The military formation that Zhang Zhushi had painstakingly organised held for less than ten breaths before it was utterly shattered by the fleeing soldiers. Most of the troops within the formation joined the panicked rout alongside the deserters, leaving only a handful of soldiers scattered across the city wall, struggling to resist in small, disorganised pockets.
The Japanese pirates pursued the fleeing soldiers with savage ferocity, deliberately driving them into the remaining pockets of resistance. As the deserters crashed through, the pirates followed, hacking and slashing with abandon.
The city wall had all but turned into a one-sided slaughter in the pirates’ favour.
Amid the chaos, Zhang Zhushi managed to rally fewer than twenty soldiers, forming a fragile shield around Prefect Shang and a few other officials. They retreated through the sea of fleeing troops, a lone skiff adrift in a storm-tossed ocean.
Battered by waves, rising and falling, swaying violently.
Capsizing seemed moments away.
“See those in official robes? Catch them alive if you can—I’ll reward you handsomely! If they resist, hack off their limbs! If they’re too stubborn to give in, just kill them! Quick, quick, quick—let’s wrap this up fast. I want to hold a bloody victory feast for you lot in the prefectural office—good wine, good meat, and good women, plenty to go round!”
Xu Hai roared with laughter, pointing at Prefect Zhao’s group amid the deserters, barking orders to his pirate crew.
“Aye, aye! The boss says catch the ones in official robes alive—big rewards!” the pirates shouted back in a chaotic chorus.
“Prefect, colleagues, quick—ditch the official robes! They’re too conspicuous; you’ll be prime targets for the pirates!” Zhang Zhushi and the other officials, overhearing the pirates’ cries, urgently warned Prefect Zhao and the rest.
“Right, right, good point—off with the robes, quick!” Prefect Zhao and the others nodded frantically, stripping off their official garb and flinging it far away.
“Look at that, lads—the officials are shedding their robes! Keep your eyes peeled. Any Ming dog without an outer layer, just in their underclothes—that’s an official! Catch them alive all the same. If they fight back, chop their limbs or kill them, whatever works. But I’ll pay more for the live ones!” Xu Hai bellowed again, spotting the officials disrobing.
“Hahaha! The officials are so scared they’re stripping—bunch of cowards! Not one’s got the guts to resist!”
“Off with the robes, down to their underclothes—that’s the officials! The boss says there’s a reward for catching them, dead or alive!” The pirates erupted in raucous laughter.
Hearing the pirates’ taunts, Zhang Zhushi panicked again. He hurriedly ordered his soldiers to strip off their uniforms and hand them to Prefect Zhao and the officials.
Prefect Zhao and the others didn’t care about the ill-fitting, grubby soldier outfits—they scrambled to swap into them as fast as they could.
The pirates grew bolder with every kill, and the resisting soldiers on the wall dwindled. It wouldn’t be long before they reached Prefect Shang’s group.
“Prefect, we’re out of time—the situation’s lost! Regular retreat’s impossible now. The only option is to lower you down the wall with ropes. Then you can vanish and stay safe—preserve yourself for the future!” Zhang Zhushi, seeing the pirates closing in, urged Prefect Zhao with a frantic expression.
“What?!” Prefect Zhao, flustered, nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, lower me down, lower me down!”
It was his first time on a battlefield, and facing such a catastrophic rout, he was completely rattled—mind blank, nodding to whatever Zhang Zhushi suggested.
“Prefect, the pirates are already in the city. We’ll lower you outside the walls—there are no pirates out there yet; it’s still safe,” Zhang Zhushi said, tying a rope around Prefect Zhao.
“Good, good—lower me outside!” Prefect Zhao kept nodding.
As the rope was secured and they hoisted him to the wall’s edge to lower him down, Prefect Zhao glanced below. Bloody hell, it’s high! His face went pale, his head spun, and his heart raced.
“No, no, pull me back up—it’s too high, too high! I’ll be smashed to bits if I fall! No, no, I’m afraid of heights…” Prefect Zhao clung to the rope with white knuckles, eyes squeezed shut, shouting in terror.
“Prefect, this is the only way left—there’s no other option but to go down!” Zhang Zhushi pleaded anxiously.
“No, no, I’m terrified of heights—I’m dizzy! Pull me up, quick, pull me up!” Prefect Zhao yelled again.
“Fine, fine—pull the Prefect back up!” Zhang Zhushi sighed helplessly, waving his hand to signal the others.
“Brother Zhang, if the Prefect won’t go, I will! Lower me down quick—I’m not afraid of heights. Hurry, hurry!” one of the officials piped up urgently.
“Hahaha! Anyone trying to escape with a rope’s got to be a big fish! Lads, with me!” A group of pirates spotted Zhang Zhushi’s crew. Their leader cackled, waving his katana as he charged toward them.
“Kill, kill, kill!” “Die, die, die!” “Get ‘em! If the prefect’s anywhere, he’s in that lot!” The pirates hacked their way forward, unstoppable.
By the time they reached them, Prefect Zhao had just been hauled back up, the rope still tangled around him—they hadn’t had time to untie it.
“Hahaha! No need to untie it—saves us the hassle of binding him again!” The lead pirate charged in, laughing maniacally.
“Quick, quick—hold them off! Prefect, we’ve got to retreat!” Zhang Zhushi ordered the soldiers guarding them to act as cannon fodder while he pulled Prefect Zhao back.
Of the fewer than twenty soldiers, only ten were loyal retainers of Prefect Zhao and Zhang Zhushi; the rest were conscripted from the fleeing rabble. Asking them to stay and die as decoys? They weren’t having it.
As Zhang Zhushi retreated, only their ten retainers followed—the rest bolted faster than they did.
“Kill! Don’t let the big fish slip away!” The pirates saw Prefect Zhao’s group retreating and weren’t about to let their prize escape. They surged forward, swinging their katanas.
Among the retainers left to resist, not all were paragons of loyalty. Seeing the pirates’ ferocious charge, only four or five stepped forward to fight; the rest shrank back.
The handful who stood their ground didn’t last long—cut down in moments by the pirates’ flurry of blades, barely making a ripple.
“Alive they’re worth more, but dead’s fine too. So, what’ll it be—life or death?” The lead pirate stepped up to Prefect Zhao and Zhang Zhushi’s surrounded group, flicking blood off his blade and growling menacingly.
“Life, life—of course, life!” The officials, seeing the pirates kill without blinking, had no stomach for talk of honour.
“Tie ‘em up!” The lead pirate nodded, satisfied.
His crew swarmed in, binding Prefect Zhao and the officials with ropes in a chaotic scramble.
