Under the personal supervision of Xu Hai, Matsuura Shigenobu, and Ryūzōji Takafusa, the Japanese pirates attacked with ferocious intensity. Despite being the assaulting side, they firmly held the upper hand. The Songjiang defenders, who should have enjoyed the advantage of height and walls, were instead completely suppressed by the pirates below.
Most Songjiang garrison troops were from the hereditary wei-suo system. Half were old or weak, and even the rest were poorly trained.
The arrows they shot from the walls were feeble and inaccurate. Feathered shafts drifted down lightly, wildly off-target, rarely hitting anything.
Some arrows floated so weakly that fierce pirates below caught them bare-handed.
“Hahahaha! You weaklings up there, are you shooting arrows to scratch Grandpa’s itch?!”
“Grandson, open your dog eyes wide and watch how Grandpa shoots! Let me teach you!”
The pirate who caught the arrow unslung his longbow, nocked it, drew it to a full moon, and released with a whoosh.
The arrow streaked like lightning towards the battlements. One unlucky defender was drawing his own bow when the shaft punched straight through his chest.
He wore armour, but it was old and rotten. The arrow smashed through the decayed plates and pierced his heart.
“Urgh…”
The poor soldier only managed a single grunt before blood sprayed from his mouth and nose. He collapsed dead.
“Hahahaha! Did you learn that, grandson? You’re finished in this life, but remember it for the next!”
The pirate roared with laughter and hurled abuse at the walls as the defender fell.
Compared to the Songjiang troops, many pirates below were seasoned regulars who had fought their way through the blood-soaked wars of Japan’s Sengoku period. Endless small but brutal battles between village heads and town lords had forged skilled, battle-hardened warriors. Their archery was superb: fast, accurate, lethal. They boldly advanced right up to the walls to shoot. With their long bows and arrows, they might not score a hundred out of a hundred, but fifty or sixty hits per hundred shots were routine.
On top of that, the pirates fielded eight hundred arquebuses. Their power was immense. Even armoured defenders could not stop the bullets, and most armour was in such poor condition that anyone struck spat blood and died.
Less than the time to burn one incense stick had passed since the assault began, yet four or five hundred defenders already lay dead or wounded, while the pirates had lost only a few dozen.
Although they had only ten-odd proper siege ladders, the civilian houses built right against the outer wall were numerous and densely packed. The pirates used dozens of taller houses as springboards and demolished over a hundred homes to obtain doors, beams, and planks. From these they constructed sturdy makeshift ladders and threw them against the walls.
For a moment, the defenders were overwhelmed and the walls teetered on the brink of falling.
Fortunately, thanks to the warnings from Governor Hu and Prefect Han two days earlier, they had prepared in advance. Large quantities of rolling logs and boulders had been stockpiled. Though frantic, they managed to hurl stones and logs down onto the ladders and barely held the walls.
“Sirs, you have worked so hard! Thanks to your protection, we inside the city are spared the ravages of those thousand-times-damned pirates.”
“This is flatbread I made myself, and these are my own fried pork strips with pickled vegetables. Roll them together, they’re delicious. Please don’t mind my clumsy hands.”
“This is rice wine from my house, rich but not strong. You can drink three big bowls and still stay sober. Have some to quench your thirst, sirs.”
“We at Gaoyue House roasted whole lambs, nothing smells better. We specially prepared ten for the gentlemen to taste.”
While fierce fighting raged above and below the walls, a group of civilians arrived at the gate to comfort the troops. Old and young, men and women, merchants, shop assistants, scholars, all came enthusiastically bearing food and drink.
Some of the women were particularly alluring and forward, practically pressing their entire bodies into the arms of the gate guards.
The soldiers guarding the gate had never experienced such enthusiastic women. Soft bodies twisted and squeezed against them until they could barely hold themselves together.
“Stop! Halt! This is a vital defensive position. No one approaches.” A general saw the crowd getting closer and closer to the gate. Out of caution, he raised his palm in a halting gesture. “Just leave the things there.”
“General, you are so imposing! You nearly frightened this humble woman’s heart right out of her chest. No wonder you can beat those wicked pirates until they flee in defeat. Here’s a roast chicken, please have something to eat, sir. Fighting on an empty stomach leaves no strength.”
A rather pretty woman patted her ample bosom, gave an exaggerated gasp, took an oil-paper-wrapped roast chicken from her basket, and trotted enthusiastically towards the general.
Her figure was simply too good. Even in a cotton jacket, everything swayed enticingly as she moved.
The surrounding soldiers stared until their eyes went straight and drool threatened to spill.
“Stop!”
The general raised his hand again to halt the approaching woman.
“You scared me, General! Oh no…”
At that moment, the swaying woman stumbled, cried out in alarm, and pitched forward. The basket flew from her hands.
“Careful!” the general shouted instinctively, stepping forward and reaching out to catch her.
They collided towards each other. She fell into his arms, and he caught her. Soft jade filled his embrace. He let out an “Ah!” and toppled backwards.
What the hell?!
What happened to the general? He only caught a falling woman and ended up on the ground himself? Heh, the general must be really weak! Can’t even handle one little lady? Must have been drained dry by the missus at home! If someone sent him a jar of tiger-penis wine to properly nourish him, wouldn’t the general reward them handsomely?
The watching soldiers saw their general knocked over with a cry while catching the woman and immediately let their imaginations run wild, inwardly mocking how feeble their commander was.
Some even spotted an opportunity: send the general some tiger-penis wine, get him strong again, and earn big merit.
They failed to notice blood trickling from the fallen general’s mouth. The woman in his arms wore a vicious smile, and from the roast chicken in her hand protruded half a bloodied dagger.
Only when the general hit the ground did someone finally notice something wrong. Blood flowed from the general’s mouth and poured from gaps in his armour…
“Bad! The general has been stabbed…” one sharp-eyed soldier shouted.
But before he could finish, all the “civilians” who had come to comfort the troops tore off their disguises. From beneath the carts carrying whole roasted lambs, from baskets, from inside their clothes, from everywhere, they drew Japanese swords, short blades, daggers, axes, and other weapons, and began hacking at the gate guards around them.
Caught completely off guard, the defenders did not even manage to draw their own swords before being cut down by these “civilians”. Blood flowed like rivers at the gate, heads rolled, the defending troops screamed for their parents, and the gate turned into a slaughterhouse.
