Smoke filled the air, screams echoed, severed limbs and flesh flew—surviving pirates trembled, terror piercing their very souls.
“No, this can’t be! Didn’t the Zhejiang army fire all their cannons? How are they firing again so soon?!”
“Have they mastered some secret? How can their powder loading be this fast?”
“We’re done! Their reloading is too quick—we can’t reincarnate as fast as they reload!”
The Zhejiang army’s second cannon volley shattered the pirates’ understanding of firearm reloading. It was too fast—unbelievably so. If they hadn’t seen the cannons fire with their own eyes, they’d never believe the Zhejiang army could reload this quickly.
But they had seen it—watched the cannons fire, watched the army retreat to reload.
Too fast!
They didn’t know how the Zhejiang army did it, but they did. The reloading speed was absurd, unthinkable, suffocating, despair-inducing!
“Cannon teams, fall back and reload! Muskets, continue—fire!” A commanding voice rang out from the Zhejiang ranks.
Before the pirates could recover from the deadly cannon barrage, the Zhejiang position erupted with the *bang! bang! bang!* of disciplined, dense musket fire.
Amid screams, more surviving pirates fell.
“Continue! Fire!” The Zhejiang commander’s voice rang out again, like a summons from hell.
“Damn it! They’re not giving us a moment to breathe! They’re out to exterminate us!”
“Help!”
The pirates were gripped by terror, as if the Grim Reaper himself had appeared.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The Zhejiang muskets fired again, sparks flashing, smoke billowing, their position shrouded as if in fog.
Screams followed as pirates fell, wave after wave. The ground before the Zhejiang army was cleared for dozens of meters—no living pirate stood, all sprawled lifeless.
The pirate vanguard was reduced to its middle and rear ranks, visibly thinned.
Over half the vanguard was dead or wounded! Those still standing were terrified, their courage shattered.
“Something’s wrong! How can their muskets keep firing round after round? Their cannons reload fast, but their muskets are even faster!”
“Save us! Their firearms are firing endlessly! Round after round, no pause—they’re leaving us no chance to live!”
The pirates wailed in despair.
“Continue! Fire!” The Zhejiang camp’s voice, chilling to the pirates’ souls, rang out again.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The disciplined musket volley sounded once more.
“Run!”
“Let whoever wants to charge do it—I’m done! I’ve charged enough for the leader! You stay if you want—I’m running! I’m not afraid of death, but I’ve got family to think of—it’s responsibility!”
“Run! They’re raising the cannons again! Run, I don’t want to die in pieces!”
The surviving pirates, utterly broken by the firearms, lost all courage to face the Zhejiang army. One by one, they turned and fled, crying out.
“Damn it! Deserters will be killed without mercy!” The pirate enforcers tried their old tactic, raising their swords to cut down the fleeing.
“Damn it! I forgot about the enforcers! Running back is still death—they’ll cut us down!” The fleeing pirates saw the raised swords and cried out in despair.
“To hell with charging! Why don’t the enforcers charge? All they do is hide behind us!”
“So what if it’s the enforcers? If they cut me down, at least I’ll have a whole corpse! Look at Old Qin—his head smashed like a watermelon, half his body gone. Too gruesome…”
“Let’s do this! Charging forward is certain death with no corpse left! Run back—even if the enforcers kill us, we’ll have a body. Besides, they have swords, but don’t we? They’ve got a few hundred—we’ve got one or two thousand! Let’s cut them down first!”
Facing the Zhejiang army raising their cannons and the enforcers brandishing swords, the surviving pirates saw death on both sides. In their despair, they shouted, and someone’s cry to fight the enforcers sparked a chorus of agreement.
*Hell yeah!* Charging forward was a dead end—certain death, body in pieces! But retreating, even if the enforcers killed them, they’d have a corpse. And why assume death? The enforcers had swords, but so did they! The enforcers had a few hundred; they had one or two thousand!
One or two thousand against a few hundred—who lives, who dies?
Suddenly, the surviving pirates glared at the enforcers with newfound defiance.
“Run! Anyone who stops me, I’ll cut down!”
“Don’t want to die? Get out of the way, or don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
With one pirate leading the charge, the rest surged backward like a swarm, brandishing their swords.
“Damn it! Deserters, no mercy!” The enforcers tried to repeat their tactic, raising swords to kill the fastest runners.
But the fastest weren’t pushovers. The lead pirate, fierce from charging earlier, leaped and slashed, cutting down an enforcer trying to kill him.
He didn’t stop there—landing, he struck again, killing another nearby enforcer.
The trailing pirates followed suit. None wanted to die by enforcer blades. Some were cut down, but the enforcers who killed them lived only a second longer before being hacked to pieces by the fleeing mob.
Numbers were the advantage.
In moments, over half the enforcer team was dead.
Anyone standing in the fleeing pirates’ path became their mortal enemy. To survive, the pirates fought with bloodshot eyes.
Seeing the tide turn, the remaining enforcers turned and fled with the mob.
“Zhejiang army, form ranks and pursue! Don’t let them regroup! If the pirates pause, open fire!”
“Cannon teams, watch for any signs of regrouping or counterattack—fire to intimidate, no need for volleys!”
As the pirates began their mass rout, Zhu Ping’an immediately ordered the Zhejiang army to form linear firing lines and give chase.
Seeing the Zhejiang army advance, the pirates fled even faster.
