The setting sun was like blood, like drowning water sinking to the west, and in the blood-red afterglow, a flock of crows croaked excitedly as they circled over Funing Town.
As scavengers, the reason they were so excited! Excited! It was because they had smelled the flavour of a feast!
Below the crows was a wooden building courtyard, in the courtyard was a group of Japanese, half sleeping on the ground, half eating their blades on guard; the open space in front of the courtyard was bloodied, more than a thousand Ming troops were about fifty metres away from the courtyard and surrounded it, and three hundred and seventy-eight Ming corpses were laid out on the open space at the back of the Ming troops.
This is not all the bodies of the Ming army, in front of the gate of the courtyard occupied by the Japanese, there are still dozens of bodies of the Ming army that have not been collected, but due to the fear of the Japanese’s longbow and iron cannons, no living Ming army dares to go up to collect the bodies of their brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law for fear that they will not become corpses if they go up to collect the corpses.
Crows are hovering over these corpses, clamouring and salivating …….
When the setting sun sank all the way to the ground, a group of seven to eight hundred men came from a distance and converged on the Ming army.
Immediately, a clamour of excitement was heard among the Ming army, and the low morale of the Ming army increased dramatically.
Inside the courtyard.
Nao Nabeshima, holding a Japanese sword in his arms, stood on the steps and looked at the excited Ming army outside the courtyard, sneering with a disdainful face, “I don’t know what to say! No matter how many sheep come, they are still sheep! Can’t change the fate of being eaten!”
“Hehe, doesn’t the Great Ming have a book called ‘The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, which has a line in it that suits them well.”
Matsuura Sanbanro, also with a sneer on his face, looked at the Ming troops outside the courtyard who were excited because they had received reinforcements and snorted.
“Oh, what kind of book is this? A military book like The Thirty-Six Stratagems?”Nao Nabeshima asked curiously.
“It’s not a book of war, it’s better than a book of war. There are quite a few of this book in Daming, so if we plunder a bookstore some day, we can get it. When we complete our mission and return across the sea, the road will be long, and General Naoyo will be able to study it.”
Matsuura Sanbanro returned.
“Yancy, His Highness has also repeatedly whispered to me to read more, so this time, let’s start with this book, The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”Nao Nabeshima nodded, remembering Matsuura Sanbanro’s words just now, he asked again, “You said just now that there is a line in this book that is very suitable for them, which line is it?”
“In the section ‘Tun Tushan Guan Gong about three things to save the White Horse and Cao Cao from the siege’ of the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Martial Sage Guan Yu takes one look at Yan Liang, who has left Cao Cao’s army in the dust, and says to Cao Cao ‘I look at Yan Liang as if I were sticking in a tag and selling my head!'”Matsuura Sanbanro loved reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and could almost recite it backwards.
“Selling his head at a price? Hahaha, that’s a really apt quote from the Sage of Wushu, isn’t the Ming army out there like sticking in a tag and selling their heads?!”
Nao Nabeshima laughed out loud at his words.
“General Nao, when the Ming reinforcements arrived just now, I counted them silently, the Ming reinforcements this time are about eight hundred men, more than half of them carry bows and arrows, if my expectation is correct, the Ming army will attack the building with rockets this night.”Matsuura Sanbanro said softly after Nabeshima Naoyo’s laughter fell.
“Eight hundred reinforcements are nothing more than eight hundred men who stick in their tags and sell their heads, rockets? Oh, the fires are ten thousand times more dangerous than the Ming army, but we crossed the river long before their fire attack didn’t we?!”Nao Nabeshima laughed in disbelief.
“Heh, indeed.”Matsuura Sanbanro laughed along with him, “After the battle in the daytime, the Ming army’s guts have been lost, and even if they were to attack by fire, they would have chosen to do it at around three o’clock in the middle of the night, while we were ‘asleep’. Unfortunately, what they don’t know is that we will set up a raft at the second watch and break out to cross the river.”
Hahahahaha ……
Nao Nabeshima and Matsuura Sanbanro laughed at each other.
Finally, night fell, the sky and earth were covered by night, and because of the cloudy sky, there was not a single star in the sky, and the night was so dark that one could not see one’s fingers.
