Chapter 22: The Siege (Part One)

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With the help of his personal guards, Chu Yan donned his armor and stepped out of the command tent. The spring sun had yet to rise; the eastern horizon was only beginning to brighten, while the camp was suffused with the mingled aroma of roasted meat and rice.

“Your Majesty!”

The personal guards seated around the entrance eating breakfast saw him emerge and hurriedly rose to their feet, bowls and chopsticks still in hand. They wiped their mouths in haste and tried to hide their bowls behind them.

Chu Yan glanced at them and smiled. “Just keep eating. Sit down. I’m going to take a look at the camp gate.”

“Your Majesty, you aren’t having breakfast?”

“It’s nothing. I’ll eat when I return.”

“Then I’ll bring your horse!”

One of the guards set down his bowl and hurried to the nearby tent to lead out the Qian King’s mount.

Chu Yan swung himself onto the horse, took several guards with him, and made his way through the camp, where the fragrance of food hung thick in the air, until he reached the camp gate.

After the morning dew had passed, the oilcloths covering the forty Divine Might cannons beneath the earthen wall had already been removed. Their barrels protruded through openings in the wall, aimed at the distant capital of the Shun dynasty.

The scent of pine resin mixed with oil filled the air. It had been applied to the cannons to prevent them from rusting.

Several gunners were making final inspections on each Divine Might cannon. Before the battle began, they would conduct a test volley to ensure that the shells would land upon the city walls during the assault.

“Bring me the telescope.”

At Chu Yan’s command, his guard Sun Yunjing promptly took out a monocular telescope and handed it over.

Chu Yan accepted it and, still mounted, gazed toward the distance.

He first examined the tallest watchtower by the city gate. It had four stories, and through its windows he could see the figures of Shun soldiers, some of them poking their heads out to peer in this direction.

Numerous cannons had been placed along the city walls, in the barbican, and upon the corner towers, though their power was naturally nowhere near that of the Divine Might cannons Chu Yan had personally overseen.

A moat ran beneath the walls, but years of neglect had left it badly silted. The once-broad waterway had narrowed to only a few yards at its thinnest point.

The drawbridge had been raised, and the two barbicans faced it directly. Any soldiers attacking from that direction would be subjected to the enemy’s heaviest fire.

Five days earlier, Chu Yan had selected two sections of the moat where the silt was deepest and made preparations to fill them in.

As he observed the defenses, he silently ran through the battle plan, reviewing the strategy he and his generals had established the previous night to see whether anything had been overlooked.

Only after watching for nearly fifteen minutes did Chu Yan lower the telescope.

“Your Highness.”

Li Changjin rode up and cupped his hands in salute.

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Chu Yan turned around and saw that Wu Xinan, Su Dingbian, Xu Zhiyi, Chang Neng, Wei Liang, and the others had arrived. He smiled and asked, “Have you all eaten breakfast?”

“Your Majesty, none of us have!” Ma Ji, short and powerfully built, grinned broadly. “We’re waiting to eat in the palace after we enter the city!”

All the generals burst into laughter.

Chu Yan laughed and scolded him, “You eat five meals a day under ordinary circumstances, and you start shouting if you miss even one. Can you really endure five days without food?”

“Will it take five days to take this wretched city?” Ma Ji immediately replied. “If Your Majesty appoints me vanguard commander, I guarantee I’ll be the first to seize the city gate!”

“Very well. Put it in writing.”

“Er…”

Ma Ji looked as though someone had seized him by the throat. He struggled for a long while without managing to say another word, prompting another round of laughter from the others.

“Your Highness has always made conservative estimates,” Xu Changjin said with a smile. “In my view, the city can be taken in three days. On the first day, we shatter their courage; on the second, we launch a full assault. Within three days, someone will certainly come forward as an inside agent.”

Chu Yan smiled. “Whether there is an inside agent, we will know tonight. Regardless, the city must still be attacked. Begin the test firing of the Divine Might cannons first.”

