“They’re marching so neatly, but what’s the point of that…” a pirate muttered disdainfully, watching the Zhejiang army pass below their ambush on the slope, keeping his voice low.
“It’s useful,” another pirate said solemnly.
“Useful how?” the first scoffed. “Does their neat marching kill me?”
“Heh, their neat formation makes it easier for us to shoot them dead. Useful enough?” the second pirate chuckled.
“Heh, you’re right, that’s useful!” The first pirate laughed, flexing his frozen hands and slowly drawing arrows from his quiver, planting them diagonally in the ground.
When the leader gave the order, he’d grab the arrows in front of him and fire them off in quick succession.
Time-saving and efficient—his years of archery experience at work.
The pirates rubbed their hands, eyes blazing as they watched the Zhejiang army pass below, holding their breath.
The Zhejiang scouts passed.
The vanguard passed.
The main force was passing…
“The rear guard’s almost here—time to slaughter! Brothers, ready?”
The pirates gripped their longbows, eyeing the main force, ears perked for the leader’s command.
Just as the main force was nearly past, with the rear guard approaching, chaos erupted.
*Bang!*
A musket shot rang out, followed by a scream from the ambush slope.
“What the hell?! Who fired?! You trying to die?! Didn’t I say wait for the rear guard and shoot arrows first, *then* muskets?!”
“And who’s screaming?!”
“Damn it, we’re exposed—attack now!”
The squad leader was livid when the musket fired, itching to hack the idiot who shot and shouted to pieces. But anger was useless now. Exposed, they had to attack early to deny the Zhejiang army time to react, or they were doomed.
An experienced pirate, the squad leader’s mind raced in that split second, concluding they had to strike immediately.
He sprang up to shout the order, but a volley of coordinated musket fire erupted behind him.
Agony seared through his chest and abdomen, his body flung backward as if struck by a raging bull.
His vision blurred red. As he fell, he glimpsed a Zhejiang unit on the higher slope behind them, camouflaged with branches, muskets flashing as they fired down.
*Zhejiang army?!*
*How did they get up there? When?! Damn it, we’re ambushed!*
*Why do I feel like I’m floating? What’s below? Is that… my body? Am I dead?*
In his fading vision, his body, riddled with four or five bloody holes, hit the ground, splattering wet mud.
He was dead—thoroughly dead. Four or five holes ensured it. Lingering this long was a testament to his resilience.
“That pirate idiot stood up—deserved to be shot to pieces,” a Zhejiang soldier on the high slope spat, tearing open a powder packet and reloading his musket.
“Fire!”
The Zhejiang sergeant barked, and a rank of soldiers fired in unison, smoke billowing.
Screams echoed as pirates on the slope below fell in droves.
The first rank retreated to reload, and the next stepped forward, aimed, fired, then retreated to reload…
“Enemy attack!”
“Zhejiang army, damn them, they’re above us!”
“Brothers, watch out! Damn, they’re too cunning—snuck up there to ambush us!”
The ambushing pirates, after the first devastating volley and seeing comrades fall screaming, spotted the Zhejiang troops on the high slope. They shouted in panic.
“Look! The Zhejiang army below was ready! Where’d they get all those shields?!”
“And those crude new shields! Damn, I get it—they knew we were here! They sent men to ambush us from above while making shields in their tents to counter us!”
“Pah! Shameless! I heard that Zhu guy was cunning, but this is next-level!”
Some pirates noticed that the moment the first musket fired, the Zhejiang army below raised shields toward the slope, ready for their arrows and muskets. Many shields were newly made, rough wooden planks nailed together, but effective against arrows.
It was clear now: the sly Zhu Ping’an had known about them, feigned ignorance, sent troops to ambush from above, and prepared shields to thwart them.
The ambushers became the ambushed; the predators, the prey. Teetering on the edge of life and death, fear consumed them.
“Where’s the boss? What do we do? We’re ambushed!” the pirates shouted in chaos.
No one answered.
Their leader, standing up at the start, had been focus-fired and taken out in one brutal salvo.
Leaderless and ambushed, the pirates descended into chaos.
Some fired back uphill, others shot arrows downward…
Shooting uphill was tough—exhausting, hard to aim, against the wind. Their arrows barely affected the Zhejiang troops above. Shooting downward, the Zhejiang army’s shields and thick cotton armor rendered the arrows nearly useless.
After enduring the freezing sleet for so long, the pirates’ hands were stiff. After loosing a few arrows, they could barely draw their bows.
Only a few pirate musketeers caused minor damage below, but they were targeted, often gunned down after a single shot.
Below, Zhejiang soldiers worked in pairs—one holding a shield, the other firing muskets uphill.
*Bang, bang, bang…*
Caught in a pincer attack from above and below, the pirates on the slope screamed, suffering heavy casualties under the relentless musket fire.
