The siege platforms loomed outside the walls, about five meters high, as pirate longbowmen and musketeers clambered up.
Inside the county office walls, the desperate defenders asked Magistrate Jiang what to do.
You’re asking me what to do? Who the hell am I supposed to ask?! Facing the despairing crowd, Jiang’s own heart teetered on the edge of hopelessness.
“Hold on! Reinforcements are almost here! Once they arrive, we’re saved!” Jiang could only offer this empty promise to bolster their spirits.
Reinforcements?
Where were these reinforcements?
Jiang’s promise was too far-fetched, and the men rolled their eyes, choking on his words. But before they could question him further, a hail of pirate arrows and musket balls rained down on them like a storm.
“Ah…!”
“Ugh, my leg, my leg! It hurts, it’s killing me…!”
“Ergou, Ergou, how the hell did you fall? I promised your mum I’d bring you back in glory!”
The county office courtyard erupted in a relentless chorus of screams and wails.
With four siege platforms, the pirates fired from multiple angles, high above. The defenders, with only one shield each, couldn’t cover all sides—protecting one direction left another exposed. Worse, the pirates had twenty-some muskets. Neither shields nor door panels could stop a musket ball at close range; a single shot punched through, killing whoever stood behind.
In this single volley, twenty to thirty constables and soldiers in the courtyard fell, screaming.
Jiang, by luck, survived this round, as the pirates hadn’t yet spotted him hiding behind three shields.
But he had no time to feel relieved. He knew his men couldn’t withstand many more volleys.
“Sir, sir, what do we do? A few more rounds, and we’ll all be dead!”
“Sir! We can’t hold out!”
“Why not just surrender?”
Seizing the brief moment as the pirates reloaded arrows and gunpowder, the survivors in the courtyard shouted for help, some even suggesting surrender.
“Surrender is a death sentence! We’ve killed plenty of pirates—do you think they’ll spare us if we surrender?! In the Warring States, Bai Qi buried 300,000 Zhao soldiers alive. That’s our lesson!”
“Anyone who speaks of surrender can be killed by all!”
Hearing talk of surrender, Jiang flew into a rage, shouting furiously and issuing a death threat.
“But what do we do? This round alone took down thirty of our brothers. We can’t survive a few more volleys from their platforms!”
The men pleaded anxiously.
Jiang’s face was ashen, his lips trembling, but no words came. He had no answers.
Without a response, another pirate volley struck. First came the arrows, clanging against shields, felling another ten or so men with screams. Then the muskets, reloaded, fired again, dropping another ten to twenty in a chorus of agony…
“Run…!”
Some defeated soldiers, unable to bear it, threw down their shields and fled toward the rear courtyard in a panic.
One fleeing soldier led to a second, then a third…
Jiang knew this well. Signaling his trusted aide, he shouted, “Deserters will be executed without mercy!”
His aide, receiving the order, raised a spear, aimed at the fleeing soldier’s back, and prepared to throw with a confident flick of the wrist.
*Whoosh!*
An arrow flew, striking the aide’s forehead. The metal arrowhead, dripping blood, protruded from the back of his skull.
The spear clattered to the ground, and the aide’s body collapsed heavily.
The deserter, unaware he’d narrowly escaped death, stumbled over the threshold as he fled through the small gate into the rear courtyard, crawling out of sight.
That pirate arrow was a signal. Another volley began—arrows first, then muskets.
This round claimed another twenty to thirty lives in the courtyard.
This time, even Jiang was wounded. The pirates seemed to have realized the man behind three shields was important, targeting him specifically. At least five or six arrows came his way, but the three shields blocked three of them tightly.
Before Jiang could feel relief, the muskets fired.
Several musket shots targeted Jiang’s position. *Bang, bang, bang!* The three shields in front of him were hit. One constable holding a shield was shot through the head, dying instantly. The other two were injured—one shot in the thigh despite an intact shield, the other grazed on the ear by a bullet that pierced his shield.
Jiang himself was cut on the face by flying shield fragments, blood dripping to his chin.
The pirates began reloading gunpowder, drawing arrows from quivers, and nocking their bows…
Not just the constables and soldiers, but even Jiang felt despair. He didn’t know if others could survive the next volley, but he was certain he couldn’t.
His identity was likely exposed, as the last volley had targeted him heavily.
Of the three shields protecting him, only one remained intact. Of the three men guarding him, one was dead, one wounded, and only one unscathed.
Another pirate volley, and he, the magistrate, wouldn’t survive.
“Fall back! Retreat to the inner courtyard!”
Valuing his life, Jiang saw the pirates preparing another volley and shouted the order.
Retreating to the rear courtyard was a dead end, merely delaying death by the time it takes an incense stick to burn.
Retreating meant abandoning the front courtyard. Once they withdrew, the pirates would seize it.
The rear courtyard’s walls were just over two meters high, far lower than the front’s. The pirates could climb them barehanded.
Not to mention, the pirates had four siege platforms.
Taking the rear courtyard would be effortless for them.
But even a second more of life was worth it. Jiang led the retreat, and the constables and soldiers, wholeheartedly agreeing, followed, running for the rear courtyard, cursing their parents for not giving them an extra leg.
“They’re fleeing! The magistrate’s leading them to the rear courtyard!”
Pirates on the platforms shouted, drawing bows and firing muskets, picking off the stragglers one by one, slaughtering them mercilessly.
By the time Jiang reached the rear courtyard and barred the small gate, a headcount revealed fewer than fifty men had made it.
