At four in the morning, outside was pitch black, not a single star visible, as if the sky had been drenched in boundless thick ink, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, the howling cold wind carried a bone-chilling dampness, there wasn’t a trace of human presence, even bird tracks were rare.
In the Jiaxing Prefecture office’s meeting hall, lights blazed brightly, it was bustling with activity, civil and military officials gathered together, whispering among themselves, runners and maids shuttled back and forth serving hot soup, flatbreads, tea, and fruit platters.
The head of Jiaxing Prefecture, Prefect Zhao Chong, paced back and forth in the hall with his hands behind his back, listening to the howling wind outside, he kept feeling as if thousands of enemy troops were roaring and attacking the city, it made him paranoid and unsettled.
“Someone, quick, someone, go check the city gates again, are they secure? Are the guards alert? Don’t let the wokou sneak in!” Zhao Chong paced a few more times, unable to suppress his growing unease, he raised his voice to issue the order.
“Yes, yes, yes, this humble servant will go at once,” a runner waiting outside the hall responded promptly, turning to carry out the command.
Seeing the runner leave, Zhao Chong let out a slight breath of relief, returning to his main seat, he took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.
The civil and military officials in the hall, witnessing this, couldn’t help but whisper and murmur below.
“Our lord is great in every way, just too suspicious and timid, the wokou attacked Suzhou city, we’re over a hundred and sixty li from Suzhou, how could the wokou come to our Jiaxing city?” a burly, bear-like martial officer muttered quietly to a lean martial officer he was friendly with.
“Exactly, I heard the Tuolin wokou’s attack on Suzhou went badly, they lost troops and generals heavily, at least ten thousand men, they’ve already retreated in a panic,” the lean officer, better informed, nodded and added.
“That many losses? How many troops could the Tuolin wokou have in total, fifty or sixty thousand? At most forty or fifty thousand went to Suzhou, losing over ten thousand, that’s about a third gone, from my years of leading troops, if you lose one-tenth, the army’s combat strength is shot, with one-tenth gone, two-tenths are tending the wounded, meaning three-tenths can’t fight, the wokou lost that much, no wonder they retreated, if they didn’t, they’d collapse, with wokou like that, our prefect’s scared stiff, is it really worth it? What’s there to fear? If they don’t come to Jiaxing, fine, but if they do, it’s our chance for military glory,” the burly officer said eagerly after hearing this.
“Yep, if the wokou don’t come, so be it, but if they do, they’ll make us, a while back, that Zhu Ping’an, Lord Zhu, I heard he offended Prime Minister Yan in court, practically got a death sentence in officialdom, demoted to Jingnan as a county magistrate, but what happened? He got lucky, took on a few small bands of wokou, in less than half a year, not only did he reclaim his post, he climbed higher, became a fourth-rank official, the emperor issued rewards, fighting wokou brings merits no less than fighting Tartars up north, damn our luck, we didn’t get any wokou,” the lean officer chimed in, his face full of envy and jealousy when mentioning Zhu Ping’an, feeling like he could’ve done it too.
From their experience, their own troops, in a head-on clash, forget losing a third, even a tenth would mean collapse.
The wokou lost a third to Zhejiang, they were routed.
Fighting routed troops was like herding ducks, one person could easily drive off a whole bunch.
“Don’t be careless, I’m telling you, these wokou aren’t a joke, without some real skill, you’d pray to heaven not to meet them, forgot last month? Less than a hundred wokou rampaged over a thousand li, killed their way to Yingtian’s gates to show off, less than a hundred wokou, they took down an inspector, a prefect, a county magistrate, two commanders, two captains, and over three thousand troops, like gods of slaughter!” a civil official overheard their talk and couldn’t help but warn them.
“How could we not know that? Our sources are better than yours, let me tell you, wokou aren’t all the same, those hundred from last month were Japan’s imperial guard, their combat strength was unreal, that kind’s a once-in-a-century thing, other wokou can’t compare, if all wokou were like those hundred, our Great Ming would’ve been overrun by them long ago, isn’t that the truth?” the lean officer brushed it off.
“Even if other wokou don’t match those hundred, they’re no pushovers, how many prefectures and counties faced wokou and mostly lost? The rare victories were usually just ‘driving them off,’ that word’s funny, the wokou finish looting, head home, you chase them a bit from afar, that’s ‘driving them off’ too…” the civil official shook his head, warning them again.
“Enough, Master Zhang, let’s not talk about other places’ wokou, just our Jiaxing, don’t you think our prefect’s making a mountain out of a molehill? The wokou hit Suzhou, lost big, it’s far from our Jiaxing, do we really need to be this jumpy?” the two martial officers whispered to the civil official.
“Far? Didn’t you hear the news just now? A village north of our Jiaxing got hit by wokou, they left nothing alive,” Master Zhang shook his head, reminding them.
“Just one little village, a few dozen wokou could do that, it’s a small band of stragglers, no worry, at dawn, I’ll grab my spear, lead troops out, before noon I’ll be back with their heads, then, Master Zhang, just throw us a quick victory feast,” the burly officer stroked his beard, brimming with confidence.
“What if it’s not a small band, but a big wokou force?” Master Zhang shook his head, looking at them.
“Haha, Master Zhang, this is where you don’t get military matters, the wokou took a huge loss at Suzhou, retreated in a mess, they’d head back to their Tuolin lair, right? Tuolin’s southeast, we’re southwest, miles off course,” the burly officer laughed.
“And, Master Zhang, besides that one village in the north hit by wokou, any others? None, right? I’ve been keeping an eye out, no other villages hit, that proves the north village mess was just a small band, with few men, one village was enough to fill their bellies, if it were a big force, would they stop at one village? They’d have hit towns, even county seats by now,” the lean officer added.
Master Zhang fell silent for a moment, finding their reasoning sound, but still uneasy.
“Better safe than sorry,” Master Zhang said cautiously.
“We’ve got two thousand garrison troops in the city, rock solid, plus, didn’t our prefect send General Liu to Yangcheng Garrison for reinforcements? What’s there to worry about?” the lean officer shrugged.
“Exactly, is it really worth sending people to check the gates over and over? This is the fourth wave,” the burly officer smirked.
Master Zhang didn’t say anything more this time.
