A raging inferno consumed the entire forest, igniting everything from the dry grass and fallen branches beneath the trees to the towering giants themselves. Bare, leafless trees and stubborn pines alike were engulfed in roaring flames.
Tree after tree blazed like fiery dragons, spiralling upward, their flames stretching dozens of metres high. With gaping maws, they spewed countless tongues of fire, incinerating all in their path. The relentless crackling and popping filled the air.
The sky-darkening fire brought with it sky-darkening smoke, a lethal duo delivering a hellish express.
One by one, the forest’s lurking Japanese pirates were dispatched to the underworld by this deadly pair.
“Help, help! Father, Mother, I don’t want to die! I’m still young, I haven’t left an heir for our family…”
“Save my life, Amaterasu, save your child stranded in a foreign land! I still need to return home and marry Nobuko…”
“Mercy, mercy! Zhejiang Army grandfathers, I surrender, I surrender! Get me out, I don’t want to burn to death—it’s too painful, save me…”
“Ming dogs, I curse your eighteen generations! Burning so many to death with one fire—aren’t you afraid of shortening your lives?!”
“Zhu swine, I curse you to die horribly…”
Amid the blaze, shrill screams of agony, desperate pleas for rescue, and venomous curses rang out, mingling with the fire’s relentless crackling. It was a symphony of terror, amplifying the pirates’ fear a thousandfold, twisting them, driving them mad, pushing them to hysteria…
Some pirates knelt, frantically kowtowing in all directions, to every god and buddha, clinging to last-minute prayers for deliverance from the fiery sea.
Others cursed wildly, damning the heavens, the earth, the Zhejiang Army, and Zhu Ping’an’s doom.
Some dashed about in the inferno, weaving left and right, desperately seeking an escape.
…
No matter their efforts, none could evade the death express delivered by fire and smoke, claiming their packages one by one.
Countless pirates succumbed, choked by smoke or charred by flames, ending their wicked lives.
As they watched their comrades fall, the surviving pirates grew more terrified, more twisted, more unhinged…
Zhu Ping’an stood atop a distant hill, leading his horse, his mouth and nose covered with a wet cloth, silently observing the forest ablaze.
Even from this distance, the thick smoke wafted over, choking the air. Without the damp cloth, breathing was a struggle.
Pity.
This forest, torched by his hand, was a shame. So many trees, innocent wildlife, flowers, and plants—all gone. A bit of environmental damage, too. In modern times, he’d surely face public outrage.
But.
It was all worth it.
This fire would bury at least half the pirates, indirectly sparing countless civilians from their ravages.
“Ten men per group, patrol on horseback. If small bands of pirates break through the fire, shoot them from afar with muskets and arrows.”
“If a large group emerges, fire arrows and muskets first. If they charge instead of fleeing, retreat.”
“Half an hour is the limit. When time’s up, regardless of results, regroup here—no exceptions.”
Seeing the fire engulf the forest, blotting out the sky, Zhu Ping’an calmly issued orders to his troops.
“Yes, sir.”
The Zhejiang soldiers saluted, forming groups of ten on mules and horses, circling the burning forest at a distance and dispersing.
Like Zhu Ping’an, they too wrapped wet cloths around their mouths and noses to avoid suffocating on the smoke.
“Hahaha, hahaha, to think I, Xu Hai, would meet my end here! Fate? Luck? Destiny?”
Xu Hai’s hair was singed in patches, his face smeared with streaks of ash, laughing maniacally.
The epitome of a dead-end road.
He’d never imagined his Suzhou campaign would come to this. It was a nightmare beyond his wildest dreams.
His worst-case scenario had been a failed assault, unable to take Suzhou.
Dying here?!
Hahaha, a joke! He, Xu Hai, allied with Ma Ye, Chen Dong, and Hōjō Dōsan, held sway in their coalition, faintly leading it. With over forty thousand pirates under them, second only to King Hui’s forces, no Ming army in Jiangnan outnumbered him. Marching thirty thousand against Suzhou, even if he couldn’t take it, retreating unscathed should’ve been no issue.
How many troops did Suzhou have? A ragtag bunch, ten thousand at most! And their combat strength was pathetic.
How could they stop him, Xu Hai?!
But.
He’d calculated everything—sky, earth, men—and never foresaw this wretched fate! To be burned alive so pitifully!
Damn it!
Damn it, I, Xu Hai, brim with ambition and strategy, yet to fully unleash them! Damn it, I’ve not yet made my mark! Damn it, my grand dreams… end here. The hate, the hate, oh the hate!
That cursed Zhu Ping’an!
All thanks to that wretched brat—everything’s his fault! Damn you, even as a ghost, I won’t spare you!
“Thieving heavens, I hate this! I refuse, I refuse, I refuse! I, Xu Hai, aimed to conquer the world—how can I perish in this nameless grove, at the hands of a petty thief?! I refuse, I, Xu Hai, refuse!”
Like a man possessed, Xu Hai staggered in circles, his face contorted, roaring at the sky in fury.
He truly refused!
With over forty thousand pirates under him and Zhu Ping’an commanding a mere two thousand, such a disparity—yet he’d lost to Zhu Ping’an, reduced to dying in this nameless grove!
How could he accept it?
But refusal and unwillingness changed nothing. The truth was, Xu Hai would perish in this fiery sea.
He hadn’t stopped struggling. Surrounded by flames, he’d tried breaking out several times, all in vain. From an initial thousand men, losses whittled them down until fewer than a hundred remained by his side, and he’d narrowly escaped death himself.
A burning tree had crashed down, and only quick reflexes—using a pirate as a shield—saved him.
“Cough, cough, dying here?” Xu Hai doubled over, coughing violently, a suffocating sensation gripping him.
“Boss, piss on your sleeve and cover your mouth and nose—it helps,” a pirate behind him suggested.
“Damn it, why didn’t you say so sooner?!”
Xu Hai cursed, dropping his trousers without hesitation, soaking a sleeve with urine. Ignoring the stench, he pressed it to his face.
It did help.
“Everyone, piss on your sleeves, cover your mouths and noses! We’re trying again—I refuse to believe I, Xu Hai, am doomed here!” Xu Hai ordered his men to follow suit, rallying them for one more breakout attempt.
