MLMD -Chapter 147 Iron Caltrops

After several rounds of brutal exchanges of fire, the Jin soldiers—who prided themselves on their bravery—finally realized that in their contest with the Ming troops opposite them, they were clearly at a disadvantage. Faced with the enemy’s dense and accurate volleys, the mounted archery skills they had always been so proud of were simply no match.

“Charge! Charge up and fight them hand to hand! Kill those despicable Nikans!”
Hafeng’a’s hoarse roar echoed across the battlefield.

Behind him, supervising the battle, Rolohun and Kalchuhun both sucked in sharp breaths of cold air.

Though neither of them was very old, Rolohun and Kalchuhun had followed their father Yoto into battle against the Ming before. They quickly noticed that, aside from flying the same banners, the Ming soldiers before them were vastly different from any they had encountered in the past.

First of all, the armor these Ming troops wore was very different from the standard Ming issue. Compared to the usual armor, theirs was thicker, covered more of the body, and was clearly better made. From their vantage point at the rear, they could see clearly that many of the arrows shot by the Jin archers struck the Ming soldiers only to be bounced away. No one understood better than they did just how powerful their own bows were; seeing those heavy, forceful arrowheads deflected left them utterly shocked.

Kalchuhun was the first to blurt out, “Big Brother, where did these Ming troops come from? Why is their equipment so fine? How come we’ve never seen anything like this before?”

Rolohun shook his head gravely. “These are no ordinary Ming soldiers. Even the Guanning Iron Cavalry that guards Shanhai Pass isn’t outfitted so extravagantly. Third Brother, look—the range of their muskets is extremely long. Many of our warriors are struck by several shots at once before they fall. That proves their muskets not only shoot far, but are also very accurate. And that’s not all. Their greatest difference from ordinary Ming troops is their strict discipline. Just now, when our warriors got close and the first volley of arrows and crossbow bolts knocked down more than twenty of them, their formation didn’t waver in the slightest. If it were any other Ming force, they would have panicked long ago. Yet these men still calmly and orderly returned fire. That’s something you rarely see.”

“Big Brother is right!”
Kalchuhun nodded heavily. These Ming soldiers were nothing like the forces that collapsed at the first touch in years past. Their ranks were neat, their discipline strict, and most importantly, their firearms were terrifyingly sharp. If all Ming armies were like this…

Just thinking about it made even the rough-tempered Kalchuhun shiver. If the Ming truly had armies like this, they wouldn’t need many—two hundred thousand would be enough. In that case, Later Jin might as well stop fighting altogether and simply surrender and submit.

Growing more uneasy by the second, Kalchuhun hurriedly said to Rolohun, “Big Brother, we can’t just stand here watching. We need to find a way to support that slave Hafeng’a. If he collapses, it’ll be hard for us to explain ourselves to Father when we return.”

Rolohun nodded. “All right. Let’s each lead a thousand men and attack the Ming flanks. Even if we can’t crush them outright, we can at least distract them. If we can take the opportunity to break their cavalry on both wings, their flanks will be completely exposed. Then we can carve them up however we like.”

Rolohun’s plan won Kalchuhun’s approval. A frontal assault combined with attacks from both sides was a tactic the Jurchens often used. By the late Ming period, Ming troops were far inferior in both fighting strength and will compared to those of the Hongwu and Yongle eras. At the slightest disturbance, morale would falter; once the wings were broken, collapse would follow immediately.

“Good! Then today we’ll work together and swallow up this Ming force. I really like the armor they’re wearing!”
Kalchuhun grinned savagely.

Wasting no time, the two split their forces and advanced from left and right, attempting to envelop Yue Yang’s flanks.

Yue Yang, of course, had never taken his eyes off the Jin cavalry watching from their main formation. With the aid of a telescope, the moment Rolohun and Kalchuhun moved, he understood their intentions.

“Well now, planning to attack from both sides and make it a three-pronged assault?”
Yue Yang sneered, then quietly gave a few instructions to a nearby bodyguard. The man immediately spurred his horse and galloped toward the cavalry units on both wings.

Wu Chengfeng, upon receiving the order, dared not delay. At his command, the cavalry guarding the flanks began to move. A thousand horsemen on each side galloped outward, stopping when they were about two hundred paces from the square formation. They then lined up neatly. After a shout from the leading officer, each rider pulled out a cloth bag from his saddle. Jogging toward the square, they scattered something continuously along the ground.

