From the moment the wokou yanked up the tripwires to the Jiaxing soldiers kneeling in surrender, less than five minutes had passed.
Twenty-eight Jiaxing soldiers knelt in submission, plus one Jiaxing commander whose collar was grabbed, making a total of twenty-nine survivors.
“Now, I’m going to ask you a few questions, answer honestly and you’ll live, refuse to cooperate and…” Xu Hai stepped in front of the kneeling Jiaxing soldiers, speaking slowly, then suddenly drew his blade and slashed at an unlucky soldier.
The gleaming wokou blade sliced through his neck, his head rolled off, blood spraying the nearby Ming troops.
“Ah!!!!” Xu Hai’s abrupt killing, without a word of warning, sent the kneeling soldiers into terrified screams, the weaker ones pissing themselves on the spot.
“Refuse to cooperate, and this is your example,” Xu Hai sheathed his blade, finishing his interrupted sentence calmly.
Terrifying! A butcher who kills just to make a point!
The Jiaxing deserters finally understood why he’d killed, their fear of Xu Hai reaching an unimaginable peak.
“Now, take them away, interrogate them separately, ask what they were doing leaving the city, how many guards are in Jiaxing, and how the troops are deployed, if their answers don’t match, kill them all! I mean all of them, not one left! Catching them is easier than catching pigs anyway!” Xu Hai waved his hand, ordering his wokou underlings to drag the Jiaxing soldiers off for individual questioning, threatening total slaughter if their stories didn’t align.
“Hai!” Dozens of wokou stepped forward, two per soldier, dragging them off like dead dogs to interrogate.
“Damn it, we’ve all surrendered, don’t stir up trouble, confess honestly, if anyone plays smart and gets us all killed, I won’t let you off even as a ghost!”
“Exactly, don’t mess around, if one answer doesn’t match, they’ll kill us all! You saw it, they’re ruthless, killing without a second thought!”
“Everyone, keep it consistent, don’t get clever, just confess honestly, keep the green hills and you’ll never lack firewood, staying alive isn’t shameful, think of your wives, kids, and families, confess and don’t play hero!” As they were dragged off, several Jiaxing soldiers, fearing someone might try to outsmart the wokou and get them all killed, shouted warnings to confess truthfully.
“General, General, say something, tell everyone to confess, the brothers listen to you!” someone yelled at the Jiaxing commander.
“Confess honestly, keep the green hills and you’ll never lack firewood!” the commander, quick to adapt, shouted loudly.
“Yes, sir!” the Jiaxing soldiers chorused.
Soon, they were separated and dragged aside for interrogation.
The Jiaxing commander received special treatment, pulled to the roadside by two wokou, interrogated personally by Xu Hai.
Xu Hai held his still-dripping blade, slowly extending it toward the commander, as it drew closer, the commander grew increasingly nervous, swallowing hard, when it was thirty centimeters away, he couldn’t hold it, pissing himself and dropping to his knees with a thud, kowtowing nonstop, “Mercy, great king, mercy, this lowly general surrenders, I’ll hold your horse and stirrups, go through fire and water for you…”
“With you pissing your pants like this, you think you can go through fire and water for me?!” Xu Hai sneered, tapping the commander’s face with the flat of his blade.
“Ahem…” the commander flushed with embarrassment.
“Name?” Xu Hai slapped his face harder with the blade’s flat, asking coldly.
The blade was cold, Xu Hai’s voice colder.
“This surrendering general is named Zhao Dezhu, courtesy name Zhonghai, formerly Zhao Dazhu, childhood name Zhuzi, nicknamed Optimus Prime,” the commander, terrified by Xu Hai—especially the cold blade slapping his face—feared a sudden slash, spilling his full name, courtesy name, former name, childhood name, and nickname in one breath.
Xu Hai’s sneer deepened, but inwardly he was delighted—this spineless coward was perfect.
“What were you doing leaving the city at night?” Xu Hai pressed.
“Great king, our prefect—no, no, that dog prefect of Jiaxing, Zhao Chong—heard wokou—no, your honorable troops—were spotted in a northern village, he got so scared his face turned white, panicked, and sent us out at night to Yangcheng Garrison to beg for reinforcements to defend Jiaxing against your honorable troops,” Zhao Dezhu confessed hastily, slipping into his role, calling Zhao Chong a dog and the wokou “honorable.”
“How far is Yangcheng Garrison from here?” Xu Hai asked next.
“About thirty-odd li, the garrison’s chiliarch is Wang Defa, greedy as hell, the deputy, Huang Yougui, is my old friend, generous but lustful, they’ve got 5,600 men on paper, but really just over 3,000, nearly half old, weak, or sick, their gear’s shoddy, less than twenty percent armored…” Zhao Dezhu spilled like beans from a sack, detailing Yangcheng Garrison top to bottom without prompting.
Xu Hai nodded, pleased, “Good, how many guards in Jiaxing city, how are they deployed?”
“Jiaxing has 2,000 guards, plus 200 assisting runners, 2,200 total, the north gate’s heaviest with 700 defenders, the east, west, and south gates average 500 each,” Zhao Dezhu continued, “The main defender, unless something’s changed, is Chief Zhang from the military department, that dog prefect’s lackey, a scholar who knows nothing of war, got in good by kissing ass.”
“The assisting generals are likely Wang and Zhao, Wang’s a fatso, all blubber, claims he’s brave and skilled but only bullies civilians, that flab’s from gorging, Zhao’s a skinny runt, worn thin from whoring, thinks he’s well-informed but it’s just brothel gossip, both are cowards who pick on the weak, no real skill…” Zhao Dezhu sold out Jiaxing’s entire setup without needing prodding.
“Hahaha, excellent, Zhao Dezhu, you’re great, I’m very satisfied, we need talents like you,” Xu Hai laughed heartily.
Soon, the other wokou finished their interrogations, cross-checking revealed all the Jiaxing soldiers’ answers matched Zhao Dezhu’s.
The only difference was, due to rank and status, some knew more, some less.
