Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 133 Night Attack

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Because Huangpu Port is quite far from Baietan, and while preparations for the fire attack were in full swing here, Liu Ye and his men did not notice the commotion here.

Xu Ting was very pleased with his suggestion. He believed that the bandits had cut off their own escape route by choosing to anchor at Baietan. If they had anchored at Huangpu Port for safety, and the fire ships had departed from Baietan, the fleet could have chosen to go out to sea along the Pearl River to avoid them. However, as the river channel narrowed further upstream from Baietan, large ships were more likely to run aground. It was a situation where there was no way out, and the only outcome was that they would be burned.

Soon, the deadline for Liu Ye and Yu Baocheng's private agreement to refrain from firing for three days arrived, and both sides were prepared for the impending battle.

Night falls.

A fleet of over fifty fire ships and more than one hundred fire rafts set off from Huangpu, rowing upstream by moonlight. Xu Ting led dozens of ships of various sizes, serving as the main force for boarding operations, following far behind.

In Guangzhou, more than 10,000 militiamen and more than 1,000 garrison soldiers had already assembled in the vicinity of the South Gate, awaiting orders to depart.

According to the plan, the troops in the city will launch an attack at 3:45 PM, and the fire attack fleet will also depart at 3:40 PM, expected to arrive no later than midnight. While the bandits on land are dealing with the night attack in the city, they will launch a fire attack from the water to burn the bandit ships. With a pincer attack from both land and water, even if they cannot completely eliminate the bandits in one battle, they can at least cut off their retreat and demoralize them. The scales of victory will ultimately tip in Guangzhou's favor.

The general leading the night raid was Sun Tianbiao, the commander of the Guangzhou Garrison. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the garrisons were in ruins. Although Guangdong had once been glorious and had a brilliant record in suppressing Miao and Yao rebellions, it could not escape the fate of decline. There was a serious shortage of soldiers. It was already very good if a commander of a thousand men had three or four hundred soldiers under him. The Guangzhou Garrison had an authorized strength of five thousand six hundred men, but it could only muster more than fourteen hundred men.

Sun Tianbiao, as the commander of the garrison, held a military rank of the third grade. Although even a seventh-grade county magistrate in Guangzhou city wouldn't think much of him, he was still a local tyrant within the garrison. Normally, such a task as leading troops into battle could be delegated to the deputy commander or a chiliarch, but this night raid was of great importance and could not be lost. The governor-general personally ordered the selection of troops, and Sun Tianbiao could not hide in the garrison and watch the excitement; he had no choice but to take command himself.

At this moment, he was encouraging his men: "I saw it from the city wall during the day. The bandits are probably afraid of the cannons on the wall, so they're hiding a few hundred paces away from the wall, where the cannons can't hit them. At such a short distance, they can rush up in a flash. More than ten thousand men against a thousand, even if the enemy is a powerful immortal, invulnerable to swords and spears, so many people swarming up will just trample them to death. This battle is a foregone conclusion. We must take the credit. Those able-bodied men are just there to bolster our morale; we can't let them steal the credit."

The commanders raised their swords and shouted, "Take the first victory!"

At 3:45 PM, a cannon shot shot up into the air from the city wall and exploded, marking the beginning of the night raid.

Sun Tianbiao drew his sword and shouted, "Get out of the city quickly! Whoever is the first to rush to the enemy's front will be rewarded with ten taels of silver!"

The garrison soldiers, armed with spears, Japanese swords, and other weapons, surged into the city. At that moment, the city gate was slowly opening. The impatient soldiers wanted to be the first to make a name for themselves and wanted to get out through the half-open gate. However, their haste made waste, and the crowd at the city gate became so dense that most of them could not get out.