As soon as he issued the order, someone hurried to notify the commander in charge of the forty cannons and relay Chu Yan’s instructions.

Before long, several men stood behind each cannon—the chief gunner, the powder handlers, the loaders, and others—and began to work in unison.

Each chief gunner held a quadrant, making measurements and recording the relevant figures on paper before carrying out the calculations.

Chu Yan and his generals went to one of the Divine Might cannons and personally watched the crew perform the procedure step by step.

Seeing the gunners calculate so fluently on paper, Li Changjin could not help but praise them. “Five years ago, when Your Highness began promoting this new mathematics throughout the army, none of us understood it. We even wondered why Your Highness had to personally teach them such trivial matters. Only today do I realize how far-sighted Your Highness truly is—something we ordinary men could never hope to match.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Chu Yan merely smiled. He had gone to such lengths to cultivate so many mathematicians for far more than calculating the trajectories of shells on the battlefield.

After a while, the cannon commander stepped forward, saluted, and reported in a strong voice, “Your Majesty, our cannon has been fully calibrated!”

Chu Yan nodded. “Well done.”

A short while later, the crews of all forty cannons stood behind their weapons. Calibration and loading were complete, and torches had been lit as they awaited the order.

Chu Yan glanced at the Western pocket watch he had seized as war spoils in Jiangnan. It was seven in the morning. The soldiers in both the camp and the city had only just finished breakfast.

Drawing a deep breath, Chu Yan shouted, “At my command, conduct a test volley before the assault! Prepare!”

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His voice rang out like thunder. The soldiers all around regarded him with both awe and fear. Their king truly possessed the power to shout down even the legendary Long Slope Bridge!

Behind the forty Divine Might cannons, the men assigned to ignite them lowered their torches and moved toward the fuses.

“Fire!”

With that sharp command, Chu Yan raised his telescope.

The fuses caught. Li Changjin, Su Dingbian, and the others nearby also lifted the telescopes they carried and looked toward the distant city walls.

Boom! Boom!

All forty Divine Might cannons fired almost simultaneously. The enormous iron shells crossed several miles of open ground, tracing graceful arcs through the sky before crashing into the city walls.

Most struck the towering corner tower beside the city gate. A few smashed into the defensive cannons concealed atop it, knocking their barrels to the ground with a resounding clang and splintering their wooden carriages.

Several shells entered the windows of the watchtower at uncanny angles, killing a number of Shun soldiers hiding behind them. Their cries of alarm seemed to carry all the way back to the camp.

Through their telescopes, the observers could see soldiers in the corner tower, along the walls, and inside the watchtower scrambling frantically for cover. Some fled down the stairs, while others knelt trembling on the walls, striking their foreheads against the stone. For a time, the entire scene descended into chaos.

“That volley was excellent.”

In high spirits, Chu Yan smiled at the gunners. “Those who struck enemy cannons or sent shells through the windows will receive a generous reward. Everyone else who hit the walls will receive a smaller one.”

The cannon crews repeatedly thanked the Qian King for his generosity.

Chu Yan called out to Li Changjin and the others, “Come with me back to the camp. We will make our final preparations.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The generals followed him back to finalize the deployment for the assault.

Within the city.

Only after confirming that the shelling had stopped and that the Qian King’s army had not yet begun its formal attack did Wang Zitang climb onto the city wall.

What met his eyes was a bleak and desolate sight.

The walls of the Great Shun capital were extraordinarily sturdy, and the iron shells had caused little actual damage. Yet the shells had crossed several miles before shrieking down from above their heads. The terror and unease this inspired remained etched in the hearts of every soldier.

Moreover, most court officials were timid in the face of war, while more than twenty thousand of the defenders were remnants of defeated armies. They had witnessed the strength of the Qian King’s forces themselves, and as word spread from mouth to mouth, the defenders’ morale sank ever lower.

At that moment, most of the soldiers Wang Zitang saw had faces drained of color. They kept ducking and dodging, afraid to show their heads and face the Qian King’s camp.

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