, better able to absorb the impact force of cannonballs and endure for longer periods under bombardment.
First came sporadic test firing, then quickly over a dozen gunships, with nearly a hundred front-loading smoothbore cannons on one side, fired in volleys. Seeing bricks and stones flying in the distance with dust and smoke soaring, one intuitively felt the earth beneath their feet trembling.
Occasionally one or two solid shots would clear the city walls and land in the open ground before Jingjing Gate. Even without striking the Jingjing Gate tower, this still caused the great Chu civil and military officials observing the battle atop Jingjing Gate tower to turn pale and their limbs to go weak.
“The barbican has collapsed!”
The bombardment had not lasted long when soldiers on watch at the Imperial City’s western watchtower galloped to report loudly before Jingjing Gate.
“The barbican collapsed?”
Everyone looked toward Yang En in alarm. Since Jinling City had been mainly built under Yang En’s supervision, no one knew better than Yang En how solid the barbican was.
Yang En laughed bitterly. What could he say?
During the late period of the Jinling rebellion, when the great army besieged Jinling City, in the end it was the rebel forces who, unable to sustain the brutal war of attrition, actively abandoned the city and fled across the river.
At that time, the entire northern riverside city defense system had not undergone the test of warfare—after all, the riverside side had too limited space for troop deployment. However, at that time both sides conducted months of bloody offensive and defensive battles around the inner and outer fortified cities on the south, west, and east sides of Jinling City. The strength or weakness of Jinling City’s defense system had been tested in actual combat.
At that time, the barbicans at Chongyi Gate and Xihua Gate, under continuous bombardment by dozens of whirlwind catapults, could hold for more than ten days before being completely destroyed.
Moreover, under the pounding of whirlwind catapults, the cracking and collapse of solid walls was a relatively lengthy process. During this process, as long as the defending army’s will to resist was strong enough and their organizational strength was also strong enough, they could promptly organize the city’s military and civilians to use bricks, stones, and wooden palisade walls to constantly repair cracking and collapsing walls. Thus in extreme cases, a fortified city could even hold out for several years before a powerful enemy until provisions were completely exhausted.
However, before the Liang army’s bombardment, the city walls they considered barriers were so fragile, their collapse so easy and swift. At this time, even if the city’s military and civilians were fearless of death, the speed of repairing walls fell far short of destruction. It would be easy for enemy forces to blast open breaches in a short time through which large forces could directly attack into the city.
Before the Liang army’s new war machines, city walls were no longer solid barriers upon which defenders could rely.
The barbican collapsed and the bombardment continued, but the main impact points concentrated on the city walls on both sides. The great Chu officials observing the battle from Jingjing Gate tower soon saw cracks appearing on the inner sides of the walls on both flanks, with bricks and stones tumbling down.
No one knew how much time had passed—perhaps very long, perhaps very short. Mainly because everyone was terrified, worried that at any moment a cannonball might strike where they stood, momentarily losing all sense of time’s passage. Due to severe damage to the walls on both sides, the overall structure of Jinghai Gate was destroyed and could no longer support the gate tower standing over four zhang tall atop the gate. Amid “creaking and groaning” sounds extremely uncomfortable to hear, Jinghai Gate tower collapsed together with the gate passage below.
This collapse created an even greater commotion, with smoke and dust rolling up. Even debris struck against Jingjing Gate tower, hitting shields with loud clattering sounds.
After the dust settled, the entire Jinghai Gate had completely become a pile of ruins, while the distant Liang gunships had by this time assembled their formation and were slowly withdrawing northward toward the northern bank.
The thin-framed youth, if not for Zhang Ping secretly extending a hand to support his back from behind, would not even have been able to stand atop the gate tower…