The moment the battle truly began, Ba Da Wang's artillery position was lifted straight into the sky.
The ten cannons that had recently bombarded Zuo Liangyu until his scalp tingled with fear did not even last five minutes. After firing a single round whose shells landed who knew where, they were answered by a storm.
From Gao Family Village's side, countless small artillery tubes roared almost simultaneously. The sound overlapped into a rolling thunder that did not pause for breath. One volley followed another with mechanical precision, far faster than any traditional cannon crew could manage.
Within moments, Ba Da Wang's artillery ground was swallowed in explosions. Earth and shattered wood flew upward. Cannon carriages flipped. Wheels snapped. Iron barrels rolled uselessly in the dirt like broken limbs.
Zhai Tang and the Shanxi merchants behind him felt their scalps go numb.
Before the battle, Zhai Tang had harbored a quiet dissatisfaction with Ba Da Wang's slow trench advancing tactics. In his mind, firelock troops were troublesome only because of their range advantage. Now that their own cannons outranged muskets, should they not simply bombard the enemy from afar and crush them cleanly?
He had not voiced it aloud.
Five minutes into the battle, he no longer needed to.
Their ten cannons had fired one round.
The other side had fired several.
The difference was not courage. It was speed.
Fortunately, Ba Da Wang's artillerymen had experience. The instant they heard the first counter-battery boom, they threw themselves flat to the ground. Many survived because they knew to hug the earth before thinking about honor. Even so, the position was finished. The cannons were silent. The crews were shaken. No one was fighting with them again today.
As for the giant crossbows and catapults hastily assembled from fresh timber, they were even more embarrassing. They did not manage a single launch before being blasted apart into splinters.
Ba Da Wang's jaw tightened.
"Shield carts forward."
His hardened bandits pushed the heavy shield carts ahead step by step, while behind them trenches continued extending toward Gao Family Village's lines like dark veins crawling across the field.
"Open fire!"
Gao Family Village did not let up. Shells screamed across the sky.
Yet Ba Da Wang's men had indeed learned something. The instant a cannon fired, no matter where the shell was headed, they dropped flat. Some did not even bother looking and simply flung themselves backward into their own trenches. Explosions tore open the surface, fragments hissed through the air, but men crouched below ground level suffered far less than those standing in the open.
Ba Da Wang could not help laughing.
"I knew it would work. Keep pushing!"
They pushed.
Until they pushed too close.
At a certain distance, Gao Family Village's soldiers lifted their arms and small dark shapes arced across the gap of several dozen meters, dropping neatly into the freshly dug rebel trenches.
Boom.
The confined space turned lethal instantly.
Bandits who had felt safe underground were blasted rigid, smoke filling the trench lines. Then came something worse. Clay oil jars with cloth stuffed in their mouths were lit and hurled forward. The jars shattered upon landing, flaming oil spilling along the trench floor. Fire raced through the narrow channels, turning carefully dug shelter into blazing ovens.
The bandits digging forward froze.
The closer they dug, the easier they were to bomb and burn. Continue, and they died. Stop, and they stalled.
And so a strange equilibrium formed.
Rebel soldiers poked their heads up from trenches to lob arrows in high arcs toward Gao Family Village's earthworks, more harassment than real assault. In response, disciplined firelock troops maintained steady suppression, preventing any serious charge from leaping out of the trenches.
Dozens of meters separated the two sides. Noise was constant. Casualties were not.
One hardened bandit retreated back to Ba Da Wang's main formation, face blackened with soot.
"Big Brother, we cannot cross. The moment we jump out, we get shot. If we dig forward, their small bombs drop right into the trench."
Pan Dugu frowned and spoke quietly.
"We need oil jars as well. Throw them into their trenches and burn them out."
After saying this, he turned to look at Zhai Tang.
The rebel army was poor. Oil did not fall from the sky.
Zhai Tang's face darkened.
"Our oil is barely enough for cooking. You want to throw it away to burn the ground?"
The Shanxi merchants were wealthy compared to peasants, but compared to the boundless supplies behind Dao Xuan Tianzun's forces, they were fireflies before the moon. In a contest of logistics, they were hopelessly outmatched.
Ba Da Wang exhaled slowly.
"It seems the daytime will remain like this."
And so it did.
The entire day passed in trench to trench harassment, arrows flying, shots cracking, explosions punctuating the mud. Heat faded. The sky darkened.
Pan Dugu leaned closer.
"After nightfall, we send men crawling. Keep them flat against the ground. Slip into their trenches. If we seize even a short section, our numbers will let us roll their line from within."
Ba Da Wang nodded. Zhai Tang also felt the idea held promise. Night erased range advantages. Darkness was the ally of the desperate.
But before the sky turned fully black, Gao Family Village's lines suddenly blossomed with light.
Oil lamps rose one by one along the trenches and behind low earthen walls. Bamboo poles were planted at intervals, each bearing a lantern that burned as if oil were cheaper than water. Within moments, the entire defensive line glowed in warm yellow light, illuminating every patch of ground between the armies.
Sneak attack?
On what darkness?
The plan dissolved without even being attempted.
The next morning, the two sides resumed their strange rhythm. Arrows and shots. Noise without breakthrough.
At one point, a group of impatient bandits lost their tempers, drew blades, and charged recklessly. Firelock shots cracked in disciplined volleys. The brave fools collapsed in a scattered heap before reaching halfway.
After that, no one volunteered to demonstrate courage again.
Three days passed.
Pan Dugu's brow furrowed deeper with each sunrise.
"Something is wrong. If we continue delaying like this, those strange firelock troops from other directions will arrive."
As if summoned by his worry, a scout came galloping in, shouting before he even dismounted.
"Big Brother, Military Adviser, bad news. The defenders of Wuchang are chasing us from behind."
Ba Da Wang blinked.
"Wuchang has defenders?"
"It appears the Prince of Chu spent one million taels of silver to hire civilians to defend the city. This army must be the force he assembled."
Ba Da Wang let out a cold laugh.
"He takes a pile of silver, hires a crowd of commoners, and thinks he can fight me? I was once like that ten years ago. Back then we were peasants grabbing hoes and charging without formation, discipline, or tactics. We thought bravery alone was enough."
He shook his head at the memory, half amused, half contemptuous.
Turning to his adopted son, Sun Kewang, he gestured casually.
"Your cavalry cannot break these trenches anyway. Turn back and deal with this Chu Prince's patchwork army. Sweep them aside and return."
Sun Kewang grinned, confidence radiating from him.
"A trivial matter. Against a cavalry charge, a miscellaneous civilian army will not withstand even one clash. I will finish them quickly."
Ba Da Wang nodded.
"Good. Then when you are done, you can clean the battlefield."
The phrase sounded light.
But everyone present understood.
If Sun Kewang failed, there might be no battlefield left to clean.