It was already four in the morning.
Outside, it was pitch black, not a single star in sight, as if the sky had been splashed with boundless thick ink, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, the howling cold wind added a bone-chilling dampness, there wasn’t a trace of people out there, even birds were scarce.
In just over an hour, dawn would break, this was the time when people slept most soundly.
Inside the Zhu mansion, Zhu Ping’an lay on the fragrant bed, holding the equally fragrant Li Shu, snoring loudly.
Li Shu, who hadn’t slept well for days, found his broken-gong-like snores oddly soothing, sleeping especially sweetly.
In the side room on night duty, Qin’er pressed a pillow over her ears, her large dark circles showing she hadn’t slept well.
“Poor mistress, worried about the young master’s safety for days, she couldn’t sleep for several nights, now he’s finally back, but with snoring this loud, I can’t sleep out here from the racket, she must be even worse off, poor mistress, and poor young master too, leading troops against the wokou, facing blades and arrows, I heard those wokou are ruthless killers, eating children’s hearts raw, boiling human flesh in copper pots, he must’ve endured so much fighting them, that’s why he’s so exhausted, he never snores usually, but this time it’s earth-shaking,” Qin’er muttered pitifully to herself, clutching the pillow, her dark circles deepening.
Compared to the pitiable Qin’er, there were even more miserable souls outside.
Prefect Shang’s trusted aides were still galloping through the cold wind, they’d already switched horses at two relay stations, resting only briefly for an hour at one before pressing on.
This was an 800-li urgent dispatch, the master had stressed over and over to deliver it to the capital fast, faster, fastest.
The master had promised hefty rewards, promotions and raises were on the table.
So, Shang’s aides rode hard through the dark night, whipping their horses relentlessly toward the capital.
Dozens of li from Suzhou, another group shivered in the bushes, enduring the biting wind.
These were Xu Hai and his band of wokou who’d escaped with their lives.
When the Zhejiang troops opened fire, they’d fled south from the riverbank in panic, unfamiliar with the terrain in the dark, their frantic escape led them astray.
They should’ve headed southeast to their Tuolin lair, but somehow ended up southwest instead.
After raiding a village and questioning the locals, they realized they’d entered Jiaxing Prefecture.
“Damn it, it’s all that little thief Zhu Ping’an’s fault, and those cursed Zhejiang troops, reducing us to this!” the wokou in the bushes trembled like chilled crows, freezing and starving, unable to hold back their curses.
“Despicable and shameless! All they’ve got are sneaky tricks! If they fought us fair and square, they’d never stand a chance!”
“Exactly, their firearms are sharp but short-lived, reloading’s a pain, they’d never beat us in open battle! That fight at the city gates, if it’d gone on another hour, the Zhejiang troops would’ve been wiped out!”
“If I ever get my hands on Zhu Ping’an, I’ll tear him to pieces to vent my rage!”
Mentioning Zhu Ping’an and the Zhejiang troops, the wokou in the bushes gnashed their teeth, wishing they could rip them apart alive, if not for them, how would they have fallen so low?
Bone-chilling wind, huddling in bushes, no decent sleep, stomachs so empty their fronts stuck to their backs!
Normally, they’d be full and drunk by now, sleeping soundly with captured women in their arms!
“Report, a troop’s coming, five li ahead,” a wokou scout stumbled back from a distant hill, breathless, reporting to Xu Hai and Ma Ye.
At the word “troops,” the wokou in the bushes panicked, thinking the Zhejiang forces had tracked them down, instinctively ready to bolt, their ragged band couldn’t withstand another barrage of firearms.
“Idiots! Baka! Sit down, shut up, hide!” Xu Hai roared, cursing, “Have some guts! This is Jiaxing Prefecture now, without Ming court orders, how could Zhu Ping’an dare chase us across prefectures?”
Scolded by Xu Hai, the wokou calmed down, right, Ming troops couldn’t just cross prefectures freely!
That meant this approaching troop wasn’t the Zhejiang forces!
If it wasn’t them, it was manageable! Apart from the Zhejiang troops, no Ming force was worth a damn!
Since becoming wokou, they’d faced countless Ming armies, every one a defeated foe, the Ming garrison troops were a joke, old, weak, sick, or useless drunkards!
“How many in this troop?” Xu Hai asked.
“Judging by their torches, about a hundred or so,” the scout replied after a moment’s thought.
“Just a hundred or so?” Xu Hai rubbed his chin, pondering briefly, then gritted his teeth, resolve hardening, a ruthless glint in his eyes, he waved his hand, “Then we take them out! They’ve delivered themselves to us, no one to blame but them!”
“Brother Xu, we’re down to just over four hundred men, we can’t afford a big fight, a hundred Jiaxing soldiers are easy enough to kill, but have you considered, if we do, Jiaxing Prefecture won’t let it slide! It’s not Suzhou, sure, but it’s only slightly less formidable in Jiangnan, they’ve got plenty of Ming troops, weak as they are, numbers matter, we’ve only got four hundred left, even a fierce tiger can’t fend off a wolf pack, think it over, Brother Xu!”
“We shouldn’t stir up trouble now, Brother Xu, let’s hurry back to Tuolin lair and plan from there!” Ma Ye tensed up at Xu Hai’s words, urgently trying to dissuade him.
After Zhu Ping’an’s relentless attacks reduced their tens of thousands to a mere four hundred, Ma Ye had become a startled bird.
Four hundred wokou didn’t give him any sense of security!
All he wanted was to get back to Tuolin lair fast, they’d left over ten thousand wokou there to hold the fort, only in that stronghold, surrounded by thousands, could he feel safe.
So what if the Zhejiang troops had firearms? Tuolin had several cannons! Even if they came, he wouldn’t flinch!
But if they ambushed these Jiaxing soldiers, Jiaxing wouldn’t take it lying down, pursuit and ambushes would follow, with only four hundred left, they couldn’t survive many tough fights.
That’s why Ma Ye panicked and tried to stop Xu Hai from stirring the pot.
“Heh, four hundred’s plenty, a few months back, the Shangyu wokou, less than a hundred strong, rampaged thousands of li, sacked multiple cities, strutted outside Yingtian, killed an inspector, a prefect, a county magistrate, two commanders, two captains, and over three thousand troops, it’s a legend among us wokou! Our force now is four times that! Brother Ma, I’ve got a bold idea,” Xu Hai slapped Ma Ye’s shoulder hard, chuckling, his gaze drifting toward Jiaxing city.
“No way, Brother Xu, we’re a defeated army now, we can’t afford bold ideas,” Ma Ye shook his head repeatedly, not even hearing him out.
“A desperate army always wins!” Xu Hai grinned wide.