They moved quickly. By the time Rolohun and Kalchuhun led their troops to the sides of the Ming formation, Wu Chengfeng’s men had already returned to their original positions.

“Brave warriors of the Great Jin—charge!”
Kalchuhun, the faster of the two, saw the Ming cavalry circle around and rejoin their formation. He immediately swung his saber and loudly ordered the charge.

The thunder of hooves erupted as over a thousand warhorses pounded the earth, producing a deafening roar. Even the solid ground trembled slightly. The Jin cavalry let out piercing war cries, swinging their sabers as they rushed toward the men they believed to be weak Han cowards. They would use their blades to prove that even on horseback, the Han were still helpless prey.

“Heh… these barbarians really don’t know how to value their lives,”
Wu Chengfeng sneered coldly as he watched the Jin cavalry charge.

As the Jin forces surged forward, the foremost riders stared at the Ming cavalry only a few hundred paces away, astonishment rising in their hearts. Had these Han riders gone mad? Didn’t they know that cavalry’s greatest power lay in motion? The Jin had already begun their charge—yet the Ming cavalry remained still. Were they waiting to die?

Their confusion was quickly answered.

When the first Jin riders reached the two-hundred-pace mark, almost simultaneously, the warhorses beneath more than a dozen riders suddenly let out shrill cries. Their legs buckled, and they collapsed to the ground.

The consequences of a galloping warhorse suddenly falling were catastrophic. The riders were flung violently from their saddles, crashing to the earth as their mounts went down.

The unlucky ones broke bones and tore sinews; the luckier ones were merely left dizzy and stunned. But their luck ended there, as the riders charging behind trampled them into bloody pulp.

“My heavens—what… what’s going on?! No, the Ming troops scattered iron caltrops!”
Kalchuhun cried out in shock.

Iron caltrops were an ancient Chinese military obstacle made of iron spikes, also called jili. Each had four protruding spikes several inches long; no matter how it landed, one spike would always point upward. The sharp tips resembled the thorns of the plant tribulus, hence the name “iron caltrops.”

Since their invention, iron caltrops had been a commonly used defensive tool, deployed on roads, in defensive zones, and around city walls. Armies also scattered them around camps. They were especially effective against cavalry—no matter how formidable the riders, once their horses stepped on caltrops, they would be forced to their knees.

Logically, such an effective weapon should have been widely used in battle. In reality, however, caltrops were rarely employed during engagements, and the reason lay in ancient productivity. In premodern China, copper and iron were precious strategic materials. Among iron-poor Mongol tribes, several families might share a single iron pot. Though Later Jin was somewhat better off than the Mongols, they were hardly wealthy enough to casually scatter iron spikes on the ground. Thus, they never imagined that someone would casually litter the battlefield with iron caltrops—and so they fell straight into the trap.

“Damn it! These cowardly, despicable Han actually dared… dared to scatter iron caltrops on the road!”
Watching his cavalry fall one after another, Kalchuhun was both furious and horrified.

He roughly calculated that to cover an area one li long and half a li wide with caltrops would require at least four to five thousand jin of iron. Including manufacturing costs, this batch alone would be worth at least two thousand taels of silver. This wasn’t scattering caltrops—it was scattering silver!

“Quick… sound the horn… order the cavalry to retreat!”
Seething with rage, Kalchuhun had no choice but to order his gosha to blow the retreat signal.

By coincidence, on the other side of the Ming formation, Rolohun—who was commanding the attack there—also sounded the horn to withdraw.

The brothers’ attempt to strike the Ming flanks collapsed almost as soon as it began, undone by something they had never paid much attention to: iron caltrops. The frustration in their hearts was indescribable.

Seeing the once-menacing Jin cavalry forced to retreat as soon as they attacked, laughter erupted from the Ming square.

The Ming soldiers were delighted—but Yue Yang wore a pained expression. That single scatter had thrown away several thousand taels of silver. If every battle were fought like this, he’d be bankrupt before long.

“After the battle, we absolutely have to send people to collect those caltrops, or I’ll suffer a huge loss. But first, we still need to wipe out this group of barbarians!”

At this moment, the frontal battle had reached a fever pitch. Over a thousand Jin soldiers, shields raised, surged forward madly. Under their reckless assault, the front of the Ming square began to show signs of wavering.