In the temporary camp of the Ming army, the Ming army, under the orders of Liu Zhifu and Xu Qianhua, worked overtime in the tent to rush the rockets, wrapping the arrow tufts in cotton and dipping them in grease. The reason why Liu Zhifu and Xu Qianhua ordered the Ming army to make rockets inside the tent was to avoid being discovered by the Japanese and leaking the plan for tonight’s fire attack.
“Back to Your Excellency, all 5,000 of our rockets have been made.”A general reported to Governor Liu and Chien-Tu Xu.
“Good! Tonight next year will be the anniversary of the death of these evil Japanese pirates!”Governor Liu said confidently.
“The tall buildings occupied by the Japanese invaders are built of solid wood, these rockets will surely leave them dead without a burial place when they go over there!”
Chitou Xu was equally confident.
“My lord, the high-rise is built of solid wood, but there is still the courtyard, which has quite a bit of open space, so if the Japanese invaders escape from the high-rise to the courtyard in time, they may be able to escape with their lives.”A general pointed out the loophole.
“Yes. ……”When Chandu Xu heard this, he immediately frowned.
“Hehe, didn’t I order you to cut down the wood? During the fire attack, throw all of this wood into the courtyard, and you won’t worry about not burning the Japanese invaders!”
Governor Liu said with a smile on his face, having prepared in advance for this point of the general’s concern.
“Governor Liu is wise!”Xu Qiandu and all the generals cast admiring gazes at Zhifu Liu and praised him.
“Where where where ……”Governor Liu smiled and said modestly.
“Thousand Household Xu, all of you, tonight at three o’clock will be the time to attack the Japanese by fire, don’t miss the opportunity to fight, or else you will be punished by the military law!”At the end, Liu Zhifu said to Xu Qiandu and the generals with a serious face.
“Yes, sir!”
The crowd said in unison.
Next, the Ming army, under the orders of Liu Zhifu and Xu Qiandu, had an early meal, and except for the eight hundred Ming troops on duty to continue to keep watch, the rest of the Ming army rested early, refreshed themselves, and waited for the fire attack on the Japanese on the third watch.
At this moment, while the Ming army is recuperating, the courtyard occupied by the Japanese pirates, inside a hidden room, the Japanese pirates have already tied up ten wooden rafts. This wooden building is built of solid wood, wooden doors, tables and chairs, etc., everywhere is the raw material for tying up rafts, the Japanese did not bother to tie up ten simple rafts.
On the first shift, it was dark and silent.
On the second watch, it was even darker! Except for the eight hundred Ming troops who were on guard duty, the rest of the Ming troops all went to sleep.
Both Governor Liu and Chien-Tu Xu did not sleep, observing the direction of the courtyard while waiting for the third watch.
At the moment, there was not a single bright light in the courtyard occupied by the Japanese.
“Hehe, Governor Liu, I think the Japanese invaders have already gone to sleep.”Xu Qiandu looked at the darkened courtyard from afar and pulled the corner of his mouth to laugh.
“It should be.”Governor Liu smiled and nodded.
However, just as their words fell, they heard the sound of killing at the back of the courtyard, and a scream and cry came from the Ming army camp on the eastern side against the river, and then they saw flames in the sky and a reddish colour!
“What’s going on?!”
Liu Zhifu and Xu Qiandu’s faces changed drastically at the same time, as if they were struck by a thunderbolt.
Japanese pirates!
The Japanese invaders actually killed out from the courtyard!
Damn it!
How did the Japanese bandits stand out and kill out? Be a good boy and wait until the third day of the night, is it not good to be attacked by fire by us?
There’s more!
They’re attacking from the east! To the east is the wide and deep Qishui River, do the Japanese want to throw themselves into the river?
Governor Liu and Qianhu Xu were shocked, anxious and confused, and scrambled to mobilise their troops to support the Ming army in the east.
However, when they hastily assembled the support troops, before they could start, they saw a Ming general covered in blood come over to report, “Report, the Japanese invaders tumbled out from the east wall, attacked our troops, killed more than two hundred of our troops, and have taken a raft to cross the river to the east. ……”
Raft across the river?
When Governor Liu heard the report, his eyes went black, the sky turned dizzy, and he fell to the ground ……
