Below the city, the battle between the pirates and the Zhejiang troops raged fiercely, locked in a tense stalemate.
Though the front-line pirates were caught off guard and felled in droves by the Zhejiang troops’ bayonets, those behind remained fierce and confident, believing that once they closed in, victory would be theirs. Their pirate blades were long and sharp, outmatching the Ming army’s shorter waist knives. As the saying goes, an inch longer is an inch more dangerous—longer weapons held the advantage.
Thus, stepping over their fallen comrades’ bodies, the pirates pressed forward, intent on hacking the Zhejiang troops to pieces.
But the Zhejiang bayonets dealt a severe blow to their confidence. The Zhejiang formation was tight and orderly, the soldiers mechanically thrusting their bayonets in unison, creating a forest of blades. With muskets fitted with bayonets, they were like long spears, outranging even the pirates’ blades. Before the pirates could strike, the Zhejiang bayonets were already piercing them.
The Zhejiang troops were like a porcupine, impossible to bite into, driving the pirates into a frenzy of frustration. Roaring savagely, they slashed at the bayonets with their pirate blades, but while the bayonets looked thin as a thumb, they were forged from tempered steel, sturdy and unyielding. The pirate blades didn’t break them—instead, they chipped, and wave after wave of pirates fell to the bayonets without breaching the Zhejiang line.
“Damn it, watch me!” A bald pirate, a string of prayer beads dangling from his neck, cursed fiercely, then grabbed a scrawny pirate beside him and hoisted him up.
“What the hell, you mad monk, why’re you lifting me?! This ain’t a joke, put me down quick!” The scrawny pirate flailed like a frantic turtle, shrieking.
“Alright, I’ll put you down!” The bald pirate grinned wickedly, gritted his teeth, and with a shout, veins bulging on his arms, hurled the scrawny pirate toward the Zhejiang bayonet formation.
The bald pirate had ox-like strength, and the scrawny one flew like a boulder, whistling toward the Zhejiang line.
“What the hell, even in death I won’t let—” The scrawny pirate didn’t finish his curse before slamming into the bayonet formation like a sack of rotten meat.
Though scrawny, he weighed over a hundred pounds, and with the bald pirate’s full-force throw, the kinetic and gravitational energy combined into at least three hundred pounds of impact.
Three Zhejiang soldiers facing the brunt were knocked flat.
The seamless Zhejiang formation cracked open a gap, and the bald pirate let out a wild cry, charging in like a tiger down a mountain, wielding a long-handled, crescent-shovel-shaped weapon. He barreled left and right, toppling several nearby Zhejiang troops with a single swing before they could turn their bayonets.
Fortunately, the Zhejiang troops wore full cotton armor, offering strong protection. Though knocked down, bleeding from mouths and noses with serious injuries, they survived.
One unlucky soldier took a crescent shovel to the face, killed on the spot.
The bald pirate was fearsomely brave, a human beast tearing through the Zhejiang ranks, causing significant casualties. The surrounding troops couldn’t match him for a moment, and the tight formation was forcibly ripped open.
Seeing the bald pirate breach the line, the pirates behind didn’t hesitate, swarming in after him.
Inspired, other burly pirates looked around for scrawny ones to mimic him.
“What the hell, you idiots, there are corpses on the ground, can’t you throw those? Why’re you staring at me?!” Several scrawny pirates, terrified and endangered, panicked, one clever one pointing at the bodies they stood on.
The burly pirates snapped to it, scooping up the dead and hurling them at the Zhejiang formation.
Caught off guard, the Zhejiang troops had several more gaps smashed open, and in an instant, dozens of fierce pirates stormed in.
“Die, die, die!” The brave pirates swung their blades like whirlwinds within the Zhejiang ranks. The surrounding troops could only block and thrust with bayonets, ill-suited for slashing, their moves limited to basic stabs and parries. One-on-one, they were no match. Even three or five against one pirate came at a steep cost.
Especially a few highly skilled pirates, who coordinated and covered each other, leaving the Zhejiang troops helpless for the moment.
Knowing the strength of Zhejiang cotton armor, the pirates targeted unprotected faces and necks.
In moments, the Zhejiang troops lost dozens, their formation torn open in multiple places, the situation dire.
“Rear ranks not yet engaged, target those pirates breaking into our lines and fire!” Zhu Ping’an commanded from within the formation.
Instantly, several shots rang out, and the fierce pirates wreaking havoc fell with screams.
The bald pirate who’d broken in first was singled out, hit by over a dozen rounds, turned into a bloody sieve.
At such close range, with so many muskets aimed, no martial skill could save him.
“Front ranks engage, rear ranks fire, straight to the gate—take it from the pirates at all costs!”
After stabilizing the situation, Zhu Ping’an adjusted the formation, directing the troops toward the gate.
The pirates had already signaled, and at most, in the time it takes an incense stick to burn, their main force would arrive.
If they didn’t seize the gate before then, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Not just Suzhou City, but the Zhejiang troops themselves would be in peril.
Rushing to warn the city, the Zhejiang troops weren’t prepared for open battle, carrying limited gunpowder and shot. They hadn’t brought barricade carts for a makeshift defense, and of their tiger squat cannons, only eight were carried—the rest, wrapped in oilcloth, were buried in the Zhejiang latrines.
The tiger squat cannons were too heavy, and with the troops in full cotton armor, charging on horseback, ordinary horses couldn’t bear the load, let alone over long distances.
Only a dozen or so fine steeds could handle it, and with the weighty cannonballs, they could only bring eight cannons.
“Don’t let them near the gate!”
Xu Hai quickly spotted the Zhejiang troops’ intent, shouting and ordering the remaining pirates to block their path.
But now, the pirates were down to just over three hundred, while the Zhejiang troops, losing only dozens, still had nearly two thousand. Their bayonet formation was like a porcupine, hard to breach, and sporadic gunfire from within was like a deadly viper, inflicting heavy losses on the pirates, who couldn’t stop them. Xu Hai gnashed his teeth in fury.
If he’d had enough men, the moment they breached the Zhejiang line earlier, the Zhejiang troops would’ve been finished! But with too few breaking through, they were overwhelmed by Zhejiang’s numbers, a missed chance!
“Brothers holding the gate inside, come out quick to reinforce, hit them from both sides, we can’t let the Zhejiang troops take the gate!”
At the critical moment, Xu Hai gritted his teeth, ordering the pirates guarding the gate inside to come out, sandwiching the Zhejiang troops.
Damn it!
Once reinforcements arrive with enough numbers, the Zhejiang troops will have no burial ground!
