“Hahaha, the wind has picked up, and it’s an east wind at that. Heaven is truly on our side. A dark night with a high wind is perfect for killing and arson.”
Xu Hai, aboard the Japanese ship, felt the strong east wind and couldn’t help but laugh heartily, exclaiming that heaven was aiding them.
“With heaven’s aid on this journey, we are bound to succeed!”
“A good wind lends us strength, sending us straight to Suzhou city, hahaha…”
“It seems we can reach the walls of Suzhou earlier than expected, hahaha. They haven’t even woken from their dreams, and we are already here.”
Hojo Dozan, Mayama, Chen Dong, and others also burst into laughter.
All the pirates were optimistic. They had boarded the ships at the second watch, reached Taicang Harbor by the third watch, and by the fourth watch, they were already at the doorstep of Suzhou. Just around the bend of the river, Suzhou was within reach, only thirty miles away.
Now, with the east wind rising, their ships were sailing with the wind, allowing them to arrive at Suzhou’s walls earlier than anticipated. The defending troops were surely still asleep.
Their sudden attack would surely allow them to seize Suzhou city with ease.
Mountains of gold and jewels, countless Suzhou maidens, all awaited their taking.
The more the pirates thought about it, the more excited they became. Their hands, rowing the oars, were filled with strength, not feeling tired no matter how hard they worked, as the ships flew forward.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
One after another, the Japanese ships turned with the curve of the river, rounding a bend, now only thirty miles from Suzhou.
The pirates grew even more excited, already fantasizing about the beautiful life of burning, killing, and looting after breaking into Suzhou city.
However, what they didn’t notice was that as their ships rounded the bend, deep within the withered bushes by the riverbank, six men lay on the ground, their eyes unblinkingly fixed on them.
The night was as dark as ink, so dark that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The withered bushes were dense, and the six men lay on the ground, grass in their mouths, not making a sound. They were well-hidden, and not a single pirate noticed them.
These six men were part of one of the fifteen cavalry patrols sent out by Zhu Ping’an.
After the pirate ships passed the bend, the six men slowly crawled back into the woods behind them, untying the horses tethered to the trees.
The horses also had sticks in their mouths, tied to the sides of their faces with ropes to prevent them from making noise.
The six men mounted their horses and galloped swiftly towards the beacon tower on the high slope a mile away.
At the beacon tower, four soldiers were on duty, two sleeping on a bed of dry grass, and two keeping watch.
The watchmen quickly spotted the six men galloping towards them. Before they could even ask why they had come, they heard the six men shouting, “Quick, light the fire, the beacon fire for night warning, the pirates are coming!”
“The pirates are coming?!”
Upon hearing this, the two watchmen wasted no time. They immediately used a fire starter to light a torch and set it to a pre-prepared pile of wood stacked like a tower for the beacon fire.
The two men sleeping on the grass also heard the commotion and quickly got up to help light the beacon fire.
The beacon pile, made of dry grass and wood, and doused with oil, caught fire instantly upon contact with the torch.
Soon, the flames soared into the sky.
“Alright, the beacon fire is lit. Everyone, mount your horses quickly, sound the gongs to warn the villagers, the pirates are coming!”
“The pirates are coming from the river, with seventy to eighty ships, numbering twenty to thirty thousand.”
“We heard clearly, many of them were speaking in their bird language, definitely pirates.”
“Quickly warn the villagers to hide, don’t let the pirates trap them in the villages.”
The cavalrymen, seeing the beacon fire lit, breathed a sigh of relief. With the beacon fire lit, their main task was accomplished.
Next, they would gallop to sound the alarm, warning the nearby villagers.
All the cavalrymen mounted their horses, each with a copper gong. Under the captain’s arrangement, they paired up and galloped towards the nearby villages and towns.
“Clang, clang, clang…”
The loud gongs rang out continuously.
“The pirates are coming, fellow villagers, quickly pack your things and hide!” The warnings of the cavalrymen echoed one after another.
Soon, one village after another was alerted. Hearing that the pirates were coming, people hurriedly packed up. They quickly gathered dry food and clothes into bundles, helping the elderly and children to flee.
The pirates were merciless killers. When they came to a village, they would kill everyone, loot everything, and burn everything down, like inhumane beasts.
There were many places to hide outside the villages: in the wild fields, in the woods, in caves, in the grass, in the river ditches…
As long as they weren’t trapped in the village by the pirates, hiding in the wild, unless they were extremely unlucky, they usually wouldn’t be easily found by the pirates.
The pirates generally targeted the villages and wouldn’t waste effort searching the wilderness; they didn’t have the manpower or energy for that.
On the pirate ships in the river, Xu Hai and others were still on the bow, fantasizing about their divine descent and the surprise attack on Suzhou city, when suddenly someone shouted that something was on fire.
“What’s on fire?! Which ship is on fire?! Damn it, are you trying to get yourself killed? Didn’t I already order that no fires are to be lit on the ships?! We’re almost at Suzhou city, can’t you wait just a little longer?!”
Xu Hai and the other pirate leaders, hearing this, angrily cursed.
“Boss, it’s not our ships. It’s on the shore, about a mile away from the river.”
A pirate underling pointed towards the shore and explained.
Xu Hai and the others looked in that direction and indeed saw a roaring fire on a high slope about a mile away from the shore. The flames soared into the sky, at least seven or eight meters high, visible clearly from the ships.
“Did someone’s haystack catch fire? Or is someone’s house burning?” The pirates began to gloat.
Xu Hai frowned, sensing that something was amiss.
“Listen, does it sound like gongs are being struck?” Another sharp-eared pirate faintly heard the sound of gongs and wondered aloud.
“Probably the village night watchman noticed the fire and is striking the gong to call for help,” a pirate suggested.
“Hmm, that makes sense,” the pirate who heard the gongs nodded, feeling the explanation was reasonable.
“Look, there seems to be fire ahead too. Is there another fire ahead? No way, what’s going on? What kind of curse is this, why are so many places on fire today?!”
Soon, several sharp-eyed pirates noticed fires breaking out in the distance, about seven or eight miles ahead.
And not just in one place.
Quickly, someone else spotted a fire far to the south as well.
The pirates began to feel uneasy. What was going on? Why were so many places on fire today?!
“Damn it! It’s not a fire! It’s a beacon fire! Damn it! We’ve been exposed, someone has spotted us and lit the beacon fire to warn them! Damn it, when did Suzhou prefecture set up beacon towers, and so many of them?!”
Xu Hai was the first to react. His body shook violently, his ambitious face instantly turning ashen, and he cursed through gritted teeth.
