Caught in a pincer attack, the city defenders rained arrows from above, while the Zhejiang troops fired their dense and orderly firearms, leaving the pirates dead and wounded in droves.
Yet, like cornered wolves, the pirates turned and fought back with desperate ferocity.
When Xu Hai tore off his disguise and ordered the pirates to charge the Zhejiang troops, the pirates inside the city, hearing the commotion, sprang into action.
Xu Hai had long given them orders: the moment they heard the sounds of battle outside, they were to act immediately, no hesitation.
One second, the pirates disguised as Ming soldiers were sipping meat broth and eating oil cakes, joking crudely with the surrounding Ming troops in a cheerful façade; the next, they hurled their broth and cakes into the Ming soldiers’ faces, seizing the moment of chaos as the scalding soup threw the Ming troops into disarray. Some pirates snatched weapons from the Ming soldiers, others grabbed their own arms stashed nearby, catching the Ming troops completely off guard.
The Ming army, poorly trained and weak in combat, was no match for the pirates to begin with, and this sudden assault nearly shattered them instantly.
The Ming guards below the city were quickly scattered or killed by the pirates, fleeing in panic into the city or back to the walls.
The pirates had a plan, Xu Hai had instructed them: once they acted, their priorities were to seize Ming officials and take the city gate.
Now, the pirates in the city split their forces—half to capture and hold the gate, the other half charging toward the wall.
First, the Ming officials were all up on the wall, capture the leader to catch the thieves; second, the Ming troops wouldn’t just sit by as they took the gate, they’d counterattack, so strike first; third, hitting the wall would draw the Ming firepower, easing the pressure on their leader outside.
“Damn it, how did I forget about these ones inside! Good thing we stationed guards below, quick, gather more troops to reinforce them, we must wipe them out fast, secure the gate, and stop their chaos!”
Hearing the bird-like cries and shouts of battle from within the city, Prefect Shang broke into a cold sweat as if caught in a downpour, filled with regret, hurriedly ordering the deputy general to muster troops to join the Ming guards inside and swiftly crush the rioting pirates.
But before the deputy could assemble the forces, the pirates inside had already effortlessly routed the Ming guards below, seized the gate, and sent half their number charging toward the wall.
“Damn it, how are these pirates so fierce and skilled?! Quick, concentrate the troops on the wall, wipe them out!”
“Order the two nearest gates to send a thousand men each, flank the pirates inside through the city lanes.”
“Everyone, for every pirate killed, beyond the emperor’s standard reward, I’ll personally add fifty taels of silver!”
Prefect Shang was stunned by the pirates’ ferocity, watching them cut down Ming soldiers like vegetables, he panicked, ordering the deputy to rally the wall’s troops against the pirates, summoning reinforcements from nearby gates, and offering hefty rewards to spur the Ming soldiers on.
As the saying goes, great rewards breed brave men, and under Prefect Shang’s incentives, the wall’s defenders found their courage.
The wall’s garrison, especially the archers and musketeers, were almost entirely redirected by the deputy to deal with the pirates inside.
This instantly relieved the pressure on Xu Hai and the pirates outside.
“The wall’s defenders can’t focus on us now, it’s just the Zhejiang troops left!”
“Today, it’s them or us! Their firearms are deadly, but this is open ground, they’ve got no cover, reloading’s slow, and we’re just fifty meters apart! Charge them, and they’re dead—their guns turn into firewood sticks! Fail to charge, and we’re the ones dead!”
“Men, do you want to live or die?!”
Hiding behind his pirates, Xu Hai drew his pirate blade, shouting at the Zhejiang troops who’d just fired a volley.
“Live! Live! Live!” the pirates roared savagely.
“Then charge, damn it! Get over there, kill them, Suzhou City’s still ours! Riches and glory are ours!”
Xu Hai swung his blade hard, barking the order.
“Kill! Die, die, die!” Eyes red, the pirates screamed, charging recklessly at the Zhejiang troops.
“Useless fools, what are you standing there for? Fire the signal, call the main force, launch the full assault—victory or defeat hinges on this!”
Xu Hai spun around, slapped a trusted aide hard across the face, snarling the command, veins bulging on his neck.
Soon, five whistling arrows soared into the sky, bursting into five brilliant fireworks.
Seeing the fireworks, Zhu Ping’an, Prefect Shang, and the others knew the pirates were signaling their main force to attack.
The pirates scattered at the south, north, and northwest gates, spotting the signal, would rush to reinforce the east gate.
By distance estimates, the fastest reinforcements would arrive in twenty minutes!
Time was running out!
Fortunately, the pirates outside numbered only a thousand, and after four volleys, over three hundred had fallen.
But the pirates were now charging fearlessly, less than ten meters away, their eyebrows visible, one more volley at most before close combat.
“Charge them, yes, just like that, victory’s ours! Hahaha, heaven favors me, Xu Hai!”
Seeing his pirates nearly upon the Zhejiang troops, Xu Hai laughed skyward, in his mind, once they closed in for hand-to-hand fighting, victory was theirs—the Zhejiang firearms would be mere sticks, barely able to bruise, let alone kill.
“All ranks, forget waves, everyone fire at the pirates! After firing, fix bayonets, form up by whistle, target the gate, take the gate!”
Seeing the pirates at point-blank range, Zhu Ping’an shouted the order.
Bang, bang, bang.
Every Zhejiang soldier, regardless of rank, aimed at the pirates mere steps away and pulled the trigger.
Instantly, with the gunfire, sparks flared across the Zhejiang line, thick smoke rising.
The front rank was less than ten meters from the pirates, the rear less than twenty—prime range for musket power and accuracy. A thousand shots fired in unison, the devastation was staggering.
In a flash, nearly a third of the charging pirates fell.
Yet the survivors, undaunted, stepped over their fallen comrades’ bodies, lunging forward ferociously.
“That’s it, victory’s still ours!”
Though heavily reduced to just over four hundred, Xu Hai laughed as he saw his pirates breach the Zhejiang formation.
But the next second, his grin froze—damn, what were those strange, narrow, sharp steel bars jutting from under the Zhejiang muskets, nearly a meter long? In an instant, the muskets became bizarre spears, the Zhejiang formation a porcupine.
The fearless front-line pirates, charging headlong, were caught off guard, skewered through by the dense wall of Zhejiang spears.
