39. What about the matchlock?

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“The regulations laid down by the Supreme Military Commission are settled. We are to escort grain from Huguang and Jiangxi directly to the army at the front. Our only hope now is that the court cannot raise enough military funds or troops. Only then might His Majesty be persuaded to cancel this northern expedition.

“The Duke has already spoken with the Dingguo Duke’s household, but there is nothing they can do. The imperial decree has been issued.”

Zhang Qing’s final words completely cut off Wu Zhan-kui and Wei Meng’s last avenue of retreat. If they had still entertained even the slightest hope at the beginning, it was that their patron would somehow pull them out of the mire at the critical moment.

The Zhang, Wu, and Wei families had all come from Fengyang and had followed the founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, in rebellion. Their ancestors, however, had lacked the ability to command independently, and so had received somewhat lesser hereditary honors.

At the founding of the dynasty, military commanders had enjoyed a status far beyond anything they possessed now.

But now even their patron could no longer shelter them from the storm. They could only find some way to improve the fighting ability of their men. If they truly had to go to war, better combat strength would at least give them a greater chance of surviving the battlefield. Beyond that, there was nothing else they could do.

Wu Zhan-kui and Wei Meng exchanged another glance, but both saw the same deep helplessness in the other’s eyes.

There were never many ways for infantry to deal with cavalry, and every one of them placed extremely high demands on the foot soldiers. It required a superb grasp of battlefield tactics—something that could not be achieved through a few hurried months of training.

When confronted by a massed cavalry charge, infantry had to preserve their formation above all else.

It sounded simple, but in practice it was extraordinarily difficult.

During the founding years, military formations could still withstand the Tartars head-on. The soldiers of that era had possessed morale and tactical discipline far superior to those of the present day. There was simply no comparison.

That was why they had devised the method of increasing firepower and concentrating their firearms for rapid volleys, hoping to rout the enemy before contact—or at the very least scatter them.

Cavalry posed a threat only when charging as a mass. If they came forward in scattered groups, they were much easier to handle.

Now Zhang Qing wanted to know whether they had thought of any other methods. Where could they possibly come up with one at such short notice?

In truth, this method had also been inspired by Wei Guangde. After returning home, Wei’s father had recounted what he had seen during the expedition and mentioned the kind of breech-loading cannon he had witnessed in Zhenjiang.

At the time, Wei Guangde had thought that those cannons resembled the artillery of later generations. They were breech-loaders, and a high rate of fire was essential. If a large number of gunners bombarded a cavalry formation, they might actually be able to break it.

“Are there really no other methods?”

Zhang Qing narrowed his eyes. His gaze moved repeatedly between Wu Zhan-kui and Wei Meng, while disappointment gradually appeared on his face. At last, he let out a sigh.

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“Wait, Father. The Nanjing Military Bureau sent over a batch of arquebuses this time. I heard Brother Wei received some as well. Are they any good? They are the latest firearms.”

Standing beside Zhang Qing, Zhang Shigui suddenly joined the conversation. He had heard everything that had just been said and was merely trying to divert attention, hoping to put the matter of the Frankish cannons behind them for the time being. Those weapons truly could not be obtained.

The garrison had also brought back a batch of arquebuses from Nanjing this time. Zhang Shigui had no interest in firearms and had never tried one himself, but seeing Wei Meng reminded him that he had heard Wei possessed some.

The journey to Zhenjiang had been forced upon them. None of the households had brought their sons along; only the elders had gone by themselves. Naturally, Zhang Shigui had not accompanied the army. Everything he knew had come from those who had returned.

As for Zhang Qing, he would naturally never tell his son about such minor matters.

Indeed, Zhang Shigui had not even known that Wei Meng still commanded more than a hundred men. He learned of it only afterward, when the senior officers of the garrison suddenly began discussing the allocation of the military farms.

“Arquebuses? The garrison still has those things?”

Wei Meng of course knew what arquebuses were. He had tested them as soon as they arrived. After returning home, his second son often carried one into the hills to shoot birds, and the sharp crack of gunfire could frequently be heard from the rear mountain.

“Are they any good?”

From Wei Meng’s reaction, Zhang Shigui looked as though he had suddenly seized a lifeline. Zhang Qing and Wu Zhan-kui also turned toward Wei Meng with eager, concerned expressions.

“They are useful enough. The batch of firearms assigned to me this time is of fairly good quality.”

That was all Wei Meng could say. Even as he spoke, he was wondering what performance the weapons would deliver when facing a cavalry charge.

At the news that the firearms were of good quality, both Zhang Qing and Wu Zhan-kui felt a surge of joy.

They knew the power of firearms. With proper training, they could provide formidable combat strength, and training firearm troops was far easier than training archers.

To keep his archers combat-ready, Wei Meng allowed them to take their weapons into the mountains to hunt rather than assigning them to farm the fields.

The hundred-household command also had firearm soldiers, but they had all been sent to work the land because none of them were willing to use the weapons. A firearm bursting in the hands was no laughing matter.

His own son, by contrast, often carried that arquebus around. No one knew how many shots he had fired by then.

The reason Wei Meng still felt comfortable allowing Wei Guangde to use it was that every time Wei Guangde returned after firing, he went to Tang San to have the barrel inspected. That was what reassured him: his son understood the danger.

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“There are still more than a hundred arquebuses in the garrison warehouse. They were all manufactured together, so their quality should be roughly the same,” Zhang Shigui continued. “These firearms are new weapons, issued to us for trial so that they can be mass-produced later.”

“These arquebuses were newly invented? They really are useful. They shoot more accurately than the firearms we had before.”

Hearing that they were new weapons, Wei Meng thought no wonder he had never seen them before. Then he remembered the Frankish cannons he had seen in Zhenjiang. He had never heard of those before either, so he remained relatively calm.

“We only received these arquebuses the year before last—or perhaps the year before that. They were seized from the foreigners, and the Military Bureau spent the past two years studying and reproducing them,” Zhang Shigui explained.

“Seized? Have we fought the foreigners?”

Wei Meng and Wu Zhan-kui were both startled by Zhang Shigui’s explanation.

Both the arquebuses and the Frankish cannons were tremendously powerful, and both had come from the foreigners. Just how formidable were those people?

Could the imperial army actually defeat them in battle?

By now, the two men had already begun to think that the north was unsettled, and that a new threat had now emerged in the form of foreigners skilled in the use of firearms. Their hearts began pounding.

“Was it the twenty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign? The year before last, I believe—around that time. The garrisons in Fujian sent troops to Zouma Creek to suppress the pirates entrenched there. Some foreigners were mixed in among them. After the battle, we seem to have captured several arquebuses of this kind. They had wounded quite a few of our men during the fighting, so the weapons were sent to the Nanjing Military Bureau for study and reproduction.”

At that moment, Zhang Qing opened his eyes. As though recalling the past, he slowly recounted what he knew about the arquebuses’ origins.

There were many accounts of where the arquebuses had come from. Some said they had been introduced through Guangdong; others claimed they had been captured during the suppression of pirates in Fujian. But among those present, Zhang Qing was the only one who knew anything about their origins. He had dealt with the Ministry of War and the Military Bureau in Zhenjiang, so it was only natural that he knew more than the rest.

“There were foreigners among the pirates?”

Wu Zhan-kui was somewhat astonished. “Weren’t we told they were all Japanese and Chinese sea bandits?”

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