Reinforce the Firepower

During the Jiajing era, the Great Ming Dynasty was truly troubled times.

From the rebellion of the common people in Lipu, Guangxi, in the first year of Jiajing, and the domestic war of the Qingzhou miners' uprising, to the Mongol Little Prince repeatedly violating the border walls, the mutinies within the Ming military caused by vicious infighting, and the incursions of the Japanese pirates, the entire empire seemed to be teetering on the edge, besieged on all sides.

Especially in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing, when the Mongol Tatar Altan Khan raided the capital's surrounding regions, the weakness of the empire's military might was completely exposed.

Going back over a hundred years to the Yongle era, whenever the Mongol tartars caught sight of the Ming army, they would flee as far as possible, never harboring even the slightest thought of attacking Beijing.

In those external wars, whether involving the Mongols or the Japanese pirates, the number of troops deployed was actually quite small; only Altan Khan's raid involved around ten thousand men.

Each Mongol tartars' raid ranged from several hundred to at most two or three thousand. They would capture a few border strongholds, plunder them, and return fully loaded. The scale of the Japanese pirates was even smaller, with dozens or hundreds landing along the coast, raiding one or two coastal villages, and setting sail again before the local garrisons and bailiffs could arrive, rarely engaging the imperial forces in battle.

Everyone came for wealth, and fighting was avoided whenever possible. Be it the imperial troops or the pirates, their intentions were actually quite similar.

Yet just now, Wei Guangde had actually heard from his father that tens of thousands of Japanese pirates were gathering along the coast. What were they trying to accomplish?

The First War of Invasion against China?

This was Wei Guangde's initial reaction, but he quickly realized that in this era, "Japanese pirates" was merely a collective term, a designation for sea raiders. In fact, the absolute majority of these pirates were not Japanese, but Han Chinese, much like using "Red Turbans and Crimson Eyebrows" to metaphorically describe invaders.

"If the coastal garrisons were capable of fighting, would they have rushed an urgent military report all the way to Nanjing? This is a military achievement of monumental proportions."

Wei Meng smiled bitterly as he exchanged a glance with Wu Zhankui.

Tens of thousands of pirates gathering together—defeating them would undoubtedly be a monumental merit. However, for the current Ming military, who would dare to contend for such credit?

"Does the high command know who the pirate leader is?"

Wei Guangde understood that although he had not seen the conditions of other garrisons, he knew quite a bit about the Jiujiang Garrison from his father and uncle. The garrisons were rotten and long unfit for service.

"Unclear."

Wei Meng did not answer; this time, it was Wu Zhankui who spoke.

"Logically speaking, for the pirates to merge their forces into one, someone must be acting as a central coordinator. In any case, the intelligence did not mention who is pulling the strings behind the scenes."

What Wei Guangde could figure out, others naturally could as well.

The Japanese pirates had abandoned their previous tactics of small-scale roving raids and were now attempting to form alliances, which undoubtedly meant their ambitions were grand. The Nanjing Ministry of War, the Chief Military Commission of the Five Prefectures, and the coastal garrisons had all taken defensive precautions. Yet, to no avail—the garrisons possessed no combat capability, so no amount of planning could make up for it.

Since the garrisons were useless, the only solution was to muster more troops and crush the enemy with sheer numbers. This was the only method the Nanjing Ministry of War could devise.

You are gathering a large force? Then I will assemble a force as well, outnumbering you to see if you still dare to come and cause trouble.

For the imperial court, maintaining an army of tens of thousands was already an arduous task, let alone for a mere pirate syndicate. It was simply a contest of endurance.

"According to the latest intelligence, the garrisons will only dispatch ten centuries' worth of troops. Nanjing demands elite soldiers; otherwise, they refuse to release funds. Therefore, the other centuries will not be mobilized, and men will be drawn exclusively from those two centuries."

Wu Zhankui continued, "The Ministry of War needs numbers, but they also demand elite troops. Fortunately, we have been drilling our men all along. I reckon we might weather this storm, but the other garrisons might not be so lucky."

"How so?" Wei Guangde asked curiously, sensing there were things he did not yet know.

"This time, all the garrisons in Southern Zhili are to be mobilized. Every garrison must muster ten centuries of elite troops. The fiasco the year before last must have deeply disgusted the lords at the Ministry of War—child soldiers barely ten years old, and venerable veterans leaning on walking sticks, heh..."

"Zhenjiang Garrison, Yangzhou Garrison, Xuanzhou Garrison, Anqing Garrison, and our own Jiujiang Garrison—except for the garrisons in Zhejiang, all those along Jiangnan and the Yangtze River must deploy. The garrisons north of the river must also assemble their forces, standing ready to provide support at any moment."

"Word has it that apart from a few garrisons near the Central Capital, virtually all of Southern Zhili must prepare. That amounts to nearly twenty thousand men. Quite a formidable formation."

As he spoke, a look of disdain crossed Wu Zhankui's face.

Given his position, the information he possessed naturally surpassed Wei Meng's, and Wei Guangde was even further behind.

Those garrisons were even worse than the Jiujiang Garrison.

The year before last, the Jiujiang Garrison could still field more than half its quota of able-bodied elites. As for the other garrisons? Not even half.

Presumably, this was why every garrison was now ordered to produce ten centuries of troops.

"Uncle, I think you might as well bring the bowl-mouth mortars along. Those things are meant for naval warfare; in land battles, they are only good for scaring people and their destructive power is indeed quite limited."

"If you are truly heading north, leaving them behind might be fine. But in the unlikely event that you actually encounter the Japanese pirates, those contraptions are still quite effective for smashing the pirates' sea-going vessels."

While drilling at Bengshan Fortress over the past year, Wei Guangde had finally learned how the bowl-mouth mortars were utilized.

When he first saw these devices, Wei Guangde had assumed they fired scattershot. After hauling them out to test them with his eldest brother, he learned they were genuinely intended for warships, firing solid shot to bombard the enemy vessels' waterline.

As for firing scattershot, the muzzle was flared like a small trumpet, lacking any accuracy whatsoever; the projectiles would fly wildly the moment they cleared the barrel, and the range was miserably short.

He had no idea who had designed this piece of junk, and it was cast in bronze, no less.

In naval combat, they could only be used to bombard the enemy deck during boarding actions, where accuracy was not demanded and the range was extremely close.

"Transporting them is a hassle, and besides, the gunpowder supply is insufficient. We have to reserve it for the matchlock gunners."

Wu Zhankui shook his head.

In truth, the garrisons were regularly allocated small amounts of gunpowder, but the lower-ranking garrison officers naturally did not use it for military drills; instead, they secretly sold it for cash, converting it into firecrackers to be set off during festive holidays.

It was only in the past year that less was sold because those two centuries required gunpowder for practice—which had also caused the price of firecrackers in Pengze County to rise by three percent that New Year.

"Take them along. As Guangde said, if we head north, we can drop them. Perhaps we might even requisition breech-loading swivel guns. But when fighting Japanese pirates, having them is better than nothing. We can place them on the grain carts—two per cart."

Though the bowl-mouth mortars lacked immense power, they had frequently been brought out for live firing at Bengshan Fortress to coordinate with battle formations.

Underestimating their destructive power did not mean Wei Guangde was ignorant of the maxim that artillery was the god of war.

At the very least, despite the short range, Wei Guangde believed that once the enemy closed in, discharging a volley of scattershot from the bowl-mouth mortars could still sweep down vast numbers.

Influenced by Wei Guangde, Wei Wencai and Wu Dong had actually come to understand his tactical concept: intensifying firepower projection and striving to crush the opponent before close-quarters combat ensued.

Firepower-insufficiency phobia.

This was a psychological condition Wei Guangde had read about in future generations. As for how to cure it, the solution was to manufacture more artillery to compensate for firepower deficiencies.

Knowing nothing of the firearms of this era, Wei Guangde was naturally unaware that in the coming years, someone would invent a small, close-combat firearm known as the crouching-tiger cannon. Its usage mirrored Wei Guangde's concept precisely: sweeping the battlefield just before melee combat to eliminate the fiercest vanguard of the enemy's elite.

Since he did not understand the advanced mechanics, he would adapt to local conditions and use whatever was available. Having something was always better than nothing.